doveman

You don't ignore a security risk just because no one's exploited it yet. Just cross your fingers and hope that one day a load of customers don't contact you saying that someone has nicked their product codes. Not a good plan. Is ED going to accept their word for it and supply them with a new product code (and finally stop sending them by e-mail) if that happens, or treat them all like liars and thieves and require them to somehow prove that their code was stolen (which is obviously impossible). Even if the problem doesn't currently exist to a significant enough degree for ED to care about, it will be very significant to me if I get my product code stolen thanks to their refusal to recognise and fix the problem.

Well if companies are going to ignore a quite obvious security risk and refuse to start acting sensibly and help me protect my purchases, I'll take my money elsewhere and then maybe they'll care. I'll likely only buy modules on Steam, rather than from ED directly, in future, as Steam don't seem to think it necessary to send my product codes via e-mail (for those games I have bought from them anyway but I presume it'll be the same for DCS modules). I've always bought my modules direct from ED to date, to make sure they get as much money as possible but if ED doesn't respect me enough as a customer to help me protect my purchases, then **** them.

None of which changes the fact that it's a bad idea. Pointing out that the other kids are doing something stupid as justification for doing it yourself isn't much of a defence ;) I'd rather someone got my password to some forum or other than nicked my product code and sold it, forcing me to have to buy the product again. Even on the odd occasion where I've had a password sent via e-mail, it's been made very clear that I should change it immediately via the website. I can't change a product code in the same way, so it just shouldn't ever be sent insecurely.

Not to me they haven't and if they did, I'd point out that it was pretty stupid to them as well. Most companies don't send passwords via e-mail as they realise that's not a good idea, so it's bizarre if they're sending out product codes that way.

Ah, I'm not sure as I understand that they store the key in the same place in the registry, so if one's activated the other should be too. In my Module Manager it shows a Serial button next to the modules I've purchased. I guess you might have to download them manually from here http://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/downloads/modules/

Not at all. I don't send any sensitive or financial information or codes/serial numbers for products I've purchased by e-mail and I don't recall any other company sending such information to me by e-mail.

I don't. They're displayed in my DCS account on the website, both when I buy them and any other time I need to check them (although I store them in my Lastpass as well just in case).

You have to click on 'Activate a Game' at the top of Steam and enter the code in there.

I just bought FC3 and got an e-mail containing my activation code. As everyone knows, e-mail is not secure and is easily sniffed by any rogue node in the chain, so sending activation codes or passwords using it is a basic security no-no. I hope you read this and stop doing this ED.

OK, thanks, that's something at least.

Yeah, the grip itself is rather plastic and creaky. I might try and replace it with a X52 one, as someone else has done. Can't say I've noticed any noise in my headphones (analog) or TV (HDMI) though. The sticktion and stepping appears to be partly from the motors and partly just stuff being dry and rubbing against other stuff. Has anyone ever replaced the motors or any other parts to make it smoother as I hate how it feels when I move it at the moment, although I love the FFB itself (was playing Freespace 2 with it last night and that was fun with it).

Looks great, nice job :thumbup:

Do the FC3 aircraft use Force Feedback at all. With the KA-50 my FFB2 holds the cyclic trimmed but there's no vibration effects when flying or landing, so is there anything like that?

Reading that link that Imp provided, I think I'd have to say I desire ASM but I'd qualify that by saying I'm not really that fussed about being able to look around at the various panels, as it's quite fiddly trying to operate a lot of the switches with the mouse just by looking in the right direction with head tracking and then I tend to have to pause the tracking to keep it steady enough to click on stuff anyway. It's actually much easier to just use snapviews to look at the various panels and having them at a fixed zoom would probably make it a lot easier to make them look really crisp and realistic, as the graphics wouldn't have to be scaled depending on the zoom level. What would be really nice is if each ASM aircraft came with preset snapviews that allow us to easily view all the different panels/switches. Even better would be to have these snapviews exported to a secondary (touchscreen) monitor, below the main one, so that the main one always shows the view out of the cockpit, with head tracking, whilst the lower one just shows the static panels. Using physical panels to send commands to the ASM aircraft is another option but the whole clickable cockpit thing I find rather fiddly when I try and use it. So even if the F-15C isn't fully ASM, if there was a Helios profile for it that I could use to control what functionality there is, I think I'd be quite happy.

Is the hat switch very loose on anyone else's FFB2? It's not so much the switch as the plastic top which is hanging down, so it has to be pushed up to be centered. Being so loose, it makes it quite hard to use but it's not a very good design anyway IMHO, as it's too smooth and my thumb tends to slip across it, which can make it difficult to move it where I want. I think the traditional hat switches are much better.

Thanks Imp, that was very helpful :thumbup:

Yeah, I've had the A-10C for a while but not flown it much, as I also have the KA-50 and UH-1H and I find it more fun flying the helos, although I still suck at those and can't beat a combat mission even with labels on :cry: You're doing a good job of persuading me to get FC3 ;) It sounds like there might be a place for it in my collection, for something to play with that's less challenging than the PFM/AFM level aircraft.

OK, thanks. Sounds like I'd be better off sticking to BMS for now then, with it's clickable cockpit, etc (not that I've found the time to learn to fly that yet). I guess what confused me on the product page was 'New 6 degrees of freedom (6DOF) cockpit and model for the F-15C', which I guess just means you can look around and move your head position rather than actually interact with the cockpit. I'd assumed that this would be a basic function in any aircraft and the sentence indicated something more than that. So how limited is the viewpoint in the other FC3 aircraft then?

Ah thanks, that will have no bearing on whether I decide to buy FC3 or not then.

Are they supposed to be coming to FC3 then or just the standalone F-15C?

Thanks, that helped a lot. With the Huey, it seems OK on 75 but that was still too much for the Shark, so I've set it to 50 for that and that's more or less eliminated the jerk when pressing Trim. Obviously it's simulating the AP releasing it's authority when it's pressed, so it's just a matter of tweaking it to produce realistic forces, for a weakling like me anyway ;) I'm surprised the steps feeling is normal, as loads of people love this stick for helos and I understood that we need very fine, precise control in the cyclic for flying those. It must be largely coming from the motors or the components that connect them to the gimbal, as without the FFB activated it's a lot less noticeable although there's still a fair bit of 'sticktion' there, although probably not severe enough to make me need to push through it and then oversteer. I actually tried flying the Shark without the FFB and it was interesting but the stick's a bit too loose then and inertia isn't enough to stop it moving out of position by itself. Strangely, the offset problem seems to have fixed itself today and it's centering more or less in the middle.

OK, thanks. I'm a bit of a click-addict, so I'm not sure I'd like FC3 then but I guess if I build myself some panels I can still map them to the internal FC3 commands like with the DCS aircraft can't I, or doesn't it even have those, just keyboard commands? EDIT: To be clear, I'm asking if there's commands like this available for the FC3 aircraft, to allow me to control all the systems with an DIY control panel and Arduino: {down = device_commands.Button_10, up = device_commands.Button_10, cockpit_device_id = devices.ELEC_INTERFACE, value_down = -1.0, value_up = 0.0, name = 'Main generator ON/OFF Switch', category = 'Ins Overhead panel'},

Do the FC3 aircraft have clickable cockpits at all?

OK, it's decided to download the other two modules now. I'll check they're working later but they'll probably be OK. EDIT: Yep, seems fine now.

Weird, it has only installed the KA-50, not the UH-1H or A-10C. I saw it was downloading 1.8GB and assumed that was all three modules but it turns out most of that is the KA-50 Training videos. My UH1H keys starts with DX but now Steam is showing a completely different key starting with AT. The KA-50 and A-10C keys show correctly. If I try and enter the UH-1H or A-10C keys again in Steam, it just "Product already owned, click Next to install" but there's no Next, only Finish and that doesn't start it installing.