posted 01-06- 09:21 PM            

Nice to see you all again. Also pleasant to see this mesage board, and glad to see that SDOE is still alive and well.

I dropped in because I saw an announcement about a contest involving FS:SDOE. Really great to see that there's enough interest to generate a decent purse.

However, at the same time, I must admit that I felt a bit bad. The reason is that when the SBM's put together the first Fighter Squadron ACM tournament several months ago, we tried to gather a prize list - even something as simple as T-shirts or baseball caps, and came up empty-handed. Well, at least the tournament (actually, only level I was flown) was a big sucess regardless with over 30 flyers and 5+ hours of some white-knuckled flying.

But perhaps that just proves that FS:SDOE is a sim for building planes and paint, more than it is for ACM. IMHO, while I love the modeling aspect, I think it's a pity, because SDOE is still the easiest sim to gather a group for squad vs. squad encounters, and quite good for division-level ACM.

I wish we had just 10% of the "hardcore" element from say, Warbirds, or Ace's High around here. Perhaps the ACM aspect of FS:SDOE could then rival the "modeling" side.

Well - nice to see you all again, and best of luck to SDOE!

posted 01-07- 02:41 AM               

In regards to your two posts I just wanted to touch on a couple of things-

Well, your dreams still haven’t come true.

I know what you see in retrospect is probably still disappointing to you - but it will probably be some time before this game can be what you (and others like you) want it to be. The tools just aren’t available to us to fix the things that are wrong (the major bugs in the code) - so the community does what it can to make the game better. The people that are here enjoy the damage modeling, the ability to make "interesting things happen" and enjoy all of the beautifully modeled planes (inside and out).

RE: Contest....
The whole concept of the plane contest was driven from the user side. Some very enthusiastic users got pumped about some things being done in the openplane arena and it just grew from there - I don’t believe there is anything to be sad about. The development side of the community was excited about it and many other users who were going to benefit by being able to play with there creations were also pumped.

This game is more of a work in progress (and always will be) because of openplane. If it weren’t for openplane this sim would most likely have died a long time ago. But, because of many dedicated individuals and some support from the creators, it is slowly being fixed and added on to. We haven’t seen the major fixes yet - but hopefully soon. The FMs get better and better - the creativity has been incredible. New experiences are being added all of the time (carrier battles, WWI stuff being worked on, moving tanks). It’s been a lot of fun over the last 8 or so months....

You are right this sim is still very enjoyable (it’s just plain fun) - many of the very, very "hardcore" have left to wait for something else or are experiencing other games. I don’t know why, I would rather enjoy this one then set on my thumbs and wait for the future to become present. Damn, it takes a while sometimes....

posted 01-07- 03:04 AM               

You know your right, its too bad we cant have the best of both worlds. But I hold out in the hope that we can have both.

My hats off to all those making the effort to make the SDOE the best of both worlds.

------------------
Zoycite {GS}
GUNSLINGERS

visit The War Paint Factory

posted 01-08- 02:02 AM            

Hey, great to hear from you all! I just picked up Jane's F/A-18 today.

I'm alive and well and living in the unbelievable world of Falcon 4's dynamic campaign. That is a true masterpiece.

Any - Siggi - true - B17-II - if it works as advertized, looks so unreal that it might be the "next" WWII sim. Anyway, you got to figure that Kopper must be going nuts waiting for that one!

posted 01-08- 02:41 AM               

nah, he only flies Lancasters.

posted 01-09- 08:55 AM            

Your missions were always fun.

Come join us anytime. Lots of new faces.

posted 01-12- 12:02 PM               

The good thing about having a relatively "small" community (compared to WB or AW or FA) is that if a Bearcat gets made, and shows up online somewhere, and acts more like an F-86 than an F8F, and you get shot down by it 18 times, you're a lot more likely to laugh about it and say "Hey, that's some F8F you got there, where can I get it? I got some offline Me-262s I wanna schwack!" than if you have 1000 guys who decide that ACM is "the thing."

As soon as "competition" sets in, the most important thing around here will become whether or not the 109G stalls at 138 knots while pulling 6G like it said in "My Mother Flew for der Fuhrer," and you'll see one new plane a year instead of one every few weeks.

A little more friendly and cooperative environment this way IMHO than if you have all the "score-whores" shooting their watches off their wrists

Just my 0.02

posted 01-12- 06:09 PM               

Too damn bad my computer is in the rebuilding state or I'd have something more than an idea for the contest, that and I feel dissed by OpenPlane. Too much overhead clutter to deal with in order to do a from scratch object from. So on and so forth.

Bottom line, I'll look to see what I can afford to part with (volunteer(s) to pay S&H, anyone??) in the drawer of stuff. I might just have junk, but who knows... Right now I can see the complete set of Blood #1 (game), Shogo, and Seven Kingdoms....

posted 01-14- 10:27 AM               

If the users put up money for planes, they get something in return, new planes to fly. If they put up money for who is the best pilot, then most will know they are just giving away their cash to somebody else. Face it, most of the guys who post here usually add to their post that they get shot down a lot. Its guys like Whirlwind, Tailslide, and others whom everyone knows are the Grim Reapers of the skies.

The ladder was a great time. I didn't compete, because I knew I'd sit rock bottom. If you saw Saving Private Ryan, then I'd have been that first guy misted when the doors opened on the Landing Craft. My friends say I'm a stray shot magnet. I think another ladder is a great idea too! Its fun to watch the best compete and see the results. But I don't think we'll see the swell of support for such a competetion we saw for the planes competition.

Aside from which, all the glory for the plane competition has to go to its founding father, Roger Hagerty, who put up the first money and started the idea.

posted 01-14- 05:54 PM               

As far as money for a Fighter Contest....if you go back a few weeks you might still be able to find a post I made suggesting this very thing. I even offered to put up another $100.00! The post drifted to the bottom of the site with almost zero notice, or interest.

I thought it might have been a good idea to coincide with the end of The Contest. That way all the new planes we will have could then be used. Guess no one was ready for it.
I'm certainly not worried about getting shot down. If that bothered me I would never fly online. Ever!

Thanks again for the kind words, from all the guys involved. Including now Siggi!! Who is now taking care of the runner up with his fabulous model work.