Hi there,
I am somewhat of a SIM enthusiast. I cut my teeth on Apache and Falcon 4.0 years ago, so I have continued to check out flight SIMs over the years. Alas, the old Thrustmaster FLCS/TQS has worn out and support for the product faded quickly after Thrustmaster sold out to that silly French company.The parts are as distant a memory as the original game Descent (one of my all-time favorites), so now I use a basic Saitek X 45, which is a fair stick for the price.
As an IL-2 player I have found many hours of fun playing with my older brother (I am 50) and my 79 year young Dad, who is a WWII kind of fellow. I am also an excellent mission designer! Anyway, I recently purchased Black Shark and am trying to figure out the variables and hash out what bugs seem to have appeared, before I purchase the game for my old Dad and teach him the basics, so I need some input from those of you with experience! I guess I should preface my notes with the fact that, unfortunately, I now have Vista 32 home premium with service pack 1 running more than sufficient minimum computer specs.
Let me start with my two main issues/
1. Can I access my controls in game in ether multi-player or single player? I have not found this to be an option, strange as it seems to me. For that matter, can I see a config while in game, so I might check my control assignments while trying to fly? If not, what were the programmers thinking? I can fly blind in F10 mode, but cannot check on my flight profile? I read somewhere where I could actually create a text doc using a .bat program that included my stick assignments, but when I ran it it did not produce said doc in the folder or elsewhere on my computer? Perhaps this is a Vista issue? Yikes.... help!
related issues-
...had to create two separate profiles, one for game and the other for sim? Why is it that when I created the profile in 'game' tab it did not populate the config for the 'SIM' mode, rather, I had to go back to start and redo the who darn config? Is this the case or did I miss something? I most certainly lost a bit of continuity in that , since I could not access both at the same time- or even get any kind of print out to view while doing he other- it was difficult to remember what button did this or that. Am I forced to load that Saitek profile software, then trouble shoot the conflicts with Vista?
...Additionally, once I created and saved a profile under my alias, Rocker, I could not load any default profile? If I want to start from scratch how do I load a default config? Must I delete my file, so the program then generates a default config? On a side note, my brother sent me his config, but it did not take I assume because he is running XP and I am on the crappy Vista?
... in my 'real' profile I must have screwed something up because my collective, both stick (throttle collective set to slider 1) and keyboard (default keys), did not give me sufficient power to take off! That is, I could go full power in throttle and collective, only to scoot around a few feet off the ground? With patience and a prayer my chopper did eventually gain altitude, but it took a long time... almost as if I were running on one engine or something... I did use the rtwindow/home auto start procedure . What am I doing wrong? Mind you, it works fine while playing in 'game' mode. Additionally, when I went out to my controls and deleted an axis for throttle, then went and launched multiplayer, well, the axis I deleted or cleared did not take... remained set and active! I also checked to see if I had inadvertently set an auto level button or something, but everything seems set correctly... grrrr
2. Is there anyway to set up the 'game' interface mode in multiplayer, as opposed to what seems to be the default 'sim' mode? I ask in that although I am currently learning the real SIM assignments, I doubt my old Dad will ever enjoy the level of detail required to, say, take off and lock onto a target? Can I launch the multiplayer so that the basic "game" HUD can be used for coop play? If not, what were the programmers thinking? Yikes. My brother and I were attempting our first multiplayer experience and found it ludicrous that we could not set server parameters to our liking, not to mention gain access to our config files to make alterations? Am I missing something I hope?
I hope I don't sound too negative because I think this SIM is worth the fifty US, but I felt let down by the issues above, hope it is just my learning curve as opposed to omissions by the creative programmers.... I do appreciate any help you kind gamers might provide.
Rocker
