+1

Well, the Western front won't be fully fleshed out until the Belgian air force is included! It may not have been a very big air force, but they had a role to play and produced some fine aces too, the most famous of them the top balloon buster ace of the war, Willy Coppens. And I'm sure many people would enjoy flying the Hanriot scout that saw extensive use in the Belgian air force. It was a fine fighter by all accounts.

Unfortunately it's starting to sound like we can no longer expect anything big to get added to WOFF. So I don't expect them to add the Belgians to the sim either, and much less completely new theatres of war.

If we're lucky, we can probably get a couple of new planes added before WOFF development ceases altogether. The devs have their non-WW1 sim project to work on, after all!

No offence, guys, but have you ever thought about to DIY? In form of mod or another addon, even the next WOA (Wings Over Alps :-) )?
Why not to make a new map? New aircraft? We have the tools and I think we would find also skilled artists amongst us.(?)
Then we can ask for help the devs to implement it in WOFF.
I know, the easiest way is to wait for others to do it and pay 50 bucks or so w/o any work and time spent.
Think about it, pls.

Hell JJJ65, I have no modding skills at all, but if a team of modders gets together and creates an entire second front, including maps, squadrons, skins, historical aces, etc, etc - by all means create a Donate button where I can send cash.

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Gents, I have been wanting to see the Aéronautique Militaire Belge added to this wonderful sim since the OFF days. I and others here have painted a fair number of skins for this contingent, and I even went so far as to create an entire squadron set for the Camels of 9ème Escadrille de Chasse that could be swapped in place of an RFC squadron operating from one of the aerodromes that 9ème flew from. At the time there was little interest in the skins or the swap. As to creating an entire campaign addition that would bring the WWI Belgian Air Force to life in WOFF, well, it would be a very large task. Of course not nearly as large as creating the Italian or Middle Eastern Fronts, both of which I have made small attempts at over the years as well. But again, not much interest in either of these in the past from the general OFF/WOFF community. Someday maybe - someday.

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Lou, I for one would love to see the Italian front. Can you imagine a dog fight over the Alps, it would be amazing.

Brussels is in Belgium and I don't have good memories of the country. So as far as I am concerned they can be ignored.

Hell yes, it would! The air war between Italy and Austria-Hungary is definitely one of the forgotten campaigns of WW1. Both sides used some very interesting plane types - for example the Austrian Albatrosses were actually better than the German ones - and the fighting in the air was just as fierce and complex as on the Western front, though the air forces were smaller.

It's so easy to think the Great War in the air was just about Britain vs. Germany. In a way, WOFF reinforces this misconception by labeling the whole Entente side of the lines as "British" (though there's probably a CFS3 engine-related explanation for this). But of course real life wasn't quite that simple. For example, the British didn't even have the biggest air force of the Entente powers - the French did.

However, the addition of a whole new theatre of war to WOFF would be a huge undertaking for the devs. So I don't believe it will ever happen, especially as most people don't seem to show interest in anything but the Western front. That's just a fact of life we'll have to accept in this most niche of niche markets!

Compared to a totally new front (or fronts!), the addition of the Belgians would be a simple task. But of course still a lot of work, and maybe not worth it, because people simply don't show enough interest.

Yep and thats why I want to do this Brainstorm sessie in how to get a simple easy and low labor needed add on pack. New fronts that needs lot of effort I do not think that will be considerd by the devs.

About the extra planes, this can also be only AI planes, that do have a simple FM, DM and no need of an cockpit. So we can still hunt the Br14, Spad11 or MF40.

I would suggest that to have a credible Belgian Air Service, one needs to build at least two new a/c. I can frankly tell you that OBD has no plans to build either one, so someone else needs to step up and build them. Some in the community have in the past tried to model new aircraft, and soon discovered how hard, tedious, and unbelievably time consuming it is. So unless someone really does step up, a very skilled modelmaker, I don't see it happening
Cheers
shredward

Honestly, I am not 2D or 3D artist, but I can help with FM and DM files making and testing.

I agree this is the heart of WOFF, one of the last great games that you can actually play against the AI. A rarity these days. Keep it the way it is.

Cheers

Sounds like the gauntlet has been thrown!
Luckily I can easily chicken out as I have zero skill or knowledge in that area.

I guess that means there won't be any new airplanes in WOFF, planes like the Breguet 14 and the Salmson 2 A2.

That's not what he said...or so I understood.
Whatever planes needed to make the Beligians viable (HD1 and ?) have norhing going in future plans.
I did not take that statement as ruling out other aircraft.

You're right, I guess I was just being a Debbie Downer.

Why not ask OBD what would it take ($$$) to bring the Belgians to WOFF? They are the best for the job, all they need is an incentive. I'm sure they would be happy to do it if they knew the funds were there for them. Once they can give an estimate it would be a matter of setting up a kickstarter and get the ball rolling. Anything they could get from the sales beyond the original amount would be their profit and we would get what we want. Win-win. I've seen plenty of forum members happy to part with their hard earned money for quality product. And who knows? If the business model works, maybe the next would be the Italian theatre? One can only dream.

My suggestion for a "Belgian" pack a couple of pages back was a misnomer. The idea was to have an add-on that would benefit the most countries. The Farman Shorthorn served the Belgians, French, and British. The Breguet served the Belgians, French, and Americans. A Caudron would be a wonderful addition as it was used by the French, Belgians, British, and Americans.

Those three would meet the need for French two-seaters throughout the war, offer a more interesting British and French training scenario (the Shorthorn), create a richer USAS career, and allow for a good representation of the Belgian service. A Hanriot would be lovely, but a luxury.

I overlook that but indeed if lancing the UE pack, OBD should fill in the not availible plane set, with alternative already in the game, like Pat Wilson did in his PW-CG or just introduce that Not included campaign planes as a new addon pack.

Speaking completely out of my arse, I don't think there's such a thing as a "quick and dirty" expansion at this point. Adding whole fronts or even "just" the Belgians to the war is, I should guess, no easy task. Airfields that go in and out of use, relevant squadrons, changing locations, Aces and of course, planes...which comes with it's own set of demands. Flight models, damage models (including damaged cockpits), historically researched squadron & ace skins...not to mention the time consuming task of creating the 3d models for the aircraft themselves.

As has been noted on occasion, some people have offered their 3D modeling skills to make new planes and quickly give up when they realize what a time consuming and difficult process it is. That OBD has created over 80 craft for us to fly (some are variants) is an incredible feat that as far as I know is unmatched by any other WWI sim ever produced.

Winder mentioned that they were basically down to 3 guys. I'm amazed WOFF 3 got produced and I'm even more thankful they have decided to work on a WOFF UE which I guess is more about some code clean up, etc. Time will tell. I'm not suggesting that there can't or won't be plane packs or add-ons. I just don't think much falls into the realm of easy, low hanging fruit, if you will. To the scale of their development team - pretty much anything will require a lot of hours and effort...and ultimately that ties directly to the question the dev team must ask themselves each time. "For the amount of man-hours we have to put into it, are we going to get a return that keeps the lights on, feeds the family and maybe even gets us ahead a little?"