Moving from Over Flanders Fields to Rise of Flight

[Gusington]

Great responses, keep them coming guys, I really appreciate it. In recent games I have not been much of a flight simmer, but I grew up with Gunship and F19 Stealth Fighter from MicroProse. Slightly more recently I was addicted to Wings from Cinemaware...not a sim by any stretch I know but it got me totally obsessed with WWI aviation.

And now I have fired up RoF for the first time. It is the Iron Cross edition so I have whatever planes came with it...I think there are four. Looks like I have some shoopping to do :) What do you recommend for ground attack missions? I have always been partial to. German aircraft, so German suggestions are welcome...good to hear that German planes ar
more forgiving too.

As far as TrackIR, I know nothing about it.  I have my trusty old Logitech stick and that is it. What do ypu guys recommend to start with?

[MengJiao]

Great responses, keep them coming guys, I really appreciate it. In recent games I have not been much of a flight simmer, but I grew up with Gunship and F19 Stealth Fighter from MicroProse. Slightly more recently I was addicted to Wings from Cinemaware...not a sim by any stretch I know but it got me totally obsessed with WWI aviation.

And now I have fired up RoF for the first time. It is the Iron Cross edition so I have whatever planes came with it...I think there are four. Looks like I have some shoopping to do :) What do you recommend for ground attack missions? I have always been partial to. German aircraft, so German suggestions are welcome...good to hear that German planes ar
more forgiving too.

As far as TrackIR, I know nothing about it.  I have my trusty old Logitech stick and that is it. What do ypu guys recommend to start with?

I use the trusty Logitech myself, but I just play quick single-player stuff.  In that environment, the DH-4 is pretty deadly, though I just use it to bomb barges mostly.
I've enjoyed putting extra guns on the German Floatplane and the RE-8 and the DH-4 and having various duels with the up-gunned bombers.

[LongBlade]

You little Fokkers. I can't believe you're suckering me into playing yet another game I don't have time for.

When are folks getting together to fly?

[Gusington]

Awesome. And my work here is just beginning.

[Father Ted]

TrackIR is a way of translating your (actual) head movements into a pointing device so that by moving your head you pan around your in-game view.  It works by by having an IR camera mounted on your screen record the movement of an array of three IR- LEDs on your headset or a cap, and translating that into "mouse-look" (effectively).  By use of input/output curves you make it so that a small real head movement allows you to look over your shoulder or straight up in game whilst still seeing the screen in front of you.  After a short period of adjustment of those curves and acclimatization it becomes incredibly natural.

RoF allows for six degrees of freedom with this system so that you can shift your view sideways, up and down, and back and forth as well rotate your view in three planes.  This is great in RoF as you often need to look round struts and things.  Also it displays the cool feature of the slipstream noise increasing if you look over the side of your cockpit.

Most of us try it and then won't contemplate "flying" without it - it's that good.  And you can also use it in any other self-respecting flight/car sim and the ArmA games.

The only drawback with TrackIR (a trade name) is the price - $150...

However, there is some good news...I use a thing called Freetrack which uses freeware and whatever bits I can cobble together.  You can put together something which does the job of TIR for about $20-30 if you're prepared for a bit of easy DIY.  But maybe that's for another thread - or Google it; the Freetrack website tells you all you need to know.

As for the stick, well, like I said before, twist for rudder is pretty essential.  A slider for throttle for mixture and throttle is also nearly essential.  If you can spring for a new stick, then a good quality "cheap" one is the Thrustmaster T16000 ($40).

Recommending kit is tricky.  I wouldn't expect anyone to lay out on pedals ($150) and a throttle quadrant ($100) before they knew if they liked the game or not, but I know that you WILL like the game more with the right kit.

Bottom line for me would be headtracking and the T16000.

[Barthheart]

WOW! That Freetrack stuff is way cool. I'm gonna have to find some time to try it out.

Thanks for the link!  8)

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

If you want to do ground attack stuff, you're better off flying for the Entente.  Several of the smaller scout planes can carry bombs as part if their default load out. 

I'd say get comfortable flying the 4 planes that you get with your edition for now.  In sure there will be another RoF sale for the holidays and you can grab some new planes then.

If you like the Germans, I recommend the Pfalz III.  Very nice plane to fly.  Decent speed, great turning radius, very stable to fly, and sturdy enough that you aren't going to rip your wings off in a dive.  The only drawback is the forward visibility. 

Avoid the German heavy bomber for now.  That thing is truly a beast to fly.  Getting a fully laden one off the ground is quite a challenge. 

My personal favourite is the Sopwith Pup.  It's just a tiny little buzz saw.  Amazingly agile and just a blast to flip around the sky.

Anyway, get a TrackIR or free tracker.  Once you've used one, you can't imagine playing a flight sim or ArmA without one.

Finally, go to the RoF site and download the community skin packs.  That'll give you dozens of historical and fictional paint schemes for your planes.  Very nice of the Jerries to adopt such vibrant colours.  Makes target recognition so much easier.

[LongBlade]

Avoid the German heavy bomber for now.  That thing is truly a beast to fly.  Getting a fully laden one off the ground is quite a challenge. 

Dang. I don't like hearing that. The only thing I'd like to fly more than a Gotha is a Zeppelin-Strachan. Clearly I'll have to start with some training wheels and work my way up.

Thanks for the advice.

[bboyer66]

 Not sure why people are telling you that you need a Campaign generator from 2010. That was before ROF had its campaign implemented. The ROF campaign is excellent and is very similar to the OFF Campaign. My only complaint being that it does not go back in time enough to where the E.III and Dh2 were actually effective.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Avoid the German heavy bomber for now.  That thing is truly a beast to fly.  Getting a fully laden one off the ground is quite a challenge. 

Dang. I don't like hearing that. The only thing I'd like to fly more than a Gotha is a Zeppelin-Strachan. Clearly I'll have to start with some training wheels and work my way up.

Thanks for the advice.

Once you cut your teeth on some of the other planes and get a better overall feel for the game's control scheme and physics, then you should give the bomber a whirl.  I'd recommend starting with the Handley-Page O/400 bomber first.  It's easier to fly than the Gotha and a lot of the mechanics (jumping around from station to station, learning the bomb sight, etc) are the same. 

[Yskonyn]

TrackIR will change your flightsimming life for sure.
Once you try it, you will immediately be hooked and wonder how the heck you ever flew without one and kept situational awareness. (Which you probably find out at the same time, you obviously wasn't able to keep anyway, LOL!)

I will never fly without one anymore, but if you're not a serious simmer it might be an expensive piece of gear.

Having that said, for RoF I think TrackIR is far more important then a top-notch flightstick. Especially when you're going to venture online. You need to be able to keep scanning around you for threats.
Keyboards or mice aren't very workable unless you use a Padlocking system, which might be disabled on the more serious servers.

A good stick is important no less, don't get me wrong. But the aircraft in RoF are pretty archaic in term of functions and buttons needed to be assigned. As long as your axis are fine on the stick, you'll do fine.
A TIR would be a higher priority.

If you guys are going to have set flightsim evenings with RoF I'd like to join in too.

[Gusington]

Not only are we cooking up some MP games, we even got bboyer to show up. I am very tempted to get a TrackIR but I don't know that I am serious enough to warrant the price. Is the game easier out of the box with one?

If I stick with RoF my goal is to fly and rain destruction with the Gotha.

[Toonces]

Gus,
You have to get a TrackIR, or at least get that freetrack thingy to work.  I simply will not fly a flight sim without a TrackIR. 

I shot a little bit of video of a multiplayer flight a while back.  You'll see very quickly how incredibly useful a TrackIR is in the video.


http://vimeo.com/38336593

[Gusington]

Thanks man, I will check out your video. I love the TrackIR concept but the price...you all seem to really love it though and not just for flight sims.

[Toonces]

Ask for it for Hanukkah  8)