Over Flander's Fields

[imported_Uwe]

Released yesterday. I realize most here are more into FPS than flight sims but there might be some interested in WWI flight sims. It does required CFS3 to play as it is a complete overhaul of CFS3.

http://www.overflandersfields.com/info.htm

 

[Fox5]

Lol, nice they titled it after a piece of poetry.

 

[rudder]

I love flight sims... but get more into the simple aircraft. Too much ADD to memorize all the controls. So I dig WWII flights sims. Haven't played a WWI sim since the Amiga. I will definetly check this one out.

 

[JSt0rm]

i loved the old red baron game on my dads 486. ahhh and x-wing omg we need another one of those.

 

[imported_Over50]

Originally posted by: Uwe
Released yesterday. I realize most here are more into FPS than flight sims but there might be some interested in WWI flight sims. It does required CFS3 to play as it is a complete overhaul of CFS3.

http://www.overflandersfields.com/info.htm

New here (ex-Dell community forum (8 years) after the November revamp turned it into a social club vs support oriented...).

Saw your post during my first visit here today. I read about OFF in the latest PC Gamer issue but have never bought one of these mods. If you have I'd appreciate your thoughts on the quality of them.

 

[imported_Uwe]

I have played OFF phase 1 and phase 2, which are/were free. I am not sure if they are available any longer since phase 3 is out now but you may be able get someone to send these to you if you ask them over at their website at www.overflandersfields.com. Phase 1 & 2 were beta and they were pretty good. I had some concerns when you could out turn a Alb DII in a SE5a but hopefully the FM has been tweaked in phase 3. Seeing an artillery barrage go off when crossing the front line was quite nice. Using TrackIR in OFF allows you to move around in the cockpit in 6 DOF so it's basically like sitting in the plane.

I have followed the mod work of many of these guys for years in RB3D and now OFF. They enjoy what they do and they have a passion for historical accuracy for WWI. Personally, I think they know more about the subject of WWI than other flight sim programmers that are professionally paid to work. It's not a job to them.

You can view some of the preview movies on phase 3 at http://www.overflandersfields.com/movies.htm

The cost is $50 plus $9 shipping.

Here is an interview at SimHQ:

http://www.simhq.com/_air12/air_395a.html

I can't tell you if this game is right for you since I don't know what is important to you. Immersion is important to me. RB3D to date was the most immersive but from what I have seen OFF Phase 3 will replace it for SINGLE PLAYER campaign immersion. CFS3's limitations in MMP I doubt will allow this game engine to replace RB3D for MMP. I think Rise of Flight is the best hope to replace RB3D for MMP. I think OFF will still be better than Rise of Flight for Single Player.

 

[imported_Over50]

Really appreciate the info. My interest in combat flight sims dates back to the DOS days with the ACES offerings and pretty much every WW1 & 2 game since - which doesn't include the arcade type offerings. And I should add single player is my thing, not MP.

Personally my favorite WW1 sim was Flying Corps. Had a great campaign mode and I played the heck out of it. And like you I, too, like the immersion factor (don't like or have any arcade style games).

Other sim favorties included 1942 Pacific Air War, Europeon Air War, the Janes WW2 series, MS Combat Sim 2 (have Combat sim 3 but didn't care for it) up through the IL2 Sturmovik series.

Just to clarify, am I correct that OFF is a mod expansion so to speak for MS Combat Sim 3, or in other words CFS3 is required to play OFF?

 

[The Boston Dangler]

$60 for a mod? $80 or more to pay a game with 7 or 8 year old technology? what?

i loved rb3d, and this looks good, but i don't think i can bring myself to spend $80 for it, particularly if the MP is questionable, as Uwe stated.

salut!

 

[imported_Uwe]

OFF is an expansion of CFS3 but they have overhauled it so much that it uses very little code from CFS3 according to the OFF team. From what I have read MS allowed them access to the code to be able to make the modifications to it.

CFS3 was a dog and I never flew it other than to get it ready for OFF phase 1 and 2.

I admit I partial to WWI over WWI though I enjoy some of the early WWII planes such as the Hawk75 and the Dewo 520 when I played Battleground Europe/WWII Online. I played the Aces series but then stuck with RB3D for years. With the player made mods it has held up well enough over the years.

Boston, I paid the $59 for the OFF mod. I am going into it knowing full well it will not replace RB3D's mmp aspect. However, the SP play is light years ahead of RB3D at this point. While I do enjoy mmp I also enjoy SP play as well, especially when I had enough of the hackers or other disruptive activity that currently takes place in the RB3D servers and forums. RB3D is alive and doing okay. It has a few hundred players still active.

 

[imported_Over50]

Originally posted by: Uwe
OFF is an expansion of CFS3 but they have overhauled it so much that it uses very little code from CFS3 according to the OFF team. From what I have read MS allowed them access to the code to be able to make the modifications to it.

CFS3 was a dog and I never flew it other than to get it ready for OFF phase 1 and 2.

I admit I partial to WWI over WWI though I enjoy some of the early WWII planes such as the Hawk75 and the Dewo 520 when I played Battleground Europe/WWII Online. I played the Aces series but then stuck with RB3D for years. With the player made mods it has held up well enough over the years.

Boston, I paid the $59 for the OFF mod. I am going into it knowing full well it will not replace RB3D's mmp aspect. However, the SP play is light years ahead of RB3D at this point. While I do enjoy mmp I also enjoy SP play as well, especially when I had enough of the hackers or other disruptive activity that currently takes place in the RB3D servers and forums. RB3D is alive and doing okay. It has a few hundred players still active.

Again, thanks for the info (and I agree CFS3 was/is a dog..)

 

[imported_Over50]

Uwe..

After reading the SimHQ developer interview and visiting the OFF forum I decided to give it a shot (ordered it today). It's only money...

Took note as well that the mean age of the guys in the OFF forum seems to be around 50 - with one guy on the other side of 70 which is a couple of years off for me.

By the way, the game that was mentioned in the current PC Gamer issue was in fact "Rise of flight", not OFF as I posted (sorry about that..). It's from a Russian developer which you can check out at www.riseofflight.com.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

over50, please keep us posted

 

[imported_Over50]

Originally posted by: The Boston Dangler
over50, please keep us posted

Will do..

 

[imported_Uwe]

Hey Over50,

I?ve been follow Rise of Flight too. My one concern with RoF is that they have made the models so nice that the polygon count for each aircraft will be so high that the data packets will be huge and limit the number of planes available for online play around 16 to 32. In RB3D good servers could hold upwards of 60 to 100 players. Man, those were the day! Then you?re back to the problem OFF faces with mmp using MS code. We?ll see how it works out. I?ll still probably buy RoF too. I suspect my squadron will adopt RoF for mmp as that is what the remnants of RB3D players are waiting for.

As for the ages of players being older in WWI games, it sounds about right. Most of the guys in our squadron are between late 30?s to early 50?s. We got one guy in his 20?s and another guy in his late 70?s. So the ages vary but for the most part it?s a much older crowd than many games. In RB3D the older guys (to us) usually prefer to bomb while the younger guys try to cover them and shoot down anything they come across. Still, that said don?t let the ages fool you, some of the players act like teenage girls on the forums. Given the sense of anonymity some people act much different on line than they ever would in person, which is a shame.

I hope you enjoy OFF and who knows maybe I?ll see you on a server in RoF when it comes out this year!

Uwe

 

[imported_Over50]

Uwe..

FWIW the RoF piece in PC Gamer was essentially a notice of pending release of the sim, not a review. The game web site shows only a TBD release for the U.S. so it's anyone's guess when it'll become available. Hopefully sometime this quarter.

As for OFF, based on what I've read and seen I think it'll be a fun experience. The only potential hiccup to getting it up and running is I have the original CFS3 version and as such it appears I'll have to install it and then the 3.1 patch prior to installing OFF. Whatever, I'll figure it out..

Oh, and I will post back with my thoughts on the game too.

 

[imported_Uwe]

Hey Over50,

OFF just came in the mail for me today. I am installing as I type this. I even got "dad's night out" from the wife(and kids) just to be able to play it.

You do have to install the 3.1 patch and fly a mission for it to take effect. I just do a quick fight and end it before I finish it.

I'll give write my impressions of it once I play it for a while.

Another guy from our squadron posted a note about RoF and some of the features he heard about it. It sounds good too. I look forward to it too. After so many years without a decent new WWI sim times are looking good right now!

Oh and if you fly a lot of flightsims you might want to look into TrackIR from Natural Point. It takes flight sims to a whole new level with head tracking.

Uwe

 

[imported_Over50]

Originally posted by: Uwe
Hey Over50,

OFF just came in the mail for me today. I am installing as I type this. I even got "dad's night out" from the wife(and kids) just to be able to play it.

You do have to install the 3.1 patch and fly a mission for it to take effect. I just do a quick fight and end it before I finish it.

I'll give write my impressions of it once I play it for a while.

Another guy from our squadron posted a note about RoF and some of the features he heard about it. It sounds good too. I look forward to it too. After so many years without a decent new WWI sim times are looking good right now!

Oh and if you fly a lot of flightsims you might want to look into TrackIR from Natural Point. It takes flight sims to a whole new level with head tracking.

Uwe

I'd read about that but wasn't sure if it requires doing a "save" mission or as you said just start a mission and exit out.

I also read bits and pieces about TrackIR but lost interest when I read it runs around $180. I suppose I should do some research before panning it..

 

[imported_Over50]

Received OFF today and after some initial install sequence/process issues I was able to fire up the game....sort of..

Haven't been able to find the game Readme that is referenced on the game options page. Fact is, the Readme folder referenced doesn't exist (at least I haven't been able to find it) and it isn't on the DVD either..??

Found out also after repeated attempts that setting the resolution and graphics details in CFS3 does NOT carry through to the OFF game options as you're led to believe. Every time I started the game it was at the default 800x600 even though I had CFS3 set to 1600x1200x32. While there is a "Display" button in the game options it is disabled. So is the "Realism" button. Through trial and error (multiple attempts I might add...) I finally found out that clicking on a "CFS3 Config" button on the game options page and then clicking on the "File" dropdown menu got me to the resolution setting. You also have the AA options there .... but regardless of what I set it to when I close out of the menu it resets to none. Apparently the game doesn't support AA..

The "Auto Rudder" option doesn't work either which you need to steer while on the ground (the ailerons do control turning in flight but there is no turning effect on the ground - and this is with Auto Rudder enabled).

Other oddities are with the throttle set to minimum there is no decrease in speed on the ground once you get moving. And being WW1 aircraft that had no brakes...well, the result is obvious. Manually setting up the comma key as left rudder, period as center rudder and slash key as right rudder gave me control on the ground...but it's awkward at best. But setting up rudder control as such disabled the ailerons so I had no turn control in flight. So you can have directional control in the air with the ailerons, and you can have directional control on the ground with rudder control enabled, but you can't have both enabled at the same time. It appears the only way to have both rudder and aileron control on the ground and in the air is using rudder pedals...which I'll try later on (I have the CH rudder pedals).

Haven't figured out the virtual cockpit either. F6 enables it but the joystick tophat doesn't work in a panning view mode as with the other flight sims I have. And yes I've tried every combination of Num key enabled, disabled..

While there is a default engine start key, there is no default engine shutoff (I programmed the "K" key as in "kill engine"..

Without a readme - assuming these issues are covered - you better have a good understanding of flight sim control surface options or you'll be hard pressed to figure it out.

The game detail (once you have the screen resolution setting location figured out) is good - but based on my experience with multiple sims to date I'd have to rank it as vintage 2002 - 2004 quality. But considering this is really a non-developer mod I shouldn't be too critical.

All of the above has been with free flight only just trying to figure out how to configure the game. Hopefully once I get into the missions/aerial combat stuff the experience will get better - and I'll follow up then.

<EDIT:

Found the Readme - Located in the Windows Explorer C:\OBD Software\CFSWW1 Over Flander Fields root folder (not in Program Files)

Also, found out the game web site has an extensive FAQ that explains setup and configuration issues not mentioned in the game Readme.

Went back to the CFS3 manual and found out the Scroll Key turns the virtual cockpit/view panning on and off.

 

[imported_Uwe]

Hey Over50,

Sorry you're having issues with the game. Personally, I'm having a good time with it. It is definately better, imo, than any other WWI flight sim currently on the market. To me the scenery is quite good. No, there isn't grass like there will be in RoF but I'm not going to be flying low enough to see it anyway. I'm sure RoF will be out eventually but until then I am enjoying OFF P3.

Take care,

Uwe

 

[imported_Over50]

Originally posted by: Uwe
Hey Over50,

Sorry you're having issues with the game. Personally, I'm having a good time with it. It is definately better, imo, than any other WWI flight sim currently on the market. To me the scenery is quite good. No, there isn't grass like there will be in RoF but I'm not going to be flying low enough to see it anyway. I'm sure RoF will be out eventually but until then I am enjoying OFF P3.

Take care,

Uwe

Since my last post here I've been posting back and forth in the OFF forum (and having spent more time with the OFF setup) and I've been able to resolve the issues I initially noted here (per my Edit tag).

One of the game developers is monitoring one particular OFF 3 specific thread where I posted and has provided a wealth of information on the game configuration how-to's, such as how to turn on AA that requires the CFS3 configuration applet.

With a full understanding now of how to set this or that (and where in some cases) I've been experimenting with the eye candy settings to get the highest average frame rate. As such my flight experience has been only in the free flight/non-campaign mode up to now.

As was suggested in one reply I'm going to do a "config" search to see what other, if any, tweaks I can do before getting into a full fledged campaign.

All this said, and even though I haven't really started playing the game, I fully agree this is one heck of a WW1 sim. And I didn't take into account in my initial comments that the game is built on the CFS3 engine, thus the aged look in some instances. I know I'm going to have a lot of fun with it and I'm glad you made me aware of it.

Oh, almost forgot to mention that using my rudder pedals vs the keyboard really improves the flight and control when dog fighting!