Draft:Wings Over Flanders Fields Between Heaven and Hell II

Wings Over Flanders Fields Between Heaven and Hell II (WOFF BH&H II) is a World War I combat flight simulation video game by SA and UK development team OBD Software. The first iteration was released on December 11, 2013 and has since been heavily updated.

Gameplay
The player enlists as a pilot of one of the four main nations fighting in the war – Germany, Britain, France, and the USA. The player then flies realistic combat flight missions over one of the four main areas of conflict on the Western Front in World War I – namely, Flanders, Marne, Verdun, and Alsace. The game covers the dates when aircraft were more actively used in combat, between 1915 and 1918. The player can start a career in any of the more than 500 historically researched squadrons available, playing as a fighter pilot or as a two-seater pilot.

Once a pilot is created, the player can choose to fly Quick Missions, Quick Scenarios, or in a Dynamic Campaign, the main focus of WOFF. The campaign missions are freshly generated and do not repeat; furthermore, the custom campaign engine generates friendly and enemy flights, all attempting their own missions. Aircraft are not spawned into the air near the player; instead, other pilots each have their own separate orders – this creates a more realistic arena for the player's pilot to navigate.

If the player joins in a campaign, they will be able to see their squadron and fellow pilots' details in the main interface, following which the player flies missions in the 3D-rendered combat flight simulator. The player's default view is from the virtual cockpit of the current aircraft; it is also possible for the player to switch to external views of the aircraft. Mission end results are processed on return from the mission. The mission ends when the player quits; otherwise, it is concluded once the player's pilot lands or dies before completing the mission.

WOFF is purely a single-player game; the non-player character pilots, or NPCs, have many unique features developed by OBD Software over several years, with the aim of producing a more immersive single-player world, with realistic enemy and friendly pilots flying alongside the player. These NPC pilots are powered by AI algorithms, which are programmed to effectively cope with morale, vision qualities, fatigue, skills, and a strong sense of self-preservation to aid the single-player experience.

Development
WOFF was originally released in December 2013 and was a major development based on previous original freeware and premium versions of OBD Software's "Over Flanders Fields" WW1 simulator, which first appeared around 2006.

Since then, there have been several upgrades, including notable releases such as Wings Over Flanders Fields Ultimate Edition, which combined many of these past upgrades and added more features. The latest major release, Wings Over Flanders Fields Between Heaven and Hell II was released in April 2021. This edition has had many free updates released since, including, more recently, add-ons such as the "Recon Wars" two-seater operations for WOFF BH&H II; these expansion updates are only available from the official website.

Reception
Wings Over Flanders Fields, and the latest version, Wings Over Flanders Fields Between Heaven and Hell II, has been generally very well received.

PC Pilot gave WOFF a 95% score and conferred a Platinum Award on the WW1 combat flight simulator.

Tim Stone of Rock, Paper, Shotgun gave a favourable review of a very early version of WOFF in 2013; additionally, WOFF came in 13th place in Rock, Paper, Shotgun's list of "The 25 best simulation games on PC". The game was also featured on PC Gamer magazine's list of "The 20 best wargames of all time" in 2015, with Stone commending: "WOFF brings the 1914-18 air war to life more successfully than any of its peers."