markl

My main intersts now are PC gaming, Oceanic Art Works Easy bushwalking (Tramping) I used to do a lot of caving and canyoning, but finding the hard stuf too hard these days. I used to love black & white photography and dark room work, but after I moved house and the chemicals and paper became scarce I gave it up. But I would love to take it up again. I used to be quiet good at cave photography. there are quiet a few other things I would like to take up, but lack of funds keeps those away. Cheers MarkL

Good point Wikipedia always seems to pop up as one of the first links in a lot of searches. The devs could just copy a lot of stuff from their own site in the short term as a quick fix / win. Regards Markl

It would be nice to try this one again. Hopefully Panama Red can upload that file so we can get it. Does anyone know if Full Canvas Jacket is still available. I never tried that mod, or is it any better than the free one made by OVS? Cheers MarkL

If you are looking in Sydney Dick Smith has plenty, in Miranda anyway (Ubi DVD Copies). I also saw a few in JB HiFi about a month ago. $19.95 in both cases. Dick Smith seems to be stocking a lot of the "Value" titles. Also your local EB Games should be able to get them in, but do not very often see them in there. Dick Smith should also be able to transfer them if required. Cheers MarkL

I like the older Combat Mission serios. CMBO best of all three, the easiest. Have been playing Fallout 3 a bit. I have Oblivion but never installed it yet. Same with Morrow wind. Got them on special. Also have SHII. III & IV. FS2004 and FSX get a bit of a run as well. Next I am looking for a nice space game. I woulk like a good tank game but the better ones assume you already know how to use the gun sights, and since I do not they are a bit hard to start with. Recently a few game shops near me sold off the magority of their PC games and are now maily just sell console stuff. I made an offer a walked out with a whole box of war games, some quiet old. I now have more games then I will live to play. Chers MarkL

So we do not loose track of all the work here how about making this a sticky somewhere? That way it can be addd to over time without searching for it. How about a general links sticky post for all reources for OFF. Cheers MarkL

I agree and there is a simple way. go down the way Matrix games have gone. the serials from pirated versions get blacklisted from future patches. Since they always release half finished games they all need patches to work. This method seems to work so they say. Also a quick look at many forums recently and many people will no longer purchase games with restrictive DRM. Most people seem to agree that people who pirate wopuls not buy them anyway. Some may have but the vast magority would not purchase. Look at spore, the DRM that came withthat cost them a lot of sales, including mine after my daughter asked for it, for her birthday. I do not agree with piracy, but also will never purchase a game withat either needs activation or online authentication. And I know that means no more new PC games for me soom, appart from the titles from GoG.com that all come DRM free. Cheers MarkL

I have one of the original models, not the latest. It has a bit of a problem with the shaft sticking. Needs some lite silicone lubrication so I have to keep it in a bag to keep the dust off the shaft. If you ever get that problem the lubrication has to be very thin. I virtually polish the lubrication off the shaft and that works. Good with bombers but hard to fly fighters with it. But I really like the CH pedals. I also have the CH Joystick, their top model and I hate the thing, but love my Saitek X52. One thing CH gear is very well made. If you ever see the pots they are very large. Cheers MarkL

One of my most treasured books is "Flying The Old Planes" by Frank Tallman. Published in 1973 Frank describes flying original WWI aircraft in marvellous detail. Given that not everyone would have read this book I thought I would reproduce sections that relate to our era of interest. This is the first of several posts. Frank, who along with Paul Mantz fomed Tallmantz Aviation, was famous as a stunt pilot for Hollywood and a collector of rare and vintage aircraft. Paul was killed in 1965 on the film set for 'Flight of the Phoenix'. Frank died in 1978 while delivering a Piper Aztec. In bad weather, with a lowering ceiling and rain, he struck the side of Santiago Peak in the Santa Ana Mountains near Trabuco Canyon. RIP. Certainly the loveliest racehorse lines of all the WWI aircraft belonged to the Nieuport 28, and like the beautiful thoroughbred it resembles, it also had real speed and agility. Gustave Delage was the chief designer of the extensive series of Nieuport aircraft. Yet in spite of the efficient designs, many models had intrinsic weaknesses. The N.28 is no exception. The sewn cover seams on the wing lay so spanwise, approximately ten inches back on the upper surface of the wing. Even in those relatively early years of aviation the area's of life on a wing were known, and this major error in manufacturing, tied to an airplane quite capable of exceeding two hundred miles per hour in a dive, culminated in many an accident. Consequently the '28' series, good in so many other respects, was never as popular as the sturdy SPAD's. The '28' was constructed with a real mix of materials; wood spars with built-up wood ribs, plywood leading edge, turn buckles by the barrowload, streamline tubing for the landing gear, 'I' beam steel tubing in the centresection, paired with light aluminum and wooden outer wing struts and a pressed-cardboard cover (tulip wood strips) from the engine cowling to the rear of the cockpit area. After a general inspection we face the aircraft into the wind and chock it. The single lever controlling fuel air mixture is retarded while the gas is on and the propeller pulled through. The dual ignition switch is off, and the coupe (cut-out) button on the top of the stick is depressed for added safety. There is fair compression necessitating a strong mechanic to pull through the prop. The 160h.p. Gnome starts without priming and with a real bark. With the appearance of spattered castor oil on the leading edge of the wing we know we re oiling and ready for takeoff. With the chocks pulled and the Gnome winding up it's like a Clydesdale pulling, so strong is the old engines power. I know of no other aircraft except the Boeing F4B that has such complete and instant response. The tail is up in 15 feet of forward roll, and the rudder is needed to overcome torque, though the actual torque is nothing like the hair-raising fables of WWI-type pulp magazines. With its short wingspan, it bounces off the surface in about 220 feet. Wow! The climb is spectacular, and a steep-climbing turn gives not the tiniest evidence of payoff. In flight, the most noticeable fact of the N.28 is that the big Gnome gives off heat like a cast-iron stove in a New England country winter. Great of you were flying over cold Europe, but hot as hell over sunny Cal. Climb is in the order of 1,200 feet a minute, and stalls are straightforward unless one uses full back elevator. Given the dubious seamstress work on the top wing, and in recognition of the aircraft's advanced age, most of my aerobatics are done with 'G' loads in the order of 2 to 3, and with some timidity on my part. The N.28 loops beautifully, and with the exception of offset rudder at the top (to counteract torque), it might as well be on rails. I start the loop in a gentle dive of 120 mph, and there is an immense sense of thrust from the big Gnome as it pulls you up and over. Slow rolls are smooth, and you don't need forward stick to hold the nose up, just unshakable faith, for the engine quits and doesn't come back again for about 15 seconds. With that short wingspan the N.28 excels in quick changes of direction, and that big positive rudder really swings the nose around in turns. No other aerobatics were tried, but the plane picks up speed like a pig on a greased slope, and you can comfortably get 200 mph without too much of a dive. Like almost all WWI planes a nose high forward slip with this plane can kill off speed and yet give you some idea of clearance in your landing area. In the N.28 this is even more necessary, because with the Vickers guns in the staggered position your vision on the port side in a standard field pattern is quite limited. With it's short wings the N.28 pays off fast, and you had better be close to the ground in nay three-point attitude. But thanks to the graceful and generous rudder, you don't have to make the rudder correction on landing that you do with the SPAD and the Fokker D.VII. The apparent touchdown speed is between 48 and 50 mph. The skid takes hold quickly, and drags to a stop in about 300 feet. =================================================================== STATS: From "French Aircraft Of World War One", by Dr. James J. Davilla and Arthur M. Soltan. Empty Weight: 456kg (1,005 lb) Loaded Weight: 698kg (1,539 lb) Max Speed: 198 km/h (123mph) @ 2,000m (6,560 feet) Climb: 5.5 minutes to 2,000m (6,560 feet) Ceiling: 5,180m (16,998 feet) Endurance: 1 hour 30 minutes Armament: two .303 Vickers mg's No's Built: 310, of which 297 were delivered to the American Air Service. Pips -------------------- "Somewhere out there is page 6!" "But Emillo you promised ....... it's postpone" ASWWIAH Member Thanks for the post. Looking forward to some of the others. Good historical information is hard to come by. Cheers Markl

Could you do what Matrix games have done, issue everyone who buys an addon pack a serial. If that serial ever gets posted on the web it get blacklisted for future patches. If you just supply a once off code, could that too be just posted on the web, or is it tied to a PC like activation. Could you please give a little more info on how this would work. One has to remember that added DRM is a two edged sword. It saves some piracy but can also cost some customers. One reson why I will never purchase RoF is it's DRM. Anyway please do not take this as negative, as I hope to be supporting OFF for years to come. Cheers MarkL

Thanks for posting those links. very interesting photos. Cheers MarkL

Well if this is the case -------------------------------------------------------- On the Bad Side Definately have to log in to play. No exceptions. ------------------------------------------------------- It sure makes it easier to wait for P4. I would say it will cost them a lot of sales. Anyway P3 is just great aand I really do noy have the time for another sim. Cheers MarkL.

Great to see a thread about these old games. I have just made an account at GOG.com Good old games. You have to pay for these but they are Copy Protection Free and some good old classics now work on XP & VISTA. Only problem is that mods do not work on some of them now. They have a couple for free games when you make an account. I hope to get some of the old space titles. Cheers MarkL

The first thing I would like is a better campaign map, then an over haul with more options for quick battles. I must admit quick battles are what I like most, but I do dream of the campaign but I do not live long enough for it to be worth while. With regard to the possible new engine. I have no idea about licensing etc, but now with the Ubisoft CFS3 edition we do not need the CD in to play. Please always keep it this way no matter what. With regard to the flak question below. I like it the way it is now, any harder and us novices may never get off the ground.; --------------------------------------------- 2) I REALLY hope the ambience can be returned for the AA artillery/archie/ack-ack. While it certainly was too accurate before, resulting in poor game balance, it is basically emasculated now to the point where the bursts are going off literally miles away from their target. ---------------------------------------------- One thing I would pay for as well as new aircraft packs is code optimisation so the never ending PC upgrades can be minimised. Often improvments behind the scenes that we can not see are just as important as new bits. Cheers MarkL.

Thrustmaster still make a few FF Sticks. I picked up two in Sydney in a closing down sale recently. They seem ok, but sure how much I will use them. They still have one with a seperate throttle. In Australia they are about $200.00 new but would be a lot cheaper in the USA. Cheers MarkL

Hi, I have just updated my graphics card to a Nvidia GTX 280. Now when I go to campaign mode everything is a sort of white haze. The aircraft have a bit of colour. I think it is mainly the sky blocking every thing else out but not sure. Looks like an old DOS game sky. This problem does not show up in single missions or quick battle, which is odd. As far as I can tell all my drivers are up to date. I am using XP SP3, dual core intell 8500 PC. Does anyone have any ideas? Cheers MarkL

You need the Ubisoft one. In Australia at least it has an orange cover with "What's Hot" accross the top and Combat Flight Simulator 3 under that. It is distributed by EB Games. So hopefuly where ever you are there is an EB Games store. The UbiSoft DVD's are also multi language and are published in the value range. (not full priced software) So different countries may have a different box / distibutor. Definately worth the effort to find as there is zero protection on the DVD so you can copy off the files for a backup anywhere. It comes patched to 3.1, so you still need the 3.1a patch. Cheers MarkL

Great Gaming room, and the minatures and board look fantastic. Cheers Markl

Has the team considered making a package of the textures and trees for FS2004 & FSX? I do not know if this is even possible, but I tried so many tree sets for Flight Simulator now and the OFF trees are the best I have seen, and the ground textures very good as well. I know there are quiet a few texture sets available for purchase these days, but I must admit I like the OFF textures a lot. Maybe a way of making a few extra dollars on the side as well. Anyway I would be up for a set if they were compatable in some way. I have found myself just flying this instead of flight Simulator a bit these last few nights, and if I can use the map when I print it out, OFF may take over some of the Flight Simulator time as well. Just a thought. Cheers MarkL

Gee the only number regarding kills for me is the number of times I get shot down. Great the way it is. Cheers MarkL

Thanks for putting the maps up, downloading now. Took me awhile to make the transition to the new forum and just noticed the maps. I used to visit this site a lot awhile ago. Looks like I will be a regulat again. Will have to print them soon. Cheers Markl

Hi, I am currently using the "Ultimate Universe Mod". I have not been to the forums for awhile now and notice that there are a lot of other good looking mods available now. Can I have more than one mod installed at the same time and switch between them, or do I need multiple installations of the game? Could someone please explain the way to have and try more than one mod at a time. any help will be appreciated. Cheers MarkL

Thanks for the reply It sounds simple enough. I guess that if they ever release any patch that reads the registry I will need to swap the paths around for the patches to work, possibly. Anyway I will be trying a few of these other bigger mods now. Cheers MarkL

Hi, I have a question about the extraction utility. I have just edited the soundlist for the "Morane Saulnier N Bullet" The sounds seem to work ok now, but how do I get the modified file back in the .cat file? Or once we copy it out and modify it does the game only use the extracted file and not the original file still in the .cat? Cheers MarkL

Thanks for the reply. I thought that may have been the case but was not sure. Cheers MarkL