To give those of you who haven't played OFF with
OFFbase an idea of what it's like, here's a screenshot-guided tutorial of sorts.
After the initial settings, the main window opens where you select a nation and squadron to play. In this case I'll ignore my existing German pilots and click the
Create Pilot button. This launches the OFF Manager so I can create an American pilot in the 94th Aero.
After creating the pilot, I Leave OFF Manager to return to
OFFbase, which detects the new squadron. I select it in the list, and click
Play Squadron.
OFFbase supports multiple pilots in a squadron, here I have just one. I can edit his background directly here, or just continue on with the
Play Pilot button:
This button is green like saving changes to your background because it makes changes to your pilot files, synchronizing all your pilots in the squadron to the most recent roster, date given in the lower left. For example, if you have two pilots in the same squad but one in 1917 and 1918, it will put the 1917 pilot On Leave until 1918 when it will rejoin the squad alongside the other pilot. All pilots in the same squadron share a common roster, which persists beyond the life of any one pilot. This squadron-based gameplay is a key feature of
OFFbase.
OFFbase needs to know your squadron's Operational Rating (or Status) which isn't stored in the pilot files. You can enter the OFF Manager from here to check in the Campaign screen if need be:
You'll only need to set it again if it changes.
On the first run,
OFFbase will simulate 30 days of squadron activity so your squadmates have on-going relationships and career troubles when you arrive:
OFFbase is not just a simulation but a role-playing game. All characters have a
Background Trait, which must be set before play:
As a lowly 2nd Lieutenant in the prestigious "hat in the ring" 94th Aero, some higher-ranking officers will take a little pity on the Schoolboy type--but bullies may give them a little extra attention as well. Schoolboys are relatively nicer to Cowards than other types, and gullible to Gamblers.
Higher-ranking pilots will get to choose additional traits when starting an
OFFbase campaign, so characters grow more unique with rank. While there are only thirteen distinct 2nd Lieutenant personalities--making rookie pilots fairly disposable--American Lt Colonels come with hundreds of millions of different combinations of traits.
Initial set-up complete, it's time for the introductory sequence as my new character arrives.
The quality of the airfield is a random dice roll.
Now it's time for our first
Encounter, the basic gameplay element of
OFFbase. When you first meet someone, you do what officers do:
Salute.
The text lets you know what kind of encounter, a little about the mood of the other pilot, and how your character feels about the encounter.
Schoolboys are more submissive in a
Salute than other types. As a player you can influence your pilot's attitude in the encounter. Your pilot character's Artificial Intelligence (AI) chooses its default attitude based on its overall mood and memory of past encounters with the other character.
If both pilots are submissive, they become more friendly. If both are aggressive, they'll dislike each other more. It's the combinations in-between that are interesting (25 possible outcomes to each encounter), each changing how both pilots will behave in the future as both AIs learn in response. In this case, I decide to push my
Schoolboy into being extra-submissive to the Captain, hoping he'll be nicer to me in the future.
Well that worked, I guess. I've now met Captain Bingham, and it's pretty clear he's the boss of me.
Sometimes
Salutes will be continued into another encounter. Since I've just arrived at the field, perhaps I can get some information out of the Captain:
Schoolboys are excited at asking for directions, making them naturally more aggressive at it. My AI wants to be forward after getting put in place by the
Salute, but I'm going to make him even more aggressive. Meanwhile the Captain is more open to me after winning last time. Maybe I can exploit him a little for once?
I got back a little of my prestige and some valuable info on 94th Aero's Adjutant, who I'm about to meet:
My pilot is still a little cranky, having lost more prestige than gained from Captain Bingham, so I'll roll with his forward attitude.
Didn't get shown up quite as badly, but still it's clear these Captains don't respect lowly 2nd Lt. Luther Hill. But now that I've met the Adjutant, I'm in his office:
The description of the mess depends on the Adjutant's personality. Here I can change the Operational Rating if it changes in-game, get a promotion when I've earned enough prestige, or transfer to another squadron. But he doesn't have time for me now, so I leave. On to the mess as he said...
The text in the mess depends on the time of the day, the mood of other pilots, and your relationships with them. Prestige is earned not just through encounters and achievements in the air, but from the support of your squadmates in the form of
Goodwill. This is what makes it worth sacrificing short-term prestige to make friendships which pay prestige in the long-term. Learning whom to befriend and whom to exploit, and indeed when to exploit your friends, is only part of the fun, as you're also teaching the AI of other pilots to cooperate or defect
There's one more
Encounter to go in this introductory experience:
OFFbase will try to assign a wingman close in rank to you. Maybe this is someone I'll be able to make friends with?
He did seem upset, guess he wasn't in the mood to make friends. But there's a 50% chance we'll share quarters together:
Hope I don't find Lt MacKenzi's practice disruptive, but maybe he'll brighten up the mess in the evenings with his play...
That's it, the end of the introductory sequence. I'm deposited at the Squadron HQ:
What I do next is up to me. Notice how little prestige I have left after all that. I'll have to be careful, if it falls to zero and the Adjutant catches me, he'll have me transferred out of the 94th!
For what happens next in the career of 2nd Lt Luther Hill, stay tuned...
More interested in your own career?
Download OFFbase!