NeverEnough

Stary, it is good to see you back! Hope all is well with you.

Veltro2K, I've sent you a PM with updates.

Ravenclaw, thanks for your tremendous efforts to elevate the TW sims to an amazing level of detail and finish. Most importantly, best wishes for a complete and rapid recovery. Take care of yourself, and get well really soon!

Hey Monty, I am thrilled you are back again! I don't think you realize how many really high quality additions and enhancements you have made over the years for the Thirdwire community. Welcome back, and I hope everything is well with you.

For software that T.K. has moved on from, I can't believe the incredible additions you good folks have provided. T.K. would be stunned to see what you have done with the platform he originally presented. Wow!!!!

Heal well, and enjoy the time off. We will all miss your eternally sunny insights! Seriously, please take care of yourself....

Hey Falcon, I would like to give you a heartfelt congratulations on truly wonderful news! You officially qualify as a significant badass. Going up against a horrible foe, you have prevailed (kicked that motherf@ckers ass!). I am thrilled for you!

Falcon, I pray you have finally and definitively defeated this terrible beast. I hope that your final chemo treatment is both effective and as minimally unpleasant as possible. Best wishes for a complete recovery!

Hang tough Falcon. You have got a lot of people pulling for you!

Viggen, thanks for your service and welcome home!

"The 80's is calling, and they want their foreign policy back." A snarky punch line from the Presidential debates.....

The size of the shot pattern is reduced as you go down in bore size. 12 gauge is probably the most widely used, followed by 20 gauge. 28 gauge is regaining some of its popularity, but ammo is much more expensive. A box of 20 gauge shot shells will probably cost you more then a box of 12 gauge shells since 12 gauge is the most commonly used shotgun ammunition. 28 gauge ammo is even more expensive then 20 gauge, and .410 is also surprisingly costly. You will break more birds with a 12 gauge, and that is really the whole point of the game. The recoil on any shotgun is substantially reduced with a semi-auto action, since the functioning of the action actually absorbs a substantial portion of the recoil. Any fixed breech shotgun will have more felt recoil than a semi in the same gauge. Fixed breech would include pump action, over and under, and side by side actions. If you are shooting at a real life skeet range, the real trick is knowing the leads for each station. A friend of mine that competed in the trials for a spot on the U.S Olympic team taught me these. I promise these leads will make you appear to really know what you are doing! For the station at the left tower, hold 1 foot in front of the bird on the way out, and 2 feet in front for the incoming bird. The lead on the station at the right tower is hold on the bird going out, and 1.5 feet in front of the incoming bird. The station in the middle between the two towers is the easiest; just cover the bird with the barrel and shoot. The leads for the stations on the left and right of the semi-circle are the same at each respective station as you move toward the back middle station. The leads for the first station in from the trap house are a 2 foot lead going out, and 3 feet in front of the incoming bird. The leads for the second station in from the trap house are 3.5 feet going out, and 3.5 feet incoming. The lead for the center back station is 4 feet going out, and 4 feet incoming. I drew these out on an index card, and keep the index card in shooting vest pocket in case I need to review them. I live close to the Whittier Narrows Skeet and Trap Range, and used to shoot skeet and trap pretty regularly. It's a really challenging and entertaining sport, but the cost of ammunition can get pretty costly if you shoot often. Reloading can really reduce the ammunition cost, which makes it even more enjoyable! Save your empty shotshells in case you decide to get a reloader in the future. I've got trashbags full of them out in the garage.

I'm hoping this is not just another cruel April Fool's tease.... It looks very good!

Dave, best wishes for you and your family in this time of loss. May your father-in-law finally experience peace after his valiant struggle.

After the new terrain install, I got two CTD's. The first was with Ravenclaw's F-4E and the second was with the Buccaneer. I deleted the new terrain install, and did a complete fresh terrain re-install. The first mission was an attack with the Buccaneer on hardened aircraft hangars. The program CTD'd after the strike, when returning to base. Faulting module name in all three CTD's was TerrainEngine.dll. I'm running Windows 7 64 bit, and the new Catalyst 14.3 Beta video drivers on a HD 7970 Radeon video card.

Hey Brain32, have you considered an Intel I3 processor? Here's a link to TechReport's latest system building guide. This might help you in your shopping list. http://techreport.com/review/26082/tr-february-2014-system-guide

At times like this, the value and strength of family and friends seems to achieve a clarity we might have previously failed to recognize. Hopes and prayers go out for your father-in-law, you and all your family members. After all the tumult and pain your father-in-law has endured, hopefully he can find refuge and relief from his brave struggle against overwhelming odds. My deepest sympathies, Dave.

A GTX 560 video card should be able to run everything comfortably. You might try updating to the latest Nvidia video drivers, if you are not currently running them. My prior video card was a GTX 470, and everything ran great as long as I reduced Horizon Distance from unlimited to normal.

Hey Rends, this thread should give you some ideas on downloads. FE2 comes with a Cambrai and Verdun terrain. Take a look in the downloads section at the models Stephen1918 has made available. They are all really nice! Gterl's Italian terrain is a dazzling piece of work, which will probably be interesting for you to take a look at after all the object placement you have been working on in SF2.

For those of you who were following the thread on Ukraine before it was moved off to the Political thread, this article from Politico might prove informative. It is written by a free lance Russian reporter about how the situation is being reported in the Russian media. Wow, no wonder there are such huge differences in perspective! http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/03/ukraine-putin-tv-and-the-big-lie-104261.html?hp=pm_1#.UxdTdWePKUl

ValAstur, these are really nice skins! I'll gladly download all you want paint.

Be well! You will be in my thoughts and prayers.

The "exe" is the green icon button with the lighter green airplane image in it. For StrikeFighters2 it will be the green icon button named "StrikeFighters2". Just as Russouk said, make a copy of the green icon button named "StrikeFighters2", and rename it "StrikeFighters2 Falklands" or some other equally inspired title. After renaming and saving, click on the newly renamed green icon button and enjoy the moment! It is really that straight forward.

The DLC will update your sims to the latest patch level, which I have been perfectly happy with. Be aware that your mods will be affected just like running a patch, so you will need to re-name your Mod Folder to zMods to prevent those files being altered. Do a search for the method for installing the DLC without having it update your current patch level. It is easily done, just I have not tried it myself. In a recent thread it was covered at length.

Snailman, I thought I was pretty well versed in WW2 history, but I had never heard anything about the siege of Budapest. Thanks for posting this.