GwynO

This makes so much sense. The NVA knew it in Vietnam and that's why they went all out to destroy entire villages to show as examples to others what they would do if the villagers supported the DRV or the US. The Taliban, Sudanese Ganjaweed and all kinds of other fundamentalists do exactly the same thing. It isn't right to sink to the same level, if it is to just kill by numbers for attrition then better to do it the quick way with WMD which would be more humane if anything than the long running slaughter of millions that would be the likely event of an all out, 3,000,000 strong armed incursion into fundamentalist countries. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying WMD doesn't work as an attitude adjuster, history proves that it did once, but the effects are so horrific that absolutely all other means should be tried first. The best economic sanction against fundamentalist would be to make oil obsolete, but what about the innocent people of those oil producing countries? Not a problem if they are willing to be as ingenious and industrious in the development of a modern service economy rather than making roadside bombs, problem for them is solved. It would just mean that oil regimes would have to work a lot harder to earn their money, this could encourage the development of a more modernised Middle East. Pakistan does a lot better than Yemen, and they don't have hardly any oil, their systems, infrastructure and attitude towards democracy is what enables Pakistan to be so much better at surviving on the globe than say Yemen, where it is possible for a tiny elite to distribute millions of dollars of oil money to their friends as they see fit while most of the people live a subsistence lifestyle herding goats and selling AK-47s. We need more countries like Pakistan and Turkey, while they have their problems, they are to all intents and purposes living in the modern world, relying on their industry and intellect to survive and have chosen democracy as the framework to support this success. Without the easy access to cash in the absence of enlightenment that occurs across much of the globe, down to oil, war wouldn't even be necessary. It's hard to be a global threat when you're so poor you have to light your bombs with matches.

Exactly! You and Julhelm seem to have this covered, all I would add is that what you raise here is such an overlooked and potentially huge piece of the jigsaw. Forget Climatology, the best and most compelling argument for going "green" over night and using something other than oil to run the modern (free and not so free) world, is to STOP the flow of oil money into fundamentalist regimes, groups and individuals. That and pollution, which is not the same as climate change (you can see dirt right here right now, you can smell diesel fumes and they makes you feel sick) But back to the point, we really, really need to find some other way of powering the globe than the current system of making unfit regimes rich. How much of the fuel involved in your car, your plastic packaging, your food, your entire life comes from Iran? Never thought your money would support a place like Iran, check out the stats on the major breadwinners in the oil world, even if you don't use it, someone else will. Soo replace oil with something shiny and new and better that China will want to use, that India will want to use, that everyone will want and you stop the money going into Iran thereby turning it into a virtual North Korea (impotent) Problem solved. Poor fundamentalists are a lot less of a threat to anyone than rich terrorists.

Stumbled across this by accident and thought you guys would appreciate it. http://www.naderlibrary.com/icouldtellyou.toc.htm Totally awesome!

I would love my doubts to be proved wrong. What about the Suez addon? Won't that be the last to use the SF engine? Also FE2. There are a lot of sings indicating that such features as would make a TW Fleet Defender are a long way off in the future, not least of which would be TK saying as much on his forums. To paraphrase, "a long way down the line, several games and several years away", "if we had the time and the money", "if it didn't involve learning switches", these seem to be the general arguments whenever people ask for these kinds of features. I'd love to be proven wrong, but I don't see a Thirdwire Fleet Defender style game coming in the next 5 years, or even ever. No doubt whatever the next game is will be fun and in keeping with the sim lite mentality, but it won't be Fleet Defender with eye candy!

Yes, except without working carrier ops such as LSO, ATC, IFOLS and so on, when you ask for help it won't matter, you won't be able to target any ground or ship objects on radar, and certainly won't be juggling the several realistic radar modes in the back seat. Or maybe I'm being overly cynical. I'll still be getting it though.. because somewhere down the line, my grandchildren might live to see a time when Thirdwire have enough money to really make a Fleet Defender with nice graphics.

Are you seriously comparing Afghanistan to Vietnam? I hope not.. just some simple fact added to "8 years" reveals how different those 8 years are.. American casualties in Vietnam, at the least count 58,000. Since 2001 in Afghanistan, less than 1000 Americans have lost their lives, in total, the whole coalition have lost almost 7,000 (mostly Afghans fighting for the coalition). I think it's easy to see how repugnant it is to hear people refer to this conflict as another Vietnam. Really, it is no comparison, it's like comparing your last dose of flu to cancer or aids and kind of insulting to the best part of 60,000 American lives lost in both wars to insinuate that this was in any way down to some bankers conspiracy to make money.

"I don't always agree with you on stuff, but this is a great statement right here." Bookmarked, printed off and photographed for future reference! FC once agreed with me on something "Conspiracy theorists usually give the conspirators (governments) WAY too much credit...but wouldn't trust the government to balance their checkbook. What part of that makes sense..." None of it makes sense in an ordinary way, it is a matter of faith. People who subscribe to such conspiratorial beliefs see absence of evidence as evidence of incredible power and control of their "deity" for want of a better word, the NWO is filling in for what used to happen in earlier stages of human evolution. A coping mechanism for dealing with chaos is to project some kind of order onto an otherwise random series of events. Belief in the conspiracy does take on a religious character, the central figure, rather than a God of good, is somewhat like a devil figure yet still with the religious aspect of being all present, all powerful and present since time immemorial.

Yes, I fear you are only too right, but I'm also glad that there are people out there capable of putting together such a case without falling back on ridiculous notions of race and so on. Too often this big picture is tarnished with the race card, accusations of bigotry, decried as "far right" yet the bitter truth is that this modern extremism is little different from that of the Mediaeval times. Both born out of total assurance that they ARE right, that THEIR God is the ONLY God, and he wants a world where people only worship Him as prescribed by the glorious leaders of the people, be they Marxists, Muslim or Christian; this kind of unbending self assurance cannot be reasoned with, we are truly peeing in the wind and wasting resources trying to fund people out of a mindset, one can only imagine the futility had a technologically superior culture tried to reason with, or barter the civility of Inquisition era Europe without first kicking their ass severely at every attempted book burning or witchburning.. no matter what the commonly held religious preconceptions of the protagonists were, if the witch was at the stake, what would you do? Say it's their culture and let them get on with it, or stop it! The reason why I add this is to underline that Europe's Enlightenment took a good few hundred years with help from, ironically, the Muslim world that had kept the works of earlier civilisations going, works of Greek philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle that fuelled the intellectual revolution in Europe may just have to be re used this time by the extremists. Only when people in the fundamentalist communities stand up for their right to doubt, to question, everything, even to doubt publicly the existence of God, freely, as per the European enlightenment, could the "War on Terror" be said to be over, until that point we will face the ugly sight of witchburning, book burning, bigotry and self assured theocracy wherever we turn our blind eye. If the perpetrators of such outrages as 9/11 are truly to be served with justice, they would be made a part of the "War on Terror", their names forever invoked with our resolve to harm, damage, reverse, overturn, demolish and destroy the freedom that they have to express their ideology, only by stamping out the ability of the fundamentalists to commit atrocities against each other can we say we have won, or all we will have done is to give them time to regroup and try us again. So how to deny this freedom to commit terror? Giving up is not an option, annihilation is a PR nightmare, so we only really have one option left, and that's to help insight an Enlightenment2 wherever it may appear on the terrorists' horizon, in Student uprisings, in Democratic movements, in short to aid and abet the changes they themselves have to make while we wait out the few hundred years it took Europe to do the same. Sad, but in the face of the options: Miracle, extermination, giving up and ignoring them, hoping they leave us alone... we really only do have the option of continuing this as long as we live, or until inbreeding depletes their stock whichever happens first.

Ridiculous conspiracy theories and a large part of religious fundamentalism, all share the same root, an inability to deal with the mundane, haphazard and all to human nature of existence. Why should these nancy boys accept a logical scenario that only indicates that accidents happen when instead they can believe in some hidden "truth" that only people as cool as themselves are prepared to accept. Any attempt to reason with these "cool" people only reinforces their warped view of the world, because of course anyone presenting evidence contrary of the conspiracy must be part of the conspiracy, or worse, an ignorant pleb incapable of questioning their view of reality. Truth be told, I once used to be a believer! I swallowed so many conspiracy stories hook line and sinker until I decided that I wanted to contribute some knowledge, I too wanted my own channel on internet TV, or to be an internet sensation.. but the more I researched, the more errors, untruths, misunderstandings and outright lies go into even the most convincing sounding conspiracy stories. I can only really empathise and perhaps pity a little, the many people out there that can't make the mental arithmetic of how many people it would take to be in on these conspiracies yet keep it all to themselves for them to work. If any of these Global Conspiracy type scenarios were true, it would suggest some kind of purpose and intelligence to an otherwise unintelligent, haphazard and dare I say it meaningless existence. I would suggest therefore that it is the same kind of human response to chaos that produces religious zealotry, bigotry such as the Inquisition or Nazism, and cocksure fundamentalism such as Al Qaeda, a desire at the heart of all of these to ascribe some sinister purposeful mastermind behind the problems of the world, problems that only they are deemed capable of understanding and solving. My advice to such delusional people is get out more.. talk to people! Have fun! Try talking with girls of the same species, laugh a lot and question your own hidden agenda lurking in the dark and quiet corners of your mind as much as you question other people and you will be fine.

Eject, I wouldn't worry too much now if I were you, it takes a lot to apologise which you have done, also you have made clear that your intention was not to offend. Bearing in mind intentions, do take very seriously what Fast Cargo advised you.. keep politics to yourself, it is a golden rule on this forum not to get into political sniping in threads that have nothing to do with politics.. like waterboarding in a thread about Thirdwire games. It is difficult I know, and something that many of us are guilty of at times, but I would suggest that if the topic is already political, military, or news based and the subject is relevant to such things then that would be less likely to annoy or offend others! Not telling you off Eject because that is not my job, just want to help you out from repeating the same things that led to tension in the past. I'm sure no one on the site wants you to be punished, so relax! Also, just as a little friendly advice mate, If you have a question about Thirdwire games, have a look in the Knowledge Base, or try the search feature first to see if anyone else has had similar problems and you may find it easier to ask your question in an already established thread, indeed some of the answers may already be out there. The admins like Dave, Wrench, Fubar, Fast Cargo et al are all very busy people both in modding these games as well as administrating the site, not to mention that they have very busy real lives too, do yourself and them a favour by not addressing every question or thread at them! Many others on this sight would be more than happy to answer your questions or refer you to places where this knowledge is available if you have exhausted the Knowledge Base or search facility. Again, I'm only saying this to help you. Cheers, Gwyn

I'm confused, I thought I had ordered the English version, but in the order tracking screen it shoes the one that is available, DVD in FR/NL but says none in stock, none dispatched. Edit: It must have been the FR/NL version because the price was €9.99

I'm a little miffed with that site seeing as they gladly accepted payment before giving a tracking link that shows none in stock. At no point prior to ordering could I see anything saying they didn't have any. Ah well, live and learn.

Just for that.. And for those not blessed with the Mother tongue, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yma_o_Hyd so you can tell what it's all about isn't it.

That's mostly the reason I never managed to quite make the move to using DCS or Free/Open Falcon much. The other forums out there are a lot more hard work! One day.. my dream combo of flight sims is OFF for WW1, DCS Blackshark/Open Falcon/Free Falcon for the switch fix and a combination of Jet Thunder and Thirdwire sims for some less demanding playtime.

Lol having watched loads of videos of OFF and a few of CFS3, and loads of screens of both, I can only imagine the enormous amount of work that went in, it certainly appears to be a categorically different experience akin to original F4 versus OF or FF. It continues to amaze me what talented people will do for the benefit of us all who like to play these games, often for very little if any financial incentive. Even TK seems to operate on a shoestring budget and he has years of industry experience. I guess it is the difference between a run of the mill, forgettable sim and a truly unforgettable one that is the result of people caring about the experience, and the story they tell, than the money. The more love a dev team have for their area of interest, the better the result as is clearly visible in the quality of this sim, I haven't even played it yet but am already convinced from the videos and accounts given alone that this is going to blow my head right open!

I'm sooo excited! Just ordered a copy of the Ubisoft dvd so no need for disk in drive... next step.... wait for pay day to order best WW1 sim ever by all accounts Sooo meet you all in the skies someday soon! Cheerio!

Thanks, I just played a few missions through now using RF-8 and F-4D, no problems in merged SF2, SF2V, SFE2, SFI2 environment yet! Also, I added high detail Ubon base and that really puts the cherry on top! Thanks for all the amazing work on this project, the campaigns are a joy to fly!

Sorry in advance if this is explained in the readme, which I did read, including upside down and backwards, even sideways.. but.. in the first of the gold release folders there are the SF2I files, my question is should I hold off from adding these until after adding the contents of parts 2 through 4, or as I have just done, add them last during install of part 1, then overwrite all with the subsequent parts.

If I ever had to kill someone, especially in battle, I would definitely take the head because my ancestors did just the same, I might even stick it on a pole outside my house to warn others not to mess with me or my family. I guess you could pickle it somehow, or maybe just the heat would dry it out especially with all the hot sand, then it would be a mummified head!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/8339549.stm Absolutely hilarious! First I thought India had gone ape with a Tupolev, but seems nature is giving a hand in the war on terror too

You don't need pity, just do a bit of searching for the real culprits and prioritise. You don't win a huge furball by shooting off missiles at anything that gives a tone, you will shoot down friendlies, enemies and anyone who is near an all that will result is more of the same until one side or the other runs out of lives/materials. I am intrigued about Kuwait, as far as I was aware, they are about the most pro US, pro western Arab country of all. My next door neighbour worked out there throughout Gulf War 1 and for many years after, as I understood it, post Gulf War 1 Kuwait was a good place for business Anyway.. the ship is what counts, so I'm going to bugger off and do some work.

I agree one hundred and ten percent with your sentiments OvS, however geographically I have to suggest another local seeing as the AlQaeda scum, and the whole host of affiliated Sunni insurgents hate and loath the Iranian regime who are shiite (spellchecker doesn't like them either). The feelings of the Iranian extremists are actually closer to ours regarding them than you think, for example http://news.bbc.co.u...ast/8340535.stm I know they hate us (the West) too, and are just as fubar in the mentals, but just thought I'd clarify that! It would be like attacking the Royal Ulster Boys Brigade for something the IRA did if you get me? Cool, Gwyn

The good olde UK of A. I've yet to find it in any local stores, and would prefer that to ordering off the net to be honest, at least then I don't have the worry of non returnable scratched discs as has happened in the past. One day.. I will get BH&H! I hope. Champion! Added to favourites. Did you buy from them? Do you know what the returns policy is?

That is a very good point I didn't consider, I thought apart from OFF, CFS3 was dead. It would be ace to fly WW2 as I've hardly ever done so, always been fascinated by fancy electronic switchology, but all that seems to come out of it is headache and a lot of lost time pausing and referring to the manual/keylist every few seconds.