deadsmell

hey paul, i dont own the game myself, but ive read that the ability to program your stick is coming out in a patch. I guess they forgot to put it in for the release or something. Sounds like a pretty funky release, ive read that the axis planes dont even have cockpits modeled, and that will be released as a patch as well.

mucho funno last night flying on your wing Crunch. More please. :)

Ive barely had it a year, and to be honest I havent even used it that much. I must have a faulty stick, where the center diameter of the plastic recentering thing that the shaft goes through is just a bit too small. I suppose even the weather could be affecting it, but Im pretty sure in the end, i just have a bad stick. Ive contacted saitek customer support twice and noone has called me back. I really dont know, Ive babied this thing since i got it, always careful with it, always keep it clean. So for me to be taking it apart and dripping oil in it, you gotta know something is very wrong with the damn thing. If Saitek doesnt want to provide any customer service/support, then ill go buy another one in the store, and just return it with my old broken one in the box and say there ya go im returning this. Either way im gettin this baby exchanged for one that works properly. I am very disappointed with this thing. I Should have saved up for a CH set up. Thanks Frazer.

ive thought about trying one of these silent hunter games out for a while now. I dont know if it would be a good idea to add another game to my plate that requires alot of study. How complicated is the gameplay, is it the kind of game you can just turn on, explore and play and have fun, or do i need to spend hours in the manual? I mean is it somewhat of a casual experience? at all? I just woke up i dont know what im asking lol.

yeah I took it apart last night. LOL all I used was a alan wrench and I didnt have a skinny enough screwdriver, so I actually used a tiny little screwdriver from a 2 dollar eyeglass repair kit lol. Any way I got the stick taken apart, but you can really only go so far with it. There was no way I could disassemble it any further without risking damage. So basically, i was unable to remove the stick from the shaft which would have allowed me to remove that plastic piece. Whats causing the noise and friction is still that same plastic piece you showed in your picture Frazer, its just mine is really bad. Im about ready to just break it off of there with brute force. Of course then ill have zero tension on the stick, and no recentering mechanism. When i first got the stick, i thought maybe it just needed to be broken in, but this problem has only gotten worse. its basically unplayable in its current state.

Great suggestions everyone. I have tried some gun oil, its not "ballistol" just some generic stuff I had on hand. It helped a little but its still sticky and makes that sound, like when you have a soda or a shake in a disposable cup from a fast food joint, and you work the straw up and down through the plastic lid and it goes ........ "errr-r-errr-r-errr-r-errr-r-errr-r-errr" Im even noticing now that it isnt isolated only to the center, whenever I am applying any kind of slow movement to the stick, it gets stuck. Say im pursuing another plane, and were climbing, and as were approaching the apex of our ascent, were also barrel rolling to the right through the top, I am slowly pulling back and right on the stick, a little further.."errr-r"...a little further.."err-r", a little fuuurther...."eer-r" and oh boy hes pulling hard through the top! were going back down to the deck, and were rolling scissors all the way........."errr-r-errr-r-errr-r-errr-r-errr-r" Its really more when its slow and precise though. I tried the zip ties on the spring, first problem i have with that, is my zip ties are to thick i guess, the plastic ties were hindering the range of motion so thats out for now. I tried some garbage bag ties just to see, and I guess they help a bit too, but the words "mickey mouse" come to mind. At this point im seriously debating just removing that plastic piece altogether. Now this would obviously mean that for one I would never again be able to remove my hand from the flight stick while in flight. No scratching that spot under my nose that itches, no drinks, no smokes. And for two my stick is going to look all floppy and impotent when not in use. So sad, so sad. I know some of the guys around here have taken their x52's, and x45's apart to make custom cyclic's and what not. Theoretically if i could get that piece of plastic off, and bore out the center hole just a tad, that should solve the problem. However, im not sure how easy it is to take it apart and get it back together again without screwing it up. Anybody familiar with the process of dismantling this thing? Frazer when you say to clean it periodically do you mean just like dusting the outside (which i do) or do you take it apart and clean the guts at all? Edit: everyones got great ideas though, Currently it is lubed and twisty tied lol, would really like to get that plastic washer/rocker thing off and run a drill through it a few times. I dont use liquid fabric softener, so I couldnt try that lol.

some serendipity going on around here lol, just last night I myself was trying to fix the same problem with my x-52. I tried spraying electronics contact cleaner/ lubricant on the area, and it still sticks there near the center. It is quite annoying, as I finally had to realize myself that it does create a problem when making small precise adjustments near the center. Its driving me nuts on IL-2 when trying to line up that perfect gun shot. I dont like the idea of putting vaseline on it. Maybe ill try some WD-40 next.

You guys will have to forgive my ignorance, Im not as savvy as most of you lol. (not as much money either lol). Im still not sure what this will actually do out of the box other than light up and provide some more programmable buttons. At this point im pretty sure those two screen things are picture frames for pictures of your family. :) Fear not, as I am sure one of you will no doubt have one in your home soon, and when you do........please make a demonstration video. :)

I know this isnt entiely related to OP's problems, but now today i go into the control for the X52, and see the X and Y axis are completely off center, and totally screwed. I am FURIOUS! I will no longer ever recommend any saitek product to anyone, not even my worst enemy. Their support is a frickin joke, and so is their cheap product. If they dont back this thing up and fix it or get me a new one, I swear im posting on every watch dog site, every consumer site, and anywhere else I can reach their potential customers with a warning, because this is beyond unacceptable. I am so steamed right now.

Hey guys maybe you can help understand how this thing is actually going to work. If I understand correctly, you wont be able to actually use one of those screens as your "shkval" even though it shows in the picture some sort of targeting cam being displayed. right? Its just got some lights that light behind cardboard cut outs or something. Be cool if they made it so you could at least use one of the screens as a full blown targeting cam. Its still cool to have some extra lights and buttons though. Also I couldnt find any pricing info on the detail pages. You guys mind enlightening me as to the price? Thanks.

I have growing problems with the SST tools as well. I swear at first I thought the profile saves were getting corrupted somehow. Things that worked fine yesterday, suddenly wont work today. For example the control panel shows that my z slider still works, but i can no longer get it to hold a command and function properly. I have also seen the funky characters before. The damn thing is only a year old, and I have not abused it in any way, and it hasnt even had much use at all really. Especially considering that the old MS sidewinder that i used growing up still works, I am rather disapointed with the quality of the saitek X52. I even looked into the warranty, but its like a brick wall. I have to go back and completely redo the profiles for lockon and dcs, and I wont even be sure if they will work, so ive been putting it off. Anyway im interested to know if you find any answers. Good luck and let us know.

I guess im the only the one thats not impressed. Ill still end up getting it, im just very skeptical on how "good" its actually going to be. If you notice for example in that video, when they go into to clear that little house or whatever it is, the door opens, and the player starts walking through, then he has to look over into the right corner, where he shoots a guy that is for some reason just standing there not shooting the player, then he turns 180 back to the left and shoots another opfor that for some reason never bothered to shoot at the player, even though he had him from behind. It looks like the AI just pretty much stands there and lets you shoot them. They claim they have super AI, but you can tell in the vids its BS. No freelook, no lean, no fov. And for the record, it's obvious hardcore mode, as they themselves stated, wasnt even implemented until community feedback from E3, and all it is, is no HUD, so i dont really see how thats such a huge thing. anyway whatever, well see. I would like nothing more than to see COD die, but I just dont know if dragon rising really has the goods. And finally, In my opinion that was still a pretty sorry demonstration. They spent more time showing off the command radial menu, which everyone is already aware of, and guys standing around in sweaters, rather than show a real good fight, which ive still yet to see them show off. All theyve shown is teasers, and im starting to think its cuz theres nothing else to show.

Hey guys, this is my favorite old flashpoint video. Just figured id link it here for those that have never seen it. This is not an action vid, it just about friends playing flashpoint together, but I like it. It goes to show its not all about "After effects" and cinematography, and action sequences. Watch the whole thing tell me what you think. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKDyg39dvG4

yeah whats all this?, I thought that was a 100% deal that all the dcs modules would work together? I thought by the end of this thing wed be seeing missions with ka-50's, a-10's, apache, and su, all in the same mission playing together?

Yeah, totally, there must be alot of cod guys playing arma 2 right now, some of these people just move so fast, and here i am , going way slower than everyone, checking each corner and doorway and window. I remember doing co-op on the old flashpoint running spec ops type missions, and we would just lay around in the dark with our binoculars, scoping out a town, counting the patrols, waiting for the right time to strike, and then with total coordination all members of the squad would fire on their targets at once, just like the real snipers took out all those somali pirates a couple months ago. Thats so cool when you have a good team to play with.

Community FYI: Ive also been running small arena style pvp ctf at night off of my pc. Its usually just called deadsmell something or other. Im west coast and while im not always hosting it at the same time every day, feel free to check ctf at night for the game. The guys that were playing with me last night said my host performs very well for them. Also for CTF theres some guys that host another CTF server at night. they are called sof, so if you like ctf and see the sof clan hosting they provide a good ctf server as well. Like me however they arent there 24/7 but they come on at night, usually a bit later. So theres two night time ctf options for west coasters there. Hope to see some of you playing.

Cool, yeah I just got done getting spanked for 4 hours. seems like everyones getting better but me. Maybe it just wasnt my day. Ill try again in a bit. See you out there. @ diveplane:ill check for old farts next time. Thanks.

I have found a good place to play on the BMF pvp only, hold server. In my opinion they have some of the best missions, and I really enjoy the frontlines style gameplay. I think they use the aas gametype. Everyones been fun to play with there as well. Team work and respect. Its a 32 player server, and it fills up fast once people get off of work and seems to stay full all weekend.

twas such a powerful scene when the transformer prime elite jesus squad transcended time and space to tell sam what a special boy he is. not to mention the gooneywomper racial stereotype retard droids. Frankly I wont be surprised when those two win best actor at the next award ceremony. Yes alot of questions this movie raises, such as,,....... WTF? Are you kidding me? Who the heck made this thing? No but seriously the only good characters in the movie are optimus prime and bumblebee, and bumblebee doesnt even have vocal chords....... and optimus prime is dead for the whole movie, (but he does have one good scene right before hes dead forever) - *spoiler he he he

thats probably the best vid they've released so far. Thanks for the link. Edit: something about the music reminds me of an old 80s tv show or something but i cant put my finger on it.

Hey guys just a heads up. I just turned on the tv, and dogfights is on the history channel today for the next three hours. its four o clock pacific time here so some of you may want to check it out. Seems like they dont play these that often, so i just wanted to give a heads up.

frickin awesome vids, i hadnt seen either of those, thanks for sharing. Im having a blast with Arma 2 as well, however I hope we start getting some much better PVP missions up on the servers very soon.

I think its a good day for you to get outside, get some sunshine and some fresh air, walk around for a bit. Leave the computer off today, read a book in a hammock while the sun sets or something. If none of that sounds relaxing, I dont know maybe you can beg your mom to take you to chuck e cheese or something.

Yeah I think you guys are right, I dont really think its a viable idea, but it could be interesting anyway......maybe...... I think I remember reading a long while back that once the apache and warthog are released that the predators will be able to provide data to those aircraft, you guys know if thats true?, or did i just dream that i read that?

I was just thinking about it, if there was a good UAV Predator sim, it would really pretty much provide the exact same experience as a UAV operator. You sit there with your controls looking at your screen, operating the UAV. So after thinking about this I wanted to bring it up here and see what all of you guys think.