streakeagle

Figures that I would be the oldest in the bunch... though MigHound is right up there with me.

The original release of SFGold on CD (unpatched) accidently included the option to fly MiG-17s for the red side in one of the campaigns. Of course later patches corrected this "mistake".

Photos just can't do it justice. There is nothing like being near and/or under a C-5 flying low and slow with gear down. After having such an experience as a kid, the C-5 became one of my favorite aircraft. It took me a couple of years to find a 1/144 scale model kit (models of it were not so common back then). Of course, having grown up in the 1970s and 1980s, I much prefer the old MAC paint scheme of white over gray with a blue stripe in between. I will never understand the re-alignment of the USAF. SAC, TAC, and MAC forever!

The trick is being able to see the box from the cockpit. I don't care for the over-the-shoulder F5 view, I want to be in the cockpit. In the game, the angle of attack may be too high and/or the lack of seat height adjustment makes seeing over the nose during landings very difficult.

I would think that the best way to do a fully merged install is to start with WoV, then install WoE using the merged option, then apply the latest October 2008 patch for WOE. If you used the download versions from the Third Wire store, they start at the 08.30.06 patch revision and WoE comes with the F-104G installed. At that point, install SFP1/SFG, patch to October 2008. Merging SFP1/SFG into the WoV/WoE install is a fairly straightforward effort aside from any differences in squadrons and associated decals/paint jobs. Of course, if you have the original SFP1, you get the stock C-130A as well. The problem with bringing in WoI is the vast number of files that are completely different. So whether you merge from any other sim to WoI or WoI to any other sim, there are lots of things to copy/edit. There is enough work involved that I haven't bothered to do it, whereas the SFP1/WOV/WOE merged install can be accomplished very quickly. But with WoI merged in, the complete "Strike Fighters Anthology" install is quite impressive even before any addons. Throw in all the cockpit mods for stock MiGs/Sus and you get a lot more flyables for just a little more effort. Install the century series, Razbam series, Pasko series, Mirage Factory series, and a few other releases to have the most complete fighter jet combat sim every available... If that didn't take enough of your time, add all the WW2 stuff!

I might be wrong, but as far as I know, Third Wire sims only allow the wheel brakes to be mapped to buttons. I have Saitek Pro Rudder Pedals which has configuration software that allows me to map buttons to the positions of an axis. So, I mapped the default wheel brakes key, "B", to the toe brakes. Whenever I move either rudder pedal toe brake enough degrees, it presses the "B" key, which toggles the wheel brakes. I am not sure if CH Products allows the same type of programming.

you are probably seeing aliasing. At one point, TK made his games detect your card's capability and automatically enable anti-aliasing. But, people with low end hardware didn't want or need it automatically enabled. Instead of making an in-game checkbox, TK disabled in-game control of antialiasing (as it was when SFP1 was originally released). So now you have to enable it using the video card's driver settings.

There is an aspect of AI that I had never thought of until TK and I were chatting about it while answering someone elses post at the Third Wire forums: If you set the difficulty to HARD for AI, the enemy is smarter and your friendlies are dumber. I have always played on all HARD settings, so I was crippling my own forces! What it does is make enemy pilots more likely to be veterans and aces and make friendly pilots more likely to be novices and dead meat. Since the last patch, the enemy AI is much smarter and friendly AI, even dumbed down a bit by HARD settings, seem more likely to get their fair share of kills. But I bet if I use normal, my wingmen would do as well or better than enemy AI, especially since nationality also plays a part in pilot quality and the US generally has equal or better pilots than most nations it opposed.

To be fair, targetware was in development forever. TK had at least a year of development updates before the Walmart release of SFP1... And even as a major fan (fan boi?) of SFP1, I consider anything prior to SP1, maybe even SP2 to be player funded beta testing. JetThunder is in a similar boat timewise... but they are asking for a dime prior to releasing a playable product. I understand why the developers of FigtherOps would create Area 51, I just don't get anyone who would subscribe to it? I have spent a lot of money buying Third Wire games... But every time I give TK money, I get something tangible back. All of TKs games may be pretty much the same core engine, but every release has new 3d models, new terrain, and/or new campaigns plus some sort of new and/or improved feature set. The download versions have obvious benefits over the original CDs like all of them being patched to the same 08.30.06 level, and some of them have hidden perks, like the download WOE which incorporates the F-104G from SFP1... so I found it worth it to me to buy all of the download versions. I am sure a lot of people feel like I have wasted my money buying all of TK's games at least twice, especially when you can mod a base SFP1 install to pretty much equal or better the later releases using free addons... but again, I got something much more than screenshots and developer comments for very low cost. I hope those who have subscribed to Area51 get some kind of discount on the final release... dollar for dollar credit would be a fair deal, but even a 50% credit would be better than nothing.

Hurry! Sign up fast. You don't want to miss out on the 5th year of paying for status updates on an unreleased flight sim. There must be some money in this or they wouldn't bother at all. Personally, I would rather have never heard of the product at all until it was released or very close to release. Targetware was a little different because it needed community support and for better or worse, it was finally released and continues to grow. It will be interesting to see if and when the initial sim is released and whether development will continue. While I am all for a hard core sim, I am clearly in the minority. I wonder how many people will invest in a sim with only 1 or 2 flyable aircraft that are both military trainers. Microsoft already offers the market leader in non-combat flight sims and has a huge selection of aircraft available. X-plane even permits combat now. If DCS Blackshark continues to expand their planeset, they will probably capture the hard core combat flight sim market, except for those hating/fearing Star Force copy protection. I think the market is going to be pretty tough on Fighter Ops unless it is truly revolutionary in its immersiveness and realism and quickly expands to cover the F-16, A-10, and F-15.

While I have a preference for WoV and WoI due to their historical nature, I have recently learned that my favorite game in the series is whichever one is the latest release with the best feature set. For instance, SF2 is the most fanciful of all with make-believe maps/countries/history, yet upon buying/installing/playing it, I found that it is so noticably better than even the latest released game, WoI, that I am pretty much only playing this version. Of course, this comes to a large extent from the fact that I am an F-4 fanatic and find the updated versions of the F-4s so much better than the original releases, but even the campaigns just seem to be more fun and challenging than ever. Now, when all the games have been re-released and have identical feature sets, I suspect my favorite will fall back to either WoV or WoI, but until then SF2 has my focus. My sole interest in flying the earlier releases is to play online, and right now I don't have any time for that.

I experimented with Vassal for Air Force/Dauntless, 2nd Fleet, and Air Power (which is Speed of Heat). I find that it works really well for Air Force, you can pretty much play without even having the game if you already know the rules. I don't remember enough about how to play 2nd Fleet to rate it, but the map and counters look good. It is at best just a map with markers and a few charts/diagrams for Speed of Heat.. adequate if you have everything else, but nowhere near as functional as Air Force.

While I am sure I saw him as Khan first in the original Star Trek TV episode, I remember him best for Fantasy Island. He was the circus owner in the 3rd and 4th Planet of the Apes movies that hid Caesar (Roddy McDowell), raised him, and died to protect him. As a huge fan of this series and Caesar, Ricardo's character was pivotal. He also was the voice of the Villain in an episode of Buzz Lightyear on the Disney Channel, didn't need to see the credits, simply knew it the moment he spoke.

Imagine I was a poor-starving-student from 1986-1989, so I was limited to my 10th grade computer: a Timex-Sinclair 2048 (Sinclair Spectrum modified for the US market). I played Fighter Pilot (F-15 sim) and Tomahawk (Apache sim). The next 8 years I was an enlisted sumarine sonar tech. Sure, other sailors had some PCs and Amigas, but I spent most of my time at sea sitting in front of green screens with a headset on playing the ultimate version of "Dangerous Waters" called real life in the USN on an SSN, so when I was in port I spent my money on two things: 1980 Corvettes and guns. I went through 3 1980 Corvettes from 1991 to 1995. The last one of the three surviving to this day as my primary driver to/from work. At that time in the Navy in California, gas was about 1.35/gal for 92 octane and I was spending typically $400 per month on gas despite my sea time. I purchased an AR-15 (technically a Colt Sporter HBAR) and a Springfield Armory 1911A1. Between the two, I spent $400 per month on ammunition. My credit card bills looked like this continuously repeating: Shell Gas Station $25 Sombreros Mexican Restaurant $8 The Living Room Coffee Shop $6 Mission Armory $50 I had no need or desire for a PC at that point. In 2000, I went back to school and had saved enough money that I didn't have to work and was able to get a PC. By doing so, I bypassed all the 386/486/Pentium/Pentium II/Pentium III upgrade cycles (though I had a Toshiba Satellite Pentium MMX laptop via work starting in January 1998 that played Fighters Anthology very well). My first real video card was a Voodoo 5500 purchased in November of 2000 and somewhere between the PC and the video card, I had gotten a Saitek X-36 USB. So, while I was late to the game and I never have bought state-of-the-art equipment at just-released prices, I haven't suffered from trying to play games like LOMAC on a Pentium II/400 either. Besides, up until my first PC, I was pretty much content with my wargames which I sometimes played in 3d using 1/285 for armor combat and 1/144 airplanes on sticks for air combat. To this day, I would like to build the Fulda Gap German map from West End Games Air Cav on a big train table and use it for 1/285 games. Of course time and space leave me settling for Suddent Strike... which isn't a bad substitute other than being WW2 when I would much prefer a 1970s-1980s time frame.

Use hyperlobby to find people, then connect the game via your own hamachi server. Then, you have the power to kick or even ban unwanted people... Though if they are determined, they can come in under another Hamachin IP address... But you can change the password to your server and only tell the people you want to play with you what that password is. In my experience, there were so few people playing SFP1/WoV, that I never refuse to play with anyone. Usually, anyone that was munching on the newbies changed their ways after being chatted to about the problem. I can only think of one or two "characters" that were trouble every time they showed up, but they got bored within a couple of weeks (probably moved on to other games where they could find more targets).

I did not know about this. A lot of my games are there, which means I could get rid of the big boxes and paper, but still retain the ability to play these games... not a bad trade-off.

I still have a substantial collection of board games. I never have the time to even mess with them and even if I did, none of the friends that used to play them with me have enough time to play them anymore. During my countless moves in the Navy and prior to getting married, some of my games took a beating and a few are missing pieces and/or data cards. As much as I love most of these games, I don't really ever see myself ever playing them again. I am about to move again and may just save myself the hassle of hauling them to a new house by throwing most of them away. The one reason I have to hold on to them is the hope that my 2-year-old son might one day take an interest in playing some of them. Not knowing which ones he might like, I need to keep them all just in case... But how much interest will he ever have in playing games designed to simulate a war that never happened? A lot of my games were "modern warfare" simulations for 1970s-1980s air, land, or sea combat assuming massive all-out conflicts between the USA and USSR: Avalon Hill's Flight Leader, TAC AIR, MBT, Attack Sub Victory Games' Agean Strike, 2nd Fleet/6th Fleet/7th Fleet GDW's Assault/Boots&Saddles/Bundeswehr/Chieftain, The Third World War, Combined Arms, Air Superiority/Air Strike/Desert Falcons, Harpoon West End Games Air Cav, TSR/SPI's Air War, SPI's Foxbat & Phantom, FASA's Top Gun, GMT's Hornet Leader, 3W's Modern Naval Battles, Omega's Main Battle Area, Leading Edge Games' Phoenix Command, Timeline Ltd's Close and Destroy, Group 3 Games' Rolling Thunder, The Gamers' Force Eagles War, Enola Games' Warship Commander/Sea Command For the most part, the only games I had covering any earlier time frame were air combat games with a few land and sea types: Avalon Hill's Air Force/Dauntless, Luftwaffe, B-17 Queen of the Skies, Knights of the Air, Enemy in Sight, Wooden Ships & Iron Men GDW's Command Decision, Lou Zocchi's Complete Fighter Combat System, Falcon Games' Mustangs and Messerschmitts, Air Games Ltd's Air Sortie, Emperor's Press' Red Baron Clash of Arms' The Speed of Heat, Over the Reich, Achtung-Spitfire! Nova's Ace of Ace's/Wing Leader/Jet Eagles series of book based "3d" air combat games are worth special mention as they lie somewhere between a board game and a pc flight sim. But I also have a few RPGs and Sci-fi games: the original TSR's Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Steve Jackson Games' GURPS, Car Wars Fantasy Games Unlimited's Chivalry & Sorcery Task Force Games' Star Fleet Battles/Federation & Empire GDW's Traveller 2300/2300AD/Star Cruiser, Dangerous Journeys I.C.E.'s Silent Death, Star Strike Fantasy Wargaming, Warlord All of these games pretty much became obsolete the day I got my first PC in August of 2000. I was constantly trying to refine the rules to make the games more realistic, but with no one else to play them and having to spend endless hours alone trying to recreate battles that would have taken only a few minutes in real time... the PC was a savior. Real-time flight sims. I already had experience with Jane's Fighters Anthology on a work laptop. But playing Jane's USAF, Jane's F/A-18, Jane's WWII Fighters, Jane's 688i, and Jane's Fleet Command were generally equally or more realistic than anything I had done with board games, much faster, and far more fun. Then I found Aces High, Operation Flashpoint, and SFP1. I have never really looked back. Until now. I just bought my first board game flight sim in I don't know how many years. Birds of Prey http://web.mac.com/philip_markgraf/Birds_o...ey/Welcome.html I have looked over the contents and this is the promised land: a board game that rivals PC flight sims in accuracy/realism of modeling 3d flight fully acommodating all three axis' of rotation (direction, pitch, and roll) and the four forces (thrust, drag, lift, and weight). They use some cool laminated charts with markers to do all they hard math graphically. But, I am still having trouble making the time to learn and play this, though if I do learn it I have one old friend that might actually give it a shot. I suspect I wasted my money buying it, but I couldn't resist since I own virtually every other board game/flight-sim ever released en masse and this one is clearly the best ever made. I will say that the best part of playing board games is having a small group of friends gathered having the same type of fun that occurs at traditional poker games. But I have achieved the same or even more fun by hosting Operation Flashpoint LAN game nights at my house (just had two nights of fun while my wife was out of the country). I think I need to let go of my nostalgia and simply dump everything, which would certainly make my wife happier.

Here is the most current version of my SFP1/WoX series multiplayer guidelines: http://bbs.thirdwire.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1410

Without even knowing what game you are asking about, I will venture a guess as to what is happening: You have a firewall enabled on your PC, so when you click on multi-player and the game starts trying to scan for hosts, it hangs. Examples of games that I have witnessed with this behavior include the Third Wire SFP1 series, Operation Flashpoint, and Starfleet Command. Sometimes, you will see a dialog box asking if you want to allow the game to pass through the firewall (if so, say yes and maybe your problem is solved), but I have seen many cases where someone's firewall interacted in such a way that there was no dialog box to let you know what was happening. A quick test will tell you whether or not your firewall is your problem: turn it off and start multiplayer. If you stop getting the black screen, then the firewall is the problem. If so, you have two choices: 1) Leave the firewall off while playing the game. 2) Configure the firewall to open the appropriate ports for the game.

The Buffalo may not have a good reputation with anyone else, but Finland did an outstanding job with this aircraft. As the AVG did with the P-40, good pilots can make do with what they have. Of course, when they managed to get better planes, Finland did even better.

In addition to higher resolution textures, campaigns now inlcude a ton of more ground objects: aircraft parked at airfields, etc. At higher settings, this game is CPU limited. To tune lower end PCs to run these sims, I like to start with all LOW settings, then go to custom and tweak things one at a time to try to get the quality I want at a frame rate I can live with. Using this technique, I can get my Pentium 3 1.2GHz PCs with Radeon 9800 Pros to run about 18 to 20 frames per second in single missions that don't have too many things flying around, yet still have great cockpit and aircraft detail. Of course Shadows are set to Low (turned off) and Mirrors are off.

In order to have the bombs hit at a point that can be seen on the gunsight (such as the default depression angle) you have to dive fairly steeply and/or at high speeds. Otherwise, gravity pulls your bombs down in an arc that always falls short of your sight. I don't have the patience to line up exactly for every drop (only when I am down to 1 bomb or have to try to use 1 bomb per target). So I come in at whatever angle/speed and pickle about 3 bombs starting when the pipper is on the target and dropping the other 2 in at a steady even interval (knowing the first bomb will probably be short since I am not at the right angle/height/speed). Usually, the middle bomb gets the target. If I approached to wild, maybe all 3 fall short or all 3 fall long, or the interval spaces them out too far and the target survives safely in between. But if I start at about 8 to 10 thousand feet at 3 to 5 miles, this technique gets me a kill most of the time with Mk 82 500 lb bombs. With rockets, I use almost the same approach, but fire a lot more starting before the pipper reaches the target and ending well after the pipper leaves the target. When I am more patient, I can use fewer rockets, but when I am pitching wildly, the interval gets too large if I don't ripple off quite a few. I try to release at less than 1 mile from the target and at 3 to 5 thousand feet. Any further away or any higher, the interval between impacts gets too large. Any lower or closer, I have trouble getting the pipper in the right place without hitting the ground. I like my airspeed to be 400 to 500 knots, though I will use whatever speed I have as long as I have sufficient pitch authority and will be able to pull out without hitting the ground or getting fragged by my own bombs.

Don't listen to him! Take lots of pills, never sleep, and keep making all those planes that have long been desired but never been delivered to the community. Once a 3d model exists and has been released, almost everything else falls into place since almost anyone can edit ini files well enough to get something playable. Of course it is nice if a cockpit has been built as well since that is even harder to make than the aircraft model. I know what kind of time and effort it takes to make good 3d models. I am glad someone has the time to do it! As an added bonus, you are still doing it for free!

Prior to WoI, the way to do this was to edit the ini files to give aircraft a radar with no display and only a search/boresight mode. While it was a clunky way to do it, it did get the desired results: proper LCOS behavior. Of course, since I mainly had stock installs for beta testing and online multiplayer, I greatly appreciate this feature finally being implemented.

This capability was finally added in Wings Over Israel. It can be used in any of the TW sims patched up to the latest revision. It is actually a mode that should be available in most aircraft. Almost every US fighter since the F-86 has some sort of ranging radar and/or ranging mode for more capable radars. Essentially, using "boresight mode" on those aircraft that have a multi-mode radar is very similar to using range-only radar.