In the quest to sell better, which all of us want for RoF, I thought about this:

Maybe a bigger focus on arcade mode in RoF would fuel sales? - A beefed-up, prominent, dedicated arcade mode with more frequent explosions and flamers and lovely stuff like that...

- I'm thinking a big red button in the main screen taking you straight to instant dogfight against pitiful opponents with relaxed physics and lots of things that go BOOM. As it is, people have to go into realism settings (boring!), graphics settings (boringer!) to change into such a mode.

- Call it Simtertainment mode... Or maybe FUN MODE. - Just as long as it isn't derogatory...

In such a mode all the settings would be fixed at full HDR, bloom, easy physics, unlimited ammo, reduced rez for super-smooth play, etc, etc... - To make it look as much as WoP as possible, and basically just let the players choose cockpit-on or cockpit-off with a big on/off button in the top corner.

I mean, RoF certainly has gorgeous graphics, effects and sounds to rival those of simtertainment titles, so a fun mode would look spectacular in the way the general simming light, sugar-fuelled adolescent seems to love...

This shouldn't take anything away from the realistic RoF we love, but just be an added mode for first-timers, applying the KISS rule to the fullest.

(I posted this in another thread, but maybe it fits better here...)

If you want to attract console players then you need lots of flashing lights, lots of 'DOUBLE KILL! TRIPLE KILL!' flashing up on screen and have unlimited rockets. And jets on them. And alien zombies.

Yup. Some text messages triggered by kills wouldn't be too hard to program, I should think. But, well, they wouldn't be strictly necessary. A good idea definitely!

Can of worms I'm telling yah, can'o'worms...

That was just too good :))

Yes, for example, lot of balloons and other easy targets 'in the way', and a sense of 'story' by showing some side faces animated in small flash rectangles in the corner of the screen, which talk from time to time and encourage, congratulate or anyway say something meaningful at the moment.

( P.S. Toma Gabriel, are you romanian? you share my name )

Cheers! This is the first time I meet somebody with my name :)).

Well not the whole name, only Gabriel

(Ma bucur sa vad si alti români in Rise of Flight)

Sim light? You mean like the Strike Fighters/First Eagle series? The only thing I would change is to add an "AI skill" slider for campaign missions.

If you just mean action game, then you'd need an entirely different game altogether. Trying to combine the two always ends in disaster (but let's see what MS Flight will do )

It's a good idea, to put all the arcade settings under one button.

Having console-style rewards, like KILLSTREEK MADNESS and xp points coming off targets... games like this exist already (have names like Wings of War, Wings of Honour, Wings of Glory, etc). I don't think it's worth the programming time to RoF, although I'd understand if they did it.

Movie tie-in simulators bother me though. Poorly made games don't encourage people to dig further, they just put them off.

The flash version of Il-2 was 10* better than the Red Tails simulator I just played with.

Don't quit now, there's more Nazis to shoot down. More content to unlock...

You would have to have icons all over the place, of course. Big red ones around enemy planes and big green ones around friendlies. And big "Put bomb here" circles on the ground, to show targets.
No landing and taking off, too hard. Airstarts only.
I don't know, that's not what they were going for, here. Doubt if they would do something like that. It would be a hard sell , though , at this point. ROF already has a reputation for being a fairly realistic and challenging air combat sim. They would have to have done this right at the beginning.

With all the difficulty on easy, the game is pretty much that . . . like people said, its not supposed to be an arcade game, and would lose out if it went that route. There are already much better arcade flight games out there for those that like such things (HAWX, Ace Combat, Birds of Prey).

Why not just let them play World of Planes?

It's called "Birds of Steel". And I'll be first in line!

One more sim-light (not arcade) feature I can think is an "action camera" that focuses on whatever action is going on. EAW and the Thirdwire sims have this. It's fun to look at what is going on while you RTB on autopilot.

Biggest mistake one could make is to presume that "fun" equals "easy". Take away the challenge, you take away the game.

+1

Ehh, the idea is to sell more copies of RoF...

RoF is free to play, so that won't happen

Best way to attract more players IMO is to go forward with what they are doing: polish the career mode, add more aircraft and be creative with innovative, attention-grabbing features (e.g. the artillery spotting/photo recon mechanic is what sold me on RoF). Rof can already be played as a "sim light" by changing a few settings (we only just need a general AI skill slider :)). "Action mode" isn't going to attract gamers, this is just not their type of game.

Ah, you're right, I of course meant sell more planes (and other content). As for the rest you say I just don't agree. I really think RoF could sell more if it had a "no-brainer" arcade mode button and that way got out to more sim-light players.

I was speaking as a sim light player. Whatever sim I play, be it Strike Fighters or Falcon 4, BoB2 or RoF, I usually put all flight-related options on "realistic", but turn down the "combat" settings (AI skill, number of enemies, view restrictions etc). On a typical mission I'll take off manually, hit autopilot and time compression at around 1500ft and cycle through all external views to enjoy all the visual goodness. During combat I switch icons on/off as needed and I will use padlock abundantly. Then back to autopilot and if I don't feel like landing I'll just end the mission once inside friendly territory. This works great in RoF, just as it did in the days of RB3D.

"Action mode" with bloomy graphics, flashing hiscores, invulnerability and fireballs will only make me feel as if I'm watching a bad CGI movie.