Trident

Oh, I'm sure most of us on this message board feel that way, I know I do! But, can you say the same about the majority of PC gamers in general? BS is an add-on and as such meant for people who already have the original sim - it is unfortunately likely that they'd be far too superficial to consider buying a product that did not include a new aircraft/helo, no matter how fundamentally the fixes and enhancements to the existing airframes would actually transform the gameplay. Then there are also those people who like to give ED grief for improving the existing features in LOMAC along with introducing a new aircraft, claiming a free patch should have been released, nevermind the fact that the scope of said improvements is way above and beyond a patch of any description... (I'm obviously not talking about you here, but these people would certainly have a field day if ED went down that road, count on it).

There are new Su-27, MiG-29 and Su-25 models from ED on the way, while Walmis' F-15 is good enough for me right now. I'm sure the A-10 and Su-33 will follow suit at some point in the future, perhaps someone is even able to revive the 3rd party A-10 project (Walmis?). If you were talking about the avionics and flight models, think of BS as a stand-alone helo sim. ED quite simply does not have the resources to develop a detailed Ka-50 and update the other aircraft at the same time.

The problem seems to affect ALL (as in, including the Russian aircraft) SFM player aircraft in the game to some degree, so stop spoiling for a fight.

Well, there doesn't seem to be much of a contradiction in that particular part of the envelope, does there? Where the crux of the problem (and there does seem to be one) with the thrust numbers and at high altitudes lies is another issue entirely - as Rhen points out there is any number of possibilities in this regard. That the Dash-1 is so grossly inaccurate would be the least likely of them IMHO, unless said inaccuracy is deliberate, as pointed out above.

I'm actually not sure the aircraft would be an outright loss if it went beyond it's rated top speed. The canopy would be affected by the friction heat (it's made of stretched acrylics, IIRC) due to it's non-ideal shape for supersonic flight (bubble canopy) and the engines might suffer as well, but a crash would be unlikely, IMHO. However, the airframe might be unsuitable for future use without major repairs, something that could be considered almost as damning as a loss in a wartime setting. Unfortunately it would be hard to simulate this realistically in a PC sim. I also don't subscribe to the idea that the Dash-1 data isn't good enough for us - a sim is about the piloting experience first and foremost, if it's good enough for the real pilot's it should most certainly be good enough for us. The only issue I can see that the declassified data might be altered to hide certain performance characteristics?

Ok, I stand corrected. Whatever though, it's a welcome addition in my book :) It always ruins my immersion when some model that looks like a left-over from 7 years ago appears in a sim where you otherwise have amazingly detailed models like this one. It just doesn't fit together, if you want to upgrade the models do so across the board or not at all.

Actually, it plays an important role in anti surface ship warfare as well, it is one of the assets (others being satellites, Il-20/38s and Tu-95/142s) that can provide mid-course guidance updates to long range anti-ship missiles like the P500/700. Without this kind of support the latter are unable to take advantage of their reach due to the radar horizon limiting ship-board sensors to much shorter detection distances. Also, it has been displayed with the Kh-35, although we all know how much that meant with the Su-33 and the Kh-41... ;)

I agree with Iguana King, Rhen's opinions are worthy of consideration. He has actually *quantified* his complaints as suggested by you in this post, so it's a different situation: LOMAC obviously isn't too far off at 10000 feet as evidenced by your chart, but what about 40000 as pointed out above? I for one don't expect a quick fix, since the Ka-50 is your current priority, but I hope we can get to the bottom of this in preparation for AFM fighters in some future ED product :)

Back on topic though: *finally* those Shilkas look like some thing to be afraid of again :D The colour of the muzzle flash doesn't seem to fit that of the lighting though, the latter is too yellow. Very nice effect other than that, however! I hope ED will use a similar effect for all guns, one curious fact about all their projects is that they seem to create extra effects for completely analogous things. Take the dust kicked up by vehicles and planes for example: pretty much the same effect, yet they are separate and rendered quite differently in LOMAC. Both look good taken individually and get the job done, but why the duplication? Flanker2.5 was even worse, there were something like 5 different kinds of fire/explosions/smoke, all of which had their own, very different style. All of them looked good, but mixing them gave the game an inconsistent, unfinished atmosphere.

I'm lost for words... superb work! I'd like to express some interest for the stand-alone version of the HOTAS at this point :) I so hope I'll be able to afford one, it's just gorgeous!

It looks almost photorealistic at night, great work!

I hope they have the configuration with Shkval and one sensor ball (Samshit?), the one with 2 ball turrets just looks way too ugly ;) Also, the new MAWS/DIRCM package would be cool.

Ok, so I was miffed about not being able to download this masterpiece aswell and set about finding out how to get it on my harddrive and viewable without installing any new software. Well, it was only a partial success, but the good news is that I now have the video as a DivX avi, although I did need one additional programme for converting it. However, no new player software just for .flv's and the conversion application is *free* and has just about the smallest footprint you can imagine: you download a 2.7Mb .zip file, extract the executable and are ready to go - no actual installation required! That's acceptable, especially since I don't need to put up with a &/§"#Z%! flashfile, so I can continue my stubborn boykott of that format :D To cut a long story short, here's the little gem: http://www.enriquepuertas.com/wp-content/files/vdownloader.zip Alternatively, you can also use http://keepvid.com/ (thanks to superkungfu for that link!), but it will often only return the dreaded .flv, so you'd need a new player. Enjoy!

I suppose the low tire pressure of the Su-25 for better rough field performance also contributes to the problem.

Sure we did, if you were a dedicated follower of the Flanker series you learned about the project when it was still little more than a few new 3D models in the Flanker2.0 game-environment. It just wasn't called Lock On back then, infact it wasn't even named yet ;) Yes, that's something precious! I hope they can make the most of this opportunity, but it also means that I'm not going to hold my breath about a release in the near future. We haven't even seen a single in-game screenshot yet (correct me if I'm wrong!), so with all due respect I'd call that a bit optimistic to say the least ;) Let alone a video! Sofar they have not (at least not publically) demonstrated the ability of their game engine to integrate the content they have created into a coherent total by releasing such material. We have not seen more than random bits and pieces at this point, not an actual running simulation. I don't believe unrealistic expectations will help matters for anyone. It'll come when it does, and only then will I judge it based on what it actually delivers. Patience is a virtue ;)

Yours is certainly an optimist's definition of 'recently'... ;) (Or did they do another one? That would suck, because I missed it, hehe)

Yep, cats seem to get drunk really easily and really thoroughly - the cat of a family I know smashed a wine bottle in their absence, had a good drink and went on a rampage in the kitchen. They found him curled up and sleeping amidst an unbelievable mayhem for an animal his size when they came back :D

I hope the Su-33 is next :)

LOL! Combine it with a TrackIR and you can zap colleagues at high off-monitorsight angles, all while maintaining HOKAM (Hands On Keyboard And Mouse) :D If looks could kill!

He's got a point though, I've posted it before and I'll now link to it again ;) : http://www.forum.lockon.ru/showthread.php?t=11981

My thoughts exactly. They have combined a cleverly selected colour palette with typical overuse of HDR lighting to create graphics that look cinematic, but unrealistic. It isn't nearly as crisp and sharp as LOMAC (in other words, I disagree totally that the AC6 textures are better in any way!), and the 3D models aren't up to the best ED has to offer either. More importantly visible range and the size of the map are likely to be far smaller. All of this translates into graphics that look nice on screenshots but are far too blurry for practical use a sim like LOMAC. What AC6 does do exceedingly well is that everything is of the same, consistent quality, there aren't any eye-sores like LOMAC's F-14 that will look out of place next to newer models such as the Su-25T and F/A-18. If nothing else, that is something ED should take note of - compared to other PC sims they are already doing very well in this regard, but there's no reason not to get even better ;) IMHO that doesn't necessarily mean modelling every vehicle with 50000 polygons either, I personally found the Hornet with its 15000 polys completely adequate (it looks far better than some MSFS models with nearly 10 times the amount of polygons!).

Other alternatives would be Tunguska/Pantsyr/Sosna or, perhaps more realistic for a Western-alligned country like Portugal, the Israeli Spyder (think surface-launched Python5 and/or Derby AAMs!). Starstreak certainly is a mean little missile though :D

Yes - unfortunately :( The new twin-seat canopy introduced with the MiG-29M2 looks a damn sight better than the original MiG-29UB arrangement, but it's still far from being as aesthetically pleasing as the original MiG-29M/K single-seater canopy.

Yes, those Su-27s from the Sukhoi promo videos are very early production versions that certainly predate any export efforts - they do seem to be carrying ECM pods below the wing, but if that's indeed what they are, Sorbitsiyas are most likely. One interesting thing about the ECM pods on Chinese Flankers is that left and right pods are NOT identical.

Hehe, I was about to point that out. The Sorbtsya (or whatever the correct spelling is, lol) is a different beast to what is being described in the manual. China probably has the jammer in that manual on their Flankers.