Welcome, fliegers, to challenge #5! I’m going to leave this one up longer because of some of the particular details of this challenge. Please check the start-date below so you know when we go live. I’ll leave it to the Sarge and Michael to explain everything…












Our last 4 challenges:
Eindecker Invitational
Revenge of Der Flieger
Bloody April
Les SPADS D'Automne

drew pilots from all over the world. The assistance and camaraderie that you get from something like this or Olham's DiD campaign if you are new to WOFF will help increase your enjoyment of the sim and make you a better pilot as well.

For this challenge, you will be filling the role of a flieger in Jasta 12, JG II! You will be selecting your rank for this challenge, keeping in mind that based on your choice, you may fly up to three different types of aircraft over the course of the challenge. While you are making your pilot, you may want to click forward a bit to see how your plane selection will change over the month. You will also be responsible for designing a custom paint job for your scout. Don’t worry, there are lots of people on the forum who will help you. It can be as simple or complex as you like!

Here are the software files you will need for your skinnin’ goodness:
GIMP- Like Photoshop
DXTBMP Format and File Converter
IRFAN View Texture viewer

In order to participate in this challenge you must:
1. Declare your interest and intent in this thread on or before Saturday, August 23 2014.
2. Create a pilot using the manual squad creation option flying for Germany in Jasta 12 with a start date of March 1, 1918.
3. Commit to flying 4-6 missions per week with this pilot, but no more than one per campaign day.
4. Report at least every weekend in this topic thread with his current successes or failures.
5. Create at least one custom skin for one of your planes. It can be as simple or complex as you like!
6. Faithfully communicate to your brethren the falling of your avatar when such event actually transpires.

Please enter your pilot at this link:
Survey Link
Please update this survey after every few missions, or at least once a week!

This is kind of a "Who's Line Is It Anyway" sort of affair where we try to have fun and the points don't really matter. We will declare a winner and there will probably be some kind of a prize but the main thing is just to have fun with good people. (If anybody wants to sponsor a prize, please pm me!)

Reporting can be by any of the following methods:
-Text is good
-Pictures are better
-Videos are what this sim is made for!

There were some great reports and pictures and vids in the last challenge, so look over them if you want some ideas!

This is single elimination, so one death and you are out. Keep in mind that even if you are not playing "dead is dead" in the workshop, at the end of each mission it will still tell you that "Sadly, your pilot has died" if his injuries were fatal so you don't need to switch your settings for this. If you land behind enemy lines with less than DID workshop settings, use these guidelines: in or on the edge of No Mans Land, you escape. Within 5 miles of the front, 50-50 (flip a coin). More than 5 miles behind the lines, you are captured, war over!

When you set up your pilot, click on "Manual Squad Deployment" in the lower right hand corner of the enlistment page. Set up the following screen so it looks like this:







Scoring:

Missions: +2 point each
Time survived: +2 points each week
Confirmed kill: +3 points each
Becoming an ace: +5 points (only once)
Promotion: +5 points each promotion
Medals: +3 points each
Survive to end of Challenge: +10 points

Some aircraft generalities to help with your selection:
The Fokker DR I is a turnfighter. It’s not fast, but it climbs well and no one should be getting on your tail!
The Albatros scouts are somewhere in the middle. They can turn okay and are a bit faster than the Fokkers.
The Pfalz is more of an energy fighter. It can dive well, has some speed and is rugged, but not quite as maneuverable.

This challenge will have a have a hard end date of Sunday, September 14. That gives us three weeks and a day. You can have a maximum of 19 missions total. Then we can tally the points and declare a winner. You are certainly free to continue to fly your pilot after that if still alive, but for point determination, we need a cut-off date.

Permissions:
You may use whatever aids you are used to using. The official setting for rear guns will be “Less Acc”. Please set your weather to “Historical Weather.” Flight model should be realistic and you should have weapons jams and limited ammo and all that jazz... The point is to have fun and we had outstanding support and sportsmanship from all fliers last time and we would love to see some new faces! Feel free to lead your flights if you want!

As far as time advancement, please follow these guidelines:

Allow time to advance as normal except fly no more than one mission per campaign day (time advance manually as necessary)

For every month of campaign time, you can advance two days on the calendar. (48hr pass to visit mum)
For every promotion, advance five campaign days.
For every five kills, advance 3 campaign days.
For becoming an ace, advance 3 campaign days (cumulative with 5 kills above)

Keep in mind this is a challenge, not a competition! Your first job is to stay alive! (Note to self: Stay Alive!, skip mission 10) I'd love to see most of these pilots go on to great careers after our challenge is over! Good Luck, er, Gueten Lucken!
RR

Official challenge start time is Saturday, grab some QC time in those scouts and we’ll be (W)OFF!


I will update this area with pilots and scores as the challenge progresses, so you can always check here for the latest info…

List of Pilots:
Slick Wilhelm
Rick Rawlings
MudWasp
CatKnight
Robert Wiggins
Rover 27
Bucksnort
gaw1
RAF Louvert
Kaische
Olham
elephant
MFair
carrick58
loftyc
Shiloh

Strikethrough indicates a pilot's demise, d.n.p. = did not participate, number to the right of the pilot is the final score

Last Updated 9/08/14 at 10:45 PM Pacific time

Wow, creating my own skin is one heck of a challenge for me. !!!
If I can make a skin, I'll be amazed!
Either way, Thanks for posting the skinning tutorial. I'm sure I'll watch it a few dozen times as i try to make a skin.

I'm in! And, welcome back, Mr. Rick.

Thanks guys, are you officially "in" MudWasp, don't worry, we'll help you with the skinning part. Doing something basic is pretty easy!

Thought I had to make a skin first. If not , then I'm in!
Stock up on headache pills if you're about to assist me in skinning!

Was that your voice on the first video?If so you sound like a pro. Very well made video if you made it yourself.

They're both me. I am the only voice actor I have that will work for what I am willing to pay... I am putting you down for in, with headache-free assistance at no extra charge!

I'm in, though this will be my first attempt at a re-skin. Eep.

I found a way to save the video. Always been interested in skinning, but found text instructions not that helpful for the way I learn to do things. Now I'm off to grab the tools/files/programs I'll need.
Thanks Rick

Rick, I will of course be in but probably not as active as in the past as I am dealing with a sick cousin in hospital right now and have to travel a bit. I should be able to do 4 per week. Nice to see you back. Hope you had a great time off. I could use some leave myself what with the DiD campaign, my cousin and now your Challenge.

Best Regards;

Dear Rick,

Thank you for putting together all crucial skinning aspects.
Excellent idea and it's already a challenge.
The intro and the tutorial are very enjoyable.

Hey, with such pleasant voice why not make a commented let's fly WOFF series?

Anyway, count me in. Gone skinning.

Hey, guys, glad you are on board! Don't sweat the skinning, we'll get through this together! A basic color change or a decal is pretty easy, and combining the two gives some good results. The tiger plane in the intro video was one I put together using a pattern I found online.

Just remember, every time you add something new, do it in a new layer!

Robert, thanks, Maine and Utah are pleasant changes from Las Vegas in summer. I hope everything works out for you and your cousin.

Rover 27, thanks for the kind words, I don't know what I could say in such a series that was not already done better by Snoopy in the Charlie Brown movies!

See link in my signature to capture your missions

Count me in!

And thanks for the video on skinning, Rick. Will be fun to try it out

Ok, what if I have a DV uprated? Which skin should I pick to butcher?

Well, I figured it's all skins starting with off_Alb_DV_later

coercive education.........love it....count me in PLS!!!!

I will pass on this one, starts too early for me (cannot fly seriously before 10th of September and will be then already struggling to fly one mission every day in the DiD campaign. It will be migration time and I will be outside with my cameras during the day !)
Have fun everyone !

Rick, first off I would like to thank you for a very fine visual step by step video. Like Mudwasp, and we must be equal in the computer dummie department, I have read a lot of tutorials but get lost. Give me a contract to read and I will pick it to pieces like a surgeon, but not computer stuff. As a visual person I think your video may do the trick. Thanks for this piece of info.

Planting season in the south but if I can get a plane done by the start date, I am in.
Thanks again!

.

IN!

.

No problem, MFair, you don't have to have your plane done before we start, any time during the challenge is fine!

Also, to go back to what Rover 27 was saying, the naming convention is somewhat weird, based on some skins being carried over from OFF, I would guess, especially with the uprated DV and the DVa. I recommend picking a base skin, creating a new layer, making a big black line on it and then save it the way the tutorial suggests, go in game and make sure you can select it in quick combat as the plane you want before you spend too much time on any one skin.

Rick, welcome back, hope your vacation was good! I'm in, looking forward for this new fine invented challenge. Wil be my first skin aswell!