A friend of mine back in Europe was so desperate to try multiplayer ROF that he paid for my registration and sent me the DVD. It was available in Europe even before the USA - so it was the only way he could do it (before the downloadable version became available). I just bought the extra plane or two. All very painless.
Anyway - I've been duly impressed by the flight models and the graphics. Yes - framerates are quite good - even when fairly maxed out, but they do drop significantly in multiplayer when there are more than two or three non-AI (ie. human) players.
The general consensus is that the interface is shocking - though much has already been improved since the initial release. At least the devs are listening and working on it. As I think ROF is aimed at a busy multiplayer sim, the m/p interface is also slow, clunky and often frustrating - though that's usually because the people haven't yet learned how to set their servers up properly. Early days though - and there hasn't been a huge take-up *yet*.
Sadly, being in NZ, we suffer through chronic speed and bandwidth restrictions to the rest of the world. Until people start hosting in NZ, m/p sessions will be a bit trying. I'd like to see ROF becoming as popular here in NZ as IL-2, which benefits from local dedicated servers (and a friendly NZ group). The aircraft are so much more manouevreable - it's great fun, though I wish that upper wing wasn't there most of the time
... mind you, no shortage of people wanting to remove it for me
I've played all the WWI sims overs the years and have to say that this one is *easily* the best so far.
If anyone ever goes online with ROF, my persona is the same ... "Adamski" (or "Adamski_NZ") and my benefactor in Holland goes by the nick of "Koriel". He sometimes has a server running, but even with blindingly fast Internet access, he says all the m/p data makes it hard for him to serve and fly simultaneously, so his server isn't up as much as he'd like it to be. If you see him online (or go on his server) say "Hi" from me!
Final note ... if anyone from NZFF wants ROF, just PM me ... I can send a copy of the DVD. It's unplayable without payment/registration - and it would save you a download or a long wait for the boxed version to arrive. Is it available boxed in NZ anywhere yet?
