JediMaster

Of course, TK spent far less time and money developing FE and it also promised less. It's the difference between buying a Ford Focus and finding it reliable and comfortable and buying a Lexus and finding broken functions, poor reliability, bad mileage, etc. You expect more from a higher-end product, not the same as the lower-end with just a shinier coat of paint (or graphics and FM/DM in this case?)

TK knew from the start modders would fill in the blanks by making his engine amenable to easy modding and based on the history of his previous sims, especially the heavily-modded EAW (even though that sim came out of the box with a ton of features, planes, and a nice big map of Western Europe). However, while modding does create longevity for your original product, it serves as a disincentive to buying expansions thanks to the "why should I pay $XX for those planes and terrain if I have this free 3rd party mod for it?" attitude. If you release a full-blown sequel you risk fracturing the modding community and it needs to be done after enough time has passed.

If neoqb has decided now to start allowing it, after setting themselves up as basically a sim structure that they would micro-charge for extras like planes, it's almost a tacit admission that their business model was badly flawed.

Honestly I have no idea as I've never even attempted to fly the game with a keyboard! I've been using a joystick with my flight sims since my 386 in 1991!

Wait, are you implying there was a time he would've been popular here??

I would think that would be easily fixed though, right? Or is there some bug that prevents it from running out?

The perfect water options require a video chip capable of doing it. You didn't say what your laptop's video specs are, but that has a great bearing on it. If it's an Intel of whatever type, it will never work. If you have an ATI or nvidia, it might. In fact, I believe the highest water options are nvidia-only, at least they used to be, even though the ATI cards could do it.

Having DX9 installed doesn't mean your video hardware supports everything DX9 supports.

Another thing is this isn't the 1940s anymore, where on being attacked a country can gear up for war production or buy what they need in 6 months. These weapons systems take decades to develop and introduce into service even when funding is not an issue, and that's almost never true anymore.

All it takes is one of Brazil's neighbors getting crazy ideas into its head, perhaps due to a military coup, and it's looking at a very serious need to defend itself.

While the US is lucky enough to have only 2 other countries on land borders, neither of which has been an adversary in over 150 years (although we did fight in Cuba less than 50 yrs ago), few other countries share that luxury. Brazil needs to buy today what it will use in a future conflict in 2030 that we can't even conceive of today. Maybe it will be defending against an agressor in the west, maybe it will be part of a multinational force like WWII in a battle overseas, you just don't know.

It's a problem when the people distrust the military, of course.

While this certainly gives Dassault that nebulous "momentum" going into the MMRCA competition, I think politics will play a larger role in the outcome than any other factor. After all, many such competitions have been won by inferior, more expensive products over the years no matter who's buying or selling...because of politics.

Sure you can compete with China. Don't you do their tech support like you do ours? Just tell them all the wrong stuff and they'll trash their networks.

"Just unplug your machine while it's booting for a full reset."

The Chinese gov't has an innate weakness in that they believe in their own superiority, any evidence to the contrary being dismissed or covered up. They'll never admit they were wrong, even if it means condemning their country to serious hardship. Exploit that!

EXCEPT...the 163 isn't a prop plane. I've no idea how rocket propulsion works in the game though. Was it just done as a jet with a tiny fuel load and high thrust?

The YF-22 was an ugly bird, no doubt about it. The F-22A fortunately has vastly improved those lines! The YF-23 though did have the edge even over that.

Having just read the article in S:A&S mag about that FB-23 concept that Northrop found for sale on ebay, I've got the bug to fly this one again and can't wait to put it in my SF2 load!

Online is just like playing offline except for the lag factor you may have to deal with and the fact that difficulty settings are enforced by the server. So if there's an option you want one way and they set it another, you're stuck, no overrides, regardless of whether you think they have it set too hard or too easy.

The separate shortcuts for SP and MP is a little unusual for a flight sim (although I've seen it for years in FPS games), and the settings are all configured in the SP side (the only setting alterable in MP is your name and network connect speed I think, everything else like if you want to remap a command is only done on the SP side) so be sure you have your setup as you like it in SP before you go into MP the first time. Otherwise you'll have to disconnect, exit and start the SP side to change it before you go back into MP and reconnect.

LOL = laugh out loud, and it is badly overused.

In some cases, the person USING the "lol" might be called stupid, actually.

And thank you for not typing "could of", that really irritates me.

My wife of 11 years and my daughter, who just turned 1 a week ago. Everything else qualifies as "diversions" or "entertainment", but they don't really make me happy. Music, TV, games, books, whatever, I enjoy it as it comes but I don't live for it.

I was unaware Madden could discuss anything without a telestrator.

Those sunglasses part of the uniform?

No matter what you might think, it 100% has to be better than AvP Requiem!

Those are strakes, not the same as canards. Canards implies a flying surface, whether or not it's movable or (like the Viggen) has movable surfaces on it. A strake is a glorified wing fence stuck somewhere else and is far more common. The F-16, Su-27, and many others have strakes.

In this case, the strakes are just placed where the canards were.

I really dislike programming. My Cougar's files all consist with either ones I've DL'd and slightly altered for my use or converted FLCS/TQS profiles I used before.

Actually, half the commands on my profiles are rarely used. I use the ones that are needed for fighting usually. Things like gear, comms, and fancy avionics commands I usually just do on the keyboard because it's easier to remember them most of the time!

I just want to have an idea which way I should go because I've basically been disappointed with the Cougar almost from the first month I had it and this will have to last me at least another several years!

They did a great bit about it on the Daily Show last night, with Stewart claiming it was going to be his signature sign-off like Cronkite's "And that's the way it is."

"Good night, and keep %^ing that chicken!"

That desk wasn't designed to hide wires, that's why you have so much trouble with them. There are other styles that make it almost impossible to see them. When I got my latest desk the wife was very insistent on finding one that would maximize wire-hiding!

How different can it be from L4D?

I don't have time for a sim that's not fun, bottom line. To those who say "being a true sim IS the fun"...hooray for you. Don't be surprised almost no one else feels that way, though.

Actually, it's not just that disagreeing makes you a racist, it now apparently implies a whole rainbow of negative connotations.

You can't tell someone they're wrong anymore without it being instantly considered a personal attack on everything that person stands for, believes in, and is a part of! Tell a Dem they're wrong and you're a racist, you're a fascist, you're stuck in the last century, blah blah blah. Tell a Rep they're wrong and you're a communist, you're against family values, you're against America, blah blah blah. Tell some shmo they're wrong and you're calling them a liar, an idiot, AND insulting whatever religion/politics they support!

We've reached the point where you have to agree 100% with one side or the other or you're dismissed as a member of the other side! They don't want you on their side if you only agree 80%, oh no, you have to agree with it all.