JediMaster

Actually the release will be kept secret, known only to a few. It will quietly appear on public FTP servers while links will be few and far between. It will take a massive amount of detective work to find where it is. That is because finding it is half the fun!

Um...perhaps a heavily altered version of the engine! There's pretty much zero commonality between an engine good for racing and one for a combined arms infantry sim like OFP...I can't imagine that's a smart move.

One other thing would be another uninstall/reinstall, but after uninstall go into your directory and totally delete the Lockon folder. Just to make sure no .cfg files or anything are lingering behind. The problem really is you have a midrange card from YEARS ago and I don't think ATI is keeping it really current with the drivers it's released lately. There are sites out there that have older drivers archived. You might try an early 7.x or even a 6.x driver.

LOL, that's because all the land area of France and the UK combined is only a small fraction of the total rural area in the USA! It's far less difficult to cover a small area with broadband access.

All that money is going into operations in SW Asia. The pace of buying replacement equipment has not increased, but the rate of wearing down the old stuff did. Instead of being good for another 10 years, things are going to need replacing in less than 5. However, the JSF program can't be rushed anymore than it is, and buying more of the older planes looks bad politically plus it's just plain money that isn't there. The money is being burned up in Iraq pretty much. Afghanistan and other ops by comparison are chump change.

Yeah, in the early 90s we already had the replacement ATF program underway which was (at the time) to replace all the F-15A/Cs by the turn of the century. Instead it took a decade longer and we're only getting 1/4 as many F-22s.

Harriers have always had a higher attrition rate thanks to the VTOL aspects being less forgiving. Far more likely to write one off. Plus it glides like a brick with a large overcoat on. I wonder if it was a bird ingestion or just a mechanical/fuel problem in the engine.

There's a lot of spare parts out there for 767s. That said, I'm not particularly enthused with the idea of the US buying a ton of them as tankers NOW as the replacement plane (787) is gearing up for production. It's the situation with the JSTARS being used 707s all over again writ large. On the flipside, I don't care for the KC-30 or whatever NorthGrum is pitching it as too much either. We don't need FEWER numbers of a larger airplane! The 135 fleet is stretched as it is and we're already buying fewer to replace them.

I think the best part of that movie was the river boat trip. Or was that HS pt 2? Anyway, he's looking over things as the boat goes along the river, and then there's another boat coming the opposite direction with Martin Sheen in it saying "I can't believe they wanted me to kill this guy..." As they pass each other, they see each other, stand up and shout at the same time "I loved you in Wall Street!"

Heh, well at least I needn't worry about the date part anymore! Cypress Hill's video for Insane is forever immortalized by its appearance on Beavis and Butthead, the quintessential commentary of 90's teen life! BTW, if you're ever down in Miami you can visit Al's final home where he lived till he died. It's just SO exciting to see a ~100 yr old house with absolutely NOTHING special about it other than Al lived there in a wheelchair.

There are so many toxic chemicals used in rockets and satellites it's a wonder people want to work around them at all. Some of them smell strongly, giving you at least a few seconds warning (I say seconds because generally speaking if you smell it then it's already damaging your insides), but a few are odorless. Even though I don't work on the pads we all have to take the same safety courses about things like the emergency breathers and the eyewash stations. I remember one guy from the Test Sq telling a story about being out at a pad doing an inspection with his team and then thinking, "Who brought a tuna sandwich out here??" (That's what he thought he smelled.) Next thing he did was shout "LEAK!" and they all cleared datum PDQ!

"You are dangerous comrade!"

Ah, nothing is a bigger buzzkill than a drunk poster!

I'm sure Russ is still working on it, I've just no idea how far he has to go or if he has an ETA.

Nope, I have not! Only thing like this I've played lately is ET:QW based largely on the strength of its bots and the fact I got it on sale for $20! Well, I've also played UT2k4 and now UT3 for the same reason, great bots! I always enjoyed playing these games coop with one or two other people vs the bots, and that's how I played 90% of the time with BF42, DC, and BFV. Are there good bots in FFW that mimic humans well? Or is this one where if you never play against humans it falls flat?

You tend to have higher attrition, possibly higher loss of pilots, and at a minimum more wear and tear on your airframes. Imagine how many F-15s might have been lost by now if they'd been flown like that?? That reminds me, any word on what the IDF/AF might have found with their fleet of F-15s as far as cracks or mis-manufactured longerons? The USAF isn't the only one with F-15s built in those years! Saudis and Japanese have them, too, although I think Japan built most of theirs...not sure how much of the work was done there of course. Might have used McD-supplied parts for some areas like that.

It's by whoever does the accounting and for whatever agenda they're pushing! Usually the unit cost is called "flyaway" costs and is nothing beyond parts and labor to make one plane. I believe I saw the F-22A's "flyaway" cost was $141 million last year when LockMart signed a contract with the USAF for a single extra F-22 for some reason or other. Of course, usually there's a discount when you buy more than a few, but as multi year, multi unit contracts are already in place, adding just one plane isn't going to affect things much. In this case, I have no idea how they arrive at that number. At a minimum it's for the cost of the planes. Is upgrading/refurb included? I'd guess. Parts and spares? Maybe. Armament to go with them? Possibly. Training, simulators? Who knows? Lifecycle costs for the amount of time they're expected to stay in service? Another possibility. That's why I've always laughed at quoted numbers for planes like the B-2 and F-22. When you have a small number of planes and you decide to put not only the cost of procurement but all those other things I mentioned PLUS EMD testing PLUS the original R&D and then divide by the number of planes bought, of course the B-2 shows up as billions per plane! In reality, I think to build one from scratch costs about as much as 2 1/2 large airplanes like C-17s, which really isn't that bad a deal.

When they start to fly under the ship is when we should worry.

My wife's b-day is the week before Xmas, so after our like 3rd year together she stopped caring about a separate gift and instead it's just cards and usually dinner. This year we're going out Sunday night, though, because the Melting Pot, where we wanted to go, changed their menu on V-day so instead of it being $70 a couple it was $105!! For a smaller fixed menu! No thanks...

You'll never get me on a transatlantic flight, let alone transpacific! Now if it's a suborbital shot that does it in an hour, fine, otherwise...

They probably would be better off with F-16s, but my guess is the Kfirs are cheaper so they can buy more.

Yes, but there aren't a lot of pics of it! The volcanic landscape is what makes it unique. I had some pics of some Tornados there, but they were pretty blurry and crappy. I just hope I don't have to go there! One of the techs I work with took this pic because he volunteered to go there for 3 weeks while the other came out for vacation. I NEVER want to go. A 12 hr flight with another 3 hr leg? Ugh. I can barely stand to fly to Vegas from Atlanta, and that's less than 4 on a MUCH nicer plane. Stupid DC-8s.

I think that's why the F-16 and Hornet are so popular with sims...they do it all, plus are single seaters (or at least aren't only dual seaters). You make one plane and a minimum of fuss.

Yeah, from the voting it seems 3 out of 4 want MP of some type. I do think the differentiation between basic and advanced is confusing, though. I didn't consider the TW sims now as "basic" because the way it was worded I thought of Jane's F-15. "Advanced" as worded, to me, was the way TW sims are now. However, if the intention is that TW's are basic and sims like LOMAC are "advanced" with F4 and Il-2 being pretty much in the "ultimate" category, then I think some people might revise their vote.

I'd like a good Viggen or Draken as well, but realistically I don't think it would generate enough sales. As one plane out of many in a survey sim, yes, but not as THE focus. Ditto the CF-105. I mean, a LOT of sales in Canada is still relative...they only have 10% of the US' population, so a LOT there is still 10% of a LOT here. Selling 100k games there is like selling a million here.