Rise of Flight - To buy or not to buy?

[Coen020]

Hey guys,

like all of you i'm waiting desperatly for Storm of War/Cliffs of Dover/Battle of Britain/ Il-2 Sturmovik ... 2?

And like all of you il-2 is one of my favorite sims, but, i want to try something else for a change -> so Rise of Flight Iron Cross Edition.

I probably should not ask this at the forums of an entirely different game but, since we probably have the same taste i was wondering if ROF ICE is any good?

played the demo, which i liked but would really appreciate your input.

[Qpassa]

wtf, you should ask in their web. Its like ask in their web to buy IL2 lol

[Robert]

Go for it. Why?

It's fun.

The feeling of flight for a simulator is pretty realistic (FOR A SIMULATOR on a HOME PC)

WWI hasn't been covered in a while.

Jason and crew are fleshing out the game quite nicely.

777 Studios on occasion have sales on their aircraft of ~ half price.

Support the hobby.


I don't fly on line, so someone else will need to address that.

I don't find the DRM invasive - though I'd prefer not to have it at all.

There is a mode to play off line, but that's for quick missions and not campaigns. The latter's statistics are stored on line.

No other negatives have affected me.



If you decide to get it read the forums on installation if you're using Windows 7. I'm on XP and have no issues. Someone better informed can point you in the right direction.

I say go for it.

[lbuchele]

It´s a great game, only make sure you have a good VGA and a quad core fast CPU.
ROF doesn´t run well on dual cores.

[JG53Frankyboy]

you liked the demo, you like furballs between fighters, your PC is good enough:
buy it....................

just dont expect the deepth of gameplay that are possible with IL2. Its 95% a fighterpilots game verus other fighters.
even the announced offline career mode will not change much in this.

[Flanker35M]

S!

Buy it. Development team is adding new careers etc. so the game will cater offliners better too. I like it very much.

[mazex]

Adding to the chorus... Buy it. I bought it day one after waiting for years but in the first versions I did not like the flight model that was too "twitchy" and felt rough, but now after a number of patches it's really the only other sim that gives me a believable feeling of flying accept IL2 or course (and I have been flying IRL for 25 years). The new dogfight mode with airfields that can be captured is a lot of fun - but an accessory that you really need for full appreciation is TrackIR (a lot of wings covering you view ;))

[4S_Nero]

Buy it. Is a stunning well made Sim. I fly in RoF's servers like Syndicate almost all night.

[Avimimus]

Read here:
http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3168395.html#Post3168395

Here for the DRM scheme:
http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3118866/DRM_Enforced_Simulations_Games.html#Post3118866

[zauii]

Indeed buy it, its an excellent ww1 combat simulator, and defiantly on par with the other hardcore simulators out there such as IL2 even if the depth doesn't go as far.
:)

[Bricks]

Very nice simulator - I can only recommend it.

It's receiving frequent updates and upgrades and already has grown a lot compared to the initial release.

Graphics are nice on lowest setting as well. With these, you can play it on almost any PC. If you want all the details and the shadows, I recommend a multi-core PC and Vista/Win 7, as well as a strong graphics card.

[MD_Titus]

It´s a great game, only make sure you have a good VGA and a quad core fast CPU.
ROF doesn´t run well on dual cores.

i've got a dual core oc'd to 3.2ghz, a 280gtx and 4gig ram, running xp sp3 32bit though, so only got 3gig usable.

it runs fine, i have some landscape settings lowered to improve performance mind.

and yes, i would recommend getting it. it is a bit of a pain to get all set up, which can put people off, but if you persevere with that then you're sorted. good fun all round.

[KaHzModAn]

Buy it... :grin:
I love IL-2 but it's another genre to fly those planes and the 2 games can live together for me
RoF is beautiful and the flight feeling is great in any plane !!

It runs well all maxed out for me and I have a Core2 E8400, an ATI 5770 and 4Gb of DDR3 on win7 64bits
(It starts to slow seriously down with more than 20 planes in the same furball)

[Jaws2002]

Buy it. Is good fun.
Don't expect a high fidelity simulator like DCS Black Shark but is fun.
Damage model is weird, the guns are way too accurate at long ranges, most flight models are out of wack. Some planes even have wrong engines. The two seaters are completely missing. The settings menu is weird.
A lot of corners have been cut in ROF, but the game looks good, it came a long way from what it was and you can have a lot of fun.

[Blackdog_kt]

On its initial release i wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole. Iron cross edition is significantly better but i still haven't bought it. For the record, i have tried the demo on three separate occasions several months apart, so that i could get an accurate feel of the progress it's making. Since the demo is actually an unregistered copy of the full game only with limited playability, the latest patches are applied to it and you can judge what has changed. One thing that's missing is the ability to deny installation of a patch or roll back to a previous version in case a new update breaks more than it fixes, but generally nothing has been terribly broken thus far and the updates on important issues that get discovered are being worked on constantly.

If there's another version down the line with true offline gameplay (not everybody's internet is that reliable, intermittent disconnects are a minor nuisance when browsing forums but a serious hindrance when the game tries to upload the mission stats/download the next mission in the campaign and you're stuck with pressing "retry" for half an hour) and properly fleshed out campaigns i would seriously consider it.

It's not the pay-per-plane scheme they are using that's putting me off (after all, 5.5 Euros a piece is not a terrible price), but the fact that this business model makes the devs focus on flyables exclusively.
I would prefer less flyables and more AI aircraft so that the computer doesn't, for example, spawn late war Sopwith Snipes against my early war Albatros D.II because it lacks the aircraft types to do a proper, historically accurate representation.
Also, this model greatly diversifies everyone's available planeset, so each server must make sure to run missions that use at least one of the stock aircraft per side that are provided with the base install package and these are only late war aircraft.
If the early war theaters open up down the line, there would be a need to have a few of the respective aircraft types as freeware add-ons, otherwise people would find themselves having to sit out an entire mission every now and then due to a lack of appropriate flyables on their accounts to fly it.

In the end, the decision depends on how you want to fly it.

As a purely online pass time i'd say it would be pretty solid at this stage. If what you mostly care about is flying online and you find a few servers that cater to your preferred gameplay, the always online DRM and the lack of an in-depth single player campaign won't bother you at all and this will let the rest of its advantages shine on their own merit: graphics, sounds, flight model physics, versatile mission builder and its very true to life sense of altitude and speed. I would include the damage model too but some things appear a bit artificial and dodgy sometimes in regards to it, nothing that the devs aren't made aware of or are unable to fix however.
Spend an extra 20-30 Euros on a few add-on flyables for some variety and you would be good to go.

If you mostly care about flying in-depth single player scenarios, then you would be better of waiting a few more months until they flesh it out a bit more in this department.

[lbuchele]

i've got a dual core oc'd to 3.2ghz, a 280gtx and 4gig ram, running xp sp3 32bit though, so only got 3gig usable.

it runs fine, i have some landscape settings lowered to improve performance mind.

and yes, i would recommend getting it. it is a bit of a pain to get all set up, which can put people off, but if you persevere with that then you're sorted. good fun all round.

I have a E 8400 overclocked to 3.6 Ghz with a GTX 260 and 4 GB RAM running in Win 7 professional.
It doesn´t run very well , only with reduced settings, it has a lot of hiccups.
I have read in the ROF forum that there are an issue with dual cores, the game is optimized to run in quad cores , it scalate very well in fps running in quads, what I think it´s great actually.
Botton line, it´s a great product, made for a team of passionates and it continues to grow and improve along time.
I pretend to return playing it when I finally do my upgrade to SOW.

[bf-110]

The game looks awesome,like an WWI Storm of War.
Will see if I can find this one.

Heard it came from a ***ing IL2 team that decided to split from the game.

[Coen020]

thanks for all replies, you guys convinced me thats for sure.
still having some hassle with a voucher for a amazone-like website
so i can get it for more then half the price:eek:

i can play the demo with everything on maximum on a decent fps (1920 x 1080) but then again there are no missions in the demo with 20+ planes, so still keeping my fingers crossed.

Do i correctly understand that the iron cross edition has a lot of planes included that weren't in the initial release however there are still planes that can/must be bought as dlc?

thanks, and hope to see you online in rof (see you in my gunsights that is:cool:)

[Robert]

Eight FLYABLE planes verses the original FOUR that came in the original RoF. I'd check the RoF website store for clarification though.

I'm sure there will be a sale again where extra planes can be purchased for half price. ALL the planes are available as AI. So flying the Handley bomber is out unless you buy it, but you can fly against it no matter if you own it or not.

If you already have the demo installed (which appears you do) ......

http://riseofflight.com/en/store/demoupgrades

[Ctrl E]

definately buy it. the aircraft are works of art. and the damage model is amazing. i find il2 very hard to play after RoF. it really shows its age.

[smink1701]

I would pass. I would agree with many of the positive comments I've seen here but I never find myself wanting to play the game. FM is still very twitchy and it is very hard to shoot someone down. You spend most of your time chasing someone in circles. Might be realistic but also a bit tedious. Now...for some real fun and something totally different, I would suggest MS Flight Sim X Gold Edition. I find the missions quite addictive.

[Tvrdi]

like im listenin chicks talking about IL2 when it came out...sorry guys couldnt resist....btw, there will be some FM and DM tweaks and it is still the best FM on the market...some planes are off (IMHO only one considerably) and will be fixed, but most flight models are very close to data they have (orig docs and tests), As you know or dont know, we have way more data available for WW2 planes. Also 777 Studios team introduced new features never seen in any sim up to date...the list is long (some could be seen in news section of the ROFs homepage)....

combat sim market is small, ww1 niche even smaller....I dont expect you all to like ROF but I know one thing....Im having fun with ROF as I used to (once) with IL2.....yeah, Im with IL2 from beta release....

I wish all the best to Oleg and team and cant wait for his new hit...

[Feathered_IV]

It's a fantastic sim with new content being added all the time and a dev team that listens to it's customers and keeps them informed.

[Baron]

definately buy it. the aircraft are works of art. and the damage model is amazing. i find il2 very hard to play after RoF. it really shows its age.


Without going into why, my thoughts are the exactly the other way arround.

Very nice ac moddels but the rest?


It cracks me up thinking about that threadh over at HQ about the Handly Page with 75(ish)% of its wingarea shot of and RoF more or less proved it would actually would fly irl since it did so in the game (or some nonsens to that effect) A user actually had to prove there was a fault in the model that needed correction before they did anything about it.

Anyways, im sure the OP knows if he would like it or not, since he allredy tried the demo (i think) and its not like the annual budget would go down the crapper if he didnt after bying it ;) (unless he wants to buy ALL the planes that is, hihi....just kidding...maby:))

[Chivas]

If your a combat flight simmer you must have it in your collection. I enjoy the game but I'm more a WW2 combat flight simmer. Cliffs of Dover...IL-2 Strumovik will be taking up all my flying time.

[WTE_Galway]

RoF originally shot themselves in the foot with a limited plane-set on first release and an intrusive unpopular DRM, negatively effecting initial sales.

They have fixed those issues and seem to have recovered from the initial setback.

[1.JaVA_Sharp]

or maybe fsx in the future

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zfE_4JzwR4

[JG52Uther]

Took me a long time to buy it.I like it,for what it is,its very pretty.I am with Baron re the DM, its been modelled in a strange way.I don't fly it much,because I am mainly an online flyer,and RoF kicks me out of servers after a few minutes flying.Frustrating,and it doesn't happen in other online games I play.
I am not going to rip in to RoF, it is a good game, and worth having in your collection. The SE5A is brilliant,and its nice just to fly around in that,low level over the landscape.
As to its popularity, I am lucky to see 50 people online in the RoF server list,whereas I still see 600-700 regularly in HL playing il2.

[Tvrdi]

oh I never expirienced disco from syndicate which is full real server and most popular....50ppl online on server list? we usually have that much on syndicate server.....sundays are the peak....how many are in one IL2 server? hah

now, you sound like only IL2 fanboy....

I dont like when ppl bitch about something they play occasionally or never...IL2 was my love.....ROF is my new love.....IL2 is good but its an old bitch everybody loves because they like blondes....and ROF is a brunette....

[JG52Uther]

Spits V 109s 4.10 server usually has 50+ in the server every night...
See,this is the thing with RoF,if you criticise in any way,you get jumped on!
Am I an il2 fanboy? Sure,thats why I'm here,and I assume why you are here.
Am I a RoF fanboy? Sure,thats why I am on the RoF forum as well.
I have RoF,have all the planes,have the Gotha on pre order,and enjoy flying it.
I'm even in one of the better known RoF squads.If I could fly it more often I would,but my internet conspires against me with RoF for some reason.
As I said,its worth having in the collection,but its not the holy grail,its a game.
The O/P should buy it,as its worth the purchase price.

[kimosabi]

Stating that RoF has just as much players online as IL-2 does is just wrong. The two RoF Syndicate servers are pretty much the only ones that have 10+ players online at a regular basis. I rarely see more than 50 on either one.

As far as online gaming goes, RoF is still well behind IL-2 when it comes to populated servers. Plus that the last three interesting dogfights I've been into on the Syndicate have been cancelled by a quite annoying disconnect. I can fly for an hour or ten minutes, doesn't matter. The disconnects happen Tvrdi and there's no way in hell there's "usually" 50+ players online at the Syndicate. Weekends yes, weekdays hell no. You sound like a RoF fanboy. ;)

As for recommending the game itself, I sure can. But I would say that it's quite immature in comparison to IL-2. The next 5 patches will greatly improve RoF and 1.016 was just awesome.

[TUSA/TX-Gunslinger]

Buy it now.

I was an original beta tester, and spent 18 months on the test team with Rise of Flight - spending countless hours flying these aircraft.

It takes quite a bit of time to master this sim, as the FM and atmosphere is significantly more complex than previous prop sims.

ROF is probably one of the most mis-understood titles in the genre. Many opinions have and are posted about it, with the usual embellishments (pro and con) added to the point that the only real way to understand it, is to experience it.

I believe three improvments will be released this year:

1) Single player career
2) A single significant addition to the FM which will "right" many of the percieved FM deviations from pilot accounts for all aircraft
3) more twin seaters and missing singles

Updates have been constant at the 2 to 3 month mark - with significant content and enhancements. Go to the ROF forums and web pages and see for yourself.

If you wait until it's perfect, you'll be a long way down on the proficiency index.

I believe that ROF is a better prepartory experience for SOW than Il2, actually. Of course, that's just my opinion.

Buy it now, play it now. It's an awesome achievement in it's own right.

S!

Gunny

[MD_Titus]

oh I never expirienced disco from syndicate which is full real server and most popular....50ppl online on server list? we usually have that much on syndicate server.....sundays are the peak....how many are in one IL2 server? hah

now, you sound like only IL2 fanboy....

I dont like when ppl bitch about something they play occasionally or never...IL2 was my love.....ROF is my new love.....IL2 is good but its an old bitch everybody loves because they like blondes....and ROF is a brunette....

comedy post of the week tbf.

[kimosabi]

I believe that ROF is a better prepartory experience for SOW than Il2, actually. Of course, that's just my opinion.



That's interesting. I don't necessarily agree with that but how do you come to such conclusions? Graphics?

[Flanker35M]

S!

I think he meant partially graphics and partially the FM. I have RoF and the FM feels much more dynamic than in IL-2. But again we are comparing 2 very different products here. I only say that we never have too many QUALITY flight sims and RoF + IL-2 fall into this category..in their own respective ways.

[Coen020]

sorry for the noobishness, but wat is FM?

[Baron]

sorry for the noobishness, but wat is FM?


FM = Flight Model

How the aircraft behaves in the air compared to real life.

[kimosabi]

S!

I think he meant partially graphics and partially the FM. I have RoF and the FM feels much more dynamic than in IL-2. But again we are comparing 2 very different products here. I only say that we never have too many QUALITY flight sims and RoF + IL-2 fall into this category..in their own respective ways.

~S~ Flanker,

Yeah both are great sims(although I have problems standing up for the "pay per fly" business model), but dynamically I'd say that WW1 and WW2 era aircrafts aren't comparable when it comes to that. RoF FM is really good but I wouldn't say that it should, or can, compete with the FM of WW2 aircrafts. IMO that would be comparing apples to oranges.

[II/JG54_Zent]

i like ROF a lot .. actually i quit Il2 about a year ago because i got tired of it..flying a plane in ROF is mostly much more demanding and difficult then in IL2 because the FM is really more subtle and dynamic and some of those ROF planes are really twisty bitches... i do enjoy that...try some early birds and some wind and rain and you will have a hell of a time just to hold the plane in the air...
It also looks very good and has tremendous potential.. the mission builder is really complex and powerfull and imho the ROF community is just starting to discover what is possible with ROF... also the devs are really improving the game continously and talking with the users...its a really good and mature community i would say...


What i do lack in ROF though is simply the game, the single player right now is not very entertaining for long...the two campaigns are good and have very demanding missions but after that its basically boredom, the old career mode is just not good... (will hopefully change soon with new career mode) and online there is not too much happening either...there are enough servers but most of them are empty most of the time...Syndicate server is great in a way and mostly populated but for my taste its too realistic (engine prewarm, loooong flight times, huge maps) and there are too many hardcore ROF aces in it with hundreds of flight hours.... if you fly there alone you fly for half an hour until you find someone and when you meet one then usually you dont have much of a chance (and i consider myself a rather good pilot, but i can only fly once or twice a week) because its FB Viks, or J99 Winger or whoever..
and there are some easy fun DF arcade servers...but if you look for something which is neither for the ultrahardcore or the total newbies the situation is frustrating...

I do have extraordinary online fun every monday with my buddies from Tangmere Pilots.. so if you find a good squad or fangroup you actually can have a lot of fun with ROF, the mulitplayer in itsself is excellent and with the bombers the scenarios get more diverse...

I would say wait until the next patch (with new offline career mode) and give it a try then...

[Neil Lowe]

Can you record tracks (replays) with ROF?

Cheers, Neil :)

[Feathered_IV]

You can. It's more customizable than the Il-2 track recorder. Plus you can skip forwards and backwards in a track. Something that Cliffs of Dover won't do.

[Neil Lowe]

Awesome news, thanks my feathered friend ;)

Cheers, Neil :)

[Bobb4]

Buy, it is good. It has a few glaring FM and DM problems. But it is a stunning game.
Bought is about two months ago and it is light years ahead of when it was intially released.
Plus when ROF2 is released using the COD engine it will be the best ever. :grin:

[Ctrl E]

The other wonderful part is the engine management. I really enjoy having to juggle the engine mixture and radiator while tangling with enemy aircraft.

[Feathered_IV]

The Spad is great for that. The throttle, mixture and radiator management make it really absorbing just to fly around in.

One further bit of trivia about RoF; Core members of the development staff are those who used to go by the name of the Gennadich Team. The ones who developed Il-2's online war system. Small world eh?

[KaHzModAn]

The other wonderful part is the engine management. I really enjoy having to juggle the engine mixture and radiator while tangling with enemy aircraft.

Yes that is something I miss in IL2, cause in IL2 you just have to close radiator and when you see an overheat, you just open, throttle down, and here you go again...

In RoF, for example, if you dive in an Se5a, you can dive pretty hard and the structure will hold tight, but watch your engine as it may overrev, ending that beautiful and deadly dive in a long and vulnerable glide down to the ground...

Or fully opening your radiator if you are idling in a descent, your engine will cool down to a point you will have problems getting some power back, or it can even fully stop and you may have problems restarting it !

Another thing is wounds! they are handled in the best way i've ever seen in a Sim ! The first version was awefull... but now when you get hit, besides from the usual "slower" controls, you are stunned for a few seconds, with your ears whistling, vision very blurry, blood drops on the screen...

So RoF has a great feeling, but as it was said before, it lacks the game part...
It might be better in squad but in multi, you go on "air-quake" servers which have little interest to me, or you go to the syndicate server to have semi historical missions but then you fall against aces against who you can't do anything... so you try solo career and it really is bad at the moment...
But there is a very much awaited new career mode that is gonna be released soon (in 1.17 if everything goes well), so I really am counting on this mode !

Anyway, it's worth buying and I don't regret any penny I spent on it (even though I own each and every plane + Gotha)

[Ctrl E]

yes. you really have to think through your attacks. will the wings hold out if i dive from this height on the target? will the engine overrev?

then your guns jam at the crucial moment!

and it is beautiful. i enjoy just taking the sopwith pup out for a flip and skimming low over the water. am hoping the tigermoth in Cliffs of Dover is as enjoyable.

[Coen020]

GOT IT!

Thanks for all the replies guys, you made me buy it, so maybe Aerosoft has to thank you guys aswell :P

still have to try it though, having a major busy month at school at the moment.
the box is just watching me and laughing at me and it's annoying as hell (if you look real well it has a smile on it),

but as always homework goes first.

[JG52Uther]

Good for you!
If you have any questions,or problems,post at the RoF forums,as they are very helpful.

[bf-110]

Tried the demo.It´s an interesting game that have a future,althought having to register to play the game is really not a nice attitude towards the players.
Althought not identical to IL2 in its "noob" flight mode,its very enjoyable,and I strongly believe the game is quite a taste of Storm of War.

But I believe I will wait till the game get cheaper and have more features.

[Fearfactor]

ROF doesn't even have a static campaign, let alone a dynamic one. At least COD will have a static campaign set up. I'll buy COD but I have yet to even consider ROF. One main reason combat sims are dying is because devs are too lazy to create much offline content.
It's well known that most sim players like offline. I play 99% offline, only go online to do something different for a change.

[Acid]

ROF doesn't even have a static campaign, let alone a dynamic one. At least COD will have a static campaign set up. I'll buy COD but I have yet to even consider ROF. One main reason combat sims are dying is because devs are too lazy to create much offline content.
It's well known that most sim players like offline. I play 99% offline, only go online to do something different for a change.

They are adding a pilot career mode, much like red baron 2's, one reason why im going to get it, and because it looks like a good game.

I dont know if CoD will include a pilot career mode on release since there's no dynamic campaign i'm thinking there wont be, hopefully they'll have one later on in a update or addon.?

[David603]

They are adding a pilot career mode, much like red baron 2's, one reason why im going to get it, and because it looks like a good game.

I dont know if CoD will include a pilot career mode on release since there's no dynamic campaign i'm thinking there wont be, hopefully they'll have one later on in a update or addon.?
There are scripted singleplayer campaigns for both sides in CoD.

[LukeFF]

ROF doesn't even have a static campaign, let alone a dynamic one.

Try again. There are three static campaigns that ship with the game: one a training campaign, one for the Central Powers, and one for the Allied Powers.

[vanderstok]

One main reason combat sims are dying is because devs are too lazy to create much offline content.
.

Too lazy? I have never seen a small team work so hard and deliver so much as the RoF team did. I'm pretty sure the same goes for the CoD team.

You must be one of those strange creatures that think by throwing insults they'll get what they want. Or is that just how your parents raised you?

[Blackdog_kt]

I don't think the RoF guys were lazy. I think they were forced to release it way too prematurely due to financial reasons, plus one of their investors decided on using the constant online requirement. All that gave it a slow start and it's been playing catch up for a while.

That being said, i've tried the demo on various times during its life and i still think it has some way to go before it's something i can consider what i call a complete game in an "out of the box, install and play" sense.
If they had a version with enough flyables, a different DRM and a proper offline campaign (that uses the correct AI opposition, not spawning sopwith camels against my eindecker) i would reconsider.

Then again, i was recently looking it up again and i see people still complain about the render distance and the need to use zoom view to see the dots as close as 2km from their aircraft, so i don't know if such annoyances can be ironed out or it's a case of something that's buried too deep in the game's engine to change.

I think that's the problem with a pay-per-plane business model, even if they are cheap: developers are forced to focus on creating a constant stream of new flyable aircraft to sustain their revenue, almost to the expense of everything else in the sim, plus these flyables are not really that pricey from a developer's point of view but they are from a user's point of view if you want to have more than 4-5 of them.

On the other hand if they did it a la IL2 (content upgrades with major expansions only), they'd have more time to work on other stuff in-between releases of expansions: bug fixing, game engine upgrades, extra AI units to help enrich missions and campaigns, etc. Plus, they would be able to sell it for $50 instead of $5 and more people would buy it. Even if an expansion includes 5 planes i'm not interested in among a total of 10, i still consider it a better value than buying 5 planes individually, because expansions usually include extra maps or other goodies (some AI ground units, added mission builder capabilities or just a new mission type or multiplayer mode as an extra selling point). So, a full-on expansion is also a way for a developer to sell extra flyables to me that i wouldn't otherwise buy individually. ;)

What i'm really interested to see is how long it takes before a 3d party group makes a WW1 sim out of Oleg's new engine and how it would compare to RoF.

[Bryan21cag]

Im sure this has already been covered but i have been really getting into this game waiting for IL2 COD to realease.

1. Make sure you have a pretty high performance computer. I had a diecent one but because of the level of detail and large battle areas that need to be loaded. even if the game is playable you could incur 20 min load times per mission (that was me) which is not fun if you get killed rite off the bat and need to re fly the mission.

2. The offline game play is limited but not bad. The career mode i think randomly generates missions to fly and allows you to rack up your kills.

3. the online is really fun if you either normally fly with full switches (full realistic difficulty) or log on when one of the 2 beginner rooms have people in them. Most all of the multiplayer rooms are full switches only. but again pretty fun.

I would definitely recommend this game after allowing for a few days of learning curve. the menu navigation is just a little clunky but for the most part i would say very well put together.

[BigC208]

@Bryan22cag,

I have a duocore running at 3.4 ghz and a 8800gts, 1680x1050. My quick missions used to take 4 or 5 minutes to load. I asked about this on the RoF forum and they gave me some tips. Turn post effects off, keep video usage around 40% by playing with the quality settings. In the quick mission menu I turn all options off. No vehicles, AAA, Artillery, Buildings, Trains, Armour, Balloons, Ships. Who needs AAA shooting at him in a dogfight anyway?
I can now load a quick mission in about 30 seconds and a refly even faster. Framerates are smooth as long as I keep it under 20 planes and not too many bombers, they're really fps killers.

My system has problems with the career missions. They demand too much from my system. Online missions are no problem and run smooth.

Best flightmodel in a homecomputer sim I've played with going back to the first microsoft sim I had on the commodore 64 in 1985. Looking forward to CoD to take that title back or at least equal it.

[Alien]

Too lazy? I have never seen a small team work so hard and deliver so much as the RoF team did. I'm pretty sure the same goes for the CoD team.

You must be one of those strange creatures that think by throwing insults they'll get what they want. Or is that just how your parents raised you?

Oh please, c'mon! How could RoF with 4 planes, and almost none physics compare to CoD?! If it had to, you'd have in CoD only Hurricane, Spitfire, Bf 109 and Stuka available AT ALL and have to PAY MONEY for rest of content which SHOULD be included for that 50-60 bucks!

[BigC208]

Almost no physics? That program has lot's of physics, 100% realistic? nope, but better than anything this side of a 6 million dollar level D sim at Flight Safety International. I bought the Iron Cross Edition that had 8 planes plus one bonus plane.

You're right, when it came out a year ago, it was not a finnished product. I did not buy it then because of the DRM requirements. When they dropped those I looked at it again. The $50 I spend on ICE was worth every penny. Including the 50 bucks I spend on extra aircraft.

We got spoiled by how Oleg gave us all the free stuff when Il2 came out. Those days are over. If you want to play you got to pay. Don't go all negative on a game because it cost more than you're willing to pay. Judge it on it's merits.

[Alien]

Well I didn't judge a game, but compared it IN MOMENT OF RELEASE to expected Il-2 CoD's content IN MOMENT OF RELEASE. I didn't want it to sound like criticism.

[Jotaele]

Buy it, you will enjoy a totally diferent way to dogfight , a easy ready to fly game with autoupdates, few controls to learn and configure (its a bit more complex to finetunning it,joy in example), and the most important, you support the flight sim industrie, not only this sim.Each time one sim becomes a good inversion, more problabilitis you have of futures inversions.

[SAS]

Almost no physics? That program has lot's of physics
yes it has.
this game gives me so believable feeling of flight that taking off one time in Dr1 after half-of-year pause in flying rof - taking me back again to flying this scrap planes :)
and damn it good!
feeling of aircraft, wind noise in the ears, rattle of this prehistoric mg's...
this game makes you believe that you're flying, rather than riding on the railes :)

[Redwan]

Why can't you buy both ?

Is it so expensive that you heed the assessment of the manrimonial budget authority first :grin:

[Tvrdi]

I was a beta tester in ROF. I would try to sum up cons and pros.

pros:
- best FM up to date; DM too to some extent
- features newer seen before in a sim (like realistic sun glare, moving clouds with moving cloud shadows; you can extinguish engine fire with fast dive etc etc)
- realistic weather with impact on FM
- nice graphics
- very detailed cockpits and plane models
- friendly community (they have "fights too", thats how it is with simmers, but generally friendly and at hand if needed)
- devs listen their customers however on some issues they are stubborn (some of them spec.) and will not change a thing...

cons:
- optimisation/graphics problems (on some systems (even on latest HW) some users experience flashy textures (me included) when flying over no mans land - this is due to "optimisation" as explained from devs; on some systems stutters often, flickering landscape on some areas etc etc)...it was explained that its "hardcoded" and will not be changed.....this started to happen after introducing cloud shadows...
- ackward and non intuitive mission editor
- still no career mode
- small multiplayer community (50 players at best at weekends; and that is on most popular server)
- FM issues on some planes still not fixed (N17 roll rate, se5a engine etc..)
- limitations regarding number of units (planes and ground units) on server...very limited for smooth gameplay
- lack of AA on landscape resulting in heavy shimmering for most players....
- DM issues; some planes still able to fly with whole wings ripped off (I know it was possible for a short period of time but in the sim you can fly longer....I know in modern era there were planes with very small wings which could fly, but they were constructed to fly like that....WW1 wingless plane couldnt for sure...)
- DOT system....well il2 view system isnt much better but it is better than in ROF...in ROF you need to apply max zoom to see planes at greater distances; if you unzoom they disappear....like we have a binoculars sticked onto our faces...and usually its painful to use super zoom all the time to scan the skies)

All in all its a great sim (regarding feeling in flight) but have some serious optimisation issues + ackward viewing system).....

[Kwiatek]

Good points Tvrdi.

The worst things for me are:
- poor optimisation expecially for online playings ( in large map servers i got lags and low fps even in any other game i dont have problems)
- some DM issuses as you describe
- even if Flight Model Engine and immersion from flying is very good and high still there are some strange things - most German planes dont want to stall ( accelerated stall) and was too easy to fly ( fly more like kites not real planes) and very strange/unreslistic method to get out of spins in most planes

BTW you said you was betatester so its mean you are not now? whats up?

[Coen020]

guys, not trying to be rude here, but i already have the game since like 2 moths or so, someone digged this thread up, and now it's quite useless.

Maybe it should be closed or something?

Be that as it may, i think it's a great game, but i really am missing some sort of campaign, and i'm just hinging back to il-2. It's simply just better.

[Jotaele]

guys, not trying to be rude here, but i already have the game since like 2 moths or so, someone digged this thread up, and now it's quite useless.

Maybe it should be closed or something?

Be that as it may, i think it's a great game, but i really am missing some sort of campaign, and i'm just hinging back to il-2. It's simply just better.


LOL!!!! :lol:

At least could you tell us your experience with the game?

[Coen020]

Well the graphics are amazing, it's really nice to fly around. However the singeplayer missions are quite dull, and online it's kind of lonely ( although i haven't tried online play that much).

Also i think TrackIR or Freetrack is pretty nescessary, i don't have it and half the time i'm looking for my opponent, which is annoying beyond human understanding.

I've read from other ROF players that the creators are coming with a patch that will implement a good campaign, so thumbs up for that i guess.

I dunno, it's a good game but after playing it 3 days i stepped back to my trusty Il-2 Sturmovik 1946.

[Bearcat]

I'd say that depends.. if you like WWI action buy it... I have come to the conclusion that I prefer WWII flying over anything else... Jets.Helos or Bi Planes.. The Warbirds are my niche so to speak.. but just as a sim.. it is a decent product.. it is a good product...

[robtek]

My experience with RoF is that it has many things to attract players but not enough to hold them (except a, not really big, number of hardcore fans)

[Corto]

S!

Buy ROF.

[kimosabi]

My experience with RoF is that it has many things to attract players but not enough to hold them (except a, not really big, number of hardcore fans)

I wouldn't agree with you 3 months ago but now I do. I find myself moving back towards IL-2 more and more as time progresses. When CoD:IL-2 arrives, RoF will most probably fade away from my PC completely.

#1 reason is that WW1 aircrafts aren't hardcore enough.

There are other reasons as well but that's another story.

[bf-110]

About the lack of stuff.

RoF is on the early stages.It´s quite like Cliffs of Dover when get released.Very few things compared to the veteran IL2.
It´s like a pack of chips.You can´t just eat one today and other next week.You need to see everything at once.That is the only thing that makes me kinda upset with the first release of SoW


#1 reason is that WW1 aircrafts aren't hardcore enough.



No??I fired at some planes and they resisted quite enough!If you mean firepower,then you are right.

[onlyforbrian]

I have it but I'm a really disappointed with it, I use a logitech 3D stick, so I'm not sure it's the stick but I found the flight model overdone. The planes really overeact, and bob around making it extremely difficult to line up a shot. Also I find the gunnery unrealistic. It seems I need to pump an unreal amount of hits into a plane to see any damage effect, and yet the ai planes, including tail gunners only seem to need to hit me once or twice to take me out. The only way I managed to reduce these problems is to set myself into "invincible" and "simple" flight model. But that now makes it feel like an arcade game,..but at least I now can "fly" it. Although the graphics are nice. I have every version of IL2 and found even the early versions fly , handle, and shoot much better and more realistic than ROF. Plus ROF only gives you about 4 flyable planes, and you need to purchase each extra plane for 7 or 8 bucks each, a real rip off in my humble opinion. I'm a real pilot by the way, so I should have a pretty good idea of what feels more realistic.

[onlyforbrian]

I don't think the RoF guys were lazy. I think they were forced to release it way too prematurely due to financial reasons, plus one of their investors decided on using the constant online requirement. All that gave it a slow start and it's been playing catch up for a while.

That being said, i've tried the demo on various times during its life and i still think it has some way to go before it's something i can consider what i call a complete game in an "out of the box, install and play" sense.
If they had a version with enough flyables, a different DRM and a proper offline campaign (that uses the correct AI opposition, not spawning sopwith camels against my eindecker) i would reconsider.

Then again, i was recently looking it up again and i see people still complain about the render distance and the need to use zoom view to see the dots as close as 2km from their aircraft, so i don't know if such annoyances can be ironed out or it's a case of something that's buried too deep in the game's engine to change.

I think that's the problem with a pay-per-plane business model, even if they are cheap: developers are forced to focus on creating a constant stream of new flyable aircraft to sustain their revenue, almost to the expense of everything else in the sim, plus these flyables are not really that pricey from a developer's point of view but they are from a user's point of view if you want to have more than 4-5 of them.

On the other hand if they did it a la IL2 (content upgrades with major expansions only), they'd have more time to work on other stuff in-between releases of expansions: bug fixing, game engine upgrades, extra AI units to help enrich missions and campaigns, etc. Plus, they would be able to sell it for $50 instead of $5 and more people would buy it. Even if an expansion includes 5 planes i'm not interested in among a total of 10, i still consider it a better value than buying 5 planes individually, because expansions usually include extra maps or other goodies (some AI ground units, added mission builder capabilities or just a new mission type or multiplayer mode as an extra selling point). So, a full-on expansion is also a way for a developer to sell extra flyables to me that i wouldn't otherwise buy individually. ;)

What i'm really interested to see is how long it takes before a 3d party group makes a WW1 sim out of Oleg's new engine and how it would compare to RoF.
$5..?? Say What??? I paid more than $50 for my copy of ROF and although they occasionally have their older planes on special for $2.99, the regular price is much higher, for example the new Gotha bomber is $11.99 FOR ONE PLANE!!! Naturally, I passed on it.

[BigC208]

Onlyforbrian, maybe it's time for a new joystick. I just replaced my CH Combat stick with a Warthog Hotas. Took it up for a qmb duel in a FokkerDVII. Dispatched 5 Camels with 270 bullets(135 per gun). This was at the easy AI setting so not that big of a deal but compared to before. I used too spend all 500 bullets and maybe get 1 or 2 kills. I can now aim at the engine and set it on fire or put 15 or 20 bullets in a wingroot and it'll snap right off when he pulls a bunch of g's.

I went from spray and pray to sniper over night(offline). It's not me it's the stick. The flight models for the rotary engine equiped aircraft are squirly and I'm still getting used to using the torque to my advantage. I have no real stick time in rotaries so I can't comment if it's realistic or not.

The inline equiped planes feel like the reall deal though. I've got about 350 hrs in gliders, mostly older K7, K8 and even some anno 1938 Gronau Baby time. These wood and metal, covered with doped linnen gliders feel just like the kites in RoF. Forward and sideslips are a blast and even sound like the real thing.

Anyone getting bored with RoF should join a full real server. I did a few days ago and that was a whole new experience. I got nailed a couple of times and never knew who or what hit me. One moment I see a speck on the horizon and by the time I recognized it as a bandit he allready punched me a bloody nose. Sobering to say the least. Even with CoD coming out soon, this thing's going to stay on my hard drive for a while.

[Feathered_IV]

http://riseofflight.com/Blogs/default.aspx

http://riseofflight.com/SharedResources/Blog/Posts/DFW/preview/6.jpg

[waspfarmer]

I purchased it when it was first released. I saw it's wonderful potential, but frankly I was rather cheezed because it felt like I paid full price for an incomplete product. Several patches and many moons later, it's MUCH more complete and smoother running. Visually fantastic and a great flyer. I still find the online system confusing and frustrating and my attempts to figure it out have quickly lead to IL-2 sessions. I suppose you could take a friend to a movie with your money instead, but that's risky!

[Blackdog_kt]

$5..?? Say What??? I paid more than $50 for my copy of ROF and although they occasionally have their older planes on special for $2.99, the regular price is much higher, for example the new Gotha bomber is $11.99 FOR ONE PLANE!!! Naturally, I passed on it.

I'm not saying these are the RoF prices, i just used an easy, round number for the sake of the example.

What i'm saying is i'd rather pay $50 for a full add-on that will have other kinds of content besides flyable planes than pay the same amount on individual flyable aircaft, because it gives me more "tools" to populate the game world and recreate the scenarios that are within a simulator's scope. ;)

[onlyforbrian]

THANKS MAYBE I'LL TRY ANOTHER JOYSTICK..THE SPRING IN THE LOGITECH FEELS REALLY HEAVY, AND I NEVER TRIED IT ON il2 YET, MY il2 FLEW LIKE A DREAM WHEN I WAS USING A VERY OLD MICROSOFT 3d SIDEWINDER. ALSO, HOW DO YOU SWITCH TO BOMBER GUNNER OR CAN YOU?

[FlyingShark]

Buy Rise of FLight. It's the greatest WWI sim out there, graphics, flightmodel, regular updates,... and as a sim in general it's the greatest too. Even if CoD would be even better, RoF will still be the best WWI flightsim out there. And, as you're here because you're interested in WWII aircraft, you must have at least a slight interest in WWI aircraft too and RoF is simply the best sim for that era.


~S~

[Jaws2002]

Man, that Gotha bomber is a mean beast. I just love that flight model. Is one of the most fun plane to fly in any game so far. :grin: I like that flight model even more than that Black Shark.:-P
Just gorgeous fun.
After I saw few clips from CoD, I think ROF players will addapt very quickly to the new FM. If you can fly the Gotha and the DH2 you won't have any problem with a Spit or 109.:mrgreen:

A couple of nights in Syndicate server in ROF is the best training one can have for CoD.:-P 8)

[Jaws2002]

THANKS MAYBE I'LL TRY ANOTHER JOYSTICK..THE SPRING IN THE LOGITECH FEELS REALLY HEAVY, AND I NEVER TRIED IT ON il2 YET, MY il2 FLEW LIKE A DREAM WHEN I WAS USING A VERY OLD MICROSOFT 3d SIDEWINDER. ALSO, HOW DO YOU SWITCH TO BOMBER GUNNER OR CAN YOU?

ROF planes need constant imput and adjustment and dramatically more work close to stall speeds. Maybe that's why feels so different.

To use the bomber gunners you click Ctrl+C to switch to the position you want and then press T to take control of the gun. Just be careful what you shoot at.:eek: Specially when you shoot from the Gotha trough that tunel in the fuselage.:lol: I shot a bunch of holes in the belly of the plane trying to hit that sneaky Camel.:lol: Then when i finally got over the target at decent altitude, my bombs wouldn't drop. I shot the bomb release mechanism. :lol:

[Avimimus]

PM me if you want a working logitech profile (it is very difficult to fly DCS or ROF using these older sticks).

[bf-110]

I just need to find the correct responses.
Anyone know how to make (adjust the responses of) the planes of RoF to fly as smooth as the IL2 ones?

Can´t wait to see more unorthodox planes in RoF,like the Ilya Mourumetz,the Zeppelin R.VI,the Etrich Taube,italian planes,american ones... (probably no MB-1...)

[ZaltysZ]

I just need to find the correct responses.
Anyone know how to make (adjust the responses of) the planes of RoF to fly as smooth as the IL2 ones?

Depends on meaning of "smooth".

[Superluminal_8]

I just need to find the correct responses.
Anyone know how to make (adjust the responses of) the planes of RoF to fly as smooth as the IL2 ones?


I have put my responses like this and it feels quite smooth to me.

I have the same roll response for every aircraft so far.
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c84/S-8/Rollcamel.jpg

The Camel pitch
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c84/S-8/Pitchcamel.jpg

The only thing I change now is the pitch for a new aircraft to fly level
Example: the SE5 and Dr1 pitch response.
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c84/S-8/PitchSE5.jpg

Change the response and hit save and name the response,the aircraft name is a good choice,and then you have a response curve for each one.(If you didn´t know that off course,but I wrote it anyway IF you didn´t know that... :) )

[bf-110]

I mean.
You hit the pitch forward key (up arrow for me) and the plane goes up only after 1 or 2 seconds,and stop going up after a few time you stopped pressing up.The responses are too late.If you understand what I mean.

[Feathered_IV]

If there wasn't that delay for you when you fly using the keyboard, it'd be full control deflection for every little press of the button. I'd seriously consider getting some sort of stick though if I were you.

[ZaltysZ]

I mean.
You hit the pitch forward key (up arrow for me) and the plane goes up only after 1 or 2 seconds,and stop going up after a few time you stopped pressing up.The responses are too late.If you understand what I mean.

Sick :-P But anyway, maybe PPjoy may be useful for you? I think it allows to create virtual joystick with keyboard mapped to its axis. In this way, you may be able to adjust response.

[onlyforbrian]

That's funny Jaws...I guess it was funny too the first time these piloys shot their own props off..they must have said a big... WTF??? Anyway thanks for the gunner info :)

[Buzpilot]

I have this balloon sim, and yes, it's a balloon you fly in a 1km radius balloon, and can't spot any plane outside it.
Thats the only thing they need to fix, but i read somewhere they can't, because of the graphic engine.
Also, i tried the new 2 engine bomber, but when i used my Warthog throttle to program engine start, with 'Eng Oper' buttons, it fail to recognize the buttons after programming them in ok, and a error msg, input unreadable. needed 'Recovery' to fix that.
But exept for this ,it's a great sim , but not for real combat , turn combat where you know where to meet, is only option.