A more tactical WOFF experience.

I'm sure it must have already been done before. But I can't help thinking & dreaming every time I fly a mission "what impact (however small) did my successful (or unsuccessful) mission have?"

Plan a grand strategy, then choose what objectives you want to accomplish. Give each airfield their mission orders for the day. Take control of one of those missions and let the computer randomly determine the outcome of the other missions.

So, it would be nice to be able to actually see supply lines disrupted, low production of planes, airfields destroyed for days/weeks with no crafts flying from them until repaired, ballon busting & artillery spotting outcomes. Then read a report that shows this.

So, overall you are a small nut within the enormous war machine.

One of my game design ideas is for a grand tactical WW1 air warfare game..combat along the lines of a Wings of War tabletop game but using a physics engine if anyone had played DarkWind then something like that Car Combat but in the air and a z axis, another great point about that system is that the actual pilot skill will really count on how well the plane performs over how good you are at choosing the right move for them. I'd then have a large RPG element managing squadrons (even just concentrate on one Squadron) deal with moral issues, replacements, Corps Orders, awards, burials, Visits by Trenchard or the kaiser, assign aircraft, manage ground crew, send out laison to the Infantry, choose who to be a front line observer, see squadron Doctors reports to keep an eye out on your pilots and their mind state, arrange leave, move airfields manage airfield condition esp if after a bomb raid you'd have to get the repair teams out which could then mean that one of the plane sin the next flight was serviced good enough and has a higher risk of developing a fault etc etc.

Dark Wind was a lot of fun. I had what was probably one of my best gut-wrenching laughs in a multiplayer game when I did some crazy quadruple-flip airborne crash in one of the death races, which ended up creating a massive car pileup. Such a fun turn-based game and I would love to see something similar for air combat done.

I wasn't terribly happy with the browser-based side of gang mangement. The interface there was rather clunky and I recall having a helluva time trying to figure out how to loot weapons & equipment off of the raiders we killed in a wasteland patrol. Still, it's better for having the persistent MMO style stuff even if the interface could be a pain.

If you keep on adding exactly what I asked for, what am I going to ask for? Very happy after reading the patch notes.

Option in Workshop:

Historical Aces Can Die: Yes or No

I shot down Kurt Wintgens (wings came off and he went down in flames from about 2000 ft alt) and a month or two later I'm fighting him again. Shot him down again decisively and a month or two later I'm fighting him again.

Not good for immersion

Ha Bucksnort, i realy want to write down the same now. I also want to have such a button in workshop so everyone can choose what he likes more. I prefer Aces can die
Also you care more about your Aces for now its not interessting if one goes down or not.

Yes to the Ace Death option.

I agree that this could be made an option, if possible, but I'd choose "HA cannot die"

I've always liked how OFF and WOFF tried to maintain their close-to-historical roots as much as possible. So, maybe other options like:

1) Newspaper report that a HA was shot down but managed to survive the crash to live to fight another day. He may need a few days of recovery time, but will bounce back (cats may have 9 lives, but HA can have 10 )

2) Extra ribbon or recognition (or other reward) for shooting down an ace, who happened to survive the crash.

3) Reduce the frequency of missions that an HA can fly to lessen the odds of encounters. Side effect - May offest the historical accuracy of the actual number of mission that he flew during the war.

EDIT: 4) Imagine that the HA who was shot down...... survived the crash

I totally agree with having the Historical Ace Death option. I tend to avoid joining ace heavy squadrons because I actually find the generated pilots by far more realistic & immersive - right down to those wonderfully lucid 2 line descriptions in their dossiers! The fact that historical aces cannot die until a predetermined date does spoil the reality/immersion factor for me. For example in my current campaign I have flown 4 missions with the squadron's only HA Grassmann - in 3 of those missions he's been listed as crashed/shot down slightly injured with a written off machine, once behind enemy lines - but next day he's always ready for the next mission, even his moral hasn't changed! As a result Grassmann has become an unreal drone like figure to me while paradoxically the generated pilots are living entity's!

I really do think it would be better if Historical Ace's were allowed to follow a new timeline from the date you join the squadron not a predetermined one. He should have his current score (estimated by date if records are scarce) up on the duty roster & dossier not N/A and with the lucid description of skill/moral from same source as the generated pilots not the stock 3 or 4 which they get now. If the HA hasn't yet achieved his status you may not recognise him yet - if he has then his high score would make him a prominent figure in the squadron whose fate is of real importance.

I can only take Grassmann's example from experience as I haven't survived long enough to see it but I hope Historical Aces do have periods low moral - many were plagued by their fears(ie Mannock) and flew with a skilled caution which allowed them to survive long enough to compile their scores. They were not indestructible supermen.

I didn't think about this and now I see your point.

Moral, leave, time for recovery from injuries would all definately add to the immersion factor. But I still would perfer historical accuracy of death, so is there any possibility to accomplish both???

I think the workshop button would be great so everyone can choose what he wants. I hope it dont end up with longer injurie times because at least for me i realy want the choice that Aces can die like anybody else. The only difference from Ace to regular Airman should be their skill. My opinion.

One more desire fullfilled - thank you, Devs!

(I love to quote myself - adds the right seasoning to my conversations. )

That's why I wished for a Yes/No button to let each player decide. If its more realistic for some players that Aces live then they can choose "No" but when I saw Wintgens go down with no wings and on fire the following fights became "make believe" for me. And I hadn't thought about it, but I wouldn't want to join Jasta 11 now as it would be a squad full of Terminators that can't die and the fights wouldn't matter. Also, wouldn't want to fly against them for the same reason (it would be Wintgens x 10). Like Karnak said, for me Aces should be highly skilled, not superhuman androids.

I don't see how you can have what you ask for and have historical accuracy too. It's either one or the other.
The Devs focus is on historical accuracy. I think we are expected to keep in mind that the aces die only when it is time for them. It is after all a sim and not he realy world. I for one enjhy the opportunity to encounter them again. It's not realistic but it is fun for me. If I had a button to choose they die when I down them, I'm afraid I would probably wipe out all the aces in a Jasta over a short time and then the fun would stop(at least for me).

I'm not against your suggestion, just expressing that it wouldn't impact me.

My suggestion would be to fix it that when ever an ace is shot down before his time he always goes down safely.

I say this IMHO.

Best Regards;

If the player lands at a different airbase, or is shot down and lands in a field, would it be possible to time-advance for a day or so to account for the time it would take for the pilot to fly or get a ride back?

I wonder if that isn't how the AI pilots feel about you, every time they shoot you down.

Hi,

As a log time WW1 Airwar buff I first have to say that this program is a dream comethru. The strategy of the developer to make WOFF historical correct is very much appriciated.
I do have several shelfmeters with WW1 magasines( C&C UK, C&C US and OTF) and books and often find myself digging into a book or magasine just to check if squadrons, planes, aces , aerodromes etc are correct. Most of the time I find WOFF accurate.

Thanks to all developers.

My wish list:

1. Make gunners in two-seaters able to seat down when no enemy is in sight.
2. Spot view of enemy and friendly airplanes in order to view paintings and markings.
3. In Intel room make a clikable view of deployed squadrons showing squadron aces/members and their
plane/paintings/markings
4. More accurate layout of the 10 most famous aerodromes

A lot depends on your view of historical accuracy....Is it historically accurate for an HA to be brought down 3 missions a row with destroyed aircraft + injuries ect only to fly again unaffected in moral or health the next day? Is it historically accurate to shoot down a HA in a flaming disintegrating wreak and have him miraculously survive? Is it historically accurate to know that a HA will only die on a predetermined day in the future? You can kill any number of regular enemy flyers which would result in a diversion from Historical Accuracy because their loss would affect the course of the air war in your sector. So even with invincible HA's you are still altering historical events anyway!

Philosophical arguments aside some of us would just like the extra immersion factor of having living & mortal Historical Aces in their squadrons. And some of us would prefer things to be strictly historical. So to please Devs - it would brilliant if we could have the OPTION to choose!

Amen to that. I can only backup James.

Id love the option to have aces make their own way in the war instead of historicle. Just use the same advanced AI brains in random guys and do it that way.