Over Flanders Fields

[Biggles]

I've heard stories of OFF devs., or users, not really sure, that rants anyone not playing with 100% realism, and becomes unpleasant when critisislm is brought to them. I don't know if this is true, but I've had no reason to doubt it. I guess I don't have any real problems with OFF itself, P2 is excellent, but rather with some of the people involved with it.

[Stealth Hunter]

Originally Posted by GSpector

Aren't they charging for ROF? I would expect it to be better, after all, they control every aspect of the engine and everything else.

Personally, if the OFF mod was sold for under $30 like many store bought Mods, I'd be ok with it and in fact, I'd probably have it now.

Yeah, but it's not a mod. It's a stand-alone game with an engine created from scratch.

[Stealth Hunter]

Originally Posted by Catfish

On the photos the Fokker D.VII looks a bit too shiny with its Zebra camo as well as the SPAD (no weathering?)

The shine comes from a treatment cream that both the Entente and Central Powers used on the linen covering of the plane. It helped to add some protection from the weather and waterproofed it as well.

I suspect the screenshot of the Spad shows a new plane fresh off the assembly line. If you look at some of the other pictures on their website, you'll notice that the Albatros shows weathering effects (darkened paint and wood with a grizzled tone).

Originally Posted by Catfish

and "RoF" altogether seems to be planned for online play (which is good)

Actually, it's going to include a fully dynamic single player campaign as well as an online campaign mode. Both will feature roleplaying elements, including the development of skills, a relationship system, a writing system (which allows you to send and receive things to your family or your lady-love), and a reward system (besides earning medals and promotions, you can earn things like pistols, watches, or tools; each of these things can help you survive the air war in some manner or another).

To clarify on that last bit about the items and tools, you can receive a hammer which will allow you to clear gun jams faster.

Originally Posted by Catfish

but you only have three (?) flyable planes

The devs have considered making the Pfalz D.III and Fokker DR.1 playable upon release. Given the advanced state of the engine (with the damage and aerodynamic models), it does take a huge amount of work to tweak these to perfection, especially when the player can fly them (which adds more possibilities which must be calibrated).

They will also release more planes as time goes by, which you can download for $5, or you can wait two weeks (at which point they're released to the public for download, free of charge).

I believe the Sopwith Camel and Nieuport 17 will also be released with it, too, along with a few two-seaters. TG was also discussing adding zeppelins to the game. Of course, some of these machines aren't flyable, but ROF has been made to be extremely modder-friendly, meaning that with a little work, you can make the unflyable flyable.

Originally Posted by Catfish

no campaign

See above.

Originally Posted by Catfish

only german vs. american

The devs have already covered this. The game will focus on the American side of the war, but it will not exclude the French and British.

Originally Posted by Catfish

and from 1917 to 18.

Campaign addons are also in talks. Since the game first began, the devs have been tossing around concepts for late 1914 to 1916 campaign mode.

Originally Posted by Catfish

Seems they have some 15 Gb of textures, skins etc.

This is a large issue for me. That's a lot of space that will be taken up. ROF is using a system that has skins already built in, but it also has a paint kit utility that allows the player to create any skin imaginable. Then, it compresses them down to a small file and stores them away (I think they said your average paint file for ROF will only be like a few KB in size; it's kind of like Spore's system, where you create a creature or a vehicle and it saves it to your computer, compressing it to a low size so it won't take up a lot of space).

Originally Posted by Catfish

For what i heard (not in this interview) they did indeed change the hard coded files from CFS3, but with official approval from Microsoft.

Good to hear it. Let's hope that is indeed the case, though...

Originally Posted by Catfish

It is common in the IT business to buy a developer's kit (SDK or what's it called) e.g. for MS Access, build a special application based on it, and then resell it with official approval. But then probably not in the game modding scene.

The Source engine and Valve released an SDK for mods specifically that is free, so long as you own a Source engine game.

Originally Posted by Catfish

I do not know why Stealth Hunter has an axe to grind with the OFF team, but i am not in the mood to interfere for either side.

1) OFF is a mod, not a stand-alone game.
2) They're suddenly charging $50... for a mod... and again, they've never done this before.
3) CFS3's engine has become obsolete.
4) In addition to #3, ROF's engine will make CFS3's engine even more outdated.
5) Summing up, do you really want to pay $50 for a mod that will be running off an incredibly old and outdated engine, when in just a few months ROF, with a brand new and state-of-the-art engine, will be released?

Originally Posted by Catfish

I would certainly prefer to get phase 3 for free, like 1 and 2, but i still think it's worth it (but then it seems it's just me).

Doesn't it seem odd to you, though? For the past few years, they've released P1 and P2 free of charge. Then, out of the blue, they suddenly decide that P3 should cost $50... why? What's the big deal? P2 was a big improvement over P1 and it didn't cost me anything. Now we suddenly have to pay for P3? No, just no. I'll put that $50 to ROF, thank you.

Originally Posted by Catfish

And I would probably have even paid something for GWX, or the NYGM mod, because i think they also deserved it, if not more. I am certainly happy i got all this for free.

As are we, and as I said earlier, we never would have paid that much for GWX because the team never did charge money for any of the early versions. If they suddenly just said, "Ok, we know that we've released 3 previous versions of our mod for free, but we've decided that GWX 3.0 should cost $50," then we would be very suspicious. So all of a sudden, after years of making and releasing these mods for free, you're going to make us pay $50 for a new one? Does that make any sense to you?

Originally Posted by Catfish

On the other hand i would not have bought anything from this X1 company or what it was called, who stole mods from subsim modders, and tried to sell it as an SH3 add-on.

That was quite infuriating.

Originally Posted by Catfish

Doing so was approved by Ubisoft, and i will never understand this.

Maybe they somehow had a right to. I don't know. There's so much legal jargon to sift through with these things that it gets titanic in size.

[GSpector]

Originally Posted by Stealth Hunter

Yeah, but it's not a mod. It's a stand-alone game with an engine created from scratch.

That was my point. The comment was made that RoF was better. I expect it should be though I will not get it. I prefer campaigns over online only, so I will probably get Phase 3. I'm just waiting for reviews.

[Stealth Hunter]

I'm sorry about that, Specter. I meant to quote Catfish's post.

[GSpector]

Stealth Hunter, If what you say about RoF is true, I will be keeping an eye on it too. You made it sound so much better then anything I've read about it anywhere.

Just curious, I know $50 is a lot for a mod, what do you think would be fair for Phase 3? I think with all the work they have put into it, I have no problem with them charging, just not $50 for the mod.

I hope you don't think their time and effort is not worth anything and you just want it FREE so you can fly it for many hours, days or weeks. I'm sure that much time should be worth something. don't you?

[Stealth Hunter]

A fair price for OFF? I'd go with $10.

$20 - $50 are the average costs for stand-alone games. As such, I might pay $15 for it, but nothing higher.

Oh, here's a little more on ROF's features:

http://riseofflight.com/Blogs/December-2008/Game-design.aspx

[Stealth Hunter]

Here's another screenshot of ROF:

http://wwiaircombat.com/pics/displayimage.php?album=3&pos=27

It looks like a picture, doesn't it? Or at the very least, a painting.

[GSpector]

Originally Posted by Stealth Hunter

A fair price for OFF? I'd go with $10.

$20 - $50 are the average costs for stand-alone games. As such, I might pay $15 for it, but nothing higher.

Oh, here's a little more on ROF's features:

http://riseofflight.com/Blogs/Decemb...me-design.aspx

I agree $10 - $15 is a fair price to pay, for an add-on. I would go no higher then $30 only because they seem to have added so much more then a basic add on but cheaper is better too

[GSpector]

Originally Posted by Stealth Hunter

here's a little more on ROF's features:

http://riseofflight.com/Blogs/Decemb...me-design.aspx

WW, I just watched all the videos and read the blogs. Seems the only thing they did not model was the cuts in the grass to show something is or was driving through it and I think I read that they will consider working on that too.

I really like the idea of additional awrds, not just medals and ranks for the single campaign flyers like myself.

[Stealth Hunter]

Before I forget, here's a video of the flow particles demonstration. This creates air, smoke, and fire effects that all look very realistic, and it also affects the handling of aircraft. It's not scripted, it's totally dynamic. It's just like RealFlow, only we're dealing with gas and not water.

Here:

http://wwiaircombat.com/articles/rise-of-flight-promo-movie-8-airflow-demo

Here's a demonstration of water effects:

http://wwiaircombat.com/articles/rise-of-flight-promo-movie-2-open-water

All this is running on an Nvidia GeForce 6600 GT.

[Stealth Hunter]

Originally Posted by GSpector

WW, I just watched all the videos and read the blogs. Seems the only thing they did not model was the cuts in the grass to show something is or was driving through it and I think I read that they will consider working on that too.

I really like the idea of additional awrds, not just medals and ranks for the single campaign flyers like myself.

I like the additional rewards thing as well. Hopefully the roleplay element will be improved so you can socialize with fellow pilots, kind of like SH3's Commander utility (where you could visit the bar and such). In previous WWI aviation games, like Red Baron 3D and likewise in OFF, you just sort of fly with these names, you never get to actually see their faces or interact with them on the ground. This is going to change it all.

Hopefully, their new documentary genre takes on interest in the gaming community.

[Kptlt. Neuerburg]

I've been debating wheather or not to get off but I think I'll hold out until RoF is out instead.

[Stealth Hunter]

I don't think you'll be disappointed with ROF.

[Subtype Zero]

The graphics look very nice indeed. However, I didn't see anything on the ROF web site about a release date. When can we expect it to be released? Thanks.