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Those of you who know me know I LOVE online air racing in civvie sims (a'la PROPS racing at West Coast ATC in FS9) but especially in a combat sim and I feel the litmus test of any sim is how well does it support any possibility of air racing in multiplayer. Witness the Rhine River Races we used to hold in CFS3 flying out of JG300's home base...the air racing on the Com-C IL2 server was a hoot as well.

So anyways in Rise of Flight Multiplayer I have been flying on the New Wings "Basic Training" server which is a GREAT server for people who are new to Rise Of Flight who need to learn the ropes when it comes to flying these kites and stringbags. It's a very good server that has many different areas with different scenarios set up located around the map, and in the center is a home airbase to fly out of. Around this home base is a very impressive obstacle course to hone your skill sin low-level flying and attacking ground targets and balloons.

Turns out it makes for a pretty cool air race course as I found out while flying with a couple of other folks on the server. To keep it slow on the twisty tight course we flew Nieuport 17's and had a blast...

Approaching the course in very loose formation we see some bridges that come into play at the end of the lap, our target is to fly between that first pair of very tall poles in front of the pond which marks the start of the course...



Once through, the course is pretty clear and you first evade the ropes hanging from some balloons in the way...no rule against shooting them either, if you've brought ammo along....



Settled into a tight second place and the course is well-marked with arrows on the ground made out of fence material....nice job on the map design by these guys...



Coming up on the first set of factory buildings to fly through, the smokestacks make for a TIGHT fit and there are machine gunners positioned at various points to add some ground fire into the fun, there's a little guy standing right out there in the open in the pic below....



RoF doesn't give you an option to turn off the virtual cockpit (fine by me, since it looks so good) but visibility, or lack of it out the front of the Nieuport just makes it all the more fun...



Some more twisty bits after that with the ever-helpful ground fire...



Next time I do this I might bring along a round or two to put one of these guys down...being in full-on air racer mode though, I'd opted for an empty ammo loadout and only a few gallons of gas...



Coming through the second set of factory buildings on the course, the pressure got to the pilot in the lead and WHAM....suddenly I'm in first place, Boooo-YAHHH!!!!!



But unfortunately, after coming out of the last gate I was not aware that the bridges were part of the course, so I committed a course violation by flying straight and level thinking the race had been won. The guy in last place ("Gascan") correctly stayed on course to fly under the bridges and snatch victory form the jaws of defeat....



...which is no mean feat as it gets pretty tight down in there even in a little petite plane like the N17....



And he pays the price of scraping the top of the arch on the last bridge, breaking off his rudder and also splintering his prop...he had enough airspeed to make it to the beach and land dead-stick.



Meanwhile I thought I had it in the bag and landed, but ground-looped on the rollout and damaged my , ummm.... "racer" *



So, 2 DNF's and one Disqualified with no winners in the first attempt....definitely qualifies as a REAL combat race course if ya ask me!




* Fact: Did you know the Nieuport 17 is technically classified as a "sesquiplane" by way of it's very small lower wing which has only one spar? Neither did I. Give me a real plane any day....Eindeckers at dawn!!!

WOW Stoopy!!! Great story and now I'm 'itchin' to try it...lol

This looks pretty cool. What do I have to have to play? Operating system, sim, etc. and where do I get it (and how big is it....space on HD required)?

It says it will run on Windows XP although it failed to launch on my previous system with 2GB RAM. Minimum specs are Windows XP or Windows 7 with 2 or 4 GB of RAM I think (never quite sure since WinXP can't see over 3GB) , and a very healthy video card. HD space...umm, dont' recall but I'll post a link to the specs and download below (edit: 10GB per specs at link below).

Here's the interesting thing: IF you download the free demo, there is NO DIFFERENCE between it and the full-blown retail version other than the aircraft that are available to fly. You get two in the demo (Albatross D.V and SPAD 13, both of which are fine aircraft) and you can even join multiplayer and fly with aircraft you don't own. This can put a spin on the heads of those of us who have lived with "aircraft mismatches" in other combat flight sims or who have seen Cessna 172's show up in place of non-stock aircraft in FS9 or FSX when flying with someone who has a plane that we don't.

When you "buy" the game you're really buying many additional aircraft - all fighters BTW - that will be automatically unlocked. They are all quite nice (this is the development team that brought you the exceptional Neoq Fokker Dr.I Triplane for FSX and FS9, it's the same Dr.I in this sim). Far and above standard payware quality for FS9 or FSX planes, in my experience and opinion. I've been flying the free demo for months and only finally bought the full version a couple of weeks ago! You get a license key to type in and voila, it become the non-demo version with more aircraft.

Of course, there are also even more aircraft that you can get but they cost (small amounts like $9 or $11). But they're not anything you can't live without, unless you want bombers and two-seaters. I did buy one additional aircraft this last weekend so I could have a two-seater to fly recon and artillery spotting missions, but even so I'm into this for less money than FS9, FSX or CFS3 were. It's an interesting business model they have, I can see it being the future of sims...at least it's not totally "Pay to play" and it is user-friendly. And on the bright side I haven't received any spam or unwanted advertising as a result of installing this months back. Not bad.

There are of course additional goodies you can buy like weapons and pistols for your pilot to shoot and scarves and ribbons to wear and hang on your plane, according to your addiction level - not for me at this point, and certainly not necessary.

Downside? It's a new sim, learning curve and control setup will take a while. And its not open-architecture like Microsoft sims, so no free third-party content or planes.

The downloadable sim and system specs are here:

Requirements and specs, lower left on this page, demo videos also:
riseofflight.com/en

Download, and how-to install and setup videos:
riseofflight.com/tryrof/en

I've checked my HD space and think I can spare it. RAM and vid card are probably at the lower limits of what's acceptable, but I am able to run FS( (and FSX when I had it loaded) at full res, so maybe...

How does it look for "uninstall", should I find I don't have the requisite horsepower?

I just looked and there is an "Uninstall" option in the start menu folder for the sim, and although I never uninstalled it on my previous system (even tho I could never get it to launch - pure stubborness on my part) I have no reason to suspect the uninstaller shouldn't be well-behaved. I certainly haven't received anything like spam or unwanted toolbars or other such crud from installing it.

Be advised there is the potential it wont run on your system and if that's the case then nothing will happen when you double-click the Rise Of Flight icon on your desktop or launch it from the start menu. So you could go through the install and be disappointed by lack of feedback. That's what happened on my previous system. I believe your current system is a tad healthier than my last one but still it may not be enough.

If it works you'll get a Rise Of Flight launcher menu that allows you to adjust settings and do some other things prior to launching the game. If nothing happens, well...at least you know.

One thing I have seen since its release is that 777Studios have blowout sales where the planes can be bought for half price or less quite often.
There is also an option at the RoF store to buy the planes in bulk at a discounted price if you want to buy multiple planes.


Wheels

-S-

Great pics..I am waiting to get this game, ordered in the " Iron Cross " edition.

Hammer

Dude - you know you can be flying it right now for free, just with 2 planes, right? When I got my Iron Cross Edition all I had to do was enter the vlaidation code that came with it and my installed demo became the ful version instantly, with the other planes unlocked. The screenie I submitted that was on display yesterday (Escort Duty) was done online with the free demo....just sayin'.

-S-

Thanks Stoopy..just waiting to upgrade my rig and get back on line, I am using a library computer at this point.

Hammer