Rise of flight buy or not?
 

I am one mouse click away from buying Rise of flight Iron Cross edition.
But being more fond of singel player than multi-player i would like to know if the campaigns are good. Are they dynamic or static?

Anyone that can share some experienced info?

And is it any point buying the iron cross edition when the plan is mostly SP with occasionally MP?

Thanks!

I don't play ROF in SP myself, but for the little I've tried the campaign system is well done, even if it's still in beta status.
If you want, install the free to play version and try it out ! You have acces to the career mode for the two free planes, i.e SPAD XIII and Albatros Dva.

There's also a third party campaign generator that many people seem to like.

What personally puts me a bit off with SP is the A.I. which I find quite boring and not very diversified, but I think that years of MP have definitely spoiled SP in flight sims for me...

With ICE you have some neat planes that will allow you to fly most Missions in MP, except maybe some early war scenarios.

I started an offline campaign.. played a few mission.. it all seemed very well done, but I did not fly it enough to really coment on it.. The online play is just too good to pass up! ;)

They have made some big positive changes to the AI in the latest patch I believe, and if you get the free version you can also download current and future patches and choose what aircraft to buy from there.

For anyone sitting on the fence about RoF you cant go wrong trying it for free.

I'd say it depends on how much you're about to pay for it and which a/c you'd like to fly.

I bought the Iron Cross edition myself, which was a bit daft because I only fly the RFC planes. The free download plus some DLC RFC planes would've been more sensible for me, but I bought it about a month before they introduced the free download. Typical!

But, RoF is an excellent sim which I tend to fly offline mostly. The career mode is excellent. Ditto the campaigns.

Download the free version, then buy a/c as you see fit would be my take on it, unless ICE is going cheaper than it would be to buy all those a/c.

Just do the sums and see which works out best for you. ;)

Thanks for all the answers. I just tried the free version and it seems damn nice. Think i'm going for it :)

ROF is great combat sim and the best, u Can download demo game, and update for only 9,99$ and game with more planes. great game...

If you're going to be mainly playing SP I'd suggest just getting the free version then adding in whatever planes you want as you want them. I got the Iron Cross edition, but I don't fly 75% of the Aircraft that came in it. Infact, the aircraft I fly most don't come in it I don't think. I mainly fly the SE5a, Dolphin, the DH.2, Both German monoplanes, HP0400 and the CV.III (or whatever it is), as far as I remember only the SE5a came in the IC edition, all the others I've bought seperately. It is nice to have the opportunity to fly the others that come with the IC though I suppose, especially for online just incase the server has a different plane set to what you've bought.

Anyway, the dynamic campaign is excellent. Well worth it

and as single player PatWillsons Campaign generator and the avialable AI mod are very helpful and improve the gameexperience a lot !

Great info. look's like i'm gonna be busy harassing trenches and knocking down paper planes :D

Its a must buy,just a shame i havent got as much time as i would like to put into it.

Cheese

Or talent. :mrgreen:

To the Op, yes it's very good but it isn't everyone's cup of tea so definitely try before you buy. It's a shame really, because you've just missed the 50% off sale (and the ICE $9.99 sale), but they do come around every so often.

You'll find RoF has nice damage modelling - the result of a slight misjudgement while straffing vehicles:

http://i958.photobucket.com/albums/a...__17_52_48.jpg

Another screenshot, after a little tweaking with Paint.NET: ;)
http://i958.photobucket.com/albums/a...__18_30_17.jpg

You should buy whatever strikes you as interesting and fun.

If you enjoy it then its money well spent.

No one can answer the question whether or not that you will like it. Only you can answer that.

Some people hate broccoli and others crave it. But at the end of the day there is a substantial market for it regardless if I decide I don't.

With 6 billion people inhabiting our world, if half of them turned over their couch cushions and gave you a single penny that fell from someones pocket you would have over 15 million dollars. But if 10,000 people decided not to give you that penny you would not notice it.

Well, caved in and bought the ICE though i actually intended to buy the ultra upgrade containing all the planes. Oh, well... that's how it goes when shopping dead tired :)
To bad they don't have optional upgrade packs with planes.

well, now i need to find some engine management guides :)

I bought RoF when it was released and have bought later all the aditional planes and items.

I dont play it much, but I think that COD is a piece of "history of aviation" that has come to life in the form of a game. And that is worth supporting, even if I don´t play that much.

I know I have spend quite a few euros on that, but I know it will be waitnig for me until I have a "WWI era boost". Right now I am in a WWII phase.

IMHO, the must have trilogy is

ROF,COD and BMS

that covers pretty much all the "eras", but damm, I wish someone released a Vietnam era sim with the quality of the sims in my trilogy :)

What is BMS?

Falcon 4 BMS 4.32

A hardcore F-16 simm. Old (F4, not the BMS version), but terrific.

you can check it out here:

http://www.benchmarksims.org/forum/

highly recommendable if you like jetfighters

Ah, i know Falcon well. Used to play it years ago :)

This is a good place to start, the new RoF manual is very good...

http://riseofflight.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?t=27806

Check out Requiems videos on YouTube. They're very well done and cover a wide range of aircraft



http://www.youtube.com/user/Requiem10NS#p/a

Thanks again. Need all the info i can get.
I have to say that the Career mode is damn nice. It brings back memories from the old Amiga times when i played "Wings" :D

Also, some of the planes are insane to fly. I am all over the place flying a paper kite in a storm lol.
One thing's for sure. The pilots in WWI had some big balls.

They've got a very helpful community as well, Raggz. Don't be shy to ask questions on their forums.

I gotta admit I love RoF. Mind you, I have a family connection to the era: My Grandfather was in a pilot in the RFC/ RAF 1917-19. Can't wait for their next release: DH4.... The plane he flew. Been waiting for a good simulation of it for years!! :)

Try out the training missions in RoF .. and put ON the captioning option for them, otherwise you wont know what to do at exactly the right moment.

IMHO: all the RoF training missions need to be re-done.

Otherwise, go for it.

i bought a couple of planes for 12 euro and got a couple presents one form andy west and play it more than clod

clod crashes too much though rof is more demanding on hardware

When you setup the joystick response for each plane transpose the elevator curve below x axis. i.e. when your stick is in the netural position some downward elevator is always applied. Out of the box almost all of the planes climb without any stick input - apparently a feature of WW1 planes.


I love this game but it is a real challenge going between genres. The radial engine planes are a nightmare to control without a good amount of practice and unfortunately are the best TnB planes in the game. I also find BnZ really difficult in this game due to the lack of fire power.

I really enjoy this game as an offline addition and i think they have done a fantastic job on the atmosphere of the Somme. Would recommend to anyone

I think you're talking about "rotary" engines.

I agree BnZ is really difficult since the limits in fire power and low speeds.
Still it's difficult to ambush the other players so tipical TnB planes have an advantage, since altitude is need for defensive purpose only because of the limits above.

A lot of people do, my Great Uncle was killed during the Somme battle aged 16.

That's a prime example of one of the great tradgedies of the First World War Moggy.

A lot of lads his age were pressured by the recruiters into joining or lead to believe it was a glorious adventure.

My Grandfather was 17 when he joined up. Fortunately by the time he did, the RFC had a strict policy on not sending anyone under 18 to France. So when he did finally get there, he had a year's worth of training and it was only a couple of months to the end of the war.

Was long enough for him to get shot down once though (fortunately he was able to glide back over the lines and crashland his plane safely in a field).

Guess it's a good thing for me he had all that training.... If he hadn't I wouldn't be here today! :)

My Grand Father was gassed on the Somme and withdrawn back to England.

I guess he was one of the lucky ones. After he recoperated he was sent to Northern Ireland, where he met my Grand Mother. Both of them lived a long and forfilling life together. From their union there are close to 70 direct decendants.

Just thinking about the sacrifices made by young people like your Grand Uncle is enough to make my eyes water. We owe them (and the young men and women who are making those sacrifices today) our eternal gratitude.

You all know who Roy Brown, right. He traveled to Dayton OH (Wright Brothers' school) with 3 others (all became aces) from Carleton Place Ont to take lessons. They had to pay for their own flying lessons at $1 per hour. It cost him $249 (ground and air) to get his private pilot license (pilot's certificate Number 361) in Dayton OH.

The RFC/RNAS was only accepting trained pilots at the time.

To put the cost in perspective, beef, depending on the cut, was $.05 to $.10 a pound at the time.

Amen to that.


Al Schlageter, to put the cost even further into perspective, I still have my Grandfather's notes from his officer and pilot training. Part of that covers army pay and army law.

In 1917 (when he was in training) a private in the RFC earned 1d (a shilling) per day. In decimal currency a shilling was worth approximately 5p (pence). A Sgt Major earmed the princely sum of 5d per day (25p). This being before overseas allowances and any other payments.

Obviously an officer earned considerably more than that, but all the same, it was a massive outlay for the individual from his wage.

Sorry - 1d is one old penny, twelve of which equalled 1 shilling (1/-), twenty of which equalled one pound (£1)
£.s.d (which dates from the Roman occupation) means Libra, solidus and denarii.

One old penny has almost no value in decimal terms.

Brando, of course you're quite right. My apologies. I got my abbreviations wrong. To clarify it was a shilling a day for a private, not an old penny.

Thanks for pointing that out.

Pfft...pansy..."Sorry,my machine gun jammed. I quit."


http://i.imgur.com/WNwhw.jpg
:D

wow i wished they made games like that

Jaws2002, please don't cast aspersions. :-P If I'd had a pistol, I'd have used it - I've been known to shoot at low-flying H.P. O-400s from the ground, with my Colt. And have them crash afterwards (admittedly this was after we'd exchanged bullets, I'd set one of the O-400s engines alight, and he'd forced me to dead-stick back on the airfield. And come to think of it, the flak may have dented it a bit too. But I definitely fired in its general direction. And it definitely crashed... ;))

I think the consensus on the multiplayer servers is that the Colt is most useful for shooting your own gunner. There is nothing more annoying than to have some idiot join you as gunner, and then start shooting at the wings or something. Rather than just giving them the boot, a full clip emptied into them is far more effective in getting the message across, and much more satisfying too...

A shameless promotion of F4 BMS + ITO :)

http://i739.photobucket.com/albums/x...ms_ITO_105.jpg

http://i739.photobucket.com/albums/x...ms_ITO_104.jpg

Ok, after a few days with ROF i am totally in love. It takes me straight back to the old Amiga times and the game Wings :D

But i have no clue about these old planes so i would like some tips on which of the planes are the best in combat?

Would like to know which plane from each side so to speak because i have no clue which ones that should be a must have :)


Thanks to you all for your great help so far.

I was in the same position of not knowing too much about WW1 aircraft. I found this useful page on the ROF site:

http://riseofflight.com/forum/viewto...p?f=49&t=26651

Gives a very brief intro to everything that's available. (focus is on their usefulness for multiplayer, but a useful intro all the same)

Gratuitous RoF screenshot:
http://i958.photobucket.com/albums/a...8__2_42_11.jpg

You have to love RoF sunrises. And you have to love the Eindekker. Simplicity itself. One aeroplane. One pilot. One gun. No fuss.

No throttle. No rate of climb to speak of. Not much in the way of structural integrity: but the shape of things to come - and the best all-round view of any fighter of WWI. Or WWII for that matter...

Agree. Clod had better sun set but they ruined it all up in the last patch.:evil:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...7__5_12_57.jpg

get it and report back what you think about it

It's a free download now, so why not? It's not like they're going to force you to buy any planes or anything.

I've collected a few of my favourite planes over the years. When COD gets stale for me I might even be able to spend some time in the sim.

I just wish those trees would stop turning around to stare at me. It gives me the heebeegeebees!

Cheers

how about a real one ..... :)

http://www.kiwisim.net.nz/phpBB3/dow...1311&mode=view

from these guys

http://thevintageaviator.co.nz/proje...vlll/in-flight

S!

Rise Of Flight is a must for any flight sim nut. Supporting those that still have the will to do these niche games deserves our support. Almost all planes bought, still the map etc. to pre-order and again full set of RoF :)

Rise of Flight is very good, and there's some great MP servers out there.. Think it's hard finding you're way over the Channel in full real.. try it in France in a biplane with no Gyro!.. But the immersion is great, and there's a lot of 'good' people playing.. I am really loving CloD lately though!

Well, the upcoming RoF Channel map will allow direct comparisons: an opportunity to get lost over the drink in a whole different era... :rolleyes:

I think that flying RoF has done a lot for my sim-pilot skills generally. Flying on the Syndicate server with no icons, fiddling with the radiator and mixture, navigating visually, and trying to decide whether the dot above me is a Spad or an Albatross, while staring into the sun every few seconds for the Hun hiding in it certainly makes for busy flights. And then there is the joy of getting on the tail of an Albatross, ready to shred it, only to find that it isn't an Albatross, but a Halberstadt:
http://i958.photobucket.com/albums/a...9__2_14_33.jpg :eek:

Mutually assured incineration:
http://i958.photobucket.com/albums/a...9__2_16_57.jpg

Yup. RoF AI gunners are crack shots too. :(

So i also tried ROF and fell in love with the game fast. Not that WW1 planes are great, but the game is great fun. I realized that one has to setup the control curves and map Z axis of TrackIR to zoom to have a chance online and to actually hit anything. Currently i'm able to get around 6 - 9% aiming accuracy and have maybe 2 kills during an online battle.
The pleasure is often interrupted by certain players, who are able to get 30%+ aiming accuracy and shot down 40 planes within 15 minutes. Ok i understand that there is a problem with zooming combined with snipe shooting. And that the zoom function is needed to help with visibility of distant objects. But i often witness miracle performance of some players and their planes. Seeing a WW1 fighter attacking me from 200m below after he conducted a 180 degrees sharp turn getting right behind my tail with speed advantage within maybe 5 seconds (while i fly a Fokker VIIF at full throttle straight line) belong among the miracles. Also ability of some players to shot from any angle and hit me or my engine with a short burst from any distance below 500m is not much entertaining.
What's your opinion? Have you got the same impression? Are these people so talented or do they use some sort of automatic help? Are there any autoaim mods?

I bought rise of flight, I'd say it was worth it, its a really pretty game, not so arcady you feel like your playing hawx, but not quite Clod realistic either, the campaign is fun and makes you feel like you're a part of something much bigger, and online play when you find someone with trackIR, or really good SA, is a blast

i mostly fly ZnB planes like the pfalz D.XII, but i also like the fokker D.VIIF

and yea there's some people out there that must use some kinda targeting/aiming help maybe an option on the server or something?
or it could be they bought the reflector sight?

Thx for reply. I'm just disturbed by those vertical maneuvers i can't copy if i try to fly the same aircraft. And those magicians who can shot while climbing perpendicular to earth and hit the target. I've already learned that it's pointless to stay online when one of my favorite extremely talented shooters logs on. Ok I'm not the best pilot ever, but if i see someone in a slower aircraft catching me from below within seconds i smell something weird.
So far my impression is that the most populated servers are infested by cheaters. I've been able to have really nice fights on some of the less "famous servers" but particularly "Flying Circus" seems to be the worst example ever.
Are there some private servers with closed community so one can have the experience playing on equal grounds? I mean no mods/cheats/hacks/bots/auto {insert your favorite activity} tools at all. Just what the game allows by default.
I'm asking here because i don't believe the official ROF forums. Thanks in advance if you reply.

if your climbing at stall limit even the coyote will caught you

Why not? As for 'hacks' etc, unless you are playing on a 'mods allowed' server (and there aren't many of those), frankly, I've seen no evidence of any. And yes, the 'Flying Circus' server is sometimes a bit of a shooting-gallery. Try 'New Wings' instead. And once you are confident, try the 'Syndicate' server - no icons, complex engine management, no external views etc.

Try the nubie server. Maybe there, if you are lucky, you'll find players of similar skill as you.
ROF planes have a rather hard flight model and you need good understanding of the dynamics of flight, patience and a lot of practice to be effective.
If you are new, being respectful and asking for advice, is a lo more productive than screaming "cheater".

The fealing of flight is the most realistic to me. Its just that these old WW1 birds didn't need that lot engine-management like WW2 birds. All is very simplistic, it just was that way. Or I don't understand what you mean with realistic ;)

When I came from Il2 to ROF I also wondered about some performance in dogfighting that made me wonder. Well, you have to get used to the WW1 birds, is all I can say. Switching from fast WW2 birds to WW1 makes dogfighting and especially E-tactics difficult at the beginning. You are used too much at the much more powerful performance of the planes ;)

Sorry, no cheating on RoF servers and no hacks either but there are a lot of very experienced guys who've been playing the game since release and they are VERY good.

What are those big white puffy things under the plane? We know from CoD that those don't exist in any number over Europe! ;)

i guess realistic is the wrong word, more like... the WW1 planes are much more forgiving... easier to fly... harder to land...

and i mostly only fly energy fighters even in rise of flight, not really into flying in circles when i can avoid it...

Really? Try a Gotha with a full bomb load, and 50% fuel. In turbulent air. Straight and level is doable. Climbing at anything approaching a useful rate is less so. And don't even think about trying to climb and turn at the same time. Of course, you've got to get it off the ground first... :rolleyes:

More forgiving, yes...easier to fly, kind of yes...harder to land, well not really;)

Strange thing is plenty of IL2 pilots coming to ROF found it harder (in ROF forum).
Perso, i find COD and WW2 planes harder to fly, and have hard time to hit anything! lol
Must be the speed...everything is going so fast:grin:

Anyway, i've never spent so much time in a sim like in ROF, and it is definetely the best WW1 sim ever for me.
If you feel like a pioneer pilot, flying fragile wood and canvas planes, don't hesitate! Go for it, you won't regret :grin:

Sure the two servers are great. Just not so populated. I've had couple of really nice fights on the Syndicate server and didn't see any hard to believe performances. If only the server had more players online when i play.

Thanks. I'm not screaming "cheater". Just asking about your opinions. Maybe there are virtual pilots who can fly / aim so well.
Actually you have said exactly what i think. ROF planes are hard to fly. No trim controls and lift changes with speed enormously. Rotary engines make aiming even more difficult. Limited visibility upwards doesn't make turn fights easier either. Vertical maneuvers are hard to conduct. The planes bleed speed fast and stall or disintegrate in deep dives.
I tend to fly as an energy fighter and use altitude as defense. And it works well on the Syndicate server and different aircraft behave as i would expect based on their performance graphs and description of their strength. But it doesn't work on the Flying Circus server.
OK maybe i need to get more experience. I'm not giving up.

oh yea here's a screen of the game before they post-process and photoshop it all up
http://www.mobygames.com/images/shot...alberstadt.png

The thing is, some of those guys plyed that game for two years. With constant practice, some became very effective. Another thing about ww1 planes is that are so slow. Even if you are faster, the difference is small and it takes a long time to get out of gun range. The long range accuracy of the guns in ROF is quite optimistic, so with the help of zoom, some people are snipers. Those planes also have a very low stall speed, so they can hang in the prop to shoot at someone above longer than what we are used in a ww2 plane.
On top of all this, the server settings can make the difference between a nice air combat environment and the usual airquake. With icons on and head shake off in the server settings, it's easy for some to hit planes from impossible angles.
I hope this helps you a bit.

You shouldn't say that.
At least AA is working great in ROF...and so is everything else :rolleyes:

I love RoF aswell! It got beautyful modded planes and the FM is as convincing as the Il-2 FM. For me the most important part in Flightsims. I hate the FMs in the microsoft simulators, they make you feel more like sitting in a rollercoaster as in a plane.
The landscape is mor authentic in CoD but in RoF it`s different, but also more than ok! Big advantage in RoF: It runs like hell-absolute fluid! And of course no "ghost-trees".

For me Cod is the winner, because i love adjusting and "pressing buttons". Therefor is the WWII aviation the bigger playground for me. But that says nothing about the quality of RoF!
For a fast and highly entertaining dogfight I always go for RoF-so to say, a must-buy! Especially when you`re a fan of flightsims!

I've decided to give Rise of Flight a try as well. I'm still committed to Cliffs of Dover, but after trying the free demo of Rise of Flight I'm very impressed!

You've picked the right time to be impressed too - sale now on (until 12th May): http://riseofflight.com/en/store

The scouts are currently $2.99 each, which has to be a bargain. Even this monster is only $6.99:
http://i958.photobucket.com/albums/a...6__1_37_17.jpg

That was the result of a brazen attack on the Hun forward airfield on the Syndicate server on Saturday. I got there all right, dropped my 1,650-pounder right in front of the hangers, then scarpered back over the lines, pursued by Albatrosses and Pfalz's. A mad power dive for Reims (where I knew there was plenty of AA) was only partly successful, as can be seen. I got out of it alive though... :grin:

I beg to differ. I live in the region where RoF takes place, and I've already flown (in real life that is) several times over it, during different seasons. And RoF has a beautiful landscape, that really looks like the landscape I can look at with my own eyes when in flight. CoD, from what I've seen when playin' the game over le France, has poor textures and "weird" colors... Unless the landscape turns into something completely different when flying to the North and beyond the Hill...oops I'm losing my mind. But you get my point.

RoF is really the best a sim can currently offer when it comes to "authenticity".
It's still a game, of course.

And I'm not even a RoF fanboy, in fact I find the game boring. But I'm aware of its qualities, and the landscape is one of them.

Ok, back to 1946!