OPERATION BURNING SKIES (WWIIOL)

[ODonovan 1]

 

All pilots scramble! Strap yourself in for this months Community event - Operation Burning Skies! This Sunday, September 22, 11 am – 5 pm server time (US Central time). In honor of XOOM (the lead developer) and friends showcasing WWII Online at the Oregon International Air Show – our forces will battle for air superiority in Operation Burning Skies. High Commands are on high alert to rally their forces to victory!

http://www.wwiionline.com/community-notes/reports/operation-burning-skies

 

If you sign up for an account at wwiionline.com, you get one month of account time as a free trial, to play as infantry.  After that, it is monthly subscription-based.  HOWEVER, if you sign up now, your month will include the 2019 "Welcome Back Soldier" event, from October 1-15.  That's when all previous accounts are reactivated as premium for the duration of the event.  Lots of old-time vets come back and the fights are pretty intense.  The full "Premium" subscription is $17.99(US)/mo but only $14.99(US)/mo if you pay via their payment plan.  That's a month's worth of carnage for less than the price of a movie ticket and snacks.  If you want to be a pilot only, they have an "All Air Force" plan for $9.99(US)/mo.  If you want to try it out, there is a $4.99(US)/mo "Starter" subscription, which gives you access to a more limited selection of weapons and units which include low tier (early war) fighter and bomber aircraft.

 

World War II Online has been around since its launch day on June 6th (D-Day), 2001.  It's a true combined-arms sim set on a 1/2 scale map of western Europe.  Play as infantry/armor/paratrooper, naval (destroyers and river patrol boats), or as a pilot (fly fighters or light and medium bombers)  You can literally take off from England and fly as far east as Frankfurt, Germany.  On the way, ALL the ocean, rivers, and land you fly over is on an active game map.  You can fly over battles and be shot at by anti aircraft, bomb enemy factories, get into dogfights, fly CAS (combat air support) for ground operations, do some tankbusting, or more.  Other than a few AI (computer controlled) gunners around towns and on army and air bases, ALL the enemies you face will be other players.  There are still quite a few "day one" players who have been playing almost every day for the past 18+ years, so that will give you an idea on how addicting this game is.

 

The graphics on WWIIOL are still somewhat simple.  That is both good and bad.  It doesn't have the "eye candy" of a lot of current sims.  HOWEVER, that also means you don't have to have a state of the art computer to play in battles with sometimes hundreds of players per side.  Also, the ballistics and other physics ingame are as accurate as possible.  That means, if you hit a tank with your tankbuster's cannons, the shell hits a real location, with a real armor thickness, and actual components beneath it.  There are no generic hits/kills in this game.  However, that also means some lucky VERY rifleman can put a round through your cockpit and ruin your day, so beware.  It's rare, but it happens.

 

Aircraft are also as realistic as they can be made, and that goes for the aerodynamics as well.  I won't say they're perfect, but they're pretty damned good.  🙂  The controls aren't complex.  You mainly use trim, prop pitch, and throttle.  If you're flying a bomber which has an internal bomb bay, you WILL have to open the doors before releasing your bombs.  If you leave your flaps or gear down at too high of a speed, you WILL damage them.  It's all pretty much common sense.

 

If you've never played, it's definitely worth a try, at the very least for the free month.  Hope to see you in the skies.  Oh, and...GO ALLIED!

 

 

 

-Irish

 

 

Edited September 20, 2019 by ODonovan