The future of First Eagles

[+quack74 329]

No, I got it Panama Red. Great job with this mod. You should post it as a sticky on top of the threads.

[RUSTYMORLEY 162]

Going back to the original title of this thread 'The Future of First Eagles' I was recently bitterly disappointed with the release of Canvas Knights and was therefore looking for a decent WW1 flight sim which I eventually found in First Eagles. I have modded my installation and I certainly hope that this game is continued and supported by Simmers and Modders alike. The fact that you can grow your installation and push it in the direction which you want with the various Mods packages and add-on aircraft has done the trick for me and made my choice of a WW1 flight sim far easier!  

[seany65 11]

I too, hope that First Eagles continues to be supported. I've been wanting some First war flight games/sims for years, and only recently found this, FE2 ond OFF3. I prolly won't bother with FE2 as the faffing about involved in getting weather changes in it, is a bit much for my feeble brain/patience. I don't think I'll bother with Rise of flight,as you've got to buy hundreds of 'extras' for the game, even after actually buying the game.

[RIBob 39]

As a Newcomer to FE2, via SF2, I have come to appreciate the similarity in modding the "2" versions of both games, as well as the increasing numbers of Mods for both.  I don't install FE1 mods into my FE2 sim, although I understand that many will work, possibly with some tweaking, possibly as-is.  Personally, time is to short to gamble on "might work" mods for my FE2, although I certainly respect the time/effort of FE1 Modders, and my decision is one of personal convenience only.

I do have some other WW I flight sims --some heavily modded-- but I will withhold comments/comparisons on all of them for now.

I will say that the later variants of the IL2 sim (and other modern sims) certainly set a high standard, but the hard work of some Modders has raised other, older games to a very respectable level.

[don246 65]

On 11/7/2014 at 11:35 PM, seany65 said:

I too, hope that First Eagles continues to be supported. I've been wanting some First war flight games/sims for years, and only recently found this, FE2 ond OFF3. I prolly won't bother with FE2 as the faffing about involved in getting weather changes in it, is a bit much for my feeble brain/patience. I don't think I'll bother with Rise of flight,as you've got to buy hundreds of 'extras' for the game, even after actually buying the game.

Rise of Flight is FREE to download and at the moment they are selling off the planes very cheep https://riseofflight.com/store/  you can mod ROF but not like First Eagles. 

[33LIMA 972]

I quite like RoF and have happily bought several extra aircraft over the years. The AI is not as good as either FE/FE2 nor WoFF but not altogether hopeless either in my experience. As others have said the wings seem to come off planes under fire too often (and the Albatrosses lose all their interplane bracing wires in one go!). But Pat Wilson's Campaign Generator much improves the SP campaign and as the base game is free, people may as well at least try it out with the two free planes (Albatros D.V and SPAD XIII, the others are still there just AI-flown, tho the planeset has significant gaps prior to mid-1917eg no BE2).

[Sky High 166]

I have RoF, but removed it from my hard-drive due to requirements for space. It looks great up high, but I could never bring myself to like the terrain. Unfortunately, all the dogfights seemed to head downwards quickly and end up the same predictable turnfight every time. I just didn't find it as entertaining as FE2 or WOFF. 

Whatever about the future of First Eagles, its present is very fine indeed. The boost provided by Geezer's prolific burst of activity, VonS' sterling work on fm's and effects and the continuous generosity of Stephen and others keeps this game in rude health. I recently find myself playing with this and European Air War more than anything else, simply because both games load up quickly and one can get into the action promptly. 

[don246 65]

I agree with 33LIMA and SKY HIGH regarding the ai in ROF and I have the Flying Circus and all the other theaters (no im not a rich man I just have to have them) and the ai is no better in FC it is just the same as ROF, BUT I just like the way the planes fly and the  terrain if it was just a flight sim and not a combat flight sim then IL2 Sturmovik Battles would be just perfect for me.

FE has a lot to offer so dos WOFF UE to a lot of folk but they are for me 20th century sims and I want the eye candy and a 21st century sim, we all have our  likes and dislikes, unfortunatly combat flight sims do not make money today kids want Battlefields so there is no money and it is this that game makers look at so one of the reasons I have supported the new IL2 is if we do not then NO combat flight sims.

RIBob you have nothing to loose if your PC will run it download ROF you jet 2 Planes and best of all it is FREE.

Just one tip buy a SSD hard drive I purchased a Samsung SSD EVO and it is the best thing I ever put in my PC.

 

[jeanba 1,920]

What I miss in FE2 is a good mission generator :(

[33LIMA 972]

Yes WoFF's 'quick battle' generator, and to a lesser extent ROF's version, is a lot better than FE2's 'Single mission' - WoFF allows setting many more parameters. My view of FE2 is mainly determined by how good its campaign system is, and here the sims seem to me more evenly matched, in a 'swings and roundabouts' sense. I'm currently playing a Bloody April campaign in FE2 alongside an Armchair Aces one, flying for Jastas 11 and Boelcke respectively, and I'm enjoying the light-touch 'squadron management' aspect, choosing how many and which pilots will go on each sortie, mixing old hares with new kinder and resting one half of the staffel while I lead the others into action.

Last but one mission with Jasta 11, I decided to ignore an order to patrol over the enemy side and instead tootled along just on the English side of the lines, knocking down a couple of their balloons when their airmen declined to show up. It really hurt when there was a bang behind me, louder and different to the hoarse bark of the AA fire we were receiving, and I looked back to see one of my boys going down nearly vertically with most of his wings fluttering after him. 

Happily, he was  saved by the mission locking up (I seem to get this occasionally on my relatively new Win 10 box) with the details not recorded! And so we all lived to fly the next mission, an uneventful patrol to a balloon unit down to our south, near Cambrai. You can practically see the relief on my virtual face as I lead the pack up and away from Phalempin!

 

[+Crusader 2,101]

[33LIMA 972]

Thanks for posting Crusader, I had no idea this utility existed!

[jeanba 1,920]

11 hours ago, Crusader said:

It is a quick mission generator, but short of textpad, there is no equivalent to the SF2 mission generator : we cannot perform bombing mission where we want, against chosen ennemies ...

[Sky High 166]

I find the FE2 mission generator realistic. You can choose factors such as the time and type of the mission and choose the weather you wish to fly in, but you have no control over the things that, historically, one had no control over, such as the enemy plane types one might encounter.

[jeanba 1,920]

17 hours ago, Sky High said:

I find the FE2 mission generator realistic. You can choose factors such as the time and type of the mission and choose the weather you wish to fly in, but you have no control over the things that, historically, one had no control over, such as the enemy plane types one might encounter.

That's my problem :

I would like to choose my takeoff airfield, my target zone and my ennemies, as well as the numbers.

Just like the SF2 mission generator !

[Sky High 166]

3 hours ago, jeanba said:

That's my problem :

I would like to choose my takeoff airfield, my target zone and my ennemies, as well as the numbers.

Just like the SF2 mission generator !

There are some third-party mission generators.. There is one called KMD, which I think works with FE2. There is also one called 'le missioneur' and another called sfpedit. All are available in the SFP1 downloads section (under utilities/editors). 

[jeanba 1,920]

I tested them, they barely work under FE2 !

(maps problems)

[RIBob 39]

Been busy nowadays with installing BAT Mods to IL-2, but FE2 is always one of my faves, preferably modified.  I'll be back to ask stupid, ignorant questions.

[seany65 11]

On 24/11/2018 at 10:19 AM, don246 said:

Rise of Flight is FREE to download and at the moment they are selling off the planes very cheep https://riseofflight.com/store/  you can mod ROF but not like First Eagles. 

Thanks for the info don246.  Sorry for the late reply, but I've only just got a Saitek Evo Joystick - four years after posting my previous post. Unfortunately I didn't know they made two visually identical but different versions of it, and I've ended up with a no force-feedback one, for now.

Anyway, I'm not sure I'll bother with ROF as I don't like paying for extras bits for a game, as far as I'm concerned it should all be on the disc, and I only play offline.

I recently played FE and have WOFF/OFF3 installed. I found FE to be rather limiting with only 3 flyable planes but it was easy to use. WOFF is is much bigger, but more complicated and not quite as intuitive to set up. I was surprised to find that FE's  SE5A cockpit seems a tad more realistic than the one in WOFF,  eg. FE's has the "tube" gunsight thing, whereas WOFF's only has a crude cross in a circle.

I'll be  looking to to D/L more planes etc. for FE.

 

 

[seany65 11]

Ooops, I forgot that  any "OFF" and any WOFF" are different games!

I previously found FE a bit too easy, as I was getting 4 or 5 kills each time, but now I've found some of the difficulty settings and while I'm not yet good enough to work with the "Hard" flight model I am using the the guns on "Hard" which means I'm getitng far fewer kills so it's more of a challenge.

Another challenge is getting the mods to work. I'm probably not installing them correctly as when I have them "installed" the game quits to the desktop. I don't suppose there's an "easy mod installer" thing for FE?

[devere 6]

On 28/11/2018 at 8:13 PM, Sky High said:

I find the FE2 mission generator realistic. You can choose factors such as the time and type of the mission and choose the weather you wish to fly in, but you have no control over the things that, historically, one had no controver, such as the enemy plane types one might encounter.

Could not agree more.

Best mission generator in any sim ever. One of my biggest reasons for always coming back to FEG after so many years. I pretty much set everything to random so never the same fight twice, I just wish other sims would adopt something along these lines.

[+VonS 1,424]

4 hours ago, devere said:

Could not agree more.

Best mission generator in any sim ever. One of my biggest reasons for always coming back to FEG after so many years. I pretty much set everything to random so never the same fight twice, I just wish other sims would adopt something along these lines.

I appreciate the randomness of the mission generator too. One word of advice - if using the various formation.ini files included with my FM update pack, be aware that the one for lowest congestion/scarcity of aircraft, that often creates lone-wolf single missions, may sometimes crash FE2 (perhaps FE1/FEgold too) depending on the mission type selected. While not a big problem, it's worth being aware of. I particularly like lone-wolf missions for the early war, with hardly any aircraft in the sky for miles and miles, as historical. I will see if I can somehow combine commands included in the missioncontrol.ini and formation.ini files, for a future ver. of the FM pack - although I will be somewhat busy with my early WW2 install for SF2, for a while.

Happy flying,

Von S

Edited November 25, 2019 by VonS
Fixed typos.

[RIBob 39]

On 11/24/2018 at 11:18 AM, don246 said:

I agree with 33LIMA and SKY HIGH regarding the ai in ROF and I have the Flying Circus and all the other theaters (no im not a rich man I just have to have them) and the ai is no better in FC it is just the same as ROF, BUT I just like the way the planes fly and the  terrain if it was just a flight sim and not a combat flight sim then IL2 Sturmovik Battles would be just perfect for me.

FE has a lot to offer so dos WOFF UE to a lot of folk but they are for me 20th century sims and I want the eye candy and a 21st century sim, we all have our  likes and dislikes, unfortunatly combat flight sims do not make money today kids want Battlefields so there is no money and it is this that game makers look at so one of the reasons I have supported the new IL2 is if we do not then NO combat flight sims.

RIBob you have nothing to loose if your PC will run it download ROF you jet 2 Planes and best of all it is FREE.

Just one tip buy a SSD hard drive I purchased a Samsung SSD EVO and it is the best thing I ever put in my PC.

 

Thanks for useful comments!  I have modified my Dell XPS 8930 computer with 9th Gen I9 CPU (with Alienware CPU cooler), installed a 3060Ti OC Graphics card, 32 GB RAM, and a number of SSDs, plus upgraded PSU.  I also upgraded top case fan to max allowable 120mm, and installed two front case fans, also of max allowable 120mm.  The omitted finned aluminum heat sink for the Voltage Regulator Modules on the circuit board was also installed.  Running ROF poses no problems even when run at max settings.

Concur that some computers might have issues, but sometimes older computers can be  usefully upgraded even in these days of GPUs being scarce at anything like MSRP.

Thank you again for helpful andkind comments!