Gunrunner

If we destroyed it, those foolish humans would realize something's wrong or send more, we just need to convince them there's nothing to see here, it's all boring red dirt, maybe they'll go away.

From where I stand he looks utterly sad and pathetic, a desperate man clutching at straw, ready to do anything, even the most ridiculous stunt to conserve enough power base to fight the rise of russian civil society. His opposition to oligarchy might have been beneficial, but accompanied by a will to keep Russia from fully entering the post-Soviet era, it's actually starting to hurt Russia, IMHO.

That's a puzzling one... unless there is legacy code involved and at first pass there is no limit (or a high limit) on the amount of decals treated and then on the pass treating spec/glos/ref there's a hard limit on the number of decals treated and everything beyond that number is culled. That would be an interesting bug to report if TW's new policy wasn't "you're not really supposed to mod things you know, here take a look at our android game". Or if the solution wouldn't end up as everything being fixed to the lowest number of decals.

Maybe, maybe... add a few layers to the skin, some random clouding and to have panels of slightly different luminosity, makes the skins less flat and closer to stock skins conventions.

Let's wait and see if anyone else finds it, too be honest I don't think it's that well known, even though to me it's as iconic as Ader's planes.

The peculiar wing design and paint scheme are screaming the name at you...

Anyway, didn't you all get the memo ? Dave is secretly a bajillionnaire now, part of the 0.1%, a bona fide oligarch and a card carrying Illuminati too... that's why his betrayal of good old Texas for the eyes of a Russian beauty should not come as a surprise...

Many are the times I think he is not a head of state but the participant in "President of Russia: The Reality Show". He has to be the world leader offering the most surreal stunts.

Hey, I said it was far too easy... had nothing better in stock, we'll see if anyone comes up with something worthy of some head-scratching.

Yep, for subtitles red is for you, yellow for your flight and blue for other allied flights. The funny part is that even without a wingman, nearly allied flights or even a RIO, you WILL still receive warnings about missile departure, EA in your six etc...

That was vicious, good find, I can't remember ever reading about that one. Who's next ? In the meantime, after a far too hard one, let's have a far too easy one...

My real problem is that SF2 is out of the realm of games by a simmer for simmers, played by simmers, it's now a game by a simmer, for Joe Six-Pack, mostly played by Joe Six-Pack, and that shapes ThirdWire next moves. Once upon a time the typical SF customers were people like Dave, Fubar and a few tinkerers... now the typical customer is CarlosTex... 12 year-olds with ADHD... these people ruin anything they touch. I loathe them...

Not everyone, but you have to realize some have been around for a decade and feel that the glacial speed of improvement mixed with the modder-hostile turn TW seems to be taking is taking its toll. At the same time ED is opening it's sim more and more, with some exciting things... many people have reached the point where lite siming seems too restricted and yearn for the era of study sims... before long they'll remember why study sims almost died out (hint: because they're getting boring very very fast when you don't have unlimited free time), but still, they are in need of fresh air and an atmosphere less hostile, or at least less passively aggressive, toward modders (why they'd think ED qualifies is beyond me, but still, it is looking more and more interesting, especially for getting close to offering a real digital battlefield). In the end, TW doesn't care, it reached a point where it has gained enough momentum with non-modders and stock-gamers that losing the modding community is not necessarily a financial disaster in the short term; whether that still holds true on a larger timescale is another matter entirely and I wouldn't bet on it, the masses are fickle, modders less so when they have invested so much in a game. The real pity is that TK gives the impression that he forgot that without the modding community he probably never would have reached the point where SF2 was financially viable, and that's where the resentment is coming from. Besides, 10 years is already a long time for a mod community, most die out long before that and many reaching the 10 years mark see a massive exodus of 1st to 3rd wave modders, if the community was organised enough, it can go on for quite some time has the most recent modders have enough experience to compensate, otherwise it might simply die off, or suffer a long hiatus before a rebirth once they get back to the point where the old ones were (look at the Total Annihilation community, for years unit making was nearly back to square one and now we're back to very nicely done units on a regular basis, the trouble however, is that it took years to recover from the original exodus, and with a game requiring far less work to produce quality mods).

IF, and that's a big if, most of your targets are on flat terrain, it would be pretty simple to have a script moving targets around to take the size change into account, it's only an ini file after all. On the other hand, if you have too many targets on slopped terrain, results may be ugly.

Nah, just Strike Fighters 2 : Lock On

What bugs me is the apparently circular shape of the wing, I'm sure I've read about that somewhere.

Apparently, yes... I don't have a clue except that it's from the mid-20's to early-30's and probably from Italy/Russia/France/Yugoslavia, based only on the design, beyond that and without cheating, no idea...

Gunrunner's Morality Theorem #45 : Consumption of porn and paraphilia is directly proportional to how fiercely puritanical one wishes to appear.

That's CA for you, there's almost always someone with the answer... for my part I had nothing in mind...

Well done, I've always like it and the ekranoplanes, they're weird beasts but not entirely unattractive in their own ways. Your turn then...

If it's what gets the money in so that he can get the Mirage F.1 out, so be it... I'll even buy it... but hey, I have more money than sense or taste...

Too bad, it had something of a Hawker design in it. Guess it's my turn since I was the closest... That one shouldn't be too difficult as it is very peculiar.

It's obviously an I-215, but I have no bloody idea who manufactured it without having to resort to cheating sources. It's not Sukhoi, it's not a MiG, neither Tupolev nor Ilyushin... That leaves us with what ? A Lavochkin or Yakovlev I've never seen before (if it's one of those I'd say Lavochkin, it has that kind of grace) or one of the short-lived OKBs (most probably, but I can't remember any of these from the late 40's/early 50's).

I'm not so sure, I remember the original Su-9 as looking a lot like the Me-262, here the engines nacelles are closer to those on the Meteor, with a forward cockpit. Whatever it is it certainly counts. Damn, it's so evident three of us missed it entirely...

I'd say you are allowed if you disclose it in your answer and you let other people have a go at it before, however I've been devious and you won't find that one, as-is, through Google Images. Ok, a small hint... It's a yugoslav bird (the tail can help you figure it), it's from the early/mid 50's and its manufacturer is now better known for manufacturing buses.