Yes, good points Ming. You've given me some points to think about over the weekend as I deliberate. Everything I hear about the flight model is fantastic and the YouTube vids are impressive.
To be honest I have been kind of surprised myself about my hesitation as I have been flying WW1 sims since the original Red Baron (I have owned Red Baron, Dawn Patrol, Flying Corps Gold, RB3D and currently OFF). Personally I was following this project since it was Knight of the Sky. So my interest is surely here. Flying RofF's Se5a and hopefully Sopwith Dolphin would make me smile from ear to ear I'm sure.
So I will probably buy this, from scouring a few forums I think my hesitation despite my existing interest is likely not unique. I think in reality this speaks to the fact that marketing wise the manner in which Neoqb has rolled out RoF and the apparent lack of response to some of the community concerns has not done them many favors.

Cheers



Fair enough. The operative word in my earlier comment was that this was what I experienced during my forays online (CFS3 BTW). I think this speaks to the fact that everyone's online experience can be very very different. For me personally it was appalling, but this was on public servers and stuff so who knows. If anything I think it demonstrates how some potential customers can be seriously put off when companies start saying that their product will be basically multiplayer only. So my advice (for whats its worth ) to Neoqb would be that they should be quite cautious about ignoring the SP aspect as they could well alienate a significant portion of their customer base.

Morale took a tumble in the face of mass panic yes, I do believe though that this anti-climax thing is worrying people. Endure a load of aggro with this compulsory-online thing and find a sim like <a wipe-after-an-hour sim>?

Flying Corps yes, the destroy tanks mission I played that to death in bilinear filtering and MiG Alley in a Mustang with the little guys scattering, Rowan made the good and immersive ones for me. This is Son of Rowan trust me: sunset over Arras with the battlefield behind, sun in your eyes on the way back, pop-pop-popping of the engine, just soakin up the rays

Ming

"95% of offliners are cheapskates that don't want to PAY for a quality ONLINE game, and they think anyone who does pay is "foolish""

Well, as a gamer who plays 99% of his time offline and in campaigns, but who has shelled out plenty of money over the years on flight sims, I find that a baffling and extraordinary judgement.

There are plenty of reasons - time limitations, lack of opportunities, preference in playing a long established pilot in a key period of the war - why people play off line/single player, and casting aspersions on their motivations for doing so don't strike me as particularly constructive.

Please recognise that we are *all* WWI flight gamers: we all share a common passion, and by seeking to be so divisive you do the entire community a grave (and highly visible) disservice.

I do occasionally wonder what the reactions are of gamers interested in flight sims who come onto SimHQ and read such things.

As I said



there's no need to fight.

Yes it's all very odd Simon but some small minority of people flying online must think they're actually real pilots rather than people playing hopefully-enjoyable games like the rest of us. Goes to their heads. You can spot them by observing their sneering and lots of other words beginning strangely with the sn- construction

Snot, snooping, sniggering, snort, snooty, snobby etc: all the bad things start with an s then an n have you noticed

Scandanavian derivation perhaps, keeps the sneerers warm in their long dark nights of the soul maybe. Nah.

Ming

I said anything about SP where? I made a remark about your "figures" of the current online "community". Simply put, the online numbers don't exist because MP is even worse than SP right now.

My apologies Nattyced, I should have read your post closer and replied seperately. The numbers in RoF MP are very low right now but to attribute such low numbers to nothing but broken MP is wrong IMHO. Even though IL2 has a very well developed online MP system the numbers flying it are in no way a majority of IL2 users. My point being that if these numbers are to be taken as indicitive of the majority then the total sales for both sims must be depressingly low.

I´m sorry to hear that you have such experiences while online playing/flying Pingu. I would say it all depends on the server where you are playing and the game/simulation. I never really touched the SP element in Black Shark, Arma2 and RoF. It may be that the simulations are out of interest for the "funny" crowd. Even in Arma2 when you are on the right server, teamkilling will force you to be kicked/banned. So give MP another try!

I imagine almost all MP users run around these forums as it is complimentary to the online nature of their gamestyle and a natural media for communicating to one-another.

SP users are different. I much prefer login on my terms and taking part in my little war ala RB3d. I think it is obvious that it is one of the most lacking features mentioned on any and every forum. It was only discouraging because when asked about the future nothing was said about shoring that up; and it is put into contrast by his comments of starting other time periods.

I think alot of us were hoping for a long continued development of a WWI game. While it is yet to be seen if that happens or not, that interview (short of the two-seater confirmation) didn't help reinforce that feeling.

What neoqb should do is tell us about what they are doing.

all this talk about SP vs MP, doesn't lead anyware.
they should communicate more,
it's nice that 777 and aerosoft tells us something (once in a while).
but it's better to hear it from neoqb.

Well, one thing neoqb has been very sucessful at is turning all factions of the dwindling flightsim world against each other.

Well, more than we usually are anyway.

BigJim43, Oleg who? Maddox?

AH2 = Aces High 2?

So, because you say Oleg somebody is seen online in a pay to play airplane game that it means any claim that offliners outnumber onliners 8 to 1 is not true?

And WOW?
Come on, completely different world and those six million, in case you have not noticed, are not, nor would most ever be, WWI filghtsim game players and not relevant to a flightsim game conversation.

I think, and could be horribly wrong, that all ROF needs now is a shovel and CK may be just that.

MP may not be broken, but in it's current form it's pretty useless. My schedule varies, times I can play vary, and right now the only way I can play is SP. I don't mind that, but I'd like MP to be available when I have time to play.

As it stands, it's reminiscent of the old modem days where you had to synchronize with a buddy and the client would dial into the other person's host system then proceed to a do a mission. Restart when needed. It's basically a 20 minute deathmatch, unlike the 3 minute ones of Quake which could be tolerable to wait around (plus you get to watch the action there), where you sit and stare at trees if you joined after the mission started.

In the future I'd like to see a dynamic campaign developed, but as the current plane set stands it wouldn't really be a dynamic campaign. There just isn't much there for that aspect.

I'm primarily an offline player but I can accept that online play is the easier of the two modes to improve.

Unless Neoqb are willing to outsource campaign engine development then I can see a satisfying single player experience being a long time coming. Its a massive shame because the core flight and combat experience that ROF provides is nothing short of glorious.

Uh... you know that you can hit Ctrl-F2 and Shift-F2 to cycle the camera through both sides' planes, right?

If you believe online gaming is so slight how do you account for AH2 being around so long, not to mention AW, WB's etc etc. Your the one who is living in La La Land not us.

Every one of those titles is a pay to play sim! Do you understand that concept or are you really that pig headed? You can go on convincing yourself that you are the future and the majority for as long as you want, it doesn't make it true. Funny thing is I think you know that already, you just can't admit it.

As AI routines improve and computer controlled opponents are made to appear more human I can see single player gaming becoming even more popular again for sims.

Most of the online annoyances are caused by people, they don't turn up, don't take the experience as seriously as you'd like, don't work as a team.... etc. Apart from the social side why would you play your favourite sim with people if your PC could provide squad mates and opponents that gave an on demand more immersive experience

Ah...the human race, 'ya gotta love it.
It's not enough that we hate each other because of where the other guy comes from, what religion he prefers, or what the color of his skin is. Now we've added Single Player versus Multi-Player to the list.
Anyway, let me jump into the multi-player corner.
If anything changes, Id like to see it be to multi-player. I want a server that I can jump into at any time, and join in. Spawn at an airfield, take off and go looking for a fight.
And Ming, I agree that the Russian Roulette mission is fun and it's great training.
And let me just add, that single player types are okay, I just don't want my daughter marrying one.

No, I never bother to try actually. I look at trees, and then the message pops up of how much time is left to play. I then log out and play SP.

The WWI is a small community and I fear that the ROF sales have been modest and a disappointment.

The community needs to stick together.

IMHO, ROF needs to improve both the SP campaign and the MP dog fight.