It's Friday! Are you STILL off?!

[bbmike]

I didn't know about the A&E series. when was it released?

It's an excellent series.  It aired late 90's, early 2000's.

I really enjoyed it! I should watch it again sometime soon.
As for gaming, Imperialism II has been calling me again lately. Can I resist?

[Grim.Reaper]

I'm dangerously close to buying in on the IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad early access...yes, I know, its $94, but it looks soooooo damn good. Really, the only thing holding me back is that I believe you can only play when the developer's servers are up and they only host them in bursts of activity.  I would find not being able to play when I want due to this issue seriously irritating.

I bought in last weekend.  The flight models are already fantastic even though they're still a work-in-progress.  Damage modelling is still alpha but the graphics of bullets and cannon rounds striking an enemy look just plain awesome.  They've already coded in a bunch of very cool ambient stuff that doesn't really affect gameplay but adds a lot to the immersion factor.  I really like the little runnels your landing gear carve in the snow for instance.

I've been having a problem in that I cannot get the bombs or rockets to work.  Whenever I try a ground mission, I just get an error message and then booted back to the lobby.  This has been affecting others as well as it comes up in the early-access bug reporting forum for the game.

There is a new update coming out today (it's downloading now) so hopefully it'll fix the issue I'm having with ground attack stuff. 

The time limitations are annoying but they made no secret about them.  The latest game session went live today at 20:00 GMT and will run until Jan 5th, I think. 

The price tag was definitely steep.  I don't know what the devs have planned as their business model but I suspect it'll follow along the lines of Rise of Flight.  I bet that if you're willing to wait, the price will drop and the base game may even go free-to-play like RoF did.  I just bought in because I'd had about 6 beer in me when I checked my credit card statement and found that they'd accidentally double-charged me for something and put the credit back on my card.  "Serendipity!" I slurred as I pounded the buy button.

Does this imply for even the single player content it will require connection to their servers to play like ROF did originally?  Is that a short term thing or is that the planned release model?  If so, kind of strange they realized for ROF it was important to have an offline mode but in the new game it is only online?  Is there actual single player content available in the early access or just MP?

Thanks!

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

First off, I'm happy to report that as of today's update, ground attack goodies are working for me.  I had a tonne of fun trying and failing to hit anything but dirt with my bombs and rockets on the 109 and LaGG-3. 

As for the login thing, I recall reading that there would be an offline mode like RoF's once the final version of the game is released.

[Slick Wilhelm]

but my computer is locking up whenever I put my video cards to heavy use. need to fix that before I start to get into anything graphics intensive.

A few things to try:

1) Reseat the video card in the bus. Doing this solved a similar issue I was having.

2) Heat build up. Use an app to check the temp of your video card while under load. Also taking the side cover off and pointing a fan at the video card.

3) Is your power supply beefy enough to support the load the video card is asking from it? Which video card have you, and how big of a power supply?

[GDS_Starfury]

take the video card out and clean the damn thing.  I was getting lots of problems until I did this as the fan and heatsink assembly was mostly covered with a shroud.  I used compressed air from a can, Smuck would have broken out a razor.

[Martok]

I work tonight, but then I'm off the next three nights.  Not sure how much time I'll have for gaming, though, as I'll be headed to SE Minnesota this weekend for my mom's family's Christmas gathering. 

Time allowing on Sunday, I've been itching to get back into Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes and Distant Worlds: Shadows.  I've also started a new campaign in Rome II as Athens, so I'll probably spend at least a little time on that as well. 

[Toonces]

I'm going to be fooling with DayZ.  Also I'll probably play some Rising Storm and fly some flights in FSX with the DC-9 Classic collection I got for my birthday.

[Father Ted]

Does this imply for even the single player content it will require connection to their servers to play like ROF did originally?  Is that a short term thing or is that the planned release model?  If so, kind of strange they realized for ROF it was important to have an offline mode but in the new game it is only online?  Is there actual single player content available in the early access or just MP?

Thanks!

Part of the problem here is a language thing: in BoS-speak, "online" does not mean "MP".  In fact there is no MP yet.  For the purposes of development (remember we're still in pre-alpha here) you have to log in to their servers to play single-player.  Content at the moment is limited to dogfighting the AI.

As I understand it the SP mode in the actual release will utilise the servers to keep track of stats and update careers/campaigns.  You will be be able to fly offline, but won't have access to this facility.

Just to add a little topicality to this otherwise OT post:  Airland Battle, BftB/HttR, Planetside and IL2:BoS

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I've been getting back into Rising Storm myself.  I had a great round last night even though we lost the match.  I was playing as a squad leader for the Marines.  I got some good arty marks down for the commander and then rushed the huts behind the trenches covering the beach after we took those.  I was able to get in under the pillars and racked up 32 kills with my Thompson before I was hit by friendly fire.  Ended up getting 72 kills for 14 deaths that mission.  Good times!

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Just to add a little topicality to this otherwise OT post:  Airland Battle, BftB/HttR, Planetside and IL2:BoS

Ted, have you been able to take off in the LaGG under full real conditions with complex engine management?  I just can't do it.  I think it's because they've not yet implemented the tail wheel lock for the LaGG yet.  If I hold the brakes and rev the engine to 2700 RPM and then let go, torque pulls me right off the runway and into a snow bank even if I kick full rudder over.  If I try slowly increasing throttle, I can just barely manage to keep it straight with full left rudder but then I can't get enough lift before I run out of runway even if I lighten the load to 20% fuel. 

[eyebiter]

.

[Staggerwing]

I didn't know about the A&E series. when was it released?

It's an excellent series.  It aired late 90's, early 2000's.

Thanks, I'll scan netflix and the like for it.  :)

[Nefaro]

but my computer is locking up whenever I put my video cards to heavy use. need to fix that before I start to get into anything graphics intensive.

A few things to try:

1) Reseat the video card in the bus. Doing this solved a similar issue I was having.

2) Heat build up. Use an app to check the temp of your video card while under load. Also taking the side cover off and pointing a fan at the video card.

3) Is your power supply beefy enough to support the load the video card is asking from it? Which video card have you, and how big of a power supply?

Besides the heat thing, and related to #3, it can be a power supply in the process of failing.  I've seen this happen a couple times.  When under load, the croaking PSU can't put out the steady current that the video card needs (which is quite a bit compared to the other parts in a computer).  So the computer may only freeze up and/or blue screen when playing video intensive games. 

It can also be a sign of the motherboard going too, but that can be the cause of almost all computer issues so check the others first.

[Staggerwing]

There are some cheap but effective devices to check your PSU. Browse Newegg for PSU testers. Alternatively, there are some guides out there on the interwebz that tell you how much juice each wire out of your PSU should be putting out so you can verify it with a multimeter.

[Nefaro]

There are some cheap but effective devices to check your PSU. Browse Newegg for PSU testers. Alternatively, there are some guides out there on the interwebz that tell you how much juice each wire out of your PSU should be putting out so you can verify it with a multimeter.

The testers are just on/off rail checkers.  At least the ones you're thinking about.

You'd have to grab a trusty diagram and check the voltages on certain connectors, while it's running, to see if it's getting the proper voltage.  There's still a problem, however.  You need to check how many amps it is putting out under load which your regular multimeter will not be able to do because the amperage on the 12v for maximum vid card use is so high.  Would pop your multimeter fuses in a wink, even if you could rig it up so that the computer was running full blast while you could check a 12v connector.  It's a nightmare. 

I just end up getting a decent power supply, plugging it in, and seeing how it performs with the new one.  If it's still acting up then it's very likely the motherboard is dying because a dying video card happens far far less often.