OFFice: The incomparable campaign engine for Over Flanders Fields

[+Lothar of the Hill People 6]

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OFFice: The incomparable campaign engine for Over Flanders Fields

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OFFice: the incomparable campaign engine for Over Flanders Fields creates a dynamic campaign unlike any other combat flight simulator. Far more than just a collection of mods, OFFice deepens the historical accuracy, sensory immersion, and emotional terror of flight and combat in The Great War, while rooting the campaign in the day-to-day life of the officers and crew of an aerial squadron.

 

Note 1: For more information, latest news, additional screenshots, etc., visit the Official Website.

Note 2: If you're interested in joining and supporting OFFworld, the multiplayer version in development, send me a PM.

 

 

Major goals of enhancing and expanding OFF:HitR:

 

Persistence: Squadron-based campaigns continue when your pilot is captured/killed, so you can carry on the war as another pilot with the same mates. Living pilots can transfer between squadrons and continue their careers past the bounds of OFF aircraft availability. Start by flying two-seaters and transfer to a fighter squadron on promotion. Even take turns flying multiple pilots in a squadron, handy when one is out for injury. Track outcomes for your squadmates so their deeds in the air matter. Unleash the true power of OFF’s exemplary campaign engine!

 

Immersion: Steeped in historical detail, OFFice campaigns offer dynamic difficulty and realism over the course of the war with more appropriate squadron roles and access to technological developments as well as more dynamic and engaging missions. But persistence is only immersive if pilots are not disposable. The secret: “flying to live rather than flying to kill”. OFFice realizes this vision to a degree unparalleled in a combat flight simulator with:

• OFFbase: the barmy automated squadron experience for OFF, an immersive role-playing simulation of life between flights! Turn your squad’s roster into a bunch of learning, thinking, interacting artificial intelligences, toss in a bunch of ground crew (and observers for two-seater campaigns), and drop yourself in among them with your pilot’s own unique personality. Emergent sandbox gameplay with unique, adaptive, goal-seeking characters harnesses fun to a purpose--the deeper investment in your pilot’s personal journey makes every trip up feel a matter of life and death, for your fellow flyers as well. Manage not just your career but help steer your squadron through years of war and loss. Lead through social encounters as well as your deeds in the air. Build deep, long-lasting friendships and social circles, while struggling bitterly with enemies--all affected by events in the skies. And vice versa; you’ll find it truly changes how, and why, you fly.
  

• See the included OFFbase.readme.rtf for an expansive list of features and usage notes.
  

Ease: Take the headache out of configuring and customizing OFF. Finding, installing, and using mods correctly can be daunting, let alone setting up Workshopsp and CFS3Config. But OFFice is a coherent and customizable package that just works--in fact it makes OFF itself easier and safer to configure by imbuing the wisdom of the OFF community’s technical experts. Realizing settings for immersive simulation flying is a snap. There’s no better means for beginners and experts alike to get the most out of OFF, and no easier way to start.

• See more on the OFFramp, OFFset, OFFput, and OFFfov components of the OFFice suite geared toward ease further below. First, more of the fun stuff...
  

OFFice features can be most easily organized around some of the personalities you’ll encounter regularly OFFbase:

 

Squadron Adjutant

• Transfers between squadrons--voluntary and otherwise--so your persistent campaign doesn’t end until the war does. Begin your career flying bombers and transfer to a fighter squad when ready.
  
• Smarter and more historically-accurate mission planning for your squad’s role in the war and in the face of inclement weather, with Dawn Patrol missions and optional historical Lone Wolf missions
  
• More rational rank-based assignment of flight members and wingmen, and assignment of observer/gunners to pilots of two-seaters. Your German observer’s likely to outrank you, so remember who’s in charge!
  
• Track flight members’ in-air outcomes--report them as crashed or missing, and even witness their claims!
  
• More post-mission options and consequences, including the ability to submit claims for non-target and Lone Wolf mission balloons--become a balloon-busting ace early in the war, if you have the guts and skill
  
• Write optional post-mission reports even without claims; edit these and any other writings in a squadron Journal synced to the Flight Log
  
• Choose your pilot’s photo--your squadmates will become familiar faces as you interact with them on the ground, many even look their traits
  
• Dynamic historical medal system with more than twice as many awards
  
• American, British, and German campaigns get expanded historical news and more diverse names for squadmates based on historical popularity
  
• Expanded enlisted ranks for crew in American and British squadrons
  
• Escadrille La Fayette gets American pilots alongside French crew
  
• Towns named in missions, e.g. “Verdun” instead of “british town 153”
  

Munitions Officer

• Recommends loadouts for the specific mission you’ve been assigned
  
• Advanced ammo including smoke and tracers when historically available, as well as incendiary rounds for targeting more resistant balloons
  
• Sneak incendiary rounds into a ‘dirty’ mix for deadlier firepower--if you can get away with it--but who would brazen and inhuman as to use it full bore against planes or ground targets?
  
• Historically-accurate ammo capacities and machine-gun rates-of-fire
  
• Set your own gun convergence distance to perfect your aim
  
• Custom skins can optionally be earned as historically appropriate--easiest for German flyers (linked to ammo capacities)
  
• Mask and upgraded goggles to keep your face from chapping!
  
• Choice among more detailed, higher quality in-game maps to navigate
  
• Refined, less obtrusive TAC and labels for those who use such aids
  
• Improved flight and damage models with some historically-timed engine upgrades, and with AI planes carrying the weight of fuel and ammo
  
• Damaged/destroyed aircraft can result in Leave while awaiting repairs
  
• More realistic and historically appropriate anti-aircraft fire, with difficulty adjusting dynamically for each side over time
  
• Better arcs-of-fire for rear guns on two-seaters
  
• Complete audio overhaul for more immersive sounds: engines, explosions, bullet hits bomb drops, pilot screams, ground gunnery, flak, machine gun sounds synchronized with historical rates-of-fire, and more!
  

Medical Officer

• Detailed injury system with a diverse set of healable wounds and permanent and potentially disabling maimings
  
• Injuries, maimings, and death depend on the reported severity, location and timing of the crash, health and skill of the pilot, access to medical care, relationship with and skill of the Medic, and luck
  
• Visit the Medic and injured squadmates at your local Infirmary--and influence respectively their bedside manner and recovery
  
• The persistent squadron means you can even encounter and try to cheer up the AI of your own injured pilots to hasten their healing!
  
• Access to medical care varies, but becomes more effective over the course of the war
  
• Across the lines you’re at the mercy of enemy medics and facilities!
  

Mess Chief

• The food may not be much to speak of, but the Mess Hall helps monitor and manage your squad’s morale
  
• Quality and availability of food change over the course of the war, with better Mess Chiefs able to do more with less
  
• Witness encounters between squadmates in addition to taking part
  
• Musically-trained officers and crew form a squadron band in the Mess that influences the mood of those in attendance
  
• Additional music options for OFF Manager, including period-appropriate piano scores for French and German campaigns
  

Chaplain

• Funerals for your dead pilots, convalescent home for the disabled, care packages for captured pilots, and prayers for those who need them
  
• Squadron memorial lists your ended pilots and archives their journals so you can trace the whole story of your squadron in the Great War
  
• The influence of your dead/captured pilots can linger as their careers become part of the squad’s institutional memory, shaping its future
  
• Interactions and social networks are dynamic, so events on the air and ground spill over to affect peoples’ behavior
  
• So don’t underestimate the role of the Chaplain in providing stability to your squadron--assuming he’s stable himself!
  

Everyone

• Other pilots and squadmates pursue their own goals, building their own careers and social networks
  
• Engage in and witness nearly 150 different kinds of encounters, some more personalized, and more rare, than others
  
• Build friendships whose impact lingers even after death, and make enemies that transcend sides in the war
  
• Build friendships whose impact lingers even after death, and make enemies that transcend sides in the war
  
• Develop your character to expand their skills and capabilities as they gain ranks: advance your career, pursue a hobby, or change your approach to relationships
  
• With 88 distinct personality Traits in billions of combinations, summarized by eight dimensions of Attributes, every character is unique
  
• Tell your own personal story of life as a pilot in a historic squadron in The Great War
  

Much of this highly configurable and/or optional, configurable with:

 

OFFramp: rule all mods & plugins for OFF - More than just a mod manager, this dynamic scripting engine makes OFFice possible. Beneath the graphical interface where you customize your campaign and control OFFice features, ModRule plugins imbue the OFF Workshops and previously-standalone OFF mods with the intelligence, historical knowledge, and cooperative spirit of the OFF community. At the same time, powerful new ModRule plugins can tailor almost every aspect of the OFF campaign experience to heighten realism, immersion, and joy. Play OFF your way!

 

OFFfov: the OFF field-of-view optical vanguard – This ModRule plugin helps set aspect-ratio-correct FOV settings by projecting a 3D model of your screen into the gameworld. Fly OFF close to a big screen as a true visual simulation, preserving perspective so objects are as close as they appear--or just make it look right for gaming. Your optimized FOV is applied to all OFFbase campaign aircraft seamlessly and automatically in all positions, including forward gunsights and rear gunner, as well as correctly integrating modded aircraft.

 

OFFset: the OFF settings manager - Backup and Restore all your painfully-crafted OFF settings (Workshops and CFS3 Config), in full or in part. Handy if you need to reinstall the game or update graphics drivers, but also use settings profiles to switch between different play styles, or pre-configure hardware with settings recommendations from the experts. An OFFramp ModRule archives your settings on first run, so you can safely experiment. See the included OFFset.readme.rtf.

 

OFFput: the OFF Pilot UnderTaker – Cares for your dead and broken pilot files by rebuilding corrupted XML files (frequently caused by retiring multiple pilots in OFF Manager). It automatically protects against some common problems and gives you a panic button that works when OFF Manager goes haywire and tells you to delete your pilots! Won’t back up your pilots for you, but makes restoration a snap.

 

Realism profiles manage degrees of Dead Is Dead (DID) and Realistic Survival Strategies (RSS) community standards in OFF Workshops and CFS3Config, for a well-designed experience at any difficulty level.

 

 

Requirements:

 

OFFice is of no use and will not install without Over Flanders Fields: Hat in the Ring (OFF), OBD Software's breathtakingly deep WW1 combat flight simulator. The official Hat in the Ring expansion pack is recommended: Make sure you patch both to the latest version:

http://overflandersfields.com

 

NaturalPoint’s TrackIR is essential for included realism profiles and simulation field-of-view settings:

http://www.naturalpoint.com/trackir/

 

OFFice uses Microsoft WordPad (included with Windows) to view documentation.

 

The full OFFice suite requires 3GB free hard drive space on your OFF partition. OFFice installs itself alongside OFF.

 

 

Credits:

 

Producer - Lothar of the Hill People

Exec. Producer - OlPaint01

Research - Bletchley, British_eh, Hasse Wind, RAF_Louvert

AA, Balloons - Bletchley, Herr Prop-Wasche, Lothar of the Hill People

Ammunition - Bletchley, Creaghorn, Lothar of the Hill People

Damage Modeling - Herr Prop-Wasche, Buddy1998

Dead is Dead Rules - Siggi

Documentation - Lothar of the Hill People

Encounters - Lothar of the Hill People, Bletchley, JamesL

Game Design - Bletchley, Lothar of the Hill People, Creaghorn

Maps - Lothar of the Hill People

Medal System - RAF_Louvert, Lothar of the Hill People

Mask, TAC & Labels - Olham

Missions - Bletchley, Buddy1998, Lothar of the Hill People

Music Production - Andy73, Lothar of the Hill People

News & Photos - Creaghorn, Herr Prop-Wasche

Rear Arc of Fire - 33Lima

RSS Rules - British_eh

Skins - Bullethead, nbryant, Olham, RAF_Louvert, Robert_Wiggins, UK_Widowmaker

Software Engineer - Lothar of the Hill People

Sound Design - Andy73

Weather & Skies - Herr Prop-Wasche

Weapons & Loadouts - Bletchley, OlPaint01

 

Additional Testing - CaptSopwith, Cavaliere57, cptroyce, FreiherrWulff,

JamesL, Robert_Wiggins

 

 

Third-Party Sources and Included Tools:

 

Audio Compression - FLAC: Free Lossless Audio Codec

http://flac.sourceforge.net

 

Bloom/HDR Shaders - ENBSeries

http://enbdev.com

 

Icons - Simon Child, The Noun Project

http://thenounprojec...om/Simon

Child/

 

Installers - Nullsoft Scriptable Install System

http://nsis.sourceforge.net

 

Maps and Topography – Google

 

Mod Management - JoneSoft Generic Mod Enabler 2.6.0

 

Music Sources - Piano Society http://pianosociety.com

- fair use clips (see included documentation)

 

Runtime Environment – REBOL 3 Alpha

http://www.rebol.com/rebol3/

 

 

License:

 

This software is free to use and benevolently modify via the ModRules interface, but not free to redistribute or otherwise misappropriate. Simple rule: don't be a jerk. Seriously. By agreeing to use this software, if you're a jerk about it you forfeit all your personal property to the program authors. So just don't be a jerk.

 

Finally: while much of OFFice is geared toward making your OFF experience easier, safer, and more reliable, your mileage may vary. OFFice is provided 'as-is', without any express or implied warranty. In no event will the authors be held liable for any damages arising from the use of this software.

 

 

The Fine Print:

 

OFFice will edit your pilots and OFF Workshop and CFS3Config settings! That's the entire point. You should BACKUP your pilots frequently anyway:

• campaigns\CampaignData\Pilots\ in your OFF install
  

The OFFset plugin in OFFramp will archive your OFF Workshop and CFS3Config settings on first run, and can easily backup and restore them whenever. See OFFset.readme.txt.

 

The OFFput plugin in OFFramp can rebuild your XML files should they become corrupted or lost. With OFFice, there’s no longer any need to backup or worry about the UIsel.xml or UnlimitedPilots.xml files in your Windows user profile, and restoring pilots from backup is a snap.

 

Persistent squadrons mean you will no longer be able to jump between the same squad during different periods of the war. OFFbase will synchronize multiple squadron pilots automatically--those at an earlier date put on leave until caught up with the most recent pilot in that squadron. So don’t be surprised!

 

OFFbase handles the outcome of missions itself--a key ingredient to tracking your squadmates’ outcomes too. It sets ‘Dead Is Dead’ in the OFF Workshops merely so all crashes that destroy your aircraft are treated the same and do not advance time. So don’t despair at the message from OFF that your pilot is dead--this just tells OFFbase your plane is done--your pilot may yet live. Rate the severity of the crash and trust the mercy of the simulated combat medics. You may be Injured, Hospitalized, Disabled, or Deceased, but in all cases you can continue your squadron’s campaign with a replacement pilot.

 

JSGME requires Administrator privileges to modify your OFF install, and so OFFice will ask for elevation to install and run. OFFice can launch OFF Manager and CFS3Config as Admin, but you'll need to set CFS3.exe (and TrackIR if you use it) to run as Administrator manually (right click, Properties).

 

OFFice uses JSGME to customize your OFF installation to create a more unique and historically accurate experience for each individual campaign. When it runs, do not interfere, and please wait patiently--it will take several minutes sometimes, especially on first run. Don’t worry if it says “Not Responding”, it’s just working really hard to customize the game.

 

READ THE INCLUDED DOCUMENTATION – ESPECTIALLY THE FAQ IN THE OFFBASE MANUAL

 

See also the OFFice/OFFbase Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).

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• Submitter
  Lothar of the Hill People
• Submitted
  01/19/2013
• Category
  OFFice / OFFbase / OFFworld

 

[kentcol 1]

Installed this version today and tried to run it. It just sits at the loading and configuring screen and never goes any further.

[+Lothar of the Hill People 6]

Have you updated your OFF / HitR install with the latest patches?

 

Any error messages in the REBOL console?

[kentcol 1]

Yes, all updated. Not sure what you mean by REBOL.

[kentcol 1]

Okay, I see the REBOL now. The last entry is:

 

C:\OBDSoftware\OFFice\temp\OFFgetreg.vbs(28, 1) WshShe11.RegRead: Invalid root in registry key "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windoes\CurrentVersion\App Paths\WORDPAD.EXE\".

[+Lothar of the Hill People 6]

Looks like it can't find Wordpad, which it uses to view the included RTF docutmentation. Which is weird, as pretty much every Windows comes with Wordpad. Do you have it on your system?

 

Aha! Just noticed the "Windoes" rather than "Windows" in the path. Weird, as it should check the following key:

"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\WORDPAD.EXE\"

 

Or is that just a typo from typing rather than copying&pasting the error message?

 

You could open regedit and manually see if the key exists.

[kentcol 1]

Yes, I was typing it by hand. My mistake, it is Windows. Under the Apps Path I don't see WORDPAD.EXE. Did this change? I had an earlier version of your program on and it worked.

Edited January 19, 2013 by kentcol

[+Lothar of the Hill People 6]

What version of Windows (or Windoes ) are you using? Did you use anything like nlite to strip out stuff from your installation?

 

Can you run Wordpad from the search box? If it's Vista or Win7, try just clicking the start button, typing Wordpad and hitting enter.

[kentcol 1]

Win 7. Yes I did that and Wordpad starts fine. Don't know why it's not in the registry.

[+Lothar of the Hill People 6]

It's only recent versions that include all the documentation and use Wordpad, so that would explain why OFFbase used to work for you.

 

The location of the WordPad.exe itself moves from version to version of Windows, which is why MS set up the App Paths in the registry so developers can find this and other included utilities. Very odd it's not there. Have you run any "registry cleaner" programs? I know lots of people including OBD recommend these from time to time, but I've never seen them cause anything but trouble.

 

Just to verify: Instead of using the search box, try the Run dialog. Click the Start button, then "Run..." Then type in Wordpad and hit enter. Without the App Path set, this should fail, unlike the search box which still found it.

 

Also, does the following key exist? It's a legacy of pre-Win 95 but should also point to WordPad.exe for backwards compatibility:

 

"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\WRITE.EXE\"

[kentcol 1]

It's only recent versions that include all the documentation and use Wordpad, so that would explain why OFFbase used to work for you.

 

The location of the WordPad.exe itself moves from version to version of Windows, which is why MS set up the App Paths in the registry so developers can find this and other included utilities. Very odd it's not there. Have you run any "registry cleaner" programs? I know lots of people including OBD recommend these from time to time, but I've never seen them cause anything but trouble.

 

Just to verify: Instead of using the search box, try the Run dialog. Click the Start button, then "Run..." Then type in Wordpad and hit enter. Without the App Path set, this should fail, unlike the search box which still found it.

 

Also, does the following key exist? It's a legacy of pre-Win 95 but should also point to WordPad.exe for backwards compatibility:

 

"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\WRITE.EXE\"

 

No, run WordPad does not start.

That entry is not in my registry.

Any safe way tp put that entry in my registry?

[+Lothar of the Hill People 6]

my registry?

 

Unzip and run the attached .reg file. Sets the App Path for Wordpad to "%ProgramFiles%\Windows NT\Accessories\WORDPAD.EXE" which should work on Vista and Win7.

WordPad.zip

[kentcol 1]

Awesome, Lothar! It works! You the man! Thank you!!

[+Lothar of the Hill People 6]

If you receive VBScript errors trying to start OFFice, see this post from Davy TASB.

[+Lothar of the Hill People 6]

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).