The whole point of their current free to play model is based on the sales of airplanes. The odds that a new player will buy the the float planes for the current terrain (maybe the small lake terrain?) is very unlikely. On top of that new players will feel discouraged that all the players are playing on a map that they can not play on. Then when they do buy the map they will find that they wont have the planes for it.

I have already heard from several people that they think this will destroy the current demo since people will log in to no one online since everyone will be on a map that is not standard.

I have no problem paying for things but our online community is not large enough that we can afford to segment it further. There might be 100 people online at any given night. When the new map comes out easily 80-90% of those players will be on that new map.

What incentive is there for a player who downloads the demo to buy the new float planes and map if they have not gotten to play against humans in a large area. I have managed to sell the game to 25-30 people with several of them buying everything they can buy but that is only after playing online with them for a week or two so that they see how good the game actually is.

With this new map that will be removed.

I'd personally doubt people are going to spend all their time on the English Channel map. Most of WWI air war took place on the maps we have now (or somewhere similar), the English channel was a sideshow. For historic and aesthetic purposes, I'd imagine most people continue to use the default maps for dogfight servers, esepcially after the newness of the Channel map wears off.

No, I think then the 'free' version will serve as a true demo that people will have to buy the extra stuff if they want it. I will be mightily pissed if I pay for maps and then they are given away free later on because people are too tight to buy the game.

Great stuff Jason and team! All you have will be mine!!! mwwwwuuuuaaaaaaahhhhhhaaaaaaaaaa

Thanks.

Pre-ordered. Right now only DCS and RoF companies left for us simmers....

Hopefully Italy/Austria will be next. I'd like to see some mountains!

Nice additions.


Wheels

I did also the Pay-pal pre-ordering, support seems to be needed for 777 and I like this game, so why not. Only I think that a decent campaign mode like in RB3d/OFF3, release of the SDkit and early 2-seaters should also not be forgotten.

I think Master has a point here and I will explain why.

Currently, I have played approximately 10 minutes of RoF - which I have to say I enjoyed. That was about a year ago - work and family pressures meant I had little time to invest the time needed to justify buying it.

Now I am looking at the game again and am really encouraged by there being a free demo - I can invest the time now and see if I really get on with the sim. Congrats to the team for providing that. There have been sims in the past that have really excited me but on spending a bit of time with them, they falled short. I want to be sure the time I have, is going to be spent on the right sim.

When it is said people are too tight to buy the content, I have to disagree with this blanket statement. I know myself, and I know that once I get into a sim, I want to get everything associated with it ( I am sure some of you can relate to that)

Now to the crux of the matter; if I play the free demo and I struggle to find servers which I can play on, then how will I be able to make that decision. For me, I don't see it as such a problem as I am in the UK but there are players who live in more remote parts who this will be a far bigger problem for.

Just an opinion from another angle

What a surprise! Channel map is great news, as are floatplanes and ships/subs.
EDIT: have pre-ordered all 3 new aircraft, AND as currently appears you do get the 20% discount on top, at least for now.

BUT hope they include London as a target for Gothas though! From the map shown it does not look so, so...?
There is no sense in truncating the map just to cut off where London should go, after all, we don't have Paris either...(yet). Technology will change, make the map to include the terrain that will one day be London in RoF, either by the hand of 777 or third party.