Hi Mark, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to speak with us.

As many readers will no doubt know, OBD Software is responsible for two of the most atmospheric combat sims available for the PC, Wings Over Flanders Fields (WOFF) and more recently, Wings Over the Reich (WOTR).

   

So with that said, could I begin by asking you how the idea of creating WOFF came about?

Mark Andrews (MA): We both came from enjoying Flying Corps Gold and Red Baron and wanted to experience a fully dynamic and immersive Single Player campaign in a more modern game engine - at the time there were basically no current up to date WW1 combat flight sims available...

We wanted to create this immersive dynamic single player campaign using excellent AI in a large environment.

What area of development did you find the most challenging?

MA: Encouraging people to actually produce what they promised...given our diverse locations around the globe this has been the only real challenge. The rest has been taken care of with lots of passion!

   

Is there a particular area of WOFF that you are especially proud of?

MA: Yes, the realistic AI and the immersive single player Dymanic Campaign systems both set benchmarks for immersion and believability even today as they have been improved over time and are still we believe the best out there.

   

How does this differ from campaign modes in other combat simulators?

Mark Rogers (MR): In one word, hugely. Every generated mission will be completely different.

In WOFF for example we have many hundreds of historical squadrons to choose to populate the world with. Squadrons selected by WOFF Manager to fly at the time the player flies his mission that day will be sent on their own real missions, or perhaps waiting on a field to take off to intercerpt other flights. In other words they are not necessarily player focussed. They will do missions based on their historical location and role. Depending on settings there could be hundreds of aircraft up on real missions, no magical spawning in front (or behind!) the player.

   

Together with the incredible AI it forms a realistic, immersive air war experience. There are complex behind the scenes rules and calculations to make sure it's as authentic as possible.

We prefer the single player approach to the missions and campaign. Great AI is vital for this immersion and we have that in spades. It also avoids the various issues that can occur in some multiplayer environments - annoyances such as the effort in organising a serious team play session, avoiding team killers or those that ignore the mission or do silly things in the game to spoil it, totally ruining the emmersive experience.

   

WOFF includes a huge amount of period liveries and one cannot help but be impressed by this fact! Knowing that many photographs of the time were black and white, how did you go about obtaining all the relevant information?

MA: Surprisingly there has been extensive research done in this regard by many world experts - but it is mostly in books and text...so of course no color photos no.

MR: Experts have been able to work out tones to colors using known surviving aircraft, known documented info and from pieces of captured aircraft canvas and materials.