Nordo

Hello all! I'm and old Phase I and Phase II and recently started getting back into Phase III. After giving it some time, I decided to take this to the forums as I'm not entirely sure if this is some sort of bug. It feels as though every patrol is predictable. Despite different mission objectives and locations/altitude, I seem to be encountering the same situation every time. After warping to the objective (yes I know, but my free time is generally quite limited), I encounter an enemy patrol of fighters roughly 3/4's of the way to the objective waypoint. The enemy aircraft number and type is always different and variable, however; after taking off, I can always expect to encounter an enemy flight. Back in Phase II and earlier, every flight was different. Sometimes I'd warp to a target zone and get intercepted on the way, others I would find enemy aircraft, or more realistically - I would find nothing. I greatly enjoyed those patrols where I would arrive at the objective and see no enemy aircraft, and would really have to keep a sharp eye for a flight in the distance. The sparse amount of enemy contact made a dogfight all the more exciting (as I was desperate for a fight!) - - the way things should be. I am currently playing OFF BHAH, with HITR 1.47 in maximum difficulty (minus warping): -light regional activity, -OFF controlled aircraft spawns, -no in-game messages or radar, -gun set to weakest etc... Since the only way to warp home and complete the mission with the whole flight is to destroy all enemy fighters, I am finding that with full difficulty I am easily claiming 3 enemy planes per flight (naturally, none confirmed yet for this lowly sergeant with 10 hours flight time). Back in phase II, I used to pull home 1 or 2 claims for ever 2-4 flights, which seems like a more realistic rate. I realize I may sound as if I am complaining, but I honestly don't mean to do so nor to go sim-bashing; I believe that thanks to alot of hard work, OFF has evolved into one of the most definitive ww1 sims to date! (all the more outstanding is the fact it is a mod for a shotty microshaft simulator ). Again, my reason for posting is to ascertain whether others are experiencing the same thing. I have reinstalled the simulator to eliminate a corrupt install, and I was wondering if I have been experiencing coincidences or if this period of the war is designed to be this predictable (Allied - Feb/March 1917). Fair winds!

Thank-you all for the very quick and informative replies! I am beginning to understand what is occurring now. I had never thought to set the campaign on normal regional activity, and I imagine that such a setting will have more effective results. Thanks for that info! I understand how warping significantly changes the dynamics of the sim. I was also beginning to think that the 'enemy detection -> warp drop out' range was increased as well. It also just occurred to me that I am flying as a wingman; if I were to lead a flight, the wingies would be less likely to engage in a fight and I would not be pulled into a fight situation so often. I suppose I am not gaining the full experience with warping; playing DiD and full difficulty is good, but I can see now that not warping would make things much better. Now if I could only warp through work and dropout at home in front of my computer running OFF... Hopefully I'll finally get a promotion (and at least one of my dozen or so claims confirmed) which will change the dynamics as well. Going to try some early war lonewolfing patrols to see how different the dynamics are too. Again, thank-you all very much for all this info - I am greatly appreciative as it will no doubt change the gameplay substantially! Happy hunting all!

Hey all! First of all, I apologize if this has been discussed in the past (failed to find anything using the forum search) or if this is an inapporpriate place for this question. I was wondering if it is possible to bring back the CFS3 quickcombat mission set-up ability that was native in the CFS3 shell. On the side of playing the awesome campaign in OFF3, I miss the ability for quickly creating the random skirmish over any area I please as was seen in OFF phases 1 and 2 (and CFS3). Is such a thing possible again with all the changes that have been made with OFF3? Thank you for your time and consideration, it is greatly appreciated. Cheers! -Nordo

Hey all, I had some time today so i thought i'd give the whole 'shabooiee' a reinstall. Sure enough, now when i click the CFS QC from the workshop page, I get exactly what I was looking for. I must have messed something up when i was playing with the missions I suppose. I apologize for wasting everyone's time. :P My Phase III just arrived a few days ago, been playing Phase II up till now (which explains all my questions as of late). I am absolutely loving BHaH! I was deciding between this and Rise of Flight, and i'm bloody glad I'm staring at the box for OFF right now! :D [PS: I take it night ops have been removed from this version? I have yet to encounter a night mission..]

Thank you for the instructions all, but it seems that when the game loads up the CFS3 shell, the only mission it has available is the quick mission perameters that the offmanager creates (ie. the nation/plane/location that's preset from the offmanager's "quick combat" screen). Also, in the CFS3 shell, there are 3 tabs in the mission directory: quick combat, mission, and campaign. When entering the cfs3 shell alone, there's only the predefined mission in the "mission" tab and the other two are empty. I'm hoping to use the original quick combat tab where one could select any aircraft regardless of nation, altitude, weather, and location just like in the older versions. Maybe i have to put in some kind of quick combat template mission file for the cfs3.exe shell to detect and have available for that quick combat tab... any ideas? Thanks for everyones help..

Is there any possibility that the dev's could create an option where one could remove the own plane map icon? I too would very much like that option, it adds wonders to immersion. Not to mention the fact that it keeps one busy when enroute to their stations...trying to pinpoint where they are.