KnightHawk

shamandgg: I do not have the ability to give you pics right now (not at my comp at home), but I installed the game last night and can tell you what is included. when you get the game it comes in regular DVD case (the art work for the game is a box that goes around the case though, not over the case itself.) When you open the case on the right hand side is one disk that contains LOMAX. On the Left hand side is a very thin install guide (more on that in a min.) and under that is another DVD that contains Lock On Flaming Cliffs 2. The only thing the thin install guide tells you is how to install the game and it explains about the stripped down star-force disk protection system. Specifically that you get 8 activations and 10 deactivation for the game (if you want more info on that let me know and I will be glad to tell you what I understand about it). From what I can understand the LOMAC does not need to be activated. If you don't want to use Flaming Cliffs 2 then you can just play LOMAC after installing it. I have also heard you can uninstall LOMAC after installing Flaming Cliffs 2 but I have not tried it yet. Both disks can be installed to different directories, so it could be true. As for install: you install LOMAC first (you don't need to launch it, just install it) then put in the Flaming Cliffs 2 disk and install it. After this you can run Flaming Cliffs 2. The first time you go into a mission you are asked to activate your copy (I used a quick mission from the main menu the first time I ran it just to get this part over with). There is a CD Key provided on the back of the install guide that you must enter. When this is done, the protection in the game takes a snap shot of your hardware setup for your computer, and unless something changes to this (new operating system, new hard drive, ect...) you do not need to worry about activating it again, or using the disk while playing. Does this give you the answer you are looking for? I can not give you a comparison of a non platinum install to the platinum install because this will be the first time I have ever played the game (and in fact, have not yet actually played it, just installed it) If there is anything else I can pass on to you please let me know.

TA ~ I am so happy for you that you can finally see the video. Now, believe it or not, the hard part is about to start :) Now you get to learn how to fly the planes. Of course, that is the real fun of the game also. I am by no means a seasoned sim player - before BS the deepest I ever got was Comanche 4 (which I still love and play today) but I find the tinkering around with learning how to fly just as much fun as blowing up my first bad guy (which of course is a real thrill :) edit: Nomdeplume: that was a great explanation of the video player by the way. You have a great knack of making some thing complex understandable. Good job.

nomdaplume: I just installed lock on platinum tonight and checked the version number for you. It is version 1.2.1 so no patch would be needed. I haven't played with the game yet, but the install goes like this: the case comes with two disk: 1- Lock On Modern Air Combat and 2- Flaming cliffs 2. Install the first disk (LOMAC). After that is done installing you do not even have to start up the program, put in disk two (Flaming Cliffs 2) and install it to any directory you want. After that you can start FC2. The first time you go into a mission (I chose quick mission to make this happen) you get a box telling you to activate your game. Put in the key from the back of the small install guide and you are good to go. The guide does a good job of telling you about how many activations you get (8) and how many deactivation (10) and how to do them. I will play with the game more this week end and be able to tell more about it then.

Toasting Aces: I just visisted the simhq page I linked for you http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/2142529/All_of_the_LOMAC_FC_Training_M.html#Post2142529 and was happy to see that page is not just another link to videos, but rather training that you can read through with pictures showing each step. It also has custom made missions for the ones I looked at that you can download and then play in your game going through each step the author tells you about. I think it will be a great place to start learning (this is similar to some of the training I did for DCS: Black Shark that was very helpful to me. And BS is a lot more complex than LOMAC from what I hear.) Check out this site and look through the missions there.

Hello all. I am a firs time poster, but I have been around the forum for a couple of months now (it has been priceless in helping me learn Black Shark - which I am getting better at slowly.) I have been reading this thread, and at times I have laughed, and at times I have wanted to cry (I mean all of this in fun and not as an insult) because I know how frustrating it can be learning to use a game like this. I thought I would try to help clear up some of the confusion I see here. Toasting Aces: I too have purchased the box version of Lock on Platinum yesterday. I have not yet installed it so I can not yet speak to the way you need it install it. Before buying it I did some research though and I think this might help you out some. The training "videos" you are trying to use from inside the program did not start out as videos - they started out as what is known in these sims as "traks". In simple terms, a trak is a recording of someones play time in the sim, and you can watch it and if you want to, take over at any moment you want. What the creators of the game did was create trak's showing how to play the game. However, when the program was updated to correct some problems, the traks would not play in the updated program. Seeing as it would take a lot of time to update the traks every time they updated the program they just took them out of the game all together but left the menu option for them in the game. (this is the same thing that happened In Black Shark) Fortunately, someone had made videos of the training and made them available for us to watch without them being traks (as videos you can no longer take over in the middle of the training, only watch it.) If I understand correctly, the videos should be able to be watched from inside the game - witch is what the install of the video you download should do for you (not sure yet why you are having trouble, I will let you know what happens if I ever try myself). The good news for you is that you do not need to have the videos installed inside the game to use them. You can watch them off of the internet in Youtube. I believe there were two post earlier that pointed to Eagle Dynamics you tube page at http://www.youtube.com/user/eagledcs#g/p and also this page at SimHq.com at http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/2142529/All_of_the_LOMAC_FC_Training_M.html#Post2142529 My advise to you would be to NOT try to download and install them (because you do not understand computers that well, this might be harder for you and who needs the headache?) but just watch them on the net to learn how to fly the sim. While watching take notes of things you want to try in the sim and then try them (Even if you install the videos, you will still have to take notes, drop out of the video, start up a flight and try it - so nothing lost). I know you would like to have the videos in the game - and you feel that because it is a game you purchased that everything should work right the first time out of the box - and to some extent I would agree with you. But what you need to understand is that you a playing a game on the PC and PC games have always needed to have updates done to them after they were released (or for as long as I have been playing them which is a long time). In this case some of the original things the program did were lost in the updates and you have not gotten a program where your copy is not complete, this is just the way the program is. Does this make sense to you? I hope I have been helpful.