The forums are now back up. So far it looks like all data was saved. Some tables were corrupted but appear to have been repaired successfully. There may be one or 2 glitches as a result. Also they should be a lot faster, one advantage of having to rebuild everything is that I was able to make several improvements to the configuration. Every cloud has a silver lining.
I just received the following email from Ninja at FalconUK
A little news about my site if you could let the guys know for me
Well it had to happen with this un co-ordanted release of SP4 I had 5gb off traffic in the last couple of hours
And as a result my site has been closed due to Abuse terms and conditions hopefully ill be getting it back soon but I will have to remove sp4 from my site until I can find a way of capping the bw a bit
Sorry for the inconvinace to the community this has caused
I am currently attempting to repair the file system. If this is successful then the forums should be back by the weekend. Possibly before but as I have colledge tomorrow and Friday (and still haven't done my homework) it is doubtful I will have time to finish the job tonight. Of course if I need to format then it's going to take a longer. A few people have sent me donations to offset the potential cost of this. I'm really grateful but I'm guessing that the reduced traffic due to the forums being down will offset the increased traffic that took them down. I would suggest making donations to those like Terrapin hosting the file, their BW hit will be much more than mine over the course of the next few days, mine was a massive spike that will be short lived, theirs will be sustained downloads over several days.
Well the effects of the hammering are already starting to show on the main site too, comments from last post became corrupted while submitting a comment. Expect this site and all hosted sites to be down by the end of the day.
Assuming the F4UT site manages to weather the storm the official release of SP4 will be announced there when it happens.
Due to an F4UT Manager mistakenly giving the go ahead, a link to SP4 was posted on the forums before the co-ordinated release. As a result of this the forum server has been massively hammered and has basically died. The forums will be down until further notice. I hope to have them back up in a week or 2. The file is the release version so if you downloaded it feel free to use it and/or pass it on to others.
Over on Blue's News, Whiptail Interactive sends word that Gangland, their life of crime strategy/RPG, has gone gold, and will be shipping in North America within the next few weeks. Here is the press release:
West Chester, PA (February 24, 2004) - Whiptail Interactive, a global publisher of PC games, today announced that the anticipated action game Gangland has gone gold and will ship to retail stores nationwide early March. Gangland has a MSRP of $49.99 and has been rated M for Mature.
“Gangland is the mobster game you’ve been waiting for,” said Fred Heslop, President of Whiptail Interactive. “It’s an action-packed, addictive blend of RPG, RTS and Sim that is going to blow away gamers when it ships.”
Developed by first-time developers MediaMobsters, Gangland combines the RTS, RPG & SIM genres into a new breed of gaming mayhem. Born into the Sicilian mafia, players must work their way up within the family and compete with other gangsters and mafia factions from all over the world for supremacy in Paradise City. Players will set up extortion rackets, bribe, steal, kill, bootleg, seduce, put out contracts, make drive-by hits, blow up buildings, get married and have children, build brothels and speak-easies, ally with international connections and much more...
The demo has now been release for Colin McRae Rally 04. Codemasters has an article detailing some features of the game:
The demo gives you a taste of the Colin McRae Rally 04’s intense single-player action, putting you behind the wheel of the Citroen Xsara and letting you bomb through the first stages of the USA, Japan and Finland in glorious 4-wheel drive.
HOTAS Covers has a contest running over on their website:
Salt Lake City – HOTAS Covers is excited to announce a spectacular give-away. From now until March 13th, every order for one of our popular HOTAS Covers will automatically be entered in a drawing to win 1 of 3 pairs of NOMEX flight gloves being given away in March!
For more information and contest rules take a look
HERE
Pete Dowson, author of FSUIPC and WideFS has announced that a new version of FSUIPC, 3.201 is available for download. Some of the most significant changes listed are:
- Buttons and dials on GoFlight equipment can be programmed in the FSUIPC Buttons page.
- Buttons and Keys can now be programmed differently for each aircraft, with default global actions for aircraft not so selected.
- Up to 2048 button actions are now handled (up from 512), this including the total of the global programmed buttons and the largest aircraft-specific list.
- Conditional button programming (in the FSUIPC.INI file only) now allows up to 16 conditions per entry, up from 2 in previous versions.
- New controls in the Keys and Buttons pages can be assigned to control FS2004 AI Traffic labels?turn them on or off or change the data being displayed.
- Offset 3324 (altimeter reading) is now updated at the FS frame rate. Previously it was only updated twice per second.
To download the newest version of FSUIPC and other products, click
HERE
SimHQ has posted an interview with Just Flight about the new IL-2 FB expansion, Battle over Europe. Here is a sample:
Just Flight’s ‘Battle Over Europe’ is an expansion disc for IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles that offers six historically based campaigns on the Western front over Normandy and the Ardennes for both the USAAF and the Luftwaffe. The scenarios are based between June of 1944 and 1945 and cover pre D-day invasion over France to the last days of the war over Germany. At the heart of BoE is a new updated campaign engine that will greatly enhance mission briefings as well as create visible frontlines. The new US campaigns will have historical military ranks and awards along with names and faces for the squadron roster. Players can enlist in over 100 historical squadrons, many with accurate historical ‘Ace’ paint schemes. 93 new plane skins are included for 20 different aircraft types and subtypes. An Online Campaign Generator feature has been added that allow players to play dynamic campaigns online with other players. Results of each mission will directly influence the situation of the next.
Some news on this new naval warfare simulation at SimHQ. Here is a sample:
WATERFORD, CT - February 11, 2004 - Sonalysts Inc., an established developer of modern naval warfare games, revealed new screenshots and in-game movie of the inaugural title to their Sonalysts' Combat Simulations brand. Dubbed "Dangerous Waters" (S.C.S - "Dangerous Waters"), this ground-breaking title will allow the player total first person control over seven of the world's most potent air, surface and subsurface naval platforms:
Check out the whole release and preview movie
HERE
There is an update on the forthcoming patch for LOMAC in the LOMAC forums. Here is a little taste:
As promised, here is a list of the majority of v1.02 changes to date (07 Feb). Note that the list below is simply from the first version of the patch we got this week; it is not final and newer versions will add additional changes. Please hold off on "what about XXXX bug?" type questions.
A key point to remember too: A patch is to fix actual bugs, NOT add new features.
- Fixed inability of some joysticks to use cannon trigger correctly.
- Effect of ECM against the F-15C radar has been reduced.
There is a review on SimHQ of the latest incarnation of this naval warfare classic. Here is a sample:
The way the AI handles air attacks and counter-air operations has also been significantly changed for the better, to the point where the AI is now a force to reckon with in the air, they will not make some of the silly mistakes I discovered and exploited in the early days of the beta. It's not perfect, but very enjoyable indeed.
