Horns

I think it means each individual plane, so your F-14B may look different to your friends F-14B

Haha yes point made and taken. In general I would be polite, after all, my own life would come down to how motivated he and his people are to doing their jobs right. Don't need bad intentions floating around in crew members' heads!

“When I get back you’re going to fix these panels THE MOMENT you finish cleaning the rear cockpit!”

It's a standard measure, this was the first thing that came up for me: https://www.google.com/search?ei=ncITXI_-O5v0rQHRooigDg&q=us+winter+2018-19&oq=us+winter+2018-19&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0j0i8i7i30j0i8i7i10i30j0i8i7i30j0i8i30.26970.28224..29013...0.0..0.449.2044.2-3j2j1......0....1..gws-wiz.......0i71.A4sYxBjlMOI I'd rather our devs timetabled by quarter, but ultimately I guess it's up to them.

So when do I get my t-shirt? Too soon? :lol:

The F/A-18 was being spoken of as being imminent years before it entered EA. Fast forward to a month after release and I don't remember seeing any complaints about the wait. Most people don't hold onto grudges about access dates. You're working to deliver a high quality experience from the start of EA, and that is the only thing that people will care about a month after release, whenever that might be.

Any idea what Nick meant by “shortly”? Sorry, couldn’t resist :megalol:

Thanks Nick, much appreciated

ROFLMFAO, if you hadn't remarked on it I would have completely missed the fact that wasn't your quote!

What you say about the F-14 makes a lot of sense, it was built to provide space and weight capacity that isn't needed now, so it would be unnecessarily cumbersome today. Cheers :)

Fantastic, congrats!

I get you being upset that they haven't met the 2018 deadline mentioned on the Heatblur YouTube account. That date was revised to "this Winter" on or before September 29, three months before the 2018 deadline would expire, and before they started accepting pre-orders. Looking beyond the question of deadlines, it's difficult to understand what you want. Is there anything Heatblur could do for you that would make you more satisfied? Have you purchased the model, and if so have you applied for a refund? I'm not trying to be a smartass, just trying to get to the substance of what you are asking for.

Go to the DCS site here and log in. Then go to "E-Shop" and click on "Modules". Look at the F-14 module, under "PRE-PURCHASE" and it should say "You already have a license for this product".

He is talking about the Heatblur store.

I think we’ll either hear from them in the next 48 hours or it will be a 2019. I can’t imagine them entering EA with less than a week’s notice, nor do I think they’ll launch between Xmas and New Year.

You’re absolutely right, it’s been way too long since I last flew the Viggen. I did blow myself up a few times not waiting until I was 50m above :doh:

It was my impression that the motivation for retiring the F-14 was mainly financial. You're absolutely right about the F-18 E/F being the more apt comparison, I was just using the F-35 because it has the newer tech. I knew the fingerprints of the USN accountants were all over the decision to retire the Tomcat, but I hadn't realized maintenance had been such an issue even after the GE engines replaced the P&W. Understood, and although I hadn't considered it as such, I guess my question does wind up just comparing airframes. Good point about not having newer swing wing designs, I guess every extra servo or motor that's needed is one more thing to maintain. While appropriate defense expenditure post cold war is debatable, I imagine it would be trying to service those maintenance needs on the boat. I had no idea the comparison was that bad for the Typhoon against the F-35. I'm almost speechless. I knew making the EF was a large financial investment for a non-stealth 4th gen fighter, but those readiness figures... it doesn't matter whether something might be superior as an airplane if it has half the readiness rate. Thank you everyone, this is very informative, much appreciated :)

This. For sure, and this is something where they could just release what they have, regardless of what’s missing.

I'm probably getting carried away in the release hype, but I hope someone can give me good reasons why a new Tomcat variant wouldn't work in RL combat today under the following conditions: 1. Low Observable has been defeated. F-22, F-35, Silent Eagle, J-20 and Su-57 are all as observable and targetable as any 4th gen a/c currently 2. New sensors and avionics suite in line with F-35C (with current sensor fusion issues rectified) 3. Full FBW (I don't think DFCS counts as FBW, right?) 4. Compatibility with AIM-9 and AIM-120 series So basically, an F-14 airframe around F-35C kit with stealth not being a consideration - how would it go?

Re the last observation in your original post, I asked a similar question here and Cobra847 kindly explained. The only way Heatblur could apply their own missile logic was to make them laser-guided, and when the player dies that guidance is lost.

You may already be doing this, but what turned the RB 04 from question mark to consistent for me was making sure I had no rotation, with vector right on horizon, for about a second before each launch until just after. I hope someone can help you make these work, the weapons are fun and it's a rush delivering them from supersonic <10m above the ocean

You make a good point about them needing time other than the holiday days themselves. I also wondered whether HB could (or should) trust themselves to not wind up bug squashing if they did release an F-14 which they felt wasn't really ready for the light of day. I guess in the end this is all speculation, I'm sure we'll wind up with a great product whenever we get it.

True, both that dubbing the sound is common and that we've heard the WIP sound fx already. Just pointing out that Nick's stated reason suggests he doesn't think the sound fx are ready yet, I do agree that the RIO pit not being shown at all is a greater concern. HB might release with rough sound, but no chance they could release it without a functioning RIO pit. Although, if all the coding is done and all of the Jester voice acting and AI is done too, we could probably get by over Xmas/New Year with Jester as a designated RIO :D

OP, I have a suggestion: do you think it might be a good idea to change this title to "F14 Release Hype Thread? Seems to be where it's going... EDIT: I wasn't suggesting this thread or any of the posts it contains are OT. Was more a suggestion of where this thread could go, rather than ending at the point that the F-14 is realeased. Also, my two cents on F-14 release date: I think the decider - assuming the decision isn't already made - might be what's missing. If there are some aspects of features that won't be quite right, hopefully Heatblur will put the perfectionism on hold and give us what they've got so far. If there are key aspects of the module missing I don't think they would them release it. I fear that this might be the case since they felt the need to dub the audio in the VFAT demo. I really want this bird to be the partridge in my pear tree, but not at the expense of Heatblur's reputation.

I've got long-standing neck issues that saw me get a sore neck with a 140g audio headset, so VR is not an option for me. I really like my track IR (with geek antlers on baseball cap) and I don't feel a lack of immersion.