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#4575387 - 07/25/21 05:26 PM Is there any point to rank, other than leading the flight and getting the best planes?  
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One Post Wonder Offline
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I created a pilot who is a Squadron Commander. About 10-15 missions in, the original AI Squadron Commander got killed which should put my pilot in charge, as I am now the highest-ranking member of the squadron. But I still have no ability to choose missions, set flights, decide who goes where, or even pick the people I fly with.

It seems like WOFF takes the time to create pilot characteristics that you see in the descriptions of each pilot, and you've got morale on top of that. But unless this stuff is fluff there should be a way to use those things as a squadron leader. Send the less experienced guys on easier flights, or put them in say, flight A and have the flight hang out of combat a bit more. Or give pilots who are shaken up a day off, or re-assign planes and order new ones so that your Nieuport 12's don't have to fly on 70% power because the Be2c's which are always mixed into the formation can't keep up otherwise.

Is there none of this type of thing in the game? It seems like the devs missing out by providing this level of detail on pilots and planes but not allowing the player to get into the management aspect of a squadron. Thanks.

#4575389 - 07/25/21 05:34 PM Re: Is there any point to rank, other than leading the flight and getting the best planes? [Re: One Post Wonder]  
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JJJ65 Online cool
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You can solve this problem by Mission Editor available here

Last edited by JJJ65; 07/25/21 07:56 PM. Reason: Fixed DL
#4575396 - 07/25/21 07:18 PM Re: Is there any point to rank, other than leading the flight and getting the best planes? [Re: One Post Wonder]  
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Thanks but the mod listed in that thread (called pilot log editor?) does not work for me. It just looks for 'javaw', then errors out.

There is a specific Mission Editor mod thread in that section from May, but the link to the file is dead.

Besides that I'm not fond of using mods, particularly if the game is not on Steam. I'm almost never able to get non-Steam mods to work properly, and when they do work they always end up ruining my saves or going haywire whenever the dev updates their game.

I'm going to assume that rank in the vanilla game just comes down to 'leading a flight' vs 'not leading a flight' and is cosmetic other than that. And really even leading a flight is of limited value because my wingmen are often in aircraft which are not fast enough to keep up with me when things get hot.

I hope the devs consider expanding on those things at some point in the future, even if the pilot 'characteristics' turn out to be cosmetic too. The game does a good job of putting you in the war for the most part so something like that sticks out in a bad way, at least to me. Even the original Red Baron from 1990 allowed players to decide how many aircraft to bring in their flight, and the number they could bring increased based on their rank.

#4575400 - 07/25/21 07:52 PM Re: Is there any point to rank, other than leading the flight and getting the best planes? [Re: One Post Wonder]  
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Other than better aircraft and leading flights, which is the main point of rank, the only other item is micro-managing flights, and pilots yes.

No we do not have that level in there (although you can assign aircraft now to personnel in flights). That's a different game really, but who knows maybe one day.

"Wings over France" is a cool game along those lines where you choose which men go on which missions and watch them get slaughtered wink.
There was a PC version released some moons ago - I have it, but it needs to be run in XP emulator etc.


Regards,

Polovski,
OBD Software, developers of immersive flight sims;
Wings Over Flanders Fields and Wings Over The Reich
http://www.overflandersfields.com
http://www.wingsoverthereich.com
#4575402 - 07/25/21 07:54 PM Re: Is there any point to rank, other than leading the flight and getting the best planes? [Re: One Post Wonder]  
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JJJ65 Online cool
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Oh, my bad. Of course I thought Mission Editor. Working DL is available here . Pls note you must have Java installed.

#4575410 - 07/25/21 10:34 PM Re: Is there any point to rank, other than leading the flight and getting the best planes? [Re: Polovski]  
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Originally Posted by Polovski
"Wings over France" is a cool game along those lines where you choose which men go on which missions and watch them get slaughtered wink.
There was a PC version released some moons ago - I have it, but it needs to be run in XP emulator etc.


I wish I had known about this when it first came out, as it is right up my alley.

I'm actually considering writing a game along those lines, as I've been looking for this for so long and I have written stuff before. But making a text-based Football Manager type game of something like that... obviously people won't want to set up their Dawn Patrol flights manually every day, so what is the player setting up exactly? And what's the goal of you as a squadron leader? You're not going to influence the outcome of the war, so what do I reward you on? How do I balance risk and reward, allowing you to enjoy developing and becoming attached to your pilots on one hand but requiring you to endanger them on the other? How will the player manage personalities, will it be something like Football Manager where people barge into your office and you try to keep them on track, and tell underperforming pilots to buck up their ideas? How do I deal with combat fatigue, where popular pilots are worn out or maybe affected by injury like the Red Baron was and you have to tread carefully with them?

I'm not asking you these questions of course. They're just rhetorical questions I ask myself when I ponder this. I am positive there's a great game in that spaghetti somewhere, but I really do need to spend time and put a plan together sometime soon.

When I saw those little blurbs in your pilot profiles saying things like "Joe Bloggs is an erratic pilot with good potential. Very positive mental outlook."... well, I thought that was great. If those things aren't cosmetic then it means you've given consideration to AI pilot development and I haven't seen anyone do that before.

#4575411 - 07/25/21 10:36 PM Re: Is there any point to rank, other than leading the flight and getting the best planes? [Re: JJJ65]  
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Originally Posted by JJJ65
Oh, my bad. Of course I thought Mission Editor. Working DL is available here . Pls note you must have Java installed.


I'll give it a look when I get home. Thanks for that!

#4575656 - 07/28/21 12:16 PM Re: Is there any point to rank, other than leading the flight and getting the best planes? [Re: One Post Wonder]  
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Originally Posted by Polovski
"Wings over France" is a cool game along those lines where you choose which men go on which missions and watch them get slaughtered wink.
There was a PC version released some moons ago - I have it, but it needs to be run in XP emulator etc.


Sorry for off topic, but do you happen to know of any other games of this type? I tried running Wings Over France, and the demo worked perfectly (I'm playing on Linux, mind) - but after buying the full version, the Machine ID/Evaluation ID code stuff didn't work, so I could't register it, and sadly had to ask for a refund. Such a shame as, judging by the demo, the game itself worked perfectly. As far as I've found, there's nothing else like it.

Only things I've really spotted are some of these air force commander type games from the 1990s, and the slightly more recent "Gary Grigsby's Eagle Day to Bombing the Reich" - but they're WW2 and grand strategy only, i.e. no individual layer of control of aircraft/missions. Other than those, there's a chance this Roguelike in development here, The Skies of Bloody April, might end up along similar lines - but very hard to find any information about it.

Originally Posted by One Post Wonder
I'm actually considering writing a game along those lines, as I've been looking for this for so long and I have written stuff before

Please do!

#4575680 - 07/28/21 02:02 PM Re: Is there any point to rank, other than leading the flight and getting the best planes? [Re: Qqqq]  
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Originally Posted by Qqqq
Originally Posted by Polovski
"Wings over France" is a cool game along those lines


Sorry for off topic, but do you happen to know of any other games of this type? I tried running Wings Over France, and the demo worked perfectly (I'm playing on Linux, mind) - but after buying the full version, the Machine ID/Evaluation ID code stuff didn't work, so I could't register it, and sadly had to ask for a refund. Such a shame as, judging by the demo, the game itself worked perfectly. As far as I've found, there's nothing else like it.


No, except maybe Sid Meier's Ace Patrol (somewhat fun but cartoony and simplistic in places).

Can't you run an Windows XP emulator in Linux to run Wings Over France. Like a Virtual PC, virtual box etc with XP on to run Wings Over France? It's a great game (poor graphics though but can be tweaked to be a bit better with mods).


Regards,

Polovski,
OBD Software, developers of immersive flight sims;
Wings Over Flanders Fields and Wings Over The Reich
http://www.overflandersfields.com
http://www.wingsoverthereich.com
#4575909 - 07/29/21 09:32 PM Re: Is there any point to rank, other than leading the flight and getting the best planes? [Re: One Post Wonder]  
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Wow, just watched on YT here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeMNmdeBR10 of Wings over France! Basically an simple "football manager" game but instead managing a Squad during ww1 as you said above. God, must be a huge demand for an more modern version of this game, start programming cash in get rich, ill buy it instantly!

#4575923 - 07/30/21 12:22 AM Re: Is there any point to rank, other than leading the flight and getting the best planes? [Re: Polovski]  
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Originally Posted by Polovski
Other than better aircraft and leading flights, which is the main point of rank, the only other item is micro-managing flights, and pilots yes.

No we do not have that level in there (although you can assign aircraft now to personnel in flights). That's a different game really, but who knows maybe one day.

"Wings over France" is a cool game along those lines where you choose which men go on which missions and watch them get slaughtered wink.
There was a PC version released some moons ago - I have it, but it needs to be run in XP emulator etc.


Pol you don't need emulator:) Just need to put a file in the main folder:) Will track name of fil;e down:)

Love someone to update that game, adding planes and '15 to end of war time scale!

#4575924 - 07/30/21 12:25 AM Re: Is there any point to rank, other than leading the flight and getting the best planes? [Re: One Post Wonder]  
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pol, copied info from board game geek forum post


"I have WoF on my Win10 64-bit computer, and found that by placing the following 2 files in the root of your main Wings over France folder that the game ran just fine:

DMC2.ocx
msvbvm50.dll

The DMC2.ocx file I found and copied from my Windows\SysWow64 folder, and the dll file I had to download from the internet. Please use caution when you download any system file: I immediately ran a couple of anti-malware programs on the dll file to make sure that there weren't viruses attached to it.

Note also that you do not need to place these files in your Windows\System32 folder, much less register them. Just place them in your Wings over France folder and all will be well."

"

#4576304 - 08/02/21 02:55 PM Re: Is there any point to rank, other than leading the flight and getting the best planes? [Re: Polovski]  
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Qqqq Offline
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Originally Posted by Polovski
No, except maybe Sid Meier's Ace Patrol (somewhat fun but cartoony and simplistic in places).

Can't you run an Windows XP emulator in Linux to run Wings Over France. Like a Virtual PC, virtual box etc with XP on to run Wings Over France? It's a great game (poor graphics though but can be tweaked to be a bit better with mods).



Thanks for that, it's worth a try. I do have an old Windows XP in a virtualbox - though I imagine I'd have to re-buy the game to get a new registration code (as the Evaluation ID and Machine ID would be different), and still no guarantee of it working. As said, the demo/trial worked fine for its three days, so I bought it, knowing the game was fine - but then it wouldn't accept the registration (the chap from roogames did say "The Machine ID looks a bit odd).

I played Ace Patrol quite thoroughly - I love the actual combat, but the campaign is a bit too short and shallow (and happy!). Slightly too close to a mobile phone game. Those game combat rules alongside a full and proper campaign would be amazing though.

[edit]
Regarding Wings Over France - after you'd mentioned it, I thought I'd have another look and try again. It turns out that it accepted the serial, not as it was sent/written, but in entirely lower case, i.e. rather than aBcD-EFgh-1234-5678, it accepted abcd-efgh-1234-5678 - so it works, and will work on Linux through Wine. I'll email the chap from Roogames, as now it works, I need to re-refund him.

Last edited by Qqqq; 08/07/21 03:48 PM.

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