AKM

Geocider: - War is not pretty. Your constant reminders and descriptions are welcome as a reminder to those who think war can be as surgically clean as OFP renders it. - I'd appreciate a link to the downloads. Hood would likely be amiable to increasing the Russian Forces galleries at MilitaryPhotos.net. I hear the site is actually useable now, since the comments system was removed. I'm a bit too idiot-shell-shocked to go back and check it out for myself.

I'd be interested in seeing the entire video, really. As for screenshots, I'll see what I can do.

Regarding release dates: - Released when it's done. Regarding the Mi-24: - Kenji did some updates on SCAR's work. So far, everything looks as it does in Shadow's screenshots, model-wise. It's not just his Godlike computer screwing with you. Great thing about this Mi-24 is that it actually handles properly now. Not like some kind of flying elephant hit with a few sponges of LSD.

It is a different design, but same manufacturer. It's GORKA-S now I believe, meaning it's "Square on Background" of Green-other-Green; but the base green colour is still the same. It's quite effective during dusk, or later at night.

Stanley is right, Stanislav. The troops barely have a passing resembelance to that old screenshot. There are a variety of Spetsnaz in the new package. (Interesting note: The only real Spetsnaz are GRU Spetsnaz. Other than that, Spetsnaz is a cover-term used to denote "Russian Special Forces," but oddly enough, nobody thinks of calling OMON or "Alfa" operators "Spetsnaz." Military SF units though, generally get the "Spetsnaz" designator.) At the moment, as has been said before, we've got four sets of Spetsnaz. "Stealth" - GORKA, SUMRAK "Normal" - GORKA, SUMRAK. Generally, the "Stealth" Spetsnaz have their faces covered, either with a Kosynka or a Maska, their hoods up, etc. The "Normal" ones don't, and wear assault vests, et cetera. You could use the "Normal" guys as a "Raiding Force" or some-such, like US Army Rangers are generally used. For example, although that's probably not the best description. The two units aren't really comparable in missions they'd undertake. And just, for the record, although SUMRAK looks like KZS, KZM, or KLMK, it is the "Modern" reincarnation of that, and was put into production by Spetsnonachenie sometime in late 2003, early 2004, if memory serves correctly. More accurately, SUMRAK was made available for the public to buy in late 2003, early 2004. It could have been in use since 1993, say.

Ginger Mountain: It's done when it's done. "Shorty-san" probably ducks the question because he's so exceedingly focused on the T-62 package. Progress? Well, we could probably now track the progress of the infantry by the progress of their weapons. Once those are done, the pack is done. In theory.

Heh. Ginger Mountain is the bringer of good news.

Kenji's "someone-chan" has been around for a long time, and that hasn't decreased the quality of his work any.

Part of the problem is that Westerners (Myself included, until two, three years ago) always underestimate Russian armour and it's capabilities. It's generally because of the everpresent bias. Przezdzieblo, I should have been more careful in the wording of what I said. What you mean by "Localized damage" (IE: Side armour being weaker than frontal armour) and the "simulation" of ERA bricks through representation in the config files, is taking place, yes. No worries.

There are too many variables for someone to say that a particular type of tank can kill another. There are only likelihoods. OFP is not a tank simulator. It cannot represent all possible variables; ERA bricks, the more recent ERA that is more effective against DU APFSDS ammunition, dual-HEAT style warheads, the effect of HEAT on any vehicle sans a Spall Liner, HESH ammo, etc. Russian tanks recieved a lot of modern ammunition. Thus a T-62 could engage and destroy a M1A2/SEP, using the modern rounds.

If you want the AI to do it, it's just basic mission editing from there. I don't believe we have a "BTR Pack" planned. So no, no BTR-90 at the moment.

Awesome. Looking forward to the release - I have some fictional scenarios that can only benefit from the addition of some Aussies. Of course, we all know that it only takes a single Canadian to accomplish what a section of Aussies will do.

Scarred from a few Mitsurugi Kan Ryu Kenjutsu mishaps. Your English is better than my Estonian, Eestikas. HellFish: The T-62 variant I spoke of is basically a modified T-62 turret mounted onto the same hull. It has a four-rail launcher, and can be reloaded from the inside. The downside is that there's no maingun, just the missiles. Then there's the IT-130 you mentioned.

Ah, we talked about that. It's less work to make the tank-destroyer armed with the missile racks, meaning you get it sooner. I did however, push for the Su-76 reminiscent tank.

Kenkakau. Â He's a wee bit cut up, but not someone I'd want twirling a Sakabatou within... 200 metres of me. Better for me to hide behind my AKS-74. Just talking with Kenji-san now. The reason that the T-62M-1 there looks "FDF-ish" is because he fiddled with the gamma and contrast for the screenshot. Textures are a bit different. He also told me to let you know that the Iraqi T-62A is merely an export T-62A with different paint. Possibly the only different thing is a search light - something that he doesn't have time for at the moment. Another teammember is likely to add that in the finishing stages.

I will acknowledge these possibilities but would also like to add that the inclusion of dusted DU fragments to this mix cannot possibly be for the better. Perfect. Now if we all do this, problem solved. Of course, we can take this discussion to Off-Topic as well, and continue it there, because it definately has some merit.

This should be a fucking contest. "Let's see how far off topic we can take the thread before someone notices! HOORAH!" Gah. Barring discussion on DU, which is recognized to be a prime component of all modern APFSDS ammunition, making it the supreme tank-killing round of ammunition for modern tank gunnery, recognizing that modern Russian armour is capable, but not as much as the latest NATO pieces, and recognizing that for the eras specified, often Russo/Soviet technology outstripped it's NATO counterpart, but not always. IE: T-62 v. M-60A1/A3 Can we get back on topic now? It's also recognized internationally, and not only by "Green Parties" that the use of DU ammo in the First Gulf War has resulted in many "unexplained" and unacknowledged illnesses incurred by servicemen for all involved nations and civilians in the combat zone.

The reason the T-62 may look 'odd' is either because of your display + the angle at which the image was taken, or because that's a "Pre Kenji-going-completely-berserk on the model" screenshot. It's all good now. Actually, the only Russian tanks that have a chance in Hell of smoking an M1, M1A1, or M1A2 SEP from the front, are the T-80 series. A T-80BV could probably take an M1, but a M1A1 needs a T-80U to take it down, under the best conditions possible, and the M1A2 works of the ratio of Two (2) T-80UM1 tanks to one (1) M1A2 SEP. So 2:1. Fortunately, the Russians have these kinds of numbers. It's all rather debatable, but with my testing and the current betas I've been issued, the ratio holds true. The T-62 will be released in... A few months. If some form of supreme deity smiles upon our work, the best we could hope for is really late next month, probably two, three months from now. Lotta things remain to be done - unfortunately, the team doesn't exactly have a whole lot of time to spend on modeling - As Kenji said, he's only just got the basic modeling and texturing done.

Stanislav: The textures were re-done, and some of the modeling was touched up. Essentially, they are the same, with some things fixed up.

The reason Keller's comments are particularly frustrating for the 'old guard' of RHS is primarily because we're not only dealing with him, but with ORCS continually undercutting us. We're loosing the "political" game. I don't think many, if any, Western-based Flashpoint gamers can understand how political the Russian OFP community is. It is not as stable as the Western community, nor is anything "Garunteed" there. Recently, we took a blow from ORCS (Indirect as they may appear...) and we're dealing with that. Then Keller really just acted as the "Salt on the Wound" so to say. And no, I cannot go into specifics without Shadow-NX giving me the thumbs up, or Soul-Assassin. Although Shadow has already explained sufficiently what is going on. Kurayami, Paratrooper, thanks for your kind words, and RHS thanks the majority of the community for their continued support.

That would originally be the plan. But the final beta testing stages cannot be reached until they are fully armed and in their "Final" pre-release form. I don't think Shadow-NX will have some crazy Russian bastard named "Vanya" try to kill me when I say that the RHS beta is exceedingly addon-dependant, for weapons. Also, some changes were made, such as the retexturing of the GRU Spetsnaz from Lesnaya (LES / "Russian Woodland") to Sumrak (Think modern KZS/KZM/KLMK, made by Spetsnonachenie), and from GORKA to GORKA-R to GORKA-S, as they are now. Then some things needed a switch-around, for instance the useage of some NATO gear on the Spetsnaz by mistake, and I'm still waiting for the weapons to be finished off so I can give everything a final check over. And Insh-Allah, Johann can get it all double-checked and presto, no bugs. Because Johann will have a beta on his harddrive for no more than thirty minutes and find say, 75% of the issues with it in the first thirty minutes. With Bitsoen, it's a love/hate relationship. Some days, especially in the days of the T-55 pack, it was more of a "hate" relationship. But, we did finally get out a quality addon. Regarding the work of ORCS: - It is not my place to discuss it here. That's what PMs are for.

I'd be tempted to say no. Howitzers you can use for "Direct-Fire" since I don't think any "avalanche-control" gunners are real eager to try firing indirectly. Mortars, they'd get the job done but they're a lot less controllable, and much less accurate, by nature. You'd have to use a lot more rounds to get the same effect. My question is what the Hell the kid is doing behind the couch. That video... that's one talented group of soldiers. I can't imagine fitting that many troopers into a space that small. With their battle loads too. Jesus H. in the Garden today.

In short: - Some shit happened. We got our legs cut out from under us, now we need to make some things rather than just follow through on a prearranged agreement. So it's going to take longer. Sorry.

Don't forget the "Guillotine" window. I think it opens with the window being slid up rather than down, which resulted in a few odd bruises and scars on the arms of some Canadian peacekeepers.

If OFP can be found, OFP is not dead. One of my friends, one of his friends, just bought Red Hammer, Resistance, and of course, CWC. This was two days ago. I'd say it isn't dead. What's left of the community is pretty strong, provided that mission makers continue learning. A lot of the guys I know, their skills just plataeu (Sure, I could look up the spelling, but that'd take precious seconds), and then their creativity begins to stagnate. Or they do what I do; create dozens of mission concepts, but never have the time to act on them and actually build the mission they were envisioning. For a decent MP experiance, I'd say it's prettymuch crucial to be part of a well-organized squad, preferably with a dedicated server; but that's not actually a nessecity. My unit has been getting along splendidly without one for - about four years now. Like everything else, OFP evolves. Players become more capable as time goes on, and missions and addons become more complex as well. I still like most of the missions I made in early 2003, although they've become massive multipart operations that somehow involve the CoC CE - because you can't match the feeling of power you get from ordering a mechanized company to "sic" with anything else. Bottom line - Provided there are new players coming in and at least, say 25% of the "Old Guard" remains to educate them (Thus we don't end up with anecdote #1, below), and some mod-teams that focus on plausible scenarios and the like remain, which I don't think is a real worry, then we'll be good to go up until OFP-2, which will then kick the community in the ass and force it to a new level. Although there's the "modding twilight" to deal with when that happens - very simply, creating addons for OFP-2 is going to be very, very difficult unless we're supported by the designers, since we've lost a lot of the pioneers that we had in early 2002. So we'll see OFP-2 base, and then maybe a few addons working in it, and suchforth. * Anecdote one: "Every civilization learns what it needs to, and the next one forgets it." - And yes, I did get that off CSI. Good show, that.