Hello Dear Friends!

We have completed our planning process for 2012 and later this month we will release a special message in our blog which will explain these plans to you. We are confident you will find them very interesting, but let the future remain in the future for the time being. Now we are confident that the biggest issue on your mind this new year is…"Where is our Halberstadt CL.II!?"

As you know, this is one of the longest periods of aircraft pre-orders in the ROF history. We apologize for that, but today we would like to tell you the reasons why this long pre-order period has occurred. Believe it or not, it's a positive reason.

In November 2011, due to a change in personnel, we began training and cooperation with a very talented modeling team from the Ukraine. And today we are proud to present them as the authors of the CL.II:

"Our story began in 2004 with a proposal from our leader Vladimir “Saqson” Kochmarskiy to gather a group of 3D artists for the IL-2 Sturmovik : Pacific Fighters project. Our first experience cooperating on such a project was quite successful and was followed by a series of further additions to the IL-2 franchise which included models and maps which were created mostly by our team.

In 2007 our modeling team was refreshed and ready to start work on a new project based on the Korean War, but this game was not destined to be released due to circumstances beyond our control. So we moved on to work on the Battle of Britain project from 1C:Maddox Games. This work produced some very tangible results. In the virtual skies over the English Channel fly eight types of aircraft that were built by our team. Cooperation with 1C: Maddox Games continues and our models for their new simulator sometimes cause heated discussions in the forums and fan-sites.

As time moved on, we felt the need to expand the scope of our activities and started to look for new opportunities. Our friends at 777 Studios reached out to us and offered an opportunity for cooperation on planes for their awesome simulator Rise of Flight. We enthusiastically took up this new direction for us - the history of World War 1. We hope that our work will bring even more fun to the ROF community than it gave creative satisfaction to us. We have enjoyed learning how to create such a cool airplane like the CL.II for ROF."

Work on the CL.II has finally reached the final stage and very soon the plane will be in your hangar. We hope you will like it.

Another blog post will soon have news about what other interesting things we are preparing for you in 2012.

We wish you to have more interesting aerial victories!

Hello Dear Friends!

We are proud to present you version 1.023. With this version we are finishing out development for 2011. We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and wish you all the best in 2012. The version will soon be available for your PC and we would like to take a minute and talk about some of the innovations that we created for you in version 1.023.

Artificial Intelligence

Starting with this version, we added some new features to the AI, which will make it more human in its behavior. Our first foray into AI changes has to do with their "eyes." As you know, our UAVs have excellent radar and know all surrounding events in the surrounding digital world. We cannot say the same thing about us. And because of the fact that AI plays the same role of a pilot like you do, we tried to create some limitations. It was a risky step and tough challenge, but we have made excellent progress. The first changes in this module touched two key elements: clouds and night darkness. The AI now cannot see you through clouds and in darkness. You can use these advantages in a fight and authors of such missions should consider this feature in the design of missions. A few words more about night flights, the AI cannot see you until you give away your own position. Firing of your guns or using navigation lights or shooting a flare will show your position to the enemy quickly. The AI will monitor the sky closely; trying to find your position based your actions. And of course, air defense fighters are counting on the help ground crews, who now have at searchlights at their disposal.

Searchlights

Searchlights will now appear in the game modes "Career" and "Quick Mission" and will be available as an object in the mission editor. Searchlights are implemented as a full logical set and have their own AI. As we wrote earlier, they form a system with anti-aircraft artillery and even with aircraft in the air. The searchlight AI can now "hear" sound and it will focus on it in the search for air targets. The same group of searchlights can interact as a team and if you are in the beam of one of them, others will see you as you light up and then train their lights upon you to make you even brighter. Anti-aircraft artillery is waiting for this moment and as soon as the beam grabs you, they will open fire on you. Falling into a searchlight just makes you visible to enemy aircraft as well. Be careful, but try to explore the features of the searchlights to find ways to leave the cone of light as soon as possible.

Here is one suggested tactic: Searchlights have good freedom of movement, but they cannot go through a point located directly vertically above it. So if you fly directly over a searchlight, the searchlight team will have to temporarily lose you and turn the searchlight in the other direction and start to search for you again, so making a horizontal maneuver at the point contact is lost will confuse them a bit and you will become invisible to the enemy for some time. Now make your escape!

Updated Flare Pistols

Some time ago we gave you the ability to fire a signal flare in ROF. This has been an entertaining feature and a way of communicating for pilots. But from the moment of its realization we had a feeling of incompleteness. Some skeptics doubted we could make such a feature for a simulator properly and if we did it, it would not be as good as in a Shooter game. However, the more complex and ambitious the task is, the more we want to solve it. Now you can see the result. By clicking «Ctrl» + «1» in the cockpit you will see the complete weapon held by your pilot’s hand. On the screen you will see the number and color (type) of selected flare rounds. You can switch the type of combination by pressing «Ctrl» + «1-4». All ROF pilots receive this new and improved flare gun free of charge. (Keys combination true only for Default profile)

Colt M1911

Now that we have improved the flare pistol, we also wanted to add a new feature. We wanted to give the pilot a personal weapon that he can use as a last resort. This is fun new feature and it is the last argument in the battle. We chose the M1911 as the first gun of several possible models that may be included in future updates, assuming this feature proves popular. The M1911 holds 7 rounds of .45 caliber ammunition and you have 4 magazines in the cockpit with you. It is fatal in contact with the pilot and can seriously damage the engine or break the tank with fuel. Choose a weapon with the combination «Ctrl» + «5». You can buy this gun in our store as part of the "Personal Pilot Package" for ROF users.

Personal Pilot Package

Even if we released all the possible planes of this period and recreated even the smallest events in ROF Career, this era could never have been complete without some of the attributes of an aviator from this early era of flight from the last century. This means a scarf, mustache and a streamer on a wing of the flight leader! Simulating of twisting of a pilot’s mustache from the impinging vortices created by the propeller would be too great a burden for your PC, but the scarf and the banner we could do!

Scarf: Wearing one will not give you any bonuses to your pilot’s health and it will not help with gunnery accuracy, but we’re sure it will increase your charisma! And without charisma what kind of fighter pilot are you? Strong charisma boosts confidence and confidence wins battles! We tried very hard to make this feature as good as possible, but as you know it's still a compromise of compromises and we are asking you to be understanding to its limitations. The scarf (and banner), is a physical object that responds to most events such as wind and air flow from the propeller.

Streamer: The iconic WWI symbol of the flight leader and it’s made from the same technology as the scarf. We have the knowledge and information about how they were attached to airplanes historically, but in our case, we had difficult technical issues that caused ugly problems, so we have only one option to mount them effectively. Therefore, the streamer is attached to the upper wing unless the plane is a monoplane. They are attached on the right side for Entente planes and on the left for Central Powers planes. The effect is very convincing and they look great in flight.

Both the Scarves and Streamers are available in four additional colors – Red, Blue, Yellow and Green. The White scarf is our gift to all virtual pilots for every plane without exception.

The additional Scarf and Streamer colors along with the ability to use the Colt M1911 pistol are part of the "Personal Pilot Package" which is available in the ROF store for $7.99. Scarves and banners will be automatically added to AI aircraft in various game modes, no matter whether you buy this package or not.

St. Mihiel Campaign

In a first for ROF, we are now offering a custom Campaign in the store. This campaign was designed and built in cooperation between talented community member SYN_Vander and the ROF Team. We hope this will open up a new era of mission content creation and distribution for ROF. Our Mission Editor is a very powerful tool and seeing a dedicated member of our community master its use to create a commercial grade product impresses us greatly. It is now available for sale in the ROF Store for just $9.99. Here is a brief description of the campaign.

The Battle of St. Mihiel campaign is based on actual events which took place in September, 1918. The battle was the first major independent offensive of the American Expeditionary Force in World War I. The goal was to reduce the salient that was created in the Allied lines by German efforts to capture Verdun in 1914. It was considered a major success for the American army as the Germans were caught in the process of retreating. St. Mihiel was also one of the greatest air battles of the war.

To be able to get a complete picture of the battle, the player will fly a total of thirty-three missions as four different pilots from both the German and American perspective. Each pilot has a different home base during a specific period of the battle. Three special free-fly bonus missions with randomized events will let you re-visit the battleground after you have finished the main campaign. The scenery in the St. Mihiel area is highly detailed and features most of the important towns and villages that played a role in the battle. Airfields and many villages will be populated with aircraft, vehicles and AAA; not just along the flight path, but in the whole St. Mihiel area. All airfields and unit placement are historically accurate. New, authentic skins have been developed for the German squadrons. Special media content will fill you in on the historical background of the various phases of the battle and pilot diary entries will narrate the progression of the campaign.

Also, in this version we have added a lot of other new elements, such as a new type of mission for the Career Mode known as a "Transfer Mission” where your squadron moves to a new airfield. We have also updated the flight model of the Nieuport 11. It is now a much improved flyer in the tradition of our previous FM updates. And thanks to your feedback, we have updated the "oil on the goggles" effect which we think looks a lot better now. There are also a number of other bug fixes included as well. The entire change list will be available on the forum as is our tradition.

We would like to wish all our dear friends a successful 2012! In keeping with our tradition of giving a Happy Holiday award to all the ROF community you will find a special and unique award on your game interface. We hope you like it! Go check it out. Again, thank you for your loyal friendship and support this past year and we hope you continue to have beautiful victories in the virtual sky. We will return to you soon after a little New Year’s break. We hope you will enjoy version 1.023!

Hello Dear Friends!

We are pleased to introduce the next plane that will soon rise into the ROF sky! It is a well-known German two-seat fighter, the Halberstadt CL.II. It was a successful aircraft originally meant to escort bombers, but it was soon found to be an excellent ground attack aircraft. In fact, this is the first real dedicated German close-air support aircraft used in the war. We expect good maneuverability that is comparable to single seat machines. In the Career it will appear as a substitute for DFW in the later stages of the war. In multiplayer battles we hope it will be a symmetric response to the British Bristol F2B. We are opening the pre-order for this aircraft now so you can save a few bucks and we will make every effort to finish this aircraft as soon as possible and have it flying on your PC.

We'll be back very soon with news about the version 1.023.

Good luck in your air battles!

Hello Dear Friends!

Let me tear you away from your joystick for a minute and fill you in on version 1.022. We hope you will enjoy this update because it is very difficult to please everyone in our great and sometimes controversial community. We try to read all of the major forums and we read your messages carefully where you have either praise or criticism of ROF. Our first rule during each development cycle is to try not to break what works and second, try to change some broken items to make ROF better and more enjoyable for you to play. Any criticism sent our way should be constructive and not laced with insults. That turns us off and hurts the image of the community and project as a whole.

Along those lines, when we look at items to change or fix you have to remember the challenges that we face as a developer. We have to please all parties. For instance, many of you have been playing for a few months, maybe years and you know about everything in ROF. And of course, there are issues you want us to change or there is something that you think ROF is missing and you are trying to bring it to our attention. Now imagine a new pilot who joined our community just a day or two ago and is still under the influence from the first flight, first air battle or the first mission in the rain when you are completely lost and could not find your base. There are very different segments in the community due to different levels of understanding of the game and it is very important to find ways to please both these groups. For us, it is important to view both the concerns of the master and the novice pilots equally. Believe me, we are on your side and it is a great joy to know that you enjoy your time flying ROF, but we have very limited resources and thus have to carefully choose the amount of tasks we take on. Some of your requests can be addressed very quickly, but some require several months of work. If you are constructive in your criticism or requests we will try to find the time to read them and make changes to the game. Remember that your opinion is one of many thousands and when you let your emotions do the talking the chorus becomes too loud and we perhaps won’t hear the most important or helpful voice.

Now let's get back to the new version. We are pleased to present you the R.E.8 or “Harry Tate” as it was known. It’s a famous British two-seater which was used as a scout or light bomber. As always, differences in hard data and emotional descriptions of the pilots cloud reality. We expected to get quite a weak and unstable aircraft, but actually, even with all its shortcomings it is a pretty robust platform if flown appropriately. From the moment it entered service early in the war, the R.E.8 became the essential two-seater and will work well in the Career. Of course it has its own character and sometimes it can show in a surprising moment, but if you maximize its strengths and avoid its weaknesses it is a stable and pleasurable aircraft to fly. So get your keys for it, the machine is already in your hangar.

During this time, we were able to revise and clarify the performance of another plane - the Nieuport 17. As is the case with S.E.5a refinement does not always mean better. Of course, this plane has become more dangerous at low and medium altitudes, but now loses all the advantages at higher altitudes. Altitudes higher than 3km are now dangerous for N.17 pilots and to fight high up in this plane is difficult. No one can say more about the plane than the engineer who tuned it. Here is Andrey in his own words:

"The plane turned out interesting, with a character that was different than before, but now it has some special characteristics. Good response to inputs, sharp, nimble, agile, but at the same time possessing a sharp breakdown when you drag the handle. It’s able to work in small areas. For takeoff and landing a piglet size runway of 50-60 meters is enough! It has a high thrust-weight ratio. Immediately after take-off Nieuport 17 can perform a spectacular climb, reaching its maximum altitude at a speed less than 100kph. A large area of ??the rudder and elevators are in a powerful stream of the propeller wash. N.17 pilots can experience fantastic pirouettes in the air at extremely low speeds, but when combined with the unpredictability of the aircraft near the stall envelope requires some skill. Personally, I liked to pilot the new Nieuport 17, once you touch it, it leaves an impression of a daring thoroughbred horse and if you speak its language then you'll be surprised at what you can accomplish with it. It's a real fighter. I'm sure many of you will like it and you'll get real pleasure from flying on this remarkable airplane."

In the future, we hope to revise a few more previously released planes as well. Thanks to all those who helped us in during this work on the Nieuport 17.

We have also completed some changes to the in-game interface. We have copied all the basic settings of the game that were in the launcher to inside the game, as well as added some much requested flexibility. This new flexibility now enables users to assign any button to the Service functions, such as the "Map" key and others which were previously blocked. We know this will be a welcome improvement.

We also took on the huge task of allowing the user to assign a unique Response Curve for each individual aircraft. This is an optional feature and for all those who do not need this additional tuning capability you can be assured; we still provide the ability to us a single curve for all aircraft. Please read the message about how we separated the Key Assignments and the Response Curves from your old input profiles into two separate files. You will be presented with this message after you complete the update and launch ROF.

We’ve also taken a big step with DServer functionality in this update. We have transferred to user’s new abilities and functions in controlling DServer. Of course, this change is almost impossible to see in the game, but we hope that the fruits of this change will be seen on MP servers. Now the owners of servers or users who are familiar with programming will be able to create entire systems to manage ROF servers. This may lead to the creation of powerful projects that reconstruct the various stages and aspects of the air war in WWI. We are very curious to see what comes of this new server functionality.

And finally, we have changed how Mod On mode loads missions so now the load time of Mods On and Mods Off game modes are similar. This should make using and creating mods more popular and enjoyable. However, we have not had a lot of time to test this and we are not sure it is completely perfect, so please use with caution and report any problems to us. We didn’t want you to wait any longer for this change, but again, we are cautious about how well it works. In Beta we had no bad reports, but we need more testing to be sure.

As always, you can find a complete list of changes on the forum. We leave you to begin the preparing of the version 1.023, in which you will find many surprises.

Best wishes!

We are pleased to inform you that our work on version 1.022 has moved to the beta testing stage and we are getting closer to the time it will transfer to your computer.

Last time we briefly told you about some of the upcoming changes we have planned. Some involve the user interface. However, whenever we make changes we become worried because whenever we make a change in the interface there are users who support it and then those who write violent criticism. There is no way to please everyone. And of course, all this is compounded by the challenges that we are trying to solve. Making such changes reminds us of an analogy we like to use when describing trivial vs. non-trivial tasks. Programming ROF is like writing complex software for managing the Space Shuttle and on the other hand we have to make it so simple that even a child can figure out how to use it. Sometimes it is difficult to reconcile the two. The main thing we want to say is that our work on the interface is aimed at making ROF simpler and more understandable for all users.

In parallel with the already declared objectives, we are preparing a gift for anyone who has been organizing ROF servers. We’re taking this opportunity to say thank you to them! Without your help, our project is simply not possible. We are always proud to show the most interesting missions from the MP servers during press interviews or visits by different guests to our office. We have been asked by many server administrators to have a better opportunity to manage a "dedicated server" and not just be able to run it through the parameters provided by our interface, but to allow the settings to possibly be managed in another programming language. So we have done it for you. Now you can create complex systems that will provide a rapid impact on the server and any pilots flying on it. If someone remembers our first project ADW for IL-2 it was written in this way and we'll be very happy if history will repeat itself and we see something similar to Rise of Flight. We just started testing this new module, but we hope to include it in version 1.022.

Separately, we want to thank all those who make videos of ROF. The past few months have brought us several excellent videos. For example this one by Reflected caught our eye: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzZiIByxgQA. Great job! The whole office gathers around a single monitor to watch such awesome movies. We are very pleased and proud that such work is made by members of our community. This is the feedback that we always look forward for. To see that thing that you do in the hearts of others is a great reward and perhaps the best motivator in our daily work. Thank you!

So at the end here of yet another exciting blog update you can see some fresh images of our newest aircraft which is already being tested. We give you the R.E.8 aka “Harry Tate”. We're still working on the cockpit and refining its performance. This important bird will be in your hands with the next version. Back to you soon with more news about version 1.022 in the coming days!

Hello Dear Friends!

Here’s some fresh news from the ROF offices. But first we must announce another huge aircraft sale in the ROF Store! All planes (except R.E.8) are on sale at more than 50% off their regular price from October 14th to October 18th. This is a great time for all the new pilots who have joined our ranks this summer to fill up their hangars. Not to mention fill some gaps in their single player careers. Help us spread the word and help us raise some money for continued development! Your continued support is crucial to us meeting our development goals for 2012.

Speaking of development, the R.E.8 is currently in the hands of our engineers. Its configuration has given us a couple of brainteasers to work out, the angle of the propeller and the rate of fire for the forward firing weapon is what our minds are currently focused on. All work is going according to plan though and the plane will be in your hangar soon to take its rightful place in the career mode, replacing some tired Nieuport machines who have been taking up the slack. We are looking forward to the moment when we can begin test flights with the R.E.8 and get a sense of what it was really like to fly in the First World War.

As always, we see and read the requests that you write in the forum and in your emails to us and most of them, assuming they are possible, are added into the plan. However, sometimes their implementation requires more time than you may think. But here comes one of those happy moments when the time has come to introduce some much-anticipated "small changes" to the game interface.

There are several changes so let’s touch on them briefly. First, the ability to assign "system keys" such as the "M" key for the Map will become possible. Now you can assign them to a joystick or any other key. Second, the placing of most of the game settings into the game interface from the launcher interface is being worked on. They will also remain in the launcher, as we believe it is more convenient, but now the folks who disagree with that approach will be happy. Old habits like changing settings inside the game are new again. One of the most important changes to the interface under development is that you can now assign a custom joystick response curve to each individual aircraft and it will be loaded automatically when you choose to fly the aircraft. This task was not easy, not only technically, but it was also a remarkable complication of the interface. We tried to make it as understandable and simple as possible. This change will only affect the response curves and not the key assignments. The key assignment file will be the same for all aircraft and we think it helps keep this new system as simple as possible. This is not everything, but these are the most important and anticipated changes in the game interface we are working on.

We also began working on the AI. This is a very large and complex part of ROF and it is one in which we must be careful, so changes will be gradual. First and foremost, changes will be directed towards the general behavior of the AI. Soon your squad mates in the career will go home after they are damaged or injured or when they run out of ammunition. This will make them more "human" and your squad mates will generally behave more predictably. This will add atmosphere and realism to what is happening around you. We also have other planned changes to the AI, including the ability for you to hide in a cloud undetected.

The most exciting news is about some new graphical and gameplay elements. Damaged engines will now leak oil and it can get in the face of the pilot. This is an interesting complication that is added to a power loss, temperature rise and of course the terrible sounds of the damaged engine. This is a dynamic graphical effect, which means that it will be different depending on the depth of damage. Also, you can lessen the effect if you move your head out of the way. This will cause the oil to hit your goggles less, but while landing it may cause your field of view to be less. This is a new challenge that is yet another step toward understanding how truly brave the first combat pilots were. The only assumption which we had to make was the gradual disappearance of the spots of oil from pilot goggles. In flight, you could wipe them off with a scarf or clean the oil by other means, so it is a new effect that is an annoyance and temporary danger that makes flying harder, but it does not prevent you from enjoying the flight.

Now some news about a really cool feature that is a game changer for you bomber pilots! Night flights in ROF never felt really complete because we were missing one import feature - searchlights! Imagine its midnight at the aerodrome and all is quiet, then suddenly sleepy troops hear the distant sound of an engine, someone fires a warning rocket and the air raid siren begins to scream. Then suddenly the piercing rays of searchlights flicker to life and aim at the heavens searching frantically for the unseen enemy plane. They look for the enemy and then one of them gets lucky, then the other searchlights also pick up the illuminated enemy plane. Now it's time for anti-aircraft gunners to join in the fun and AAA barks to life.

AI spotlights first focus on the sound because of the dark night. They cannot see you, only hear you. In turn, anti-aircraft gunners do not know where the target is until it gets into the beam. We're adding a whole new logic in ground unit AI in order to enable you to implement different tactics for night attacks. We are actively working on this element, but you can be sure that this cool new feature will land on your computer by the end of this year.

We also have some great news from our friends at PC Pilot Magazine! This month’s issue of PC Pilot which hits stores October 20th includes the Free2Play client Rise of Flight on a DVD. Version 1.21b will be on the disk. This is an important event for us, which we believe will open the fascinating world of ROF to many new virtual pilots. Even if you already own ROF, this is a great way to get the absolute latest version of ROF on a disk or give to a friend! No need for a lengthy download. Check your local book store or newsstand and tell your friends! Getting into ROF has never been easier!

Thank you for your continued support and interest in our work! As always, we wish you much enjoyment in your ROF flights and good luck in upcoming air battles!

Hello Dear Friends!

The main reason for version 1.021 is to introduce a new aircraft, the legendary French Spad 7.C1 fighter. Images of this plane is often seen among the core set of aircraft from World War I - red Fokkers, green Camels and “sand” colored Spad 7s always come to mind.

Previous work experience with all other ROF aircraft has allowed us to reach a new precision of 1% divergence from accepted performance data in the process of setting up Spad 7’s systems and aerodynamics. In addition to its pleasurable flight characteristics, this model is an important link in the chain of models needed for the career mode. Today this aircraft takes its place in the line of the French and British Air forces.

Thank you very much for the operational work of artists who created new skins for it. Our collaboration resulted in the production of the Spad 7 with a ready set of basic historical skins for squadrons and outstanding pilots and aces. We look forward to continuing this cooperation in future.

The result of such collaboration with the community also brings us a new in-game map. As you may remember, along with the new career release, we added a number of new settlements in areas close to the front lines. This wonderful work was done in collaboration with our community (Thanks SYN_Vander very much!). And now all these points have been plotted on the map and you will be able to use them as landmarks - villages, towns and tent encampments are all marked on the map. Several hundred of them!

We also continue to refine the Career and we have added several new modules, such as the ability to meet an enemy ace in combat. Aces function as pilots just as you and your companions do, they serve in a specific squadron at a certain time period. Names and color schemes should match the real historical data we have found about such flyers during the war.

The career has also been enriched with several new squadrons available for flights in your career (Thank LukeFF very much!). The interface offers a number of new handy filters that will help to choose a location and airplane type to begin your service quickly. The mission screen, which had previously displayed only general information about your route, has been enhanced with new data, namely, the exact route of your plane and the crash site of downed aircraft. It will help you to remember the flights details.

We have also added the following features, such as the ability to see flight data when using Simple Gauges and Bombsights in both metric and imperial systems, the ability to lock the fuel level for users on a server and the ability to use flash animations on servers to create cooler missions. We’ve also done some work to improve dual core processor performance with Windows 7 and we believe we have the corrected the occlusion stutter when using SLI and possibly Crossfire. There are also many other minor changes that are too many to list here that will help you to enjoy ROF even more.

The full list of changes is available on the Forum and the latest skin pack is available on the Useful Materials page.

Thanks again to everyone who helps us in our work. This gives us even more inspiration to move forward.

Good luck in your upcoming air battles!

Hello Dear Friends!

It’s time to open the pre-order of the wonderful SPAD 7.C1. Let me remind you that the plane will be released with two versions of its engine – 150 and 180 horsepower.

This plane is very accurate in its performance attributes with a slim margin of error, from the data we have, possibly less than 1%. This is a very good result for us and good news for you. We have begun the final testing of the version 1.021 and it will be available for your computer as soon as possible.

Good luck in the virtual sky!

Hello Dear Friends!

We are pleased to announce that we have returned to work after our vacation and that means version 1.021 will be available very soon. Returning to work is a celebration for us and to help you celebrate with us, we are announcing a big aircraft sale! Since the release of our Free2Play model for ROF our community has grown tremendously with many new virtual pilots joining the virtual skies. This sale should help them to fill some empty slots in their hangars!

In our next update you will have access to a cool new and historically important plane - the SPAD 7. The inclusion of this machine is very important for ROF’s Career mode as it allows more realistic gameplay in the service of France. Also this plane will be an important opponent in the period from December 1916 to mid 1917 for German pilots. We have already begun setting the FM and are finishing work on the cockpit. We plan to announce the opening of pre-ordering for the SPAD7 in the next News Blog which we’ll mean the finishing work on the SPAD 7 is underway. We are continuing the tradition started with the Bristol and the SPAD 7 will be released with two versions of its engine – 150 and 180 horsepower.

With the release of version 1.021 the Career will also get a lot of improvements and a whole new element, the opportunity to meet a real ace in Combat. These famous pilots will fly as part of their squadrons and you will have the chance to meet them in the air and win. Some changes will be made in the interface and these changes all relate to your comfort while playing in this mode. Some interesting changes will be on the statistics screen after each mission. There you will be able to see the route that you flew and the exact location of victories and information about who shot down the enemy and who was shot down in your squadron. And thanks to feedback from our community players will get a few new squadrons to join in the Career as well.

We also continue to work on optimizing the product. We have been concentrating on improving ROF MP Server performance. Preliminary tests allow us to suggest, only suggest at this point, that with the release of version 1.021 multi-core servers will get more than a 30% increase in their current performance. More on this later as we test it further, but initial findings are encouraging. Also, owners of dual core systems will get some fixes as we have integrated into the ROF code some optimization elements for dual core processors running Win7 which were found by our community and as a result of our long-term research.

These are some, but not all the changes and additions that you will get with version 1.021. According to our plan, version 1.021 will be on your PCs at the beginning of September. That means autumn 2011 will be a very exciting time for all of us in ROF. Good luck in your air battles!

Hello Dear Friends!

We are ready to introduce version 1.020 of our flight simulator to you. The main feature of this version is, of course, the Bristol F2.B. Remember that we are releasing this aircraft with the two most successful Rolls Royce engines of WWI: Falcon II and Falcon III. The different variants will be obvious due to different propellers. You’ll get both models when you purchase the aircraft. This legendary aircraft will be used in service by three British regiments, № 11, № 48 and № 59 in the Career Mode. And of course, you can use it to fly in the Quick Mission mode and other single player missions.

Simultaneously with the sale of this aircraft, field mods will be available to purchase for this aircraft. It will include "Aldis" gunsight, fuel level and the backlight. The price of the field mod is $2.50.

We are very pleased that the new Career mode works quite well and is stable. It will allow us to move forward without spending a lot of time making huge bug corrections. We have read your suggestions and bug reports very carefully and will do our best to insert improvements into next ROF versions. But of course, we need the maximum amount of data for quality control and improvements. We reserve the "Beta" status for this mode for some time, but we are pleased with the current results as its creator. And of course we are very pleased that we were able to justify your trust in waiting so long for this feature.

There will be few small changes in the user interface and there will be "Complex Trigger" for multiplayer, which will allow assigning events to player aircraft, not just the AI. We hope that this will make for more interesting missions.

We plan to go on a small vacation in July and also combine it with planning next stage of ROF development for the rest of the year. With the release of version 1.020, we finished the previous plan and are very pleased that we were able to implement not only what was planned, but a few ideas that were born spontaneously during the process of communication at the office or were suggested by you on the forums. Thank you one more time for your support! We continue to develop and do not stand still and we very proud to have been engaged in such interesting project. And we are also very happy to be working with such the loyal and enthusiastic audience. I think that we can create a lot of amazing and very good projects together in the future. We are currently working on some new graphics for our Digital Nature engine. It will open up new possibilities in the future. I hope that new announcements such as this please you. During the rest of the year we will remain true to our basic rules and traditions of quality, attention to detail and attention to users.

Enjoy your summer months and the Brisfit! We will return to you with news about version 1.021 at the end of next month.