mustang60348

Just when ED decisions couldn't get any more confusing. They have released the English Manual For Blackshark.

In light of the fact that the Russian version was cracked, that there is a simple way to make a fair amount of the internal working language into English and now they release the English manual , their decision to not allow people outside of CIS to legally and easily download the russian version looks even MORE SILLY.

I'm very disappointed in this decision. It strikes me as a very Russian one. Almost no other dev or publisher believes in using SF anymore because of the tons of bad press, but bad press apparently had zero impact on their decision. I find that remarkable.

It's like they wanted to use SF because it's Russian and only if their 100 person testing team had serious issues with it were they going to go elsewhere.

 

This reminds me of a certain other decision made just about 6 years ago to do something that people mostly thought was a bad idea, but was backed by what later turned out to be faulty information. Not that it mattered, because the "deciders" had already made up their minds and any positive backing was grabbed, however flimsy, and negative was brushed aside.

 

So, congrats to ED for acting very presidential in their decision-making process.

That is so true.

Holy crap, I just went to SIMHQ and went thru the thread over there about SF copy protection in BS.

WOW, what a freaking soap opera. I haven't been back to SIMHQ in well over a year and after reading that thread I feel so good about my decision to leave that place.

I'm not sure that's the best way to do things.

"We'll do what we want unless enough people complain loud enough to make us change our minds" instead of "figure out what the customers are most interested in and serve that need."

The 'un'fortunate part of software development is that there are times when DEVS believe their own hype, just like other companies. On their own forums (not just ED) they have a large group of people telling them that "YOU ARE GODS, I LOVE YOU and I want to have your baby" and they assume that this is the way everyone feels, without naming anyone in particular , there are also forums that don't allow any kind of negative posts about a particular product, so again the company thinks that everything is great.

The thing I hate about game devs as a whole and as an industry is that too many people think that the devs are doing them a favour by developing this particular game. Black Shark is especially bad because of the limited genre and unfort ED thinks (and is backed up by those who will do it) they can shovel anyting out to the simming public and they will buy it. This isn't too say that BS isn't a great sim, becuause I don't know as I don't have it. BUT protecting it via SF , a much maligned and much hated CP system, just goes to show how little ED cares about the gaming fans that they are trying to attract. Never in my history of gaming have I wanted a game to be cracked in the first hours of release, just to show ED that they are completly wasting their money.

When you look at their reaction to the pirated copy of BS that is going around, they are actually cutting off their nose to spite their face. They are preventing people from actually buying the game outside of CIS. Now I could understand if they stopped selling it all over the world , but they are not. So what this means is that the rest of the world will copy the program instead of buying the Russian Version. This too me smacks of "I am taking my ball and going home" behaviour.

The other thing is there are other CP schemes out there that are less controversial, but they didn't go that way.

It's almost like they WANTED to use SF and only something MASSIVELY negative was going to sway them, like getting a Republican to vote Democrat or vice versa.

That was my thinking as well, that COME HELL OR HIGH WATER, they were going to use SF. I don't think they expected it to be cracked/hacked so fast. Though I am not sure why they would think that because it uses the same version as a bunch of other games out there that have all been cracked.

What I also find strange that there is the story out there that Flaming Cliffs was not cracked. That is wrong. I know, I bought FC and got sick and tired of having to register, run out of activations and have to contact them when I need new ones (yes, I upgrade and screw around with my machine alot), so I got a crack for it (hope that doesn't break any rules here, @mods, if so I will remove this portion of the post) and got rid of this annoying feature of FC.

BTW, another strange note about CP that is out there, I installed SP3 of Windows XP, several games that use a hardware check failed after installing SP3 and I had to re-activate after that. I did not change any hardware but it appears SP3 changes the way that windows 'sees' this hardware as though it is new.

Funny that they say the Russian version was top priority... There are several English entries in control settings and a bunch of Russian phrases look auto-translated.

And of course the Russian stuff uses files that are readily editable because they are not built in to the game.

The Russian Version will be in the west within a few weeks, it will only take one tourist to make a copy and bring it back and then the hackers will have there way with it. They are really shooting themselves in the foot over this and it will cost them sales and make piracy even worse for them. Personally it does not matter to me, i prefer airplanes to choppers but its a shame that those who do want to play it will have to deal with something even worse than Starforce.

 

Software will always be pirated, there is always some teenage hacker with nothing better to do and smart enough to figure it out.

 

I can't wait for the day that the hackers start using some of this DRM software to upload a virus back to the DRM Server, it will happen sooner or later and i have a feeling there will be very little sympathy for the DRM company when it happens.

 

I am the guy who TK helped with WOI and i can say it has earned him my respect and i'll buy whatever new releases he comes out with.

 

Don't mistake the tone of this post, I don't agree with ripping off developers, They deserve to be paid for there efforts but i am strongly against Starforce and invasive DRM like it and those that use it kinda deserve a digital kick to the groin IMO.

Are you referring to the updated version OR the one that was released last week, if so, it is already cracked and 'in the wild'.

I think what they (EB) said is that they're going to revamp the whole protection scheme. Not keep it the same as the Russian cracked version. Thus more delays in the product, on both fronts. I am interested in the statement about the demo. What does that have to do with what happened? Other than to keep the interest up.

yup , that is all it is, to keep the interest up. Funny part is, I can see people using the files (voice, sounds etc) from the demo to make the cracked russian version 100% english.

And as a limited beta tester/skin artist, I got ties to ED and Matt pointed to me a topic in the old Ubi Soft forums about it. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on issues, I can't do anything about it. So just to echo FastCargo, it won't be taken lightly fo sho.

 

And mustang.. yeah ED will sit back and say they did the right thing and that would be that. The ED team are an interesting bunch to say the least, but as EvilBivol-1 pointed out, it's their product, they'll do what they feel is necessary. Sure the legit customer suffers, but we all suffer for someone else's stupidity.

The problem is that as of now, the legit customer OR more importantly the potential customer is suffering because ED is making a kneejerk decision and is actually making things worse. If they revamp the protection to the point where it is impossible to break (yah right) , the cracked version is out , nothing can be done about that. Pirates will get it, and the customers who would have purchased it will be forced BY ED (my emphasis because now the ball is in their court) to jump thru hoops that they should not have to. After all, the new measures won't stop people from pirating the game as a crack version is already out.

I have been reading the DCS forums about the open letter

Of course 99% of the posts are of the type "We love you, Can I have your baby, you did the right thing". Which is of course understandable considering the atmosphere created where descent is immediately dealt with by a quick ban stick. Hell one guy even posted a way for someone in the west to use a method to make it seem as though they are in Russia, he got punted.

I just hope that ED doesn't sit back in a week or so, and think "Yup, looked in that open letter thread and we sure did the right thing because everyone agrees with us".

Does everyone know the story about the emperors new clothes, this reminds of of that.

So, it's already been cracked, but we won't release it to people willing to pay?? I don't get it. What further damage could be caused??

 

I can see the "revamp for the Western release" logic, even if I don't agree with it (because of the afore-mentioned certainty it will be cracked), but why close the barn doors after the livestock left, got killed, was butchered, and is now on your table?

QFT

I have always used "after the horse has left", but I like yours better. and in this case it is probably more accurate.

That is why I personally can't see the "revamped Western Logic" thing, because quite frankly you are right, it will be cracked, or perhaps ED still believes that FC was 'cracked'.

Game developers must live in some sort of alternate reality. There is no DRM known to man that cannot be bypassed or defeated, so the time and money they put into purchasing a DRM product and implementing it is a complete, 100% waste.

I think you are right especially with ED, they just seem to have a grasp on reality at all. This latest 'decision' seems half baked at best.

I think TK has it right, NO DRM that I know of.

There was a post here the other day about a guy that lost his CD and TK fixed it right up for him, personally I could never see ED doing anything like that, but I could be wrong.

I am not 100% convinced thought that modern DRM is about preventing piracy so much as it is about killing the after sale market of which some devs feel they deserve a piece of.

It is unfortunate. A big release like Black Shark marred by controversy and piracy.

Well 20mm, the piracy was caused by the 'public' for sure, but the controversy was caused by ED itself. This latest one is a kneejerk reaction to a bad situation by making it worse.

Restricting access by the West to the Russian version feels like "PAYBACK" or "REVENGE" to me and come hell or highwater the west isn't getting this version.

Jeez, talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face.

ED to me has always been something of a mystery in terms of their 'attitude' towards their customers.

This incident in another example of the mind set they have that escapes me.

Their attitude towards modding is another one, they seem to way to keep everything very close to the chest, it appears even making people signs agreements just to get the tools....

When you look around this genre two the most successfull companies in terms of sales are Microsoft Flight Sim series and of course Thirdwire. Both of which allow you to do just about anything inside their products. As a result they have sold ALOT of copies, and on to the CP thing, while FSX now requires online activation and limitions which suck, Thirdwire has no CP/DRM as far as I know...and while it might be copied alot, it appears that TK has decided to focus on the legitimate customers and more importantly on things he can control and pirated copies of his products isn't something he can ever control.

Is it frustrating for the companies who work hard to put these product to have them copied, absolutely for sure, no doubt BUT why implement measures that ONLY (and I can't stress this enough) punish the legitimate customers, it never punishes the pirate. This latest measure they are taking is a prime example of this. The cat is out of the bag, not releasing the Russian version to the west does nothing to put the cat back in the bag and in fact will cost them sales while not increasing the sales of that version to the folks in CIS. If they implement harsher methods in the future it is just more incentive for the crackers to crack it.

That was common knowledge considering the controversy surrounding BS, ED, SF, and CP in general before BS was ever released. Now, providing links where to get such a thing...THAT is a bad idea and most definitely not tolerated here.

 

FastCargo

For sure, I would never post a link to this.

The point of this post for me was to notify those here of the decision by ED to change the decision to release the Russian version to the West , imho, in complete contravention of logic and common sense.

OK< was just reading the open letter to the BCS community here

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=32860

While just about everyone in that thread agrees with ED (no surprise though, because if you don't agree with every word they say you get banned , so the only people left are the FBs).

But once again their decision makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

Right now as everyone hovering (pun intended) around the BS release knows, there is a cracked version out. This is a fact, by not releasing the Russian version to the West they are 100% definately losing sales of their product and now they are talking about making the CP/DRM even worse than it was...This means even more lost sales and of course they think that no on will crack this new CP/DRM mechanism like they did the old in in a matter of hours.

This comes off to me like a kid stomping his feet and throwing a tantrum... Are they pissed , sure are, they worked hard and their product got cracked quickly. Their 'years of testing' of SF lead to nothing, they pissed off their own community by choosing it, and got nothing in return and instead of simply removing the CP/DRM they are just going to make it worse.

I am in the military and I am sure other military folks will have heard this saying that comes to mind

"Moral in this place SUCKS, leave is cancelled until Moral improves".

Perhaps someone can explain to me how they will achieve anything good by making the CP more restrictive. Some have stated in that thread that FC never got cracked....OK, that is a lie...Also, lets assume that it did, perhaps that is because of "Security thru Obscurity".

what you can do is in the google earth settings you can up the size of the cache. if you allow a big enough cache and look at the areas you are travelling to you can go back and refer to them offline.

I don't believe that you can since it is streaming data. You can buy NTS 1:50000 coverage from companies here in Canada. I'm sure its the same if you are in the US. Maps are accurate and up to date. We use a program called Ozie Explorer in CASARA where you can use the maps and GPS.

I have a laptop that has a GPS on it.

Is there a way to download Google Earth data on my PC and transfer it to my laptop so that it will display properly without being hooked up to the internet when I travel.

I would like to download large amounts of data, i.e. an entire province or state.

This one sounds a bit better to me.

Great Big Sea? Where ya from by'?

Bay Bulls Originally

So, you have downloaded my tutorials for making aircraft in 3d Max.

Now here me sing one of my favourite songs by my favourite band.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqbWlz4NtFU

heheheheh

BTW, I know the video is out of sync with the audio, that is the result of a crappy webcame.

She reminds me of a Tshirt I saw once

"You would be A LOT more attractive if you could learn to Shut the %$^& Up" <-- I cleaned it up for this forum.

My advice....let Fubar do your FM's. It will save you a lot of headache.

I wish I could, but unfortunately I can't

Actually, it does.

Does it use a formula 2piR to figure out the value for CL OR do 'we' create an alpha table for CL.

Cl is coefficient if lift, lift is a function of Cl density speed and wing area.

Good, that makes sense.

From what I gather then, this game doesn't take alpha into account when using and figuring out CL.

Density is more or less a given. That one's easy to figure out

 

As I stated before, you've inputted geometry data into the required fields to help calculate a constant, which is represented by CLa. Since lift (represented CL), is effected by mach level, we have tables that tell the flight engine what multiplication factor to use at a set mach level.

OK, perhaps this is where i am getting confused.

is CL = Lift or is CL = Coefficient of Lift.

Just to make it more confusing, CL is a function of alpha, Mach and Reymolds number.

 

Cl in itself is a dimensionless number, but windtunnel results for the lift of a certain airfoil can only be compared to flight test results if Mach number and Reynolds number are the same, and this is why flight test still exist.

I think the main confusion I am having is that I define CL as part of an airfoil, vice part of a wing. IOW, an airfoil does not have a surface area, chord, etc. And I was expecting to take the CL value from a Lift Curve graph and input that into the game.