Satchel

, the "OPFOR" should already look Al Queada like, but who knows what they have in mind for expansion of the game. this version of the game is slightly stripped down, mission- and functionality wise, i assume they had to meet their deadline (4th July) but didn´t manage to get everything in they wanted, hence the "Recon" version that features some basic stuff. I think in later upgrades the different infantry schools as promised will follow, new single player missions, more functionality etc. They also wrote about vehicles in later updates, they are currently checking and probing possibities to implement them.

The aiming process itself is a bit more complicated than in OFP; breathing is simulated and you need to concentrate on the shooting rhytmus for targets farther away and for every round to hit, especially from the standing unsupported position. While prone beeing easier to shoot from, standing and crouched positions are something that requires some practise for precision shooting, weapons can also jam (not in the training mission though). I suppose those misses i had in training (didn´t managed to get a full 40 yet) would have been spot on in OFP. Running&gunning in this game is unlikely to work, as you wouldn´t probably hit anything that is further away than 100m without using iron sights properly. Regarding shooting simulated by software (i think we can agree it will never be realistic), i´m afraid to say, OFP is easier to handle for me. The animations are looking great; reload animations, jam clearing etc are displayed in great attention to detail. Sound is well made, visuals- well it´s the new unreal engine, i hardly get more than 20 fps with my system and everything set to max image quality, but it looks great, viewing distance is also acceptable. For me definitely a keeper, cheerio to US tax payers .

Personally i would like to see our DM (Deutsche Mark) currency back better today than tomorrow, as one side effect is that everything appears to be more expensive since the euro here. That Mayall jumping jack is rather tasteless, but i understand he too has to make a living, so why not take a concept that always works, if someone can´t laugh about it then it works at least by provocing.

Friendly fire will get you banned from the server without exception, meaning that even accidents will be punished . On the one hand it has some positive points, because there is nothing more annoying than teamkillers, it also forces unit cohesion and teamwork to avoid friendly fire, you have to be more careful and know where your own people are. The other side is that friendly fire is unavoidable in a crowded match, it will happen and what keeps someone that had fun teamkilling other players before, from running repeatedly and intentionally into the line of fire of his own team to get one after another kicked?

Before the upcoming partial release of AmericasArmy Operations game (now dubbed "Recon"), i was checking out the official forum to get info on technical- and download details of the game. While browsing through the forum i almost had a redout from laughing, it appears a whole generation of 12y old disgruntled ex-counterstrike players is inhabiting the forums with their fingers typing faster than their brain is capable of processing. A small sample of a conversation between a kid wanting gore pics (because the amount and display of splatter is an imperative for him) and a beta tester who is ready to explode: anti_trust: "can one of the moderators/beta testers put a pic up on here of the gore?? I wanna see what it looks like before I go judging it. I just wanna see what it looks like when you get hit and then see the blood come out, and see what it looks like around you." Vaaish, Beta Tester: "no we can't" anti_trust: "well that's kewl. I'll still get the game. I'm not gonna judge it, until i played it. But can take a screen shot of the blood?? I would like to see it. I mean people can mod the files to make it better." Vaaish, Beta Tester: "I guess I was not clear enough... no Pronunciation Key (n) adv. Used to express refusal, denial, disbelief, emphasis, or disagreement: No, I'm not going. No, you're wrong. Not at all; not by any degree. Often used with the comparative: no better; no more. Not: whether or no. we referance to the beta testers cannot \Can"not\ [Can to be able + -not.] Am, is, or are, not able; -- written either as one word or two post screenshots." I guess this game is doomed before it even started, considering the average crowd that is going to play it. As the army is aiming with the game towards recruiting out of this bunch....good night america . Go here: http://americasarmy.com/forum/

It depends on your interests, while for some people it´s an horror to do PT or beeing in the field for a longer period, others can´t get enough of it. It´s about giving either a right or wrong picture about soldering and opportunities in PR campaigns,  eventually leading to someones enlistment based on the picture they´ve got, as long as its somewhere within realistical frames. In most countries including the U.S. there are lots of opportunities to get first hand experience and a foretaste of what army service can be like before you actually join them, here it´s called "Truppenwerbung" for example. Someone who is interested can "play" soldier for a couple of days, while getting an insight into the normal routine, talking to soldiers, and get the same cheap ass food we do. With a video you can show actual people doing little fragments of what makes the service, in a videogame however the whole thing becomes totally perverted. What  isn´t shown in PR videos of course is bureaucracy of dumbest sort, things that go regulary wrong or doesn´t make any sense at all, boredom etc,  all those making a great deal of a military career, no matter in what army, branch or specific job you serve.

There was also someone, obviously ex- or current US Army, posting about casual duty on the forum. He was pointing towards what 11b wrote above. The kids replying to his thread either failed to understand the message completely and were wondering what he was saying, or called him pissed...seems the army game is working already before it´s even released.... I wouldn´t want to be an employee of an recruiting office if i had to get everything straight to the half wit´s coming with screwed fictional perceptions, a video game perverted about actual soldering...

Some more observations: - Std equipped enemy soldiers are too effective in low visibility engagements, considering they are wearing no night vision equipped. Their viewing distance is too high as their fire is to accurate in these conditions. While i normally can see nothing at dark with no moonlight (have to turn up contrast and brightness to full to see at least a tiny bit without NVG´s), AI opponents have no hard time seeing and hitting you accurately. The NVG when used is good at short range, but doesn´t really help at medium- long range because of the extensive blocky grain, AI opponents without NVG are hitting better at medium to long range than me with nightvision. - G3/FN-FAL ammo could need a bit more punch across the range spectrum, 1 shot into the torso should usually end the AI´s misery, at most it took me 3 hits (2x torso 1x legs w FN-FAL at long range). I also had an AI soldier running around with a headshot (his face was complete red) after an M21 bullet hit him also long range, he kept on sprinting towards our position.

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (USSoldier11B @ July 03 2002,06:16)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">LOL I read that thread where the kid wanted to join the rangers and wondered if the army would track his record.  And then they were all saying how it helps hand-eye co-ordination. <span id='postcolor'> The RI's at Ft. Benning would rip this guy a new asshole if they knew he said this. What a moron. <span id='postcolor'> They have some nice videos up: http://www.benning.army.mil/OIP/INFANTRY%20CD/VIDEO%202.htm (currently down) Check the para and live firing video once it´s available again, they are huge (40-50MB) but fun to watch complete with sound&music. If i was that age again, these videos would certainly appeal more to me than a video game if i´d consider to join the armed forces.

Lol , how can you not love them.

I didn´t know the army has a reputation to loose J/K........ honestly, essentially because the Department of Defense is involved in developing it i have a great deal of skepticism. If potentially hidden code would be factual basis, and meant to transmit data beyond the plain playing requirements, it would be accordingly well designed to stay that way (hidden), they have a greater pool of knowledge and resources than a gaming- or other software company would get their hands on-especially concerning security, the CIA recruiting highly skilled hackers from the wild for industry espionage and probing of security systems is another thing. The servers beeing run are all government funded, don´t read or hear about executables for custom dedicated servers yet, where it would be easy to track connections. If exploiting hidden code should exist and would be discovered, i wouldn´t be surprised if it´s once again blamed on 9/11, and justified for national security reasons- regardless how laughable that sounds, i´ve heard even more unbelievable justifications for wars to start . In the forum officials are waving the NDA non disclosure agreement when further details about the game are beeing asked (nothing uncommon), but it also leaves the option of regular Spyware implementations everyone knows; Gator, Cydoor &Co or other companys one might find mentioned in the readme, "A product brought to you by the US Army powered by Gator cooperation" i.e.. In this case it wouldn´t be hidden but is an official "part" of the game, just as it´s the case with plenty of software that comes for *free*. Sure US defense budgets and fundings are accumulative higher and nowhere in relation when compared to other countries, take germany with military expenditures of roughly 25 Billion US $ compared to the US´s somewhere near 300 billion $. But then again U.S armed forces are unproportionally larger material- and personal wise than what most other countrys would be able to deploy and maintain on a constant basis, also they are practically serving in all spots around the globe, everything is taking huge amounts of expenditures to keep going; personal, maintenance, transformation, replacements, research& development fundings, armed conflicts the US is taking part or leading in, all playing into. I don´t think they have money to throw out the window for adventures with questionable results, but hey, it´s not my money . I´m going to download the game when the first waves of mad kids trying desperatly to download the game the second it is available (good luck ) are over, or wait for an local PC magazine having it on CD. Before that i won´t make final conclusions regarding game quality, content, Spyware etc.. The Army claims "noone gets the Army like the Army" ultimate realism and the usual blah..well we´ll see, would be awkward if it turns out to be a CS clone, even more so than finding spyware.

I´m also a bit sceptical about the game beeing destributed for *free* (i´m always if i hear that word), i mean c´mon it´s the new unreal Warfare engine that will have it´s debut to the public with this game. The development costs are already told to be in the millions, with further funding planned for future development and expansion of the game for some years. I wouldn´t be surprised to find Gator or other Spyware  implementations out of industry deals within serving information gathering purposes, to get back some of the fundings put into. As the success and resonance of a game as recruiting tool is rather questionable imho, at least for normal thinking people. Kids going into recuiting offices based on a video game must have some kind of psychological defects living in a distorted reality, and these are exatly the people a recruiting campaign like this will attract, the majority of them unqualified even for military service˛, if not physically then for sure mentally. And i´m sure the army considers this as well. ˛ prerequisites and competitions for entering basic military service aren´t usually high when compared to applying for jobs in the open buisness.  In the forums there was someone asking if his ingame performance online would be tracked, so military officials would get a picture of his skills that might serve him when he joins..... I don´t think anything further need to be said regarding this, it´s just sad and hillarious at the same time.... total loss of reality. But most will just have a ball getting a game for free and take the propaganda with a grain of salt, if the game should prove worth playing.

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (PitViper @ July 02 2002,17:08)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Hopefully the simulation is "hardcore" enough so that these idiots get mad and leave the game.<span id='postcolor'> Doubt so, but we all will know for sure when its out. Guess it will be some kind of mix between ghost recon and Flashpoint.

Release time: Pacific- 5: 01pm July 3rd Mountain- 6: 01pm July 3rd Central- 7: 01pm July 3rd Eastern- 8: 01pm July 3rd Zulu- 12: 01am July 4th London- 12: 01am July 4th Washington, DC July 1, 2002 || The U.S. Army launches July 4 on the Worldwide Web a special "Recon" version of "America's Army," an innovative, realistic computer game providing civilians with an inside perspective and a virtual role in today's premier land force: the U.S. Army. The "America's Army" game blends two vivid simulations: "Soldiers," a role-playing portion in which players navigate life's challenges to achieve goals, and a first-person action game, called "Operations." Players can download the 220 megabyte, "Recon" version of the "Operations" game with 10 levels at websites including: www.goarmy.com, www.americasarmy.com, www.nvidia.com, www.fileplanet.com, www.homelan.com, www.ign.com, as well as www.gigex.com and its affiliate sites such as Yahoo! Games http://games.yahoo.com, www.pcgamer.com, www.ugo.com and www.gamers.com, on Independence Day. Starting this patriotic weekend, "America's Army" players will experience soldiering in a state-of-the-art, realistic new manner. Developed by the U.S. Army and a Department of Defense team of experts in simulations and virtual environments, "America's Army" will be distributed by the Army as a free, two-CD set late this summer. In addition, the "Operations" game will appear on CD's inside top computer games magazines. It also will be available at Army events and recruiting stations. The "Soldiers" game is rated "E" for everyone and the "Operations" game is rated "T" for teen by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board. These games are the first in a series that will provide a virtual Army experience in career fields ranging from Infantry to avionics repair. "The launch of America's Army on the Internet marks a new chapter in the U.S. Army's history of communicating with Americans about the Army's opportunities, adventures, challenges and training," said Lt. Col. Casey Wardynski, project originator and manager of the "America's Army" game. "With this game we hope to educate young Americans and present them with a realistic, engaging view of today's modern Army and its opportunities." In the July 4 "Recon" version the virtual soldier experience begins with basic training missions that include the rifle range, obstacle course and McKenna Urban Training Site at Fort Benning, Ga. After completing basic training, players progress to online multiplayer missions ranging from defense of the Alaskan Pipeline against terrorism as a member of the 172nd Infantry Brigade (Separate) from Fort Wainwright, Alaska, to homeland defense as a member of the 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) from Fort Drum, N.Y. Throughout the summer the Army will make additional missions available for download, culminating with CD release of the full game at the end of the summer. The game was developed using the latest version of Epic Games' "Unreal Engine." and is optimized for NVIDIA GeForce2™ graphics processors. The game publicly debuted May 22 at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), the computer and video games industry's major convention in Los Angeles, where it launched to great acclaim. Since the launch of the game's web site more than 150,000 people registered to receive the full version of the game. "America's Army" achieves unparalleled military realism through its in-house development and cooperation from 20 Army units. Embedded with expert knowledge, the game accurately depicts today's high-tech Army infantry units-military equipment, training and scenario realism. Character motions are true-to-life with motion-capture of real soldiers, allowing players to participate in a truly immersive soldier experience. Dolby Lends Expertise to Sound Design Team for America’s Army: Operations, Combining Realism and Emotion San Francisco, July 1, 2002—Uncle Sam wanted Dolby Laboratories when it came to sound design on the upcoming ultra-realistic America’s Army: Operations™, a first-person action game for the PC platform that allows players to enter into “virtual service†with the US Army. To fully draw the player into the game aurally and visually, the government’s development team set—and reached—a design goal of creating the most realistic audio representation of combat environments possible. Experts from Dolby aided the team using entertainment industry techniques and high-end simulations to combine intense realism with emotion. Using both custom recorded sounds and resources from sound libraries, they spent a great deal of time getting the audio effects in the game as accurate as possible. America’s Army: Operations was conceived and sponsored by the US Army’s Office of Economic and Manpower Analysis and created in-house at the Modeling, Virtual Environments and Simulation Institute (MOVES) at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. “What makes America’s Army: Operations unique is the incredible amount of relevant military detail rendered throughout the game, and that each animated action requires an appropriate auditory response,†said Lieutenant Commander Russell Shilling, Ph.D., Sound Designer for America’s Army. “This realism is achieved not just through accurate recordings, but by creating an illusion for the listener that the auditory representation is accurate.†America's Army: Operations employs unique sounds for different materials and textures encountered in the game. For instance, footsteps, shell casings, bullet impacts, grenades, and so forth., will sound different depending on whether they land on wood, metal, concrete, water, or dirt. Bullets hitting glass and walls will shower fragments sonically and grenade explosions will cause players’ ears to ring. “When you add these details to the immersive auditory experience offered by a Dolby Digital system, the result is compelling and extremely dramatic,†Shilling continued. “In an America’s Army: Operations firefight, it is not uncommon to hear bullets whizzing and snapping by your ears and impacting the wall behind you, which ricochet and cause a shower of debris around you—meanwhile, you’re fumbling to clear a jam in your weapon.†<U>A special Recon version of America’s Army: Operations can be downloaded free at www.americasarmy.com on the Fourth of July. Players can also register on the website for the free full version of the game on disc, which will be available later this summer on the Windows® PC platform. Both the disk and downloadable versions will be Dolby® Digital 5.1 certified.</U>

From www.army-technology.com: The Ka-50 Black Shark helicopter, developed by Kamov Helicopters JSC, carries the NATO codename Hokum A, Hokum B being the two-seat version, Ka-52. Ka-50 is also known as Werewolf. It entered service in the Russian Army during 1995 and is in full production at the Sazykin Aviation Company Progress based in Arseniev Maritime Territory, Russia. A first batch of eight aircraft have been delivered, with further production orders expected. It is a high performance combat helicopter with day and night capability, high survivability and fire power to defeat air targets and heavily armoured tanks armed with air defence weapons. A night attack version, Ka-50N, with Samshit-50T thermal imager, day TV and laser rangefinder has been developed, and Kamov has also joined with Israeli Aircraft Industries (IAI) to produce a version, the Ka-50-2 Erdogan that is compatible with NATO weapons and has an Israeli equipped cockpit. DESIGN The coaxial rotor design provides a hovering ceiling of 4,000 m and vertical rate of climb of 10 m/sec at an altitude of 2,500 m. The rotor blades are made from polymer materials. The coaxial-rotor configuration results in moments of inertia values relative to vertical and lateral axes being between 1.5 to 2 times less than the values found in single rotor helicopters with tailrotors. Absence of the tail rotor enables the helicopter to perform flat turns within the entire flight speed range. A maximum vertical g-load of 3.5 combined with low moments of inertia give the Ka-50 a high level of agility. Extensive all-round armour installed in the cockpit protects the pilot against 12.7 mm armour piercing bullets and 23 mm projectile fragments. The rotor blades are rated to withstand several hits of ground-based automatic weapons. The Ka-50 is the world's first operational helicopter with a rescue ejection system, which allows pilot to escape at all altitudes and speeds. The K-37-800 Rocket Assisted Ejection System is manufactured by the Zvezda Research and Production Enterprise Joint Stock Company in the Moscow Region. WEAPONS A combination of various armaments to a maximum weapon load of 2 tons can be selected according to the mission, including anti-tank missiles, unguided aerial rockets of different calibres, air-to-air missiles, guns, bombs and other weapons. The helicopter has small mid-mounted wings fitted with four underwing suspension units and wingtip countermeasures pods. Up to 12 Vikhr supersonic antitank missiles can be mounted on the helicopter's two underwing external stores. The laser beamriding Vikhr missile is stated as having a target hit probability close to one, against a tank at a range of up to 8 km, and the capability of penetrating all types of armour including active armour up to 900 mm thick. The Ka-50 is armed with a 2A42 quick-firing 30-mm gun which has an unrestricted azimuth and elevation range mounting for use against airborne or ground targets. The gun is equipped with 460 rounds of ammunition, two types being carried, high-fragmentation and explosive incendiary rounds and armour-piercing rounds. The pilot selects the type of ammunition in flight. The weight of the ammunition is 0.39 kg each round, the muzzle velocity is 980 m/s and the range is up to 4 km. The gun provides an angular firing accuracy of 2 to 4 mrad. AVIONICS Flight systems include inertial navigation system (INS), autopilot and head-up display (HUD). Sensors include FLIR (forward-looking infrared) and terrain-following radar. COUNTERMEASURES Ka-50 is fitted with radar warning receiver, electronic warfare system and chaff and flare dispenser. ENGINES The Ka-50 is powered by two TV3-117VMA turboshafts engines each providing 2,200 horsepower. The engines are placed on either side of the fuselage to enhance the combat survivability. The helicopter also has an auxiliary power unit (APU) for self-contained operation. The KA-50 is single seated, which means the workload for the pilot is high, he needs to maneuver and operate the weapon systems without the aid of an CP/G, the pilot needs to concentrate on both, flying and fighting. This is why Kamov also did an 2 seated version; the KA-52: The dual rotor system is told to be unreliable, at least by the MIL design bureau. As the MIL helicopter plant is in direct competition with Kamov, this statement is likely to be biased.

From www.army-technology.com: The Ka-50 Black Shark helicopter, developed by Kamov Helicopters JSC, carries the NATO codename Hokum A, Hokum B being the two-seat version, Ka-52. Ka-50 is also known as Werewolf. It entered service in the Russian Army during 1995 and is in full production at the Sazykin Aviation Company Progress based in Arseniev Maritime Territory, Russia. A first batch of eight aircraft have been delivered, with further production orders expected. It is a high performance combat helicopter with day and night capability, high survivability and fire power to defeat air targets and heavily armoured tanks armed with air defence weapons. A night attack version, Ka-50N, with Samshit-50T thermal imager, day TV and laser rangefinder has been developed, and Kamov has also joined with Israeli Aircraft Industries (IAI) to produce a version, the Ka-50-2 Erdogan that is compatible with NATO weapons and has an Israeli equipped cockpit. DESIGN The coaxial rotor design provides a hovering ceiling of 4,000 m and vertical rate of climb of 10 m/sec at an altitude of 2,500 m. The rotor blades are made from polymer materials. The coaxial-rotor configuration results in moments of inertia values relative to vertical and lateral axes being between 1.5 to 2 times less than the values found in single rotor helicopters with tailrotors. Absence of the tail rotor enables the helicopter to perform flat turns within the entire flight speed range. A maximum vertical g-load of 3.5 combined with low moments of inertia give the Ka-50 a high level of agility. Extensive all-round armour installed in the cockpit protects the pilot against 12.7 mm armour piercing bullets and 23 mm projectile fragments. The rotor blades are rated to withstand several hits of ground-based automatic weapons. The Ka-50 is the world's first operational helicopter with a rescue ejection system, which allows pilot to escape at all altitudes and speeds. The K-37-800 Rocket Assisted Ejection System is manufactured by the Zvezda Research and Production Enterprise Joint Stock Company in the Moscow Region. WEAPONS A combination of various armaments to a maximum weapon load of 2 tons can be selected according to the mission, including anti-tank missiles, unguided aerial rockets of different calibres, air-to-air missiles, guns, bombs and other weapons. The helicopter has small mid-mounted wings fitted with four underwing suspension units and wingtip countermeasures pods. Up to 12 Vikhr supersonic antitank missiles can be mounted on the helicopter's two underwing external stores. The laser beamriding Vikhr missile is stated as having a target hit probability close to one, against a tank at a range of up to 8 km, and the capability of penetrating all types of armour including active armour up to 900 mm thick. The Ka-50 is armed with a 2A42 quick-firing 30-mm gun which has an unrestricted azimuth and elevation range mounting for use against airborne or ground targets. The gun is equipped with 460 rounds of ammunition, two types being carried, high-fragmentation and explosive incendiary rounds and armour-piercing rounds. The pilot selects the type of ammunition in flight. The weight of the ammunition is 0.39 kg each round, the muzzle velocity is 980 m/s and the range is up to 4 km. The gun provides an angular firing accuracy of 2 to 4 mrad. AVIONICS Flight systems include inertial navigation system (INS), autopilot and head-up display (HUD). Sensors include FLIR (forward-looking infrared) and terrain-following radar. COUNTERMEASURES Ka-50 is fitted with radar warning receiver, electronic warfare system and chaff and flare dispenser. ENGINES The Ka-50 is powered by two TV3-117VMA turboshafts engines each providing 2,200 horsepower. The engines are placed on either side of the fuselage to enhance the combat survivability. The helicopter also has an auxiliary power unit (APU) for self-contained operation. The KA-50 is single seated, which means the workload for the pilot is high, he needs to maneuver and operate the weapon systems without the aid of an CP/G, the pilot needs to concentrate on both, flying and fighting. This is why Kamov also did an 2 seated version; the KA-52: The dual rotor system is told to be unreliable, at least by the MIL design bureau. As the MIL helicopter plant is in direct competition with Kamov, this statement is likely to be biased.

From www.army-technology.com: The Ka-50 Black Shark helicopter, developed by Kamov Helicopters JSC, carries the NATO codename Hokum A, Hokum B being the two-seat version, Ka-52. Ka-50 is also known as Werewolf. It entered service in the Russian Army during 1995 and is in full production at the Sazykin Aviation Company Progress based in Arseniev Maritime Territory, Russia. A first batch of eight aircraft have been delivered, with further production orders expected. It is a high performance combat helicopter with day and night capability, high survivability and fire power to defeat air targets and heavily armoured tanks armed with air defence weapons. A night attack version, Ka-50N, with Samshit-50T thermal imager, day TV and laser rangefinder has been developed, and Kamov has also joined with Israeli Aircraft Industries (IAI) to produce a version, the Ka-50-2 Erdogan that is compatible with NATO weapons and has an Israeli equipped cockpit. DESIGN The coaxial rotor design provides a hovering ceiling of 4,000 m and vertical rate of climb of 10 m/sec at an altitude of 2,500 m. The rotor blades are made from polymer materials. The coaxial-rotor configuration results in moments of inertia values relative to vertical and lateral axes being between 1.5 to 2 times less than the values found in single rotor helicopters with tailrotors. Absence of the tail rotor enables the helicopter to perform flat turns within the entire flight speed range. A maximum vertical g-load of 3.5 combined with low moments of inertia give the Ka-50 a high level of agility. Extensive all-round armour installed in the cockpit protects the pilot against 12.7 mm armour piercing bullets and 23 mm projectile fragments. The rotor blades are rated to withstand several hits of ground-based automatic weapons. The Ka-50 is the world's first operational helicopter with a rescue ejection system, which allows pilot to escape at all altitudes and speeds. The K-37-800 Rocket Assisted Ejection System is manufactured by the Zvezda Research and Production Enterprise Joint Stock Company in the Moscow Region. WEAPONS A combination of various armaments to a maximum weapon load of 2 tons can be selected according to the mission, including anti-tank missiles, unguided aerial rockets of different calibres, air-to-air missiles, guns, bombs and other weapons. The helicopter has small mid-mounted wings fitted with four underwing suspension units and wingtip countermeasures pods. Up to 12 Vikhr supersonic antitank missiles can be mounted on the helicopter's two underwing external stores. The laser beamriding Vikhr missile is stated as having a target hit probability close to one, against a tank at a range of up to 8 km, and the capability of penetrating all types of armour including active armour up to 900 mm thick. The Ka-50 is armed with a 2A42 quick-firing 30-mm gun which has an unrestricted azimuth and elevation range mounting for use against airborne or ground targets. The gun is equipped with 460 rounds of ammunition, two types being carried, high-fragmentation and explosive incendiary rounds and armour-piercing rounds. The pilot selects the type of ammunition in flight. The weight of the ammunition is 0.39 kg each round, the muzzle velocity is 980 m/s and the range is up to 4 km. The gun provides an angular firing accuracy of 2 to 4 mrad. AVIONICS Flight systems include inertial navigation system (INS), autopilot and head-up display (HUD). Sensors include FLIR (forward-looking infrared) and terrain-following radar. COUNTERMEASURES Ka-50 is fitted with radar warning receiver, electronic warfare system and chaff and flare dispenser. ENGINES The Ka-50 is powered by two TV3-117VMA turboshafts engines each providing 2,200 horsepower. The engines are placed on either side of the fuselage to enhance the combat survivability. The helicopter also has an auxiliary power unit (APU) for self-contained operation. The KA-50 is single seated, which means the workload for the pilot is high, he needs to maneuver and operate the weapon systems without the aid of an CP/G, the pilot needs to concentrate on both, flying and fighting. This is why Kamov also did an 2 seated version; the KA-52: The dual rotor system is told to be unreliable, at least by the MIL design bureau. As the MIL helicopter plant is in direct competition with Kamov, this statement is likely to be biased.

Seems to be some kind of sport these days to dumb some payload onto weddings; in Bagram (Kakarak), Afghanistan up to 250 people are reported to have been killed (the numbers vary) by bombs dropped from U.S. bombers during a wedding ceremony. An official of the province Urusgan told media sources that about 40 people had been killed with another 70 seriously injured, with the majority being children and women. Guests of the wedding ceremony had been seen firing salute shots as it is tradition on weddings, before the over 2 hours lasting aerial strikes on their party occured. An U.S. military spokesman declared that their groundforces and a recon aircarft received fire, so a B52 and other machines were ordered to attack. Pretty fucked up world, isn´t it?

Likely a faulty russian "supertorpedo" of the sort that goes around 350-400Km/h submerged, some time ago there was a documentation in Spiegel TV about the incident. They interviewed anonymous dockworkers that told the reporter team there were new "special" torpedos for testing purposes loaded. Some had obviously visible fuel leaks, the captain had known this but loaded the torpedos regardless.

And once again it´s not about strength of justice and law, but only the law of the strongest. The U.S. never did rely on the U.N. to do whatever, wherever and whenever it was in their interests (thats what is all about), but the U.N. does rely on the U.S. to make itself assertive, and the U.S. government is playing that card.

Biggest improvement is on the graphical side, to me it appears like a difference between day and night regarding terrain when according settings are used. The new animations and functions implemented like motorcycle and pistols should also prove a great gain for the modding community. The concept of salvaging the battlefield and managing manpower and equipment resources was just something this game was crying for, and i hoped for this a long time, it calls for more caution and better planning in the campaign, rather than just going bezerk like in the old campaign. There is however a long list of issues that accompanied OFP from it´s first hours and that can also be found in OFP:R. It would stress the borders of this thread too much (and nearly everyone knows them by now anyway), so i won´t post them. Just one thing i was really dissapointed with are the pictures on the back of the DVD box, there are shown some near photorealistic explosions... these are not part of OFP:R but were faked by some artist to make the package more attractive, i don´t think that was necessary. It would have been a snap to implement better looking special effects, especially considering the new texture resolution options...wouldn´t it? But in general the addon exceeded my expectations, by saying that those weren´t necessarily low.

Biggest improvement is on the graphical side, to me it appears like a difference between day and night regarding terrain when according settings are used. The new animations and functions implemented like motorcycle and pistols should also prove a great gain for the modding community. The concept of salvaging the battlefield and managing manpower and equipment resources was just something this game was crying for, and i hoped for this a long time, it calls for more caution and better planning in the campaign, rather than just going bezerk like in the old campaign. There is however a long list of issues that accompanied OFP from it´s first hours and that can also be found in OFP:R. It would stress the borders of this thread too much (and nearly everyone knows them by now anyway), so i won´t post them. Just one thing i was really dissapointed with are the pictures on the back of the DVD box, there are shown some near photorealistic explosions... these are not part of OFP:R but were faked by some artist to make the package more attractive, i don´t think that was necessary. It would have been a snap to implement better looking special effects, especially considering the new texture resolution options...wouldn´t it? But in general the addon exceeded my expectations, by saying that those weren´t necessarily low.

yepp. the motorcycle is very good, makes alot of fun cruising around rather fast on streets.

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Satchel @ July 01 2002,06:04)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Tons of new units doesn´t make a good addon, infact i think the G3 and FN-FAL are pretty much uncalled for, and are of lower quality compared to custom designs like the H&K weapon pack. There quite some people around producing higher quality weapon models than BIS, that´s why i can abstain from BIS weapon models that doesn´t bring really new gameplay features with them.<span id='postcolor'> Just to get this straight, i don´t mean lower Quality because they would be illiterate to produce any higher, but because they have time schedules, unlike skilled modders that can take all time of the world to complete their addon with care. Kegetys AGS17, G8´s G36C, Maac&Marfys beautiful texture work on vehicles and quite some others...check them out and compare them quality-wise to default vehicles or weapons.

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Satchel @ July 01 2002,06:04)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Tons of new units doesn´t make a good addon, infact i think the G3 and FN-FAL are pretty much uncalled for, and are of lower quality compared to custom designs like the H&K weapon pack. There quite some people around producing higher quality weapon models than BIS, that´s why i can abstain from BIS weapon models that doesn´t bring really new gameplay features with them.<span id='postcolor'> Just to get this straight, i don´t mean lower Quality because they would be illiterate to produce any higher, but because they have time schedules, unlike skilled modders that can take all time of the world to complete their addon with care. Kegetys AGS17, G8´s G36C, Maac&Marfys beautiful texture work on vehicles and quite some others...check them out and compare them quality-wise to default vehicles or weapons.