FastCargo

Folks, realize the battle isn't over until the vote is. Keep up the pressure on your local reps. FC

The other way is select all visible ships (hotkey), then click on the ship types from the list at the bottom that you want with Ctrl-click. No selecting of ships on screen needed. FC

That's way too hard. I don't unpause...just select Group 5, then Shift-click on the new ship, and Ctrl-5. Added. FC

It's funny you mention the UI...because most folks opinions are the UI is still one of the cleaner and more intuitive UIs in the genre of space themed RTSes. Having played several other games in this specific genre, I tend to agree. Having said that, there are a couple of things that I wish the HW series could have done better (and in fact, some were done in HW: Cataclysm). 1) Skill levels - neither HW or HW2 have them. This seems like something easy to implement...for each level, just adjust the power of weapons, hit points of targets/your own ships, rates of resourcing. HW and especially HW2 can be daunting in the learning curve. 2) Time acceleration - I know HW didn't have this, and I think HW2 doesn't have it either. Thankfully, looks like the remastered versions do have it. And HW:C did have it. 3) Movement waypoints - HW:C implemented this and I thought it was nice...I know HW didn't have it, and pretty sure HW2 didn't either. 4) Wireframe LOS - HW:C did something interesting where 'boxes' would show what areas you had explored, with a smaller 'boxes' showing what areas you currently had visible. This made keeping SA a bit easier. HW2 uses 'blue fuzzy spheres' to depict this, but it's not as intuitive. All of these are the minor UI complaints...nothing show stopping. The main gameplay change I would make would be in HW2...there is a bit too much obvious scripting. Such as if I take away all the resourcing, the enemy carriers shouldn't be able to spawn anymore targets, but they still do...not much, but enough to be annoying. Or if I use a Marine frigate on a non-goal target (single player campaign), I should be able to capture it...not it sitting there with a full blue bar. Finally, after the objectives are complete...I don't want to end the mission. I'd like to have time to build my fleet before the next mission starts...instead of instant ending and resourcing. So, yea, the HW series did have some flaws...but not enough to make them any less fun. Oh, here is what I saw at PAX South... FC

Hey mue, The problem seems to be inconsistent. Some aircraft from the cat file show fine, some are green, and some don't show at all. Seems to be inconsistent. FC

Then why is the cancer incidence rate going down? Yep, not just the cure rate, but incidence rate? Why is the longevity rate continuing to head upward? Why are diseases like measles having outbreaks again? And at the center of it, anti-vaccine idiots? Because polio was just SO much better... Why is it if all this shit that supposedly is bad for us do we live longer, grow taller, and except for the 'eating too much' part, are generally healthier? FC

I've just combined two of Wrench's favorite things... (actually, I WISH I had done this) FC

Let me be specific...by version, I mean SF2 Vietnam, Europe, Israel, North Atlantic, and the Expansion Packs and DLCs. You could in theory have all sorts of combinations....which may alter the ObjectData002.CAT file. FC

The CATs may be different depending on which SF2 version you have, and if you have any DLCs. FC

Understand...I learned more about cancer in the last 5 years than I ever wanted to fucking know. There are several different varieties of cancer...solid mass tumors (sarcomas) only being one kind. This does nothing to deal with blood cancers. Also, sarcomas become resistant...and can grow back. I watched a sarcoma the size of an orange melt under treatment, becoming a size of a golf ball, which was then removed. Then it grew back...and melted again under chemo. This time we removed the bone it came out of. Then it grew back...and kept growing. Chemo didn't work. Liquid nitrogen just pissed it off. Fucking radiation like what you get from a nuclear reactor didn't work...nothing did. I will believe a treatment works when it kills the cancer cells...and they don't come back. FC

That was pretty funny right there... FC

Man, my UV mapping skills were terrible when I built that missile. Would anyone like an update to the SA-5 with new UV mapping? That thing...sucks. Of course, someone would have to retexture it... FC

Just got done spending 2 days at PAX South 2015. For those who don't know, PAX (in this case) stands for Penny Arcade Expo and is a convention dedicated to gaming...mostly video and tabletop gaming. It is an outgrowth of PAX Prime, which was started in Seattle a few years ago and has rapidly grown in popularity (which is why there are now 4 PAX events per year instead of one). As you might imagine, hardware and software vendors show their wares with new and upcoming stuff. This is not a report about PAX...I was there as a fan of games, not as a reporter. There were all sorts of genres there...with one exception. In atmosphere flying games...combat or otherwise. Not a single one, arcade, sim or whatever. There were several space combat games...I got to try out Eve Valkyrie with the Oculus Rift. It was beautiful. The first VR set I have ever used that seemed to show absolutely no lag, loss of calibration, tracking errors, etc. Flying with it felt convincing...to the point that I actually got slightly queasy because my body wasn't feeling the familiar pull of G's that I was used to when flying 'head on a swivel' style...and there were absolutely no visual cues telling me I was just sitting in a stationary chair. And not one air combat sim there to take advantage of the technology. I really am not sure what that says about the state of air combat games/sims. But I know I was disappointed. FC

Wow...this program just keeps getting better! Nice work! FC

Huh...I always thought it was a bit bigger than that...guess not now that I look at it's specs. FC

Also, how hard will it be to make terrains? If it's insanely difficult, there may not be a proliferation of such. I hope there is a happy medium somewhere. FC

Sweet! Those are a set of games (DF, JK, MotS, JA) that could benefit from the remastered treatment. Modern engine, same gameplay and atmosphere. FC

People have a fundamental misunderstanding about Steam. It is not an ALWAYS connected situation for single player games. Steam (and games using verification with Steam) work just fine offline. Yep, no internet connection needed after initial installation. FC

We have a server that mirrors onto 2 external hard drives, but we also have a subscription to an offsite backup service... So even if the house burns down, our files are safe. It might be overkill, but for things like family photos, it's piece of mind. Good luck! FC

Okay, for once I can say this: I WAS THERE BITCHES!!! Now I've got that out of my system... Gearbox was present in a big way at PAX South 2015. Makes sense, being that they are based in Plano TX. The one panel I wanted, nay, HAD to attend was the Homeworld: Behind The Scenes panel. This is where Gearbox showed off the HW Remastered collection. They showed the difference between the original and remastered editions of HW and HW2 (all of which are included), plus actual gameplay from several Player vs CPU matches. I emphasize, it was actual, real time gameplay, not recordings of such. As a scene demo, they showed the intro of HW mission 7...The Garden of Kadesh. I recorded video of it...but frankly, it doesn't come close to doing it justice. Not even a little. What made me very hopeful about this is the original designers of HW were there, the guys who were once Relic Entertainment, who eventually formed Blackbird Interactive, working on Hardware: Shipbreakers...which is now Homeworld:Shipbreakers. Yep, they have been folded back into the HW universe (which, apparently, was the 'bones' of Shipbreakers...). And you could tell the affection they had for their original product. And how much they wanted to work to get the remastered version right. Dynamic shadows, damage textures with bump/spec maps, weapons with dynamic lighting, all sorts of other graphical advancements. The music, voices, background 'sky boxes', etc, have all been redone. Most of the original voice actors were rehired to record dialogue. The UI for both Remastered editions looks like a hybrid between HW and HW2, but seems to be thinner and sleeker. I haven't been this hopeful for any 'new' game in a long time. Having said that, Gearbox's record recently is uneven. They've had some great ups (expansion packs for the original Half Life, Brothers In Arms franchise, Borderlands) with some downs (Duke Nukem Forever and the Aliens: Colonal Marines debacle). They really can't afford to screw this up. In some ways, this represents an experiment. Taking an old game, and simply bringing it into the modern age, while leaving the original gameplay intact. Most other times, it's been a reboot (Doom3), or remake (Black Mesa), or remastering of titles that weren't that great in the first place (Rise of the Triad and Shadow Warrior). How many of us love the idea of a modern X-Wing, or Strike Commander. Keep the gameplay and story, but bring it into a modern engine. Time will tell if what we say we wanted will translate into sales. As far as opinions on Steam goes, it is like anything else. Steam is DRM, and it can have its own issues. In practical terms, it's pretty non-intrusive, and there is something to be said for the convenience factor. I don't mind Steam, but if I can get a game DRM free (like GOG.com), I do prefer that option. FC

That wasn't quite what I was getting at. My concern was seeing the lack of ANY aircraft based games. FPS, RTS, MMOs, adventures, turn based, space, cars. Okay, no water based ships as far as I could see... Logitech and Saitek HOTAS sets. Several of them. None connected to a flight sim. But instead, to Elite: Dangerous, other space combat games. FC

The DSUCP?

Okay, maybe we need a 'essential mods' thread for the SW flight series. I know the original X-Wing and Tie Fighter can't (or weren't) modded. I also know the versions GOG has are not the collector CD-ROM versions which in some ways are better. Anyway...so that leaves XvT, XvT with BOP, and Alliance. So, what are the essential mods for these? FC

Okay, if the author has issues, then I'll take his article with a grain of salt. However, by the CF-105 article, the proposal is for 100 CF-105s at 9 billion total dollars...that's $90 million per aircraft when you roll R&D costs into it. Does anyone REALLY think you can build that class of aircraft for that little money? FC

I was having a discussion with a Canadian politician about the issue of the F-35 just last week. Though the concept of a CF-105 reborn is interesting, like the article pointed out, you are basically building a new aircraft from the ground up...it is hopelessly naive to think you can build a triple-sonic fighter with advanced 5th generation avionics, thrust vectoring, internal and external weapons points, for 90 million dollars per aircraft (which includes the R&D cost). Check this article out: http://defenseissues.wordpress.com/2013/10/05/modern-aircraft-flyaway-costs/ Note the author doesn't include VAT on some aircraft which causes the cost to significantly jump. Also note that pretty much the only large twin-engine aircraft that make it under the 100 million dollar mark is the old F-15A. That's important to note...the CF-105 would be a large fighter, similar in size and weight to the F-22, F-15, EF2000, etc. My personal opinion is that when Canada is ready to replace their Hornets, they should get a version of the Super Hornet. Transition training would be minimal, some logistics are already in place, and the R&D is already paid for. Pretty much they could get it at the per airframe cost to make. FC