coolts

The problem was IMO that they never went far enough with missions, etc. and the fact that it took them 25 YEARS TO INCLUDE THEM. Most simmers need a feeling of progression and involvement which the largely sterile environments of FSX simply couldn’t offer. Your aircraft was empty for instance. Where are my hands? They got by for years on goodwill from within the company but when Bill Gates went, so did their free reign. “Former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates was fascinated with Antoine de Saint Exupéry's book Night Flight, which described the sensations of flying a small aircraft in great detail” I know that there are a bazillion add-ons and that some just enjoyed the feeling of flight, etc. That’s fine and each to their own, but being a “PC Pilot” Mag subscriber there are constant letters beginning with “so what do I actually DO?” with regards to MS Flight simulator. This flagrant in-audience-assumption-attitude just doesn’t work in today’s gaming software market and an audience which generally has; · Less time to spare · More distractions · Lower attention span (because of the above) · No availability of proper printer manuals. (FSX didnt even have proper pdf manuals for crying out loud. How elitist is that? Can you imagine ED releasing A-10 with no manual?) The devs just didn’t take these points seriously enough and relied on the theory that “those who bought it before already know what to do”. That theory may hold true for a company selling fishing rods or cars, or even small indie devs, but not software from a publisher with global marketing. There are of course limits to what can be achieved in a civilian sim, but surely they could have had a career mode, etc. hopefully with q total re-boot of the franchise they may achieve this and I am sure they won’t want to alienate the existing FSX audience. Just look at the Silent Hunter debacle for an example of a franchise that should be moved to pastures new, (or publishers new).

If it broadens the scope of flight Sims then it’s got to be a good thing for the genre as a whole. Let’s not sniff too much here. Pilotwings on the N64 had me gripped for months. Not the same as F4 for sure but the sheer sense of flight in their hang glider simulation was......uplifting. Sure the end result was trivial in a "collect stuff" way, but the feel of being airborne and at the mercy of the winds. They nailed that. Now, don’t get me wrong. I love switchology and submodes and all of that. Hell, I’ve preordered a TM-Hog mainly because of all those switches, but I got into this genre for the flying, not the button twiddling. That’s an extra treat. Besides MS switching the development of an IP from one team to another happens all the time, not necessarily a bad thing. How many of the current ED devs worked on Flanker?

Hmmm. After talking to a few devs at our place the consensus seems to be; · Aces studio hadn’t released a product in 4 years · Apart from the acceleration expansion pack · That’s a record that would get anyone fired unless they were growing bonsai trees So…….. Even if the first release is “inclusive”, the tech is there for hardcore sims. And firing one group, waiting a few months then hiring another group to work on a similar product WITH A SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT NAME is common business practice to avoid constructive dismissal litigation. Ask any employment / HR lawyer.

Day #1 plan install start trackir HOTAS setup TM warthog working gfx setup all sliders to the right instant action whats that warning sound? my rudders the wrong way round! explode rtfm i cant wait.........

Well, there are my new desktop screenshots for the next few months. To be honest, i was expecting a little GFX bump over BS but nothing like this. Very pleasantly surprised. Almost real. ;) ;) I wouldn't expect a host of DX11 features, but moving to he current gen API brings the coders at ED into the right pipeline, (DX9 and 10/11 are built on completely diffenert principles. Unified shaders, etc. post 10 I believe), for future releases and lets them tap into advanced feature as and when they see fit. Bring it on!

better multicore usage apparantly. now they need to get it to recognise additional ram and stop all that HD thrashing and texture popup. its evolving very nicely though

PAH! PONG on Binatone home system had amazing fluid "paddle" control HOPAP (or Hands on paddle and paddle) . Not very good landscape though. Or clouds. http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=3&c=1035 very realistic "white-line" flight model perfectly captured the real feel of PONG Many real PONG players preferred the dynamic "ball" campaign system and persistent scoring. And check out those switches! Eat your heart out TM Warthog! SWITCHES Game selection and player options (power, speed, bat size, angle, serve, sound) Splinter groups ruined the great PONG community and gave rise to abominations like ARKANOID, (shudder), which, though featuring better landscape graphics, failed to run on more moderm Binatone systems with NVIDIA white lines. DAVEK1979 - loved the speccy joysticks the best. Had my Kempston for years. Till my Amiga 500

Whch bone is that? ;)

TM are a French\Canadian company so i should think so. We will know when the pages finally appear properly on Amazon. If they come with a free voucher for DCS: A-10 i will personally get a Charles De Gaulle poster for my office. And I won’t draw on it ;)

Bumfire - OAH runs smoother on my pc than ArmaII. less forests. more sand! I know my pc is pretty beefy but i can tell the difference so you sure will. oh, and BTW, its mint! to be honest, i loved Dragon rising. for four days (and the intro music). once i completed it there was a loud MEH and on ebay it went. It wasnt.........gritty enough, (and no codemasters, i dont mean 'top gear' style camera filters). it wasnt "flashpointy enough". when playing it i wasnt scared. in the original OF i was in a state of constant terror. hiding behind a shrubbery listening to the sound of an approaching BDRM....rumblerumblerumblerumblerumbleRUMBLERUMBLERUMBLERUMBLERUMBLE PLEASEGODDON'TSEEMEI'MJUSTASHRUB

I’ve started playing AF again to give my Cougar MFD's a workout and its great. There is room for both and they both have their strengths and weaknesses. DCS avionics, DCS flight models, DCS damage models, DCS sensors, DCS graphics, Falcon Campaign and immersion, Falcon ATC & comms, Falcon campaign continuity, etc (I can feel a spreadsheet coming on, you have been warned!) Now A-10 may up the ante in immersion for ED games I hope, as that is one thing about Falcon that grabs you immediately, the chatter and feeling of being part of a war. Not easy to replicate otherwise many games would have done that in the past 12 years. However, ED are chipping away at Falcons throne and once they get comms sorted and a proper dynamic campaign then, and only then........yadda yadda Anyway we can enjoy both without going into armed camps can’t we? :) Oh, to hell with it! Amiga’s were better that Atari ST’s and Spectrums were shit compared to C64’s !! :P (Doors clank as coolts retreats into flameproof bunker with fully stocked beer cooler)

There will be a thriving market in ebay-ed Cougars getting snapped up for spares. The gimbals & pots are gone, (YAY), but the switches & handle could be the same. Ive been getting spare bits and bobs from TM direct. Takes a month but V cheap. Installed a nice tight new H4. Old one was slacker than a tramps back teeth!

Good news. All you really want is the throttle i reckon as you have a mega modded stick dont you? Hopefully someone at TM sales will have a lightbulb on over there heads and think, "we can make more money here by selling throttles seperatly to modded cougar users". kerching! ££$$** **in an ideal world

Hiya Conuk - hows tings? your new little'un giving you any free flying time? The page has vanished but the pre-orders stand, (for now). I haven't had the "order cancelled" email yet. Ive been half expecting it to be honest. I reckon TM told Amazon to remove the page until they have a definite release date. Maybe the speedbrake switches are misaligned ;)

Mastiff. thats the weird thig. it works fine now i'm using 1.0.13 (latest), or whatever. Only thte "rolling fore" campaign works though, i reckon they will fix the others soon. C

SORTED - Me being a doofus! My AF updater wasn't working properly. It was telling me that i didn't need any updates when i was actually at v1.0.6 instead of v1.0.13. SUBS - Got the PMC theater, it looks very interesting. A bit flat but a nice change from all that green! :music_whistling:

Its nearer the fridge and TV :thumbup:

Ive been showing that vid around at work to general ooohs and ahhs. A few more customers. Of course, I will need a 27" monitor to ease eyestrain when hunting targets on the FLIR. [will donate current TFT to GF to deter wrath] Medicinal purposes you understand :geek:

you mean 80? (20 per mfd x 2). not that i am aware of. maybe when the new TM progrmming software emerges along with the TM Hog

backlit switches metal backlit switches metal weighted backlit switches that go "thunk" apparantly Also, (bringing myself off my cloud a little), DCS:A-10 will use ALL of those lovely MFD switches and buttons straight out of the box. No more "LSHIFT-RALT-T, (NUM LOCK ON)", key combinations. My other half spied the amazon page with my order the other day and was "shocked" that I was going to pay £320 for a hobby. A quick few queries into how much she spent on handbags, etc because she needed "something to go with...[insert other expensive item]", shut her up. Honestly! If i was spending that kind of money on druge every week, people would be patting me on the back and giving me leaflets.

Thanks for your input James. It’s good to have some substance to these discussions otherwise we end up gnawing the same bones to death, (me included). From my perspective, on the software side, we worry that the new SW will be either dumbed down and restrictive, (like other HOTAS i have used), after Foxy allowed us to do basically anything, or initially daunting and time consuming, (also like Foxy - thats the challenge for the devs?) The ideal solution would be for something to get us up and running as quickly as possible then as deep and configurable as needed, allowing scripting, conditionals and macros. From your posts, this looks like being the case. Lets hope the included docs for whatever scripting & configuration capabilites are included are as concise and complete as your manuals for Foxy were. I printed all those out and refer to them to this day. Rock on!

My trackIR still plays up. I think it draws more power than its letting on. My left MFD sometimes wont wake up either and needs to be unplugged / plugged back in. All power related IMO. I may borrow a powered hub from work and try it out. USB power (from normal ports) has always been feeble and patchy.

Got mine a few weeks ago. They rock. Ive had to go back to Falcon to use them properly though, (till A-10 comes out). One thing to be careful of though is that you dont overload your USB ports as each MFD chews up 250mA, (1/2 of the available power of each USB HUB). Once connected, go into device manager --> USB controllers (at the bottom) and double click your "xxx USB HUB" entries. Check the power tab. you may have to do some shuffling between USB ports so you can even out the power draw, remember 500mA per port max or you will get weird drop outs, (you wont damage anything though AFAIK). Whilst you are in the USB hub page, go to "power msananegent" tab and untick "allow the computer to turn off this device". That played hell with my HOTAS when the PC went into standby. Have fun!

From Amazon: Please be advised that we have a revised delivery date for the items you ordered on July 27 2010 (Order #026-5152565-7607522). "Thrustmaster Hotas Warthog Joystick and Throttle for PC" Estimated arrival date: October 29 2010 Amazon usually get these revised estimates right, (for me anyway). Might book a few days off work for the "warthog familiarisation**" period. **switchsturbation? ewWWWWW

Cheers Mastiff & SUBS. Done that. Probably an NVIDIA thing, (the gfx), coupled with a win7 x64 thing, (the error). that prety much scuppers FF for me. Ho Hum. Mower - Meh, I'll agree its not "DCS-Nice" but for its age, it aint bad, (with an Ayes pit). And to be honest, for SA, its better that FC as its so quick, and the F-16 bubble canopy is, well, a bubble. I can see everything, and get shot down much less than in the FC2 F-15.