RoF ? Good or bad ? Statements wanted

[Toadvine]

It was a son of a bee wasn't it? I know exactly what you were going through, believe me.

But here is the bright side, when you do get around to upgrading your PC the sim will have gone through multiple updates and patches and be even better than it is today, and all updates will be automatically installed when you load up the game. No searching the web for patches or wondering if you have the most current version, Neoqb takes care of it all. It is one big plus for the online requirement.

Actually you don't need a powerhouse of a computer to run this game. My rig is far from cutting edge and it runs the game at the highest graphic settings pretty well. For even smoother FPS I could knock things back to medium but it isn't necessary. The game engine is very well optimized, I don't think this gets mentioned enough. Just for reference here are my specs:

AMD 64 dual core 4200+ processor
2 gigs system RAM
ATI HD 4850 512mb video card.
XP pro os
Viewsonic 21 inch prof series CRT monitor

[JFM]

Originally Posted by Harry Tate

If you, too, are using a 4-5 year-old computer, don't bother trying to play this game. It's time to upgrade to a new machine.

So I've uninstalled the game, set it on the shelf, and when I have the $1400-$2000 needed for a new computer that will actually run the game, I'll give it another try.

This is my Silent Hunter 4 situation, exactly. Frustrating, I know.

Man, an hour to install? Ouch! Clearly something is fubar somewhere with that (and once again I win the Most Obvious Statement of the Day Award). I guess just take Toadvine's silver lining that by the time you get to fly the sim it will far more than it is today.

[Balloon_Buster]

Not all of us are techno-geeks. No, I don't expect to be able to hop in and fly it in 5 mins. But I do expect it to load easily. My PC is 2 years old, and I thought could handle this. But right before I gave up, I tried dumbing down the settings, and it said something about memory usage being too high.

That sound like you had wrong resolution(can be changed from the game settings). Menu icons are located bottom of the screen.

Really? What resolution is it supposed to be? I seem to recall it had a number of choices.

But like Harry, I might have to wait for a new PC in the future. Had the same problem with RB IIID. Had to wait to get a new computer for it to run.

[James Dietz]

Written to Sim Friends for what its worth:
See This:
YouTube - The Beauty of Rise of Flight

Have time for a short review...I can run this thing...fairly smoothly on what I've got.My online connection must be good enough too since it has given me no problems after I finally figured out registering etc.So here's my first thoughts:its not perfect-earth-shattering news huh? Like the first days of Il-2 Stormovik it has potential,and maybe starting small is a good thing.Like Il-2 it rates high in eye candy appeal.It has great versions of the planes exterior & interior:

Its countryside is a little less than I had hopes & seems to have a bit of the Disney Sleeping Beauty look to it,tree & cloud wise.To my eye it isn;t as good as Third Wire's First eagles or not nearly as good as the modded maps of Il-2 forgotten battles that really are special.Also - there is only one map so far...maybe its the whole Western front ...I haven't flown that far.
Nice action going on below on the ground , but not much time to look at it while trying to keep plane on track..Effects ( smoke ,flame ) seem understated - perhaps because of FPS hit?)
Operational: Registering is difficult...maybe because this is Russian that the instructions are like Boris & Natasha translated them....but to play you must keep trying,I guess.
I got lazy with Il-2 - everything else aside Oleg made it easy...not so here....at least for me..setting keystrokes to what I have been comfortable with isn't nearly the same easy task as Il-2, but not impossible either - it just takes some doing & I was able to match my Il-2 keyboard,with help found on line...I was able to adjust screen size to match my monitor after some looking for their version Of Config,file...So it can be done.
Startup takes FOREVER!Thefirst time especially , but I am told it goes quicker once you are hooked up on line.I am so sick of the startup screen of the two eagles & wish we cold make this Splash screen something different..
No Music choices either for the menu or any where I can see of how to add them.
In Game: Menu( rotating SPAD) is pretty wonderful,but at this stage pretty limited.Initial choices in single missions are limited in the extreme,although more can be found on SimHQ site.There is no Quick Mission Builder( as in Il-2) ,no Full Mission Builder either for that matter.I have been told that if you go into Game folder you can set up missions , but again not anywhere near as easily as in Il-2.So no Mission builder , no choice of time. conditions , seasons ..etc etc for a quick mission.No Track/Movie recorder built into game either so far as I can see.
Flying-To do full real:Good Luck! These are very twitchy Flight Models & will fall out of sky without much warning ( no stall horn here) There are adjustments that can be made ( I fly in what might be called sissy mode & still crash ...) The Heads up helps a lot for following map ( the Map is really inconvenient in this sim-punching it up means a delay & is difficult at first to read...)& in assisting aiming guns,,,sights here are absolutely useless...I mean useless unless you are close enough to crash into your foe...which doesn't happen often because your foe is flying all over the sky..they don't just sit there fat & happy & let you shoot them full of lead.Shooting at anything is damned difficult even with aiming assistance!
Again it is pretty just to fly & changing shadows in the cockpit add so much..ditto sound which is different in each aircraft- Nieuport radial isthe best!
Track IR ( with me ) has its problems - twitchy & unpredictable...maybe it will get better.FPS tend to suffer with more planes in the air esp with FLAK but not too badly..Track IR biger problem in getting & keeping targets.
Finallythere is the involvement factor in campaigns...for somereason I don't seemto be as involved with my career as I am in Il-2.I can't put my finger on it exactly- you do get medals & all that, but it may be because there isn't much description for the various missions ,they don't seem to matter on the most elemental level.I remember in Red Baron,you got points & eventually could repaint you plane..somehow that was worth fighting for! Here I seem to beplaying for the eye candy alone..hard to explain.
I have said before that Third Wire's First Eagles is a pretty damn good sim & I still think so..it is better in many way to what this one is now and it is only about 15% less detailedon the planes - which means its still damn good.It offers more aircraft , is smoother ....easier to install & program easier to master...and so far more fun,although I feel the same disconnect in career mode.
Someone said RoF is more like a demo- I agree-it has a lot of patches to go to bring it up to speed- it should have spent more time in Beta is my guess...but boy does it have potential..so I'll stick with it for the ride.
BTW-I sent my buddy Fred Jungclaus the vid of the upcoming Se-5a to review- he built & fles one so I figured his comments wotuld be worth reading:
I have some video tapes I shot with a hand held 8 mm camcorder and the similarities are striking (save the combat scenes of course.). I am trying to see how to transfer them to a mailable format so you can see them.

That's a very nice film strip. Too bad I haven't figured out how I can make mine work!







You've flown a real one ( almost) what do you think???

YouTube - SE5_Beta_Promo_Rise_of_Flight

[VonKost]

Well, I upgraded my video card from an 8800gt to a GTX 275. I had to buy a new 650 watt power supply to support the new card, so it cost me about $300 all told.

The new card made quite a difference. I can run it maxxed out, and it is mostly smooth at that point with a framerate in the 30-40 range.

RoF looks really good and it is fun when you are actually flying it online especially, but they really need to iron out some of the problems with the online component. It is like they thought of the worst possible way of doing online play and went for it big time! In addition to having missions that you work together on I do not understand why they do not have open play arena's that you can spawn into and fly missions in with respawns and NO FREAKING FIVE HOUR LOAD SCREENS! You should be able to choose what plane you want to fly depening if you are Central Powers of Entent, choose your skin and loadout, and off you go. They need to include flyable 2-seaters and point/rewards/victory for knocking out targets or spotting artillery. Basically they need to have an online persistant world in which you and your squadron can operate.

The online component of the game that exists now is that of 10-15 years ago and since this game was touted so highly as for it's online component, it's time for them to pony up with the goods or issue some major apologies. There is nothing to tell you who you shot down or why you won or lost the round. Add to this that fact that there are very few servers and you cannot create a dedicated server and still be able to play the game and the joke gets even funnier. Even if you do create a server, dedicated or not, you cannot do it through a router and must be connected directly to your cable modem. Huh? this is not a problem for any other games? FIX IT, this should be a top priority for the design team. Why on earth would they design it this way and expect people to play it? If you get shot down at all, you spend more time loading and waiting then flying. It makes no sense and hacking off your paying customers is a great way to kill your product before it is even finished.

The graphics, flight models and damage models are awesome if you can use them in a meaningful manner at all. I really want to lose myself in this game, but they seem to be trying to stop me from doing so at EVERY turn!

<S>
VonKost
AKA =56RFC= McCudden online

[Toadvine]

The developers wrote an open letter to all of us who purchased the game. Have you all seen it? STICKY: Statement from General Manager and Producer of neoqb (Text) - SimHQ Homepage

[James Dietz]

Read it - liked it...hope they can deliver...esp in more interesting game play & additional utilities ( Tracks, mission building etc...) As beautiful as it is it still seems a bit sterile...like a demo...

[Toadvine]

I like the game. My biggest issue is with the view system. I don't have a Trackir and the hat button, padlock song and dance just doesn't work well for me. I dunno if it is me not understanding the KB keys or what, but I hit f8 to find or track an enemy and nothing happens. Every time I fight I only use the hat button to try and keep track of opponents and it is just disorienting.

So ordered a TR5. It should arrive late this week or early next. I hope this thing solves the problem. Having an intuitive way to track opponents would open this sim up for me.

[James Dietz]

Get Track IR- period!
This is absolutely the best advice I can give anyone & no I do not own stock in the company!

[Toadvine]

It's on the way! I watched this demo of the TrackiR 5 on youtube and that is what convinced me to give it a go. The thing that was making me hesitant was hearing about problems RoF was having with many Trackir users. But then the first patch for the game included some fixes for TiR, so I decided to pick one up. I am keeping my fingers crossed hoping it works well.