Safari Ken

I've noticed that when it's paused, you can still flip switches and whatnot (though there's no indication at the time), and then when you unpause, they all happen immediately. Useful on those missions where you start in the air. There's always a few changes I want to make, like turning on the instrument lights.

This is the one I use at work. You know, to give me something to think about. :music_whistling:

I think that's unrelated to hitting Esc twice. I have that sound bug consistently in every mission. What seems to trigger it for me is hitting pause (even when initially beginning the mission). You can fix the cockpit sound volume by either opening and closing the door, or going to F2 view and back again. There're probably more ways to do it, but those are the two ways I fix it...

Yeah, I had a 7950GT that was cooking along nicely, until the one-two punch of this game and Far Cry 2 finally forced an upgrade. :D

I'm pretty sure it was 10%, or $13, off the regular price. I guess that would cover shipping, at least partially. But I say don't sweat it too much; I paid the full $130, and it's worth every cent! I think TIR used to be $200, and I'll go out on a limb and say it's worth every cent of that too! So don't rob a liquor store or anything, just be patient and save up, and feel good that you're saving for one of the coolest computer accessories ever made. :smilewink:

I saw that Jaunty Jackalope Final got released in the last day or two. I'm tempted to start dual-booting for awhile. The version I used was 8.0.4 (Hardy Heron?), and I really liked it, but it just wasn't ready for prime time. Most of my specific complaints have been resolved since then, however. That's the best part about Linux, in my opinion. The sheer volume of fixes is very impressive!

Agreed! Gaming is the only real advantage Windows has over Linux or Mac, in my opinion (though game availability on the Mac is better than it used to be). I switched to Ubuntu for a little while. I love the OS, and for every headache I had getting it configured, I had two "Why doesn't Windows do that?" moments. But Wine isn't perfect, and I found myself re-playing old games because they worked (though often with major glitches), and I didn't like crossing my fingers every time I wanted to play a new game. So eventually I came back to the Dark Side. That said, Eve Online had a native Linux executable for a little while, but they dropped it, because no one used it, because the game ran smoother with the Windows executable run through Wine. :lol:

Yeah, the sensitivity is 100% customizable. You can make acceleration curves (so the more you turn your head, the faster it moves your view, for example), and even have different settings for left versus right, or up versus down, etc. It's quick and easy to change, and I think you can even do it mid-game, for experimentation purposes. The TrackIR software is terrific for that stuff! Whether it's too sensitive is completely personal preference, but my main changes were to take out the dead zones, and make the translation axes more linear. In other words, I thought the acceleration was way too high for the linear movements like zooming in and out, so I flattened the curve, and now they're a better representation of what I'm actually doing with my head. Your mileage may vary.

I'd suggest you take a look at the Producer's Note for the ABRIS. Very, very informative, as are all those video notes.

I agree. Any joystick will be better than a keyboard and mouse, but having a full-size throttle gives the ability to make very tiny adjustments to the collective, which are next to impossible otherwise, and very important for precision (of course).

It's strange your rockets don't fire; it's not like they have much in the way of launch requirements. Are you trying to fire them with the same button with which you fire the cannon? The cannon trigger is separate from the other weapons.

Everything I've read says the gate should be big enough to cover all aspects of your target, but in my experience, it's not that critical.

Totally. The manual is good at telling you what things are, but the producers notes are definitely better at telling you how to use them.

People tell me to try out the helicopters in the Battlefield series, but those things are just too hardcore for me! :lol:

I hadn't considered the recoil. I figured there was an excellent reason behind it, I just didn't know the details. :D I just mean it seems potentially awkward to only have access to it on one side of the aircraft.

:megalol::pilotfly:

I've killed plenty of tanks with the cannon, though as you say, it isn't exactly efficient from anything like a safe distance. :smartass: Usually when I'm out of missiles. I'm still fairly incompetent with the rockets, so the cannon is my backup. One further step to using the cannon is to make sure your target is within its target box (big rectangle on the HUD, weighted to the right). On a side-note, am I the only one who finds the cannon placement to be a strange design decision? Just sayin'. :music_whistling:

TrackIR is so cool I won't even try to describe it. As for the HOTAS, I have the X52 and like it fine. Whichever one you choose, you'll really appreciate the ultra-fine adjustments you can make with the full-size throttle, as opposed to the tiny one on most joysticks. Not so big a deal for fixed wing planes, but makes a huge difference in the rotorcraft!

The thing to do is combine the info from the manual, with the tips and info you get here on the forum, with lots and lots of practice. Lots and lots of practice...

I use Vista64 (and like it very much), and I have yet to run into a game incompatibility. There have been a few 'non-games' that I've had to switch due to 64-bit incompatibility, but very few, and the alternatives I've found have always been better anyway.

Hehe, I feel like I "leveled" in combat choppering this weekend. I've flown a few missions since then, and they've all be pretty darn good. It just took that little change to my way of thinking.

I used to have the same problem with the Shkval killing my fps when it was looking at certain things (was worst when it was positioned around the horizon). I finally turned my cockpit display res to 256, and performance improved noticeably. And since the displays are usually pretty small in my overall cockpit view, I never notice any difference in display quality (playing with a main resolution of 1680x1050).

I'm not sure where the pilot files are, but back them up before you uninstall the Russian version. Clean installs are always best. :)

That's all good advice. Viper's "Plot your Ingress" comment made me think, and I came to realize that I have a tendency to follow the waypoint lines on the ABRIS as closely as I can, I guess due to the amount of civilian flight sims I've played over the years. Of course this is a little different than doing the Portland to Seattle run in a Cessna. :smilewink: So I just went back to a mission that's been giving me issues, and instead of following the lines, I looked at my destination and found a way that followed the valleys, instead of cutting across the mountains all the time. When I finally got to my target, I took a good look at the topography of the area, and picked a clever place to be. I don't think the enemy ever even got a shot off at me, while I sat back and destroyed vehicle after vehicle. A scenic flight back to the FARP, along with a passable landing, makes this easily the best mission I've flown on in Black Shark to date. Thanks guys! :thumbup:

Recon is part of the problem. I have trouble spotting those tiny launchers, even when I know right where they are! I'd search with the Shkval, but mostly I have no chance to do so, before there are already little smoke trails inbound.