homepage Forums Air Combat & Civil Aviation Rise of Flight - The First Great Air War Any suggestions on how we can grow the ROF community?

I always get a good chuckle when I see the scripted vs dynamic argument get brought out and flogged. There really is a middle ground that would be possible if a company actually invested some money in it. There's absolutely no reason that a good dynamic engine could have a storyline (or storylines) imbedded it in and still generate dynamic missions. Unfortunately no company has ever dared put the resources into making such a creature. So instead we get a lot of great sims wrapped in really crappy games.

Well, "crappy game" is relative, but I can understand why you'd say that.

I can't help but wonder how much farther and faster someone like yourself could take a supporting application if the sim developer would take the time to create more provisions for it. I'm assuming IL-2 was developed with some of this in mind. In other words, the sim developer ends up spending minimal time on a story-telling feature but creates the engine such that the code or scripting is open enough to allow a 3rd party to jump in and really give that part of the game some attention. The sim developer creates the environment and the story-tellers (users, the creative tidal wave) run with it.

Games with user-made content (in this case content that doesn't directly affect online play) tend to increase the product's life cycle. Why not encourage it (the modification of single-play)? Makes sense to me.

Anyway, on the subject of how to go about increasing the number of ROF users, well, experiencing the game will certainly help me decide what to do about it. I think good games get attention from a lot of angles. Great games tend to sell themselves.

A dynamic campaign within a historical context is what will not help RoF move forward but the genera. Similar to what has been done in the Silent Hunter campaign but improved.

Getting people to try is probably not the hard part, getting them to stay and not only buy into the upgrades but possibly other releases is the problem.

Dead IS dead...

This was the problem I saw for IL2. Maybe I could have accepted that the canned missions were repetitive and linear, thus boring after the attempt if I had to be more concerned about dying.

Yes I could 'kill' off the pilot and not hit the refly, which I did, but why?

Doing so not only impacts upon the suspension of disbelief it also means I do not have a list of top 10 careers to reminisce about and try and best.

It is these flaws which saw me not buy the other IL2 products.

Even with the canned missions of RB2 3D, the randomness of the canned missions and the fact if I flew off somewhere else they would react, along with the the career aspect and DiD made for an experience that kept me coming back.

So we must think past the initial moment of getting the newbie to play as I feel that once you get someone into this genera then they are in for life.

Indeed ;/

How about a little interesting mainstream advertising? Red DR1 flies over a field with an allied plane on it six. Machine guns firing from the ground. DR1 starts smoking, rolls over and augers. Announcer asks "Who really downed MvR? Well maybe it was you!" Then comes the big spiel about ROF. I'd bet a few commercials during shows like History Channels dogfights and the like would pull in quite a few people just to check it out. OF course the game wouls actually have to have a DR1 in it:)

1) have a decent game demo so people can get a taste what it is like, if they like it a 50$ impulse buy will be their next step

2) have a range of different aviation related mission types in a ww-1 or ww-2 flight sim is also important. most servers and games of this genre are setup for one single purpose only, which is aimed at people shooting it out with another plane, but this does not attract other simmers that might be interested in different aspect of aviation in ww-1 or ww-2 which could be added with minimal effort and make the whole sim more interesting. even for those that like the shooting part, it eventually gets boring to, add some other missions in the mix and it becomes much more interesting

there could be for ex missions like....
- artillery spotting missions, including you having to write/type coordinates and redirect fire
- troop movement reconnaissance, with having to release carrier pigeons with small msg's on their grid locations and troop number estimation
- flying VFR from location A to B, with a basic map, maybe even with having to land to refuel on the way. those missions could be labled as "mail resupply", "visiting french girlfriend etc", lots of ways to make it interesting
- fly in supplies or new aircraft, from factories or rear storage area's to airfields
- hunt behind enemy lines for a specific enemy staff car to destroy which has been reported by your spies to travel from town A to town B around a specific time, with other civilian vehicles also being in the area, so you have to closely identify the correct target and get penalized for shooting the wrong one
- try landing in small fields to pickup a spy or downed pilot, testing you pilot skill to land in a small clearing with trees in various locations (+have limited time on the ground before a local farmer or soldiers start to take pot shots at you)
- have a series of objects in the game that can be used to make complex skill tests for people interested in aviation, bridges to fly under, rivers to follow with tree lined edges, barns with open doors to fly through, tall chimney's to fly between etc...
- add in some AI ground activity at airfields, cars driving around, AI planes landing and taking off, and add in some semi-random interaction with that world, for ex as you come in to land have a flare fired from the airfield waving you off, or have trainee pilot at the airfield get in your way, etc...
- have some test-pilot type missions where you have to take a repaired aircraft into the air and test its function and strength, maybe add the option of some semi-random failures or structural weakness so that your pilot skills are developed to try and get the aircraft safely home (or practicing trying to bailout from the aircraft safely etc). doing regular testing could also be linked to the reliability of your aircraft in a campaign, and you might need to assign a number of pilots to do this regularly (which reduces your active pilot numbers for combat missions etc..)

if all the hard work has been done to create the sim itself, all you need is some imagination to make it more interesting for a broader audience, rather then just the shoot'em up crowd.

I can certainly envision those commercials in my head! GREAT IDEAS!!!



...OTOH - I'd hate to consider what something like that would cost!!

Good stuff 8ball.

The Red Baron

<zooming visuals, Blue Max twinkling, darkened room with one lit wall covered in battered enemy plane ID trophies>

The Hunt

<Max off Eastenders strapping on a flying helmet>

Prey?

<camera swings along the rows of silver cups>

Or Hunter.

<daka-daka-daka-daka>

You choose Snoopy

Ming

Concur.

Demo versions sell copies.

Jesus mate...all it takes is moving the mouse pointer around the screen ONCE and reading the tooltips

Want to double the sales after the first week? Then do as above, by which I mean drop the always online requirement.
Some will say I'm opening a recent sore- but, look upon it as a self evident truth.

Double the sales? DOUBLE? That would mean HALF of peeps interested in ROF wont buy it due to the online securty requirement.
From what data are you drawing this conclusion? Just a guess right?


...so if we're all just guessing around here, then I'd write it like --

Want to add one or two, ok maybe a handfull more sales after the first week?


I say KEEP the online security -- and lose the half-a-dozen sales after the first week...

...and SAVE tens-of-thousands of lost sales in hacked copies thru its lifespan.


now THAT is a lot closer to what I would consider a self-evident truth.

*shrug*

Attention not to go into that debate, because there is a whole other forum dedicated to that...

Affrm. -- Thanks Frey,...

[quote=WWBrian]

Double the sales? DOUBLE? That would mean HALF of peeps interested in ROF wont buy it due to the online securty requirement.
From what data are you drawing this conclusion? Just a guess right?

Not really. I figure most of the OFF forum guys would buy it if that requirement was lifted.
Why do you think there are thousands out there ready to buy it? That's as much a guess as mine. Do you see thousands on this forum?

and I wondered how long it would take FREY to try to hide my POV. A real Voltaire fan he is !(not)

My POV in this thread is as relevant to its title as any other opinion.


.

Cas141,
Of course your opinion is as relevant as anyone elses. But I don't see Frey trying to hide anything. He's just pointing out something you should already know. Which is that discussion about CP or DRM belong in a forum we created just for that purpose.

Here's the Sticky in this forum which explains it.

http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/2704077/STICKY_CP_and_DRM_discussions_.html#Post2704077

TIA

So a mere mentioning of one specific but critical games requirements is off limits? Strange times indeed.

Where did I say that? I asked that the discussion take place in the forum we've set up for it. The Sticky I referenced is dated April 6, 2009. Not exactly news and most people understand the rationale.

Well Cas,

I don't think anyone is trying to squelch your point of view. Lest I would have to suspect they are trying to quiet mine as well. And I certainly do not think that!


No, instead there are just those rules that shouldn't be broken, or even bent for that matter.


With that said, I'd be more than happy to continue this conversation in the appropriate forum.