FastCargo

Anyone have any pics of Iceland yet? FC

Awesome! FC

The contest was for the exact day as per the very first post. According to my reckoning...no one guessed March 9th, but Dave is the final arbiter. FC

I'll let y'all go first...:). FC

True, but it used to not work right for aircraft alphanumerics here on this board. FC

Definitely keeping my eye on this...have played all the WC series since the very first one... FC

I thought there was a 5 pylon A-4 out there already in the TW world... FC

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Kony http://tumblr.thedailywh.at/post/18909727859/on-kony-2012-i-honestly-wanted-to-stay-as-far I show the US as having been involved since 2008...well before this so called campaign, initiated by an organization with very questionable financials. This is another example of people to make themselves feel real good verses do real good. Use critical thinking, and don't end up like these guys: http://www.cracked.com/article_16579_the-7-most-retarded-ways-celebrities-have-tried-to-go-green.html FC

There are no mods for what you are asking for. Typically, during bomb release, in real life, you would 'feel' the thunk through the aircraft frame rather than hear anything. The sim does model some performance changes when weapons are dropped...asymetric drops will show as a 'heavy' wing. Also, some cockpits will change displays as a weapon is released. FC

Don't get me started... Check this out: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2010/09/30/texting-while-driving-bans-increase-crashes-study-says-rumpus-erupts/ It was found in studies that laws banning texting and driving caused no decrease in accident rates, and in some states, actually increased accidents due to drivers trying to 'hide' their cell phones while texting. A result of the law of unintended consequences...trying to regulate a symptom vs dealing with the root of the problem...distraction and misprioritization of tasks. And before anyone gets their panties in a bunch, I'm not advocating texting and driving. What I am advocating is that legislation isn't the answer. I've got tons of examples of other laws passed having the opposite effect... FC

Depends how it works. FC

And I'm waiting for Bioshock:Infinite. October??? Are you kidding? FC

I bent wrenches helping my dad out on his cars, then my cars. Plus jobs around the house, plumbing, electrical, structural, painting,etc. Even operated machinery (backhoes, small bulldozers, etc). House or car work doesn't bother me. I could save money doing some of the stuff myself. But my time is far more valuable. I don't see enough of my family as it is, and scraping my knuckles stuck in the garage to fix something no longer appeals to me as it did back in the day. FC

If you have the time. FC

There's another reason. This was set in the ini on purpose. The SA-10 has the ability to 'spoof' its transmitter location to an incoming ARM. The ini entry simulates this ability. FC

I can't answer the multiplayer component for Win7, but any of the Gen1 series (SFP1/WOV/WOE/WOI/FE) will work just fine on Win7 in both 32 and 64 bit with no modification. You may have to install DX9 from Microsoft, but that won't hurt anything. FC

I've run SF2 on a Dell Inspiron 9 with an Atom processor and 1GB RAM...WAY under the 'requirements' and got smooth frame rates. But I had to turn down everything graphics related to the minimums. It's always a matter of how well the game looks verses the frame rate that looks good enough for you. FC

Isn't that correct for the A model? FC

You know, men used to compensate for...ahem...inadequacies with fast cars...right C5? (Don't you own a Corvette??) But now, it's all about the Hertz, RAM, and pixel pushing... Sigh...geeks...whatta going to do... FC

I don't remember this screenshot: I hope it's an ini edit only and the aircraft are not part of the ship LOD. FC

Okay, I can understand that. That still leaves MS leveraging their 'Flight' engine to use in a sim. The question is how much additional effort (ie money) would be needed to program an air combat version of the program. FC

But how much of that cost could already be paid for developing another project? Look at Microsoft (the upcoming Flight) Sony (Ace Combat). Now Flight we don't have a real good read on yet, and AC is an arcade shooter. But in both, a graphics engine, physics engine, and AI have already been developed. Obviously, AI, gameplay, and physics (for AC in particular) would have to be expanded upon. But a cold war aircraft certainly isn't any harder to build than a modern aircraft in a 3d engine. You wouldn't even have to get to TW level of fidelity to cause a serious competition problem for TK sims...remember who the audience could be. Also, it's not just the total budget dollars, but the fraction of total budget available for a genre. If TK nets 100k a year, 10k for say mission editor development is a significant fraction of investment (10%). But if MS nets 1M per year, even if they throw 20k at the same problem, it's far less of their overall budget (2%). And I'm pretty sure I'm being really conservative with how much money they could throw at the development. The only thing stopping them is the perception that the payoff is not worth the investment. I'm not in the gaming development trade, don't even pretend to be in the trade on an internet forum. So my ruminations may be way off base. But in my opinion, the logic is not unsound. FC

I'm going to don my tinfoil hat for a second (because it's warm...). What if TK does not WANT mass knowledge of his sim. Let me explain. One of the reasons TK is relatively successful is that he doesn't specialize into areas that other sims do. I'm not talking about sims from 10 years ago, I'm talking about now. Name one large sim company doing a combat sim about 60-70s aircraft. (sound of crickets chirping) Now, other than First Eagles (which was funded by someone else), TK stays strictly within that realm...no WWI, WWII, or ultra modern scenarios. Even aircraft where he has some overlap with guys like Eagle Dynamics (A-10, F-15), he stays toward the simpler avionics and gameplay. Now he's been very cagey about earnings and future plans too. So, lets think about this: 1) Little to no active advertising. 2) Specializes in aircraft that aren't in other military combat sims. 3) Prices are typically below other sims. 4) Doesn't reveal finances, other than 'We are always tight on money'. What if the concern is that all it takes is for another large game maker to step in if they realize the actual potential that segment of the market could have. Think about it...TK's budget probably doesn't get above a single percentage point of a large PC software maker's budget. What could be done if someone like Sony or Microsoft jumped in there...especially if they can leverage technologies already developed for their other, similar projects. Before someone says that TK could do better...it doesn't matter. Those sitting on the fence of buying a sim would probably buy from one of the big names because it's a known quantity. TK isn't a big name...and isn't ever going to be for the casual audience...he doesn't have the budget. As long as he's shown as a struggling indie flight sim maker, he's not considered a threat because that part of the market isn't considered a money maker. If that perception were to ever change by the big guys... I'd rather make steady money and keep off the radar, verses trying to make a big splash and painting a target on my forehead... FC

Why? How many mission editors have been released from 3rd parties? How many of everything else has been released? How much time was there to improve the 3rd party editors before TK released his product? If a mission editor was that needed, it would have sold. It didn't....both products that included it have sold poorly. Think about it...reskins and ini change DLCs have sold better than a mission editor. If the sales didn't cover the cost of making it, it was a bust. I see this on a hobby board I post on. The majority of members posting advice about what should sell, the company making said products which sell very poorly due to lack of audience. Board members think the are the 'pulse' of the market...but find they are badly out of touch. Do not assume you are the majority of the audience. FC

For those who don't know, Microsoft has released a pre-beta version of Win8 out into the wild...similar to what they did for Win7. I've currently got it installed on a Dell Mini 9 (kids computer)...Intel Atom 1.6 GHz with 1GB RAM and integrated graphics. First thing...it's pretty darn stable considering technically it's an alpha. Secondly, it's designed to operate as a mobile (ie touchscreen) or a conventional interface...makes sense because it's rumored to be able to run on ARM processors. Third, as you might not expect, it's fast! It boots far quicker than WinXP did on this machine, which is remarkable since the Mini 9 was designed to run a stripped version of WinXP. Actual operation seems about the same in terms of speed, with built in antiviral, firewall, etc. I was impressed with Win7, but Win8 so far seems even smoother. I think the development of Windows Mobile 7 has paid dividends in helping tighten up the code for Windows 8. So if you've got a computer to spare, give Windows 8 a shot and report here. I'd like to see what other folks are getting for performance. FC