Today Carl Norman posted the following on the boards at lo-mac.com
As previously announced, today will be my last day as an employee of Ubi Soft Entertainment. Ubi Soft is just one of the many organizations that I have worked for these past ten years as multiple corporate acquisitions occurred during my career in the business of entertainment software development and publishing. It was just over eight years ago when I first went to work for Strategic Simulations, Inc. (SSI) as a Producer. Although the company names on my business cards changed many times, I always associated myself with SSI and the line of products that the SSI label supported. During those eight years the company was bought and sold to Mindscape, The Learning Company, Mattel Interactive, Gores Technology (Game Studios) and then, finally, to Ubi Soft Entertainment. The drama of the past eight years was both rewarding and frustrating, but in the end, I am very lucky to have been a part of it all.
I am proud to have worked with the SSI product line and I consider myself to have been very fortunate to work on many titles that both challenged and entertained me. It is a rare thing when you get to work on something you love. It is also another rare occurrence when you get to work with great people. I’ve worked with some outstanding people over the years that are now friends for life.
Although I have been a member of the online wargame and simulation community longer that my career in the industry, it was during my tour with SSI that I got to have the most rewarding and entertaining times participating online. I’ve also been able to form many strong friendships online. Our online community is very dynamic, demanding, and dedicated. It can also be its own worst enemy. Please embrace all reasonable attempts to bring simulation products to the market. One being “better” than the other is not important. It is more important that these products are successful or they will cease to exist.
It saddens me to be leaving prior to the completion of three products for which I have a great amount of fondness: Harpoon 4, IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles, and Lock On: Modern Air Combat. Please know that my departure in no way indicates any problems with these products. Each has the potential to be an outstanding product and I hope all of you will provide your support and consideration. They are now in the very capable hands of my good friends and colleagues Shawn Storc, Matt Wagner, and Marc Fish, as well as the talented teams at Ultimation, Eagle Dynamics, and 1C:Maddox Games. As always, these guys need the support, patience, and constructive feedback from you the online community. At a time when combat simulation products are a risky proposition for the large publisher, it is you, the consumer user, who will make the difference and determine the future of our hobby. Work together to get our hobby to the next level instead of arguing against one another or pitting one product against the next.
My future is undecided. I am going to spend a few weeks for some self-reflection and evaluate several career opportunities. I’ll also be rooting for the San Francisco Giants in the post season as they just secured a playoff spot and are off to Atlanta this week to defeat the "Confederate" Braves. (Go Giants! )
I’ll remain active online in the community, where appropriate, but will be spending some more time offline as I pursue other interests and the potential opportunities that exist out there in the cruel world. Combat simulations are my passion, but I need to spend some time evaluating their, and my, future.
My very best wishes to all of you.
Warm Regards,
Carl C. Norman aka Stormin
We'd like to wish Carl all the very best in whatever future carreer choices he makes.
The f4ut site has been updated again, this time with the first part of a discussion about the comms system in SP3. Here's the intro:
"Ever felt a little overwhelmed by the comms menus' in Falcon SP3 and beyond? or perhaps you can't quite get to grips with the new Inbuilt Comms? Well, dont fret people! This is the first part in a series of articles that will help you get to grips with communicating in the Falcon Universe!"
Daniel 'BrownSnake' Fahlén has posted an new article by Georg 'kinggeorge' Mumelter over at f4ut about SAM systems in SP3 and beyond. Here's a snippet:
"SuperPAK 3 and it's successors also try to simulate the proper probability of a hit on older and modern SAMs. The sensor precision has been modified to a great extent to make especially the older SAMs less deadly. While it is hard to simulate exact figures, the relation between hits and fired missiles is more accurate. As a real life example, in 1965 194 SA-2s had been fired to destroy only 11 US aircraft. Even more so can modern equipment and proper planning defeat common and proven SAM - systems. In the Kosovo air war 477 SA-6 and 124 manpad missiles were reportedly fired at NATO aircraft. Most of them unguided while heavily threatened by HARM shooters. Only two aircraft were hit, an F-16 and F-117."
Bubba "MasterFung" Wolford has posted an in-depth review of ATI's top card over at Simhq. The review compares the performance with the GeForce4 Ti4600. Here's the intro:
"ATI has been fighting their way out of NVIDIA’s shadow for what seems like ages. Each turn at the corner, NVIDIA manages to steal some ATI thunder. This time around however, ATI made absolutely sure nothing could spoil their new series of cards. The new 9000 series from ATI is hitting stores now and is blowing up the video card market.
After watching Radeon 8500 fall behind even the GF4 Ti4200 in terms of performance and stability, ATI has set out to completely rewrite the graphics arena and put the GF4 Titanium series in their rearview mirror, permanently. Have they done it? That is what we are set to find out as we were able to convince ATI to send us a shiny new Radeon 9700 PRO to test. Before we head into the benchmarks let us talk about what is new with the Radeon 9000 series and ATI."
As SimHQ report, the guys at WEBinBLUE have released v3 of their Wartog for CFS2/FS2002:
"This is version 3.0 of the A-10A Thunderbolt II "Warthog" for Combat Flight Simulator 2, it features all the main characteristics of the FS2002 version plus a bomb weapons pack featuring MK-82, MK-82 Fuse Extenders, MK-84, 600Gal drop Tanks and the 30 mm GAU-8/A seven-barrel Gatling gun "Avenger". The bombs weapons pack cames with 12 different external store combinations featuring diferent sets of weights."
Claude Cavanaugh of G2 Interactive confirmed that Falcon V is still alive. Here is his post on our Falcon V Forum
Sorry for the delay in responding. A lot has happened. We've had a reorganization and a funding issue that is resolved. We are working away on OIR and V. OIR is scheduled for Q2, 2003 with V sometime in 2004.
For those MSFS flyers who are occasionally disappointed with some of the flights models present in the sim, Jorgen "Troll" Toll has posted a very enthusiastic review over at SimHQ of RealAir Simulations Marchetti. Here's the review intro:
"Folks! Today I downloaded an amazing add-on aircraft for FS2002. The very talented folks at Real Air Simulations has made a truly unique add-on that raises the flight model bar for FS several notches… For one thing, it SPINS!!! Not spiraling like other FS aircraft, it actually spins!
Not only does it spin, but has a very believable behavior throughout the flight regime. It is also quite stunning to look at!"
Derek Bond has interviewed the guys at Wings With Wires about their upcoming WW1 sim Birds of Prey. Here's a snippet:
The main objective of BOP through design is to strongly discourage the fly-to-die mentality. I think allot of people agree that this one weak spot found in most sims causes most of the on-line disappointments. Once you encourage a "fly-to-die" mentality, the whole spirit and feeling of the combat changes- from careful strategic battles and risk vs. reward playing to all-out furballs with "shoot at anything that moves" chaos. The role playing aspect of BOP aims to bring the thrill of the hunt and the chase back to air combat- we want there to be real fear when crossing into enemy territory, we want each kill to be a real victory to be savored.
The Official IL-2 Site have announced that the 1.2 patch has been updated and now includes the ability to edit the radio chatter voice files and corresponding HUD messages. Here's the announcement:
"Today a newer version of upgrade 1.2 is being made available to the community.
This version - 1.2ov - is completely identical and compatible with the already released version 1.2 except that version 1.2ov has an open folder structure for radio chatter voice files and corresponding HUD messages.
This means that members of the community can modify and replace the existing voice files and radio chatter text messages.
Full details of this version of the upgrade and how to modify the files can be found in the game updates section of the website. You are also able to download the upgrade from the same page.
Please note that if you do work on modifying the voice files and radio chatter messages you do so at your own risk. Please keep back-ups of both the “Samples” and “i18n” directories somewhere on you hard disk in case some of your changes go wrong.
"Mad" Max Merlin, the flightSim.com Combat Flight Simulator editor has posted an article on their site remembering the men and their dedication. Here's a snippet:
"The minute the Red Tailed Angels (as the Tuskegee Airmen were called by the bomber crews they protected) spotted the inbound bandits, the P-51s would peel off and aim to scatter the attacking Luftwaffe schwarms. The Nazis came in full throttle. The lead Mustang would roll in from the right, guns blazing, break away and pull up right smack in the middle of the Nazi onslaught, scattering the Nazi attack. The leader's wingman would roll in right behind him and engage another attacker as the schwarm dispersed. The other echelon pilots would peel off one-by-one and do the same thing: Leader breaks the attack, wingman engages the Nazi fighters. The Tuskegee Airmen worked the routine like an exquisitely choreographed ballet of airborne death. There was no chance for an encore performance. It was always an intense, short lived, life-or-death struggle in the thin air above 20,000 feet."
Jim "Hornit" Campisi has produced an interesting article at lo-mac.com, discussing EW. Here's the intro:
"This always reminds me of when I was a kid reading sci-fi books. I get this initial picture of Alien craft zapping each other with plasma weapons and lightning bolts. Kind of silly, but not very far from the truth! Electronic Warfare hasn't been around very long in the bigger scheme of things. In mankind's history it's only really been the last 50 years or so that he has been able to wage war in the electromagnetic spectrum. Electronic Warfare (EW for short) is simply the harnessing of electromagnetic energy to destroy hardware or deny the other guy the ability to use his EW gear to hurt you. A more common use would be radar, jamming, and of course the ever popular anti-radiation missile. This is a topic that can cover volumes, but here I'll just be scratching the surface."
As announced on the f4ut site have announced that the release of the SP3 compatible version of the Balkans theatre is ready for download. The announcement and details of mirror sites for downloads can be found on the F4 Forum.
I have posted an article about the ongoing battle between Intel and AMD to become the CPU Daddy. Here's a snip:
Gradually AMD started to catch up with Intel, their K6 2 answering Intels MMX technology with their own version called 3DNow. This was fairly well received with many games including Quake 2 adding support for 3DNow. The Pentium 2 was still very expensive compared to the K62 and this played in AMD's favour. Intel then released the Celeron range to capture the lower end of the market. This really became a favourite of gamers partly because of it's price but more so because of its legendary overclockability. The high quality of Intels manufacturing process meant that many Celeron 300a's would happily run at 450 (my own included). Whilst the lesser cache meant that it did not perform as well as a genuine P2 450, it did an exceptionally good job considering the cost. The tide had again swung in Intels favour.
As Sim-News report, escuadron111.com has negotiated a special pre-order price for these realistic F16 pedals. The pedals have been designed and produced by EMYCSA. Here's some details:
"With their revolutionary set of rudder pedals, entirely made of metal and aluminum and using high-quality heavy-duty components of military and air-worthy quality, EMYCSA has taken the first step to their ultimate goal, the Real Simulator (tm) project.The Real Simulator project goals is to design and produce a real working cockpit for the F-16, entirely made in metal, and fully functional to interface with a PC. Initially designed to work with Falcon 4.0 SP3, the Real Simulator cockpit will also be functional with the hardcore flight sims currently being developed. The Real Simulator project has been conceived as a modular project, rudders, ACES II seat, cockpit and panels, so that the end user can progressively buy the different elements for his cockpit."
Finally, a patch to relieve some of the problems people are having with GP4 has been released and is available at SimRacingWorld. Some of the fixes include; crash to desktop problems, Sound Blaster Audigy problems and disappearing items.
As SimHQ report, Sub Command Extreme have release a v1.2 beta mod for EA's Sub Command. In addition to a large number of enhancements and changes. New subs include:
"Akula-I SSN Replaces existing Akula and Improved Akula Models Akula-II SSN Replaces existing Akula-II Model Astute SSN New Sub Echo-II SSGN New Sub India SSAG New Sub Ohio SSBN Replaces existing Ohio Model. NB. 2 Versions available Poseidon DSRV New Russian DSRV Resolution SSBN New Sub Tango SS New Sub Type 212 SS New Sub Virginia SSN New Sub 688 SSN Replaces existing 688 Model 688i SSN Replaces existing 688i Model"
"Yes the day has come! The free version 1.2 upgrade is now available for download from the IL-2 site.
As mirror sites come in we will also post links to them in the game updates section. If you would like to give us details of your mirror site please E-mail me.
The upgrade includes:
1. Four new flyable aircraft
- Bf-109E-7/Z - Yak-9 - Yak-9D - Ju-87B-2 "Stuka"
2. 10 new single player missions and six new cooperative online missions.
Make sure you take a look at the readme notes before installing the upgrade. It contains everything you need to know including how to turn on the famous 'Stuka' diving sirens!!
Over at ThrustWorld Coda has posted an article about our trip to ECTS, here's a snippet:
What is it about console dancing games? We walked past the Konami stand and they had a Dance Studio tournament going... You know what I am talking about... that silly silly game where you are put on a little pad and have to repeat steps from the display and get points. Without fail, there was some enthusicastic Korean or Chinese bloke/girl, excitedly shaking their ass on it... All that sprung to my mind was "god, how stupid would you look dancing like that in a club?".
