Vitesse2l

FC2 gets more content and brings Lock On right up to date with the intention that it remains compatible with the DCS series. I know I prefer the idea of DCS with the FC aircraft, rather than DCS with KA50 and A10 and another nine months wait... As to whether it should be a patch or not - ED have taken many months to get FC2 ready and naturally would like a return. I suspect they weighed up the business aspect and I think we're lucky that FC is getting the upgrade at all, especially considering it's taken much longer than planned. I haven't forgotten the price rise, BTW. For me it's what I might expect to pay.

Hi Repent, I remember your buying guide! Wondered where you'd gone!

Are you using the HUD slow speed drift indicator? At low level the ground gives good visual feedback/reference. Best thing is...more practice and trim! Cheers.

I think some of the missions are set to run in game mode... You can lock your settings in the option menu (so that a 'game' mission will start with your preferences). There IS a preset Game/Sim switch on the 'gameplay' screen. It's near the bottom. Hope that helps.

I wonder how the poll will look once all the cheating votes are sorted out... Obviously the mature, level headed and intelligent DCS pilots would never stoop to such a thing! Cheers!

Yup! I had forgotten quite how difficult it was to get through the Webmoney system. I hit several dead ends and the worry of exactly what I was putting on my PC (and where my money might go!). Regarding users getting bored - I'd like to see a bit more in the way of radio comms between air/air air/atc and air/ground units, along with tweaked ai. Having played with the mission editor for a few weeks, I think there is a lot can be done in that area by the designer himself but it can mean the mission becomes a bit too scripted/linear.

I realised that I have owned BS for more than 1 year now! Many here bought the Russian download back in November 08. I was lucky enough to work out how to buy from 1C's Russian website and posted in this thread. http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=32909&highlight=buying+russian+version&page=13 I've just re-read some of the frustration and excitement folks went through trying to get their download started. I'd forgotten how many years of waiting we all went through. Was it worth it? Of course! I'm still flying the BS now and enjoying some mission designing. Thanks to the devs and community for some great software!

Thanks for the replies to my flight modelling / fps query earlier.

I was wondering regarding FPS... In regular steady flight with low FPS (such as I get!) the physics calculations are pretty simple - the helo is not deviating or being over controlled so it's state between one frame and the next is basically similar. The sim looks smooth. In manoeuvring flight, with deviations caused by large control inputs (who put those power lines there?) the steps between frames become more obvious as the calculations take more work. The scenery then starts to jerk past the cockpit. Does flight modelling lose realism with lower FPS as the CPU struggles to keep up? I would imagine so.

Is it possible that DCS and FC2.0 will stay compatible as new DCS aircraft are produced? Certainly seems an attractive scenario - We get the fabled 'Virtual Battlefield' with slightly updated Lomac aircraft and every nine months or so a new DCS product into the mix. The 2.0 news is probably the best thing I've heard about in simming for a very long time. The mp aspect could be very special.

What good news. 2010 seems like a long way off. Trying to think of other sims that allow mixed player aircraft online...

Thanks again - I know what you mean about naming the units. I know my player is Pilot 1! After that I am not sure... I need to make a quick mission to sort the activation triggers. It takes about 20 minutes flying to get the conditions right in the mission I am working on and since it's set at night, it's all a bit tricky. Hopefully I can post it here when I'm happy. I have a few effects using flags and timers. I'm trying to give some immersion so the player feels part of something and gets reactions to his actions. Don't think I'll try the competition. I find mission building is quite intensive and doing one every now and again is enough for me! I do tend to forget stuff in between, as you can see!

Thanks Igormk I looked for the Su25 unit with F2 - so they should have been visible even if they were hiding. Certainly my mistake somewhere here, though! I've just tried the moving trigger rules and that is just what I wanted. I need to fly my mission again to see if they work as intended and then hunt down the SU25 activation. Having the moving trigger will be a big help! Great explanation. BTW, I have placed some air units next to my ramp start Ka-50. I have them set to go off and do their own thing - just some activity for my airbase. Can I delay their start for a minute or so? It's all a bit sudden when they taxi immediately the mission starts.

Is there a trick to this? I have set a trigger to activate a friendly unit when the player's KA-50 receives damage from a particular enemy. The trigger is activated (I also have an on screen message) but the unit does not appear. The unit (2 Su25's) is set to take off and fly a set of waypoints. I have set it's hold time for 23 hours (I'm a bit confused by that bit). I don't get an option to show/hide the unit before acivation in the same way as I do when activating enemy units. Also - how do you use moving trigger zones? I assume they attach to a unit? Any help appreciated.

Agree on the weather limitations. Hopefully as the game engine evolves... Good for you on the flight training. I must admit I tend to program easy conditions for my free flight missions and use light fog and clouds. I find the sim more rewarding for the flight/nav experience than the combat side. Having the Shark fly smoothly where I want gives me real satisfaction. Cheers!

Hi Dave, High speed sharks can go very much faster if collective is well down. There is a thread somewhere... -ve G is indeed a big no-no! Those wind and turbulence values are pretty extreme. 25 m/s converts to 56 mph! I find the worst thing is losing your rotors after a long flight!

Hi LP, I've been doing some experimenting and I now think the improvement is nothing to do with the page file. I'd been trying to improve object-load pauses in ROF by moving the page file off my main HD and defragging the drive and the page file. Definitely better all round with ROF for me, and then I tried BS for the first time in a while...I usually go and make coffee while it loads! I have told Tez this, BTW.

Hi Tez, Got your PM... I just checked my load time using the first mission in the list (I have a Russian download copy, think it's called Patrol the Valley) and got 2 minutes 25 seconds from clicking 'fly' to cockpit. My PC is a P4 3.0 with 2GB ram. Windows is XP SP3 Version 2002. GPU is a 7600GS 256mb AGP. I have BS (and most applications) on a 500 GB Sata drive and my XP install on another 80GB drive. This is partitioned C, D and E. XP is on C, Page File on D only, and system managed. There is about 25gb free space on the D partition. Please let me know if there is anything else you need - it's no problem. Cheers!

I have had an improvement in loading times. Down from five minutes to two and a half. I had changed my page file to a different HD from my BS install and got loading improvements in BS and ROF. Also defragged the page file. Win XP SP3, btw. Worth a try! Cheers!

I have the same problem with the 1.01 - 1.01a hotfix...It's not there! I have D/L'ed the full 1.01a patch. Is this install OK over a 1.01 install? Thanks!

What a nice surprise ! For owners of Russian DL - the bottom link is what you want. Cheers!

Couple of other things I have found - All the missions are scripted. Components of the mission files are spread all over the PT Boats folder. There is no mission editor, and due to the way they are put together, hand editing missions does not look easy. Combat is good fun. There are actually lots of things going on with the crew once you are engaged and the game has a good feel. Boat handling is simple but lets you get on without fighting the interface. I have yet to find a mission that takes place near land. Maybe further in. There are loads of aircraft, ships and weapons available, but you only get them by passing missions... Still not seen any MP activity. Unless the western release is substantially different from the Russian version I cannot see it being a hit. The Russian forums are pretty dead. The game reminds me of something you might play on a console. I have the impression that the developers just ran out of time/money/patience and that PT Boats has been released in a state where they might just make something back. I played some SH4 this afternoon and reminded myself how far ahead that sim is. PT Boats does not have the open-ended freedom that a combat sim needs and without any mission editor...

I wonder if FC gets the improved BS mission editor? ED are pushing hard to get us software that works as advertised. The DCS can only get better. Thanks!

Copy of a post I made on SimHQ - Just received a copy of PT Boats from here. Delivery time of 1 month to the UK! I wasn't sure what to expect. There are some mixed reviews on Russian sites, but it was cheap enough and it's fun working through the process. Graphically it's generally similar to SH3. In the bridge view you get the shadows of your own vessel that shift as you manoeuvre but I have found that some smoke effects vanish and re-appear depending on distance. Might be an issue with my PC, though. Crewmen do not seem to animate much unless there is a target to track. I'm not too far in, but gameplay tends towards arcade style as far as I can tell. I've only run a couple of tutorial missions and not fired any guns yet. I have noticed that vessel speed decays very quickly if you stop engines, but ship handling generally feels realistic. My copy is, of course, all in Russian. I have been able to change to an English menu so that helps, but all mission text and tutorial speech is Russian. There is a multiplayer option, but I see no servers listed. That may say a lot about the game... It looks like PT Boats could be modded in a similar way to SH3. Performance is good. I have an old system and framerates in the tutorial missions are good, even with 'all sliders to the right'. At the moment I feel that the game I have may not be what the developers intended all those years ago. I will get further in and try to get some weapons fired! Cheers!

Which version of BS are you guys running? (Russian d/l, Russian dvd, English d/l etc) I have a 4-5 minute load time on my old p4 3.0, 2gb ram, 256mb, 7600gs xp sp3 machine. Using russian d/l version. I read that the Eagle Dynamics English d/l was coded with a faster load time. Also, I guess you have tried turning off some of the background windows junk? Sounds there is a conflict somewhere... I think a five minute wait is a long time...10 would send me crazier. Cheers!