Hello Dear Friends!

It is now 15 days into the fifth year of our friendship with you. On May 7, 2013 the Rise of Light project celebrated its fourth anniversary on the market. It is impossible to describe everything we have experiences together - all the ups, downs, searches, successes and difficulties that have happened on this long journey. Over the years a lot has changed in the project and we, like the most modern projects, produce several versions each year. You really taught us a lot during this time and we thank you for that. Thank you for being such a great group and professional team in this genre. In celebration of ROF’s 4th Anniversary we are launching a special sale from 26th to 31st of May in our store!

As always, we are working on new aircraft for you, which we mentioned earlier this year. Today we are proud to present you the Sopwith Strutter 1 ½ which is available for pre-order in the ROF Store. Like you, we also wanted to see this aircraft appear in Rise of Flight. It will probably be one of the best ones ever, because we are using all the experience that we have accumulated on exterior work of other aircraft, as well as our work on other flight models. It will be a nice addition to the Sopwith family and fill a big gap in the plane-set.

We are also working on our second big project, a continuation of the legendary series - IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad. This is a very exciting and, of course, very difficult project for us. We received the chance to work on it thanks to our work on Rise of Flight, and of course, your trust. Who knew that your early decision to trust in our team would lead to this opportunity? We appreciate your continued support! In other Sturmovik news, we have added some new graphics technology in the new project and we are trying to make it in such a way that some of them can also be included in a future version of ROF. This takes time though, so we appreciate your patience.

We also look forward to more active work on the part of the community while we are busy on other fronts. A lot of interesting work has been done over the years by modders and sometimes it is possibly as good as we could have done on our own. Now we want to further assist those who are willing not only to use the project, but also create something new for it. We can assist in the realization of your ideas both technically and financially if you are motivated, so you can focus on it with maximum results.

One of the first steps in this direction is the official site opening of the ROFMODS website. http://www.rofmods.com/en/

We will begin to collect all the good modifications of ROF and offer them to you. And of course, we hope to see your new works there.

And finally, we began collecting the first information on the operation of the new statistics system during the past month. We collected and processed virtually every flight by each pilot made on each server during this time. There was a massive amount of data and we are pleased that the system has proved resilient. We have made some initial modifications, but some of them will require a restart of the entire system which we are preparing to. We will also make a number of changes to the terms and conditions, as the test period showed us the places where the system needs some improved logic. In addition to internal changes, we will also make a number of external changes that will help you to see more interesting sections of the data. This will give users an opportunity to not only see the leaders who do a lot, but also those who fly better.

Now we go back to work to continue to delight you with new achievements.

Dear Pilots,

Today it is our pleasure to give you version 1.30b which contains several quick bug fixes identified by the community, but more importantly it launches our new Leaderboard technology (http://stats.riseofflight.com/en/) with a bit of a makeover to the ROF website. Flight-simmers and gamers in general are quite competitive and we always believed it would be fun to be able to see who the Top Guns in ROF are and also be able to track your own improvement. This new system will also be helpful to our Battle of Stalingrad development.

Our new stats system is designed to give users a more comprehensive overview of a player’s ability and preferences. Our old system was based mostly on points and many users did not like that. So our new system is not totally based on points, but it tracks all types of metrics such as what types of targets you like, what planes you fly and how many sorties you have flown etc. You can sort these categories and see who in your mind qualifies as the best combat pilot. Also, to level the playing field, we have used the difficulty settings to form either a “Standart” or “Expert” preset. Each act as a sort of a “League” for users and server operators to adhere to if you want the stats to count on the Leaderboard. The goal of this new system is to offer something better and give users a way to evaluate your competition and your own skills in a fun and interesting way. Remember that the stats are attached to each User Profile you have created for your account. You may want to have one profile for Expert servers and one for Normal servers.

As with any new system there will probably be some bugs and issues we need to look at. This launch of the Leaderboard is a bit of a public experiment to see what works and what doesn’t. We ask that users post their findings on the forum in the designated place and we will evaluate your findings over the coming weeks. Please keep your comments civil, polite and respectful at all times. We will first turn on the MP statistics and then in a few weeks activate the Career statistics. After we go through a testing and evaluation phase and everything seems to work properly, we will reset the system and everyone can start fresh.

We have also completed a slight update of the ROF website to modernize it a bit, but still retain all important information for users. We hope you like the new look.

Dear Pilots,

The time has come to give you the version we have been working hard on the last few months. These were important and difficult months for us, we have experienced the increased load of the whole development BOS + ROF. You have expressed your concerns at the forum and we discussed it in our workplace. We have overcome all difficulties and the version will be released at the scheduled time.

First of all, you can expect to see new aircraft in this version. As you have known, you will have the opportunity to fly the Halberstadt D.II and Roland C.IIa if you have already purchased it. Thanks to all who have made pre-orders of these planes and helped us to do our job quickly by attracting additional resources. Those who will buy the plane once released, should be grateful to the folks that pre-ordered it as well as the guys who worked on these models directly. We hope these planes will give you many hours of fun flying. Also, you may now pre-order for our next new plane in our store, the F.E.2B. We have already started to work on it. With your help we will replace it’s black silhouette on our site with the finished model for your hangar.

Speaking of the Career mode, we have heard that several British squadrons flew the French Nieuport 17. We have heard the same information from those who have arranged various historical events in the multiplayer. We decided to go forward and add a third plane to this version, the British version of the Nieuport 17. The differences between these machines is not very significant, but fundamental. The British version of the aircraft was slightly lighter and had a different main weapon. Now historical justice is restored. All those who have already had the French version of Nieuport 17 in their hangars will get the British version for free, as a gift from us. All others may purchase it in our store as a separate product for a reduced price of just $2.99. A Field Mod and Weapon Mod will also be available for the British N.17.

As stated earlier, this version will see the inclusion of the English Channel Map in Career mode. It includes a set of new missions related to this sector of the front and the use of seaplanes. While working on this part, we also took a very important step. For the first time in our work on such a complex game mode like the Career, representatives from the ROF community have taken active part in its development by assisting the team in Moscow directly or through assisting Jason locate vital information. Many thanks to everyone involved at every level!! Thanks to LukeFF, JFM, Panthercules, Hellbender, gorillacake, Zoring, AzraelMalik, actionjoe, J.j., Erik_Flyer, Trooper117, =J99=Sizzlorr, WWWhiteAce, nbryant, navair2, , Gunsmith86, DerMo, Sylvis, Pulsar, ROFnut, S27Dressedwings, Raine, Dutch2, Dr.Zebra, Branwell, LordNeuro*Srb*, Jetlagg, Browning, Pandy, ccr. Because of their efforts the Belgian Air Service will appear in the Career Mode for the Channel Map. In the future, this kind of cooperation will bring better results, because this work was just a beginning.

Coming back to the news about the gameplay in ROF. We have not done anything new in this part of the game for a long time and now we offer several new innovations to you. As you remember from the beginning we conceived the multiplayer in ROF as a competitive component to see who is the best of the best. We created all the necessary technology and modules and launched the online Leaderboard for this game mode. But after the first 2 years, we've seen how much you wanted us to change and improve it. This included not only the technical side of the issue, but the rules of the game also. This task was very big, but we decided to take a chance. Thank you for your patience! It will just be a week or so before you can experience a whole new section of the website where you can see not only the top aces, but also be able to see their game statistics and the statistics of your comrades in a new way. We have not just changed the details, but we have created a whole new system.

We are currently testing this system and if all goes well we will open it up to everyone the beginning of April. The opening of the new system means the removal of all current MP statistics for all ROF players and the beginning of a new page in the history of the ROF online battles. The launch of the new single player stats system will follow later.

The main innovation of this system is the creation of two major divisions or "tiers" if you will. They represent two different leagues, similar to amateurs and professionals in the sport. And just like in sports the rules are the same for all participants in each division. If a Server wants to participate in the global statistics it should be created with the rules of one of these 2 divisions, without any changes. If the server is a special event or just playing with friends, then of course you can set any rules for online play, but the results will not be included in the personal statistics for each participant. We believe that a question of such sporting rules will cause controversy and many new suggestions. Do not worry; the whole system is made so that it can be modified, so we just need to find the way together to be the best variant. But please remember our principles: Criticizing something - offer something! If offering something, think about all players of all levels and abilities, nationalities and preferences, and not only about yourself! These principles will help us to make a really interesting system for all game modes.

Later in the forum, we will give you more information about these features and listen to your suggestions. Now we are talking about only key points of this version. One of the most important features is new rules for some helpers in the game. Currently there is auto control of the fuel mixture and auto control of the radiator, but only if you've chosen option before the start of the mission. This meant you could not change it once in the cockpit and these systems operated by only hand. Now you will have the opportunity to set automatic systems in-flight by pressing keys, as well as the ability to enable manual mode at any time. It is much more convenient and allows players to use these helpers more widely.

But to ensure balance in the game we put into each of the system some small inefficiencies. Which means these systems do not work perfectly and therefore, the pilot who is able to work these systems by hand, has an advantage over those who use auto mode. These new rules are designed to facilitate entry for beginners and less experienced pilots, but also indicates the need to study all these systems to take advantage of each aircraft as possible.

More information about version 1.030 will be presented as always in the forum.

Traditionally, we also begin the spring with a sale which this year will be from March March 28th till April 3nd. This will give you a chance to fill up their hangars for your Easter holiday!

We go back to work and invite you to play the game! And as always, we wish you many victories, discoveries and hours of enjoyment flying and learning aviation history with the help of Rise of Flight.

Dear Pilots,

We are pleased to introduce version 1.029b - a set of fixes to previous versions. We have tried very hard to make it available to you as soon as possible which would fix those issues that prevents you from enjoying ROF to the fullest. Of course we are talking about the issue with the sound.

This was a difficult issue to fix, the symptoms of which appeared earlier this year and with the release of a major new update those symptoms became literally disastrous. The problem was that this error comes to us from another program called Fmod. This is a complex bit of middleware, which is the basis of the whole sound scheme in our project and was not created by us. As you can imagine, it is difficult to correct the problem because the cause of which is hidden in other intellectual property. But we think that we have solved the issue.

Flight simulators are very complex products. To make the sound of each aircraft engine informative and unique, we use thousands of samples of small audio files, which is switched on and off at high speed and frequency. Imagine how complicated this gets when dogfighting on a network and around you there are dozens of other aircraft and packets coming across through the whole world to your little PC that contain sounds. This is a very high bar for us to make work correctly every time and is not easy to reach and stay on this level of sophistication without occasional difficulty. Now we hope that the problem will disappear and you can stop thinking about the thousands of operations per second that are taking place on your PC and just focus on the mission and marksmanship.

In this version, we correct and clarify certain aspects of the gameplay associated with the new Channel Map. A full list of changes can be found on our forum as always.

The holidays are past us now and this new version 1.029b is a signal that we are back to normal operations. This spring will mark four years since the initial release of the Rise of Flight. We are pleased that the product has lasted so long on the market. We are sure that we will continue to find and show you a lot of interesting discoveries in the next year. As you know, our team has been given the honor to start work on a new project for the famous WWII centered IL-2 Sturmovik series - Battle of Stalingrad. We have read many reports of players with concerns that this new big task will not allow us to be engaged in the development of the Rise of Flight project. It is not true. For this we also have plans for ROF and they will come to life.

During this year, we will give you a few more aircraft of that beautiful period. We chose those planes that you have asked us for on the forums and hope that you will be satisfied with this choice. At a minimum in 2013, you will see the Roland C.IIa, Halberstadt D.II, F.E.2b and Sopwith 1 ½ Strutter.

Roland C.IIa, Halberstadt D.II, Fe2b и Sopwith 1½ Strutter как минимум. 

Very soon you will be able to download and use the career mode for the Channel Map. We are continuing to work on a brand new statistics for online play and even planning to change some of the rules to make the competition among the players more interesting. Also, we want to mention that the work on the project for the Second World War will also impact Rise of Flight in a positive way. We hope to adapt some of the technology for ROF, which will allow us to simulate such things as parachutes or mirrors.

The 4th year of Rise of Flight life will surely be as interesting as previous years. Thank you very much for your continued support! All of this would not have happened without your attention and encouragement. We are proud that you have given us the opportunity to do business in this forgotten genre, which we love and we are very pleased that our results make you happy. It is very simple, satisfied user = happy developer.

And of course in 2013 we will continue to work with and attract talented community members to work with us in special ways to improve ROF. We have already had some positive experiences with talented community members and would like to further develop this in many ways and directions. We hope to see some new content made by you or with your help this year. Happy new game year to everybody! Further details will be posted, as in the previous years, in our blog and forum. Stay tuned and good luck in your air battles!

Dear Pilots,

We are proud to present you the version 1.029 of Rise of Flight and congratulate you on the coming holidays. We wish you and your families all the best for the coming year with victories and success in all your endeavors!

For us this year has flown by very quickly and was very rich with developments and progress. In February 2012 we told you about our plans for the year and announced a series of long-term pre-orders that offered to help us achieve our goals. And we are very pleased that today we have successfully completed this experiment. Since then, the project has changed both externally and internally, there is a new logic of weapon synchronizer weapon, new models of weapons, new aircraft, new map, new ocean technology and some cool 3rd party developments which we enjoy seeing.

In this version you can see a new map (if purchased) and new graphical effects such as 3-D water and our first flying boat. You can also find the physics of interaction with the water surface of aircraft, ships and submarines. We’ve also added moorings and hydroplanes basesand, hopefully, many hours of funflying. The map will be available in the in-game map list or in the mission editor for anyone who pre-ordered the map or buys it in the store after release. Our new flying boat, the Felixstowe F.2A, makes its appearance with its formidable modifications. Two of which add additional members of the crew.

Seaplanes can take off only at special bases that are marked with an anchor and we have added them on both British and French sides. By changing the power of the wind on the channel map, you also change the level of excitement of the waves. Normal take-off is possible only with waves of levels 1-2. Huge waves will damage the plane. Be careful and cautious when landing.

We have tried to make the Channel Map as close to reality as possible with the technology and data available to us. The appearance of the English coast is different from the French coast, which looks very similar to what you might see on the continental map of ROF. We have increased the number of objects on the map and the number of cities and trees, so we recommend that owners of less powerful computers slightly lower quality settings to get better FPS. This situation was unavoidable as the demand for increased detail on the ground is high.

In early 2013, we will continue to work on the implementation of the Channel Map into the Career Mode, which will include new squadrons and new types of missions. This is a big task, but we hope to finish everything quickly and give you the results soon.

To celebrate another successful year and in the spirit of the Holiday Season we have a launched another massive 50% sale in our store from December 24th though December 30th. Everything is on sale except pre-orders and recently released new items. Many new users have joined our ranks the past couple months and now is a great time to fill up your hangar!

We also had an important event occur in this year. Our company has been entrusted with the development of the famous IL-2 Sturmovik series which is devoted to the events of World War II. We are very proud of this opportunity and we hope to succeed in this endeavor. For more information please visit the official site of the new Sturmovik project (www.il2sturmovik.net). We invite you to register on the new official forum of IL-2 (http://forum.il2sturmovik.net) and share your opinions about this new product and your love for WWII flight-sims.

As is our tradition, in February 2013 we will announce plans for the next year for Rise of Flight. Our team thanks all those who supported us in the past year, with continued support and attention our mission will continue!

Dear Pilots,

We are pleased to announce that the Channel map is in the final stage of its development. Work on the models and the location of specific objects continues. Some things only still exist as models yet to be placed, but we are close to the end of the long and steady race. We are including the image of the Channel map and several screenshots of the map from ROF so that you can begin to study it in more detail and to get acquainted with a new theater of the First World War.

We also continue to work on new planes. The Felixstowe will soon have a complete cockpit and now it is in the hands of our engineers who build its flight model. We really want to give you this plane with the Channel map at the same time. Our engineers have assured everyone that they are working on the Felixstowe nonstop so that no one will have to ask them about the aircraft in the upcoming New Year's holidays. They are working very, very hard to deliver everything on schedule.

However, today in our news we give some images of another plane- the Halberstadt D.II. The Halberstadt D.II was an early German fighter, replacing the Eindecker monoplane and then being replaced on the frontlines by the Albatros series. Manfred von Richthofen flew one of these fighters. We are now exploring a variety of materials that give us more information about its flight model. But we have flown it anyways to show you some pictures of it in the air.

Ninety-four years have passed since November 11, 1918 when in the forest of Compiegne the armistice was signed, putting an end to the bloodshed of the First World War. To mark this anniversary in November, we announce the biggest sale ever in our store. From November 22nd till November 28th, there will be a 50% discount on all items (except pre-orders). You have a unique chance to fill up your hangar with missing planes and outfit them with helpful and interesting field and weapon modifications. This is also a great opportunity to send a gift to your friend and kick of the Holiday Season right by buying him or her a ROF Christmas present!

And this week also marks the kick-off to the holiday season around the world. We know the economies of the world are still not the best, but we appreciate all the continued support this community has given us so far in 2012. We hope we can bring some more cool stuff to ROF fans everywhere by this New Years and give 2013 a great start!

Dear Pilots,

Each day our work brings us closer the moment when you will get to enjoy the results of our latest big effort - the Channel Map. At the moment, we have completed all the tasks of developing the geographical part of the map. Everything from terrain to rivers to major forests to locations of large towns and small villages has been created. Recently we have begun placing the objects that will inhabit these areas. Our artists and designers create a new city or village for you every day.

This job requires not only attention to detail, but also a great passion for this type of work. As on the first map, we try to not only to represent places such as large settlements, but also to have them be similar in geometry of their real life streets. Of course, it is not always easy to accomplish and sometimes this turns into a whole study of an urban area. Many cities in Europe have kept the memory of their earlier development and we can often determine the shape of the town at the beginning of the 20th century even in its current historic center. We cannot always find exact information about the layout and geometry of a city’s streets, so sometimes we are forced to make a guess.

However, we are confident that we can create the main cities of the theater and keep their appearance close to the historical period in which we fly. We think you will be able to recognize them correctly at altitude.

British cities have a largely unique look due to the nature of their architecture and planning. We decided to show these basic differences and add new architectural objects and textures to the map. It is still hard to say for sure how much we can do, as we need to monitor closely the resources of your PC. Tests will show us soon what we can get away with. In the pictures we took for today's news, you'll see Hastings, a work in progress, but it gives you a first impression.

We also continue to work on ships and submarines. Unfortunately, we do not have the time required to create as wide a variety of these objects as we would have liked for the start of the Channel Map. But with time and your help we can fill the water with more objects. The ships are bravely fighting each other and submarines dive when they spot danger. Noticing a small trace of a periscope from patrol height amongst the waves is not an easy task, you’ll have to be a really careful observer. You will see among the screenshots, there is an example of a submarine going to periscope depth.

Also, we have finished the construction of the external model of the Felixstowe. It’s gorgeous and will soon rise into the air. On top of everything else we are working on, we are happy to announce the pre-order period has begun for another classic warbird: an early war German fighter – the Halberstadt D.II! We are very pleased to present this aircraft to you as it was not in our plan originally, but it is now possible to bring it sooner than planned.It's really cool when we can do more than we expected.

To kick off the start of the Holiday season we have launched a special sale on Weapon Mods! It will last from October 31th through November 5th. Now is your chance to outfit your favorite planes with some awesome and interesting weapon arrangements. We think you will like many of them. Many are quite effective in combat!

That’s all the major news we have for you today and we hope it shows how hard we are working for our community. There is still a lot of work to do before we are confident you will like the final results. As always, we wish you success in you upcoming air battles!

Dear Pilots,

We are pleased to introduce version 1.028 of ROF to you. We are excited and proud that a long promised pre-order, which we announced way back in February, has finally materialized in the form of a new aircraft along with new in-game features. That's why this version is so important; much of it was created with your early support and your desire to see it through. Thank you for your trust and support and thanks to the team, that trust will soon be experienced as the Hansa-Brandenburg W.12 on your PC, the first floatplane in our project.

You can use the W.12 in Quick Mission mode or when creating single player missions or in multiplayer. Unfortunately, the plane was not used on rivers, so we cannot add it into the Career yet. He gets there only with the release of the Channel Map, which you will also see on your PC in the not too distant future. As we wrote in the previous post, we have created several hydro bases with new facilities and some new logic for taking off from and landing on water.

It is important to note that these innovations have changed the format of ROF missions; it will add new aspects for the use of aircraft on the water. It is a huge change in the project, even if it is hidden from your eyes. Changing the format of missions means that old tracks will not play and all missions should be re-saved to work correctly. We understand that this is an uncomfortable step now, but it is a necessary step on the journey to achieve improvements in the overall game design.

We also hope that you will like another change we have made. We have created a new loading screen for missions. Those involved in the project from the early days may remember that we had to give up the big, beautiful images of aircraft on the loading screen. These images were using big amounts of memory, which kept ROF from using this memory for much more important combat flight simulator things. So, we reduced the resolution of the images and you immediately responded to this by writing to us. We do not believe this is a minor point, it is important, so we re-designed the screen so that the image of the plane takes up less space on the screen, but now looks sharper and is less pixelated.

Also in this version we have fixed some known bugs and added some new historical skins into the Career. We hope this keeps you busy having fun and inspires you while you wait for a new Channel Map, of which we are working on very hard now. In our next post we will show some images of the new Channel Map and will talk more about what you should expect.

We have also opened up the pre-order page for the next awesome plane being created for ROF: the Roland C.IIa! This unique mid-war German two-seater is already in development. You have asked us to make this plane by writing on the forum and in personal correspondence to us. As a result, we are pleased to announce that we have started its production. We also have plans for other aircraft, but will hold off on any further airplane announcements until we get closer to finishing the Felixstowe and the Channel Map. Why spoil the surprise so soon?

A full list of changes in version 1.028 can be found in the ROF forums as always.

We hope you enjoy flying your first hydroplane in ROF and as always we wish you great success in your air battles!

Dear Pilots,

We are pleased to inform you that work on the first seaplane for ROF, the Hansa-Brandenburg W.12, is at its last stage and soon you will be able to make your first takeoff from water.

Work on the Channel map is still under way and will be finished later this year, but we decided not to delay the release of the first seaplane. Especially because there are members who have pre-ordered this plane quite a while ago and it is thanks to their support that the first seaplane will soon be up in the air. The aircraft will be released before the Channel map and will be available for the current maps: Western Front, Lake and Verdun maps. We also added it into the Quick Mission and, of course, authors can create their own scenarios with the participation of this plane in the Mission Editor.

To do this, we've changed some locations to start a quick mission from and built some piers, turning them into real seaplane base. These locations will be marked with a special anchor symbol. Other aircraft may also be launched from these bases, but only by air-start. Starting from the water will only be available for the seaplane and starting from the surface will not be available if you choose a second flight of aircraft. Also we have added choppiness to the river water and revised parameters for all aircraft that contact water. Of course, we tried to do tricks like gliding current airplanes on the surface, but it was not easy. These planes do not have advanced shock absorbers or brakes so this means that even minimal penetration of a wheel into the water results in the immediate nosing. So you’ll probably have to spend quite a bit of time learning how to perform this trick.

Here’s some info about the Hansa-Brandenburg W.12 itself. Taking off from the river is quite simple. You need a free area of ​​water and a little patience. The plane will be pretty slow to pick up speed. At the beginning the floats rise up out of the water and begin to glide. After that, the speed will become enough to take off. The plane and the sounds around tell you that you have indeed taken off and you are flying. The plane is quite heavy and floats add resistance, so after takeoff you should be careful in how you continue to climb.

Landing differs only by a little more attention to the speed of touchdown. Insufficient speed will cause you to nose over, instead of skipping across the water like a ball which is what you want to have happen. Landing can be done even with a stopped engine and we are confident that after a little practice you will do it easily.

Here is the short beta-video of the W.12:

We now go back to work on the upcoming update which will be very soon on your PC.

Dear Pilots,

Within a few minutes you can download version 1.027 of Rise of Flight to your PCs.

With the release of 1.027, work on the next huge update to the project begins, which includes seaplane technology and the new Channel map. Immediately after the release our big 1.026 update with weapon mods that greatly changed in-game combat, we began to focus on the new map and the new aspects of the physical world. Work on the map recently went into the alpha testing stage. It should be said that we are not just changing the shape of the coast, the map will include many innovations, which previously did not exist in our project and some will be made for the first time in our genre. Now we are in the process of building the road network on both coasts. The next step is placement of cities, including coastal ones, which will include new buildings, piers, lighthouses, harbor cranes and docks. We continue to work on new water and on other non-trivial tasks, such as graphics technology for the connection of rivers and the sea. Despite the fact that nature is very organic and everywhere in the real-world, it's not an easy task to depict on a computer screen. However, we are very pleased with the result we have gotten so far.

In our work on our first seaplane, we passed the most important stage – the first takeoff and landing on water. The result exceeded our expectations and is very similar to what we see in the video. Of course, a lot of work still needs to be done in the aviation aspect of the update and double-check and update our work several times, but it was very important to convey the feeling of landing on water and not to simply make "another kind of landing." We hope to soon please you with some test videos.

We have already showed you a picture of new water rendering techniques that we created specifically for sea maps. Judging by the reaction on the forums, you liked our work, even at this early stage. It inspires and helps us to solve such complex problems, but the image does not convey the dynamic part of the concept of "sea". And today we show a short video in which a familiar ROF barge is put in the new water. This video will help you form an impression about the technology itself. Of course, you will have many questions and we will prepare a separate more detailed story for a blog with answers, videos and pictures in the future. Until then we answer the most important question - yes, we were able to make this technology work on the mid-range PCs. Current tests by our core test team prove this is true. We really wanted to do this to not only be revolutionary and beautiful, but above all, make it accessible to most users with average personal computers.

And now let’s discuss version 1.027. We are worried that you're constantly waiting for new items and it can get pretty boring to wait. To brighten up this expectation in the last summer months we have prepared the update with Personal Package 2 for you.

We see that you liked the idea of playing a shooter in the simulator and the first pilot personal package is very popular among ROF users. So we decided to increase the number of pistols. This content diversifies the game and will restore some historical accuracy as well. Pilots from different countries may prefer different guns. Here are some pictures of our reconstituted samples:

• Mauser C96
• Luger P08 pistol (Pistole Parabellum 1908)
• Webley-Fosbery Automatic Revolver
• Lebel Revolver (Model 1892 Revolver)

Each of them has unique features. Of course, we are still have to deal with some limitations, so there are some simplifications, but in general, as always, we have tried to create the most realistic models of weapons.

We’ve also included some new streamers with a checkerboard pattern in this new personalization pack. Streamers have proven a popular way to distinguish yourself on the battlefield and compliment squadron skins. The Pilot Personalization Pack 2 can be purchased in the ROF Store for $7.99.

Also in this version we fixed some bugs and added some features. For example, now there is a new logic for balloons. Now the ground crew will try to lower the balloon to the ground as soon they see a threat to the lives of observers and raise it as soon as the threat has passed. This is entirely consistent with history. This tactic is well documented on both sides of the front, to save the lives of courageous observers and to deprive the pilot of a kill. Info about this new balloon logic and all the changes in version 1.027 you can read on our forum as usual.

We go back to work on the next update. We wish you continued success in your air battles!