DukeIronHand

Thanks anyway Shiloh. After being away for two months I just did a test flight in it and, for some reason, it doesn't seem so bad now. Perhaps absence makes the heart grow fonder! I have been missng my 60 Squadron career. Part of the issue, I think, is when I switch careers from the excellent visibility of the Alb series to the mediocre visibility of the Nieuport it seems worse than perhaps it is. Still, if anyone knows the name of the cockpit .dds I would not mind taking a hacksaw to it.

In all my years of flying WW1 flight sims in seems I usually spend the bulk of my flight time, being a fan of the 1917 era, 50/50 between the Alb/DIII and the Nieuport 17....until OFF that is....now I get almost no flight time with the Nieuport. While I have no doubt the cockpit is very realistic I find the cockpit layout to be very confining with poor visibility and a large monitor, FOV settings, and TrackIR can never duplicate the "real life" ability to peek, look, duck, glance, etc. My idea was, ala Albert Ball, to remove the windscreen (if possible) from the cockpit by removing it from the .dds file that makes up the N17 cockpit. I looked for the graphic file (.dds) that makes up the N17 cockpit but I could not determine which one it was. Could some kind soul give me a steer?

I've been wondering why I have been having a hard time surviving long! The essence of simplicity!

Just a couple of little OFF "cheats" for the gang here. This may be old news but I have never seen them posted here so as I drink my morning coffee I thought I would throw them out here if anyone wants to use them. 1) In my Alb/DIII campaign I was once on a solo flight and shot down a Be/2c that crashed right on a neighboring Jasta's aerodrome. And in flames. No problem with confirmation I figure as I fly merrily home. After a day or two of campaign time I still have not received confirmation so I looked into the OFF folders and find the "Pilot#Claims.txt" in the Pilots folder. If you look in there you can see the claims and pending claims. The last two characters (numbers) in your pending claim line are two numbers that appear to vary from 10 to 100. This is, it seems, the percentage chance your claim is going to be recognized. Well, for my Be/2c claim I figure my chance of confirmation could not be better so I changed it to 100 (from the 70 it was at) and viola, claim confirmed. So if you have a shoot down that you feel has to/should be recognized you can make this little modification for your pilot. 2) Once I was landing an Alb/DIII at my aerodrome with (of course!) engine damage. This was going quite well so I may have gotten a bit cocky and tried a last minute steer to straighten out a bit and, flying very low and slow just prior to touchdown, my left wing appeared to brush the ground of the landing field. Much to my surprise, as I fly "DiD", OFF said I was dead. In my mind there was no way I should have been killed in this incident and, having invested much time in this pilot, I looked into the "Pilot#Dossier.txt" in the Pilots folder again. I forget exactly what lines I changed but it is a text file and it was clear which lines of text were making me dead so I changed them (comparing the lines with a living pilot) and, viola again, I was back alive and in service. Just a couple of tools for your Campaign toolbox. Edit: Yikes! Horrible morning grammar.

I like it!

Well I did it a lot and the Alb/DIII almost always suffered a quick hit to the fuel tank that quickly drained it shutting off the engine. Think I only had a fire once. These attacks were from the rear or rear quarter. The other three I tested, in a "as identical" situation as possible, almost never had this issue. I think maybe their was one fuel leak (that was quite slow) between the three of them. Has anyone else tried the "auto-pilot vs 3 Sop/Cam" set-up with the Alb/DIII. The issue was so apparent I find it difficult to believe its just me.

Well, good enough for UBI then I guess its good enough for me....hehe

On the subject of "Plane Packs" for someone in the know. Its not just a simple matter of dropping the a plane into the Aircraft folder: would not multiple non-aircraft game files need to be included to fully integrate them into the campaign/game engine? As I typed that I think I answered my own question. Guess they will have to be in expansion packs ala HitR that include multiple planes and associated game files. For the Devs: Is it quite complicated to include an aircraft into the campaign structure? Lots of file changes, besides the new aircraft, needed?

Toeing on the line and hoping not to be banned I will ask the question. The Devs have said in the past that "the file that shall not be mentioned" causes problems for OFF. Has anyone found that to be the case? If they have experimented with it that is!

Thanks Olham for the link but they all appear to be the CD version. Boy, this is like a search for the Holy Grail.

Thanks Olham for the thought but, unless my old eyes are playing tricks, the upper left of the box art says "PC-CD". And, oddly, Amazon UK does not ship PC games to North America.

Well reading the P4 thread got me making my quarterly Google search for the CFS3 Ubisoft DVD version so I can stop goofing with the CD discs as, everyone knows, the CFS3.exe in the DVD version does not require the disc to be in your machine. And again I apparently have come up nil for anything current stateside anyway. Anyone know of a North American vendor/store/online business that has it for sale?

I will add a "Hell yes" vote.

Welcome epower! Yes I saw the phenomena you mention above several times with the Pfalz/DIII and Fok/Dr1 and DVII - the only aircraft I tested at length besides the Alb DIII. Ironically I never saw this with the Alb/DIII because it didn't last long enough under enemy gunfire but I saw it multiple times with the first three aircraft I mention. Big flame from the engine area that lasts, as you say, for several seconds then goes out with no apparent fuel loss or loss of engine power. As I probably fly the Alb/DIII more than any other aircraft I never saw this in a campaign flight though I try to avoid getting hit! I am afraid this is may be HPW thing also as I never saw it with the Stock DM. Edit: Grammar

Hmmm...well perhaps the engine and tank are somehow tied together in a way not related to the fuel loss. Or perhaps the is a separate problem with the Alb engine? Or maybe your just unlucky Olham! Of course I share that bad luck since the bulk of my campaign flying this year had been in a Alb/D III with Jasta 11. Whatever it may be I am satisfied there is some kind of issue which is beyond my expertise to even guess at! I'll leave it to the professionals. Think I will revert to the Stock DM for now. My thanks to HPW though! I've used your DM since it came out and my MODS folder is packed with all your other stuff so please continue the great work. S!

Perhaps a dumb question but do you check the fuel gauge (F5/HUD) every time you experience engine issues in the Alb? I must say I am very curious now. Is there a gauge or key to check engine damage specifically?

Olham do you use the HPW damage mod(s)? It would appear that the Alb/D III fuel tank "issue" is a HPW DM thing. Again I did not try the other Alb models. I could not duplicate the apparent problem with the stock DM. As a salute to the stock DM I thought it was cool that when the pilot was wounded bullet holes appeared around the cockpit - this probably occurred with the HPW DM also but I was too busy timing the fuel loss.

Well actually it is the fuel tank being hit, emptied, and quickly shutting the engine down. If the engine is also being hit I am not sure how to check percentage of damage via the in-game screens. Not sure how I could do frontal attacks in a "semi-controlled" fashion to see if,in fact, it is the engine also, or just the Alb fuel tank giving apparent problems. Got to try the stock DM also. Its a rainy day here so I may get a chance. Edit: Spelling.

Well Herr Olham it would appear your long held suspicions are exactly right - at least to me. In doing my "tests" (flying straight and level on autopilot) vs 3 Sop/Cams I used the first HPW DM and the HPW Ultimate DM. I have not done stock yet because of the big (to me) news that I wished to come here and report. The Alb DIII, at least for me, very quickly suffers a fuel tank hit, followed by a quick loss of fuel (per the HUD) and associated engine shut down, almost every time. I have not tried the others in the Alb series yet. I did the Pfalz DIII, Fok/Dr.1 and Fok/DVII and they almost never suffered a fuel tank hit prior to something else destroying them from rear attacks. Did see some short lived flames(?) but no tank hit per the HUD. Does someone else wish to double check this? Edit: Double post + clarification

I have no complaints about the DM...stock or Ultimate. I also know little about how the DM works, in fact, I do not wish to know. Knowing too much about the game mechanics takes away some of the "magic" for me. For example: I like the thought that the massive fuel loss is, in fact, the tank losing pressure which, of course, happened in real life. It works well in my mind. On that thought be kind of cool if the gravity tank (used mostly on Britsh planes I believe) could be modeled. Olhams the pro here but I do not think the Alb series had gravity tanks? My interest is how OFF tries to simulate (or emulate) real life as much as possible - in this case watching how an aircraft takes, and reacts, to damage. So in my "tests" I am more curious how the two DM's feel to me and my perception of "how it really was" in the skies over France. They also double nicely as graphics settings tests and in trying to observe how OFF displays visible damage.

I will certainly let you know HPW as to the "feel" of your Ultimate DM vs the stock DM. "Feel" because, as you know, this is not a "hard science" via my testing methods. In further thought, and thinking about the structure of WW1 aircraft, I still stick with the pilot, engine, fuel tank, as the main reasons for a shoot down. In my initial tests the fuel tank was holed alot - I guess what really was surprising was how fast the tank emptied out (10 seconds or less). But I suppose we can explain this away by the tank losing pressure? Sounds good. Though all pilots who flew or fell in combat didn't record their thoughts (or reasons for their shoot down) we have enough book readers here to maybe get a pattern. For MvR, IIRC, his tank was holed once and he was wounded twice - fatally the second time. For Arthur Lee of "No Parachute" fame he was wounded once - though minor he wanted to land immediately - and I believe his tank was holed forcing a landing two or three times? For both many bullet holes in their wings and fuselage are recorded - 29+ for Lee on one flight - and he was not aware of it until he landed. LvR - I believe in his shoot down he was wounded - the other being a wing failure in his Triplane. Mannock - apparently a fuel tank fire. On the subject of MvR I have a book on his combat reports. That may shed some light, generally, on the cause of his victims demise.

I remember this debate coming up in the old RB3D days - and argued quite heatedly. Understanding the power of machines guns and the rather flimsy nature of WW1 aircraft (I remind myself of this by looking at drawings and photos of A/C without the fabric on) there is not much that stops a round on first impact except the pilot, fuel tank, and engine IMHO. I will try, as time allows, using other A/C besides the Alb series. With assorted DM's - also with the stock effects.xml not Creaghorns reduced effects.xml (which I normally use) to look for visual damage clues. That is possibly why the visual component is lacking in my set-up? HPW - you must have done much experimentation - what did you find?

Well, I did some testing. Hardly scientific but interesting to me. Using an Alb/D III I fly straight and level at 75mph vs. 3 Sop/Camels with veteran pilots. Most of their attacks came from the rear or rear quarters. I was amazed at how often the fuel tank was holed with the fuel quickly draining out (checked with the HUD screen)and stopping the engine. Out of 8 tries the tank was holed in most - I started checking (remembering!)on my third shoot down. That was with the first HPW DM as I forgot to activate the HPW Ultimate. Next gonna try the HPW Ultimate DM and then the stock

Ahh! When I was a single man a decision took about 2 seconds to make and implement. When you involve women that same decision could take months - and be much more complicated.

And another kudo from me - now off to the download page.