I'm really excited to offer my first (and probably only) modification to Wings Over Flanders Fields!
I am no visual artist, nor am I a programmer. I cannot offer to significantly change anything meaningful in this sim. However, I am a writer, and this is what I do best.
When I first heard about the incredible immersion of Wings Over Flanders Fields, I rushed to experience this. However, I soon realized that all of this immersion is of a technical nature. When you are flying, the immersion is fantastic. And a lot of other technical things are wonderful like being able to make claims and so on in the campaign. The writing in the sim, on the other hand, is definitely serviceable, but it's not exactly inspiring. I began to imagine much more dynamic and immersive writing that could really pull you into the world of the sim much like a game like the fantastic Fallen London does with its imaginatively written prose.
Now I love the Escadrille Américaine, and I really wanted to believe that when I looked over at the fellow pilots in my squadron, that I was seeing real people with real personalities and real hopes and fears. But this aspect isn't really communicated anywhere in the sim. This, sadly, was missing, and I began to imagine ways of adding this.
I then noticed that in the campaign you can read the biographies of some of the pilots. There was only one biography for the Escadrille Américaine while all the others were just blank. I thought maybe I could add biographies for everyone. When I started, though, I was really bored writing just straight biographies, and then it hit me that this was my chance to flesh out my squadron mates! I started to envision my fellow pilots talking to me about their lives in their own unique voices, and in the process I could really get to know them better.
(Also, the biographies, as they were, were like history books telling you when and how the pilots died. But this completely breaks immersion. I decided to stop my narratives just as the pilot arrives at the squadron, and this way it feels like their stories are just beginning.)
And that's what I've been doing for the last two weeks or so. (It took a surprisingly large amount of time and energy to do this!) I've written out these narratives for each pilot where they speak to you and tell you about themselves. Hopefully, by reading these, new players to the Escadrille Américaine will really get to know and care about those pilots around them. They won't just be names and pictures anymore, but they might actually feel like fleshed-out people. (Or, at least, I hope so.)
You can access these by clicking
Intell in the campaign menu and then
Ace Dossiers. (By the way, this has always bugged me: That should be "Intel" with one "L"!)
Also, I noticed that one pilot's picture was misnamed and another pilot's picture was missing. I fixed these, and then I got ambitious and re-did all the pilot's photos with higher-quality versions.
Finally, and this is my poorest addition to the sim, I added some very simple skins to the escadrille. There is a bit of a historical mistake with the Escadrille Américaine. They should begin with Nieuport 11s, but in the sim as it is now everyone begins with Nieuport 10s, and then later everyone jumps to Nieuport 16s. Because of this error, there are no special skins for all the aces.
What I did then was create very, very basic and simple (and sub-par) skins for the Nieuport 10s and 16s for each pilot. That way, until they finally get their Nieuport 11s, you can know who you are flying with. (These skins are all based on the pilots' Nieuport 11 skins. They are in no way, shape, or form historically accurate! Please feel free to remove them from the mod if you don't like this.)
Now I only did all of this for the first nine pilots of the escadrille. They are there for just over a month, so you will be with them for a while until a new face arrives. You have to start in May 1916, though, for all of this to make sense. I'd love to add more pilots eventually, but as of now I'm not sure if I'll ever do this.
Here is a link to my mod:
Lafayette Verbose I really hope that at least one person enjoys this. Please give me feedback if you have any.