Loaded_Dice

I wouldn't take everything that the media says for granted. In fact, even if it has been indeed shot down the officials will never initially admit that, as it was the case with the shooting down of the Aviano's squadron commander F-16CJ in '99 over Serbia until evidence leaked out. I would say that according to the pattern of the damage seen on the following pictures there is a strong case that the culprit for the 'crash' of this plane might likely be a detonation of a larger missile warhead in close proximity. On the other side the libyan side did not confirm shooting down the plane as well. It makes sense to assume it was flying at medium to high altitude since it is really stupid to fly at low altitude where the risk is high from AAA and manpads taken into consideration the obsolescence of the air defences in libya and the initial sead efforts. However, it is a possibility we shouldn't exclude, since these F-15 are pretty sturdy planes that usually don't go down by themselves in peacetime conditions due to mechanical failure :) P.S. Hope I was more constructive this time, and you will not interpret my posts as politics like the last time :mad:

Undoubtely, I would assume the F-16C would be the most desired plane for the majority of the people in the sim community. Not only that will attract sales from all Falcon 4.0 fans and finally provide a modern replacement for this now out of date but legendary sim, but from real world perspective it is also the most widespread multirole plane which will provide for a multitude of realistic scenarios. I know some of you will prefer the F/A-18C, but not so from my point of view, since it will require significant time to model detailed naval operations in DCS, also it is not operated by so many countries as F-16 and last but not least it's flight performance is inferior to the F-16 and other modern fighters making it a not so exiting choice for pure fighter jokes. Also the AH-64A is a possible next aircraft since some work has probably been already done, but the same like for the F/A-18C with naval operations, it will require additional time to implement dual crew cockpit operations. So, I would say the F-16C has the biggest business value and impact on optimizing revenue for the least work involved from a software engineers point of view. However, this discussion is not worth continuing since I don't believe we have significant influence on the decisions what will be the next aircraft, a big role here plays previous military contracts won by Eagle Dynamics like with the first 2 modules, so following that same logic, maybe we can expect to see an AC-130 Spectre as the next DCS aircraft :megalol:. But if they decide to take our wishes into consideration, my vote goes for an F-16C placed in an Mediteranian\Aegean theater (Greece, Turkey and Israel all operate the type) which will provide for exiting new scenarios :D. P.S. In this case, could you please extend the terrain a few more hundred kilometers north to encompass Macedonia as well :lol: ?

@crazysundog, thanks for your reply on my last post. Otherwise the forces in Condor are just incredible, you can feel the centering force getting stronger as the speed builds up, and also the trim finally works like in a real glider. Mine seems to be in very good working order as well, don't know how much it has been used, only the HAT is a little bit on the loose side, but otherwise works perfectly :). I bought it on the net from a reseller on German ebay, he ussualy sells them for 110E, but I got mine for 100E and the service was very expedient, so I suppose it was a good deal. Can't wait to try it out with the Su-25 in FC, and now I'm definitelly buying web based BS once I get home.The setup I now have is MSFFS2 + X45 Throttle + Saitek Rudder Pedals, so it seems I'm ready for the Shark :thumbup:.

I have just bought a used Microsoft Force Feedback 2 here in Germany. Since I'm on a business trip, I was only able to try it with Condor The Competition Soaring Simulator on my laptop, and so far it looks really great. I was a little bit skeptical about buying a used joystick given it's price of 100E but it arrived in very good condition and everything seems to be in working order. My only objection is that it is not smooth as some other non FF joysticks, whoch means you can feel the subtle movement of the gears when the force it's weak especially near the center. Is this normal for all FF sticks, or is it due to wear from previous use ?

Yes, I totally agree that playing the Caucasus Cauldron campaign is a wonderful experience. I'm on the 7-th mission now, and so far it works great with FC as well. By the way, do you happen to know the password to declassify this campaign? It would be great if I can convert it into multilplayer for 2 persons, since the wingman (non)inteligence seems to be the biggest problem for me.

Hi, After a lot of flying that I have done with both the Su-25 and Su-25T in FC, I'm beginning to get annoyed by the fact that the Su-25 seems to be too fragile and vulnerable to engine damage in the game, especcially compared to it's real life counterpart. In other words, if one of the engines gets damaged or in fire there is almost no chance that you can survive to return home on the remaining engine (even when shutting down the damaged one) and it always results in an explosion, contrary to real world situations from Afghanistan and more recently Georgia where Su-25's ussually get back on one engine: http://photofile.name/users/sergxon.fotoplenka/140422476/148506650/ This and other real world experiences have proven that the Su-25 cannot be so fragile and susceptable to engine damage in real life as it is currently modeled in FC. So, is there some way to activate the fire extinguishing system or some other measures that could be taken in FC apart from shutting down the engine (usually doesn't help a lot :() to prevent the plane from exploding when one engine has been damaged ?

Hi all I want to try out a tactic for deploying laser guided missiles from Su-25 that would be very useful to avoid overflying a heavily defended target area. It involves a pair of Su-25 where the first one shoots the missile, and the second one is a few miles behind the shooter and continues to mark the target while the shooter brakes away from the target area in order to avoid AA defences. We are going to test this tactic with a firend who is going to act as a shooter with Su-25 and shoot the missile a little bit off target, and I will lock the target from a Su-25T. Hope this works, following the analogy the way a semi active radar guided R-27RE guides on he reflections from a second radar once the lock is broken. Has anyone else tried this out in Lock On and is it possible for a laser guided missile to acquire the reflections from the laser designator of the second Su-25 ?

I have just installed Merzifon 1.3 Mod, but it completely messed up the skin of the Sim MOD A-10 and other skins I installed before. Is there a way to uninstall the Merzifon MOD without having to reinstall Lock On ?

Thanks for the reply @muz. I'm also sharing the same opinion since the GTX+ operates at a much lower temperature than the 4850 which leaves extra space for overclocking :thumbup:. I will definitely go for the GTX+ especcially if I manage to find it for the same price as the 4850.

Hi to all I'm planning to build a new PC now specifically for use with Black Shark and other flight simulators like FSX and Condor. The only thing which is not clear to me yet is the choice of a graphic card. I must say that at this moment I'm more in a favor of NVDIA's 9800GTX+ despite it's 20-30E higher price tag, mostly because of a performance issue with ATI cards in FSX (locked at 25 frames) which ATI doesn't seem to care about. Also I have been disappointed by the performance of the previous ATI 3870 model when I tested it on my friends rig. All this and the fact that I am a satisfied NVDIA user so far makes me a little bit subjective to my decision. That's why I would like to ask the rest of you, especially the ones that already had experience with BS what is the better decision between these two cards ?

Did you noticed these improvements for BS or FC ? Also is there a connection between CUDA functionality and BS or you were just referring that you got improved performance and IQ with the latest drivers ?

Thanks guys. I have finally made up my mind :D. I will be going for the Saitek ones, esspecially after reading the review on SimHQ which confirmes that the Saitek pedals offer greater resistance compared to CH products which was my greatest complain. I just hope they will last more than my old X45 which broke after only some 1.5 year of use :cry:.

Hi to all I have been planning to upgrade my flight sim setup with a set of rudder pedelas but I still can't decide between the two options available on the market. They both sell for about the same price so this is not an issue. I have only tried the CH Pro Pedals myself at a friends house on FS2004, and they work fine but the resistance they provide seems too low. On the other hand I have been reading some things that the Saitek pedals are prone to jamming in some cases. So can you tell me what are your first hand experiences and what do you suggest would be a better choice having Lock On in mind as the main application of use. Thanks in advance :)