169th_Case

Wow, cool pictures Groove! Nice find. To summarize: missile appears to be launched from wingtip nose cone appears to be white tail fins appear to be perpendicular to fuselage:music_whistling: S! Case

Indeed a very interesting video... Wouldn't say it was point blank range though, unless they slowed down the video, as the missile takes a few seconds from launch to hit. I guess that camera on the UAV was zoomed in quite a bit. It does look as if the MiG checked out the UAV visually before manouvering in for a shot. Also, it seems as if the pilot flying the UAV knew he had company, slewing the camera to capture the MiG. Case

Apparently Novorossijsk will become a new naval base for the Black Sea Fleet, as Russia is leasing the naval base at Sevastopol which is now in the Ukraine. It may be that Novorossijsk AB will be out of use for the construction of the new naval base. However, as it seems to exist or have existed in reality, I would opt not to move it. Case sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novorossiysk, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sevastopol

Just a wild idea, but if there were a way to give individual pilots certain goals to achieve, for which they would receive points if they succeeded, it might draw people away from airquake. For example, the first pilot that joins a server is tasked with destroying a simple ground target. The second pilot that joins the server is tasked with flying a CAP in the vicinity of the ground target. The third pilot that joins is tasked with flying a fightersweep aiding the 3rd pilot, etcetera. Though a lot of work, the mp_log combined with the tacview should contain the information to check if a pilot achieved his goal. No, or much less points would be given if they would just go off and do airquake. Giving individual pilots goals when they are in the server is probably impossible, but I can imagine that before pilots log in to the game server, they log in to a website which provides them with their mission orders and goal. If that website is connected to a SQL database that has uptodate information about the status of the mission, this might work. As I said, just a wild idea :music_whistling: Case

Yes, I think it does. If the scoreboard only uses the mp_log, then the kill message will only appear when the plane either explodes in the sky or crashes into the ground. If the engines are burning and the pilot knows he's going to die and exits before he dies, the mp_log will never record the kill. Case

In the mp_log, a kill is registered by the kill message and the crash message, both having the same time stamp. This timestamp is when the plane either blows up in the sky or crashes on the ground. However, if the plane is hit, the pilot can exit the game before the plane either explodes or crashes. Be it ignorance or intention, the pilot will prevent the opponent from getting a kill and prevents himself from getting a loss. From the mp_log alone it is not possible to determine that something like this has happened, but I've seen occasions in servers where you see a plane get hit, tumble smoking to the ground and then dissappear without ever seeing the kill and crash message, so it does happen. Usually this involves newbies who didn't know. In any event, players can use the 169th forums to submit tracks and tacviews as evidence. Case

Blue team wins again! Congratulations! The main results (blue/red): Kills: 107/96 Vehicle kills: 25/5 Teamkills: 8/7 Losses: 104/115 Crashes: 42/32 Detailed results can be found below. Salute to all who participated! The next Black Sea Battle will be on Saturday April 12th, 20:30UT We will again start our server at 20:30UT and tally the score after three hours of play. This time, the 169th will fly red. Join us in the fun! Case 080329results.pdf

I'm not sure if the 104th stats use this logic, though I'm sure they know about it. A mission exit can be identified by the combination of an exit line and a crash line in the mp_log, both with the same time. A crash due to a kill is a combination of the kill line and the crash line, also at the same time. A regular crash will have a crash line and an exit line at different times. Case

Even though a 97% eclipsed sun is mindblowing, it is nothing compared to experiencing a total solar eclipse. Yes you will get to feel the slow but extreme buildup of suspense, but it fades just as slowly. Being in the path of totality, the suspense buildup climaxes with totality; seeing the corona, seeing the protuberances, being in the dark during daytime, the eerie glow and colors of the sky, the stars and planets that will be visible and actually seeing the shadow of the moon race over you. When totality ends, it ends abruptly, and it doesn't matter anymore that the sun is no 99% eclipsed. You will be full of emotions you cannot understand or describe. You have just watched nature's best show. I've been lucky to see three total solar eclipses (Hungary 1999, Zambia 2001 and Turkey 2006) and one annular one (Spain 2005) and I always, always get goosebumps when I think back to them. As for the stars and constellations in Lock On, ED did a very good job. It is almost like a real planetarium program. The only small change I would make is the visibility of stars when it is daytime. You won't see the Pleiades when the sun is within 45 degrees of it. Just my two cents, Case

Thanks BRD, When googling on the Compound Document Format I came across this link (http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums?a=tpc&s=400102&f=38610606&m=320107771), which I think is the post you referred to. Thanks a lot, Case

It appears LOMAC mission files have a binary header, followed by XML-like ASCII. The latter part contains all the information concerning coalitions, weather, flights, loadouts, waypoints etc... My hope is that the mission file can be edited directly to duplicate flights, add waypoints and the like without having to rely solely on the Lock On editor. Making missions with the editor involves a lot of mouse movements when making a mission. So far any change I made to the ASCII part of a mission file resulted in a file that was no longer readable by Lock On. Could this be related to the binary header? Does the header contain a checksum of some sort? Case