Hellshade

Be honest Olham. You've been wanting to be a tail gunner in a Dragon Squadron for some time now. And hey, you wouldn't even have to paint them red. muhahahaha.

I hope they stay close to their area of expertise and just mix it up a bit by making an alternate WWI world where that's the technology available, but also magic and dragons have come back into the world unexpectedly uniting the Germans and the Allies. So you fly your flight of Sopwith Camels and DR1s against a dragon and the rear seat gunners of your two seaters casts lighting bolt spells instead of using a Vickers machine gun. But I'm not really holding my breath. lol

I don't think they are played out as a team. I think they have pushed WWI as far as they can financially afford to and they need a change. Not many developers stick with a single flight sim for 10 years. Other types of games like Halo or Elder Scrolls, yes but not flight sims. Its incredibly rare to see a developer work on new iterations of the same sim for so long.

Either way, I would still be flying WOFF for years to come because there is simply nothing else out there that can come comes to replacing it. That said, I'm very much looking forward to WOFF GOLD and whatever add-ons the devs send our way from time to time after that. Winder did say that it would be their last major WWI release, so I'm speculating that they will turn their primary attention to other major projects and just release add-ons for WOFF GOLD now and then. I'm okay with that. They've been at W/OFF exclusively for 10 years. Heck, there are a lot of supposedly persistent world MMOs that haven't survived THAT long. I'm looking forward to whatever else they decide to create. I wonder if they will stick with CFS3 or procure a new engine.

For those who haven't seen it, this is Winders post: Just a few words from me.... Yes its WOFF3 and it will probably be our last major WW1 release - we have been at this for over 10 years. So it will be the next phase and I figured why not call it 'GOLD' in tribute to Flying Corps Gold.... And like any phase release we have done we are not saying exactly what it will encompass at this stage. OBD is not asking anyone to pay twice - but WOFF3 will not have a 'massive amount' of new craft because frankly it takes too long - we are looking at adding craft for the GOLD version but probably more AI craft than a lot of extra player flyables - however there will be new player flyables of course. We already have a record breaking 60+ flyables in WOFF. It will feature overhauled craft where needed and especially uprated DM systems, and uprated terrain and scenery. Yep - once WOFF Gold is out there will be no more WOFF1 and 2. In terms of ground activity I am thinking more along the lines of activity not only at the front lines but everywhere (within a WW1 context) to make the world more immersive - ditto the channel shipping. Still :- dont read into this as 'we are' or 'we are not' but if 'we do'.... - it will be the last major release of WW1 from us. WM OBD

I would like to see WOFF go out on a high note as well. It sounds like they have some really great things planned for the expansion and I genuinely hope they do decide to produce and release GOLD instead of just ending at the Motley Crew Add-on. Certainly with 60+ flyable planes, a huge dynamic campaign and countless features and options, it will be a very long time before anyone could say they were bored with WOFF. It will have many surprises to give us for years to come. That said, if we had a Team Fusion like modders group that decided to flesh out even more (more French 2 seaters, Italian front, etc) I can see WOFF GOLD having a very exciting 'retirement.' I know they are time consuming to make, but maybe a community project for Historical Airfields, etc. I bet we could find ways to keep polishing up the already sparkling gem that will be WOFF GOLD. Look how long Red Baron 3D was played by hard core fans after it was no longer officially supported and WOFF has so much more to offer than RB3D ever did. The modding community can do a lot to keep a sim going for many, many years. RoF is in a slightly more difficult position than WOFF because the devs are still using the Digital Nature engine in order to create new WWII flight sims. For that reason, they won't open up the code of RoF to modders to change change things like AI, Flight Models, Damage Models, etc. That sim is truly stuck in a sort of limbo. Flight Model debates still rage to this day and the AI is basically non-existent. No official support because 777 studios are done with it and virtually no significant modders support because the devs won't open it up to let anyone peek under the hood. I don't think WOFF will have that problem. If OBD does decide to do another project, I doubt they would keep using the CFS3 engine. Who knows? They might even release or sell a Developer Toolkit for WOFF. One can always hope.

Well, Winder has spoken. If WOFF GOLD ships it will be the last major release for their venerated and much loved WWI flight sim. Knowing those guys, they will patch like mad after release but then eventually, they will call something the last patch and it will be complete. It will be so weird to have the finality of silence from the devs on WOFF. I will be interested to see what their non-WWI project is going to be, but its just weird to think WOFF will have finally reached the end of it's official journey. If there's a tiny, tiny silver lining to it, it's this: When the day comes that there are no more official add-ons, upgrades or patches for WOFF GOLD, there's a good chance this will become the official hang out forum for WOFFers again.

Kudos to TF. Amazing stuff! Makes me want to fly it, except I've got the WOFF Pup challenge, Sword Coast Legends will soon release as well as Fallout 4. And I'm still playing Skyrim. Seriously. LOL

Oh I'm sure they know what's best for WOFF sir. Being a comparatively simple engine to work with also has to have it's advantages as well as limitations. It just would be nice to see WOFF support multiple cores and a more complex flight model that got rid of that "on rails" feelings completely. That said, those guys have been chipping away at the limitations of W/OFF for some time and there are quite a bit fewer items on the wish list than a few years ago.

I'm sure it wasn't possible for about a billion reasons, but I remember way back before they first released CloD (to horrible reviews) that I asked Pol if it would be possible to jump (then) OFF to that sim engine. Aside from having to rebuild every plane - including FM and DM information from scratch - I imagine they would have had to rebuild all of France as well, as I'm guessing CloD is focused mostly over England. Surely a time consuming and nearly impossible task given OBDs staff size. Still, I wish OBD had an infusion of major cash to hire the people necessary to redo WOFF in a new engine. You can even see that slight amount of "wing wiggle" in the above trailer that adds to much to the feeling of flight. WOFF is such a stellar sim, it deserves a top grade engine to perform on. /sigh And yes, I know CloD was just horrid before Team Fusion came along and put in countless hours. They deserve all the credit for turning the sim into a work of art. Kudos to Team Fusion. I wonder if they would like to make a WWI sim? LOL

From the newsletter : We are working on something new currently and we will tell you more on that another time. How exciting is that? WOFF continues to expand and offer more and more immersion. Any ideas on what their new project for WOFF is guys?

I missed the announcement at SimHQ. Did they mention a 'big thing' or are you only playing a hunch? In any event, I'll back your estimate of Dec.15th which would put the release in time for Christmas. Hellshade: my apologies. I clicked 'quote' thinking that I'd get a quote header (as above) and go on to write my own post (as we see here) but somehow (because I have Moderator powers) I simply over-wrote your post. I don't know of any way to un-do this.

Creator of the Red Baron sim wants to fly again http://www.polygon.com/2015/9/22/9354153/the-red-baron-is-ready-to-fly-again There just seem to me to be too many "red flags" in the article that make me believe he will never (excuse the pun) get off the ground. He wants to keep the company small. He doesn't want to work lots of hours. Yet somehow, he wants to get all the little details right about the flight models. He doesn't want to "live his life for work. There has to be something more." And he hopes to launch in 2016, but he hasn't even gotten the funding to start a prototype yet. I don't feel like he realizes just how demanding WWI flight simmers are in 2015 vs how they were in 1990. Lets face it, the demand for historical accuracy among single players and FM accuracy among SP and multiplayer simmers has increased a hundredfold. It sounds to me more like he wants to have fun making a game (and maybe relive a little of the past glory of a previously successful title of his) than he has a real passion for the history of WWI like OBD Software does. I'd be amazed if he has the stamina to create the kind of in depth WWI dynamic single player air campaign system that WOFF has. Best guess. If he finishes the sim at all it will be "air quake" for WWI planes.

Oh heavens no sir. Of course not. I had been looking at the Kickstarter footage for it - which you can see here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pf3CZY5WNLI

That is sad Lou. I think it's even more sad that they keep coming up with new wars to provide the opportunity to pin new medals on new men. Because though the colors of the ribbons and the shape of the medals may change over time, they mostly say the same thing. "This young man went through hell because older men were unwilling or unable come to a rational solution to their differences."

Matt Milne is in the process of creating an hour long sound track to be released along with upcoming WOFF projects from the Devs. You can find a 5 minute sample of his work below. https://soundcloud.com/matt-milne-8/allegiance-and-devotion This is why I love WOFF so much. It's still growing and not just by what the developers are doing, but also from people in the modding / music creation community. And while I know absolutely nothing about what the upcoming WOFF project from the devs is going to be about, I'm guessing you don't ship a 1 hour, high quality, originally scored soundtrack to go along with a new plane. I'm more excited than ever about the future of WOFF. Thanks Matt for your incredible work. It truly is amazing.

Welcome back Parky! Looking forward to hearing your experiences of flying in WOFFs unfriendly skies. :)

Hi jeanba. If you are a FM guy, maybe you can make a mod to add a tiny bit of "roll" in the turbulence in WOFF. I'm not even sure if the CFS3 engine has a mechanism to make that happen, but I think it would add tremendously to the "feeling of flight" in WOFF if planes "rocked and tilted" a little when flying through heavy winds as opposed to just bouncing straight up and down.

WidowMaker - good to see you sir. By chance are you flying WOFF V1 or the new V2 with the 2.12 patch? Lots of improvements with V2.

Fortunately, there's no lack of things to do in WOFF V2. Even as it stands right now, WOFF will hold my attention for many years. I highly suspect the only thing that will replace it is if the devs at OBD come up with something to replace it with. You'd be hard pressed to find a modern developer who would put so much time and effort into historically accurate details and provide such outstanding support. That said: I can't wait for whatever OBD has planned next. :)

There is a fabulous movie about that called the Imitation Game. It was released in 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuPZUUED5uk

I think the German strategy for the navy was mostly just to send in U-Boat packs to disrupt supplies so that Britain got weaker and hopefully collapsed before America could truly enter the war. Once the Americans figured out technology and strategies for dealing with U-Boats - I believe in April of '42, that ruined that strategy and turned the tables very quickly. Suddenly U-Boat survivability wasn't there and the lifeline to England opened quickly as more and more supplies got through.

Oh without a doubt many (maybe all) of the strategies were not Hitlers, however like most leaders (and all tyrants), the population gives him the credit especially when things go well. I imagine to the average German at that time, it must have seemed that Hitler was a military genius because their nation marched from victory to victory in record time under his "military leadership." It wasn't Stalin who came up with the strategy to defend the Soviet Union either. That was Zhukov (if I remember correctly). Still, you could say great things about Zhukov but it wasn't wise to say it without also giving great credit to Stalin. If the Command Staff of the Soviet Union of that time had to choose between supporting Stalin or Zhukov, it was a life or death decision that you had one chance to get right. I'm sure it was much the same in Germany under Hitler.

I believe he made Corporal in WWI. And you are right that he didn't tolerate people questioning his directives, so even if his Command Staff thought he was wrong, nobody was going to tell him otherwise, especially when Hitlers' pride was on the line. In fairness though, it should also be said that up until that time Hitler had led them from victory to victory. Even if he wasn't an all powerful tyrant, he had a string of victories to his name that nobody could question...including beating France in like 6 weeks. Something they spent 4 years trying to do in WWI. So they obeyed.

They almost had England beat too. The runways were being decimated. The planes couldn't get repaired fast enough. Then the Germans accidentally bombed London itself - if I recall properly. The British got royally pissed (pun intended) and sent light bombers to bomb Berlin. They did negligible damage but Hitler had promised that the war would never come to Berlin, so he gave his (in)famous speech saying "Fine. If they want to drop 100, 200, 300 bombs on Berlin, we will drop 1,000, 2,000, 3,000 bombs on London" and the bombing targets switched from military airfields to civilian population centers. As horrible as it was for the British population, it gave the RAF a reprieve and the time it needed to get back fully into the fight. There were several factors working against the Germans in the Battle of Britain: The had no heavy bombers - only medium and dive bombers Limited time over the target due to fuel concerns so they couldn't take long tangling with the Spits and Hurricanes. British Radar allowed the RAF to conserve fuel and only launch fighters when needed because they could see the Germans coming A downed British fighter landed on friendly territory and might be able to be saved but a downed German bomber or fighter crew was probably lost for good, even if they survived the bail out. But even with all of that working against the Germans, they still had the British on the ropes until they changed tactics. I've often said "Pride makes a piss poor replacement for practicality." If Hitler had kept on doing the same strategy and attacking the RAF, it might very well have been a different ending to that battle. If my understanding of the facts is incorrect, I defer to those who know better.