Lothar of the Hill People

Everyone's waiting for my update to OFFbase?

Sorry, been completely buried with my dissertation and some real life stuff. Interest is as strong as ever, and I hope to get back to OFF stuff sometime next month. So keep it up, HPW, you're not alone (although it often feels that way).

Hey Cody Coyote. Bletchley's mission mod does only assign Lone Wolf flights for German fighters in those two months of 1916. You may be interested in trying Buddy1998's mission mods, which fix some of the waypoints and don't have any Lone Wolf missions. Get OlPaint01's Realism Bundle, which contains both mission mods and a bunch of other goodies. The OFFramp mod manager built into my OFFice incomplete campaign editor lets you easily choose which mission and other mods to run, activates the right ones for your squadron and date in the war, etc., among its many features.

Good to hear Panama Red's on the case, Andy. If he uses my JSGME installer kit everything should work perfectly. I'll try to build in proper support for the next release of my OFFramp mod manager, so let me know if there are any dependencies or conflicts with your previous sound mods. And good luck in Berlin. I'm sure if you make it home in one peace all will be forgiven with your wife, but it never hurts to bring back a gift or something!

Hey Hasse Wind, while we wait for WOFF the latest version of OFFbase reworks how BHaH and HitR handle claim and log forms, so you can write claims/reports after every mission. Especially great for bomber campaigns where the missions aren't about kills. A couple of bugs in the last release but I hope to have a fix out this weekend.

I haven't heard from OlPaint either (or HPW either for that matter), but have been buried by real life myself. Those of you waiting for replies should hear from me today, hopefully, as I'm still working on bug fixes for OFFbase. Last time I talked to OlPaint he was really excited about the sound mod. I can build a JSGME package for the sounds, or you could give it a try yourself using the JSGME installer kit I put together.

Seems Amazon.de has both the anniversary gold and the rereleased classic. Gold is cheaper! Does seem to be taking them a while to expand distribution outside Germany. Looks like we crossed in the ether, VP!

Thanks VP, glad "They’re back!" But where can people buy them? Ah, here's the page for what I've taken to calling GoldTrigger. I've bought from AmigaKit before and decided to give them the business--just snatched up their very last one. But geeze the shipping to the US is almost as much as the joystick! Evens out not paying the VAT I suppose.

Seems the only version available is just a little gaudy:

Thanks for bumping this, "Cinemaware". The journal Creaghorn posted alone is worth reading for those who don't want to bother with emulators to actually play Wings. I suppose it's no big secret that OFFbase is at heart my go at making a spiritual sequel to Wings. The addition of a journal should help: If your squadron's cook and chaplain end up boxing after squabbling over the food, I shall have achieved some small victory in life.

You're right, Hasse Wind, not quite the same. The 2D graphics such as the strafing and bombing missions in Wings are pretty jittery on my GTX470, the software emulation lacking the hardware-driven smoothness of the Amiga's custom chips. And it's tough to control those planes with my analog Saitek--does anyone even make digital joysticks for PCs? But yeah, a lot of crap games. Some of the stuff we used to consider "gameplay" just makes me shake my head.

Sad, but inevitable. Casual gamers aren't going to pay hundreds of dollars to download additional planes and scenery like simmers who take their hobby seriously. Yet they basically told simmers to piss off, not just with the lack of realism and sim features but also with a closed ecosystem that cut out the giant commercial and freeware FSX mod community. How they ever expected to make any money on Flight with that business model confuses me. Anyone try X-Plane 10? It'd be cool to try a wing-warping Eindecker with their “blade element theory” flight model.

Not silly, I just know way too much about that crud. Getting that Amiga 500 for Christmas in 1987, age 10, completely changed my world.

8-bit 4-channel PCM audio, VP, I know my Amiga. Though clever coders were eventually able to coax 14-bit two-channel stereo out of Amiga's Paula audio chip. CDs are 16-bit, and DVD-Audio supports up to 24-bit audio. See this article on audio bit depth at Wikipedia. This is different from the architecture of the computer itself. The Amiga's was always 32-bit internally (32-bit registers), but early models (MC68000 and MC68010 processors) had a 16-bit data bus and could only address up to 16MB of RAM.

Hey Matt. It'd be brilliant if the WOFF score included a little homage to Wings' haunting score by Greg Haggard. Break out the accordion? You can find MP3s of the soundtrack here. Amazing how these tunes stick with you more than 20 years later, in all their 8-bit glory.

JSGME isn't required (yet) but future versions may. The installer version will automatically put it in the right place, no worries just double click and run. The same is true for installer versions of JSGME mods themselves, such as my names mod and German music mod. You don't have to worry about any paths or anything. Same thing for installing OFFice. Instructions are on the download page, but it's pretty simple: You can choose to install the full documentation as well.

These are not even remakes, just the originals running on an Amiga emulator for iOS. Wonder how they're dealing with the ROMs (they better be paying a license to Cloanto!). While I loved Cinemaware, I'm not sure this is them in anything but name. Seems like just another cheap attempt at cashing in on their old IP. Too bad. Wings of course got many of us into WW1 flying. It Came from the Desert is the best graphical RTS adventure game ever made. And their TV Sports franchise was the model for every modern sports game. Still have most of the original 3.5" floppies for these--doubt the disks still work, even if I had a disk drive that could read them.

Yep, all the path problems are sorted and everything's automatic. Everything "just works." The OFFramp mod manager's pretty amazing, you should try it. Version 0.8.3 is now available!

Version 0.8.3 of the OFFice incomplete campaign editor, including the OFFbase role-playing simulation, is now available for download. This is a massive update with new features and bugfixes for everyone, but a couple items bare special note for pilots of two-seaters: So now you'll really get to know that fellow who's always up in the air with you. And to help keep track of your adventures together, I've completely reworked how OFF handles its flight and claims logs: While the journal is automatically populated with the text of your claims, now even pilots of two-seaters who rarely fill out claims forms will be able to keep a record of their missions--and anything else they want to write about. And it's pretty keen, if I do say so myself: You should also get my updated names mod so your squadmates, including your gunner/observer, have more unique and interesting names.

Just a tease of one of the many new features that will be in the next release--a complete overhaul over how OFF handles its flight and claims logs: This is just one new feature that pilots of two-seater campaigns will especially appreciate--now you can actually report your observations of troop movements and enemy activity and such and document what happened on your missions just like those kill-happy fighter pilots. Screw "two weeks"--give me two more days.

You can change it in the Adjutant's office, Mr. Lucky. The next version will keep track of changes automatically so you won't have to worry about it.

Hey Waldemar Kurtz, the mod community's been quite busy in the year you've been away. My OFFice incomplete campaign editor lets you reportwhat happens to your AI wingmen so OFF no longer makes them live or die at random. You can even witness claims on their behalf, or report where they were downed or went missing. That's just the tip of the iceberg. Check out the OFFbase role-playing simulation that takes the game off the field and into the lives of your pilot and his squadmates between flights: The next version which I hope to release tomorrow will give you more control over crash outcomes so minor crash-landings aren't so fatal, for example. Also included is the OFFramp mod manager, which supports a host of new advanced mods from OFF's best modders. Links to downloads of these mods can be found on the OFFbase download page. The wait for WOFF doesn't have to be so bad... have fun!

Uh oh. Creaghorn just discovered that while your squadron can fly the planes with modified flight models in the campaign, something is preventing OFF from scheduling AI flights of modified planes during campaign missions. That means Crumpet pilots in Bloody April have nothing to fear but DFW CVs! From the OFFlog: ??Craft Invalid! Sopwith_Pup_SQ1 ??Craft Invalid! SpadVII_SQ1 ??Craft Invalid! SpadVII_SQ2 ??Craft Invalid! Sopwith_Pup_SQ2 ??Craft Invalid! Sopwith_Tripe_SQ1 ??Craft Invalid! Sopwith_Pup_SQ3 ??Craft Invalid! AlbDII_SQ1 ??Craft Invalid! AlbDII_SQ2 ??Craft Invalid! AlbDII_SQ3 ??Craft Invalid! AlbDII_SQ4 ??Craft Invalid! Halb_DII_SQ1 ??Craft Invalid! Alb_DIII_early_SQ1 ??Craft Invalid! Alb_DIII_early_SQ2 ??Craft Invalid! Alb_DIII_early_SQ3 ??Craft Invalid! Alb_DIII_early_SQ4 ??Craft Invalid! Roland_CII_SQ1 ??Craft Invalid! Roland_CII_SQ2 ??Craft Invalid! Roland_CII_SQ3 ??Craft Invalid! Roland_CII_SQ4 ??No Squadron Aircraft available for Enemy Flights at this moment in time! ??No Squadron Aircraft available for Other Enemy Flights at this moment in time! ??No Squadron Aircraft available for Other Enemy Bomber Flights at this moment in time! Anyone have a clue what's wrong, or how to fix it so AI flights can use the modified planes? Otherwise HPW's FM mods are simply not compatible with campaign mode.

Oh just read on DailyTech that MS has already stripped out the code that allows 3rd-party hacks to bring the start menu back onto the desktop. So it may work in the Release Candidate, but won't in the release version, even if you could download and install it.

You've been lucky, Bullethead. Craziest thing I've ever seen in OFF (using OlPaint01's combined 33Lima's Flak Mod and Bletchley's AA Mod) happened when my flight returned from an uneventful patrol to find a group of Nieuport's strafing some ground troops marching less than a mile from our home airfield. We engaged, and of course our guys on the ground just kept firing into the furball. I closed on one of the Nieuports and got a good close hit, but almost too close--he pulled up, engine smoking, and I nearly rammed him, diving in time to just miss. Just then I noticed my wingman coming in for a pass on the same enemy plane. A "friendly" flak shell exploded into my wingman, sending him careening into the Nieuport. The flaming Nieuport dropped right onto my head. Somehow survived with injuries (OFFbase will soon fix the problems with "Die Roll on Death"), but wish I'd managed to capture it all on video: "Three Planes, One Flak" ???