Taconic

I'd wager that Pakistan buys American equipment for the same reason that India buys Russian equipment. No great mystery.

I'd like to add this: On the night of 9/11, I remember watching CNN and seeing footage from places like Paris, London, and Berlin. I grew up in the '80s. I sort of took it as a given that Europeans generally hated the US (and Americans) for plunging them headlong into the Cold War (and more specifically for events like Vietnam and Grenada... to name a couple.) I grew up respecting my country's accomplishments on one hand, but feeling ashamed when viewed through the lens of European criticism on the other. I actually had a Czechoslovak teacher in third grade that spent 30 minutes telling my class how inferior Americans were to the communists one day--it didn't really have much effect on me until I was much older, but it definitely influenced the way that I viewed my country. But on 9/11, it didn't matter. Something terrible had happened, and I realized that everyone--British, French, Spanish, Czech, German, Belgian, Italian, Lithuanian, and more--had forgotten about history. They, like me, were watching their TVs and trying to understand why--and how--something like that could happen. For the first time in my life, I didn't feel ashamed to be American. I felt a kinship with the world. I thought that maybe we'd all be able to put our differences aside and come up for a solution to this terrible problem. But that didn't happen. And it makes me angry that my country ruined that goodwill. I don't want to turn the thread into a discussion about that, but I do want to thank you people from around the world for your initial goodwill. It was incredible for this American to see, and it's something that I will never forget. I hope that someday we can return to that state--albeit it under better circumstances.

I slept through most of it. I was awakened by what I thought was a clap of thunder, but later realized was a sonic boom (the flight path of some of the F-15s took them over my area.) Then I spent the rest of the day watching CNN. It was a pretty terrible event. I just wish that the Bush administration hadn't mismanaged the reaction to it and turned the initial international goodwill back into international hatred toward us.

I actually think HR is a good campaign... even with the warfare elements. The open-ended missions were great and the story was more than adequate (certainly better than Arma's, which I found really difficult to care about.)It just would have been much better without the warfare aspects and, as you said, some more open-ended missions instead. I just hope that we see some FDF or BAS caliber campaigns for A2 from the community, but I'm not holding my breath since those didn't seem to materialize for Arma.

Yeah, I'm not at all opposed to that. The CoC CE missions were some of the best in OFP.I just think the whole Command and Conquer base building/money gathering/unit building aspect detracts from the campaign as a whole. And it seems that's the general consensus. :p

I never bothered with SH IV because the Pacific is a pretty boring theatre for sub combat. They really should stick to the Atlantic permanently.

That does not require that any element of warfare be included in the mission. Many OFP missions accomplished that long before warfare existed (and, IMO, are far superior to anything that has ever been done with warfare.)Large scale missions? Sure, I support that. Missions in which you control more than one squad (CoC CE style)? Absolutely. Missions in which you have to take towns, "buy" soldiers, and manage money convoys? No thanks. It sort of kills the whole realism/immersion aspects of the campaign. Having to say, "gee, I'd really like to get another BRDM, but I'm going to have to wait another 90 seconds for a supply convoy arbitrarily gathering money in a war zone to arrive from Novy Sabor" doesn't really do much for the suspension of disbelief.

Well, I hope not. :pI just can't imagine the reasoning for it in the RH campaign. Other than that, it was great. I actually probably would have liked it even more than CWC and Resistance if not for the "warfare" missions.

Don't include "warfare" mode in the campaign. Now, I realize that warfare is a major MP mode (even though I don't play it,) and I think that it's good that BIS has incorporated it into the game for that reason. When I got to the first "warfare" mission in A2, it seemed to work pretty well and make sense--seasoned combat units being given command over less experienced units... ...but then I took the village and had to "build" a base and "buy" units. The campaign was brilliant up to that point. I don't think that something Command and Conquer-esque has much place in the main campaign of a mil sim. For me, it was a real immersion killer and a blemish on an otherwise great campaign. Other than that, I really have no complaints about Arma 2. It's a very worthy successor to OFP. I also hope that Chernarus isn't abandoned, as the Eastern European settings are one of the high points of OFP and A2. Hopefully another expansion will return to it. :p

Sounds good. Thanks.

Any good books (in English) about Simo Hayha? I've always found him to be an interesting person (and have always had an interest in the Winter/Continuation/Lapland wars in general.) It's a shame that most people are completely unaware of that part of WW2 history.

I back this 100%. SP has been sadly neglected since the days of OFP.

Yup. No, it was 250167296, but now it's changed. 257949695 All of that has already been done, but I don't even have the option for "normal" textures. The only one that appears from me (aside from the first time I ran the game) is "very low." Good tip. It's currently 300000. Is this LOD-related? Yeah, it's AGP, which is why I don't just get a newer card.Aperture is 256MB. I will try all this and report. Thanks for the input. ---------- Post added at 05:12 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:50 PM ---------- OK. I can report that something in that list of changes (still haven't messed with scenecomplexity) definitely helped my framerate. Before I would get mid to high teens on the Utes airfield with no other units placed--it's now 25. However, I still have no options beyond "low" in textures. The first time a "normal" setting appeared, but I haven't seen it since. I figure there has to be a way to force it in the config, but I haven't found it. Nighttime performance is also still pretty bad. I figure this has to be because of lighting effects. Is there any way to change the lighting precision anywhere? That might make the first campaign mission playable for me.

The box states that the minimum requirements are: Dual core P4 3.0GHz 1024MB of RAM GF 7800 256MB My system meets these requirements. 2 3.06GHz Xeons (not dual core, 2 actual CPUs) 2048MB RAM GF 7800GS 256MB (latest drivers) WinXP Even with everything in the graphics options set to "very low," AA/AF/PP off, and view distance set to 600m, the game is basically unplayable. I can't complete the first campaign mission because my framerate is < 10FPS and the LODs of the foliage and buildings default to something so low beyond 100m that I really can't even tell what I'm looking at in the environment. I meet the minimum requirements, so I was hoping that I could at least play the game even if it wouldn't look so good. Unfortunately, that isn't the case. Basically, I'm just wondering if I'm missing anything. Switches, perhaps a way to force higher LODs (ala OFP--I can live with 10FPS if I'm able to tell the difference between a house and a rock in the distance,) or anything else I may have overlooked. Thanks.

My take: Arma's flight modeling is better than OFP's. However, it's still far below par. I have a full CH setup for flight sims (CH Fighterstick, CH throttle, CH rudder pedals) and I don't bother with them at all in OFP/Arma because, frankly, keyboard/mouse control works better. I would love to see the flight models in Arma approach what you see in DCS or Il-2, but the simple fact of the matter is that level of fidelity would turn off 90% of BIS' potential customers, cost a lot of money to implement, and generally be lost on people because few people have the hardware to actually take advantage of something like that. I can dream, though... But I can completely forgive BIS on this point because OFP/Arma are about ground combat. As far as I'm concerned, the ability to fly the aircraft is just a little bonus tossed in. If I want a flight sim, I look elsewhere.