Most encouraged I've been in a long time

[ShamrockOneFive]

I found my way here

 

I wanted to say a couple of things and encourage some positive thinking about this project. First, I'm encouraged about this idea and the change. Change is difficult to accept sometimes but after the disappointment that Cliffs of Dover was I think this is a potentially great move. I wish the team working on it the best of luck and I hope to see something really great in 2014. Speaking of things that are really great... there are a few general themes that I really hope to see in this new product.

 

1) Realism that aims for or is better than what IL-2 1946 offers. Rise of Flight appears to offer this so I'm not too worried but I had to say it anyways.

2) Accessibility within that realism so that I can fly with the most difficult flight model but I don't necessarily have to press a million buttons to start the aircraft. I love complex engine management, bomb fuse modeling, and the like but I like having that tempered with some accessibility.

3) Gameplay... the IL-2 series is alternatively horrible and great at this. It's horrible because there isn't a lot to the gameplay portion of it. We do have things like medals and very light after action reports but it could be better intergrated. Full histories of all past flights for a pilot in a campaign with an event log and a map for example. I see Rise of Flight (will have to check it out) has some degree of personalization so a bit of that. I'd like to see a quick mission setup as good as or better than IL-2. Cliffs of Dover didn't have the same kind of quick sandbox mode that I so appreciated from IL-2.

4) Content. I love the focus... Battle of Stalingrad is a great time period for WWII air combat. Play this out fully. Every major fighter type, bomber type, tank, artillery piece, armored car, truck, and landmark.

5) Replayability. IL-2 lasted this long because of it's excellent FMB which lead to great dogfight/coop/single mission/campaign epics. A strong mission builder that is easy to get started with and complex to master.

 

That might be a bit of tall order but I think it's realistic from a project planning and execution point of view as well. Having a solid engine to work with and a lot of content to build is not a bad place to be. Like I said... I wish all of the luck and I hope this ends up being a good beginning for next gen flight simming. Cheers!

[FlatSpinMan]

Hey IceFire

Looks fun already, doesn't it?

I haven't played RoF in about 6 months as my PC got too creaky for it but I was quite regular for a while.

From what I know I can try to answer your questions.

 

1. It seems pretty realistic to me but that's all I can say. You get the impression that your plane is flimsy,high up and subjected to the forces of nature.

 

2. I had turned off most of the CEM stuff because I was mainly playing for fun but there were definitely options for using it. Things like aircraft ID tags could be turned off or on within a mission, which I thought was pretty sensible.

 

3. RoF has the Career Beta. Many people have complained about this a bit but for me I found it really enjoyable. The GUI is nice for one thing, and you can select your pilot photo, bio, name and birthdate.

    Then you join your squadron, all of whom have names and ranks. Unfortunately they all start on the same day as you, every time you start a new career, but that need not be a problem - I never worried about it overly.

    After each mission you get a report of who killed who and how many medals they have. If yo get injured then you'll see a picture of a hospital ward and a message saying how many days you were away for.

    There is no cut scene or other interaction with your squadron. Periodically you get a message saying "You have a letter" or you can see the newspaper headlines for the day, however those features were not fully developed.

    

     I really liked the career system as it was, and if it could be 'finished' a bit it'd be even better. Using a little imagination to think about your character was enough to really hook me on it. I always got whacked after about 6 missions, so I  

     would appreciate more starting bio's, or better yet, the ability to write your own.

     For my old system it wasn't such an issue, but with a decent ystem and BOS I'd really want to see a lot more activity in the air and on the ground. The ground in particular is very spartan - not good if you're in a Sturmovik.

 

     You'll love the quick mission generator. Beautiful, intuitive GUI and you can build in a lot of detail very easily.

 

4. Sounds good to me. Limit the focus but do it thoroughly.

 

5. I took one look at the FMB and turned tail, but by now there are no doubt great guides around, just like FlyingNutcase's one, that will help people get into it. The ability to build campaigns, not just missions, seems very important. I believe

    that's not possible right now.

[SYN_Haashashin]

I can tell you about the RoF ME. Its hard, I wont lie, the learning curve for it is big but there are several tutorials online about it, if you want I will post the links for you. Its a complex ME but you can do things that i didnt know was possible to make. By the way im dont have an IT degree or nothing related to computers so I could do it anyone can do it, It needs just time and good teachers, Thanks Vander.

[FlatSpinMan]

Haashashin - if yo ucould post those links and hints it'd be handy. No doubt there'll be more interest in the next months.

[SYN_Haashashin]

Haashashin - if yo ucould post those links and hints it'd be handy. No doubt there'll be more interest in the next months.

 

 Here flatspinman:

 

 This one is from official RoF website:  Here you can get the ME manual - http://riseofflight.com/en/community/usefulmaterials and here are the lessons: http://riseofflight.com/en/community/usefulmaterials/lessons

 

Also you can check out SYN_Vander youtube videos:

 

And  NakedSquirrel ones:

 

Any questions, just go ahead and ask.

 

Haash

[AdlerAngriff]

Here here

[FlatSpinMan]

Thank you. I'll have a look out of interest but I can't get into it yet - I have an IL2 campaign long overdue and may be changing to an iMac tomorrow (saw a great deal at a local shop) - but if that transition goes okay then I'll finally have a computer with the guts to run RoF (more) properly.

I hope.

[FlatSpinMan]

Bob Vanderstok did a fantastic job making those tutorials, didn't he? Just watched a couple and he lays everything out so clearly.

Do you know the reasoning behind the completely blank maps in RoF? That was one thing that really surprised me when I peeked inside the game once.

[SYN_Haashashin]

The map are blank as the scenery objets are over at a separate archive. You just open the map, import an archive (allready in game data) and map get full of scenery objects. The reasoning behind this, I dont know, but once you know how to do it, its a simple thing to do everytime you start building a mission.

 

Bob Vanderstock = SYN_Vander, and yes he made them very clearly and I have to say that I learn all I know about the RoF ME from him.

[SYN_Vander]

Bob Vanderstok did a fantastic job making those tutorials, didn't he? Just watched a couple and he lays everything out so clearly.

Do you know the reasoning behind the completely blank maps in RoF? That was one thing that really surprised me when I peeked inside the game once.

 

Hi FlatSpinMan,

 

Really enjoyed your campaigns for IL2, so I'm already looking forward to your first RoF/BoS campaign!

 

The blank maps are so you can have different templates to create a mission with. You can make super detailed scenery with hundreds of villages in a small area or have a template for a certain time period with lots of destroyed houses or such. To be honest, I only use one template most of the times.

[SYN_Haashashin]

Ohhh yeah Vander is the mastermind here, I just follow his path...sometime I describe myself as a chinese worker, use pieces of Vander work to do mine, well I try to innovate but well...mostly follow Vander steps.

Edited December 12, 2012 by SYN_Haashashin

[ShamrockOneFive]

Interesting stuff folks! I'll check out some of those resources for RoF at some point. I'm still heavily invested in IL-2 1946 and will be for a long time to come but I like to see things moving along too. Plus RoF does look interesting and I love aviation of any type so... hey why not right? It just wasn't on my radar much until now.

[FlatSpinMan]

I'd been casting around for this topic for a couple of days and have finally found it.

Not only is it so clear and helpful for RoF mission building, it also features such a lovely, clear RP British accent - the last thing I expected for someone called Vanderstok, whose game is in German or Dutch! Seriously, listening to your voice was so calming and reassuring that for me it almost made the activity worthwhile in and of itself - IL2 -  ignored! This coming from a New Zealander with a MA in Applied (English) Linguistics.

[SCG_Neun]

I found my way here

 

I wanted to say a couple of things and encourage some positive thinking about this project. First, I'm encouraged about this idea and the change. Change is difficult to accept sometimes but after the disappointment that Cliffs of Dover was I think this is a potentially great move. I wish the team working on it the best of luck and I hope to see something really great in 2014. Speaking of things that are really great... there are a few general themes that I really hope to see in this new product.

 

1) Realism that aims for or is better than what IL-2 1946 offers. Rise of Flight appears to offer this so I'm not too worried but I had to say it anyways.

2) Accessibility within that realism so that I can fly with the most difficult flight model but I don't necessarily have to press a million buttons to start the aircraft. I love complex engine management, bomb fuse modeling, and the like but I like having that tempered with some accessibility.

3) Gameplay... the IL-2 series is alternatively horrible and great at this. It's horrible because there isn't a lot to the gameplay portion of it. We do have things like medals and very light after action reports but it could be better intergrated. Full histories of all past flights for a pilot in a campaign with an event log and a map for example. I see Rise of Flight (will have to check it out) has some degree of personalization so a bit of that. I'd like to see a quick mission setup as good as or better than IL-2. Cliffs of Dover didn't have the same kind of quick sandbox mode that I so appreciated from IL-2.

4) Content. I love the focus... Battle of Stalingrad is a great time period for WWII air combat. Play this out fully. Every major fighter type, bomber type, tank, artillery piece, armored car, truck, and landmark.

5) Replayability. IL-2 lasted this long because of it's excellent FMB which lead to great dogfight/coop/single mission/campaign epics. A strong mission builder that is easy to get started with and complex to master.

 

That might be a bit of tall order but I think it's realistic from a project planning and execution point of view as well. Having a solid engine to work with and a lot of content to build is not a bad place to be. Like I said... I wish all of the luck and I hope this ends up being a good beginning for next gen flight simming. Cheers!

I couldn't agree more.