Review: Flanker 2.02

"Get down so low that small animals and plants with shallow roots are being ingested into the twin AL-35F turbofans, and you've actually got a chance of the missile in question will take out a day-care center or hillside instead of you."

SG

How are thing back home Wade? If you want, email me at editor@combatsim.com and we can catch up.

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Originally posted by Wade Chafe:
Take out a day-care center? Been sniffing a little too much AVGAS lately Groucho?

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Nope, not nearly enough avgas...100LL and flight time is expensive...why do you think I need to keep writing...?

Thank you very much for your candid review of our 2.02 patch. It is fair to say that this genre needs as much enthusiasm as is reasonable for it to survive.

I did for a while feel that we had done somewhat more than described but maybe I forget, it was released some time ago and we are working hard on 2.5, which, I trust, will be more than a patch.

All your assistance is much appreciated. Thank you again.

Yours sincerely,

Just thought I'd throw in my two rubles (US$0.0000034) here...
First off, thank you, Nick, for keeping with the Flanker franchise. You and your team have done a tremendous job. You should be damn proud of your baby- can't wait to see 2.5.
I thought I may catch some flak (or even an SA-7 or two) for nor mentioning multiplayer improvements. There is a good reason for this...I have never flown F2 in the MP environment. None of the people I tangle with over the net own a copy of F2. Therefore, I felt that I had no ground to stand on- one way or the other- on what was done to improve the MP capabilities of this most underrated of sims.
Also, I tried to keep the review focused on the patch- much has been written on F2 the simulation (see the excellent http://www.combatsim.com/htm/nov99/flanker2-rev.htm on this site, for example) without re-hashing what has been gone over before. This patch has not changed the basic nature of F2 like F4 v1.08 finally rendered Falcon 4 playable. It has done what good patches usually do in a sim that is not fundamentally broken on release- fix the little stuff. As I stated in the article, it was not a line-item by line-item critique of the Read Me file. I have commented upon what I see as the big issues the patch has (or has not) addressed.
And, I admit, had a bit of fun doing it.
Thanks for the comments!

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Bob "Groucho" Marks
http://machpit.homepage.com

[This message has been edited by Groucho (edited 05-03-2000).]

If you build it--they will come

Nuff said.

It also surprises me that no one has tried a troll yet. Oh well, plenty of time left for that

tootles

For the record: SSI is part of Mattel Interactive (at least for the present). We are no longer considered a part of Mindscape.
Work continues the V2.5 upgrade and Flanker: Attack.

Best Wishes,
Carl

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Carl C. Norman
Managing Director, Novato Studio
Entertainment Division
Mattel Interactive, Inc.

"Retreat? Hell! We just got here."

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Originally posted by combatsim_ssi:
I'm surprised that the reviewer found landings to be easier. In V2.02 changes were made that were suppose to make the landings more difficult. If one lands at to high an airspeed or while in a slip, one will explode.

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In the article I said landings were still too easy. What I meant by easier was that the Sukhois seemed less of a handful to land than a Cessna, not easier than previous versions. Sorry for the confusion there. I realize that the russkies build their birds tough, but I have landed short of the runway, slow and with a truly ugly sink rate (hey, stop giggling back there- I was nursing home a shot up airplane, OK?), and still was able to taxi to the runway with the undercarriage apparently no worse for wear.
It's just an observation, and sort of a moot point because I get shot down too often to practice my landings much anyway!

Thank you for the clarification on the Mattel / Mindscape ownership issue, and I (and the rest of the Flanker Faithful) are really looking forward to 2.5. If the panel screenshots I've seen are any indication, it looks to be spectacular!

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Bob "Groucho" Marks
http://machpit.homepage.com

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Originally posted by horizon:
I live in the UK, and our PC component prices suck, or so I thoughtFlanker 2 was $49.99 in Comp USA SF, in my local software vendor in the UK it was £19.99 ($30ish)...
Why do these stores still exist? Why do you guys put up with it?

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It's worse in Australia, F2 would set you back $80 (about 35 British Pounds), or in real terms, an average day's take home pay. And there's no way anyone will let you return a game nomatter what - you pay your money, you take your chances...

quote:

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Originally posted by combatsim_ssi:
For the record: SSI is part of Mattel Interactive (at least for the present). We are no longer considered a part of Mindscape.
Work continues the V2.5 upgrade and Flanker: Attack.

[/B]

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I recently posted a message to the makers of F2 concering crashlandings in flanker2.02.
I stated that it was still flawed because when the Russions design planes they are tested on landing with retracked landing-gear. They should survive such landings and when the landing is not to hard
the plane can be fixed in a very short time.
These design-specs are also aplied to the mig-29 and others.

In reply to this message i got the message that they where working on something like better crashlanding survivebility and that it wil be applied to the new Flanker 2.5 version.

And in reply to the authors complaint about landing being easier than a cesna plane, wel flankers are just designed to take heavy pounding and survivebility.

The wester planes are certenly more fragile.

With regards,
Purity

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Originally posted by horizon:
I live in the UK, and our PC component prices suck, or so I thought. I recently visited San Francisco on holiday, and whilst there I was unfortunate enough to find that "Comp 'USeless' A" as you quote was about the only vendor of PC Hardware on the streets...
Now most US web site prices are good, but importing them to the UK adds about 30% on top of what you pay making them about the same... I was amazed to see that Comp USA's prices worked out even more than that! How the hell do they survive?
I was hoping to get some cheap stuff, but no!
Software is even worse... Flanker 2 was $49.99 in Comp USA SF, in my local software vendor in the UK it was £19.99 ($30ish)...
Why do these stores still exist? Why do you guys put up with it?

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