CFS3

[TX-BlackKnight]

I'm not in NO WAY suggesting that TX squad move into another flight sim. I'm just a little peeved at the total take over of the Message boards by the Blitz hogs and the over the top thrashing that they are giving CFS3. I'd be willing to lay out hard earned cash to bet that 99.9999999% of those that are thrashing the gameso vocally never even tried it but are jumping on the bandwagon with their buds. I also bet the ones that have actually tried it never took the game out of the default modes to see what happens with graphics turned up, the weather turned ON, or the game set at 100 percent. With the game set at default ( as it was after an install ) the game clouds lack depth ( agree with Eco ) but go into locations and set them to anything other than default ( ie..turn them ON ) and they are far better than IL-2. You can actually see the rain falling down from the thunderheads and the thunder sounds are awesome.Except for the cheating, IL-2 is still a killer game/sim. M$ tilted their game away from the germans just like Ubi did. Only MS didn't do it so blatantly.The German pilots have to rely on skill more than their aircraft. Probably with the release of FB a lot of " bugs" in the game will be addressed. Which we know is a good thing. Understandably people have a life beyond IL-2. If they don't, they need some serious therapy time. I just hope that maybe one day a week or, every two weeks, we can get together in force and fly as a squad again.The cheating is always going to piss me off but from now on when I fly IL-2 I'm just going to expect it and make sure that I take two of my pain pills before ever launching the game again. I also made sure that I made 5 back-up copies of the game and hid 2 in my kids room...for those times when the meds wear off and Mr Hammer and Mr. Ubi disk meet.....P.S. Angels Win the World Series....probably selling hot chocolate in hell right now.Glad a bunch of you got to meet face to face and actually put faces to the voices we hear on GV( except for seeing CUDA, I bet it was a positive experience !   ). I bet you guys had a blast !TX-BlackKnightBlack 2

[TX-Deck]

I hear ya BlackKnight, and need to drop off an apology of sorts.   I was not trying to suggest that you were driving everyone away from IL2.   My original thoughts before I bought CFS3 is if it were a good enough sim that everyone would probaly migrate that way soon in a natural way.I'll be the first to admit that IL2 is not the only game I play.   Since the inception of the IL2 squad earlier this year, I've probably touched on 4 or 5 different titles on the side.   Some games I completed, others I didn't.   MECHWARRIOR 4 was a hoot, played it just to give the Cougar Hotas a change of scenery  (btw, the rudders, throttle and stick ROCKED for MW style of game)MEDAL OF HONOR is currently in progress.   Fairly good game, nice AI, but less than adequate graphics.NEVERWINTER NIGHTS has been saved on the hard drive for months.  With 100 hours or more hours of single player campaign available, I'll probably never finish it.  (I've put in about 25 hours so far)CIVILIZATION II.   What more can I say?   first thing I do when I rebuild a machine and load any microsoft OS is delete sol.exe and replace it with civ.exe.   Classic top-down strat if there ever was one.As far as online gameplay goes.... solely IL2.  Even with all the online cheats, hacks, and drama, I can't seem to lose interest in the game nor the squad.  I'm not to the point of therapy yet, but if I ever get there I don't have to travel far for help.  Lucky for me the misses has an MD in psychology!Deck:  "Honey, can I go to happy hour this afternoon with the guys from work?"The Wife:  "You don't need to go to happy hour this afternoon with the guys from work."Deck:  "I don't need to go to happy hour this afternoon with the guys from work."The Wife:  "Move along..."Deck:  "Move along!"TX-Deck out.

[TX-CUDA]

"Except for seeing Cuda.I'll bet that was a positive experience! )".....what in the world you mean by that?!!....I wan't wearing my Motorhead T-shirt and was fairly  low key!.....LOL....Rocky...TX-CUDA on UBIhemicudatex on HyperLobby

[LW_Tornado]

Tornado here, it WAS a blast bro, things is , yall were missing ! So here it is, i dont think any of us fit the bill "Wealthy" , but im in favor of kicking in several dollars for the next time to make sure you west coast "yanks" can join us! New yrs. Party @ Zen's lmao S~ All.P.S. This is a Great group of people all the way around, glad im involved !TX-TornadoBlue 3

[TX-BlackKnight]

Well, I'm laughing my butt off at those that thrashed CFS3 over in the ubi forums that a) never bought the game and now are admitting it AFTER thrashing it so vocally or b) also never changed any of the settings in it. I'd have to say that 50 percent of those that were really ripping it to shreds now admitted to never even playing or owning it....... and at least half of them now are saying they love it. LMMFAO !Got to love the IL-2 fans.........TX-BlackKnightBlack2

[TX-Zen]

Personally I have no plans to buy cfs3, in part because of some of the reviews here and mostly because I enjoy IL2 for the quality of the FM. Let me say that I am not into flight sims in general. I prefer some types of first person shooters and am mostly into turn based strategy games. IL2 for me was really on a suggestion from a friend and was put into effect after Deck and Rahman and I had a discussion about what kind of games we wanted to try out. After getting the game and playing it, I was impressed enough to keep on playing it. As Deck and Rah know, I bitched endlessly about the performance of the aircraft because I felt there was a clear russian bias in there. I have spent the last 22 years studying all manner of warfare, and WW2 fighters was one of my favorite subjects. The two of the them kept me from becoming too extreme with my ranting and raving and are primarily the reason I continued to play. For me, IL2 is probably it. I will be interested in Lock On since I have a bit of hankering for jet fighter combat, but another WW2 flight sim is really not in my picture right now. I spend enough time (perhaps too much even) on IL2, adding another game is not going to help that. When TX was formed, I had some ideas that I wanted to put into effect because I felt that the game mechanics in IL2 were realistic enough to attempt real tactics. We formed TX and recruited our first group of members. The comradierie then was what (and still does) make TX for me. We were out there doing some pretty cool stuff as a team, learning the game together and making a decent impression on the lobby.We went through a low period for a bit when mainly Cuda was the only one flying for a variety of reasons, and TX might have been perceived as being on its way out. Hardly so, but real life can and does interfere with gaming. After that low spot, a new TX was born with a more focused group of members which has led us directly here today. In recent weeks we have seen somewhat of a drop off in participation again. Many of the people who used to fly on a regular basis now do not, but the core of TX is still there. TX, like any online squadron, is dynamic and will have its ups and downs. It's a cycle just like everything else in life. The key I think is to understand the cycle and know that sometimes we will be red hot and other times we will be lukewarm. Does having fewer people online right now mean we are on our way out or that we have lost what we had? I think not. It simply means that things are changing again. Already I see we are picking up speed. The airshow gave a lot of us a boost, Kingsnakes script has done us a world of good and we will have FB coming soon also. Training has suffered primarily due to my lack of participation (for which I take all the blame) but after realizing that I wasn't able to stay committed to it as I had in the past, I decided to designate someone else to do the training which I think will help restore the sense of discipline we had before. In short, I have seen the slumps in our squadron before and the most recent one is relatively short lived. In any other game I have played a long slump is usually the end of it, but in TX, we keep coming back. I do not expect that we will be able to sustain playing IL2 for years and years, but hopefully between new improvements from the designers and our own igenuity, we can take it for a long ride, as we already have. It's been over 6 months now that we have been doing what we have, and many of the things we have done are ones that no one else has. We continue to set standards for UBI in the way we run our server, the tactics and teamwork we demonstrate, the innovations that we come up with and the way we handle ourselves in a crisis. Keep those things in mind, we have quite a bit to be proud of. The next month should bring a renewed sense of purpose to TX with FB coming out, Training nights being put back into effect and possibly some new recruits. How long will it last I do not know. It doesn't even matter to me, we have done some very cool things which I will see as the standard for online gaming for many years to come. To me I have achieved what I set out to do with TX and I owe it to each of you, current and former members included. My time with TX has been fantastic and I look forward to many more months although at a somewhat reduced level due to personal commitments. Just my thoughts on the subject of cfs3 and getting burned out. TX-Zen"Black 6"TX Squadron CO

[TX-Deck]

Roger that Zen!Personally I think the forums are on fire right now, and it seems the interest level is on the upswing again.  Lets keep up the good work.Here are a few things I'm focusing on at the moment... and I'll be darned if I'm not going to wrap them up soon.1.  Update member skins, insure everyone has the most current version of the more popular planes2.  Posting all the interesting pics I got from the airshow this weekend3.  Gamevoice SOP.  I've spent alot of time thinking about this and it turns out to be quite a nice little puzzle of logic.   Multiple channels and different aspects of each pilot designate the need for set channel assignments according to your role in the squadron.  (More on this later)4.  File distribution and document control.  I've been thinking about how to effectively distribute files such as skins, maps, cougar hotas configs, etc....5.  Ladder play or squad vs. squad competition.  If we can't find a ladder to play on, we'll start our own UBI round robin league or something.  When I played TFC we participated in the "Friday Night Fights" and it was a blast.  All this training is great, but I think it is time for us to put it to use.TX-Deck out.