Hello, I've very recently (this week in fact) purchased WOFF Platinum Edition. I've spent the last few days getting used to it and firstly I have to say a huge well done to the developers. The game looks and sounds brilliant, the landscapes look amazing and the aircraft very realistic. I used to enjoy playing Rise of Flight and whilst the graphics were very good in that game as well, WOFF seems much more in-depth and loads more aircraft to fly.

I've got my graphics settings pretty much nailed I think. So i've been looking at the campaign and AI options. Regional air activity, Forced encounters and others.

What effect do these have and what do others more experienced with WOFF have these settings on?

In most cases I think historical accuracy is important but you also want to have things to shoot at more often than not I'm assuming is most people's take on it?

Thanks

Alb

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Welcome to the forums Alb, and to the WOFF virtual skies. You are in for a treat, whether you are one who prefers the "as it was back in the day" side of things, or one who likes the fast-paced shoot-em-up style of play, (or anything in between really), this sim provides it all. For the former simply start by ticking the various historical settings and choose an air service, a time period, an area, and a squadron to fly for, or if you prefer let the sim randomly pick for you. For the latter jump into "Quick Combat" and set whatever parameters you like and have at it, but for that you will want to set your pilot to "never dies" or you will be creating new ones at an alarming rate. There's a bit of a learning curve, but as you've been flying ROF you should sort it out quickly. Ask questions as you go along and have fun - and watch your six!

Glad to have you with us Alb, the more the merrier. Oh, and one more thing, - new lads buy the drinks!

Cheers,

Lou

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Albert, welcome to WOFF! This is the WW 1 flight sim I've dreamt about for decades.

To address your question, regional air activity will determine how many of the squadrons present in the sim will be active at a given time. Regional air activity allows you to scale the overall effect up or down to match the capacity of your computer.

Regardless of the regional air activity setting, the number of flights in the air will increase historically as the war progresses, as will the number of aircraft in each group. If you are flying in 1915 or early 1916, there will not be too many other machines about compared to late 1917 or 1918. In the early war, flights will generally consist of one or two machines while later in the war larger formations are common. In addition, air activity will surge over parts of the line when there is an offensive underway. You'll see more action over the Somme in late summer of 1916 and over Arras in April 1917 then you would at other times. You can tweak the regional air activity level throughout your career to reflect your computers capability. For example, in 1918 I have my regional air activity setting at medium because my computer is eight years old. If I am flying a career in 1915 or 1916, I could crank this up to a higher setting.

"Forced encounters" is a more recently added option. Unlike ROF, where enemy formations are spawned along your flight path and appear only as you approach, in WOFF all flights are flying and present in the game, even if out of sight and far out of your anticipated flight path. It's a living world. This way if you leave your information and go swanning off on your own, you can still bump into enemy patrols just as you would historically (in ROF you would be flying through miles of empty sky once you leave your flight path). The forced encounters feature will concentrate more of the active flights into your sector of the front. This means that on a less powerful computer, you can leave regional air activity set to medium and yet see as many aircraft in your sector as you would if regional air activity were set to high – without increasing the total number of active flights in the game. Setting forced encounters to a high level means, of course, that if you wander away from your normal patrol area, there will be a somewhat lower likelihood of encountering enemy flights since many of the active flights have been directed to the sector you normally patrol.

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"Good answer, good answer." (done in my best Richard Dawson impersonation)

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Thanks for the welcome Lou and Raine, and for the explanations too. So far I've created an RFC pilot, flew some QC missions and now that I'm managing to fly it without constantly stalling it, i've just started a career flying DH2's in mid 1916 with 32 Squadron.

I've not touched any of the Campaign or AI settings as yet, so just wanted to know what difference they make if I did.

There seem to be quite a few Eindeckers, Aviatiks and Rolands knocking about and 5 missions in I'm still alive, so I must be doing something right.

It's certainly engrossing, which in the current climate is great.

Thanks again

Alb

Welcome Albert.

I too like to have things to shoot at more often than not. Therefore, I often have forced encounters set to medium. Probably not so important in 1918 since there are many more planes in the sky.

You also might want to see what you think of the AI never backs down option. I enjoy long drawn out dogfights. I know that it's more realistic for the AI to run away at some point but sometimes they seem to do so too soon. I usually have this option turned off but occasionally turn it on for a few missions.

I thought you were doing Professor Turgeson:

Thanks again for the replies.

I've left everything set as it was for now. I seem to be bumping into the enemy every 2 or 3 missions which for me seems reasonable for August 1916. I don't want it to be too 'arcady' with a screen full of aircraft every mission, plus I don't think my PC would cope.

If the flight characteristics of the ace pilots are as realistic as possible, some of them won't back down too readily, Albert Ball would be one who didn't fly away from a fight very often, Nungesser would be another. Lothar von Richthofen for the Germans also comes to mind.

That's one thing that seems very different with this sim from previous ones, it's not just about shooting down 100's and 100's of aircraft. It's about survival and if you can get some kills whilst surviving then you're better than most.

I've had a few close encounters now in my DH2 career and definitely scored some hits on a couple of Eindecker EIV's, who proceeded to fly home. I followed on one occasion but was getting shot up by ground fire so thought better of it and went home myself, the EIV was considerably faster anyway.

All in all it's brilliant and very engrossing. I have to remember to wash and eat occasionally