Hello fellow Pilots.
Beginning April 30th you will be able to update your copy of ROF to version 1.012. The result of which is a culmination of many hundreds of hours of work by our dedicated Development team and Beta test team. The most notable additions - two brand new modes of Dogfight Multiplayer!
We always planned on having a Dogfight MP mode and wanted to give it to you as fast as we could, but the road to get here has not been easy, matter of fact, it’s been 12 months of hard work and countless delicate business decisions during this trying economic time that has delayed this accomplishment for so long. However, now it is here and we are happy to share it with you.
On a side note, many of you have written me asking about Rise of Flight’s high level of difficulty and above average System Requirements for such a “Game”. I often think to myself how should I answer these questions correctly? Well, please let me try to give you my answer. No answer I give can be perfect, but this is the situation.
First, ROF is not merely a PC Game, but a Flight Simulation and the processing power to simulate every single nuance of flight and aerial combat does not yet exist, but we must push the performance envelope to remain competitive. There are many compromises that our code has to make to simulate such a flight environment and we are doing our best to give you what you want. There are many requests from users that ask for things that we may have not have thought of in the beginning or for changes to code that are very complex (whether it seems simple or not) that eat up a lot of time, energy and money that we cannot currently afford. Such changes and improvements may have to wait until we have the resources to address them. An example of this would be the request to draw a tiny dot for an aircraft many kilometers away. Such a request introduces many challenges for us so solve. Some items like the dot issue, may have seemed very obvious to you the community, but as mentioned already, some compromises had to be made and some features did not turn out to be as perfect as some of you had hoped or wanted. We are sorry for that, however, even with the benefit of hind-sight and knowing all that we know now about our fans and the difficulties of development, plus knowing the limits of our resources and money, it is hard to imagine ROF turning out any different.
Our main goal for ROF and the Digital Nature Engine was to create a world in which we could simulate air combat in as realistic a fashion as possible using today’s technology. And we feel we have reached that primary goal and provided a modern flight-sim that helped, at least a tiny bit, to revive a beleaguered and difficult gaming genre. We are very proud that our first product has interested so many people and gained so many fans. For those that do not like our product or the decisions we have made we are sorry, but we have tried and are trying our best to make something fun and interesting. We also recognize that no matter how hard we try, we can never satisfy everyone. The bottom line is that we appreciate everyone who has purchased our products and we will continue developing so long as our good fortune holds out.
But let me continue now with news of version 1.012 As mentioned, we are offering two new Multiplayer game modes. They differ from one another in some key ways, but they both work in a similar manner and feature re-spawning. And both of these Multiplayer modes can be launched and managed using the DServer utility. To start flying all you need to do is log in, choose a server, choose a team, choose an airfield and an airplane and scramble for a flight. After your courageous death in combat, you can choose the same or a different airfield and just press “Fly Now”. But it isn’t enough to just get the aircraft airborne again, there is a larger goal you should pursue. So we have used our experience of previous projects to make one the new modes team-tactical in nature.
CTF (Capture The Flags)
To assist your computer in its struggle for good performance, we have created two new smaller maps for the new MP modes. These maps are smaller and require less computer resources than the accurate, historical map of WWI. For training and location familiarization these maps are also available in the Quick Mission Builder.
Each map for CTF mode is divided by areas of influence or provinces. Each team fights for control over each zone. Control is established by capturing the Key Points. Each province has one key point. In game it is a huge flag pole. The flag carries the logo of the team. The player should fly within a 1 km radius in order to capture the zone. The Flag will go up or down indicating the current influence of the team. The speed of the flag’s movement depends on the proportion of different team members currently located in the active area (1 km). Also the total number of pilots flying for each team is taken into consideration. Members of the team fighting in the minority will have an advantage in flag influence. This allows for more balanced gameplay and ensures that just because your team has more pilots doesn’t ensure an easy victory. After the opponent’s flag is lowered completely, the flag of your team will start to rise, and the province will become yours.
By capturing the area your team will gain all local resources: ground combat units, airfields, aircraft and balloons. So you will be able to press your offensive further. Different types of aircraft are allowed for each airfield on the map. There are more important airfields providing advanced aircraft and less important with weaker aircraft. The quantity of each type of aircraft is limited too. Aircraft will be re-supplied automatically after specific time periods. Advanced aircraft will be re-supplied less often. These rules will affect the gameplay and encourage you to join together in teams to perform wise and coordinated battle tactics.
There will be several scenarios available for CTF mode. They differ by the quantity of provinces and therefore by the time needed to complete one round. During the beta-test it took more than 4 hours with 20 players to complete one of the scenarios. Our servers will remember when you logging in, so if you left the game server and then returned while the current scenario is still going on, the server will keep your unfinished statistics and automatically add you to your previous team. There is also a quorum option that ensures that there are enough pilots for the scenario. If the number of players isn’t enough to capture the territories, you can fly and attack opponent’s targets, but you can’t capture the area and all flags will freeze at their current positions until enough pilots join the game.
Each flag is guarded buy AA guns, combat vessels, and balloons. That’s why the capture of the flag is not a simple task even without enemy fighters. From the scenario’s lobby you can use information from recon balloons. In the game they are used as simple radars and display the visible information on the map. Unfortunately the historical restriction for WWI aircraft communications does not allow you to get information from balloons in real time. The design of the CTF interface is similar in appearance to the Quick Mission Builder and we hope that you will find it familiar and easy to manage so you can jump into the combat quickly.
TDM (Team Death Match)
TDM is the more classic style of Dogfight Server and it is based on similar maps as CTF and designed for more dynamic and rapid gameplay which doesn’t require strict team work. Each round consists of matches. To win the match, teams should score a certain amount of points. Points are scored for air victories or ground targets destruction. Team airfields are fixed and the frontline is invariable. To survive the dynamic action of this mode you should be always ready to attack and should always watch your six.
There are a lot of server settings for these new MP game modes. You can customize the environment in any way, whether to create entertaining and easy gameplay, or a complex and sophisticated battles with penalties for pilots or aircraft losses. And of course there will be even more customization options in the Mission Editor that will allow you to create even newer game modes. Some beta testers have already begun doing this. We realize that neither of our new MP modes are currently rooted in strict historical scenarios, but with a little imagination such scenarios can be built and integrated into the new MP modes using the Mission Editor.
I can’t list all innovations, improvements and fixes contained in version 1.012 here in this Blog, but you will find them on the forum at the day of release, as usual.
Also we are rolling out two new fighters. The Albatros D.II and Nieuport 11 will be available in our online shop when the update is released. These two machines turn back the clock to an earlier period of WWI.
The Nieuport 11 was “drafted into the army” in 1915 to put an end to the so called “Fokker Scourge”. Its design was so successful that this aircraft was produced not only in France, but in other countries as well. Pilots who flew her nicknamed her the “Bebe”. The Albatros D.II was a historical opponent of Nieuport 11 and it helped swing the momentum of the air war back towards the German side. The first Albatros D.II’s were rolled out during the second part of 1916. A bit later the design was improved. The main visual difference between early and late Albatros D.II is the radiator design. The early model was manufactured with radiators placed on sides of the fuselage, in the later version the radiator was mounted in upper wing decreasing drag. To give you a better picture of the developmental history of the Albatros line we have included both variants for the price of a single aircraft. We hope you will enjoy both aircraft should you choose to purchase them.
One other development that deserves a mention is that we have moved the Product Activation and Registration to inside the GUI itself. This has been implemented to ease the process of setting up ROF and will help future flyers who purchase ROF in later production runs and digital purchases. We hope that the new registration system through the game’s GUI will be more convenient for new pilots.
We sincerely hope that with version 1.012 the ROF community will grow even larger and that the new MP game modes and other improvements will give existing and future ROF fans even more enjoyment than ever before. We encourage all ROF fans to try the new multiplayer modes and give it a go. Dogfighting humans is a challenge, but don’t doubt your skills. Practice, practice, practice is the operative phrase! The Multiplayer DF modes will be a whole new experience for ROF fans that have patiently waited for its arrival. We think it was worth the wait. We also encourage you to unite under your respective squadron banners and exercise teamwork. We feel that to get maximum enjoyment out of the new dogfight MP modes, a good team atmosphere works best. Who doesn’t like a wingman keeping their six o’ clock clear of bandits?
We also would like to thank everyone who responded and participated in our latest survey. Thank you for your concern and thoughtful critiques. With our first project we’ve gained priceless experience and will definitely use it in our future work. Thanks to everybody who invested in our product during these tough economic times and helped us develop a better Rise of Flight experience All this time we have tried not only to fix errors in existing elements, but to constantly move forward and finish features long planned. Special thanks to our beta testing team who helped us to debug these complex game modes under strict deadlines and rules. You helped us so much! We hope that you will use your beta experiences to help newcomers understand ROF better and help them learn how to fly online so that you will not only be experienced rivals, but also respected mentors. And please don’t forget, that it is only a game, the fight will be finished in the air, but our international friendships and our mutual respect for each other should remain intact at all times.
In the end, Rise of Flight is a simulator and our ultimate advice to you is to be patient, confident, educated and skillful as if you were flying in real aerial combat. Master those traits and you will become an Ace!
We wish you gallant victories and many safe landings!