'Wings Over The Reich: War Stories From The Battle Of Britai

[Blade_Meister]

'Wings Over The Reich: War Stories From The Battle Of Britain!'
Hello to all, I am Drew. I just registered here after lurking in the background for many years soaking up a lot of the great mods quite a few years back. I am not sure if I should post this here, so Admins, please if this needs to be moved, by all means put this thread in a more proper place.
This is a project I started in March of 2019 and I began posting Episodes on December 25th 2019. So far there are 19 Episodes written in an AAR/Story format using the Combat Flight Sim, Wings Over The Reich, which is based off of CFS3. I hope possibly some of you might enjoy reading it
and seeing how good WOTR looks in game. It has been a real Blessing of a project which has taught me a lot more about The Battle of Britain than I ever knew before this experience. I always post an outtake update weekly in the very first post of the thread and then the latest Episode
after the previous weeks post, so as to continually build the story. I have recently reinstalled CFS3 and I am enjoying the amazing mods which have been produced and are available here. One of your contributing members here, 33lima, deserves a shout out for critiquing and supplying
Historical material and guidance for me to use while I am writing these Episodes. Thanks 33lima. Without further adieu!

S!Blade<><

https://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.p...in#Post4501509

[mongoose]

Any way to download this?

[33lima]

Yes it's $29.99 plus any local taxes available as a digital download only, but can be backed up to DVD.

http://www.overflandersfields.com/store.html

[mongoose]

Not WOTR which I have; I meant his " War Stories From The Battle Of Britain"

[Led Zeppelin]

For those who have tried WOTR, what is your oppinion? One of the most frustraing thing in CFS3 is AI behaviour that kills the immersion along with other few things. The historical campaign engine and AI capabilities in WOTR are looking really promising.

[33lima]

Apart from flying very wide formations (including bombers) and even then not being great at maintaining it, and your flight needing somewhat micromanaged via the TAC combined with limited wingman commands, I don't find the CFS3 AI so bad, especially for air-to-air, and the AI mostly flying at empty weights is fixable.

WotR has some extra wingman commands like RTB and they call in bandits on the R/T (only bandits, not other sightings). A recent update added the ability for RAF leaders to request vector updates on your target over the R/T, which is a major step forward. The same update also tightened up formations which were CFS3-like (too wide) before. Luftwaffe formations are at the small end of the scale, although now a raid is often at roughly Gruppe strength which is good to see. Where escorts are present, their reaction to an interception can be impressive eg some come at you while others flank you. You can fly missions as a wingman, if you want.

On campaign, you can choose from most of the Battle's RAF single-seater squadrons. The Luftwaffe ORBAT is a bit more limited and its campaign less mature eg only I Gruppe is present and they actually operate and fly in staffel strength. The many RAF squadrons you can fly with have correct ID letters and individual aircraft ones, many based on real pilots' aircraft. Flyables are much more limited of course.

The WotR cockpits are amongst the best. The A/C external models are I think very good and rough edges got some attention in the last update, tho the 109E could still do with some TLC and the Hurri's rear fuselage and underfin look a little thick to me. Mirrors simulate reflections but cannot pick up other A/C. Engine and other sounds are very good. There's lots of good R/T chatter although some like 'attacking ENEMY target' is a bit unmilitary.

The view system is still CFS3-like with the addition of a free cam facility. There is a little pilot head animation, but this is being extended for WoFF and I daresay will be applied to WotR at some point.

The air-to-air is generally good although bombers still tend to leave formation a little too readily, wingmen don't stay with leaders once combat is joined (probably not a biggie for the RAF at that period) and the AI tend to leave the combat zone a little too soon and are easily chased down (this is I think to be tweaked in an update).

Scenery as you will have seen is very good, but airfields are mostly generic and ports are mostly lacking any sign thereof like jetties and sheds, unlike the ETO and BoB mods which have very detailed airfields and ports, tho generic, look like ports. Convoys are very small, short lines of rather large merchant ships, without naval escort as far as I've seen.

The Workshops (settings) screen allows a particularly large range of things to be tweaked, including gunnery accuracy.

Apart from better cockpits than most ETO or BoB A/C and the generally better terrain, the biggie as you say is the campaign which has all the frills and then some, including not just a logbook and medals, but visible tracking of your flight-mates and if you turn it on, the ability to make claims including a combat report, which might or might not be accepted. Along with the ability to pick your squadron and hence your aircraft. The campaign objective is, realistically, unit and personal success and survival and it tracks the historical phases of the Battle, starting with the convoys. You sometimes get somewhat odd mission objectives like patrolling over a factory to defend it, but this has been improved and another update is apparently planned, so the sim is still getting attention.

[mongoose]

Re "A recent update added the ability for RAF leaders to request vector updates on your target over the R/T, which is a major step forward. ", this is definitely something that could be done in CFS3 by using features from sdsbolt's AI radar. Steve?

[Led Zeppelin]

Many thanks 33lima for the detailed answer.

And regarding the campaigns, are they dynamic or striclty historical?

I played OFF a very long time ago when it was first released as a freeware and stopped when MAW was released a few months later. From what I recall, the missions were randomly generated but the campaign itself was historically accurate (frontline, squadron location and so on). On other words, it was impossible to arrive in Berlin in 1916 while flying the Aéronautique militaire or the RFC, whatever the results of the missions achieved by the player.

Is it the same with WOTR?

[33lima]

Yes, the WotR campaign is like WoFF's in my experience - it progresses historically regardless of the player's or player's squadron's actions. I don't know if losses inflicted on enemy units (or even damage to RAF bases or other facilities for that matter) are rolled forward but even if they are, the Battle proceeds through its assigned phases regardless. What's certainly tracked dynamically is the impact (in terms of casualties inflicted and suffered, and missions flown and other stats) on your own squadron, which can be whittled down severely by losses, before replacements arrive. For the Germans, this appears to include aircraft still on the enemy side of the notional front line when the mission ends, which I think happened to my 109 unit more than once - could be wrong but that's how it looked. Also as in WoFF, periods of bad weather can suspend flying, if you have that setting enabled. I wrote up a couple of campaigns as illustrated AARs at SimHQ, in an effort to convey the experience of playing the campaign from the simmer's perspective.

[Led Zeppelin]

Great, many thanks for your explanations, maybe I'll have a try at it for this great single player campaign mode.

[Blade_Meister]

Episode XX posted.

https://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/4525946/1

S!Blade<><

[Led Zeppelin]

Some really great pics there, thanks for sharing!

[33lima]

Best episode yet IMHO. And I really like that 'tatzelwurm' skin on White 4.

[DangerUXB]

The stories look great will have to delve in many thanks.

As Led Zeppelin asked if the AI is like CFS3, no not at all! The AI in WOTR and WOFF for that matter, is new by OBD's own code. There's something on the website, hang on..
yes here http://www.overflandersfields.com/wo...te/details.htm. It mentions some AI details, but also there are newer improvements in the update patches over time and those changes are discussed on the downloads page history of changes.

Overall it's pretty good lots of variation and surprising things go on

[Led Zeppelin]

Thanks!