I've been playing a ton of ROF lately -- it's just a gem of a sim in so many respects. The "Beta" campaign is a little lack-luster however -- it's nice, but not great. I've been trying to get the hang of the Pat Wilson Campaign Generator -- which (and all credit to the guy for putting this together -- for free) feels pretty rough around the edges and slightly immersion-killing.
So i've been back and forth wondering if I should finally take the plunge on WOFF. I've read a lot about the strengths and weaknesses of ROF vs. WOFF, and now that WOFF has been out for a while, I'm wondering what y'all think -- for your single-player experience, what's your go-to:
ROF + PWCG
or
WOFF
?
ROF is really hard to beat in my book. The career mode is really where I stay. While I only played the older version of Flander's Field, I did not like that it was tied so closely to MS Combat Simulator. Apparently WOFF still is.
WOFF is really hard to beat in my book. The campaign is simply outstanding.
Although I wish it did not have the Combat Flight Sim 3 pre-requirement, I have enjoyed WOFF more than ROF...I like them both, but just find the experience more immersive with WOFF.
It really seems to boil down to a contest between ROF's amazing graphics & flight models vs. WOFF's amazing immersion.
I should probably just bite the bullet and try WOFF but I'm a sucker for eye-candy and suspect that I won't be able to get past the visual downgrade from ROF. Also, not owning MSFS makes it easy to hold off buying WOFF. (Is it still the case that you have to have the MSFS CD in your drive while playing WOFF? Another turn-off, although a tiny one).
Quote from: jomni on August 07, 2014, 05:04:24 PM
WOFF is really hard to beat in my book. The campaign is simply outstanding.
This.
WOFF for a great single-player campaign experience.
While ROF is fun, I found myself far more addicted to flying careers in WOFF.
Quote from: sandman2575 on August 07, 2014, 06:32:06 PM
It really seems to boil down to a contest between ROF's amazing graphics & flight models vs. WOFF's amazing immersion.
I should probably just bite the bullet and try WOFF but I'm a sucker for eye-candy and suspect that I won't be able to get past the visual downgrade from ROF. Also, not owning MSFS makes it easy to hold off buying WOFF. (Is it still the case that you have to have the MSFS CD in your drive while playing WOFF? Another turn-off, although a tiny one).
You still need a copy of
Combat Flight Simulator 3. But if you install it on your computer, WOFF will run without needing the CD or DVD (neither) in the computer. I bought the CD-ROM version from Amazon for around $8.
While the old engine doesn't have some of the later DirectX effects of ROF, it doesn't look horrible. Especially if you drop the DX9 mod in, which I highly recommend. You still get "poster" clouds, although they actually look better from a distance than the volumetric "cotton balls" in others. Since the game has so much going on in the campaign environment (down to troops on the ground firing at each other!), it's very CPU intensive so you can't use time compression too much or it'll get bogged down. I can set my 'autopilot' on and use 4x TC without too much fuss, but beyond that it gets chunky. Still, I take the time to look around for enemy planes and watch artillery falling on the lines while doing so. It's detailed damage model also isn't near as detailed as ROF (although ROF has that invincible fuselage thing where you have to generally kill enemy planes by shooting their wings off, which isn't a historical thing). WOFF is missing the odd modern bell or whistle regarding the game engine, but not enough to bother me since the experience as a whole is great.
I haven't played a flight sim as much as WOFF since the old Microprose games in my youth (Gunship, F-19 Stealth Fighter, etc). While it has some drawbacks due to the old engine, it has almost no resemblance to CSF3 anymore. The extensively modeled world you fly around in is a rare and immersive thing. It's my go-to flight sim for pure campaign fun.
You also get a LOT of flyable aircraft with the game. No buying them individually. Although, after discovering how much I enjoyed the sim, I did go buy the extra skins pack to fill out a bunch more specific pilot's art (the money reportedly goes to the modders who did them).
Some of my
WOFF screenshots from earlier this year:
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs28.postimg.org%2F4ec3zr07x%2Fimage.jpg&hash=acc1779ff2c7795d8d3673978af83503311064f0)
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs28.postimg.org%2Frq07ouehp%2Fimage.jpg&hash=f776001b6b187e74a72efdbf14077218ea7ad09d)
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs15.postimg.org%2Fpo113eynf%2Fimage.jpg&hash=9c33abc8a2da19a9931ef5bc4af509966a9cf5d6)
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs22.postimg.org%2F3k2t633gx%2Falb3_2.png&hash=6ab8960813fffb0dabe5a4f1ed8a8693eaca6ac9)
Here's a screenshot of
ROF (which I still enjoy, just not so much in a continual sense):
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs1.postimg.org%2Fhu8ds3ou7%2FAlb_Buzz2.jpg&hash=92ac18428eb3c2b0fe19f7dc860e69bbf409f48f)
Some of my short WOFF dogfight vids, in case you missed them in the Video thread.
They don't show the campaign layer stuff (that's actually a separate program that then switches to the 3D engine seamlessly) or the stuff you see while patrolling, bombing, etc. But at least it shows you the game in the depths of action, along with some of the differing AI pilot behaviors (the vids against historical aces are definitely more demanding.. I almost got killed in both of the ones I recorded).
https://www.youtube.com/user/NefariousKoel/videos
I was interested in WOFF until I saw the requirements and the laptop disclaimer around them. ROF runs fairly well on my mid-level laptop at medium settings and looks great. I see no point in buying a game that has such severe requirements. That's including needing CFS3 to run.
Appreciate the feedback, fellas.
Nef -- OBD should hire you as their spokesman. Your detailed write-up is a big help -- many thanks. I'm close to dropping MCFS3 in my Amazon shopping cart to get the WOFF ball rolling based on your recommendation -- my wallet says "NO! ROF is perfectly good!" (and it is -- it's great in fact) -- but the pull of a truly immersive campaign is hard to resist.
I love the skies in your WOFF pix -- way better than anything I've seen in ROF -- I agree, the volumetric clouds leave a lot to be desired (while also taxing your GPU unduly)
^Don't pay more than 8-10 dollars for CFS3.
it's $10 currently on Amazon & it bugs me that I have to buy it if I want WOFF -- this is the first time i've been tempted to try downloading a cracked game >:D Don't worry I won't -- MS can have their $10, bastards.
WOFF is probably my favourite slight sim I've ever played ( I own ROF aswell and for me WOFF is much better again because of the single player aspect). It caters for the single player experience and doe sit very well indeed. Also an expansion is in the works which will have Zeppelins!!
RoF looks wonderful and flies like a dream. I love the water droplets on the goggles going through a cloud, and the oil as well.
But WoFF is a far better single player game. TW is right. It's definitely one of my top 3 flight sims of all time.
Quote from: RyanE on August 07, 2014, 07:37:22 PM
I was interested in WOFF until I saw the requirements and the laptop disclaimer around them. ROF runs fairly well on my mid-level laptop at medium settings and looks great. I see no point in buying a game that has such severe requirements. That's including needing CFS3 to run.
Loads more going on at the same time than in ROF. Also may have something to do wih CFS3 aswell...
Really don't care the reason...when the dev calls that out, I'll go with a more optimized program. I do suspect that the CFS3 engine can't handle it well. DOes CFS3 use multi-cores? Is there a memory limit in CFS3...IOW, can it take advantage of a 64b system?
Someone say zeppelins?
Quote from: TacticalWargames on August 08, 2014, 01:42:46 AM
Quote from: RyanE on August 07, 2014, 07:37:22 PM
I was interested in WOFF until I saw the requirements and the laptop disclaimer around them. ROF runs fairly well on my mid-level laptop at medium settings and looks great. I see no point in buying a game that has such severe requirements. That's including needing CFS3 to run.
Loads more going on at the same time than in ROF. Also may have something to do wih CFS3 aswell...
Yeah. As I said, WOFF is a very CPU intensive game when you're flying campaign missions. Because there are a
lot of units and stuff going on across a very large stretch of front. There is no little "player bubble" where stuff just spawns near you. There are many flights going about their mission all over the place, along with ground troops/tanks (I couldn't find some of the screenshots I took of them awhile back - sorry). Since WOFF is based on that old sim engine, it isn't multi-threaded so you don't want to run it on a slow processor, no matter how many cores it has, because it will only use the first one.
If anyone picks it up, I suggest at least getting the AnKor's DirectX9 mod that adds more self-shadowing and helps off-load a bit of the CPU burden to your graphics card. Also get ArisFuser's Cloud Mod, as it makes the clouds look better. They're easy to install, and in the case of the Dx9 mod, it just drops into your main folder without even overwriting anything IIRC (and has a JSGME version too).
I also use the the News Mod for more historical detailed additions to the daily Newspaper in the campaign. These mods are hosted on the game's site: http://www.overflandersfields.com/User.html
Also note that it
requires a 64-bit OS due to the amount of memory it needs.
QuoteWOFF is designed for 64 bit memory access. If you wish to try your WOFF on a 32 bit Operating System it may be possible, customers are running on this but we do not officially support it.
Quote from: Gusington on August 08, 2014, 08:20:55 AM
Someone say zeppelins?
I was thinking the same thing. Sold!
That will be...epic. A while back I thought I saw a thread here about an actual Zeppelin sim, but I can't find it now. IIRC it was in development, not released. Don't know how interesting it was to pilot a Zeppelin but the idea on paper is intriguing.
Quote from: Gusington on August 08, 2014, 01:25:58 PM
Don't know how interesting it was to pilot a Zeppelin but the idea on paper is intriguing.
I expect it to be like watching hair grow out of your own ears. But people want to see it. :idiot2:
I'll be happy to be able to shoot at them. O0
Quote from: Gusington on August 08, 2014, 01:25:58 PM
Don't know how interesting it was to pilot a Zeppelin but the idea on paper is intriguing.
probably nowhere near as interesting as shooting one down. 8)
edit -- ninja'd!
Maybe a steampunk sort of.Zeppelin based craft that would include naval type guns would be more gooder. Like a naval sim, set in the air.
Too much?
There was a Zeppelin company management sim from Microprose back in the earlies that was kinda fun. Well, kinda fun for me as my chief goal was to cause as many catastrophic blimp fires in major cities as I could. Burnt down Prague once...
Loved the gothic font and the sepia tone style.
Holy crap, I vaguely remember that game too.
Wow -- that is definitely old-school.
GOG should nab this ;)
I have that game. It's basically Zeppelin Tycoon with no actual flight sim aspects.