streakeagle

This was a ground breaking revolutionary sim announced years ago. Every month there would be new screenshots and eventually some videos. If you wanted to help support the project and get the inside scoop, you could pay for access to the private "Area 51" section of the forums. It has become the Duke Nukem of combat flight sims. Big on promises with years of little to no progress. Of course, a Duke Nukem title was finally released. I seriously doubt Fighter Ops will ever be released. Even if by some miracle something is actually released, it would be so far behind current standards as to be pointless when products like FSX and DCS have already catering to its markets for years. Modding an existing sim is one thing. Creating a new one from the ground up with a complete featureset is completely different.

One step closer to victory. Yet also a calm before the storm. You are going to need a traditional British stiff upper lip. But I know you can get through this.

An LCD display should be adaptable. Plenty of guys already mapping DCS control panels to LCDs.

The Seffner Elementary school library that I attended from 3rd to 5th grade had these wonderful "Colby Books" that had photos and stats on airplanes. One of them was focused on bombers and showed an artist concept for the XB-70. A later book showed an actual photo of the prototype rollout. I fell in love with this plane. I sought out and found a model. These books also introduced me to the C-5A Galaxy concept art. These books were published throughout the 1960s. I was reading them in the late 70's. I was thrilled to see real C-5As flying overhead out of MacDill AFB and getting to tour them at the annual airshow. But was dismayed to find out that the XB-70 never made it into service. Years later, in 1997, I touched the prototype at Dayton, OH. Sadly, it was moved to a separate hangar that was closed during the sequestration, so my son did not get to see it when we visited earlier this year. But... I will be back!

Just another step toward victory! No luck required, you are going to succeed through sheer will power

Have fun! While I am sure the A2A Mustang is a joy to fly/operate, DCS Mustang has guns and a target to use on them. Hopefully the controls are all DirectX plug n play so they can easily be mapped into other games. If the instruments are functional, that would be much harder to adapt to DCS, though I bet it could be done by someone who knows DCS.

For all its flaws, the series is pretty amazing. I don't see anything coming along and replacing it any time soon, if ever. It is just a shame that after so many years of steady improvement, that patches started taking away the very modding related features that so many liked about it. While I am disappointed that development and even new content has come to a complete halt, it may have been a good thing. TK was considering making the game even more "lite" such as automating landing gear and flap functions to reduce the number of controls you needed to play. Perhaps the tablet version should have simply been a difficulty setting for the PC version: arcade. So much of the PC game obviously made it into the tablet versions. Oh well, as long as the mods remain available and better yet the modders remain active, there will be fans for this game.

Is it possible that the very last F-4C was withdrawn in April 1989 ? Several sources say 1979 (some offline/some online), but could that be a typo in the original source that was duplicated by everyone else reading it? This one says 1989: http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_fighters/f4_49.html A couple of nice photos of a Spanish F-4C in 1979: http://flic.kr/p/68PTHz http://flic.kr/p/5MDqjx It looks "stock" with no dispensers.

First, despite tons of F-4 references, I have very little information on Spanish Phantoms. The best reference out of my collection for this purpose is "McDonnell F-4 PHANTOM Spirit in the Skies". Spain got their F-4Cs in 1971-2 and retired them by 1979. Given such a short operational lifespan, I doubt Spain spent much if any money upgrading them. I do not believe regular F-4Cs of any kind ever had decoy dispensers installed, but that is just a best guess. I say "regular" because Spain also operated RF-4Cs, which had flash cartridge dispensers mounted in the tail for shooting photos with flashes. They could and sometimes were used as decoy dispensers, particularly chaff. Another possibility is that Spanish pilots may have recognized the need for decoys to survive on the modern battlefield. So, they may have used an old trick: stuff the air brakes with chaff. Unfortunately, UFO stories are usually word of mouth rumors with sketchy if not wholly inaccurate "facts". It wouldn't surprise me if the original source of the story involved a completely different country or aircraft type.

It seems that the Eagle vs Flanker balance never makes anyone happy. Eagle pilots almost always complain that AMRAAM never works as advertised/demonstrated in the real world, and Flanker pilots always think AMRAAM is too good or the Flanker's missiles are too poor in comparison. In addition to any problems caused by multiple rapid changes to the missile coding, the AI is far from effective in air-to-air battles. As there is practically no available data on the effectiveness of modern missiles in an all-out war environment (i.e. first rate systems and pilots against first rate systems and pilots), it is hard to say what is truly correct. There is even less data available on the actual effectiveness of ECM/ECCM systems. So each developer gets to fill in the blanks to suit their own ideas and/or make their customers happy. Third Wire's Strike Fighters series at one point had fairly realistic modeling of the missile's reliability/effectiveness, but in later iterations constantly struggled with chaff/flare/ecm effectiveness. Even as the balance appeared to be mostly correct, a bunch of customers complained about the ineffectiveness of missiles. So years of tuning for complex/realistic missile behavior were thrown away in the name of "fun" for the "sim lite" crowd that just wants to blow things up. I hope DCS eventually reaches a very realistic representation that accurately reproduces the history of missile performance from the early AIM-9B Sidewinder all the way to the AMRAAM.

If anything the F-15 has temporarily gone backwards with the removal of the newly added brake pedal axes, but I didn't participate in the beta and have at least 25% more to download before I can find out. I suspect the lack of mentioning any kind of "ride height" fix means that the problem remains for another release. Perhaps when Belsimtek finished their AFM update, it will be fixed.

When I had my appendix taken out, I was given morphine while they were evaluating what the cause of my pain was. I had been in steadily increasing pain since around 9 or 10 PM the night before, got to the hospital by 2 or 3 AM, and finally got admitted and given morphine around 6:30 AM. That stuff was magic. I didn't feel high, it just deadened the pain so much that I could actually get some sleep in between tests/scans. I very much liked the numbness from the morphine. Falcon, are you always in pain? If so, are you getting medicine to control it?

Your situation makes my life seem far too easy. I am sure I cannot fully imagine the pain and stress you are facing. Hopefully the treatment will be effective from the start and minimize the time and pain it will take to overcome this obstacle. Hang tough! Keep your focus on everything/everyone you love and the end goal of continuing to enjoy the best aspects of your life. We are all rooting for you!

I am dismayed by the complete removal of the MiG-21 forum. When I originally paid into the MiG-21, I did so knowing the previous work that had been done for FC, that ED was backing it, and that it was fairly close to completion. Theoretically, the crowd funding was merely to pay for the licensing scheme on an otherwise nearly complete project. But even with all those assurances, I knew it was a gamble and that many if not most flight sim projects end with less than optimum results. I don't regret paying in at all. The chance of getting a DCS level MiG-21bis was more than worth the risk for such a low sum of money (I have lost far more on bad movies and overpriced popcorn/soda). What I don't get is how the project can go from an assured launch date by the end of March to cataclysmic failure. I never had very high confidence in March based on past performance (already over a year past original target and missed the Christmas window). But I was pretty certain that at some point the highest fidelity MiG-21bis ever released for a consumer combat flight sim would be residing on my hard drive. I hope this was just a bit of a "tiff" or just a "flesh wound" that will be quickly overcome. But when the guy who created this project says the plug is being pulled and then ED turns out the lights on the forum, it doesn't look good no matter what other team members may think. If I get a refund, I will be both pleasantly surprised and sorely disappointed. When I gave the money, I wrote if off whether I ever get a MiG-21 or not. I could care less about the money, but I really wanted that MiG-21. At least I have the P-51D and UH-1H that I love. Belsimtek has set the standard and I hope will make enough money to finish all of their announced projects and many more. I don't think many if any of the 3rd parties that are successful MS FSX developers really understood what they would have to do to make a proper DCS aircraft. As long as they can quickly/easisly (on a relative scale) crank out FSX material and sell it for prices comparable to DCS releases, how would it ever be profitable to make DCS aircraft with such a small niche market? More power to them if they succeed in releasing anything for DCS that is truly up to DCS standards. As for hard core purists killing the market -- the market provides what the consumers demand. If consumers wanted lite playable SF/LOMAC games, TK would have been rolling in money and been able to add anything anyone wanted and DCS would have never evolved. The market barely supports Ace Combat arcade games. It takes a company that truly loves combat flight sims and its audience to put anything out at all. And some of those (like TK) have finally given up on proper sims. Nothing I can do but wait and see.

I hate it when things are reduced to a "wait and see". I much prefer to have the option to take direct action to solve problems immediately. Maybe your favorite alcoholic beverage would be appropriate at this stage, as alcohol is useful for disinfection and many other medicinal purposes including taking care of the stress from "waiting"

While multiplayer should be the appeal of this sim, I never even tried multiplayer with Lockon. My days of playing Aces High and SFP1/WoX online ended within a year or two of the birth of my son. But the MiG-21bis project pulled me into DCS. Along the way, I have found the flight modeling on the P-51 and UH-1 to be well worth the price of admission. The A-10 and Ka-50 are outstanding, but they don't really interest me. At some point I may go looking for multiplayer fun, as that is absolutely the best air-to-air you can get if you find some good pilots. The only air-to-ground work I might like online is flying the UH-1, but it is too vulnerable to really enjoy. Perhaps when the AH-1 would give me something to do online. If I get proficient in flying the MiG-21bis, I want to hit the multiplayer skies to see if I can get some Eagles. Once the WW2 stuff has more aircraft available, I might try flying the P-51D online. I just want some good ACM. I don't want to be killed within 5 seconds of every time I spawn, nor do I want to slaughter lambs that barely know how to fly. The best situation for me would be a mix of guys a little bit better/worse than me so that everyone could have some victories and maybe even improve each other's skills. I like the idea of P-51D vs Fw190 matchups, co-alt, neutral positions ranging from 1v1 to 8v8. Similar ones with: F-86F vs MiG-15bis and F-? vs MiG-21bis. The F-15C is too much an overmatch for the MiG-21 and no other contemporaries are going to be available any time soon :(

I saw the hound dog under the wing in the clip. Always thought they looked cool even if they were rendered obsolete by more modern cruise missiles.

DCS third party products are like a snow ball rolling slowly down a mountain. Hopefully, the ball starts gets pretty big before the spring thaw comes. Belsimtek is cranking some top notch products out despite the "beta" status. Even with features missing or still being tuned during extended beta development, these helos are better than anything else I have flown in any other sim. Throw in the F-15C AFM and F-86 Sabre, and Belsimtek will have pretty much matched or exceeded ED's output with equal or better quality. The MiG-21bis is supposedly just a hop skip and jump away some time in March, and if successful may lead to a MiG-23MF. With the completion of the Hawk, perhaps a Typhoon will pop up sometime in the next 2 or 3 years. The Fw190 shouldn't be too far off, with an entire WW2 map and several more aircraft theoretically available by the end of the year (not holding my breath, might even have wasted my cash on Kickstarter?). The other 3rd parties are still quietly chugging along. Hopefully, they overcome all the hurdles and get some products on the market this year or next. DCS development is painfully slow, but eventually pays off with great rewards (like the UH-1 and Mi-8).

Sorry that it is cancer, but even really bad cancers have been beaten if found early enough. Fortunately for you, yours is readily treatable. But I do not envy you for the battle you are just beginning to fight. Never give up!

Outstanding airmanship! <S>

Hey Falcon, have you ever listened to the Roger Waters solo album, Radio K.A.O.S. ? It is a theme album, like "The Wall", about a special boy who could hear "radio waves" and interact with computers/electronic devices by phone/radio. I have listened to it for years. It is Roger Waters' only "upbeat" work (which he greatly regrets doing!). Touches on some Cold War/Nuclear themes like "The Final Cut", but has a happy ending. I will think of you from now on whenever I hear it knowing how you use so many special devices and abilities to overcome your physical problems. I have no doubt you will come through your operation as well as anyone could!

By the way, SFP1/WoX was way more fun flying with/against real people. The AI fails to expose the subtle and not-so-subtle differences between all of the aircraft. An ace like doghouse and his friends can punish just about anyone no matter what the aircraft matchup by using energy/angles fighting to the limits. But they will also back off and coach you into being a better pilot, as they would rather have an ineffective novice that needs lots of training than have no one to fly with at all. The game really works best with the free-for-all infinite spawning single player deathmatch, as players can come and go as they please and respawn at will in any aircraft allowed by the server's date/time setting. But they also play team/co-op. But once you start a co-op mission, no one else can join and once you die you are dead until the mission is over, so its not too fun unless the pilots are good enough to survive the whole mission or finish it quickly to avoid the dead people getting bored/quitting. As long as you only care about air-to-air (that would be me), single player can even support teams with groups of player forming up for flight vs flight combat. But given the limited number of people flying SFP1/WoX online, you will be lucky just to get in some good 1 v 1, much less 2 v 2. While the lag caused by the directplay interface and internet latency makes it hard, simple formation flying can be fun and lead to some cool screenshots. Good luck on eventually getting multiplayer working online over the internet.

There are a handful still dedicated to flying SFP1/WoX online when they can find others to play. Look for "doghouse" on hyperlobby... he is there quite frequently flying any online combat flight sim his PC and phone modem can still support (likely IL-2 since that is almost exclusively what the majority fly in Hyperlobby). He is a multiplayer addict and loves to fly this series with anyone he can find. Any others out there pretty much fly with him, so if you find him, you have found the "handful". He can also provide some great setup guidance via Hyperlobby chat to get your install and PC working in Hyperlobby and/or Hamachi, though he is going to favor Hamachi since it works so well. Also, I forgot to mention firewalls and antivirus. From WinXP SP2 and on, PC firewalls caused even more havoc with SFP1/WoX setups. If you are going to leave them enabled, you are going to have to get the firewall permissions set up correctly as well. If you use a popular/common firewall like Microsoft Windows' built in software, someone can help you set that up correctly. Personally, I just turned all that stuff off when flying online.

SFP1 based games use the Microsoft DirectPlay API. DirectPlay was never designed with internet routing in mind. It works best when all computers are physically connected to the same LAN. Problems caused by the internet and routers can be difficult to isolate and solve. Hyperlobby is also subject to being blocked or degraded by routers. If you or other people playing SFP1 online are behind routers, you have to follow the complicated configuration directions for each person hiding behind a router. Furthermore, your internet provider may interfere in ways similar to home routers, which you cannot control. The best/easiest solution has been for everyone to have a Hamachi account, and for everyone to join the same Hamachi "room". This setup "tricks" all the associated PCs into behaving as if they were connected directly together on a LAN rather than hiding behind routers. However, Hamachi doesn't allow you to find new players. Hamachi only tries to solve the networking issues caused by routers. In my years of hosting SFP1 online servers, I found Hyperlobby to be the perfect way to communicate/find players, but too problematic for actually hosting/playing online. So, I used a combination of Hyperlobby and Hamachi. I opened my server on Hyperlobby while having an active Hamchi network. All of the regulars would meet via Hyperlobby, but connect via Hamachi. Newbies would come to Hyperlobby and see an active server. If they could join via Hyperlobby without any problems, great! If there were problems, but a veteran was able to notice the presence of the newbie, they would be helped as much as possible.

How/why was it a failure? I always thought it was an efficient design only held back by politics (i.e. US pressure to buy US planes or the fact that they rely heavily on US components).