Was on the verge...

[JudgeDredd]

ORIGINAL: Slick Wilhelm

Good man, Judge. You'll probably want to spend some quality time adjusting the response curves for your joystick and rudder pedals. I found that the default curve is too sensitive for my ham-fisted flying style.

Oh, word to the wise: After you adjust your video/audio settings in the config utility, don't use that same utility for setting up your controls. There's currently a bug where if you make a profile in that utility, and then make changes to it from inside the game itself, you can corrupt the profile.

It's best to create a profile and set up your response curves and program your HOTAS buttons from inside the game. You can do this while inside the hanger, or even more handy....after you start a mission you can pause the game using "p" and then bring up the menu to fiddle with your controls with a right mouse click. That way, you can make adjustments to your profile and test them out quickly and efficiently. I recommend selecting a "free-flight" mission where all you do is fly around and enjoy the scenery and practice your take offs and landings. 

Make sure to program a "blip" switch to one of your buttons, you'll need it for all the rotary engine planes. You may also use manual fuel mixture and radiator adjustment, too. But that's optional.

I highly recommend reading this RoF newbie guide: http://riseofflight.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=2517

There's a lot of good info in there, especially the info about which planes have the ability to use manual mixture and/or radiator settings.

Good luck and I hope you have fun! [8D]

That was a great guide Slick...not only enjoyable to read, but got me fired up for the game and I read it front to back! (unusual for me!) Good advertisement!

Can't wait to get home now and make the purchase...we are in Wales at my mates until Saturday and work on Monday, but if I swing it right, Sunday is mine and all WWI!!

[mgarnett]

Hi Judge,

I don't think you will regret the purchase. I'm having a ball trying out all the planes, each one behaves really differently. It's even inspired me to buy a new pair of Saitek rudder pedals and a TrackIR (which hopefully the wife won't notice). I'm looking forward to trying these things out. I'm starting to go OK in landing, take off and dogfighting flying the two Albatross variants, but ground attack is really difficult, especially when you are trying to hit a moving convoy.

Another medium fidelity sim I've just discovered is the Strike Fighters 2 series (Thirdwire Poductions). It was on special over the Christmas period for $50 for all four theatres so I picked it up and is developed by the guy who was involved in writing European Air War. It focuses mainly on early and modern jets through Vietnam, the Cold War and the Arab/Israeli conflict.

Cheers

Mark

[JudgeDredd]

ORIGINAL: mgarnett

Hi Judge,

I don't think you will regret the purchase. I'm having a ball trying out all the planes, each one behaves really differently. It's even inspired me to buy a new pair of Saitek rudder pedals and a TrackIR (which hopefully the wife won't notice). I'm looking forward to trying these things out. I'm starting to go OK in landing, take off and dogfighting flying the two Albatross variants, but ground attack is really difficult, especially when you are trying to hit a moving convoy.

Another medium fidelity sim I've just discovered is the Strike Fighters 2 series (Thirdwire Poductions). It was on special over the Christmas period for $50 for all four theatres so I picked it up and is developed by the guy who was involved in writing European Air War. It focuses mainly on early and modern jets through Vietnam, the Cold War and the Arab/Israeli conflict.

Cheers

Mark

I found Strike Fighters to be very, very lacking in the flight model. Recently I was able to try one a friend had...Wings over Europe or something...don't know...had a Harrier in it anyway and I could do just about anything in this Harrier and it was nigh on impossible to bleed airspeed doing said manouvers. No...Strike Fighters was definitely no for me.

After reading the above guide though, I'm really looking forward to picking up Rise of Flight.

[Hard Sarge]

ORIGINAL: Fallschirmjager

I am very interested in this but I refuse to pay $97 even with the 'discounted' bundles. I do not care if they are a small developer or not. $7.62 is simply too much money to pay for a single aircraft. It also does not help that the screen shots I have seen look like the graphics are IL-2 quality.

what Flight sim has better Graphics then Il-2 ?

for most games to say that the Graphics are close to Il-2 would be a pat on the back ??

for me, the Graphics are good enough that I can dive into the middle of a furball, and tell at a glance that, that is a Spad 13 and that is a Froker, and that Camel justed turned onto my wingmans tail

[uncc]

maybe someday when Neoqb removes the DRM from RoF, I'll get it, but for now, I'll stick with Over Flanders Fields Beyond Heaven and Hell....

p.s. SimHQ just did a review of the OFF BHAH Hat in the Ring add-on.

[slybelle]

Hello, I'm also considering making this purchase. Can someone go into details on a couple of items?

1) How is the single player campaign? Is it long? Is it somewhat dynamic?
2) I know most people like realistic flight model, but are there any modes for newbies that make it easier?
3) What kind of missions can you fly?
4) Is it FUN to play?
5) Anybody know the size of the purchased version of the game? I know the demo is around 2.5 GB, but what is the purchased one?
6) Long Load Times - I see this mentioned on their forums. can someone comment? has this been addressed in any patches or planned to be in future patches?

Thanks!

[JudgeDredd]

The demo is the full game - just time restricted. So the download is over 2.5GB(2.73 according to Direct2Drive)

What I would like to know is this...if I buy it, do I actually need to download it from Direct2drive? Or can I just put the code into the demo version? Also, if I don't have to download again, do I get the extra aircraft that are in the newly released version? I downloaded the demo quite some time ago and the game only came with 2 flyables at the time?

If no-one knows for sure, I'll do the safe option and download again...probably be patched somewhat as well hopefully.

[slybelle]

According to this thread about the game at Wargamer.com, seems like you can convert your demo into the full game. This is what that person did. Also, although I don't own the game, I thought I read the game auto-patches so it would stand to reason you would get the updated content as it is made available without downloading a brand new game.

http://www.wargamer.com/forums/tm.aspx?m=396584

[htuna]

Let me know how it is, Judge.. I would assume you could just enter a Serial Number from Direct 2 Drive.. that's what I did for Tales of Valor..

[mgarnett]

@Judge

I'm pretty sure you can convert the demo to the full game. When you purchase you get a serial number and once you it, you just enter it into your online account which then automatically unlocks the game to the full version. When you purchase extra place, there is no download required. The planes are unlocked automatically the next time you play.

@Slybelle

In response to your questions:

1. I haven't gone too far into a single player campaign, but I am pretty sure they are dynamic and the length is determined by your performance.

2. There are options to "tone down" the realism, but it's really not that hard to get the hang of on full realism. The difficult parts are training yourself to use small delicate movement rather than thrashing the joystick around (which I tend to do just when I am lining uo for a shot)

3. Missions are fairly varied, ranging from bomber escort, bomber attacl, CAP, flying patrol routes, baloon busting, ground attacks against a range of untis including moving convoys of trucks, attacking tanks, bombing runs, combait air support attacking machine gun nests and attacking and protecting recon aircraft and so on.

4. Very much so

5. About 2.5 Gb I think

6. Load times from mission planning to actually being in the cickpit are about 20 seconds for me. My PC is about 12 months old and nothing fancy. I have seen some people saying that the load times are long but I have not experienced lengthy delay at all.

[SlickWilhelm]

Here are the minimum system requirements for RoF:

Operating System Windows® XP / Vista
CPU Intel® Core™2 Duo 2.4 GHz
RAM 2 Gb
Free Hard Drive space 6 Gb
Joystick Direct X 9.0 compatible joystick
Internet Connection 256 Kb/s (required)
Graphics Card 512 Mb, GeForce 8800GT/Radeon HD3500
Sound Card DirectX 9.0c compatible

Supported Operating Systems
Windows XP / XP 64 Service Pack 2 or higher
Windows Vista / Vista 64 Service Pack 1

There is currently not a dynamic, full-blown campaign like you would find in earlier games like Red Baron 3D. However, the devs have indicated that that is coming shortly. The current implementation of the campaign is a series of random single missions.

The is also multiplayer capability, with many servers available. The flight models, physics and damage models are first rate, with some options to help less experienced pilots.

This sim is very fun, although last night when the fuel tank on my DRI got punctured and I ran out of fuel at 2,000 meters, it became even more fun as I had to work my way down to a dead-stick landing in a French pasture.

For beginners, I highly recommend enabling Automatic fuel mixture, Auto-radiators, and Warmed-up engine. That way you can focus on flying, and once you get your air legs you can always turn those on.

[Arctic Blast]

BTW, gents, I notice that Rise of Flight is Direct2Drive's Deal of the Week at 50% off.

[JudgeDredd]

That is simply just the best thing that's happened to me this year! I was about to press the buy button and the only thing that stopped me was I've been at a friends over the holidays! Now it's half price! A definite purchase now!

[htuna]

I'm gonna try the demo in a few minutes.. could be following you down this purchase path!

[Grim.Reaper]

Just purchased this myself.  Defintely worth the sale price.  I'm still learning how to fly the planes but so far having fun with it.

[JudgeDredd]

Ok - 13 planes, 1 Great War sim and £59 lighter...will get back to you

[Grim.Reaper]

I played ROF most of last night and so far so good.  I'm not a great pilot in flight simulators so it takes me a while to get used to everything but my first impressions are very positive.  Can't for the life of me shoot anything down yet (except a balloon), but still fun trying.  Also after browsing the forums at the official site, seems like this game is going to be supported for a very long time with new content.

[JudgeDredd]

Ok...Training Missions 1 to 4 done and so far so good. The 5th training mission seems impossible (for a crappy pilot of my standard!). You have to destroy two vehicles with guns (they're moving) and 1 tank with bombs.

With using the slow down feature to 1/2 speed I managed to destroy the vehicles...but it was way too difficult. I think I'll have to adjust the sim settings so the wind is blowing me around...I simply cannot shoot straight at the moment.

The tank was very difficult. I do have unlimited weapons...I don't normally have this cheat on in campaigns and missions, but always do for training as the important part is trying the methods - not conserving ammo. I did eventually get a tank - but did not use the described method and used about 50 bombs! I then proceeded to crash into some trees I was flying so low (the only way I could hit the damn thing!)

The flight model is ace. The graphics are fantastic. the scenery is great (it's very atmospheric flying over no mans land and seeing artillery shells exploding on the ground) and the aircraft are beautiful and all seem to have unique flying characteristics.

It's very difficult though. I may have to switch some cheats on for this one...at least initially.

[SlickWilhelm]

You're welcome [;)]

[Phatguy]

bah! demo doesnt work..oh well..back to other games[/align]