Lothar of the Hill People

Curious chrispdm1, with lederhosen having a similar issue. Every pilot, even in different squadrons? I've been so far unable to replicate the problem. That date has to be coming from somewhere. As well as deleting every pilot in OFF manager, I'd try a clean installation of OFFbase (just delete your pilots\ and squadrons\ folders). Also make sure there are no lingering Dossier, Log, and Claims .txt files in your CFSWW1 Over Flanders Fields\campaigns\CampaignData\Pilots\ folder.

Thanks guys. That last upgrade was just a matter of slapping together the dynamic form and getting it to feed into the simulation, really not much work at all. After doing "real" simulations or writing all day for my dissertation, working on OFFbase a little bit can be a nice break. It's certainly less stressful than actually flying OFF with my developed character! You're right about remember squadmate names, OlPaint01, something I've noticed myself.

Hey led. It's probably because you already have a (possibly dead or captured) pilot in that same squadron in June of 1917. In OFFbase, all pilots in the same squadron are automatically synced to the most recent one. If you want to start a new campaign before then delete the old pilot in that squadron.

It's not fair, but you must realize the vast majority of money is credit. If the banking system fails, all that money just disappears, which makes more people default on their loans and more banks fail so more money disappears... a deflationary cycle that results in a Great Depression with people hoarding money under the mattresses and burying it in their yards, while prices fall so producers everywhere cut back so it's not just coal/steel/manufacturing jobs that go poof. In other words, we've seen this movie before. The good news is, most of it isn't 'bailouts' but loans the banks repay when the system stabilizes. It's the bailouts of manufacturers like GM and Chrysler and 'clean' energy subsidies that cost taxpayers real billions.

Combate Ace was down for a week with no word at all from admins. ODB has a business to run, need to be able to rely on the forum so they moved. SimHQ is the new permanent home for official support and info on P4 (WOFF) etc, though with its knowledge base and mod library Combate Ace will be a good source of user support for a long time to come.

Heh, something to watch out for elephant! There's still a chance your squadmates will survive their crashes or show up again if gone missing. If nothing else, OFFbase adds new squadmates to replace the dead faster than vanilla OFF.

OFFbase 0.7.2 has just been posted but may take a little time to be approved by the mods. This brings in a key feature of WOFF (P4), tracking the actual in-air results of your fellow pilots. No more watching your wingman crash behind enemy lines to return and find him "In Service" as if nothing happened. This relies a bit on you, but also fits OFF's way of handling claims--you can basically serve as a witness to your squadmates' claims if you observe them in-game, and see them recorded on the roster with a chance to be confirmed later. It only took a couple of hours to implement, but still needs some testing. Go get it at the Download page and let me know how it works for you.

4.x on the PPC is nice. I bought a used A4000 in college, but I think the 3000 was the most well-engineered computer I've ever owned. Still miss my "pregnant" mouse.

Workbench 4.0, via a WindowBlinds skin on my PC. Check it out. So much better than the Windows user interface. How many times in Windows/Mac/Linux have you accidentally closed a window that you only meant to maximize. The Amiga way, having the close gadget in the upper left away from the other window gadgets, completely solves this problem. Instead in the upper right is a Z-Order button that that sends windows to the back, also very handy. Thankfully things like proportional scroll bars have already been copied from the Amiga by Windows/Mac/Linux. The colorful buttons and stuff within the window itself is the REBOL interface. Unfortunately development on REBOL seems to have crapped out, not sure if the Amiga version would be able to run OFFbase, accessing your pilot files over the network, but that would be pretty cool.

Right on, Andy73. I'm surprised no one's commented on the Amiga window gadgets in all my OFFbase screenshots.

Hey Fortiesboy, it shouldn't matter if the drive is internal or external, USB or SATA or IDE, as long as it shows up in windows it should be fine. And since you've been away awhile, try playing OFF with OFFbase.

Hey DukeIronHand, that's great advice from Bletchley. Let us knows how it goes when you try it.

Heh, what happens if you purposefully land at an enemy airfield and try to come over to the other side? I've never dared to find out. But that's a good catch, Dej--I was shuffling around a lot of screenshots.

Installation Note: the OFFice folder must be installed somewhere outside your main OFF installation for the program to work.

Hi Redmonkey. Another tip if you're using a campaign to learn to fly--both you and your pilot are rookies--is to start in a bomber squadron. There's less glory as it's about avoiding confrontations with the enemy, but you learn squadron flying, navigation, spotting enemies, how best to complete missions, etc. After you've gained a rank or two and the experience to go with it, OFFbase lets you transfer into a fighter squadron. Best of both worlds... should your pilot make it that far. You'll even have learned a thing or two about attacking bombers. Good luck!

You should give the new version a try, Olham, you may just have fun. Still leaves plenty of room for the imagination as this little tutorial shows, I hope. Just posted the rest of 2nd Lt Luther Hill's first day.

So let's take a look around the squadron, shall we? The Adjutant is always available, though his time and patience are limited: Looks like I caught Captain Lindsay in a good moment, as he opens up a little about my squadmates. My entrance to the Mess Hall does not go unnoticed: Major McNeil was rather nice, well compared to everyone else I've met so far today. But not much else going on in the mess: Or so it seems. Your squadmates have encounters with each other, just as you do with them, and you may see witness some of these encounters in the mess: Wonder what that was about? Most encounters leave a lot to your imagination to fill in the details as you develop a sense of identity around different pilots. Let's go to the Duty Room and see what we know of our squadmates so far: You only get details on those you've met--and notice the Adjutant Captain Lindsay listed as Ground Crew. Future versions of OFFbase will feature even more non-player characters (NPCs) to encounter. You can get more information on the different aspects of characters by clicking the ? buttons Let's head back out to the Airfield. As I arrive: This guy's just a jerk. I've had my share of Captains... but what else does he want with me? Yep, Cadbury's a jerk who enjoys taking my prestige. What's this about the war ending? I'm a Schoolboy heading out to his first active-duty flight! Way to cut me off at the knees. But at least I can now go Fly Mission in OFF. Make sure your active pilot is set, go into the Campaign and fly a mission like you always would. When done, Leave the OFF Manager to return to OFFbase. This isn't the place for after-action reports, but our patrol encountered a quartet of Alb D.Va from Jasta 72s over the Argonne. I downed one, which another pilot tried to steal as I lined up for the killing blow. Guess who? My new best friend, Captain Cadbury. Then, a second Albatross damaged my engine and I limped back over the lines, landing at the nearest friendly airfield. OFFbase offers unique post-mission opportunities: I didn't make it home, so I can't check that box, but I can take things up with the jerk who tried to steal my kill. Argh, he got me again. Benefits of rank, he insisted I should have deferred to him and let him finish the Albatross. He may have a point... Well, need to report in to the Adjutant: The prestige I earned from downing the Albatross was wiped out by not bringing my own plane home. Back at HQ, I can see I'm in trouble: Only 0.44 prestige! I enter the Mess Hall cautiously, knowing I need to earn some quick prestige but can't afford to have someone pick on me again. This must be the new guy, Captain Fuller, the Adjutant told me about. Sure he outranks me, but I'm no longer the rookie and take an Aggressive stance to let him know it. But deep down, I'm scared! I guess we see eye-to-eye; though I'm not able to get any prestige out of him. Ah, the mess: If I'm going to earn more prestige, I'll have to do it in the air. On the way to the Airfield, I encounter my wingman: Oh boy, the Schoolboy's favorite! Let's see if I can qet some quick prestige here. Well he's no fun. I'm going to have to have a very successful mission if I've any chance of sticking around as the only lowly 2nd Lieutenant in the 94th Aero: Strafing trenches? And I'm supposed to lead this attack??? Captain Lindsay must really be trying to get rid of me... Some time later... holy cow! Knowing I have almost no prestige remaining I was willing to take big risks on this mission, and with a lot of luck those risks paid off. I made two full passes over the trenches with only a few seemingly-harmless bullets passing through my wings. Turning into a third pass I observed three planes diving to follow my attack... except one didn't look quite like the others. When it opened up on my wingman, 1st Lt. MacKenzie, I was now close enough to see it was clearly an Albatross attacking seemingly out of nowhere. Don't like my wingman all that much, but my squadmates had led him right into me, and I fired at close range and the Albatross crashed into those trenches I'd just strafed. As hero of the day, check out my prestige now: Glad my wingman made it home alive at least: Let's check the board in the Duty Room: So, 2nd Lieutenant Luther Hill survived his first day in the 94th Aero Squadron, and may yet make a name for himself there. What will your days OFFbase bring? Download it and find out!

To give those of you who haven't played OFF with OFFbase an idea of what it's like, here's a screenshot-guided tutorial of sorts. After the initial settings, the main window opens where you select a nation and squadron to play. In this case I'll ignore my existing German pilots and click the Create Pilot button. This launches the OFF Manager so I can create an American pilot in the 94th Aero. After creating the pilot, I Leave OFF Manager to return to OFFbase, which detects the new squadron. I select it in the list, and click Play Squadron. OFFbase supports multiple pilots in a squadron, here I have just one. I can edit his background directly here, or just continue on with the Play Pilot button: This button is green like saving changes to your background because it makes changes to your pilot files, synchronizing all your pilots in the squadron to the most recent roster, date given in the lower left. For example, if you have two pilots in the same squad but one in 1917 and 1918, it will put the 1917 pilot On Leave until 1918 when it will rejoin the squad alongside the other pilot. All pilots in the same squadron share a common roster, which persists beyond the life of any one pilot. This squadron-based gameplay is a key feature of OFFbase. OFFbase needs to know your squadron's Operational Rating (or Status) which isn't stored in the pilot files. You can enter the OFF Manager from here to check in the Campaign screen if need be: You'll only need to set it again if it changes. On the first run, OFFbase will simulate 30 days of squadron activity so your squadmates have on-going relationships and career troubles when you arrive: OFFbase is not just a simulation but a role-playing game. All characters have a Background Trait, which must be set before play: As a lowly 2nd Lieutenant in the prestigious "hat in the ring" 94th Aero, some higher-ranking officers will take a little pity on the Schoolboy type--but bullies may give them a little extra attention as well. Schoolboys are relatively nicer to Cowards than other types, and gullible to Gamblers. Higher-ranking pilots will get to choose additional traits when starting an OFFbase campaign, so characters grow more unique with rank. While there are only thirteen distinct 2nd Lieutenant personalities--making rookie pilots fairly disposable--American Lt Colonels come with hundreds of millions of different combinations of traits. Initial set-up complete, it's time for the introductory sequence as my new character arrives. The quality of the airfield is a random dice roll. Now it's time for our first Encounter, the basic gameplay element of OFFbase. When you first meet someone, you do what officers do: Salute. The text lets you know what kind of encounter, a little about the mood of the other pilot, and how your character feels about the encounter. Schoolboys are more submissive in a Salute than other types. As a player you can influence your pilot's attitude in the encounter. Your pilot character's Artificial Intelligence (AI) chooses its default attitude based on its overall mood and memory of past encounters with the other character. If both pilots are submissive, they become more friendly. If both are aggressive, they'll dislike each other more. It's the combinations in-between that are interesting (25 possible outcomes to each encounter), each changing how both pilots will behave in the future as both AIs learn in response. In this case, I decide to push my Schoolboy into being extra-submissive to the Captain, hoping he'll be nicer to me in the future. Well that worked, I guess. I've now met Captain Bingham, and it's pretty clear he's the boss of me. Sometimes Salutes will be continued into another encounter. Since I've just arrived at the field, perhaps I can get some information out of the Captain: Schoolboys are excited at asking for directions, making them naturally more aggressive at it. My AI wants to be forward after getting put in place by the Salute, but I'm going to make him even more aggressive. Meanwhile the Captain is more open to me after winning last time. Maybe I can exploit him a little for once? I got back a little of my prestige and some valuable info on 94th Aero's Adjutant, who I'm about to meet: My pilot is still a little cranky, having lost more prestige than gained from Captain Bingham, so I'll roll with his forward attitude. Didn't get shown up quite as badly, but still it's clear these Captains don't respect lowly 2nd Lt. Luther Hill. But now that I've met the Adjutant, I'm in his office: The description of the mess depends on the Adjutant's personality. Here I can change the Operational Rating if it changes in-game, get a promotion when I've earned enough prestige, or transfer to another squadron. But he doesn't have time for me now, so I leave. On to the mess as he said... The text in the mess depends on the time of the day, the mood of other pilots, and your relationships with them. Prestige is earned not just through encounters and achievements in the air, but from the support of your squadmates in the form of Goodwill. This is what makes it worth sacrificing short-term prestige to make friendships which pay prestige in the long-term. Learning whom to befriend and whom to exploit, and indeed when to exploit your friends, is only part of the fun, as you're also teaching the AI of other pilots to cooperate or defect There's one more Encounter to go in this introductory experience: OFFbase will try to assign a wingman close in rank to you. Maybe this is someone I'll be able to make friends with? He did seem upset, guess he wasn't in the mood to make friends. But there's a 50% chance we'll share quarters together: Hope I don't find Lt MacKenzi's practice disruptive, but maybe he'll brighten up the mess in the evenings with his play... That's it, the end of the introductory sequence. I'm deposited at the Squadron HQ: What I do next is up to me. Notice how little prestige I have left after all that. I'll have to be careful, if it falls to zero and the Adjutant catches me, he'll have me transferred out of the 94th! For what happens next in the career of 2nd Lt Luther Hill, stay tuned... More interested in your own career? Download OFFbase!

Thanks HPW, the Fokker E III feels much better!

Solo mode just for you, HPW. How's it working for yah?

OFFbase 0.7.1 has been posted. In addition to a few bug fixes, the biggest change is support for both OFF forums. The basic Settings dialog. Choose your forum, or play Solo if your gaming PC doesn't have an internet connection: Combat Ace makes its user list public, so you can just enter part of your name and Verify to search for a match: Found me! The rest of my name is filled as the callsign is now verified. SimHQ doesn't support this as its user list is not publicly-available. Right now all this sets is where the links to support and download in the About dialog take you. Ultimately I hope to support multiplayer campaigns, players flying in the same squadron, sharing the same squadmates. As an additional incentive to upgrade to 0.7.1: you may catch your musically-inclined squadmates performing in the mess in the evening. Download it now!

Wings on the Amiga was my intro to WW1 aviation. What sets it apart is the storytelling, the focus on life in the squadron as told by your pilot writing the squadron journal. It was as much about what was occurring on the ground as in the air. The actual air combat is arcady, but it's worth playing for the story and character development. No flight sim has made me care more about the list of names on my duty roster. That personal feeling is what I've been trying to bring to OFF with OFFbase. Future versions will have characters like chaplains, trainers, medics, etc. visit the squadron like in Wings, perhaps even squadron mascots with unique names, breeds, and doggy personalities.

Gotta give SimHQ credit, they just gave me one more character at least, expanding 'ofthe' to 'of_the'.

Thank goodness I can have a long username with spaces again!

Version 0.7.0 of OFFbase has been posted here on Combat Ace, which will serve as the official home for my mods and tools. The next version will restore support for Combat Ace user verification which will allow multiplayer campaigns in future versions. Download it now!