Lothar of the Hill People

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.

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.

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.

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.

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...

The incendiary rounds in OFFice's advanced ammo mod comes in handy against trains too!

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.

Anyone ever run in to Monsieur Fronk in the skies in OFF?

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.

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.

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.

The initial version of OFFworld is up and running! If you'd like to be a part of it, send me a private message.

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).

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?

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?

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.

Sorry you're having problems, but can you be more specific than "not working"?

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.

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...

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.

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.

Good evening, all. With OBD rightly furthering its strengths in WOFF's immersive single-player campaign, multiplayer WW1 aerial combat has become the territory of other games (hard to call anything else out there a 'sim' in comparison). OFF multiplayer has fallen by the wayside for good reasons including technical/compatibility nightmares and the death of Microsoft's CFS GameMatch service. I can solve those problems, but have something much grander in mind. The following is a brief outline of my thinking at this stage, as an initial gage of interest. The goal is to merge the rich depth of OFF's campaign and the thrill of its aerial combat into a massively(?) multiplayer online role-playing combat flight simulator (MMORPCFS?), where players can fly both singleplayer (PvE) and multiplayer (PvP) missions in the same persistent, shared online Great War: Serve in the same squadron as your friends, with a common roster of human and AI pilots and OFFbase ground crew. Submit claims from multiplayer as well as singleplayer missions and witness claims by both human and AI wingmen. Even friends without OFF would be able to join and take the role of Ground Crew! Encounter other human pilots OFFbase and fly alongside and against them in multiplayer combat missions. Or fly your own AI-only singleplayer missions to advance your career and the persistent campaign if no other human flyers are available and no multiplayer missions are scheduled for your squadron. Global campaign open to all well-behaved OFFers would begin early in the war (date TBD) and advance time across all participating player squadrons with each mission until Armistice. But anyone would be able to create and share multiplayer campaigns for private clubs, special events, etc. Start the campaign at low rank, but earn achievements and promotions as you build your persistent online career. Replacement pilots could begin at ranks you've reached in-game but no higher, while transfers between squadrons open new career possibilities. Multiple pilots in different squadrons and nations would be supported. One highest-ranking player per squadron can serve as Squadron Commander: Score multiplayer mission claims for confirmation based on player reports Reward medals and promotions as well as approve/reject those granted by OFF Manager Coordinate with other squadron COs to approve and assign transfers Generate and schedule multiplayer missions and schedule parties in the Mess Assign flight leaders and alternates Authorize players for lone wolf missions Disciplinary options for breaking formation, friendly fire, cheating, etc. Of course, it would need a Matchmaker system: Far more than just a replacement for the defunct CFS GameMatch directory Publicize and help players sign up for and join scheduled multiplayer missions Let players post future availability to help COs schedule missions Make roles available in hosted mission files for player squadrons on both sides of the lines Synchronize all players' date, time, frontlines, weather, etc. Synchronize all players' available aircraft to eliminate mismatch errors while affording individual armaments/skins, gun convergence distances, fields-of-view, etc. Require/enforce OFF Workshop and CFS3Config difficulty settings for difficulty/fairness and to prevent cheating Generate and publish web-based killboards Expanded OFFbase Mess Hall where you can hang out with your fellow human squadmates: Built-in chat client Multiplayer mini-games, both turn-based (move a chess piece) and real-time (drinking contest) Publish and share tales of your deeds from your Journal in a squadron Library And of course, full integration with WOFF after release (aka WOFFworld?). Combining the depth of that experience with the stakes and emergence of a persistent shared online campaign would be the greatest simulation of the Great War,. I've done enough research and experimentation to know this is feasible on top of my OFFice system. But to make it a reality I need help from all of you. This would be a paid effort. The final form could take the form of either a single purchase or subscription, but I would need funding to get it off the ground, so to speak. I'm thinking of charging via PayPal for 'Early Access' to the closed test campaign and a chance to shape it's features and development. So if you would truly value something like OFFworld, let me know. I'll try attaching a (non-committal) poll to this topic, and if you're reaaally serious about contributing feel free to message me privately. As I said, this is just an initial, informal, gage of interest. If it's going to be dead in the water, I'd rather know now. But if not, the fun can begin soon. Shared synchronized OFFbase squadrons, with all pilots and ground crew, are already mostly up and running over a decentralized network on top of the latest OFFice release. Anyone willing to pay to share their "singleplayer" OFF and OFFice campaign with a friend?

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!

Ah yes, sometimes if patches aren't all applied correctly it causes problems. Glad you're up and running (or is that flying?)!

Thanks for the detailed info on the error. Ah, you don't have HitR installed, correct? The CustomSkins feature was added with that expansion. Thought OFFice was backwards compatible without HitR but perhaps not entirely. I'll PM you a file that may fix it. To get back to running OFF normally, run JSGME and deactivate any OFFbase mod folders and any others you don't want with your campaign.