MkIX

Exodus, I worked with a bunch of the guys at Playnet at a previous company (ICI -Warbirds). I knew it (ww2ol) was buggy, so waited until a few months ago to hook up with it - and it still has a long way to go. Having been in the 'trenches', I can gaurantee that TK and crew really were screaming for more time, but if SF holds them to contractual milestones (meaning damn the game being finished, we want it out for Christmas), then Third Wire suffers the consequences by reputation, not SF. Too bad, should be the other way around. As for the game working on the company's boxes, then it's OK to ship is the problem. That's Alpha testing. To make sure most of the kinks are worked out on different boxes and configurations, there has to be a proper Beta program - at least 3 months IMHO. I still can't get through a mission without a CTD. I'll keep the game and takes my chances, and am heading out to Chino (Planes of Fame) to get some cockpit reference for the Mig17 and 19 and crack open MAX after a bit of a hiatus ;P MkIX

I Know, that stuff is the great part. The models are awesome, the flight feels great. I defragged the HD etc, etc. True, unfinished UI art has no bearing on the sim (eg F4), but it is a certain indicator of unfinished business, like a paperbag bookcover on a almost finished novel. What I'm saying is that as a pro that TK is by his background, I can guess with full confidence that TK is not satisfied with this release. My bitch is on the publisher for forcing an early release. That's my point. Let the developers decide when it's right. The publishers are greedy and will force the product out. MK

Well, just to chime in - I'm really sick of software being released before being finished. I've worked with some great development teams, but the marketeers are the culprits usually (eg SF). The pressure for a small to mid-sized development team to get a product on the shelves by the publisher by mid to late October is huge. I feel for TK and the rest because many aspects of P1 are great - and others painfully underdone or left out. I went through the multiple gyrations of Falcon AT, Falcon 3 and then Falcon 4 - and have hung in there. I'm hopeful within a few months TK will address the many mentioned problems. After spending 2 hours on 1 mission, only in the heat of battle to be CTD'ed is too much. Through last weekend I experieced multiple CTD's in both the game and MP. When I first installed and ran the game - the hideous bitmaps for buttons was the first clue that the game was rushed (I've been there, I know) Can you imagine if a car was produced only to lose it's axle 2 weeks after buying, or your big-screen TV blew out during the first day of NFL, or the new Smashing Pumpkins CD you bought skips all over the place - just doesn't happen with proper QA procedures. People now seem to accept this as the norm. Sorry to vent, but I've had it with forced shoddy software production - by that I mean the financial pressure on a small team by greedy publishers to get a product out. I'm sure TK has a greater vision than this... Mark Kaiser MkIX mk9@operamail.com

If I can find good source for MiG17 or 19 cockpit pics and layout, I'll start a-modeling... MkIX