Rise of Flight

[Ack-Ack]

Name another major flight simulator released in the last 5 years that only gives you 2-3 officially flyable planes for free and then charges you for each plane beyond that.

Oh wait, there only IS the one....

If you look at the quality of the models and art for the planes, $8 is a good price.  Flyable planes is the only content the customer pays for, everything else (campaigns/missions, AI planes/vehicles, updates) are all free. 


ack-ack

[Die Hard]

Name another major flight simulator released in the last 5 years that only gives you 2-3 officially flyable planes for free and then charges you for each plane beyond that.

Oh wait, there only IS the one....

Basically all flight sims charge you for content additions. MS FSX is a good example. It comes with a limited number of flyable aircraft, but you can purchase add-on aircraft, scenery etc.

[BaDkaRmA158Th]

If you like it, buy it.

If you do not think it worthy, do not buy it.
Simple and effective, i will not be buying a game that needs me to be online to play offline.

But to die hard, no you are incorrect, everything in aces high is free to download and enjoy offline INCLUDING free user/fan made missions and skins and terrains INCLUDING film viewers and terrain editors, ONLY the online subscriptions are used to fund the HTC team and pay for internet services rendered. Something NO OTHER flight simulator or even 3d shooter provides. Something rof WILL PROBABLY NEVER BE ABLE TO BOAST.

Just thinkin' that makes me want to shake dales hand even more.

It stops there. Good day.

[Heater]

Are you using TrackIR or padlock view? 


ack-ack

ack-ack...

this was done with the padlock view... but I do use TrackIR IV and its rock solid....

[Die Hard]

But to die hard, no you are incorrect, everything in aces high is free to download and enjoy offline INCLUDING free user/fan made missions and skins and terrains INCLUDING film viewers and terrain editors, ONLY the online subscriptions are used to fund the HTC team and pay for internet services rendered. Something NO OTHER flight simulator or even 3d shooter provides. Something rof WILL PROBABLY NEVER BE ABLE TO BOAST.

In other words you're being subsidized by the subscribers. Nothing is free, someone always has to pay. WWII Online has the same payment scheme, monthly subscription, free download including a free trial, so there goes your "NO OTHER" out the proverbial window. There are probably hundreds of other online games with similar business models. Navyfield for instance is completely free to download and play. They make money on selling extra stuff for your in-game fleet. While HTC's payment scheme is very reasonable and even generous, it is hardly unique.

[Skuzzy]

Against drones flying in a circle... Yeah, that's entertaining. The bottom line is that you are willing to pay $14.95 on faith every month to play AH, but you're hesitant to pay [whatever it costs] on faith once to play ROF.

Actually, no, you can create missions and fly against/with AI planes.  You can can grab missions from the "Offline Missions" forum as well and keep them around to play with if you like.  Just FYI.

It's not faith either.  This is the only source of revenue for HiTech Creations.  It would be suicidal not to update the game on a regular basis.  Has nothing to do with faith.  I like to eat, and so does my family.

[allaire]

Sorry wall of text:

I'm sorry to say this but did one of the SimHQ cheerleaders get in here.  I agree that the game looks absolutely fantastic.  I also see it from the negative point of view that the nature of the DRM for offline play is going to haunt them in the long run because some just don't have the connection to deal with it.  This is how I look at it the $7.62 for the new planes isn't that bad as some were thinking it could possibly be.  Before anyone says that you don't have to buy the planes if you don't want to, most of the people looking at this thread already know that.  Most think its great that a high fidelity WWI sim has finally seen the light of day.  Most people so happy about a possible Red Baron replacement that they were just about wetting themselves, then they announced what they were going to do to protect it from piracy.  Well that opened a whole Pandora's box of bad feelings.  Most people saw right from the word go that this wasn't Copy Protection, but DRM rearing its ugly head again.  Everyone knows that they should protect against piracy but this looks just as bad as SF to some of the crowd.  Being connected even for SP seems to be just silly but they say it's to store your SP stats for some kind of leaderboard.  Most of the people that play SP could care less about that whole aspect so they can't understand why that NeoQB is storing them.  Then there is your crowd who don't like the fact that their comp is having to stay connected to a server in Russia and there is no clue what kind of data is being mined and for what reason it is being done and see black helicopters all the time.(This is not fact just my belief of what they think might be happening.)  Some just won't believe in the whole thing without a demo to get an idea if it is worth putting money on or not.   I don't like the idea of Steam so I don't own any games that use Steam but I do have and play MMO games which need a constant connection because that is part of the needed requirements to make it a Multiplayer game. 

Die Hard I hate to point this out to you but what most of the online games aren't anywhere close to RoF.  In that you have buy the software for however much.  Most MMO/online games that have a similar business model are F2P(free to play), free to download and play but for the extras and/or good extras require some kind of points that have to be bought with real money.  WWII online doesn't even have a free trial technically, they require a credit card number for the "free" trial.  Nothing in the free to play games is truly free, those who are willing to part with real money will get better stuff than those who won't.  I can think of one that doesn't but I can't talk about it I don't think.  There is nothing unique about NeoQB's business model except that it has never been used for a flight sim before that I can recall.  Where as in AH as others have said there is a large number of offline content that you can get to enhance your offline gaming experience.  The drones that circle the field let you practice gunnery and BnZ to a point, plus sometimes its just fun to shoot up to 24 and get it burning and just let it be.  To use an analogy I have seen all over the place comparing most F2P software to AH II is the whole apples and oranges thing.

Not to be to harsh about this but this is precisely the behavior and attitudes that I have seen on other forums where some are so happy that they violently denounce anyone voicing an opinion that is not within their line of thinking.  I have seen some just absolutely monkeystomp people with opinions running contrary to theirs.  To all that say that they won't be buying the sim due to the online requirement then I would say pop over to the RoF forums and start a thread under the feedback section.  Make it clear and concise but be ready for some possible hellish backlash.  There are last time a check at least 2-4 attaboy threads and a cut them some slack thread.  Now as I have said I wish this company the best in their endeavor but I don't like the online requirement so like others I will be voting with my wallet.

[Saxman]

Basically all flight sims charge you for content additions. MS FSX is a good example. It comes with a limited number of flyable aircraft, but you can purchase add-on aircraft, scenery etc.

Yeah, but with MS FSX (or CFS, for that matter) you're not restricted to the bones Microsoft and its third-party developers throw out to you. There's quite a bit of content developed by the community that's every bit as high-quality as the "official" additions. There's also a big difference between 8-10 flyable aircraft (seems to be a general standard for the more recent commercial sims) and 2.

[allaire]

It's 4 now Sax.  NeoQB went ahead and gave the N28 and the Albatross DVa to the customers for what they said amounted to a serious misunderstanding between them and the fanbase.  http://riseofflight.com/Blogs/post/2009/07/10/Rise-of-Flight-Vision-Statement.aspx#continue Link is to their Vision Statement explaining the choice and where they are planing to go.

[CptTrips]

Yeah the new DVa is a great plane, but that N28 is a freakin little hotrod!  I love flying that puppy.

My initial reaction to this game was disapointment.  It definetly has a lot of rough edges.  If you are squimish, I'd say wait a couple of patches.  Personally, all things considered, I'd rather have the sim now and play with it in its current state than wait longer.

There are a lot of thing that annoy me about this game, but its undeniable that it has good underlying bones.  I'm no expert pilot, but I done a little flying, and played most all of the major flightsims.  To me the flight model in this sim is excellent.  I can do perfect chandelles that I couldn't even do in AH (probably just because I'm a bad pilot).  Maybe someone could argue particular performance issues with partcular planes (don't people always), but the overall physics are superb in my humble opinion.  Likewise, in my opinion, the ballistics and damage models are as good or better as any combat sim I've ever played.  Graphics are beautiful.  On high, this game is just MADE to produce screenshots.    But even after I've set everything low, its still beautiful (As good or better than any other sim I've played).

Load times are rediculous.  Especially when restarting the mission I just loaded!
The campaign mode lacks immersion.  The is no context.  THe missions just seem generic.  Deviate from the mission area and the world is empty. (I hope tho eventually there will be a rich library of user made historical mission.)
I've had a couple of crashes to desktop.
The UI is awkward at times.
I understand the problem many have with the CP approach and I agree.  I hope they change it.  But for me personally, life is short, and its not onerous enough to me to be willing to give up some great simming fun to make a political statement.

Still, I had some really fun missions, and I could just spend hours in the 1vs1 training area smacking drones (They fly pretty darn well for AI).

If you jump in this sim now, you surely should be prepared to be in the bleeding edge of its development.  It reminds me a lot of flying the early days of AH.

Still, I think all the parts are there.  Over time, I predict this sim will become one of the great, all time, combat sim classics.

(Note:  to avoid any knee-jerk fanboi reactions, I don't consider AH and RoF natural competitors.  AH has no WWI offering and RoF isn't MMP.  So, its all good.  Serious flight sims are so few and far between (and getting fewer every year) that I have no problem throwing these guys 40 buck just on general principle to support the genre.  Hell, I went a year or more paying a AH subscription when not even flying just to support a serious flightsim developer. )

Clear Skies,
Wab

[allaire]

Yeah I wouldn't mind trying the game out but the more and more that I read on the RoF forums the more worried I get about the future of "mature" online gaming.  I thought that the monkeystomping on the SimHQ forums was bad it has nothing on RoF boards.  It's getting nasty over there quick fast and in a hurry.  If this is the direction that flight simming is going in I might just have to go back to miniatures.

[Shuffler]

Don't buy it then. And be prepared not to by most games in the future.

Most games wont use such an archaic feature.

[allaire]

And the ones that were thinking about this kind of CP/DRM now can look at the backlash that was generated at NeoQB's decision to use such draconian measures.  Mostly Steam seems to be the lesser of several evils and it works moderately well in that regard. 

[CptTrips]

Yeah I wouldn't mind trying the game out but the more and more that I read on the RoF forums the more worried I get about the future of "mature" online gaming.  I thought that the monkeystomping on the SimHQ forums was bad it has nothing on RoF boards.  It's getting nasty over there quick fast and in a hurry.  If this is the direction that flight simming is going in I might just have to go back to miniatures.

I've been reading both those boards and I see nothing that I haven't seen at the beginning of every new flightsim since the early 90's.  Surely you'd admit to seeing fanboi cheerleading on these boards as well?  Imagine is some people from WB or WWIIOL came over to these boards and started criticizing things they didn't like about AH.  What would you expect the reaction to be?  I've seen the exact same flame wars here.  I guess its human nature when people start forming communities to protect against attacks from perceived outsiders.  I've always thought that dumb.  As gamers in an increasingly small genre, we have more in common that in difference.    

Wab

[Die Hard]

Actually, no, you can create missions and fly against/with AI planes.  You can can grab missions from the "Offline Missions" forum as well and keep them around to play with if you like.  Just FYI.

I did not know that. Thank you.