JediMaster

Yes, certainly I think Disney will keep him on A2. However, one hallmark of the recent SW films has been the extensive post-production times due to all the CG (as building all those sets would've been prohibitive...after all, all 3 prequels together cost under $350m). So while the prequels came out in 1999, 2002, and 2005, principal photography was done in 1997, 2000, and 2003. By that metric, the film will be mostly shot next fall/winter. So, technically Whedon COULD film Ep7 and THEN film A2 afterwards while the post is happening on 7. However, I doubt that scenario. Zemeckis told of the difficulty he had in doing BTTF2 and 3 for release 6 months apart (basically he concentrated on 3's filming while 2's editing and other post work suffered because he couldn't really do both in 24 hr days), so I don't think Whedon could get 2 films ready for summer 2015 even with principal photography split neatly between the two. So scratch him off the list. I think it safe to say Andrew Stanton also will not get the gig after John Carter! Christopher Nolan anyone?

Some people have spent a LOT more on MSFS stuff over the years than you could ever hope to in ROF!

Indy is on the table, but on hold. SW is the prime focus right now. That leads me to believe when Indy does come back, Ford will not be involved at all. Most likely the role will be recast (which frankly was inevitable). The TV series in on indefinite hold. The problem is Lucas has made movies his whole life. So "hour long" scripts are more like "1/2 movies". While a film costing $100m is no big deal anymore, can you imagine a TV series with $30m+ per episode?? They were waiting until they found a way to do them for less. Who knows if they will ever happen. Perhaps they could be turned into books or comics or even animated like Clone Wars is.

Depends on the range of the missiles that fit in the bays. Also, quite likely that like the others it can be equipped with pylons carrying more when needed.

For those interested in this bird, the DII is now available for preorder at ROF's site. http://riseofflight.com/en/store

Can't wait for this to come out.

A flying 3d model is hardly tough. A cockpit with 6DOF is more work, certainly, but getting a plane even to LOMAC/FC levels is no minor feat (or else ED would've released more planes years ago). Getting DCS levels is a whole other ballgame.

Does he have electric heating, or gas or oil? I had no power for 2 weeks after Andrew, and that was during the end of summer and it sucked. But we didn't have to worry about it being too cold, just sweating our asses off. Everything else is inconvenience, but not heat if it gets cold.

I'm frankly surprised anyone thinks this is bad. Lucas "ruined" the prequels, but someone else can do worse? Really? This is also only 4 billion because unlike Pixar, Lucas 100% owns Lucasfilm. So he just made $4 billion for himself. Go to Disney World for the past 20 years and it's been Star Wars everywhere. Star Tours, Mickey Skywalker, Goofy-PO, etc. And Star Wars was ALWAYS for kids. Always. If you ever believed different, you were wrong. Maybe adults liked it too, but that was an accident. Star Wars was a modern take on the 30s SF serials like Buck Rogers. How many adults in the 30s liked them? Not many. Same thing with Marvel. So while there's no guarantee things will improve, I'd say it really has little chance of getting worse. There are ALREADY more Star Wars toys and other merchandise out there than one person could ever own. It doesn't get any more commercialized than SW, no one in the last 35 years has even come close. Not even Harry Potter, as the toy market for that was far smaller. The books and films made a lot, but the rest is far inferior to what SW has pulled down.

The use of directed energy instead of explosive has been gaining traction for years. While Star Wars-type lasers aren't any time soon, more subtle effects are very close.

IIRC the Blacks still have 5 yrs, the Blue and Green have 2, which is also part of the reason for the price difference. I've only bought Blacks myself. Never bothered with Velociraptor due to higher cost and noise. http://www.wdc.com/en/products/internal/desktop/

Of course, the problem is F4 and others had maps that were more currently historical. The Black Sea was last important in WWII. Georgia was a blip, there could never be a major conflict there unless Russia decided to invade with everything it had...and then it wouldn't last long. The West would never go to war with Russia over Georgia. Not any time soon. By the time that would be possible, we'd need PAK-FAs, F-22s, F-35s, Rafales, Typhoons, J-10/20/XX, and likely their successors modeled. I remember Falcon 3 had a Panama map...and I never flew there. I just didn't buy the whole justification for the scenario, even though it was based on recent history. Meanwhile the Kuril Islands was very interesting. In both Hornet/F3 and F4 I barely flew in the Balkans, because even though it was current it never felt like it was a major air campaign hotspot. DCS needs a Korea map, Vietnam (for the older planes), Iran and Iraq (I don't know that both could be merged due to sheer size, most past sims had them separate theaters), Israel/ME, and maybe Taiwan or Europe or something.

Those areas aren't designed for storms like these. The water totally overwhelms the drainage systems. We had a TS hit a couple of years back and it dropped something like 36 inches of rain in a day and a half, the flooding never went past 10 inches and was gone in hours. Oh yeah, and all my power and other utility lines are underground. In 11 years of living here, the worst was the 4th hurricane hit of 2004 when IIRC we lost power for 4 hrs, and I think the cable was out maybe 2 hrs longer. For decades all I've ever heard from people is "Oh, Florida, they have so many hurricanes"...yet they cause less problems here. Only the 4 in a row in 2004 were really a problem. We had a CAT 3 a few years back and it resulted in one day of inconvenience for most people. Meanwhile, from Texas to New England I've watched hurricanes hit the rest of the south and east and even the CAT 1 canes (even the ones who've dropped to TS) wreak havoc. Partly because building codes are less strict, and the construction can't hack it, and partly because nothing ELSE is ready for it either. The lack of foresight for these events is not excusable. Just because these other states are hit less often doesn't mean they shouldn't be prepared so when they do hit (and they always will) things don't get this bad.

Indy, if you still want the MiG-15, they are trying to get it out by truck. Truck? What truck??

I'll 2nd that WD recommendation. It's been quite some time since I bought a non-WD drive. I think it was a Maxtor. Not to say I've never had a WD fail, I have. Just that there is a lower percentage of them that do.

Yes, the hope that there will be terrains to match these planes is what keeps me optimistic about this "go everywhere" plan. I'm not too worried about ground objects, I think the community will make a good number...I just hope ED will make them default in the main DCS World files so that if you buy say "Vietnam" you have NVA, South Vietnamese, and US time-appropriate ground objects in there to match. I'm not averse to a "what if" Vietnam in the 80s/90s, I just don't want that to be the ONLY choice.

Too bad you guys don't live in Florida, it was a real snoozer here! Just 55+mph winds or so for just over a day. All of one county closed the schools!

Down the barrel of the gun, right?

Getting a carrier isn't a big deal. We've got one or two there already and it shouldn't be too much to get one done right. Getting the ops right, THAT will be hard. Between Flanker 2/LOMAC and Il-2/PF botching it, I've not seen a sim with proper carrier ops since the 20th century.

And had the missiles actually flown that day, neither the ones in Cuba nor the ones in Turkey would likely have launched, making them irrelevant. There were more than enough in the US and USSR to accomplish the job of destroying world civilization as it stood. Again, only Castro "won" because it scared the US enough to not attempt another invasion. Bet Saddam would've loved to have had old Nikita in office in 2003, he'd likely still be there.

Yes, pretty hard to say the USSR "won" when they were forced to back off in front of the world. They looked bad and the US looked good. Granted they got the concession on the missiles in Turkey, which was what Nikita primarily wanted, but it was irrelevant. Those missiles would've meant the USSR was burned up once or twice MORE than they would have without them. Big deal. The missiles in Cuba were a bigger deal because the Soviet long-range missile threat wasn't as great as the US one, plus it gave extra stuffing for Castro's shirt. However, it can be argued that they were also by and large irrelevant.

A smaller British army defeated a larger French army in a major victory. France still suffers today (just ask them), and English students around the world still suffer from having to read Henry V, which good old Shakespeare based around this battle. http://en.wikipedia....le_of_Agincourt

I'm more concerned with the future and nukes in Asia, frankly.