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Everything posted by Lothar of the Hill People
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Any ships in this sim?
Lothar of the Hill People replied to MudWasp48's topic in WOFF UE/PE - General Discussion
The waypoints in the Lone Wolf missions are kinda crazy, but you're not supposed to actually fly along them all. Basically, by moving forward and back between waypoints with the the W key and (is it shift W or control W?), you can warp wherever you want. If you're not warping, you have no need of the waypoints--just fly where you want to fly. -
Seeking advice from my OFF brethren.
Lothar of the Hill People replied to zoomzoom's topic in WOFF UE/PE - General Discussion
I prefer NVIDIA for the more stable/reliable drivers and CUDA programming--though only the former likely interests you. Specifically in this case, the NVIDIA 650 is a mid-range card while the Radeon 7750 is an entry-level card--fine for lowest-common-denominator crud like WOW but not really suited to more demanding games. Here's a general performance comparison, and I'm sure you can find comparative benchmarks of specific games if you google around though nothing so old as CFS3. You could find a more expensive, mid-range Radeon for OFF--ie the 7770 which is about on par with the NVIDIA GTX 650. And as I said, the 650Ti really is decent jump over the plain 650. If you can wait, the NVIDIA mid-range (650/660/Ti) should drop in price later this summer when the next generation arrives (starting with the 760Ti in July). This should also put pressure on the price of the Radeon 7770. -
Moving Trains
Lothar of the Hill People replied to MudWasp48's topic in WOFF UE/PE - General Discussion
Yep, the Le Prieur rockets do the same damage as the 60lb CFS3 WW2 rocket! Only difference is a little added noise to make them less accurate. If you can find the mod I'd be happy to include it after it's been tested against Bletchley's stronger balloons. Shoot, now that I look at it the balloons need to be rebalanced against the rockets anyway. Making the changes was pretty quick, but repeated testing takes time. OFFworld members get first access to the revised rockets and balloons. You know who you are... download the latest 1.0.6 test version if you want to give them a try. Let me know if two of the reduced Le Prieur can still generally pop the revised stronger balloons. -
Balloon Attack Question
Lothar of the Hill People replied to MudWasp48's topic in WOFF UE/PE - General Discussion
I've flown right through the cable a couple times testing the incendiary ammo and modified balloons in OFFice--passed right through. Guess it's part of the 3D model but there are no hitboxes for it. They don't move in OFF, MaxSpeed="0". And they're modeled as ground vehicles, not aircraft, so if they did move it would be along roads I suppose. At least the modded balloons in OFFice don't get popped by their own artillery as often. -
Seeking advice from my OFF brethren.
Lothar of the Hill People replied to zoomzoom's topic in WOFF UE/PE - General Discussion
Option 3: AMD FX-6300 (3.50GHz), 8GB DDR3, NVIDIA Geforce GTX 650, 300 Watts Option 4: AMD FX-6300 (3.50GHz) 16GB DDR3, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650Ti, 650 Watts Both have far better processors and graphics than your 1 + 2. Option 4 is a tad more expensive but may be worth it for the extra memory, even faster graphics (the Ti is a nice step up over the regular 650, 20-40% faster in most games), and power for future expandability. -
Seeking advice from my OFF brethren.
Lothar of the Hill People replied to zoomzoom's topic in WOFF UE/PE - General Discussion
Option 2 is the winner! I'm an NVIDIA guy, but this isn't a fair match--the Radeon HD 7750 crushes the GT 520. Option 2 has a better processor as well. 300 Watt power supply is bare minimum though, especially if you ever want to add more drives in the future or even just plug in a bunch of power-drawing USB peripherals. Win8's not my thing, but that's mostly a matter of taste I suppose. If you want to go NVIDIA, at least a GTX 550 or 650 to beat that Radeon card, but be on the lookout for a good deal on a 560 or 660. -
OFFice/OFFbase 1.0.5 now available with OFFworld!
Lothar of the Hill People posted a topic in WOFF UE/PE - General Discussion
Hey fellow OFFers, version 1.0.5 of OFFice with OFFbase is now available at Combat Ace. Get the full download, or just the smaller update if you already have 1.0.2 or later installed. This release contains some important bug fixes and improvements. But the big news: OFFworld Phase I is now Online! OFFworld is a commercial multiplayer version of OFFice. Phase I brings multiplayer to OFFbase! Share a persistent, online squadron and interact with human friends and common AI squadmates on the ground, while flying separate combat missions in the same ongoing campaign. OFFworld Phase II will add multiplayer combat missions in a shared, persistent online war--but needs your support to get off the ground. See the OFFworld page in the OFFramp mod manager for more information and how to join. Phase I is only $12 USD. This release features turn-based multiplayer encounters between human players in an OFFworld squadron, either in real-time or step-by-step as players come and go online. Simple text-messaging between human players in encounters makes for full interactivity. Now you can share the highs and lows of an OFF campaign in the Great War with fellow OFFers! Buy them drinks, arm-wrestle, throw snowballs at each other, visit each other in hospital, etc. With real people on the other end, and all the wonderful dynamic encounters contributed by JamesL, the flexibility and strategic depth of the encounter engine really shines (it's based on a continuous iterated prisoners' dilemma if you're curious). And you can message each other to aid cooperation, taunt in victory or curse in frustration, justify your actions or appeal for forgiveness, even try to fool someone into letting their guard down. It's an awful lot of fun. Plus it's just really cool to share a squadron, common roster and ground crew, and move the dynamic immersive campaign forward together. Also, OFFworld members who want to focus on these human-human interactions can let their own pilot character AI take over encounters with AI squadmates. Note that this can also basically turn off the role-playing in solo campaigns. Even if you don't want to play a shared online campaign with other humans--just want to get all the texty interactions with AI squadmates out of the way and fly OFF with all the other enhancements and improvements of OFFice--well there's another reason to join! See the OFFworld page in the OFFramp mod manager, or just send me a PM.- 3 replies
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OFFice/OFFbase 1.0.5 now available with OFFworld!
Lothar of the Hill People replied to Lothar of the Hill People's topic in WOFF UE/PE - General Discussion
Good to hear! Just send me screenshots of the Rebol console if you run into any more problems. Haha I guess I am fond of all my acronyms... maybe should add a glossary of all the programs to the FAQ. Have you gotten Food Poisoning yet? "Friendly" Boxing lets you trade a few blows, but one of these days I want to slap together a personal combat system, and Bullies have a few other options that could use some more fleshing out. Even if you don't actually play online, your support for OFFworld would speed development of features for off-line play as well... such as that combat system...- 3 replies
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Moving Trains
Lothar of the Hill People replied to MudWasp48's topic in WOFF UE/PE - General Discussion
The incendiary rounds in OFFice's advanced ammo mod comes in handy against trains too! -
Ace of Aces - Rene Fonck
Lothar of the Hill People replied to Shiloh's topic in WOFF UE/PE - General Discussion
Anyone ever run in to Monsieur Fronk in the skies in OFF? -
Ace of Aces - Rene Fonck
Lothar of the Hill People replied to Shiloh's topic in WOFF UE/PE - General Discussion
Yep. As a reminder, the version of HPW's FM mod built into OFFice fully supports Ace skins, fixing another problem that will be fixed in WOFF. -
OFFice/OFFbase 1.0.3 now available!
Lothar of the Hill People posted a topic in WOFF UE/PE - General Discussion
Hey folks! Quiet around here so maybe this'll give reason to get back up in the air. The latest version of OFFice incomparable campaign engine including the OFFbase role-playing simulation is now available at Combat Ace! Download the full package, or the smaller update if you have OFFice 1.0.2 installed. Most noticeable improvements are the many more dynamic encounters for more unique and interesting ways to interact with and manipulate your squadmates and learn more about them, as well as more illustrative descriptions of characters to bring their unique personalities to life. Thanks to JamesL for major contributions on both these fronts. Here's the full change-log: AI improvements, most noticeably to encounter selection; internal 'Initiative' Attribute helps determine which party chooses the encounter, and AI is more deliberate about picking an encounter to reach its goals. Simulating the squadron is a bit slower however. Character Illustration system by JamesL and Lothar dynamically describes higher-level aspects of personalities. Just as Attributes summarize individual combinations of traits, Illustrations summarize combinations of Attributes. The dynamically-generated descriptions really bring unique personalities to life so you can more easily remember them and manipulate them socially. Currently Illustrated are characters' motivations and use of language, with appearance and mannerisms under development. Descriptions of individual attribute levels have been also been added to the pool of observations available to describe characters in encounters. Lots of small bug fixes and some major internal refinements and restructuring. Some things like startup should be a tad faster. Overall OFFbase is a little more processor-intensive, but much less aggressive in writing to your hard drive. Squadron and pilot personality data now stored as compressed binaries with additional info to make squadron campaigns fully persistent. Now squadron campaigns can be continued with a new character even after the last player pilot has been deleted or transferred out, so a failed pilot never ends your ongoing campaign. Can create new pilots to join existing OFFbase campaigns from within OFFbase itself, removing need to launch OFF Manager to make replacement pilots. Includes random name generator as well. British, American, and French airmen generated by OFFbase will sometimes include a middle name (already built into German namelists). Supports characters with quotes in their name for nicknames. FA(A) Flieger-Abteilung (Artillerie) squadrons are no longer assigned Scramble missions. Exiting OFFbase stops any music from playing. OFFice user settings are now also available on the OFFice page in OFFramp. Refinements to Infirmary screen, including an estimated release time for each patient. The togglable encounter help info credits the author of the encounter. More revised and expanded encounters by JamesL and Lothar that yield unique insights into the characters of the parties involved, playing out differently each time. Even the venerable "A Salute" gets a small make-over. Added "Mixer" trait to complement the "Introvert" and "Husky" trait for those 'big-boned' airmen. Preloads Andy73's sounds for improved performance on low-spec machines. The reason for some of the major under-the-hood restructuring will be clear soon, but new bugs may crop up so as always I appreciate reports of problems. Please copy&paste the text or take a screenshot of any errors in the 'REBOL 3 Alpha' console. And have fun! -
Replenish Ammo
Lothar of the Hill People replied to Shiloh's topic in WOFF UE/PE - General Discussion
Yeah Shiloh I understand not wanting to break out of the game in the middle of a mission. But OBD simply doesn't have that kind of control over the CFS3 engine. Such a feature is just not going to happen. -
OFFbase: The Barmy Automated Squadron Experience for Over Flanders Fields
Lothar of the Hill People posted a file in OFFice / OFFbase / OFFworld
Version 1.1.1
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An immersive role-playing simulation of life between flights for Over Flanders Fields. Note 1: For more information, screenshots, etc., visit the Official Website. Note 2: Get the full OFFice incomparable campaign engine which features OFFbase along with all supported mods and extra content in a complete package with one easy-to-use installer. This smaller package updates the OFFice software to the latest version, but to get 1.0.8's 'Skin in the Game' custom paint jobs just install the whole thing. Note 3: If you're interested in joining and supporting OFFworld, the multiplayer version in development, send me a PM. - OFFbase features persistent squadron-based play. Take turns flying multiple pilots in a squadron while sharing the same roster--and more. Separate wingmen are assigned and flights split as much as possible. See your other squadron pilots in the duty roster with you! Fly as a rookie pilot in your favorite squadron while taking your long-time veteran out on the occasion you work up the nerve. If your pilot dies, you can start a new pilot to take over for him with the same squadmates and everything, and continue your squadron's story throughout the war. - OFFbase puts you right in the Squadron HQ, where you can visit the Adjutant to manage your career, kick back in Lodgings that you may share with a roommate and write in your journal, go down to the Mess for food or drink and see how your squadmates are doing (and listen to the squadron band in the evenings), head out to the Hangar to check munitions and fly campaign missions, or reminisce over fallen heroes at the squadron memorial. The quality of your squadron's facilities develops over time. - OFFbase implements and expands Bletchley's Pilot Personality Profiles (3P) to give each pilot in the squad individual personality that informs how they behave and relate to each other. Engage in many different types of social encounters, mediated by personality traits. Personalities are composed of unique combinations of character traits, summarized by Attributes that rank characters in the following dimensions: Aerial Skill, Aggression, Charisma, Intelligence, Physicality, and Professionalism. With hundreds of billions of possibilities, the character's you'll meet in OFFbase are complex, distinctive, and completely individual in their behavior. - OFFbase builds on 3P with academic game theory to make social encounters richer, more intuitive, and open to different styles of play. Will you try to out-do other pilots, enhancing your short-run prestige at their expense, or try to build both your reputations through long-run friendship and social support? Your success at playing different strategies depends on the rank, personality, and social skills of your pilot character, as well as who the other player is and what they're trying to achieve. Over multiple encounters you'll come to know how different characters react in different situations, and what strategies work for your character. The result is a natural learning process on both sides. - OFFbase makes complex yet intuitive social encounters possible by giving characters in your squadron artificial intelligence. They remember how you and other pilots have treated them in the past, learn from their mistakes, and form social strategies to pursue their own goals based on their own rank, personality, risk preferences, social skills, and history. Some may try to boost their careers by bullying subordinates to make themselves look better, others may focus on building peer networks, while some may do a bit of both depending on who they like and who they don't and their feelings about their relationships and careers. The procedurally-generated rule-based AI system generates far more complex, dynamic, and unique behavior than traditional systems. - OFFbase features a full dynamic squadron simulation: Non-player pilots have daily encounters with each other, developing their own prestige and goodwill to develop their reputations and earn their own promotions, while periodically going on and returning from leave, even transferring in and out. All this goes on even as you advance or skip time due to weather, injury, whatever. Watch non-player pilots in your squadron share a drink, talk politics, make friends, get in fights--building relationships that affect how their careers develop, and yours. - OFFbase introduces Ground Crew, support officers or enlisted such as the squadron Adjutant, Chief Medical Officer, Chaplain, Munitions Officer, and even the Chief of the Mess Hall. Encounter and build relationships with them as well, which can affect your career, and your life, through gameplay. They may serve as stabilizing forces in dark times, or if a bad fit for a squadron disrupt morale. Encounter them in the Infirmary, Chapel, Hangar, and Mess Hall. - OFFbase introduces Air Crew: Pilots of two-seaters will share quarters with their observer/gunner. You and your fellow officers will encounter them in the Mess and on the Airfield, as they build their own careers. - OFFbase makes completing missions more rewarding, with additional benefits and costs to your career from shooting down enemy aces, friendly fire, pulling a hat trick by shooting down three or more enemy planes, and taking out ground targets and balloons. If a fellow pilot steals your kill, you can chew him out once you're back at HQ and try to take back some of the prestige he earned instead of you; or apologize and give back prestige if you steal someone else's kill. Some mission results may even affect the development of your pilot's personality by earning additional traits. - OFFbase brings additional features to the game such as transfers between squadrons, player input on promotions, funerals for dead pilots, a fully-editable journal built from the flight and claims logs, and tracking of mission results for your squadmates. Yes that's right--what actually happens to your squadmates in the air while they fly beside you matters now, dependent on and influencing the development of their characters. A Frontiersmen also trained in first aid is more likely to make it home after being downed behind enemy lines, a Cowards more likely to surrender, and a Weakling more likely to be permanently maimed by injury--especially if he's on bad terms with the Chief Medical Officer! The detailed injury system tracks dozens of different wounds and maims for you and your squadmates, with more realistic recovery times--and more ways to be disabled and killed. Dealing in the Infirmary is dynamic and can depend on the support of squadmates. - OFFbase accelerates immersion with a built-in mod manager (OFFramp) that automatically orders and activates JSGME mods appropriate to your campaign, if installed. See notes on mods below. This is accomplished through a fully-modable rule-driven scripting engine that supports plugins to the OFFice: OFF Incomplete Campaign Editor system, integrating access to Pilot dossiers, OFF Workshop settings, CFS3Config settings, JSGME mods, and OFFbase gameplay rules. Bletchley's historical ammo loudout rules and a number of other mods included in this distribution are implemented in this system. Modders: see very preliminary info in the OFFice\modrules\ folder. Gameplay: An officer or crewman's Reputation can be built in three different ways: success in the air, Goodwill from higher-ranking officers, and Prestige from socially dominating your peers. Each character has a unique set of Traits, yielding different preferences and skills toward these goals. As your campaign develops, you will observe changes in morale, upgrades to your airfield and lodgings, earn new personality-building traits through promotions and achievements, and take part in the lives and deaths of your dynamic, humanlike squadmates. To further the latter two goals, you will frequently (depending on your traits), Encounter your fellows, as well as witness encounters they have with each other. The social encounter system is based on a continuous iterated prisoner's dilemma game. Both players face a trade-off between short-run prestige from besting their opponent in the encounter and long-run goodwill from cooperating to build friendships. If both players jockey for short-run prestige, the result is negative-sum competition where gain, if any, only comes at the other's expense. If both players seek to build long-term social support to advance their military careers, the game is positive-sum cooperation that can increase both pilots' Goodwill toward each other, providing a daily boost to reputations so long as both players continue or even deepen their friendship. Even more interesting is the myriad cases in-between. You may come on too strong and embarrass someone, or come across as off-puttingly needy. You may also find yourself at the mercy of a vicious bully, or in a parasitic relationship with a high-ranking officer who praises you to superiors only to reflect well on his command while back at the squadron mercilessly putting you in your place in front of the other men. Willingly suck up to superiors if their goodwill seems worth more to your career than the shame, or buck them to defend your prestige at the risk of ill-will. The possibilities are almost endless because non-player characters also have reputations, and adaptively develop their own strategies based on their personalities, social skills, feelings, and memories in order to exploit their own trade-offs between short-run prestige and long-run goodwill. All this sounds complicated, but in practice decisions and their consequences unfold naturally, and the evolution of relationships should be dynamic, intuitive, and fun. Not only is it about learning which pilots are trying to befriend you and which are out to build their careers at your expense--but also teaching AI pilots to cooperate and learning when and when not to exploit their trust. Should your reputation fall to "Disrespected" you're in danger of being transferred to another squadron if you don't turn things around. Lean on your friends for support, though calling in the chips in the short-run can damage friendships in the long run. If you do well and your reputation becomes sufficiently "Honored" you'll be due a promotion to a higher rank and the chance to further develop your personality. Promotions and the new traits they bring cost prestige, so you'll start off at a lower reputation. Not everyone has what it takes to make it at a higher rank--those who climb the ladder too fast may step on too many toes, and end up in another squadron. Your pilot's mood serves as a guide to how he's doing in recent encounters. If he's upset, his reputation's been harmed either through losing prestige or goodwill or both, and he'll have a tougher time cooperating with others. A good mood means recent encounters have been helpful to his reputation, in the short- or long-run or both, and more open to others. You'll get some idea of the mood of others when you encounter them, and the squadron's morale reflects the aggregate mood of its members. Since mood affects behavior, the effects of encounters spill over through social networks. A skilled and patient or stubborn player can have a profound impact on the social development of his squadron, through good times and bad. Different personalities are more naturally suited to building their reputations by some means more than others. No-nonsense skilled-pilot types advance more quickly from flying and successfully completing missions, while smooth-tongued sycophants are more apt to milk the goodwill of superior officers at the cost of prestige, aggressive social animals readily suffer ill-will to dominate more social encounters for that prestige, while introverted loners try to avoid encounters in the first place. Every character will have a unique experience, even with the same squadmates. Your replacement pilot may have a tougher time making friends in a squad deeply mourning your popular former ace--or be just thing to help restore morale after the death of a tyrannical flight leader. Simply put, the game rewards role-playing. The deeper investment in building the career of your pilot and developing relationships with squadmates not only further customizes and enriches the campaign experience, but makes death in the air all the more terrifying, and thus OFF even more fun. Who'll carry your casket to its final resting place? How will your squadron remember him? Play OFFbase and find out! Installation: First make sure JSGME 2.6.0 is installed. This is included and installed automatically in the full OFFice package. Download and run the OFFice exe, and it will automatically extract the OFFice folder into your root OFF installation (usually "C:\ OBDSoftware"). This will also create shortcuts for OFFbase and OFFset (see OFFset.readme.txt) on your desktop and/or start menu, as well as documentation for the OFFice suite and included mods. OFFbase will ask to run at Adminstrator level as this is required by JSGME. OFFbase can elevate the OFF manager, but you should set CFS3.exe (and TrackIR5.exe) to run as Administrator as well. To play OFFbase, simply double click one of the installed shortcuts. Updating: To update OFFbase to a newer version after 0.7.8, just run the new setup exe to upgrade your existing install. The installer will automatically deactivate all JSGME mods for safe updating. OFFbase 0.8.6 and later will notify you if newer versions are available at Combat Ace. Mods: Get the full OFFice incomparable campaign engine which features OFFbase along with all supported mods in a complete package in one easy-to-use installer. Many of these mods are further developed and enhanced with powerful new features compared to their old stand-alone counterparts available separately. OFFbase will give you a choice which mission, damage, flight model, sound, music mods and so on in the OFFramp mod manager. Usage: You'll no longer launch Over Flanders Fields yourself, OFFbase will do it for you when ready. Instead, launch the OFFbase program from your desktop or Start menu shortcuts or launch the OFFbase.exe program in the OFFice folder manually. Whenever OFFbase has you run the OFF Manager, do just the one task or mission expected then quit OFF to return to OFFbase. OFFbase may ask you to set some settings before allowing you to play. Follow its instructions. You'll be asked to choose a nation and squadron to play your existing pilots. If you need to create a new pilot here, you can launch OFF Manager. Leave OFF when done creating the pilot and the list will update. Make your choice and click the "Play Squadron" button. You'll then be asked to choose a pilot in your squadron. You can compare the current date of the squadron listed in the left pane with the last reported date of your pilot in the middle pane to see how much leave your pilot will receive to sync up. You may also edit and save your pilot's background here. Choose your pilot and click the "Play Pilot" button to begin the OFFbase experience! You'll be asked to choose a personality class for your pilot, then fly a transfer mission to your new airfield to check out the squadron's facilities and people. Follow the prompts, it should be a fairly self-explanatory introduction. Note: Be sure to check ‘Air Start’ for your initial transfer mission! When you're squadron has been toured, you're on your own. Chat with the Adjutant and visit the Mess Hall to learn more about your squadmates. Go to the Hangar to fly campaign missions in OFF, or just do some exploring around the base. OFFbase will automatically set your active pilot for the campaign so you no longer need to manually switch between pilot dossiers in OFF Manager to fly different campaigns. OFFbase sets the Outcomes section of the OFF Workshops Dead Is Dead to offer advanced outcome handling. Most crashes are reported as fatal by OFF, but this just triggers custom crash handling. If your pilot is killed or captured, do not delete him in OFF. Instead, quit OFF to return to OFFbase and resolve his fate. If he does ultimately perish, after the funeral he becomes part of your squadron’s institutional memory. When adding a new pilot to a squadron, be sure to create him at a date prior to your current squadron date to avoid overwriting all of your squadmates. See the OFFbase Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).- 10 comments
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OFFice/OFFbase 1.0.3 now available!
Lothar of the Hill People replied to Lothar of the Hill People's topic in WOFF UE/PE - General Discussion
Version 1.0.4 is now available for download at Combat Ace. No new features, just some important bug fixes. Get the full version of OFFice here , or if have 1.0.2 or 1.0.3 installed already all you need is the smaller update. -
OFFworld: Persistent Online Campaigns for OFF/WOFF
Lothar of the Hill People replied to Lothar of the Hill People's topic in WOFF UE/PE - General Discussion
The initial version of OFFworld is up and running! If you'd like to be a part of it, send me a private message.- 27 replies
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Lone Wolf Flights
Lothar of the Hill People replied to scram77's topic in WOFF UE/PE - General Discussion
Bletchley's mission mods, built into OFFice, feature a more historically accurate distribution of Lone Wolf flights (including some later in the war, not just early as in the stock campaigns), and more different and varied objective to accomplish on such solo missions (for both fighters and two-seaters). -
Replenish Ammo
Lothar of the Hill People replied to Shiloh's topic in WOFF UE/PE - General Discussion
Yep. The point is so that if you have 'unlimited ammo' selected, you can still dump all your bombs/missions/drop tanks to lighten your plane before going into air-to-air combat (bullets don't weigh anything in OFF). Then you can CTRL+J to magically get these armaments back an unlimited number of times after your air combat. Happy tractoring, Tom! Anyone try the CheatEngine method I outlined for reloading machine guns? -
OFFworld: Persistent Online Campaigns for OFF/WOFF
Lothar of the Hill People replied to Lothar of the Hill People's topic in WOFF UE/PE - General Discussion
You could try finding a program that lets you use the mouse as a fake "emulated" joystick, but this could interfere with your ability to use the menus or other mouse controls. Depends on what you mean by "playing". The first-stage PvE OFFworld doesn't transfer any data while you're actually flying, just before and after and when you're playing on the ground, OFFbase. So you'd go online, let the campaign synchronize, then launch OFFbase. All the stuff you do in OFFbase, interacting with your fellow squadmates and such, will sync with the shared campaign. Then you launch OFF from the OFFbase Hangar to fly your OFFbase-enhanced mission. As soon as your actual mission starts, you could alt-tab out and disconnect your dial-up. Just remember to alt-tab out, dial-up the internet again to sync to the latest campaign data before you quit your mission and exit OFF. Then your mission results will be synchronized with any changes from other players while you were in the air. Unlike standard OFF where what happens to your flightmates in the air is forgotten as soon as the flight is over, in OFFbase you report your flightmates' results too, witnessing any claims and reporting crashes and stuff. If you see your wingman downed in a fireball, he won't just magically reappear as if nothing's happened. WOFF will do this automatically, but you don't have to wait "two weeks" to get a crude version of this persistence feature today in OFFbase/OFFice. Even worse, in standard OFF, if your pilot dies or is permanently captured, poof! your campaign disappears. It's as if your squadmates never existed. OFFbase makes your own squadron's campaign persistent, which truly allows OFF's deep campaign engine to shine. This brings in all the joy and terror of building your squadron, protecting your flightmates and seeing them through the mission and back home--the stuff that got us all hooked on games like Wings and RB3D in the first place. With OFFworld, what happens in the air matters, not just to you but other human pilots in the same persistent campaign. If an AI "friend" of yours is killed flying alongside another human pilot in their PvE mission, your character will feel the loss and this sadness will show in his interactions with others. If your character hates another player's character, and they get captured, your mood will brighten a bit. All this cascades through the social networks that develop in the squadron. Expanding this persistent depth to multiple squadrons and nations, across the whole war, and sharing it with others... now that has potential for emergent narrative rivaling the stories you hear from EVE's single persistent universe. Win a major air battle against an enemy squad and it could take them a long time to recover from the decimation of their ranks and blow to the survivors' morale. Maybe this opens opportunities for others--even in other squadrons. Unable to advance in an elite squadron filled with higher-ranking aces, maybe a transfer into a decimated squadron where you'd have more authority is just the thing to give your career new life, if you can turn their morale around. The possibilities are endless. Who's with me?- 27 replies
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OFFworld: Persistent Online Campaigns for OFF/WOFF
Lothar of the Hill People replied to Lothar of the Hill People's topic in WOFF UE/PE - General Discussion
Ah, hate when that happens. Good luck getting it sorted out. I've mostly flown two-seaters myself (love me some DFW C.V), so yes OFFice does feature a number of enhancements for two-seater campaigns. You can indeed write reports after your missions to document your adventures, even if you don't have claims to file. You share lodgings and interact with your observer/gunner, who has a name and a unique personality, and who builds a career just as you do. German campaigns have a different dynamic, since he commands your missions and likely outranks you. As for missions themselves, OFFice includes a dynamically enhanced version of Bletchley's mission mods. Not only are missions more historically accurate for the role (no more sending bombers up for scrambles), but there's more variation and more to do and a few missions with a bit more... character. OFFice truly is a massive improvement over stock Phase 3 + HitR. Getting back to the subject of this thread, it'd be great to bring the best of OFF and OFFice into a shared, persistent multiplayer campaign where what you do in the air (and on the ground) matters, not just to yourself and your AI squadmates but to the war other OFFers are flying in as well.- 27 replies
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OFFworld: Persistent Online Campaigns for OFF/WOFF
Lothar of the Hill People replied to Lothar of the Hill People's topic in WOFF UE/PE - General Discussion
Sorry you're having problems, but can you be more specific than "not working"?- 27 replies
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Replenish Ammo
Lothar of the Hill People replied to Shiloh's topic in WOFF UE/PE - General Discussion
I may be opening a big can of worms here. But here's how to replenish ammo in OFF: Download, install, and launch CheatEngine. Start your flight in OFF, and pause on the runway before take-off. Turn on the HUD (F5, must be enabled in CFS3Config) and make note of the exact # of MG rounds you have to start--your full capacity. Alt-tab out of your flight to CheatEngine. Hit the 'select process' button in the upper left or choose 'Open Process' from the file menu. Find the process that ends in CFS3.exe and 'Open' it. In CheatEngine, for the 'Value' enter the number of rounds you noted above, set the 'Scan Type' to 'Exact Value', and click the 'New Scan' button. You'll see the list at the left fill with memory addresses containing that value. Alt-tab back into CFS3, unpause, and fire off a round or two to 'clear guns' so to speak. Pause and make note of your remaining rounds in the HUD. Alt-tab back to CheatEngine, enter this lower number of rounds into the 'Value' field, and click the 'Next Scan' button. If everything worked right, the list of matching memory addresses will be narrowed down to a single entry. If not, do Step 5 and 6 again until it narrows down to a single entry. Double click on the single entry in the left to make it active for editing below. In the table at the bottom, double click on the description and call it 'Ammo' or something for your reference. Go back to CFS3, fly your off mission as normal. If you run out of ammo, land at a friendly airfield, sit and wait for however long you feel is appropriate, and then alt-tab out to CheatEngine. In the table at the bottom your ammo value should be 0. Double click on the value and change it to your plane's full capacity. Alt-tab back to your game and tada! Since CFS3 uses a different memory address each time, you can't just save your CheatEngine profile to skip steps, but have to go through all 10 for each flight you want to be able to reload ammo. So it's a hassle, but it works. But please don't just use it to cheat! Maybe I'm just an idiot recommending a program called "CheatEngine" to make OFF more historically consistent. Hope I just totally didn't hose OFF multiplayer, but I have no idea how that tracks and communicates such between players over the network. -
Replenish Ammo
Lothar of the Hill People replied to Shiloh's topic in WOFF UE/PE - General Discussion
You'll have to remember that OFF/WOFF run on top of CFS3. OBD can do a lot, but they can't go into CFS3's source code and make fundamental changes. Since CFS3 itself doesn't support reloading, I'm skeptical it'd be easy to do. Though if CFS3 uses a consistent memory address to track the player's ammo... -
Have I arrived too late?
Lothar of the Hill People replied to scram77's topic in WOFF UE/PE - General Discussion
Yep, OFFice includes pretty much all of the historically-consistent OFF mods, many reworked to work together and with additional advanced features over the old stand-alone versions available for separate download. Pretty much everything's configurable too (choose the FM, DM, etc.) CTDs are usually caused by graphics settings. A good practice is to set everything in CFS3Config to 1, minimum (except aircraft detail, set that to 5) and then incrementally increase settings with each flight until it starts crashing, then go back a bit. And I believe there's some detailed graphics settings advice on specific CFS3Config options by Olham at the OFF website, things like Dual Pass Render and texture memory management that could be causing you problems. -
OFFworld: Persistent Online Campaigns for OFF/WOFF
Lothar of the Hill People replied to Lothar of the Hill People's topic in WOFF UE/PE - General Discussion
Here's what I have in mind: A $12 buy-in for the first stage, PvE "singleplayer" in a shared persistent online campaign. This would support development and testing of the persistent campaign engine itself, along with the underlying networking etc., basic communication and coordination features, and the core work to bootstrap into the second stage. While the underlying campaign and interactions in OFFbase would be multiplayer, missions themselves are individual "shards" with AI wingmen and against AI enemies, with results synced to the persistent campaign. The second stage, PvP "multiplayer", would begin when the most basic multiplayer missions can be generated and flown in the persistent online campaign developed in the first stage. The buy-in would be a little more, say $20 ($8 upgrade for 1st stage members), and support development and testing of all necessary interface, security, and synchronization features to make it usable and stable for a full general release. All the unnecessary bells and whistles like social minigames, achievements, web-based kill lists, etc. would depend on the level of support, possibly a third-stage continuing from the 2nd if necessary or following expansion pack. The goal of the first two stages would be the basic functionality to get it up and working so people can fly consequential missions with and against each other. The first stage is ready to begin, with a single shared squadrons and its pilots and crew. To grow from individual shared squadrons to a full shared persistent multi-squadron war that supports multiplayer combat, that's where you all come in. And of course, the $12 would be a minimum--chip in more to spur development or just to say thanks for OFFice and OFFbase and all my other mods and utilities for OFF. Thoughts? I get your pain, Shiloh and MudWasp. The first stage of OFFworld wouldn't require "high-speed" internet by any means--not much bandwidth use at all. Dial-up should work just fine, though you'd still have to be online while playing. As for getting OFFice up and running, Mud, if you've already got the full 500MB download of OFFice 1.0.2, all you need to download for the new version is the small update to install on top. No need to back anything up first, but I recommend creating a new pilot in a new squadron to try it out. None of your existing pilots in other squadrons will be touched. If you don't like it, it's easy to deactivate and go back to flying OFF normally.- 27 replies
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