Gunrunner

A field on a misty morning ?

Tamper, automatic updates are on by default but can be disabled on a per game basis, just because you don't know how to use a tool doesn't mean it doesn't work. Yes, by default it launch at start-up... by default, nothing is stopping you from changing that as I and countless other Steam users do, once again, if you don't know how to use a tool, don't blame it on the tool. And who's forcing you to use Steam, is anyone putting a gun to your head ? You want the liberty of using your computer as you see fit, do so, don't come ranting because some new game requires a DRM, or to update your graphic card driver, or whatever conspiracy you're seeing... As for the generational contempt, I don't give a fig about your discussion with other people on other boards, in the present case YOU were the once trying to use your age and my supposed own as a reason to explain away our differing opinion on the matter at hand. Seriously, you have absolutely no clue on the topic, on the history of personal computing and try to gain some legitimacy by using your "old age" as an argument ? You are ranting about people going after bells and whistle software, but you are the kind of people running an OCed rig and a RAID 0 array of SSD, proudly displaying his WEI and you talk about unnecessary encumbrances... Can't you be more ridiculous ? You, sir, are a poser and a vile troll.

Tamper... Look, it's one thing to make a personal choice not to use something, it's another entirely to try and justify your not doing so by inventing counter-factual arguments, no-one's going to blame you for not liking it, but by giving idiotic reasons, you will be seen as a complete idiot, which I assume you are not. My beef with you is not that you don't want to use Steam or whatever, it's that you are claiming to do so based on entirely irrational arguments. As a matter of fact I did dislike Steam too... a bit of research later, I end up defending them... What's the point of possessing the media, just for the sake of it ? And once again, with Steam I just save and burn it if I want... sure I would need the Steam software just to restore it, but with physical media it's the same thing, if I didn't play my card rights, a few years down the right I might not have the right media reader or the OS might not read the installer. There's no functional difference here, you'll always have to jump through hoops for what becomes legacy software. Trading liberties... Tell me, what liberty is digital distribution taking away from you exactly ? I don't get it... Marketing... Seriously, you know that Steam was started by a game developer/publisher, they don't use invasive ads like Impulse did (and does), they don't sell marketing data, they only deal in statistical data. Steam was built first and foremost to help Valve push their own games online without the cost of physical distribution and having to negotiate with retail channels, that's where the value proposition is, this is not Facebook. I never lost a game, yada, yada... good for you, but people move, physical supports degrade and many people have lost games to these events, sure, had they been more cautious it wouldn't have happened, so what ? You mean that the only point of view and valid experience to appreciate the value of anything is Tamper's ? Are you an egomaniac ? If you don't find the answer to your questions, then maybe you should ask your questions more clearly and not hide them among so much drivel. Let's assume for a moment your question are you emphasized quotes (even though they technically are rhetorical questions) : - Would Steam exist without advertisers putting money into it ? Yes, as would Impulse, Origin etc... for the simple reason that advertising/marketing doesn't finance these services. Steam is backed by a game developer/publisher, Valve, it makes money off the cut it takes from sales. Impulse was backed by a game developer/publisher, Stardock, before being bought by a game retail chain, GameStop, once again, money is made off sales, not advertising. Origin is backed by a game publisher, Electronic Arts, once again, money is made from sales, not advertising. Publishers subscribe to these distribution channels because they offer convenience (easier, cheaper distribution; easier, cheaper patch distribution), better additional revenues (by making the sale of extension and DLC a simple procedure). Consumers subscribe to these services because they offer better prices, the same convenience when it comes to installing, patching and extending; and more importantly... no functional difference with the physical variant as the downsides you decry are NOT a function of the distribution channel, but of the game or their DRM themselves. Now, is that at last clear for you ? That argument would be far more at home in a rant about Facebook (don't get me started on that steaming pile, or maybe you should, you'd see we agree and that my current disagreement is mostly on your chosen target, not your values in themselves). - Would digital distribution exist if there was nothing to sell you ? Would a bakery with no bread to sell last long ? Of course if a game retailer had no games to sell, it would not exist, having no reason to exist in the first place... what's supposed to be your goddam point here ? - How did we manage to be just fine all these years without digital distribution ? Guess what, gaming has changed, publishers have becoming paranoid about piracy, they have become dissatisfied of fattening retail channels not respecting their end of bargains. Developers enjoy the ability to patch quickly, often and to do so reliably and consistently, they also learnt to love the ability to have large games without having to think in terms of production constraints (ie. not having to cut content because it would mean one more optical disc in the box). Gamers enjoy not having to constantly switch media, not having to search for the latest patch, having patches disappear with the publisher, being able to quickly install/uninstall games without having to shuffle through kilos of 500-CD cases (guess what, I own over 2000 optical discs of games, including archived floppies and so on... I absolutely don't miss having to rely on those). Another game changer was the rise of online gaming, which is, at least at my scale, a pretty recent development... and that requires different infrastructures, measures to fend off cheating if you plan on having competitive gaming and it's cheaper to rely on specialized platform than having to develop a system for every game. In short, this is a Luddite argument... How did we manage to eat just fine all these years before some smartass invented fire ? How did we manage to live just fine all these years without electricity ? The list of such dumb questions is endless... And keep the generational contempt to yourself will you, you obviously have little clue on how old I am or how far back my computing practice dates... And you really should know that age doesn't make you wiser, it only makes you older; there's no age to be a clueless idiot... or to use your brain.

What, did Steam run over your puppy ? This, kids, is why you should stay off drugs (or on them if prescribed by a doctor). Kidding aside, let's make it quick... Loss of ownership : Guess what, buster, even in the time of floppies and reams of paper with BASIC code printed on them, you never had such thing, only a licence to it. Targeted advertising : Where, how, when ? Online tracking : Steam tracks nothing beyond hardware configuration and gaming stats, I care about that as much as I care for the fact my pharmacist knows about my health, my librarian about my reading habits and topics of interests etc... IF Steam did track something not related to the function it serves, then I would share your outrage, however in this matter it's completely irrational as it ignores the real world precedents, or do you really think that knowing your hardware (any website can acquire that without your knowledge) or knowing what you play and when you play it has any value beyond the statistical ? Steam deciding what you can run : Errr, nope, it even accepts to sell me games they know I CAN'T play on my hardware, the only restrictions are those put by publishers restricting digital sales in some territories, but if you are allowed to buy it, you can run it. Steam deciding how you can run it : Once again, nope, you can mod it to your heart content, update with a non-Steam installer, use no-cd hacks... unless disallowed by the game's DRM itself, it will work, Steam doesn't prevent you to do so, once again, it's the publisher's fault if you can't. Steam deciding when you can run it : Nope, usually when Steam servers are out, you can still run your games, unless the publisher decided not to let you, likewise, if the publisher decided to add DRM so that you can't play with an internet connection, this has nothing to do with Steam. Steam deciding on which computer you can run it : Once again, partially wrong, you can only run your games on one registered computer at a time, however you can easily register more computers. More restrictions DO exist, on a per-game basis, depending on the game's specific DRM scheme, once again, it's due to the publisher's policy and not Steam. Also, Steam restrictions are somewhat reasonable as the licence for most games is for personal use on ONE computer at a time, however they do impose unnecessary restrictions on software not having such limited licencing terms, however that is bound to change in a few month with Steam going into software beyond games. Making the most money : You know what, Steam constant offers makes it so that I spend less money on more games than before Steam... I spend LESS on things I would have bought full price anyway AND that allows me to spend money on indie games and STILL, I'm spending less than by buying through traditional channels... yeah, those damn greedy corporations after my money, how dare they make me spend less money and help finance independent game developers (as a matter of record, I usually buy indie games both through Steam, as a matter of convenience, and directly from the developer where available) ! Your concerns are valid and I don't like the way first-to-second-tier gaming is going either, but mistaking the source of the problem and laying the blame on one of the best player, one pushing indie developers hard (even though they'd be happier with less sales or a larger cut), one constantly pushing for more user-friendly DRMs and equalizing force in the field (well, Impulse was interesting until bought by GameStop) is utterly stupid. The enemy is EA/Ubisoft, not Steam. And don't start on it being a generation thing, it's about being rational and clearly identifying the source of the problem.

What I don't get is how CarlosTex is not banned from TW's board, he's bloody obnoxious.

That one's already been shown here years ago... and learn to use a search engine ;-) (hint: open Google, choose the specific images search engine then drag and drop your image in the search box... and voila, instant response)

I've found and reproduced interesting bugs, but can't remember if they're old or new. 1) Once upon a time, when reaching Mach 1 some noises disappeared, not anymore (however that might be because TK got annoyed by it being reported as a bug). 2) If you visually or radar target an aircraft, while having an IR missile active but not locked, go into map view, then into the cockpit, for a short time the IR missile will use a lock growl, HUD or lights will show it locked, even though it is not, then it's back to normal search (I tried firing while reported as locked, it's not working, so it's purely a cockpit status bug). 3) In single missions Limited Nations and aircrafts User Lists seem to be ignored, leading to having Soviet Hunters appearing over North Vietnam (I'll have to verify that with a fresh install in case one of my modifications is doing that though but I don't see how). Can anyone confirm any of these ?

Well, there's no correct phrasing as neither the Foch nor Clemenceau wore those warnings to my knowledge. However if you insist on having them I may try to have a better translation, your advert idea is a nice one, in the mid 80's Citroen had a Visa GTi catapulted from the Clemenceau for an ad. Citroën Visa GTi

Does it come with a Dave action figure with the Collector's Edition ?

So basically we now have 5 factions beyond TW's forums... - CombatAce/Mirage Factory and allies - SimHQ - YAP - Capun/DAT - InSky A few people navigate between some of these but otherwise due to disagreements on the definitions of fairness, respect for intellectual property, quality control or tolerance to criticism, there's little communication.

Weird... another hypothesis, in some countries, you can't use a card for store/internet purchases if you haven't "activated" it by using it in an ATM first, maybe you have a similar arbitrary rule you weren't aware of.

Just a wild guess, have you used your credit card on other international sites, sometimes banks have international payments as an option, and if it's not activated on your card, the payment processor used by Amazon will reject the transaction as it originates from a foreign country. Your bank might be the one with the answer.

Nice piece of work, however I noticed you have "inverted" faces on the rudders (they face inward rather than outward), should be quick to fix when you feel like it.

It's because you made a basic mistake... [Decal010] MeshName=RightVstabilizer DecalLevel=2 DecalFacing=LEFT FilenameFormat=SovNums\BLUE-MODERN\SovietNumBlu_ Position=8.077,-0.50 <= here, you kept the position for the nose part... try using something like -7.023,1.448 Scale=0.5 DecalMaxLOD=4

Reminds me of a joke... A time traveler walks into a bar... "Bartender, a round of beer for everyone, I'm paying ! I'm back from 1932 Germany when I killed Staubmann" "Staubmann, who's that bloke ?" "Oh ! Of course, my sweet, innocent friend, you can't know, thanks to me there has been no World War II, no million of Jews killed, no atomic bomb, you've known peace, all because I killed Staubmann..." "Oh, we've had that alright and you meant Hitler didn't you ?" "Hitler ? Another one ! It's the eighth time that happened, how many more Germans will I have to kill ?"

We'd also need the graphic settings you're using with the game. Also, while playing, press Alt+D, it should display your FPS (current, average, max and delta) it would help understanding what you qualify as "slow" (some people consider 20FPS as a slide show, others as playable). Given your configuration I'd say graphics are the weak link and you should reduce advanced effects and quality here and there to make it playable.

The F-14 has a shadow problem with its landing gear (all stock, fully merged). It's the first time I've seen this in a stock model.

It only improves load times with SF2, however, on heavily modded, full details games, in addition to enough RAM (both system and GPU), it's a good way to drastically reduce them. A warning though, most SSD's achille's heel is dealing with a large number of very small files, offering good performances at first, then quickly slowing down or even regularly freezing, and guess what... a heavily modded SF2 install consist of thousands of small to very small files, so you have to be careful when chosing your SSD.

Come on, the scumbag is finally dead, let him rot in peace and forget about him, with a little chance he wouldn't have done too much damage to an idea he is credited to have popularized.

Let's face it, sinusitis and work caught up with me so the pace had been glacial until now and still will be slow once I get better, I'll try to update the pack more often than planned, as skins are finished, in no particular order. Well, that and fiddling with Super Mystère and Sabre Dog skins and decals.

If your INI are read-only, the game won't be able to add the new entries for new skins automagically, and since the last time I checked it first appended the INI then read it to get the skins, new skins won't show up unless you remove the read-only attribute or add it manually, overriding the read-only attribute.

Of course that did the trick, just remember it will make the automatic addition of new skins a pain though.

Sorry, I must be more ill than I thought, I still fail to understand the problem. Which words are you not parsing exactly ?

Not sure I understand what you don't understand... Could you detail your question or give us context, because otherwise it seems you don't translate "SFP2 Stock desert terrain" to "The terrain coming with Strike Fighters 2, named Desert (the one with Dhimar and Paran, you know), without any mod".

Dagger, you have to understand that the USA, unlike many other countries, have no official language (meaning not a language people should use, but a language in which all official documents must be made available, making the former a consequence of the later) on the national level (or maybe in the USA's case the federal level would be a more appropriate description). All states acknowledge in a way or another English as an official language, most as the only one but a few also other languages depending on the state's history or demography. Once you get that, I don't see what's surprising in seeing a private company making sure its clients can get service (thus expanding their market) in their own language, if that's either not illegal or a legal requirement.