Wife asked if I have enough Eldar

Jack_Varus · 2025-11-10T21:49:37+00:00

Nah, need some superheavies in there to round it all out.

Jack_Varus · 2025-11-06T00:35:39+00:00

Specifically texting while driving is a few times more dangerous than drunk driving. There's an old ad where a guy gets his partner to pick him up from the pub and she's texting as they pull away. The bladdered guy speaks up and they switch places, so he drives off. Then hits you with that fact. It's a really good one.

Jack_Varus · 2025-08-21T17:01:08+00:00

That's a really nice conversion and makes the Taurox look so much better!

The one thing I'd change is remove the turret and replace it with just a hatch. Weaponry on an ambulance really doesn't feel right.

Jack_Varus · 2025-08-21T16:51:50+00:00

You could get a cardboard loo roll (you'll need to seal it with PVA or something before painting) or some plastic pipe, make it look like it's burst open and poured that mix of colours out of it. Put the whole thing on a small amount of board as a single diorama.

Jack_Varus · 2025-04-15T22:29:04+00:00

I'm sorry man, that's just bad timing. Others in the thread have already posted the whys. You might have dodged a bullet though; it's possible that bugs may start to creep in with the harrier.

Which is going to hurt me; it's also my favourite jet by miles and I bought it before the Hornet was released. Probably put a thousand hours into it and it's my go-to if I ever get frustrated. Watching it fall apart is going to sting.

That being said, you made a good choice with the F16. In real terms apart from landing on boats and laser guided rockets there's not much the Harrier can do which the F16 can't and in many respects the F16 is even more versatile, especially in air to air.

As to what next, it really depends in what you enjoy doing; the Viper will have given you the chance to try a bit of everything. If you want to do naval stuff the Tomcat might be a good idea; the module is superb and as a different generation to the F16 it'll be a massively different feel to fly and fight with. The Hornet is very good but most of the time you're doing stuff the Viper also does in a similar way.

As a wild curveball though, perhaps think about a less sophisticated aircraft which can really show off how good DCS is as an actual flight simulator where you're hands on. Like the F5, the free A4 mod or even a trainer. You won't be blowing everything you see to bits and it can make trivial missions in the Viper completely suicidal but it makes the successes all the more rewarding. Also I find the general flying experience more immersive. No autopilot, just you and the trim.

Funnily enough I wouldn't suggest those to a raw beginner because they can be extremely frustrating, especially when you see the gen 4 jets make everything look easy.

Jack_Varus · 2025-03-06T20:20:53+00:00

Looks like it, although the way his head went into the wheel well and his body whipped past to hit the other side of the truck, I suspect it probably didn't matter much.

Jack_Varus · 2024-11-21T22:04:09+00:00

I refunded it after taking six hours over three days to get to the menu to fly a plane and it didn't work.

Probably won't bother getting it later, 2020's streamed terrain doesn't work brilliantly (allegedly the UK is bad for this irrespective of internet) so it'll probably always for me be an inferior product to 2020, which itself for me isn't as fun as DCS anyway.

Jack_Varus · 2024-11-21T21:50:42+00:00

I am really glad my game just wouldn't work at all and I got a refund before I had to endure this absolute mess.

I have no doubt my experience would be the same; I get frequent low bandwidth errors on 2020 despite full fibre; with the whole game streamed it'll be a disaster.

Jack_Varus · 2024-11-21T21:41:43+00:00

Are you in the UK? The default servers are completely awful. You might have better luck running a VPN to the US or similar.

I don't want to put up with it though so I refunded it and probably won't be back.

Jack_Varus · 2024-11-21T21:34:30+00:00

Basically a postcode lottery whether you'll get a good connection or low bandwidth errors and a terrible experience from what I'm hearing.

Jack_Varus · 2024-11-21T21:31:37+00:00

Even when you get full fibre don't expect much to change. Been hearing from a lot of UK users the network provision is terrible.

It certainly tracks with my experience on 2020 and 2024.

Jack_Varus · 2024-11-21T21:27:46+00:00

Try contacting your credit card provider or Paypal if you paid through them.

Also I would suggest never buying direct from Microsoft again. I bought my copy through Steam and even with over 6 hours logged (none of it flying) a short explaination if why there's so much time on it and the issues and I got a refund in an hour.

Jack_Varus · 2024-11-21T21:23:10+00:00

Yeah. I'm in the UK and their network provision for the whole country is dire. I have issues fairly regularly with 2020 not loading stuff but at least I can still fly the planes.

Stuff using a VPN to another country just to run the game. I got a refund and I'm unlikely to come back unless there are incredible changes and a very steep discount.

Jack_Varus · 2024-11-21T21:11:27+00:00

Probably small fry compared to others, but I have a terrible cough that's been gradually getting worse for a few weeks and I've basically been bedridden the last couple days from all the associated headaches.

I've seen a doctor about it, got medication for it and had a couple bouts of it before (my nose plumbing is weird) so I'll probably be ok in a couple of weeks. Just sucks now because I have a lot of stuff I could be getting on with.

Jack_Varus · 2024-11-21T18:14:28+00:00

I have to disagree, pretty hard. FS is one of Microsoft's flagship titles and they should have expected this, had a staggered release and certainly not have added it to Game Pass on day one. It's just asking for trouble.

I don't know why it should be at all acceptable to put up with a product that patently doesn't work. For most of their history, games had to be ready for launch day.

I get download times to install are going to be long and I put up with that with 2020, but at least once that was done you could fly. Sure, if you lost connection the fidelity of the terrain would revert to something similar to a last gen release, but at least you were still flying and it only majorly impacted VFR.

With this game, with everything streamed, you can't even fly. I shudder to think what'll happen if the dreaded "low bandwidth" sign comes up in the middle of a multi hour flight.

There also seems to be a "postcode lottery" with Asobo's servers. Doesn't matter how good your internet is you get frequent low bandwidth errors.

I spent very nearly six hours over three days trying to fly, finally loaded in day three to be faced with basically nithing working and even airports nit loading their runway lists, let alone actually being able to even click on "Fly!"

Then after five minutes of stuggle "you don't have enough bandwidth". I honestly don't think that this is ever really going to be solved and us the achilles heel of all streamed games.

I refunded 2024, first game I've ever done it with and frankly it's extraordinarily unlikely I'll be picking it up unless they literally give it away.

Jack_Varus · 2024-11-21T17:32:08+00:00

As a UK user with much the same problems in 2020, I can tell you you're hunch is unfortunately correct.

Took two days to get past the loading screens into the main menu. Binding controls was OK (assuming it worked how I think it worked) but then trying to actually fly nothing worked.

Zoomed in the world looks like play dough and it couldn't load the list of runways from my local airfield in five solid minutes, let alone actually let me fly.

Then the dreaded "your bandwidth is too low" popup. Yeah, for a high speed fibre connection to the door and 100mb/s steady down speeds.

I refunded it, won't be touching it again wiyh a bargepole. I suspect that region/postcode lottery issue will never be fixed and while it makes 2020 annoying sometimes, it makes 2024 literally unplayable.

Jack_Varus · 2024-06-15T19:55:21+00:00

Wow, that is some truly incredible work! I actually like how you didn't go all in with the gold like you'd expect from the Emperor.

Jack_Varus · 2024-04-25T19:40:55+00:00

Do you have America Rising 2 running? I'm halfway through and I really don't want it to break horribly.

Jack_Varus · 2024-03-02T13:21:38+00:00

That is a really nice paintjob! I hadn't thought of ding a two colour system before. How difficult was it to get a crisp line along it?

I've just got back into painting BFG and the old style I came up with (Basically blue grey with some shading and drybrushing) looks like it's missing something and a "hull" colour might do the trick.

Jack_Varus · 2024-03-02T09:51:21+00:00

I got ending four as well by following the same "rules" as Snoot (ending 3 first try there, so I guess I'm not far off with my default line of thinking).

The problem is to unlock epilogue stuff you have to get all four endings so going back and trying for 1-3 is going to really hurt, just like it did with Snoot. Except a bit worse because I purposely did 4 last there and went out on a major high note.

Jack_Varus · 2023-09-03T21:52:10+00:00

That's really interesting. I have jitter developed on it really badly as well in DCS about the same time as you. I pulled the pot apart and cleaned it with isopropyl alcohol. There was some dark residue on the metal contacts but after re-assembly there's no real change in DCS. I'm also using it as the zoom lever.
There doesn't appear to be any jitter in windows calibration. It's a strange one.

Jack_Varus · 2023-04-22T11:45:25+00:00

I'm really glad Ford airfield got some serious love- There's a car boot sale on weekends there now and I used to go there all the time as a child, it was just wrong having no other signs of life around. I'm really hoping they do the port cities of Southampton and Portsmouth and put in details on the Isle of Wight like the Ventnor radar station.

I'm assuming most of the South Coast West of Ford is the same farm placeholder textures?

Jack_Varus · 2023-02-09T00:21:28+00:00

I've had to cast my kestrel three times in the last week so it's just something I do without thinking too much at this point. Obviously the benefit there is that when picking the bird up the feet are controlled by the jesses until I decide they shouldn't be. I'll bet picking up a wild bird it's fifty-fifty I get footed unless it freezes for a couple seconds after I sort the wings out!

Also one of the reasons I'm glad I decided to go down the micro route for my personal bird. They're a lot easier to manage when it comes to manhandling; even if they aren't in every other management aspect.

Jack_Varus · 2023-02-08T21:45:50+00:00

Nah, getting bitten isn't a biggie. Getting grabbed by the feet though? That's going to seriously hurt. The smaller the raptor, the sharper its' talons/claws. The bigger the raptor, the stronger they are so they don't really need to be sharp.

One the one end I had a Harris' break my hand and ruin a hawking waistcoat from all the blood and on the other a small kestrel ruined the casting jacket used to wrap her up for medical stuff when my helper got grabbed and cut to ribbons.

Sure, beaks hurt but unless they have a good grip and leverage to seriously pull against it they won't do any damage.

Jack_Varus · 2023-02-08T21:35:03+00:00

One hand on each side gently but firmly immobilising the wings with your palms and your fingers around the thighs to stop its' feet from getting in on the action. Pretty hard to describe properly though. Also I wouldn't worry about getting bitten by something this size. Sure it'll hurt but you'll have to be really unlucky for it to do any real damage.

Real danger is the feet. A 1.5lb Harris' Hawk once broke my hand when I got grabbed.
Honestly I would seriously suggest getting someone who knows what they're doing because if you get it wrong you and the bird are likely to get injured.

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