Download isn't working.

[+daddyairplanes 10,578]

14 minutes ago, whiteknight06604 said:

not to get into a political discussion but inflation is CURRENTLY at 2.75% all the previous increases are stacked, the last few years worth of high inflation didn't go away. so yeah inflation is lower now but it's still increasing and nothing happened to lower the prices from the years of massive inflation that bloated prices for just about everything. bad energy policy, the pandemic and so many missteps in economic regulation led to the increase the last couple years. Only recently has the increases stabilized but nothing has reduced as of yet. I'm paying massively higher prices today for groceries than I did a couple years ago and nothing short of an economic boom and deregulation in some areas will change that. 

i'll put it in simpler terms. a loaf of bread cost me 47 cents pre pandemic. today, if i go to one store thats way out of my way its 99 cents. otherwise the exact same generic store brand that was $0.47 has stabilzed at  $1.48

$400 grocery budget used to get a couple of nice home cook meals, one dine out and one fast food meal and then 3 weeks regular home cook meals for a family of 4. Now we only dine out anything if we get a special from T-mobile and any nice meals (Bdays, Thanksgiving, Easter etc) need extra money in the food budget.

your average American is seemingly way richer than 75% of the rest of the globe. but we also pay way the hell more for almost everything than the rest of the world. so we yankees actually do feel financial stress too

[Wrench 9,958]

Quote

so we Yankees actually do feel financial stress too

 

Indeed, especially those of us on fixed incomes.

I live in one of the hightest cost-of-living state in the USA.  My Social Security check basically just pays the rent, which just went up $67. If it weren't for government (federal, state & city) assistance I wouldn't make it every month. Medical insurance (Meicare) is normally paid out of SocSec (approx $180 for me). California state pays that, along with 'food assistance' (EBT -- which just got lowered $25 because SocSec went up 30 odd $s). If it weren't for a small draw from my share of my mother's estate (she passed July 2021), I wouldn't be able to pay the rest of the bills. (car insurance, in one of the highest premium state in US, mabye even the world!), cell phone -can't live without that-; Cable which includes TV, internet and land line (specturm -- fucking expensive and I only have 1 premium channel, and that so I can get MAX streaming). Some that know will say "but what of your late wife's estate? (Pat also passed in 2021 -- on Christmas Eve. She'd been in hospital since May, on the first weekend of November, had a seizure and went into a vegitaive state coma --0 brainwaves-- the only thing working was her heart on machines for everything else. Her heart finally stopped 2am Dec 24). Well, she done fucked on that too; never had any sort of advance directive or Will, so EVERYTHING SHE EVER WORKED FOR IS LOST. What would have been a nice chunk of change from here 401k could have been split between me and her sister (7 figures). Well, that's gone with the fucking wind; nobody's ever gonna see that. To say nothing of sense of loss of you life partner of nearly 38 years and the mental stress that induces.

I most DEFINATELY did NOT want to pay the "poor, poor pitiful me I'm broke card", but ... you folks have just pissed me off beyond all fucking reason. Yet you continue to have your own internet, as the posts here show, and complain on how you can't pay for even a 1-2 day shot at the downloads. You all need to look at yourselves first before pissing all over Combat Ace and those of us that have been here and supported the site, in my case for 20 years.

edit: forgot to add more to this rant:

This machine I'm typing from is from 2008. It's have 4 or 5 hard drives, at least 4 vid cards, and the Winge10 upgrade. If anything else goes wrong with it, that's beyond my ability to fix; gonna need a new one. And not just the machince, a monitor as new ones are HDMI, and a desk as this one won't accept the newer widescreen units. So, it's not just 2-4 thousand for a "this'll probably be the last computer I'll buy" but everything else that goes with it.

 

[+Dels 673]

Sorry to chime in on a discussion which I think has well and truly run its course. Personally, I think it's quite reasonable for the users of a website to contribute to its upkeep (just like car registration, fuel excise, land tax, council rates etc.).

I also think it's quite considerate of the site to offer many subscription options.

We're in the denial and anger stage at the moment, it will just take time for people to progress through to acceptance.

Dels

[omegaeleven 10]

I'm trying to download a campaign but for some reason it isn't letting me, any reasons?

[+daddyairplanes 10,578]

yes, downloads are by subscription now

[+Erik 1,921]

It has been mentioned that we charge per file or per bucket of bandwidth. These both are highly unlikely to happen for reasons I won't get into here. The same holds true for Modders selling files. If any of the Modders want to field this question in the Modder discussion we can certainly discuss it. We have hashed this out in previous years, and it was not something they wanted to do. There is no such thing as an easy get rich quick scheme in this small of a venue. You must be the size of TikTok, X, or FB and sell ads that get views by the millions and billions, then you have a shot of generating a profit margin. We don't have that here as the market is too niche and focused. Good ideas all, but the implementation costs would make them cost centers not profit centers.

Erik

[bazillius 1,277]

13 hours ago, EricJ said:

Currently inflation is at 2.75%, so it's not inflation that's causing high grocery rates. I mean we can go over it, but the fact is that while some claim the economy is "bad", which it isn't, shows you may need to check your numbers. I mean yeah it's some money to get groceries, but so far we're not at 7%.

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=current+inflation+rate+in+us

https://www.statista.com/statistics/244983/projected-inflation-rate-in-the-united-states/

Right now i mean not in the moment but now. this years

I think it is not worth continuing further on this topic.

 

Edited Saturday at 05:36 AM by bazillius

[bazillius 1,277]

Wow! We've lived to see the time when Americans started complaining about their hard life. Ahahaha

[bazillius 1,277]

you have hard life. i am sorry. realy / After the war, when i will have some money i will donate to your budget. I prmise

Edited Saturday at 06:12 AM by bazillius

[bazillius 1,277]

14 hours ago, daddyairplanes said:

that is true

can you telll me how many of those are on the internet via computer and modem, let alone flight simming on non basic computers?

my point on finances is that if you have the capability to play this game of ours, and to come to this website, you probably arent poverty stricken nor living off of a few USD equivelant a day

I already wrote, but my answer was deleted. There is a war in my country. I am bombed from day to night and then from night to day. Last year I didn't have not only the Internet, but also electricity and water. My mother drank from a rain puddle when their city was surrounded. And you write this to me again and again.

[PeacePuma 606]

7 hours ago, omegaeleven said:

I'm trying to download a campaign but for some reason it isn't letting me, any reasons?

jajaja... 

To sweeten the mood a bit... here we will all agree... these guys, they enter a forum but don't read how does that happen? the essence of a forum is to read and these guys get to post #50 and have no idea what we are talking about... let's add to the list a dozen compasses to hand out.  

That gives a glimpse of how lost on the map the new generation is (sorry don't take this the wrong way kid, that's what happens for being unplugged).
 

Edited Saturday at 07:18 AM by PeacePuma

[Wrench 9,958]

What PeacePuma said, just above. Hit that nail right on the head. Maybe we should have a verbal/video/audio announcment when anyone first enters the site, plays automaticly. Yeah, but they'd probably skip it like YT vid

[simonmiller416 2,108]

I agree with a comment from a friend yesterday that I wish more payment methods could be supported. I am willing to pay the money, but there is no way.

It's worse than paying $999 a month.

Besides...Yeah ... I'm currently modding in a game called Ready or not, and here's a mod in the community that's perfect for some of the "situations" we're currently facing.

https://www.nexusmods.com/readyornot/mods/4885

"Ability to Read"

Also, after reading so many comments, I feel disappointed in our community. If you are all in this situation, then my 3,000,000 dollar funding project for SF3 will be even more out of reach!!!!!!

 

Edited Saturday at 08:31 AM by simonmiller416

[bazillius 1,277]

Coming out! What a surprise! Yeah, you guys, you're all cheating and betray this game with other games with other games. I knew it because I'm a mod maker of other games. Come on, confess your sins. Thats the time to confession  

 simonmiller416, my kisses

[citizen67 49]

Of course I’m not happy we'll pay to download mods, but I agree with Erik’s point of view: it's fair that everyone contributes to the maintenance of the CA site. By me there wasn't a great contribution as modder in the past, because of my poor skills and little free time. I’ve made a just pair of menu screen sets so far, which, as a graphic designer, is the most familiar area for me. I’ll try to be more active in the future.

[alfa2 7]

Dear friends, By reading all the comments of this thread up to this moment, let me please try to help us out by summarizing what we've read so far. I think that we need to deconflict the problem and after that we must try to solve it.

1. The persons running the site are not happy with imposing access restrictions, but it is reality coming from elevated costs that forces them to do so. Therefore they are open to all practical proposals for keeping CA alive.

2. According to the persons running the site the elevated costs are mainly generated by new (?) members downloading bulks of files and worst more by some new (?) members creating multiple accounts to circumvent bandwidth restrictions. 

3. So far, in this particular discussion, there are still found written statements and responses  that deserve a ban for those that have expressed them.  Everyone, regardless of being right or wrong should respect  the other members of this forum.

4. Some (not all) creators won't or aren't happy when they share their work for free and their work is used in any form of monetary transaction, even site funds raising.

5. Since there is cost involved in keeping up the site, hosting the files, and providing downloads it is invevitable to pay the money otherwise all these are not possible to have.

6. It is fair and reasonable that the person covering the costs of #5 above, out of his own pocket, to ask from all those benefiting to participate in covering the expenses. 

7. There are many cost contributing options and CA staff provide flexible amount solutions for anyone that wants some particular files from the site. 

8. Some members are willing to contribute financially, but they don't have the funds transfer vehicle available, due to online money transfer obstacles.

9. Some members have a real life problem to contribute and regardless of the flexible payment options, they don't have the ability to consider them. Again everyone, should respect  this fact and avoid comments to prove the opposite.

From all the above, let me propose one set of practical solutions:

1. Lets encourage all those members who want to contribute, but don't have the vehicle to do so, to propose possible  online paymant methods that are working for them.

2. Lets adjust (increase slightly) the subscription options by a small percentage so that everyone who wants/can pay, cover a part of the expenses for a very limited "free file scheme" of say 1 file per day, or week, or month (comments and imagination is needed here) that won't affect  the site's bandwidth contracted allowances (if any)..

3. Lets find out if there are any other site keeping needs that can be covered by other members (such as , but not limited to policing and cleaning up multiple accounts of the same person).

4. Lets the CA staff provide details on what other site usage behavior ends up in rocketing the site keeping costs (such as HD screenshots and  lenghty messages like this one maybe?) and all of us reconsider the use of the site so that we reduce its cost.

5. Lets promote the hosting (some or all ?) files, and especially the big ones to other personal hosting platforms , while keeping the file description section alive.

 I'm not a prophet , but I'm concerned that the negativity that surfaced concurently with the download policy changes will finally affect CA's  life ...

[PeacePuma 606]

10 hours ago, simonmiller416 said:

Además, después de leer tantos comentarios, me siento decepcionado con nuestra comunidad. Si todos ustedes están en esta situación, entonces mi proyecto de financiación de 3.000.000 de dólares para SF3 estará aún más fuera de mi alcance.

 

As Argentine President Milei's famous phrase goes: "No - hay - plata" (There is - no - money) Internet users converted the phrase to various musical styles and I take the opportunity from time to time to play the song to my children when they get spoiled. ... Maybe it will also be the anthem of CA 😂 

Edited Saturday at 07:16 PM by PeacePuma

[Fdino 23]

On 1/2/2025 at 10:35 PM, PeacePuma said:

I'll tell you the joke... but in exchange talk to me internally so that the modders and the old ones who are very hard (but deep down they are very tender) can read what we talked about above and give their opinion without getting lost in this ping-pong.

The joke is that at some point FB through 2 profiles were hated here because subscribers published CA material without consent ... I was there so I can attest that it was real but they were not former members but newbies who either did not know the rules or did not respect or his mother ... anyway, then it was solved, a little external relations and today the atmosphere is calmer.

Hello, flyers dudes! Wow! I didn't know about this Peace Puma. And, wow. As you wrote. Good. Firstly, I never published any file that I downloaded here on Facebook. What people always post in our community are screenshots of Strike Fighters. In fact, many of them post screenshots of Strike Fighters on Cell Phones. Can you invest in something? Would it be beneficial for the community too? Peace. I will respond to the message you sent me. Thank you friend.

 

One thing I will say. A colleague above mentioned something interesting Erik that you can use. Many sites here where I live use external sites to store downloads. Here they usually use Media Fire. I've already downloaded several games on this one. I couldn't tell you how it works. But can this help reduce site load?

 

 I talked to a colleague who knows about websites. He does computer science and information technology. He said you are right on this point. Even more so if you are in debt to the site. He also thinks you should have help sharing the costs. Is it just you who maintains the site Erik? If so, try to find someone else to share the costs. Because he said that if it doesn't exist, it will be difficult to maintain the site. Just like a colleague said, I'm also worried about CA.

 

A colleague above talked about creating payment methods. Do you accept invoices? I'll check before they stone me here. If they do not accept, you can pay by bank slip. This will make it easier for me to contribute.

 

I searched for subscriptions but I can't find payment methods. I could only pay with bills. Another question I have. If in the distant future I want to share with you a mod that I made myself, although I didn't start, I will have to pay?

 

 

Erik and modders. An idea that occurred to me here. Considering a colleague said, to attract the attention of people who have never played SF...

Start,(if you can, of course), making models of spaceships like X-Wing, Y-Wing and such. They do not need to have extremely accurate performance. They can behave like a fighter. Then, they can share the site in similar communities. I doubt that Star Wars fans won't want to pay to fly these models. This will help a lot, especially in the USA.

Thanks and Very Wishes!

[+Muesli 2,203]

40 minutes ago, Fdino said:

 I talked to a colleague who knows about websites. He does computer science and information technology. He said you are right on this point. Even more so if you are in debt to the site. He also thinks you should have help sharing the costs. Is it just you who maintains the site Erik? If so, try to find someone else to share the costs. Because he said that if it doesn't exist, it will be difficult to maintain the site. Just like a colleague said, I'm also worried about CA.

"Someone else to share the costs"...

That's the whole point from the beginning... That's why WE ase users are responsible, that's why WE as users can take a subscription. An hour, a day, a week, a month, a year... take your pick and weigh in.

[Fdino 23]

5 hours ago, Muesli said:

"Someone else to share the costs"...

That's the whole point from the beginning... That's why WE ase users are responsible, that's why WE as users can take a subscription. An hour, a day, a week, a month, a year... take your pick and weigh in.

Yes, this I understood. Subscription really helps. But I also talked about helping to manage the site. Well, I don't know exactly how you divide it. So disregard this suggestion.

[+Muesli 2,203]

10 minutes ago, Fdino said:

Erik and modders. An idea that occurred to me here. Considering a colleague said, to attract the attention of people who have never played SF...

Start,(if you can, of course), making models of spaceships like X-Wing, Y-Wing and such. They do not need to have extremely accurate performance. They can behave like a fighter. Then, they can share the site in similar communities. I doubt that Star Wars fans won't want to pay to fly these models. This will help a lot, especially in the USA.

Thanks and Very Wishes!

Nope.

Everything mod in SF already asks a lot from the creators, and this will only generate extra work that slows down the progress of anything else.
And people already know how and where to find CA. You can see that by the amount of accounts, free accounts, double accounts and so on.
It's NOT about exposure or "fame", it's about a solution which requires as little effort as possible to create a steady amount of money to compensate for the costs of running CA. The subscription model has less hassle than many other solutions, but thanks for your input and ideas!

[Fdino 23]

5 hours ago, Muesli said:

"Someone else to share the costs"...

That's the whole point from the beginning... That's why WE ase users are responsible, that's why WE as users can take a subscription. An hour, a day, a week, a month, a year... take your pick and weigh in.

I suggested this because I don't know the number of subscribers. Considering that simulators are always less rated than any other game genre, I thought there would be few subscribers. The colleague thought when he said this. Any other ideas I have, I'll post them. Thanks!

[+Muesli 2,203]

Just now, Fdino said:

I suggested this because I don't know the number of subscribers. Considering that simulators are always less rated than any other game genre, I thought there would be few subscribers. The colleague thought when he said this. Any other ideas I have, I'll post them. Thanks!

You are right.

There is enough interest. There are enough "member" accounts. There is enough traffic. There just aren't enough people who contribute financially, if there would be enough of these "members" to support CA there would never have been a problem. However, freeloading and leeching seems to be the order of the day and people seem to think they are entitled to it...

[+Muesli 2,203]

Sidenote, for the people who have the financial ability to contribute but never did (!!!)...

I read a lot of complaining about the way to pay the subscription, and how it is difficult or expensive or impossible to use that payment system.
This (imho) shows the complete lack of willingness to help, because in earlier days CA asked for donations (for the same financial issues) and many people would have had the same problems. All I see from THAT period is an odd an uncomfortable silence. If you would have cared back then, you would ALSO have complained back then about the payment system which was used for the donations. That silence indicates to me that almost nobody took the effort to make a donation, so nobody actually encountered these problems.
But NOW, when a subscription model is implemented, it isn't voluntary anymore. And yes, I have read everything about that we are rich and all of you are poor and so on...
So I will end with a Rolling Stones song quote...

You can't always get what you want.

[simonmiller416 2,108]

34 minutes ago, Muesli said:

This (imho) shows the complete lack of willingness to help, because in earlier days CA asked for donations (for the same financial issues) and many people would have had the same problems. All I see from THAT period is an odd an uncomfortable silence. If you would have cared back 

I have to say, I don't spend a lot of my life in CA, so I didn't even know that before, at least in my mind, and I think a lot of other people here the same.But this was the first time I realized the huge difficulties faced by CA. Before this time, I only thought that CA was just a small community supported by a small number of people.That's why I decided to offer my only help.

In fact, I don't care about download or not, because I can also make and produce all the content I want by my self. So this is just pure kindness.

Edited yesterday at 07:54 AM by simonmiller416