Rise of Flight: United Edition

[Klaiber]

http://riseofflight.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=44683
 

Dear Pilots!

In the last 5+ years we've presented you over 40 massive updates, 30+ flyable aircraft, dozens of new versions and hundreds of fixes. And even after all this time, new players keep coming to ROF every day! We never thought that our very first project would remain that long in the stormy sea of the game industry and keep you interested. This is a fantastic success for us. Next year begins the 6th year of ROF and we think it will keep going strong. Thanks to everyone whose hands and hearts made this game possible! We'll be grateful to you, always.

Our small team has been on a long journey for last two years. We were busy discovering a new era - World War II. As you know, we’ve been working on IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad, which was been released this fall. Everyone in the studio was worried that we weren't paying much attention to Rise of Flight. But honestly, we just could not work on two projects of such scale simultaneously - there's only a few specialists capable of making flight-sims in the whole world, not to say in a little development team like ours. So, when IL-2 was released we sat down and started thinking about ROF. What can be done for players now? We read the emails and messages you sent us, studied players' comments everywhere on the web and came up with the decisions about what needs to be added to ROF.

A few months ago we announced the ILYA Muromets project in partnership with the Russian Historical Military Society and devoted it to the dawn of Russian aviation and Igor Sikorsky's plane in particular. We also launched an Early Access program for it recently. ILYA Muromets was initially designed to be a stand-alone product, but in response to requests by our customers, today we are changing that. This project has its roots in ROF and we received tons of requests, threats, bitterness and claims - all that to persuade us to add the bomber to Rise of Flight. Not everyone was able or willing to buy a separate product, but everyone wanted to try the plane in the big virtual universe that ROF provides. And we came to the decision to unite these projects, merge them into one game. All the IM content (the plane, map in three seasons and the historical campaign) will be added to ROF.

Thus, ilyamuromets.su and ilyamuromets.net stops receiving new account registrations on December 11th. Personal accounts of all ILya Muromets users will be transferred into the Rise of Flight data base. If the emails in IM and ROF are matching, all the content will be moved automatically. If you don't have a ROF account, then the IM account will be moved to ROF data base with all the IM content you own. In case if anything goes wrong and you need our assistance in merging the accounts, please, submit a ticket to our customer support, give them necessary information, and we'll get everything sorted for you as fast as we can.

Also, pre-order is going to open for Ilya Muromets bomber on riseofflight.com. The item includes the plane itself plus a historical campaign including 10 specifically designed missions.

Since the project is going to unite the two fronts (Western and Eastern) we've decided to update the free-to-play version of the game on our website. Starting with December 18th the free version will include 3 aircraft (SPAD 13, Albatros D.Va and the Nieuport 17 produced by the Russian Dux plant), and Western and Eastern front with 3 seasonal maps. Players can fly in all modes of gameplay for an unlimited time with these three aircraft without limitations: try it, let your friends try it too - the more the merrier.

Also the update on December 18th will be including many bug fixes that you have asked for along with some Flight Model tweaks that have long been requested by ROF users. However, FM tweaks are a very subjective topic and it has been our policy to try and stick to the research documents and technology we have at our disposal to lead us on this topic. And this issue is a source of never ending argument in the community and can really drive a wedge between us and our customers no matter how hard we try. However, we have taken into account the general comments on the forums about various FMs and attempted to tweak them to match the requests. But we need to warn everyone, changing FMs can lead to unforeseen technical issues and unintended consequences. The endless debates about flight models will likely continue no matter what we do or how hard we try to make it right. So, with that in mind, this is likely the last attempt to tweak existing FMs in ROF. We’ve given it our best shot and we hope you find them acceptable.

In addition we plan to upgrade the Rise of Flight website and forum using newer technologies and design solutions. This is scheduled for January 2015. A move like that requires a lot of time, all the more so because we want to keep and transfer all your posts correctly.

Throughout ROF’s existence, we've received many comments about the complexity or the controls in ROF aircraft and the need for a joystick to play. Some gamers have an interest in flying airplanes and even though they do not have a flight stick they still have desire to see the WWI planes in virtual action. As a result we are missing a clear opportunity. With the ILYA Muromets we've started an experiment to try to implement mouse controls without simplifying the flight physics out. Player feedback from that experiment tells us that it was pretty successful. So, now we're planning to transfer the technology to ROF and apply it to all the planes in the game. This should help to attract new pilots which are very important to keep the aviation history of World War I alive in hearts and minds of gamers all over the world and grow the ROF community.

Our mouse control was specifically designed to not interfere with how each individual aircraft flies or their unique personalities. Our intention is not to make ROF easier, but to simply give a new input method to those that prefer it. They will die over No Man’s Land all the same. Pilot skill is STILL the most important factor in ROF aerial combat. Please welcome such new users with a Vickers or Spandau hand-shake!

All these updates will take us almost two months to be completed and released: we'll start on December 18th and plan to finish in January 2015. This renewal process starts today with transferring everything we made for ILYA Muromets project into Rise of Flight.

Thank you for being such a great and supportive community all these years! Long live Rise of Flight!

It is also the Holiday Season and we want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah and Happy New Year wherever you are!

[Lee]

Interesting and makes a lot of sense.

 

Very curious as to the FM tweaks.

 

So do we spend $20 now for the Ilya Muromets or wait for the next sale?

[Britchot]

I'll hold out for the next sale but I'm very impressed with this move from 777.

[Klaiber]

Yeah, I'm very impressed as well.  This is a good move on their part.

[Butzzell]

Can not wait to see the maps.

 

Sale  shmail,  I wan tit NOW!!!!

[Lee]

Sale  shmail,  I want it NOW!!!!

 

Yup, I ordered it.  I don't mind paying 777 when they do good things.

 

So Fred, the next FiF might be Russian Front?

[Maushake]

I don't think pre-orders (or new planes just after release) are discounted in sales, are they?  I suspect they'll have a sale when the Muromets is released but it won't be discounted at that point ... to get it for less than the pre-order price may mean waiting until the sale after next ...

 

S!

 

Maus

[Britchot]

I believe you are 100% correct Maus, at least from what I've seen in the past.

[Klaiber]

I preordered it too.

[Vonrd]

Yup, I ordered it.  I don't mind paying 777 when they do good things.

 

So Fred, the next FiF might be Russian Front?

 

I ordered too.

 

So, Squadron 42 will be "ÑÑкадра 42"?  

[JamesBaron]

I hope the phalzd3 doesn't get completely neutered, cause that's my best looking plane. I do hope they make the Bristol the way it should be.

[Klaiber]

Hi Guys,

 

Here are some more general updates from Zak_1CGS.  This time from the IM boards:

 

http://ilyamuromets.net/forum/topic/119-rise-flight-united-edition/

[Barton]

I don't understand why they were going to do it as a stand alone in the first place.  Same game engine, same war, many of the same planes.  I hope whoever came up with that idea was thrown out of a window.

[Maushake]

Yes, it was a puzzling way to go about it, but I think it had something to do with the Russian historical society that was sponsoring the new game -- I guess they thought it would be better PR for them to have their name attached to a new game rather than an expansion to an existing one.  In any case, I'm glad 777 have seen the light and are doing it the right way now!

[Klaiber]

Here's the change log for Version 1.034:

 

http://riseofflight.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?t=44725&sid=9311135c1b46a531002234bf124822d9

 

It's an impressive list.

 

 

 

Dear pilots!

We present to you Rise of Flight, version 1.034 (United Edition), and it's change log follows:

1. Added: Ilya Muromets S-22 added;
2. Added: Tarnopol (Western Ukraine) map for Quick Mission and Multiplayer mission designers;
3. Added: Nieuport 17.C1 Russian edition added;
4. Adjusted: Nieuport 28.C1 FM - "Heavy tail on takeoff" issue fix;
5. Adjusted: Pfalz D.3a FM - Reduced of turn rate;
6. Adjusted: Pfalz D.3a FM - Speed increased;
7. Adjusted: Albatros D.3 FM - Speed increased;
8. Adjusted: Albatros D.5 FM - Speed increased;
9. Adjusted: Fokker Dr.1 FM - Speed reduced;
10. Adjusted: Fokker Dr.1 DM - Increased of left-top wing console durability to high-G loads;
11. Adjusted: Sopwith Camel FM - Speed reduced;
12. Adjusted: Sopwith Camel FM - Engine RPM reduced;
13. Adjusted: Sopwith Triplane FM - Speed reduced;
14. Adjusted: Sopwith Pup FM - Speed reduced;
15. Adjusted: Bristol Fighters FM - Climb rate reduced;
16. Adjusted: Bristol Fighters FM - Roll rate reduced;
17. Adjusted: Sopwith Dolphin DM - Increased of airframe durability to combat damage;
18. Adjusted: Nieuport 11.C1 DM - Increased of tail durability to high loads;
19. Adjusted: Nieuport 17.C1 DM - Increased of tail durability to high loads;
20. Adjusted: Handley Page O/400 DM - Increased of engine supports durability to combat damage;
21. Adjusted: Gotha G.V DM - Increased of engine supports durability to combat damage;
22. Fixed: No particle effects wen shooting a building;
23. Fixed: the weapon mods file description of the balloon gun of HD 1 and HD 2;
24. Fixed: Photo missions for Strutter in Career Mode are too rare;
25. Fixed: Cables in the gunner's seat of the Roland C.IIa are misaligned; 
26. Fixed: No ambient light flash when firing the Vickers MG on the Strutter and Strutter B at night;
27. Fixed: AI AAA shoots at "Ghost planes" that have been shot down or de-spawned in multiplayer.

[Lee]

More FM changes than I expected, and all needed.

 

Will have to see how the game plays, but looking really good on paper. 

[Klaiber]

Yeah, I'm again impressed.  It was a very nice surprise.

 

Now to test them out.

[Maushake]

Looks like a balanced mix of many of the FM tweaks that pilots on both sides have been asking for. And they even fixed something in Career mode!

[Somnus]

Well this is awesome! I wish I hadn't read about this today though. I just spent $60 on DCS!  Very exciting though, even if they slowed down my beloved Dr.I

[Lee]

I've got the sea level speed of the D.Va at 180 km/h and the Camel at 165 km/hr.

 

Finally, if we miss the initial bounce we can extend away and live to talk about it. 

[Britchot]

My 7 year-old daughter just flew the Pfalz D.III and managed to make 2 good landings.  Her other two were collisions with trees and inattention during the flare.  She's happy with the new flight model.

[Klaiber]

That's awesome!

[Somnus]

My son right now has decided that he's in love with Sonic the Hedgehog. I for one am completely for that, but my wife for some reason has something against a 3 year old sitting and playing video games. 

 

 

One day he'll be flying too! Never too young, right?!

[Klaiber]

Btw, if you guys get a "Non 7z archive" every time you try and load the three new skin packs from the ROF website, try these links instead:

 

http://www.rofmods.com/Skins/RoF_Official_Skinspack_v.1.033.exe

 

http://www.rofmods.com/Skins/RoF_Community_Historical_Skinspack_Vol.16.exe

 

http://www.rofmods.com/Skins/RoF_Community_Fictional_Skinspack_Vol.16.exe

 

They worked for me.