Gunrunner

I don't think that was his point... He mentionned "noobs" aiming his comment at new people with no knowledge and understanding of how this community work. Of course that wouldn't work and wouldn't be fair, it was hopefully just frustration speaking, no need to take it personnally. It's each according to his mean, the whole idea is to offer free stuff, but, as with Thirdwire, we should all be aware that running things cost money, that even free mods do cost money, in download bandwidth, in 3rd party models, in documentation... So, everyone should be aware of the costs, and know that if they have the financial means to help a little, they could, here on CA by suscribing, and on Thirdwire by buying games as Direct Downloads even if you're not interested yet or already have it on CD. There's other ways to contribute to the community if you can't afford to help financially, either through sharing your work or just being there, welcoming, helpful and making it a community people like to interact with, so let's not get carried away by careless words.

Gepard, of course the training and morale of some WP countries and units were above the average NATO units... Unfortunately they didn't constitute a majority... You also forget that East Germany was an exception in the WP, being always among the first to get the latest hardware, with little or no downgrade compared to the Russian version, they trained more and got spare parts more easily than most other WP countries. For the Air Forces, the training regimen of NATO forces was far superior quantitatively to anything the WP had and qualitatively to almost all except part of the Russian and East German air forces. But doctrine plays a part too, and the Soviet one concerning the air forces was less efficient than NATO's, underusing assets, which coupled with maintenance and availability problems would mean a sortie rate far inferior to standard NATO forces. You also have to take into account that the West Germans would have been fighting for their own land, their families, and while in peace time it doesn't affect morale, in wartime it does, just as morale does decline when you start losing half your unit just to invade some land for which you have little interest yourself and you are the agressor (of course political ideals are to be taken into account but you know more than me how it affected East Germany). My comment and disbelief wasn't meant to be demeaning to the men, only to the structure they served.

Pigeon guidance, what else ?

Well said, but just try to put things back into perspective, the community only gets better and better, the situation was worse 1, 2, 3 years ago... We regularly had drama unfolding, with unreasonnable people on both sides. We reached a point where the standard modder agreement is used and allows the community to thrive with as little drama, friction and useless negotiations as possible. Now we have only sporadic douchebag eruptions on the pure user front and level headed modders. We also reached a point where everyone is aware of the passions and work involved and the community won't let modders be insulted, and if we manage to emit a crude comment on the spur of the moment, excuses and mortification ensues (see serverandenforcer who apologised for weeks for something that was only a badly worded opinion for which noone felt anything more than a rewording was necessary).

I know it was considered, NATO's job was to consider all options and scenarios to be prepared for whatever might happen, all I'm saying is that 1) it's based on an over-estimation of Soviet capabilities and 2) if happening, the game's already over unless Soviet forces are stretched too thin, in which case salvation would only come from uprisings. In all cases Spain would be swamped with refugees, making any military operation that much more difficult. Also, keep in mind that if that scenario was judged that serious and there was a real hope in using the iberic peninsula as a beachhead back into Europe, NATO and the US would have helped military build up of Spain and Portugal far more than they historically did during the Cold War. It was mostly a plan C, in case all else failed (I'm not saying that Spain was unimportant, had little strategic value or fighting capacity, only that due to geography, if the fight came on Spanish soil, the chances of winning were slim). Quite frankly I doubt France in such a scenario would have lasted long, the whole European WW3 scenario was really a hit or miss thing, with NATO putting all it got on Germany for the first three weeks of war, hoping to establish supply lines in the Atlantic, failing that the fight was over and the countries behind Germany would fall fase, and even if the North Atlantic battle was won, it would come down to a war of attrition with numbers in favor of the Soviets, but morale, training, equipment in favor of NATO, the only winning strategy for NATO then being to cripple the Soviets' supply lines and forcing them to peace talks (if you decide to completely exclude the nuclear option). Now, with the Soviets stopping at the Pyrenees for whatever reason, letting NATO rescapees regroup in Spain, supplies and US troops flow in (meaning the Soviet Navy would not do its job), then it might happen, but I can't think of a reason for the Soviets not to push their advantage if they managed to get that far. North African countries "reclaiming" the south of Spain, while a little strange, actually offers something better balanced, and might fit into a WW3 scenario, the move being a diversion for the Soviets. The Iberic Peninsula being the recompense offered by the Soviets for not helping NATO resupply.

Warsaw Pact seems unlikely... In a WW3 scenario, IF WP forces decided to extend their forces toward the iberic peninsula, it would mean that a) Germany and France fell, b) Norway fell, c) Iceland, Ireland and the United Kingdom fell, thus leaving very few possibilities of counter-attack on the North Atlantic front and allowing ground forces to move forward, only leaving reserve and garrison troups behind as occupation forces. In such a scenario Spain and Portugal would already have had forces fighting in Germany and France once the severity of the situation was realised. Meaning that once you'll start your campaign, you'd be facing a formidable opponent (far more than historically, otherwise it wouldn't have been able to meet the requirements), with your already crippled forces (the losses in defense of Germany/France) and little support from anyone else (The US would have suffered tremendous losses in defense of the GIUK gap, Norway, Germany, France and England, the North Atlantic would be mostly in Soviet hands, and help from the Mediterranean would be sparse (maybe from Italy/Greece/Turkey/Israel if they're still in the game, but with the Atlantic lost, the only "safe" ressuply route would be through a long detour and the quite vulnerable Suez Canal)). It would be a fight for a glorious death, as if it comes to that, you'd have no chance to win. You could also envision an invasion from the Mediterranean rather than through the Pyrenees, which would mean a complete domination over the Mediterranean by the Soviets, meaning the partial downfall of at least Italy, Greece, France and Turkey. The Black Sea Fleet never was in a position to accomplish such a feat, and never had enough transport and assault capacity to mount an invasion of the iberic peninsula. The Soviet goal in such a scenario would be to deny complete control of the Mediterranean to NATO forces, "secure" the Suez route and protect the Black Sea. Now, let's say they didn't disable Italy etc... Their fleet would be too vulnerable to mount any serious invasion. Then let's consider that the invasion is mostly a diversion, an attempt to mobilize NATO forces far away from Germany and buy time by opening a new front, even though the chances of succes are slim. In that case it makes much more sense to try that in Turkey or better Italy, as it ends up being easier to secure and offer better strategic advantages in case of success, prompting a more serious reaction from NATO and thus acting as a better diversion. Nope, sorry, as interesting as it might be, without a large dose of suspension of disbelief I can't see it working with the Soviets...

I'd be more interested in earlier marks (-A, -B, -C), or even better, an E-1B/WF-2 but yes, a true E-2 (as opposed to a deformed C-2, wich served valiantly for years) would be nice.

I think the thorny issue with refueling is that TK would want to do it right, meaning that it will not only be there for the player, but the AI and that the AI would be able to use it by itself. In most other sims this is either absent, or partly scripted (meaning that once reaching a certain position, the AI will follow a script rather than really react to outside events). Also, originally, the SF series was more about tactical operations, skirmishes, and there was no real need for refueling as the size of the theater made it unnecessary (except that since WoV it had an historical justification), meaning that the whole campaign engine would have to be changed, since the change in scope would mean really dealing with long flights with refueling, multiple operations, etc...

True, I'm a parasite... (well, mostly) The person below me is a sycophant.

Probably because the USN did test the Mirage G around 1968 and Dassault did offer the swing technology and consultancy on it to some competitors including LTV, IIRC LTV did take the offer (hence the proximity of design), but no other did.

Errr, there never was any G3... What would be interesting would be a G4 (the G8 looks unbalanced with its single seat so far forward) and a F3 (the F2 second seat being far enough that the single seat version looks right). The original Mirage G demonstrator might be of interest too (Mirage F2 fuselage, dual seat, single engine, swing wings : Link). And of course a 4000.

The whole range of "high-end" options in the Mirage family would be nice. But there's so much to do already... Mirage F2 (cancelled in 67) Dual seat, 1 engine, a little bigger than a Mirage III, with a high mounted swept wing, for strike, reconnaisance etc... Started in paralell with the original Mirage G, the AdA lost interest in it once the Mirage G proved successful, concentrating instead on the G4. Mirage G4 (cancelled 68) Dual seat, 2 engines, for strike, reconnaissance, nuclear strike and electronic warfare. Replacing the F2 as the next main strike aircraft, the F2 development continuing for a while in paralell as a backup plan. Mirage F3 (cancelled in 67) Single seat, 1 engine, smaller than the F2, for interception. Mostly a F2 cut for interception duty after a shift in priorities. Mirage G8 (cancelled 73) Single seat, 2 engines, for interception. Once the G4 collapsed and realising that what the AdA really needed was interceptors, the G8 was to the G4 what the F3 was to the F2, an interceptor version, the program continued until 1973 even though the AdA chose the F1 in 1967, perhaps hoping to get enough credits in the meantime to procure the G8 later on. And last but not least... The Mirage 4000 ! PS : Ah ! I knew I already did a whole rant on these birds ^^ A little over a year ago...

Mostly because the Il-18 looked much like an Electra, and when both sides chose an airliner as a basis for a coastal patrol plane, they chose from the same class of airframe.

I'd just love to have inclement being light rain in summer, heavy rain in autumn, light snow in early winter, heavy snow in the heart of winter... Unfortunately those effects seems to depend on environmentsystem.ini with no way (at least none I found yet) in the [terrain].ini to set up effects for seasons, defeating the purpose of seasonnality a bit (unless you want heavy rain during a snowy winter, or heavy snow in summer...). The compromise I use at the moment is reserving inclement for snow and making sure inclement has a null or very low probability for anything except winter. On another (related) note, is there any summer/spring tree set compatible with CA_Stary excellent fall/winter sets ?

Nice, I'll just have to wait :) I just love your work, the PR tiles while stunning at the right altitude often look too repetitive from altitude and too strange once in the weeds. For the Lexx-style clouds I knew the limitation, but that would make sense in simulating a "semi-dynamic" weather system, as usually the weather is not uniform from France to Ukraine, as the system work yet.

Or maybe they're just placeholders until the actual code is done, making the transition easier because the entries and IOs are already there...

Doesn't seem like you can replace effects texture with seasons. But since you have to modify the rainemitter to make it work, it might also be that my method just doesn't work (the original RainEmitter is a particle system with no texture, so I had to write another crappy one as a replacement to test the idea).

I always wondered wether it was a full TW product or just a licenced engine as the screenshots for this one usually show 3D models below the usual TW standard (which, given the rather different purpose, is rather normal).

herman01, it's not "just a scene", a scene is a cooperative process involving dozens of people doing their job. Even worse, if done in natural environment, a scene is a tricky thing to do, as lighting changes with the time of the day, with weather, and you might not get to reshoot a scene properly for days if you miss the particular window of opportunity you were looking for (Just watch Lost in la Mancha for a nice exemple of really bad luck...). For some movies, reshooting a scene might mean spending YET another hour or two in freezing water, or mostly nude in the middle of winter, or under tons of makeup and heavy costumes under heavy (and hot) lighting. The more you shoot, the more fatigue creeps in (in actors and crews) and the greater the risk of screw-ups is. All delays cost money, as the dozens of people have to get paid for their time. All people on set are there since early morning and will usually leave only when the shooting schedule for the day is done, or when working conditions are not good enough (when everyone's too tired or the weather/lighting are not right anymore). All of these people have families and better thing to do than reshooting scene after scene just because some idiot likes to wander on set, especially if scenes were good until that point. Given, actors don't work that much, but when they do work, they work intensely, sometimes accepting things you would not accept (in Bale's case one might think of losing more than 60 pounds in preparation for The Machinist, allegedly he wanted to lose even more) (of course, most get paid handsomely for what they do). Professionalism is NOT letting people screw up hours of teamwork repeatedly and let it continue. Let's switch context for one where repeated absent-minded mistakes screwing the work of other has clearer consequences; A moron absent-mindedly walks in on an operation room, during an operation, without proper protection, threatening contamination for the patience and risking his life ? Twice ? Don't you think the moron wouln't be yelled at ? Would the surgeon delivering the yelling be unprofessional ? I'll guess you never worked in situations where your own work can be compromised by the incompetence of others and where you would have to start all over again because of it, if you did you would not see yelling as unprofessional, as it sometime is the only way, short of using lethal means, to deal with some idiots.

Now we need a Panama terrain...

Yep, you're right C5, IIRC only the FAW.9 ever received it in service, and even then, very few did and had a new designation in service, FAW.9® or something along these lines.

Then we'd be running out of carrier to land on ^^

I wouldn't want to be in a Tomcat trying to land on the old girl... AFAIR she was barely enough for Hornets... Yeah, I know, I'm no fun...

Thanks Wrench, I already find that out from ANW ^^ From my experiments, trying all known or possible positions for both declarations and alternate files, you can't seem to get per-season environmentsystem.ini, and if you can include them into the terrain specific environmentsystem.ini I haven't found how either. I haven't tested getting effects in a seasonal folder though, that's worth a try...

How could you get Best Sci-Fi and Pluto Nash in the same sentence without a negation ? It's got Eddy Murphy ! It's got to be the absolut worst SF movie ever made... even Jar-Jar Binks seems a good idea if watching SW1 just after Pluto Nash... Flash Gordon is another thing entirely, it's so kitsh it's brilliant and it's got a Queen soundtrack... You, sir, have rather strange tastes...