Amaroq

It drops me (and others) at a web page with the same error message. And yes it does use the WiBu server, at the moment it creates that file for you that you later import. It's only 'offline' in the sense that you can create a query file on an offline computer, bring it to an 'online' computer, ask for a portable license file and take that file to a computer that is offline and import it there. Since it's just as easy to move the stick over to an online computer and do it all online, it really doesn't make a difference. It's odd it worked for you.

On the page that links to your license there's a "manual" button bottom right, go there. It will ask you for that file. But you'll get the same error in the end. At least I do.

That's actually exactly what threw me, having read that I was expecting https and some verysign/paypal/whatever. Not seeing it made me think it might have been tampered with rather than just generally insecure. My feeling is people are pretty immune to just popping out of a site, over to paypal or whatever, an then back again, I wouldn't worry about it. It's a much smaller issue than missing security flags.

Good to know, I was about to ask about this too. Then I got "Error: Invalid required domain" and couldn't get past that. This was in Chrome. Then I switched to Firefox and it worked. You may want to add a note to the page that the current window is secure. I for one normally don't do transactions I can't reasonably verify myself that they're sort of tamper-proof...

Yeah, crew intercom remains the same, only external radio transmissions are altered. Unless I missed any, that is. The 'Flank Attack' single player mission has a ton of transmissions from the get-go (to the point of the start of the mission sounding like a stuck record). That's the one I used for testing. Thanks for the feedback everybody by the way, I'm glad you like it!

Thanks man! Same here, hehe. I think I settled for the mid-level distortion. I think they may need to be made a bit brighter though. The SBpro sound engine seems to make them sound darker in-game...? I'll let them sit for a while though and see how I feel in a bit.

Sorry yeah, when I came back to them I felt I had maybe gone a little overboard on the distortion. As soon as I've toned them down a bit I'll submit them. I don't have any exposure to radio gear anymore so I'm going from (fading) memory. What I really miss is the occasional random white noise or the turret chit-chat from those morons that push the wrong button. //Edit Here's what it's like right now: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/69859616/Example_1_1_at_ChkPt.wav I feel it's maybe 20% too much, no?

Hi all I never liked the 'vibe' of the stock radio messages (the rv* ones), especially since reception was way too good, hardly any distortion etc. Maybe others forces have better radios than I ever had but it never felt right to me. Plain old distortion wasn't doing it, as it just clips and mushes things up, not what I wanted and not close to the actual sound either. After some experimenting I ran them through a multiband distortion (batch processed in Wavosaur), which distorts seperately by frequency bands and thus allows you to tweak overall clarity at higher distortion levels. To my ears at least they are much more realistic now. Gnarlier sounding and odly the guy (too bad it's the same one for all) even seems more 'pumped' than in the originals. It took me right back, at least, and outboard messages are more discernable from the intercom messages this way too. Anyway, I'd like to upload them for anybody interested but since they're proprietary eSim content I thought I'd ask if there's an official policy against that. //Edit They're here: http://www.steelbeasts.com/Downloads/p13_sectionid/256/p13_fileid/2333 Let me know what you think.

Yeah, for example, if you look at these two shots from ArmA, the first shows dust from a hand grenade, the second shows the burning vehicles later on: http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/8103/arma2008062323050681vh0.jpg http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/6293/arma2008062323093964gp4.jpg (Screenshot by Brennus, posted in this SimHQ thread: http://www.simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2538346#Post2538346 . I hope this form of linking is okay) For one, the dust in the first shot obscures the target area so if there was someone there, you won't be absolutely certain you got him until the dust cleared. The other guy, OTOH, would obviously know you didn't get him, giving him a serious advantage in that particular situation. It's comparable to the problem presented in the Bradley vid higher up in this thread. You can tell yourself "Nobody can survive that" but you don't know until the smoke clears. In the second shot I posted above, obviously smoke and fire obscure the entire area, so if, say, you were setting up an ambush you could effectively counteract any long range capability of an assault force like that because they couldn't see through the smoke and fire (neither could you, but that may be less of an advantage for you than the other guy). They'd have to come in close, maybe offering themselves up to shorter range AT fire. Any retreating force is also effectively masked by the burning vehicles they leave behind. I have to correct what I said before, I don't think eSim is "underestimating" the tactical value of smoke and dust, I just think they're selling it a little short. Having effects comparable to ArmA would change this sim a lot and in a more realistic way.

I think the engine itself is too limited at this point to allow for any radical improvements like that (it's not armed assault). The only thing you can do is alter the basic sprites, i.e. what they look like and what happens from frame to frame, e.g. how fast dust dissipates etc. I honestly do think that eSim is underestimating the tactical significance of smoke and dust a little at this point by not improving the effects. Billowing smoke from burning vehicles, brush and structures and dust clouds from explosions and vehicles do of course look impressive, but it's not just eye candy. Smoke and dust have serious tactical implications. I assume it has just not been ordered by a customer yet. Would be nice though.

I like this last one best, the explosion 'flash' is still too big though IMO. There's not that much of one visible from my (very limited) experience, just a concussion wave that carries a lot of dust/dirt. I'd say less flash, and a little more dirt in the initial phase around where the flash is now. That 'core' should dissipate a little slower. Check how small the 25mm explosion flashed are here: Just my thoughts.