I'm not sure if this would go best in PWYB or Creative Projects since it'll mostly be writing, but I'm gonna go with PWYB since it's a game and you'll have at least some input.
Wings Over Flanders Fields is a WW1 flight sim that trades multiplayer for probably the most complete, immersive, historically accurate singleplayer dynamic campaign ever done for a sim of this kind. Pick a year, season, and faction, and choose or be assigned to one of dozens of historical squadrons, flying in the actual planes that squadron flew. Missions are generated for all squadrons and run across the game map, meaning that the planes you fight aren't generated targets but dudes just like you flying their own missions. That also means that, like in real life, it's common to go numerous missions without even seeing an enemy, let alone getting into a dogfight. The game doesn't set things up for you to be a hero, you're just another pilot.
AI is also impressive. AI pilots have limited vision like you do, they have different skill and veterancy levels, long flights and high-G maneuvers wear them out, and they take individual personality, the matchup, etc. into account when deciding what to do. This does mean they tend to be pretty timid, but when you're flying a wood-and-canvas kite at 150mph with no parachute discretion is the better part of valor.
That's important to note because we'll be playing the game in Permadeath mode. If my guy dies, he's dead, and parachutes were rare and dangerous at best in WW1. If I lose my ability to bring the plane down smooth I'm almost certainly dead, so I'll probably be pretty timid as well.
Part of this will be an exercise in treating my pilot like a real person and making decisions as if my life depended on them, instead of fishing for kills and doing dumb shit.
With that description out of the way, let's get to what I'm actually planning to do. This'll be a bit of a writing exercise, AAR-style. We'll decide where, when, and for whom I'll be fighting, create a pilot, and I'll post in-character journal entries describing his (probably very short) life as a pilot in the Great War. I'm not sure how I"ll handle death, maybe he's writing as a ghost, or maybe I"ll do something formal like a coroner's report.
Because things like plane choice and activity are based on era and squadron selection, let me give some suggestions to maximize fun. The game starts in 1915 but before the synchronized gear combat was very limited. It won't be much fun to fly then. Flying two-seaters like the Sopwith Strutter can be interesting since I have a second guy to take care of, but they tend to have a lot of very slow, uninteresting missions. Obviously fighter pilot would be the most
Fun but there's some constraints there as well. Mainly, early war Entente will probably put me in the
Fokker Eindecker which is extremely difficult to fly.
Likewise activity level will vary. It's possible to be posted very far from the front, which can be nice but will naturally lead to a slower-paced, more relaxed campaign. If you want fast and furious, send me to Flanders in 1916 and watch me get murdered in short order.
I've posted a poll for faction choice and you can tell me what else you think I should do below. ALso taking names. I don't think I can customize squadron names but if I can I'll take names for that as well.
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Topic: Wings Over Flanders Fields: Extremely Short War Journals (Read 1536 times)