They may be calling this a beta, but holy cats...

Big big big map full of objects with winter, fall and spring
a full mission builder with multiple scenarios
a ten mission campaign
a new bomber and an early plane set without D7fs, Camels and those nasty D8's....early war fan's dream
still digging into how functional all the parts are, but the screenies are impressive.  Considering they are reusing the ROF flight model and interface, betting it is pretty darn functional
Some interesting updates to the control displays, I'm sure tied to the introduction of mouse and keyboard flying for those without the hardware

For the mission builders out there I tried to open the one mission that was included and I got a bunch of error messages but it opened in the mission builder!!!

(and to save you some frustration on the ROF update screen, find where you select "english", it all starts in Russian)

so... the other fighters are also flyable, not just the Ilya? Or does it require ROF installed to use the extra planes? The website isn't too clear about it

Other fighters flyable, you don't need ROF - this is stand-alone.

Thanks ArgonV

one more thing, a friend says it's a bit arcadish as he've heard -maybe due to the mouse controlling test I've read about

Same physics as RoF. There is mouse controls but they feel rather good so far. It's much like a virtual joystick.

Any chance you can mention what this product/mod is called? Looks interesting.

It is "Ilya Mouromets" a standalone derivative of ROF.

This would be the perfect opportunity to include the Morane Saulnier Type N, as the Imperial Russian Air Service was probably one of the main users of the type. Fantastic looking aircraft, that has sadly been overlooked by the ROF dev team and their lack ofinterest in the real pioneers of aerial combat.

Here is a little more research I did into the maps and controls

I spliced together six screenshots to get a high res version of the entire map. I was able to identify three large cities to get an approximate location of the IL Mo map, put a black box around it below on the map below. You can find three cities on both maps

Tarnopol
Kolomyya (Kolomea)
Chernovtsy ( Czerowitz)




Regarding custom skins, they appear to be usable in both sims
I was able to drop one of Dubya's skins in the graphics / skins / Spad7 folder and had it pop up fine. Have no idea how they hope to deal with getting skins into the game in the future.



Second...some added creature comforts on the control icons you Il2 / BOS Junkies might enjoy ( and purests, might not like), look close at the bottom of the screen

Bullet Counter on the left
Clock, Fuel Gauge, Compass and Speed and Altitude indicators in the center( with red maker for waypoint target)
And on the far right slider bars for throttle, mixture and radiator


I was able to host under the Multiplayer tab on my own machine and to at least call up a Mission, not to far from being functional.
Enjoy

Went on a little tour of the map tonight. Found a lot of towns without objects placed yet
For this tour only Kolomyya, Bystitsa and Kalush where populated, but Kalush was pretty nice

Here is the tour and with the real time it took to fly it ( typo on Burshtyn...should be 4:55)



Here are the images of Kalush. Note the Russian text at the train station, the floral decorations over the windows at the cottages and the Virgin Mary at the Church

I agree it was worth twenty bucks. The plane and the map would have cost more than that if included with ROF. If this sells well enough, perhaps other theater-appropriate DLC will be created/released.

I want to mention that the bomber itself is great. IMO its quality is better than what I've seen in some of the later ROF releases. Forward visibility is excellent and it is much easier to approach a target to bomb; you can keep it in view from quite a distance without having to jump to the front gunner to take a look. Bombsight is what we're already used to. The overall performance is much more docile than the HP or Gotha. Those two can be a handful just after takeoff, often with anemic climb rates at the edge of a stall. The Muromets lifts off practically hands-free and climbs much better than the Gotha or HP and has less adverse yaw. It's not the quickest of planes but handles well enough in the air and has an inclinometer to stay coordinated. Landings are very, very easy, and with the high tailskid the plane touches down and sits in a level attitude. Rollout is minimal and I have easily gotten it into any airfield I've selected. I concede that I don't know if this is an accurate representation of the actual plane performance or its FM is a WIP. Regardless, that's how it is currently.

There is one gunner for defense with a large field of fire, but man you burn through those drums quickly! The plane seems exposed to attacks from underneath, but when attacking one in an Albatros D.III(OAW) I still had to pay very careful attention to that gunner. It took me quite a long time to whittle that plane down until the #3 engine finally caught fire and led to structural failure of the wing.

One detriment I noticed is that rain still appears on your goggles, even though you are in an enclosed cockpit. Being early-access, hopefully they make it so the rain appears on the greenhouse canopy instead.

Overall, I'm happy with the purchase. And I presume the product is only going to get better.

Continue to dig into the map and where it sits in WW1 history...

The Brusilov Offensive looks like a good match, considering the map is labelled as Tarnopol 1916

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brusilov_Offensive

I placed a black box over the region the map appears to cover. Apparently I was crossing the lines on my joy ride map I posted earlier



Damn this should have been an expansion pack, so much mission building potential here!!! Unfortunately the way this has been introduced tends to split the existing ROF community a bit. Hopefully the rough edges will be smoothed out. A great opportunity for learning about the Eastern Front.

I agree, and I would have been inclined to buy it as such. I'm sure they have their reasons, but making it a stand alone game causes me to take a much more cautious attitude. $20 or no, I doubt I will purchase it as a stand alone.

Cautious attitude towards a $20 sim?

With a wife, two children, and a private flying habit, yes.

We all have to figure out how we spend our money and our time.

For me I am as much of a military history enthusiast as an aviation sim fan. One is a portal into another. The $20 investment has led me to digging deeper into the history of the Eastern Front, the maps, the battles. Once I get familiar with the history, being able to get in the planes and fly over the landmarks adds another layer of immersion. Flying with my squad and surviving a nasty dogfight or completing a sleepy milk run, well that's the frosting on the cake.

My $20 has already been paid back.

Private flying? So $20 is like...10 mins of flight time? Can you fly for $2/min even?




The Jedi Master

Wow, this looks amazing!

Great game and undervalued at 20$. Map alone would cost that in ROF.

You spend $20 here, $20 there, on things you do not need or will not use much (that category into which the standalone sim in this case falls) and it adds up.