.

As some of you know, my life has become very busy lately what with family and work and summer projects around the homestead, which means my time to enjoy the various aspects of WOFF has been getting less and less. So often now it seems I must choose between sneaking in a sortie in the virtual skies or catching up on things going on in the forums - trying to do both with such limited free time is causing each to become stressful when what they are meant to be is relaxing and enjoyable. With this being the case I am, for now, going to focus my few free hours a week on simply enjoying the virtual skies of WOFF.

Hopefully things will settle down at some point, but for now you won’t be seeing much of yours truly around camp here. I also won’t be doing any WOFF modding until I can fully commit to such projects. But then WOFF is quite amazing just as it stands so any such mod work on my part is not really needed.

Have a great summer folks, fly smart, and watch your six.

Cheers!

Lou

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Have a good summer, Lou. Don't work too hard, enjoy the beautiful weather, and remember...always drink water

With such fleeting sunshine and a short summer in your area of the world, be sure to get out and enjoy some while it's there!

Cheers Lou! Have a good one!

Lou, if you had to choose between the forum and the flying, I guess you made the right choice.
But damn, I would miss you, Sir! I hope you will SOMEtimes find SOME time to check in?
Just a quick check, and answers only in the ones that interest you most?
Just an idea...

For the flying, and for your "live road movie" I wish you Hals- und Beinbruch,
as we say in Germany for "good luck"!

And I hope, that even a busy man like you will be allowed to retire at some point?
Then you will hopefully be fully back! (If not before - deal?)

Yep we all have to be busy to get the daily bread for our family, I can only fly in the weekends at 8:00h a clock. Because I find it also very important to share the morning meals together this means only two campaigns. One for every weekend mornings.

I hope that Artemus and the Gong Fairy at least will make an occasional visit or two in the DID thread!

Enjoy the summer!

I am sure there will be a chair in the mess for you when you return Sir! Until then.

Understandable choice and I'm glad you told us. We would fret!

Oh dear, I just asked him a question on the other (unmentionable) forum. I have all his maps various but can't get a jpeg viewer that allows me to move around in a single jpeg file. What do you people use if anything?

Jim, I use Windows Photo Viewer (or how it's called in English).
I zoom into the map as far as I want, and then my cursor turns into a hand,
which can move it around.

Lou, I hope you enjoy the summer. I shall miss you in the DiD campaign thread. Please drop in when you can!

Hang in there, Lou! Hope we still see you from time to time. Thank you for all the cool stuff you have done to make our games better. Know that you are appreciated above and beyond that though. The personality you bring when you are here, feels a lot like having coffee with a friend.

Best of luck over the front. Will see you there!

Kind regards, and a sincere ~SALUTE!~

Thanks for all the wonderful work you have done on the maps and medals. Don't let a few silly criticisms get you down

I'm pretty sure the criticism wasn't even meant for Lou, but for ALL recent "bickering" -
too bad it had just to be in Lou's thread.

I would write my opinion about that in a "private message" to the recipient - but since
he doesn't reveive PMs, I can only write it as openly as he wrote his hurting remark.

I have thought about it for awhile, but I feel I must speal my mind about this.
RAF_Louvert is THE No. 1 member in the OFF and WOFF forum, if I had to name one,
his name would always spring to my mind immediately.
He has a hard job which keeps him on the road for most of his weekly time,
but still he invested countless hours and made all those wonderful maps by taking aerial captures
from THE WHOLE WOFF errain! What commitment!
He also made a wonderful set of medals for interested users.
He made the beautiful Boistrancourt mod, and helped other modders doing their works.
He gave countless numbers of advice and helpful posts,
he always shared his historical knowledge openly,
and he was ALWAYS avery friendly character around here.

And last but not least, it's users and committed fans like Lou, who spread the word about WOFF,
and who keep people coming back to the forum; and who help all newbies getting into the cockpit.
Did anyone in the company ever think about what a valuable member he is - or maybe was???

In one line: Lou has not deserved a critic like that.
To accuse just him for bickering is a most unfair insult.

Winder, you have a way to mostly write rather negatively about what you don't like to see
in the forum, in peoples' posts. You are writing only very rarely, but the last 3 postings
I vaguely remember, were more or less like that.
I think you are a very professional crafter of models, a good sim builder and whatever -
but some of your ways of dealing with your customers, with a great community of followers,
is often rather unprofessional.

I had to get that stone from my heart.


PS: I would like to ask everyone, not to chime in into this my post.
(I think I might have said enough, and I do not want it to turn into a kind of bar fight.)

Hi Olham I won't chime into your post per se..
What i will do is offer my points.
I agree Louverts work is phenomenal,his dedication to WOFF is second to none...yourself,RAF Louvert,Hellshade Duke,Robert Wiggins and countless others make this forum the fantastic place to visit.

My personal opinion...Lou could maybe should? Have put his request in the wish list thread? Instead of starting a thread on the main page?Maybe a oversight I don't know.would it have changed things..again I don't know

Regarding Winder..WOFF is his baby,I absolutely agree that at times his writing comes across as a bit sharp,it's not the first time that he's maybe upset people and imo he does possibly "bite" too quickly his use of the word bickering really surprised me ,I didn't see any bickering,just users having different opinions...POL does a fantastic job at answering questions,offering his opinions and so much more and his help on the forum and even off it is second to none. So maybe WM should leave the postings to him.

I can at times understand Winders frustration.He tries adding things to WOFF because he's trying to make this sim even better and some people don't like it. He doesn't add things and people ask where it is? He can't win ..he gets frustrated he must do but there's a way of showing it and unfortunately for him some times it seems to maybe come across "wrong"

I'm a builder/roofer by trade...so believe me when I say I know how frustrating you can get when it's your project that you feel is being criticised. I feel at times ready to explode but it's my living,so I have to refrain myself. So you take a deep breath and suck it up.
I'm always willing to forgive WM because without him (and others) we wouldn't even have this sim/forum in the first place..but POl..keep him away from the bloody keyboard

Lastly if you do ever read this RAF Louvert..have a great summer break,and I hope to see you back here soon. And as always thank you so much for all your work
This forum isn't the same without you

I agree, Adger, you gotta be tough. Back in my misspent youth I had a band manager who made Simon Cowell look like a silent pussycat. We'd come offstage and in the dressing room it'd be, "WTF was that?! That was the worst performance I've ever seen! You lot look like monkeys ****ing footballs out there! I don't know WHY the ***k I'm wasting my career on the likes of you ***holes!" All screamed loudly with a British accent (he was from London), accompanied by wild gesticulation. And those were his compliments! By this time we were contractually bound to him. Still, of course it didn't last, it devolved and led to us being sued. And people think rock and roll is all glamor and broads.

All that toughened me up, so when I got this one-star book review for one of my Osprey books, it was like a BB bouncing off the side of a battleship: "I believe this to be on one of the most poorly written professional publications I have ever read. If Mr Miller is not ashamed of this composition than his editor certainly should be. Content and illustrations are probably worth 2 to 3 stars although one wonders if Mr Millers admiration for the FE 2b/d isn't a little fulsome for a plane which suffered such horrendous losses. Meat on the table for the Albatros, very likely!" Hey, at least he was honest.

Anyway, everyone is different and receives feedback differently, I realize.

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Folks, please, I am only taking a break. I had kept things in PM’s precisely because I did not want a whole public brouhaha to potentially develop. Yes, I was hurt by a few of the comments made in the thread I’d started, but I also realized that my reaction to those comments had to do with my stress levels more than anything else. Thus the reason for the break from most things here for a while, as I noted in my OP. If I’d wanted to confront people on this I’d have done so, and while I know you meant well Olham I’d of preferred you hadn’t gone public with my temporary frustration with the situation. But now that it is public, I suppose I best explain things.

What got me upset was the response to my request of a possible change to the skill level tags that now appear in the pilot log books. It did not seem like an unreasonable request to me and as I have seldom asked the devs for anything I certainly did not think I was being a nag in doing so. Keep in mind that the few other things I’ve actually directly asked the devs to consider I have gone on to do myself. This is how my map set came to be, as well as my numerous aerodrome mods. I understand the devs are very busy with this wonderful sim so when they’ve explained to me how much work would be involved to provide, let’ say, full maps capable of in-sim navigation, or adding in new aerodromes, I have gone on to do the projects on my own. That is why, in this particular instance, (and with my aforementioned stress levels being rather elevated), I did not appreciate being told that looking into removing the skill level tags in the log books was not worth the trouble and that I should stop being a nag and quit with all the bickering. But again, I realized that my reaction was due primarily to things going on in my own life and not to the dismissals in the forum thread.

So again, please, do not turn this into a whole thing, I am only taking a break. Thanks everyone for the best wishes and concerns, they are much appreciated. You all have a great summer too!

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Brilliant,absolutely brilliant story Jim,yep like I said I'm a builder and us Brits certainly know how to swear,even the women swear like Scottish dockworkers and believe me some of our customers deserve it ,but "the customer always comes 1st"..yeah right

Yeah I believe that in any work that involves dealing with the public whether its yourself (your writing) Raf Lou's and others (modding)..and WInders and Pols (Programming) you've got to develop a thick skin,there's always going to be somebody that criticises,(not that Lou did)you could produce the best work that's ever been done and there'd still always be someone to knock it.

I sincerely hope Lou gets back on the forum soon,and I hope this one episode of "falling out " if that's the right phrase, with Winder doesn't keep him away for good.

As I always say to my ten year old son...people disagree,we fall out at times,but "nobody's died" so just sleep on it,tomorrow's a new day.
Best of luck with the new books Jim,il be picking them up from Amazon uk soon

And Lou,if you do read this..get your ar*e back here soon..your missed already


Edit..just seen Lou's reply..have a great summer pal,excellent write up and I agree with you totally.
Hopefully now this can be put to bed all the very best your very highly thought of here..take good care