T-Bone

"Don't get me wrong. I like the sound of it at face value- But I'm on the admin team of a server now- and ...well .. it ain't easy. You can't make em all happy, the expenses are significant, and you can't always be available to fix issues be it technical or a client being a ..... " You chose to do it. Don't complain about something you chose to put upon yourself.

AIM-120C has clipped fins.

T-Bone wants ED to release Black Shark.

What's the point of making something that you know will be rendered obsolete by the next patch? ED needs to seriously address the issue of mission and track compatibility from patch to patch for mission builders. But of course they don't listen so we will just wait until after 1.2 when they are finished completely with LOMAC and moving on to the next game before we pick up where we left off and fix all the old missions to make them compatible with the latest build. Hopefully their next game will have some sort of mission generator so that we do not have to build all missions ourselves to play.

Anyone notice the strange brownish trees in the background...?

Hey dodger, check your PMs :) T-Bone

Website will be up soon. T-Bone

Cool, nice work!

So this F-16 is going to included in a new sim? It's not going to be sold as an addon flyable to Lock On? T-Bone

Olergd, will the F-16 be implemented into Lock On as an addon or will this be for the new Middle East game? Or both? T-Bone

They'll be released with the Black Sea Operations F-15 campaign when it is ready. T-Bone

Everyone please calm down. First off, please read the message carefully. We have been planning to set the launch back to when the Black Shark addon is released. We are not going to discontinue work on the Black Sea Operations, but due to the continual risk of incompatibility issues with patches we are going to cut down the campaign to 60 missions and push it back. In addition, we will continue work on the Su-33 campaign. We are restructuring the campaign to accomodate these changes so this cancellation pertains only to the 1.1 FC subpatches being compatible. You will have to purchase Black Shark in order to play the campaign. There have been major changes to the LOMAC engine in 1.2 which would render all the 1.1 FC missions obsolete. In addition, just with the release of 1.12a, many of the missions I designed in 1.11 do not even load or they crashed during gameplay. I spent 10+ hours last week rebuilding the first 4 of these missions and testing them. The same nightmare repeated itself back when 1.1 FC was released and we had to scrap the 1.02 missions. I'm sad to announce that Dusty Rhodes has left the team. He was not pleased with these developments and understandably lost patience in providing and paying for the website. The choice to offer hosting was his and the choice to cut support to us was also his. I personally apologize for this situation, but we really did not have a choice in the matter. By the time we released the finished product a new update would already be here. We plan on continuing through a scaled down campaign which would be easier to update with continuing patches. In addition, I am considering working with Swingkid with his dynamic campaign system to possibly implement the campaign in a dynamic format.

The main problem has been that with each patch, a number of modifications have to be made to each mission to make it compatible with the latest version of Lock On. Wanks and I are both engineering students and we do not have a great deal of time at our disposal during the school year and AMRAAM is currently beta testing the Black Shark addon.

Neither. T-rex wins.

Don't forget the first chapter in the F-15 side of the Black Sea Operations will be released after 1.12a is released. We need to test all the 1.11 missions and fix problems caused by patching! T-Bone

Excuse me, why don't you try making a large scale campaign with a product that continuously is being re-patched while being a full time engineering student? The 1.12 patch did change some of the missions and make them buggy. We are working on these issues. Once they are sorted out the first 10 missions will be released once Glowing AMRAAM completes the cut scenes. Thank you to those of you who are understanding and have been so supportive. T-Bone

Wow I laughed so hard I almost wet myself LOL T-Bone

The extended terrain will greatly enhance the Black Sea Operations campaign as well. Thank you ED! T-Bone

There will be 60 single missions and many multiplayer missions. BSO will have an offline campaign and an online massively multiplayer community campaign. T-Bone

In that simulation there is only one flyable aircraft and only one side of the campaign you can fly for. This simulation provides access to two opposing sides, creating far better competition and online gameplay with human and AI entities alike. I would much rather test my skills against a human opponent than an AI entity anyday. T-Bone

I never blamed Zorlac. I simply stated this: I have asked the person who created the online statistics tracking perl script for the 504VVS server for help but it has been denied since he wants to keep it only to the one online server. A code similar to that would need to be developed by someone here to help log campaign statistics. I PMed Zorlac and asked if he could share the code. He stated that there are far more talented people out there who can write neat, structured code that could process all of this and a whole load more, and would use a decent SQL backend system to store the data away to do far more complex analysis of the stats, think of stats that haven't even crossed his mind yet, produce better looking cross-referenced web pages, updated stats "on the fly" (not hourly like his).... "my code is an untidy, inefficient, slow, run-once piece of knotted spaghetti code, producing amateur web pages that lack that professional look." "Between the stats project, my job, my wife, and real life, I havent had much time to actually fly Lomac recently... and I would rather be flying than writing code." He has chosen to keep the code confined to one online server. That is his choice and that is fact. I don't know how I hit "below the belt" or said anything offensive about him. Sorry if it sounded that way. I gave him the respect he deserved. T-Bone

There is so much potential that has not been tapped into yet. If the community could pull together and help out with this one project, it could drastically improve the longevity of this sim by creating an immersive online environment and thus improve the online scene drastically. T-Bone

The Black Sea Operations online campaign is not going to happen unless someone with perl skills steps in to help out. This is the sad truth. What exactly are we planning for it? Well we are setting out to create a campaign with dynamic front lines based on the immersive Black Sea Operations missions and storyline. I have asked the person who created the online statistics tracking perl script for the 504VVS server for help but it has been denied since he wants to keep it only to the one online server. A code similar to that would need to be developed by someone here to help log campaign statistics. I really believe that Lock On's online scene is lacking. The dogfight servers really do not provide an immersive and realistic environment for combat operations. An online campaign would be much more interesting and do a great job at actually holding the player's interest for a long amount of time, as new missions will be released to fly every week based on the previous week's results. The project is up in the air right now because none of the BSO team members know how to program the perl network listener code, or the perl code that scans the log files that can be used for the stats. T-Bone

Hi guys, We've decided to go ahead and try to work out an online campaign for the Black Sea Operations. We need someone who is good with PHP web scripts, so if you can lend a helping hand please email me at falconpilot34@yahoo.com T-Bone

We're going to limit it to 2v2 and 4v4 online missions for testing. However, we may increase it to 8v8 missions if possible. Also don't forget a person can do a lot with simple Microsoft Excel sheets. In time the webpage will be automated, but for the time being they will be probably be updated by hand. Here is a draft of our plan. All is up in the air right now and will depend on the success of the Black Sea Operations single player campaign. B S O W BLACK SEA ONLINE WAR EPIC BATTLES. EPIC HEROES. Outline Structure - Squadron Level: consists of +4 players - Flight Level: consists of 2-4 players - Mercenary: lone wolf solo player Joining - Mercenaries can opt to join a squadron - Mercenary’s points will be added to squadron record - Mercenary can choose to join the highest bidder: certain number of squadron points will be added to Merc’s score but will be divided and deducted from all individual pilots Scoring - +100 points per mission success - +50 points per human air kill - +15 points per air to air kill - +10 points per air to ground kill - +10 points per landing - 0 points per mission failure - -10 points per ejection - -50 points per friendly kill - -100 points per player defeat Ranking - Squadrons/Flights have an assigned CO who will be ranked COLONEL - Squadrons/Flights assign ranks based on the decision of the CO - Mercenaries are ranked based on point merit chart below - 2nd Lt : 0 points - 1st Lt: +2,000 points cumulative score - Capt: +6,000 points cumulative score - Maj: +10,000 points cumulative score - Lt. Col: +12,000 points cumulative score - Col: + 20,000 points cumulative score Missions - different pool of missions refreshed biweekly based on results of previous results - certain set flow of events that roughly follows the Black Sea Operations single player storyline, but players can delay or expedite events/invasions - 10-20 missions in pool biweekly - 2v2, 4v4 missions to be tested at the moment to ensure online stability Hosting - application to be host must be completed - host must have DSL or Cable connection at least - host must report mission results - 1 pilot from opposing team must report mission results as well for verification or else mission results will not be posted - if results do not match, results will not be posted so please coordinate with your fellow players - results must be recorded in xls spreadsheet teamspeak server list T-Bone