Flanker562

Yeah rog. I'm too tired to even bother anymore as it is, but we'll agree to disagree. I'm too much of a virtual strike pilot to know what I'm talking about, and you're too much of an F-15 pilot to realize what it may be able to do, so we'll just leave it at that :thumbup:

Yah let me be one of the "fans".... but seriously if LOMAC is anything close to the real thing, then it'd be a great platform, and was preferable to a slow, ungainly Su-25T. If things had gone further by giving it the capability that the Su-30/35s were given, it'd be able to step amongst the other strike aircraft. It's a matter of knowing the capabilities and using the weaknesses of it being a heavy weight (which mind you, didn't feel "heavy") aircraft that could handle even light fighters. I've bounced enough aircraft in Flanker 2.51 so I really highly doubt it'd suffer poorly against equivalent aircraft, which it couldn't outrange the F-14s Pheonix (which really, nothing could, except the MIG-31), so it's a matter of conjecture and "what if". Mind you Flanker 2.51 modelled the cancelled "Su-33M", which was designed to give the Kuznetsov's Su-33s a multirole capability, which of course was not produced due to lack of funds, and in LOMAC was modelled as it should be, a carrier capable interceptor for fleet defense. Sure technology-wise it couldn't hold a candle to a Strike Eagle or a Tornado, but again, it can carry alot, and still get bombs on target, and the range capability to get the bombs there too. But we're getting slightly OT with the Su-33 stuff, and yeah yeah yeah

Well the sim only focuses on the Ka-50 that's the point I'm making. No offense man, but just because my tag says "ED Partners" doesn't mean I don't get to play with the sim a bit. Sure I did mainly texture work, but I do need the sim to see if my work is right. And sometimes if my stick wants to work correctly, then I'll fly around too. Sure I don't have as much flight time as the dedicated testers, I do have the same betas they do.

Well yeah, but I meant more of complexity though, but agreed. And as far as capability... yeah it's not the greatest, but as a strike aircraft it'd be great, least IMHO. Er.. I think I'm just not being clear enough maybe. If Kamov gave unprecedented access then that's Kamov. But saying like (for example!) the legacy Hornet. Sure it's been around for quite awhile, but there's still classified information on it, so while the Ka-50 is a high fedility aircraft and being simmed particularly, some of the manuals I got for the Super Hornet are unclassified, and on the web, but some things, like how the radar operates, capabilities, are not, and naturally the USN is still keeping that under wraps as far as true capabilities, such as AMRAAM/MICA performance. Alot of actual performance data is still classified, and one USAF/French exercise the results were kept secret, so it's based more on the particular aircraft, and if ED themselves want to go through the trouble of simming it.

I may have to reinstall lock on just for this beauty... it's so nice..

Yep, that's definitely a pic to start the day off right :D :thumbsup:

No, they just don't have all the manuals to do it. Alot of that stuff is classified, and nobody's going to jail over a simulation. @leafer: I'm not sure what an AFM is for a high speed jet. Flanker 1 had Anatoly Kvotchur as a SME for the flight modelling, so I highly doubt that the FM for the Su-27/33 is too far off. It's smooth and really should be, and it's understandable a subsonic boat that the Su-25 is should be a pain, but really don't see why the Su-33 needs to be any more tweaked IMHO.

Okay it's not because it was "put there" it's due to a engine related issue. Besides the focus is Ka-50, not CSAR, or any activities related to it (how you knew about it SuperKungFu is a matter of conjecture in itself). ED is not your average company, so using US analogies and practices is just not a good idea. Everybody seriously seems to be losing focus on what the product is about, not what or how it can be exploited. If they get the wild hair up the butt then fine, but I highly doubt that it's a feature to be "implemented"

I don't think so, but in a way yeah.. I guess. Lock On held on to late last year, when I finally removed it from the hard drive. I've flown the various aircraft for quite a bit, and got finally bored with the Su-33, as I think I've done everything with it, so I had to move on.

Ubisoft messed the NDA issue up with not actually making the testers sign an NDA for the GRAW2 beta test (or one of them anyways). They expected it to be a "gentleman's agreement", not a legal binding document that can be used to boot you off. Having a legally binding contract really puts the restraint on you, since you can be actually held liable for your misdeeds, i.e. spilling all the beans. Sure you're expected to delete or not distribute... but realistically it's up to common sense and maturity to expect them not to. Of course that just means you may be persona non grata for further tests. Gaming communities as a whole (depending on the game of course) are pretty small, so if you get canned for doing something you shouldn't have, then well.... you're just marked in a sense. Sure you can change usernames, but overall.. you're going to get noticed somehow and get canned.

Okay, there is no capability for walking around and playing BS like Operation Flashpoint, or Armed Assault. The game engine is not setup for it, nor is it planned, or even talked about. Just to end some wild speculation about a feature that doesn't exist.

You can modify it as per the picture below, kinda like the regular Su-27 pylons, but yeah... AA-10s are huge....But then again pylon placement of course is overall depending on the gear doors, it's so smooth you can't even tell in the render inside the hangar. thanks brah, but the modelling skills that you got far surpass my texturing ability :thumbup: Like I said man, that's just smooth

Oh yeah love the skin job man, pretty well weathered....

I dunno man, the bottom pylons just don't jive with the model, least to me.. but it's like a sportscar brah, very fine lines....

Nice stuff man, I like it.... :thumbup:

That's been an issue with the Su-27/33 for ages though, far enough away and cyan blue for you.....

I doubt it, least not yet anyways. Like the Russians, the US will send out a degraded version (or in this case the older Block I radar)... unless of course the Indians specifically ask for it. I mean it's not fully fielded so I would doubt Boeing would ship the Indians a better version of it's own fighter that could outshoot the US Navy birds... be kinda embarrassing :) Then again, if the Indians do get the radars, then it'd be after the USN gets them, or when the USN gets enough to feel "safe" in it's own skies. That's well... up to speculation, but possible, I guess, not sure on the true capabilties meself. Then again it's not like JDAMs need constant correction, feed them the coordinates, and drop them and then move on to the A2A portion.

By checking the Boeing and other related sites, AESA so far has been used by VFA-213 for testing AFAIK not in the US Navy active combat squadrons yet. Yes VFA-213 is an active squadron but they've been tasked with playing with the new toys... But realistically if the SH did get the AESA for export? who knows how it would compete.... Also, the AESA tested on a Super Hornet allowed it to do a multiple target engagement with JDAMs... so it's not just for AAMs it's useful for, and quite frankly multiple targeting of GPS guided bombs just scares me, so if a country does get AESA, they can do this, provided they get JDAMs as well, and so far it's not likely but then again, the Aussies would more than likely want and get them. http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/military/fa18ef/news/2006/q2/060418b_nr.html Back on topic though.... it's a shame that they dropped the canards, it looked more lethal that way....

No, as right now Black Shark is in a "feature-freeze", i.e. requests are being reviewed, but not implemented, and nor will they be. The scope you're looking for is way beyond the political viewpoint taken by Black Shark, which in all works, is just country specific, not as extensive as you would like to see. That's the part of scenario building, not country/coalition allocation.

3D Modelling... Texture work... Programming.... anything else that will help get things done, which is why grandsurf, Yeneciri, rockwelder, Mizzy of the SIM-MOD.com group (and me) are "ED Partners" Glowing Amraam is just a great movie maker, see? You have to show some aptitude in a field to where it's worth a shot for them to ask you. Knowin somebody helps... but that's just a hard option since you end up looking like you're just there for a free ride and not willing to spend long hours for free (oh yeah, external testers don't get paid ;)). Mind you... it's not a quick process unless you're a prodigy at something, in which it's been..... seven years? Realistically it's been longer but then again, it's been worth the ride, somewhat anyways.... As far as aircraft knowledge?..... It helps as I've been an Air Force brat so I kinda picked up the airplane bug. However realistically I'm an FSNCO for a light infantry company, which naturally is more ground combat oriented. But combat aircraft and combat flight sims has always been my most extensive hobby so it helps when doing testing. But reading about general aviation news is the way to do it. When I was into Shadowrun (an old role-playing game) I would find topics of interest, print them out and read them to get an understanding, then apply it to the game's mechanics of doing stuff. So I got alot of knowledge on aerodynamics, but the only real airplane I've been in is of course an airliner, so you don't necessarily have to be a real pilot to know about the basics, and overall technology, and current and future trends. Just get involved, improve yourself and remember, it's not a fast process man....

Yeah I'm nowhere near a real pilot, but been flying sims since DID's EF2000 came out, or the first real simulator that will always have a special place in my heart :D And even being a "simple" texture artist takes alot of you too. Depending of course what they want and what you can do. Overall since I've done mainly Flankers, it's a snap doing those. I would say that BS really put some challenge for a couple I did, as I'm used to Russian designed skins. Well the few I did for Crimean Air Wars wasn't any different really, but all the same the Ka-50 textures were fairly easy to a degree. Remember you're going by what they want. Sure if you know what you're doing, it can be a good compromise. There's only a couple I'm not too keen with, but hey that's allright, as most of them I like myself and a couple were challenges for me. So did I do some beta testing? Yeah.... a little bit, mainly obvious stuff, but that wasn't my overall focus and responsibility to do (least in my world view). I've got some ideas that I want to fully exploit that I started before NTC so whether or not they will work out not sure but if you want a hint, the skinwork that everybody did is just beautiful and glad to work with them, as they even made me feel small. And another thing, you gotta be a people person :thumbup:

I'm in a Soapbox mode, so here goes. We'll start with me at 2000-2001, while I was here in Fort Hood the first time, I came upon Flanker 2. I had previous experience with Flanker 1, but not as extensive, since I didn't have a joystick. Fast forward to Flanker 2, I was just a low-bit player by Flanker562. I was fairly active in the forums but never did much. I think I started doing skins and some such to get my name "noticed" because really, the ulterior motive was to be a beta tester. It's just cool to have the goods, but on the other hand, be able to do something worthwhile, so there's also some altruistic motive to it too. Then Ironhand back then got lazy, or in reality, really didn't have time to redo alot of tactics tutorials, so Flanker562 tries to redo it, sends it to Ironhand, and Ironhand says "Good job brother", which opened me up to Flanker 2, since I tried to reproduce in my own way, what he did. So along with my skinwork, and knowledge of the sim, established in the small community as somebody who can do things. So then eventually I feel my oats, knowing that Lock On is in the works. So I start begging, pleading Rich (Ironhand) to get a slot in the sim department... Which in retrospect, due to an Iraq deployment, and the overwhelming prospect of Kovy, and some others who did far better than me, gave me a bad name (I feel) to the guys at ED. So after Iraq.... I futzed around with LOMAC a bit, and eventually moved on to a GRAW beta, and a GRAW2 beta test. Generally, I shot myself in the foot with what I did, was move on and just sort of not do as I expected. Fortunately I still persevered and did alot of skinwork and some help with some projects for LOMAC. Even managed to get a moderator position... and well that's another story best left talked about. After GRAW and GRAW2... was in a lull, did some more LOMAC here and there, got into ArmA slightly, and then DCS: Black shark. I got in with SIM-MOD.com (great bunch of outstanding modders) to work on a good amount of textures for the Ka-50 and some other stuff. Overall point is, that you can't just waltz in and say you want to be a beta tester. Establish yourself as knowing what they're doing. Now even then, me being in the US Army, I can raise my hand, because I'm a Joint Forward Observer. I'm qualified in CAS, CCA, Dropping Laser Guided bombs, AC-130 use, and Naval Gunfire, in addition to regular mortars and artillery use. And I've worked with the Dutch 301 Sqdn here at Fort Hood and with helos at NTC just recently, coordinating Apaches for surveillance missions, and a company defense that involved 4 Kiowas, 1 Apache, and a UH-60 and doing a CASEVAC, and doing strafing runs. While I may be called in for more texture work, that's fine, because I don't fly them technically, I just tell them where to shoot. Other testers, like britgliderpilot, Alfa, AirTito (who is a real pilot in the Bulgarian Airforce?), GGTharos, Ironhand, and I can step in as a qualified pilot as well, though I'm more of a fast jet guy than a helo guy. But either way, we all have vast experience already, and we've worked with them before. So its a long hard road to end up beta testing, as honestly Wags is being fairly too easy in my opinion but I don't call the shots. So in short, find a niche, exploit it, expand it, and get noticed for what you can do, and they may ask you, or may get recommended. Hell I recommended a guy based on his 3D modelling skills. But he's got other stuff going on and again, it's not my call ;)

Go to Lockonfiles.com, and download Crimean Air Wars. That's not a "steel" skin, that's more of a Dark Compass Ghost Gray scheme, which BTW is my old personal scheme for the Su-33.

Oh true WoE could never really stack up against LOMAC, but then again I don't need to rewrite the code for an airplane addon (see below). WoI can work on Vista, read here: http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?showtopic=25758

Happy Birthday!