PFunk

Had it in early October. Got over it in about a week, maybe a little less.

I wish the game engine was friendlier to modern warfare scenarios. Perhaps one day, the latest upcoming version of the game will be adjusted for more modern combat scenario.

Sigh. The most worthwhile part of YAP's digital store are the carrier models, but those are often problematic within the community. I will not elaborate further. The aircraft models require a ton of modding to get them to work in SF2, and they're still not (in my opinion) as good as what is already on here. For example, the YAP Tomcat model and the MF Tomcat model (available here for free) are miles apart in fidelity and presentation, the YAP model is nowhere near the quality of the MF model. The YAP carriers are very, very good and I'm glad I bought them. The YAP A-6 model isn't bad, but it isn't as good as the RAZBAM version, which in my opinion is the best Intruder model made for SF2. The most disappointing and frustrating YAP product is their Charlie-model Hornet in Carrier Pack 4. I had to quit trying to get that thing to work, it was maddening.

Wow. Pretty bird. I've been wanting to make a new campaign with a bunch of the 'what if' and fictional aircraft.

That was a really cool story. I taught with a retired colonel who flew the Six and he loved that bird. He did, however, admit that the missiles were absolute garbage.

That is just so awesome.

Texas had its first death yesterday, an elderly patient in our coastal region.

Near Fort Worth, Texas. Most of the restaurants and bars in FTW and in Waco to the south of us are closed or restricted to take out only. Seems to be a huge run on toilet paper, bottled water. and ammunition; Texans may be a friendly lot, but we tend to go worst-case-scenario quick, fast, and in a hurry. Six confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Tarrant County, but due to the shortage of testing kits, it's almost certainly more than that. National Guard units are being called up, not sure what exactly they plan to do. 76 confirmed cases statewide and one confirmed death, an elderly patient down on the coast. Schools were in Spring Break when all this started, or about to begin, but they're all closed down now, at least until the end of March, possibly until the end of the summer. Schools are doing distance learning, home education for the moment and a lot of homeschooling parents have stepped up and posted a lot of lessons to information boards, Facebook, etc., so, believe it or not, school is still happening in a lot of places. My sister teaches down near Austin and they've all gone 1:1 with iPads and full distance learning. The economy is most certainly going to take a hit from this. UPS and USPS have reassured everyone that shipments will continue, but the Fulfilled by Amazon program is going to essential supplies only. One thing that is really helping us is a Texas grocery chain called H-E-B (natives will know exactly what I'm talking about), who have stepped up in a big way. They're restricting hours, restricting the number of items you can buy, but they're making sure everyone that walks in gets what they need. H-E-B has done a lot of disaster work in the past, so they've got a pretty good system in place. Everyone hunker down and be safe.

Same for us!

Thanks, guys. 'Preciate it. Hey, Kev. Hope everyone with you in your direction is doing well. Keep safe.

@Wrench, if you're out there, can you tell me why it isn't a good idea to turn the modernized Eastern Med map into a NavalMap? Will it just not work very well? Not casting aspersion on your skill at mapmaking, just genuinely wanted to know before I attempt something.

I really appreciate the comment about military service personnel bagging on these videos being like a retired NFL player making fun of a Pop Warner league game. It's funny because it's true. NONE of these games are even close to the real thing, not even DCS, although there are a considerable number of fans of that game who firmly believe they could fire up an A-10, take off, drop ordnance successfully, and then land. In reality, they'd likely never get off the ground, and if even if they did, all they would succeed in doing is creating a really expensive crater. So, sometimes, we as gamers invite the criticism upon ourselves. In truth, the BF3 carrier sequence is cool BECAUSE it's unrealistically exciting. When that canopy closed for the first time, I really felt that claustrophobic sensation that only comes with seeing the canopy close on my F-15C or A-10C in DCS.

What will the men of the church say?!

That was entertaining.

I’d like to get the Komar- and Osa-class boats to engage carrier groups with their Styx ASMs.

Has anyone ever gotten ships to fire ASM's at other ships, and how did you do it?

You are correct, you only get the 50% off if you have all five of the base games, and I do. I also had about (give or take) 17 of the DLCs. I was missing 12 of the official DLCs offered by ThirdWire. To get them, (and thus qualify for the free Complete Edition download), it would have cost me $72. I paid $50 and got everything. Did I already have most of it? Yes. Was it still a worthwhile investment? I think so, because now I also get the upcoming Windows 10 Edition and any DLCs that come with it for free. I had to cancel my Windows 10 Edition pre-order, but I was okay with that.

I went ahead and did this and I'll tell you why. I pre-ordered the Windows 10 Edition because I wasn't going to get it for free. So, that's $40 right there. I was lacking about 12 DLCs in order to qualify for the complimentary versions. I counted it up, it would have cost me $72 in DLCs. Not worth it. Then, he offers the complete version for $50. Hmm...that's $22 off. So, I got that and have requested my pre-order of the Windows 10 Edition to be canceled because now I'm getting it for free. So, now I have literally every update and upcoming DLC for the Windows 10 Edition for only $50. Not too shabby.

The US military is quite possibly the record holder for most items recycled.

Oh, sure. I argue that governments should definitely be more frugal in their expenditures. I think any citizen of any government would probably appreciate public employees being good stewards of our money. And, where there is still use to be found in something, it ought to be used until something more efficient can be found. I'm thinking of the A-10 in that regard as well; it does a job well and there's nothing else quite like it. What I meant is that when we make the decision to retain equipment of any kind, that decision shouldn't be made out of nostalgia.

If we're being honest, this is probably a good thing. A lot of those airframes are older than the pilots flying them. Lots of them (like the Bone) are getting next to impossible to maintain because of their increasing age. Most of them likely couldn't operate in a modern conventional battlespace without massive electronic jamming support (I'm looking at you, F-15C). Some of them have systems that are more than two decades old (the Block 25 Vipers). We could easily hand off the -16s (and even the -15s) to client states that wanted something on the cheap. The US military badly needs to modernize, if for no other reason than the safety of the pilots operating those aircraft. Even the F-22A is getting to be a little old. I'm very glad to see we've invested in some new-build Strike Eagles, probably the most versatile platform since the F-4 Phantom II. I'm also very encouraged by the progress of the Raider; Northrop seems to be moving development along at a brisk pace. We've needed new gear for a while, and we are going on two decades of sustained combat use of so many systems, they are now breaking from fatigue. Everyone was saddened by the retirement of the Tomcat; the way that it happened was worse than the realization that it needed to be retired. I think the one that will affect me more will be the last flight of the F-16. I grew up a stone's throw from the fence around Carswell AFB and as a kid, I watched hundreds of new-build -16s take off for customers and even more being flown in for maintenance. They were just a symbol of America for me. When they're finally retired, it will be because we squeezed every last dime we could out of them.

Was the F8F Bearcat in service with the Aeronavale at the time? I know they operated it, just didn't know if it saw action in Indochina.

I'm really curious to know if TK is serious about moving forward with an update. I know the Kickstarter failed to reach its goal, but I believe his wisdom was that even if it didn't reach the goal, he was still considering updating it for modern graphics cards. That would be an especially nice love note to the community that supported him for so many years. Beyond that, I think it's little much to hope for avionics .dll files or AI subroutines to be updated to allow for modern theatres.

If I were going to do naval aviation on the Europe map, I'd stick with the Royal Navy. Harriers are a more plausible presence than, say, a Tomcat.

It's still more approachable than DCS in some respects. Does a better job of modeling a semi-dynamic battlespace, anyway.