I didn't know about OFF until a few weeks prior to the release of Phase 3 (BH&H) - how's that for timing, eh?

Prior to that I'd played RB3D and loved it, lost the CD, lost interest, had RL nonsense overwhelm me, recovered, discovered one or two WWII flight sims (which were mostly crap) then found IL2. Because my then PC couldn't handle it, it stayed on the shelf for a while, allowing me to pick up FB and PF cheaply, then I upgraded PC to take advantage of said purchases. Enthused, I bought IL2:1946 and was back to square one with an inadequate PC (patience! i'm getting there!). Remembering the fun of RB3D, I bought a copy off Ebay: in German, dammit! Grr. Eventually hit the web and found the full download - hurrah! Then, thanks to t'interwebs, I tracked down WFP2 and FCJ - double hurrah!

The point is, in all that wandering around, I never clocked the existence of OFF - or, for that matter, sites like CombatAce and SimHQ - so there was no inkling of the wider community that existed. I even had no idea that MP existed, although I noticed that various RB3D sites mentioned membership of virtual squadrons (how quaint, I thought naively...).

It was only after I bought FE, and rather disappointed with the lack of planes, found CombatAce with a ruck of add-ons that I stumbled across references to OFF. It was really that late in the day - I missed P1 and P2 entirely.

Why have I given you this rambling narrative? Well, mainly to show that there are many, many gamers out there - particularly those who only play SP - who probably wouldn't have heard of OFF because they're not part of a wider community, and because OFF isn't available in shops. Hell, I probably wouldn't have found FE if I hadn't toddled into my local branch of Game on day, a bit bored with reloading and reconfiguring RB3D and add-ons for the umpteenth time.

So, let's celebrate the publicity that ROF has generated for the genre. If it means that more people end up with OFF, then it's a serendipitous event, and good for all of us.

Well I just stumbled upon ROF by chance. I play ARMA II and was not looking for any other game or sim. After looking at ROF trailer I just asked myself why not, I have loved Wings on Amiga. And ROF looks very nice only no real campaign. That's why I decided to look if there was another sim but with a decent campaign. And yes it exists it's called OFF. To add I didn't have any prejudice against CFS3 because I didn't played it. That's what happened with me.

Now ROF's look attracts a lot of casual players. So probably there will be a lot of them willing to try out other flight sims.
Since ROF I bought, CSF3, OFF, IL 2 1946 (expecting Canvas Knight) and I'm looking for BOBII because there a lot of guys in this thread that are saying nice thing about it.

Will I be a flight simmer hard core player? No. I just love games that can create a good immersion feeling.

By the way, speaking about immersion, Elite is commemorating it's 25th anniversary.
http://elite.frontier.co.uk/

Understood. Good post, SimonC.

I searched for WW1 sims a few times over the years since rb3, but didnt find anything that jumped out in the results of the search.
I saw a blurb about RoF, and bought it (I think it was right at the launch). Waiting for it to arrive, I saw posts on OFF in the forums here, and had to do a search to find out what "off" was.
Found their site, and ordered OFF right away (and CFS3, and some pedals, and TIR5).

I think the search results are to blame, because I would have bought OFF long ago, had I known it was out there.

I stopped playing RoF about a month ago. Too frustrating on too many fronts, the most of which being the joystick sensitivity and lack of control. Basically, the designers of RoF made a sim that = no fun.

That's the stink of it.

Am I "extremely disappointed with RoF"? No.
Am I majorly disappointed with RoF? Yes.

I have it though, and it's nice to fly if you dont have to shoot at anything. heh! It's a sim, not a combat sim.

Bah.

I think the saddest thing about rof is that they spent money on it. Rof was supposed to be a commercial game built by an official development team with access to the tools of a modern gaming company with official hyped marketing. It's very sad to see it fall at the first gate.

if you know anybody who went for rof initially, but would like something else, introduce them to OFF, and the other ww1 sims out there. There's plenty of other great ww1 and ww2 games available.

I enjoy ROF, sure its a little limited campaign wise presently and they are always going on about no dogfight servers, i have not even done MP with it yet so does not really bother me.

Got OFF for the capaign as it looked so good in the videos.
Unfortunately it runs like a bad slide show, tried all the tweaks etc and no great improvement even with sliders down at 1.

I will continue to try and get OFF working correctly, may have to dig out an old machine as CFS3 used to work fine years ago when it came out, it just does not like my modern kit even though it manages ROF on max.

Luckily i have ROF and First Eagles to keep me going.

If they moved OFF to the ROF engine or even First Eagles, that would be even better.

Del

Another magically created new expert user with 3 total posts, bashing RoF like this ...

NO, unfortunately there aren't "plenty of great ww1 and ww2 games available" out there. As already said on another thread, because of 'users' like you i won't buy OFF. Anyway, who cares, it seems you are trying to attract another class of clientele. Not simmers. Man i hate RoF fanboys, but 'envy' people who spread lies to detract people are even worse. "was supposed to be", "hyped marketing", "see it fall at the first gate" - shows more about what you want than the truth imho.

Yes, i had a bad day so far

I don`t think anyone here would want to see RoF fail, I have two copies, one I purchased, and one was a gift. RoF is doing a good job of failing all by itself, you can`t expect a company to put out an unfinished product as RoF is and florish. The DRM alone has turned away a vast majority of potential buyers. I`m not happy with it at all. They talk about very few connection problems on their end, that coin has two sides, if you have trouble on your end, your out of business too. I found that out a couple of weeks back, when this area was racked by heavy thunderstorms. I could`nt play Rof, so I played others that did`nt require online connectivity.

Neoqb needs to seriously address the DRM problem, as well as RoF`s other pitfalls, no dynamic campaign, single missions don`t impress, and they need a lot of work on the MP end. One of the biggest things is the time set of the planes, I guess that was done so the U. S. would be represented the last year of the conflict. Not very much of that ground war is represented, and you don`t feel like you belong to a squad of pilots, let alone a huge conflict such as the great war.

RoF needs a lot of work if it`s going to make it, and I don`t mean more planes, it needs work on it`s structure, and content, it has eyecandy, but that is about all. I`d like to see them make it, but until they can correct it`s numerous faults I`ve shelved it.

Hi,

i do not want to see RoF "fail" as well, and i do not think it already has, or will.
I have not much time and only played RoF at a friend's PC yet (but downloaded the Demeo, and will - if Paypal works now - buy it right away), but i already think that the "flying" as such is the best in any sim up to now.

I do not like fanboys both sides, who are blind on one eye. Hell, why not own both sims - for WW1 flight sim fans those are good times. There is still the revamped Red Baron 3d, "First Eagles" and "Richthofen skies". And now sims like OFF, and RoF ! I have seen so much ww1 sims go down the drain, and now the last iteration of Kots at least made it to the shelves in RoF shape - good !

... but ..

But, and this is a big BUT: Most of the hard core WW1 simmers have observed the "Knights of the sky" development (eating up the "Sikorsky" WW1 flight sim in its course), which then became "Rise of Flight". In this KOTS there were so much promised planes, i remember 15 of those, and a campaign. Now when the successor Rise of Flight hit the shelves it was ... well ... sobering. Two Planes ? OK, they made it four ... but no dynamic campaign, no single play to write home about, and additionally to this "lean production sim" now this online DRM model ?!

It stinks to the heavens. Why not right away make a browser game, and pay for every minute - like this Window$Live crap which is planned - lend a type-writer and pay for every minute. Can anyone who does not work in this industry really like this idea ? I ask you !

It is a clever idea, once you owned a mechanical typewriter, then they made it all "virtual", buy a 2000 $ machine AND a printer, AND the expensive software that turns your Cray supercomputer into something that is able to at least type a letter, and the next step is you do not own anything anymore, but pay for the "service" all the time. To hell with it ! Now THAT is communism for me LOL, only that the dispossession is done by enterprises, not government.

BUT, unfortunately this is where the whole industry seems to go. If the RoF team had announced this plain and simple - why do you even need some software on your PC when it's changed and updated every time you log in ? You only need a keyboard and an internet connection - it's all going playstation.

Having to be online and pay for planes that should be in the sim is not my cup of tea. I have looked forward to another kind of sim, the successor of RedBaron, or "Knights of the sky" that is, in a new version. If they would have at least added some 10-12 planes, call it 1917, and then sell additional ones for 1916, or 1918. But now this is just an incomplete product - sorry but it is !

Well, this is all just - sobering.

@Laser: i said i do not like fanboys, and i also i do not like people who work for one sim and then post in "independent" threads how good their product is. Both sides crap, yeah, agreed (guess it's called "viral marketing"). I also appreciate what you did for RB, but again this BUT: If you do not at least play this sim (OFF) just because of its own breed of fanboys, like i did not like to buy RoF before because of those other fanboys (or paid spokesmen), you really miss a lot. IMHO OFF ist at present the real succesor of RedBaron, and it will at least take a year until Rof will come even close.

Well, whatever makes your boat float,
have fun,
Catfish

catfish, putski, yes.
Yes, the industry is heading that way.
DRM is the biggest problem, but with server issues, a lack of aircraft, and a general lack of the story of ww1, there's not enough there.
Rof bashing is unfortunately becoming a practice for an increasing number of rof customers.