Wings Over Flanders Fields (WOFF) (Dec 2013)

[Grim.Reaper]

Darn you....had to mention the campaign/battlefield elements look good...those are the things that interest me the most......I am now officially on the clock as to how long it will take me to purchase this one:)

[Grim.Reaper]

Well, maybe I will be saved yet.....should have read this first, but seems like you need a minimum video card with 1.5gb on it....I only have 1gb video card.  Maybe it would still work but likely not worth risking $60 on it right now.

[Gusington]

We are very similar Grim. Nefaro's talk on the battlespace had me leaning to yes also. But my video card also has only 1GB...

[Tuna]

I bought the CFS3 a long time ago, or the original, but never bought the original due to the shipping costs.. CFS3 still not opened..

Thing that pisses me off about RoF, is not the nose rising.. but the poop on the windshield oil spills!

I wonder if it really needs that beefy an video card? The graphics don't look anywhere near RoF and that runs fine on my GTX 460 with 1 Gig of memory..

[Gusington]

That's exactly the card I have...DOH.

Plus the graphics are scalable, right? DOH again.

[steve58]

I'm starting to see why the campaign system has been touted so much.  Not only are all the pilots and aircraft conditions being tracked, the landscape is alive.  You can see some examples in the following screenshots.  There are actual troops on the ground battling it out and I got to witness artillery barrages landing around some.  The feel of the battle area is pretty good, including the behavior of enemy flights (they're doing actual missions).  I believe part of the reason the requirements for this one are higher is because of all that's going on in the background.

The original even modeled gas attacks, so keep an eye out for green/yellow clouds on the ground over the front lines.  The front was always alive.  You'll see troop movements, vehicle convoys, and even the occasional tank.

[Nefaro]

I'm starting to see why the campaign system has been touted so much.  Not only are all the pilots and aircraft conditions being tracked, the landscape is alive.  You can see some examples in the following screenshots.  There are actual troops on the ground battling it out and I got to witness artillery barrages landing around some.  The feel of the battle area is pretty good, including the behavior of enemy flights (they're doing actual missions).  I believe part of the reason the requirements for this one are higher is because of all that's going on in the background.

The original even modeled gas attacks, so keep an eye out for green/yellow clouds on the ground over the front lines.  The front was always alive.  You'll see troop movements, vehicle convoys, and even the occasional tank.

Yes, I saw mention of gas attacks.  I've also flown over truck convoys and trains.  You can also hear a lot of that stuff, including air raid sirens when you're flying over enemy bases, train whistles and their clacking on the tracks, etc.

I think the game is held back by it's CFS3 engine but they managed to shoehorn a lot of little things into it. 

I'm seeing some reports that the graphics card requirements are probably overstated.  I'm sure you guys can play this at decent settings with a somewhat modern 1GB video card.  You probably just can't crank some of the gfx densities up to 11 (or 5 in this case). 

I got murdered three times last night.  Usually from attacking against superior numbers.  My first pilot, on his fourth mission in a Strutter, was sent to drop some bombs on an enemy airfield.  All went well, the bombs were dropped somewhat on target, and then I spotted a flight of 4 or 5 Halberstadts on the way out.  I turned to engage - my wingman did not.  From what I've seen, if you're not the leader of a flight, you can't tell the others about enemy aircraft you've sighted - they just continue on unless they get fairly close.  So anyway, I ended up dogfighting with a flight of Halbs and I believe a trailing group from my same squadron got mixed up with another.  Then a third enemy flight jumped me.  It was at least 8 to 1!  DOOOM!  My poor slow Strutter just wasn't fast enough to escape.  I somehow managed to stay alive for a minute or two, and get a couple stray shots in, but inevitability got the best of me.  :D

These AI pilots are mean and have quite a good aim on Normal.  It sounds like they've been given quite an upgrade since OFF.  I'm having a helluva time getting a kill thus far (none!) - I had an easier time doing so in ROF.  I think it's partly due to the pitch sensitivity being a bit higher than I'd like, in the finer stick movements, but that's probably just an easy excuse.   

Unfortunately it looks like the "Warp" hotkey just plain doesn't work.  So you have to fly whole missions in Time Accel at most.  The highest I dare leave it is 4x so each mission can take some time.  :(  I can do 8x time accel but my framerate drops dangerously low - I think all the stuff going on in the virtual world, at accelerated pace, slows even my new computer to a crawl when it's cranked up that high.   I really wish 'Warp' worked.. would save lots of travel time.

[DoctorQuest]

I bought the CFS3 a long time ago, or the original, but never bought the original due to the shipping costs.. CFS3 still not opened..

Thing that pisses me off about RoF, is not the nose rising.. but the poop on the windshield oil spills!

I wonder if it really needs that beefy an video card? The graphics don't look anywhere near RoF and that runs fine on my GTX 460 with 1 Gig of memory..

ROF may support higher levels of DX on Win7. That's been the key for me with Strike Fighters 2 and my lil' ol' GT 240. The shader support and other stuff makes a huge difference and you won't see that in the CFS3 engine.

[Gusington]

Nefaro have you flown any ground attack missions yet?

[Nefaro]

Nefaro have you flown any ground attack missions yet?

One.  Dropped 4x40lb bombs on an enemy aerodrome.  I just left autopilot on whilst flying over, to see how/when the AI drops bombs from 11k feet.  That's the mission I got into a scrap with about 8 enemy fighters and died in a glorious fireball.

Which leads me to a complaint about my AI wingmen.  My AI flight leader has thus far refused to order the flight to engage groups of enemy aircraft we've spotted.  We're told that the new AI is not only good but it picks & chooses it's battles and also has a tendency to extend and run away when in a bad situation.  All that is great except my wingmen haven't been aggressive at all, despite flying within sighting distance of enemy groups multiple times.  Makes me wonder if it's too skittish. 

Another problem here is that all my new assignments put me in Flight 'B' which only has 3 planes assigned.  German patrols are usually 4-6 aircraft apiece so I'm thinking that, even though my flight is on anti-air patrols & intercepts, my AI wingmen refuse to engage if outnumbered at all - even from an altitude advantage.  ???  I put in a query at the SimHQ forums about it, so we'll see what everyone's been experiencing. 

[Nefaro]

I was told to force Anti-Aliasing in my video card control panel, in Windows, instead of relying on the in-game AA.  It did make for some improvements, even at the same 4xAA setting.  What's more, I also turned on Anisotropic Filtering so the skins look better now too.  8)

I'm enjoying it, despite having a helluva time shooting someone down.  I'm still kinda in the settings tweaking stage, especially since I can never seem to get my TrackIR sensitivities exactly where I want them.

Ridin' around in my Brisfit with the top down:
(and forced 4xAA, 8xAF)













It'll never approach ROF levels of beauty but this is sufficient for me.  :D

[Grim.Reaper]

One of my biggest problems with ROF was not being able to shoot anything down......not sounding like it is any easier within this game........hhhmmm

[jomni]

Ever tried using the SweetFX or ENB mods in this one?
http://www.guru3d.com/files_details/sweetfx_shader_suite_download.html
http://enbdev.com/index_en.html

[Gusington]

I don't know, those images look pretty good to me.

[Nefaro]

I don't know, those images look pretty good to me.

That last post of screenshots was after I forced AA & AF on in my Nvidia control panel.  It did make a difference, as one of the devs/forumites said it would.


Here's a screenshot from Wiggins at SimHQ ...  Hamburger!

Here is what happens when you drop a DII on a local farm field (I killed a cow!!).

Buahhaha!



**
I've run into some issues with my Brisfit Autopilot when in a 6-plane flight.   An AI often collides with me while I'm in Autopilot!  I even got blamed for one of my wingmen tail-ending me!  ???

As an update to the AI flight leader's aggressiveness.. evidentally their personality ratings, morale, etc also help determine how aggressive they are.  I eventually got an experienced Ace as flight leader and he started taking us into the fray.  All is well with this, there was just more factors at work than I knew.  :)