Black Shark 2 Released

[Lane]

I have 2 little question, apologies if they have allready been ask, but the last pages are a bit hard to read .

 

1) Does a steam version of BS2 upgrade will be released ?

2) Is DCS can add Paypal or Paysafe or " regular bank transaction " on their shop ?

[kylania]

1) Yes, the current "upgrade" installer works with the Steam version of Black Shark 1.

2) Not as easily as you can get a credit card I imagine. :)

[Eight Ball]

For all newcomers to the thread, please feel free to voice your comments/opinions.

 

I haven't read the 99 pages so this might have been suggested several times, sorry.

 

The way I see it, many people are upset by having to pay for the compatibility.

 

I'm just going to repeat what I've said on the BI forums :

 

one option could be to make 2 different patches.

One, optional, with eye candy (so to speak) engine improvements (+/- €20)

and a second with MP compatibility. This one could be free or at small cost (+/- €5)

Edited November 7, 2011 by Eight Ball

[sobek]

one option could be to make 2 different patches.

 

Unfortunately you can't just put every feature in a separate package, there are interdependencies, and the graphics are not always the most resource intensive to develop.

[Eight Ball]

Unfortunately you can't just put every feature in a separate package, there are interdependencies, and the graphics are not always the most resource intensive to develop.

 

I'm not asking to put every feature in a separate package, I'm just asking to be able to buy the most important one (inter-compatibility) without being force to buy something I don't care about.

 

I easily admit I don't understand much about game development but most of the things listed in the first post look like client side.

I know, I KNOW, you can't compare different games but , IMHO, BIS (ArmA) is using a more friendly system. You're free to buy their DLCs and if you don't, to assure MP compatibility, you still have access to a low-poly version of the units in that DLC.

 

A lot of people are really unhappy with the way things are going.

They feel fooled. If this kind of payware patches become usual in the DCS serie there's no doubt a lot of them will definitely turn their back on ED.

 

The DCS serie is already amongst the most elitist game on the market, due to it steap learning curve. I beg ED not to make it even more elitist because of the money.

Simmers are a "rare breed" amongst the large player family. They're willing to accept a lot more than most of the "arcadish" players. They support their developers and their games.

You can say whatever you want, you can say you don't care about the whiners, you can say you're going to buy 5 versions of the game to support ED but just face the fact that a lot of people are disgusted by this payware patch.

 

They're ready to swallow the pill once and give ED another chance but they are trully disapointed and they will think twice before buying another ED product

Edited November 7, 2011 by Eight Ball

[Cedaway]

I don't care about the arguments around payware patch or not payware.

I bought it and think I've done well. ED did a great job with this patch.

Thanks ED. For all others, you are free to buy it,... or not. I did and don't regret.

[Laud]

Trying to sum up what people essentially complained about: It's been more the fact that they felt waiting for a patch and ending with a payware upgrade. So it's been a communication issue somewhere in the past. I heard nobody so far complaining that the product isn't worth the money.

 

As far as I further noticed, this lack in communication has been noticed by ED or their respective moderators, which means the whole discussion could find an end, couldn't it?

 

At least everybody seems to be happy with the product which not every company can achieve! So things are fine! Get in the pit and blow some stuff up! :)

[airdog]

I don't care about the arguments around payware patch or not payware.

I bought it and think I've done well. ED did a great job with this patch.

Thanks ED. For all others, you are free to buy it,... or not. I did and don't regret.

 

+1000!!!

[BrumTx]

Any chance of seeing some screen shots please of the :

Variety of armed stationary objects (house, barracks, blockpost, tower and any other "New air, land, and sea AI units at incredible levels of detail"

 

Thanks in advance :)

[cichlidfan]

Any chance of seeing some screen shots please of the :

Variety of armed stationary objects (house, barracks, blockpost, tower and any other "New air, land, and sea AI units at incredible levels of detail"

 

Thanks in advance :)

 

For some of those just look at DCS A-10, others (TV towers) are existing A-10 mods. Some are new.

[BrumTx]

Ok Thanks Cichlidfan

[Robert_s]

How negotiations running with Direct2Drive ?

[Luigi Gorgonzola]

A new Black Shark 2 Upgrade installer is now available on the website and should correctly recognize all previous versions of the Black Shark, including Steam.

Should, or does?

Does

 

Nate

 

 

 

Nope.

 

Sorry, I just downloaded the current version of the installer and found it didn't change anything for me.

 

It still says the mighty words.

 

Maybe ED could be so kind as to publish the details of an environment the installer accepts?

 

BS 1.02 EN installed, activated and properly working here (Win7 x64 Home with loads of expensive blah hardware )

[kylania]

BS 1.02 EN installed, activated and properly working here (Win7 x64 Home with loads of expensive blah hardware )

 

You apparently don't need to uninstall 1.02 before installing Black Shark 2.

Edited November 7, 2011 by kylania
Guess they changed it.

[MTFDarkEagle]

No! The new updated files does not need that any more.

[Luigi Gorgonzola]

You need to uninstall 1.02 before installing Black Shark 2. Or install 1.0 on it's own separately then upgrade that.

 

Wouldn't exactly correspond to the original statement, would it?

 

A new Black Shark 2 Upgrade installer is now available on the website and should correctly recognize all previous versions of the Black Shark, including Steam.

 

"all previous versions" equals pretty much to "including 1.0.2" to me.

 

Oh, and guess what -- just uninstalled 1.0.2 (so it is back to 1.0.1) and the installer still refuses to show anything else than the mighty words.

 

:megalol:

 

So again, it would be really kind if someone from ED could post a comprehensive description of the environment this installer accepts. Guess, that might speed up things pretty much and it shouldn't be top secret...

[MemphisBelle]

 

"all previous versions" equals pretty much to "including 1.0.2" to me.

 

Oh, and guess what -- just uninstalled 1.0.2 (so it is back to 1.0.1) and the installer still refuses to show anything else than the mighty words.

 

Are you really sure to be downloaded the very newest version? may be download it again.

that should actually work now.

[RedX]

With a lot of expensive hardware, I think the easy option for you is to go for the full download version. No messing around with old versions and you support high grade sims.

[PoleCat]

When you uninstall 1.02 I am not sure you are actually left with a good working version of 1.01c or 1.0. Even though the new BS2 installer files should have fixed the problem with installing over any previous version I recommend the following actions in your specific case. Note: The new installer files from the DCS site have fixed this issue for most.

 

1. Uninstall all Black Shark versions completely. (Backup your config files if desired).

 

2. Install the original version of Black Shark 1.0.

 

3. Run the BS1 1.0 MP game and make sure you are not prompted to activate. If you are do so.

 

4. Try now once more to install the BS2 upgrade and see if it works.

 

5. Now patch BS1 to 1.02 if desired. No need to install 1.01c first.

 

Best of luck to you.

 

Out

Edited November 7, 2011 by PoleCat

[Luigi Gorgonzola]

Are you really sure to be downloaded the very newest version? may be download it again.

that should actually work now.

 

As sure as I can be. I first downloaded the installer only - just to see that it expects other data files now (and so I downloaded the new data files as well, just to be sure).

 

When the new installer didn't work, I downloaded it once again, this time using a different mirror (as mirroring issues are still pretty common). But this one doesn't work as well. I even rebooted the PC inbetween to ensure it doesn't keep any files somewhere in any kind of "hidden" cache (Virtual Store in Win7 and/or similar "features").

 

All to no avail, unfortunately.

 

With a lot of expensive hardware, I think the easy option for you is to go for the full download version. No messing around with old versions and you support high grade sims.

 

Thanks for assuming a wealthy wallet behind the term "loads of expensive hardware", even though this is (unfortunately, again) not the case. Too bad I already bought the "Patch"/"Upgrade" Version and am not willing to pay twice.

 

Too bad as well that I already contacted customer support a few days ago, asking to exchange the "Patch"/"Upgrade" version with the full one.

 

Too bad, for the third time, that customer support didn't take notice of my inquiry yet. So I'll stick with the version I bought and paid for.

[159th_Viper]

Have you done what Polecat suggested as per post #1006?

[Bucic]

Adjusted rotor effects for the Ka-50 flight model

Thank you for the detailed changes list. Can you elaborate on the bit above though?

[kylania]

Wouldn't exactly correspond to the original statement, would it?

 

"all previous versions" equals pretty much to "including 1.0.2" to me.

 

Don't bring logic into this! :) Not sure why you're still not having luck with the new installer. :( Haven't seen any reports of it not working. You've activated your games right? As in started at least one mission?

[Luigi Gorgonzola]

Have you done what Polecat suggested as per post #1006?

 

Hi Viper,

 

yes, and it didn't work.

 

Wall of Text:

 

However, I managed to go one step beyond by actually being able to have the new installer starting (!) the setup.

 

YAY!

 

Alas, it aborted with a "device I/O error" while trying to extract a "ShipModel" (not exactly sure about the name, though) file. Guess, this is a corrupt .bin file, but as I don't know which one is affected I''m currently downloading all three .bin files again. My guess is the third .bin as I had to take it from a different mirror (FTP1 seems to be either broken or too limited in terms of number of parallel connection as it asks me for a login every time). Sort of confirmed, FTP3 has probably a broken .bin file. I took it from FTP4 this time and everything worked fine.

 

However, for those few who experience similar symptoms, even with the new installer and a brand new (aka "fresh") install of BS1, here is what I had to do to make "it" happen:

As usual, I deny any responsability or liability for any kind of trouble you may encounter. This is just a description of the steps I took so far. It worked for me, but it doesn't necessarily work for anyone else.

 

1. DEACTIVATE BS1 (use Ka-50\bin\stable\protect.exe or Ka-50\bin\x86\stable\protect.exe respectively to do so and note the reactivation key!). Thanks to Wags and/or Viper whoever actually mentioned this! This is important since it might save you a precioussss activation later on!

 

2. Uninstall BS 1 (using the uninstall routine supplied through the start menu or the control panel)

 

3. Clear the Virtual Store (thanks to those who wrote about it ages ago but nevertheless related to BS 1 installation issues). It is located in C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\%PATH_TO_BS1% e.g. C:\Users\my_user\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\Eagle Dynamics. Delete or rename the "Ka-50" Folder. WARNING: Deleting the "Ka-50" Folder will delete your individual settings as well as all your pilot's data! So I'd assume, renaming would be the more pleasant choice, as you could restore it easily after a successful BS 2 installation...

 

4. Clear the Registry by deleting or renaming any remainders of the folders HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Eagle Dynamics\BlackShark and HKCU\Software\Eagle Dynamics\Black Shark (HKLM = HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE; HKCU = HKEY_CURRENT_USER). I couldn't find any other, so I guess deleting/renaming these does the job.

 

That's for the uninstallation of BS1, now the important part, the installation of BS 2:

 

5. If not the case (as it is with me): Log In As Administrator! This seems to me a lucky combination of the "Run as Administrator" thingy introduced with Win7/Vista and the installer ignoring the possibility of being "run as". Haven't tried the installation using the "runas" command, but that's mereley due to my impatience... You might safely skip this if you don't care and use the Administrator account as your regular account anyway...

 

6. Install and re-activate (see above) BS 1. Starting a mission ("Instant Action" is surely the most convenient way to do so) is mandatory since all the folders and registry entries are ONLY crated by the Sim itself but NOT by the Startup screen! Quit, once the sim loaded and you made it a mile or so...

 

7. Install BS 2 and wait an age or two (installation of BS 2 takes significantly longer than the plain BS 1 installation)

 

Of course, all this applies only if your regular account is NOT the Administrator account! (However, Administrator users should not have encountered "my" issues at all, I assume).

 

8. Deactivate BS 1, once the installation of BS 2 succeeded. Note the key. Deactivation is (sort of) mandatory as long as you don't want to spend an additional activation, since the license information is stored in the user specific part of the Windows Registry. Leaving BS 1 activated for the Administrator account doesn't necessarily provide any other user account on your PC with a working (i.e. activated) copy of BS 1.

 

9. Log off from the Administrator account and log in as your regular user.

 

10. Reactivate BS 1 (start a mission to see if everything is OK) and activate BS 2.

 

I'm finally about to finish #10 and start BS 2 for the first time. Until now, everything worked fine and I'm confident to see the last step to succeed as well.

 

Finally, I'm well dissappointed with the Administrator account thingy. While this is clearly (and in bold letters) written at the A10-C download page, the BS 2 download page lacks this information which could have been added so easily. Guess, it might be worth to add it to the download page...

 

Thanks for all the fish ... ooops, different story ;)

[ZQuickSilverZ]

You can't just close a thread without letting everyone know! ED promised this thread would remain open and now they just want to close it? I guess we'll have to pay $2 for each thread we want closed from now on!? I guess the whole idea of forums is done for now, I'm going back to a BBS. This thread is basically the same as the original Black Shark released thread, nothing new other than Viper's avatar anyway.

 

I am not with ED. I have no affiliation with them whatsoever. I am not a reviewer, moderator, tester, or anything of the sort. I am only a customer / player like you. I only suggested we close this thread because its been discussed for over 100 pages. If it has not been said by now will it?