Grizzle

quote:Originally posted by Prez: quote:You guys are just as bad. Saying you will never vote Democrat simply because they are Democrat doesn't do you or anyone else any good. Vote for whomever you feel will do the best job, not for the label they wear. I'm not putting you down Grizzle for considering to vote Democrat. For me, and my individual ideal and belief system, I have been and continue to be offended and insulted by virtually everything the Democrats stand for. I CANNOT vote for ANYONE who would allow themselves to be represented by what I consider such an unscrupulous, calculating, and vile bunch of socialist-minded elitists. No worries Prez, it takes a lot to offend me Though I am a bit surprised at your severe dislike for all things Democrat. I may disagree with a lot of what Republicans stand for (and democrats too), but I would hardly classify my feelings as one of hatred or disgust. And I know enough to consider *some* politicians unscrupulous as you put it, regardless of political affiliation. What makes you think Republicans are that much different? While one may agree with the ideology that means nothing when it comes to the integrity of the person flying a party banner. Nevertheless, as citizens of this country we are ultimately the ones in control (I think so anyway) and as such, we need to be a bit more centric in our views towards choosing our elected officials.

OK, I really want to squeeze all the performance I can out of this game (really enjoying it), so I want to install a new soundcard and get away from the onboard sound (I've benchmarked it and it does slow things down.) Seeing as how Spin was able to install a new video card without reactivating, has anyone tried changing sound cards? I'm a bit worried if I do this I'll have to reactivate and will be without my UCAWA fix for a while until I get a new key... any thoughts? As a side note, if I install a new card and it requires me to reactivate, can I revert back to on-board sound and continue playing until I get a new key?

FYI, I just did a BIOS update and had to use my last activation key. So if anyone needs to do this to their machine as well, keep it in mind.

You guys are just as bad. Saying you will never vote Democrat simply because they are Democrat doesn't do you or anyone else any good. Vote for whomever you feel will do the best job, not for the label they wear. If McCain runs he'll probably get my vote. Prez, as for not going with a third party, well you make a good point, but then again everyone else feels the same way so we'll NEVER get a viable third party until the people of this country are willing to stand up and do it. It won't happen until some are willing to "throw away" their vote to get the point across. Afterall, who is *supposed* to be shaping the political landscape in this country, us or them??? If you ask me, voting for the lesser of two evils is as much a wasted vote as going for the third party. I think Bush has proven that with the shambles he's made of everything he touches.

Holy crap. When Peggy Noonan starts barking about Bush then you know he's in trouble...lol. It's a good piece and a wake up call, but too many will still turn a blind eye simply because they are ideologues. Maybe the chant of the last election should have been "Poor more years" instead.

Yes Jag, I read the article, forgive me for using the improper term. Whether you consider it judicial tyranny or not, it's the one's who choose to invoke it that is the real crime. Just because it exists doesn't mean they have to use it. So some blame lies with the people, politicans and President's who hide behind it.

Cool.

Damn, it's bad enough that the law exists and ten times worse to invoke it under the pretense of National Security. Iron curtain anyone?

Planetary clouds and external cloud maps, still no rings. The tweaked drivers made no difference either.

Aw crap, I thought this thread was in Tech Support. can someone move it?

quote:Originally posted by Matchoo: I wasn't suggesting that we could or should cut ourselves off from the world (except maybe the U.N. ). I was just explaining what my understanding of Jaguar's post was. LOL..my apologies then.

quote:Originally posted by twobombs: I think that it has got to do with the depth at which the shuttle-targeter thinks that is the ground level. I often find negative numbers next to the ' target ' area. Maybe the SC can shed some light on this matter; as he coded the routines. This is the way it's always been, even the manual mentions it, so it's normal. It's the AI for sure and I actually think it's kinda funny. The first time I tried the HALT technique, I didn't reposition the waypoint close enough to the shuttle so when I ordered them to deploy, one of them shot up a few feet and plowed right into a hill . The cool thing was that he damaged his HUD, just as you would expect from such a boneheaded move.

Matchoo and Jag, That's true in theory but it will never happen. If we cut off imports and pull our production shops and outsourcing from all other countries, many, many major US corps would go bankrupt in a heartbeat. It's a two way street and at this point with the World economy the way it is it's just not feasible. Corporations thrive on exploitation and minimizing costs and you would effectively be cutting them off at the knees and cripple our economy in the process. Face it, isolationism is NOT the answer.

Yes I mentioned it and have tried several things to no avail. Windows Changes: All VC settings to performance All VC settings to quality AA and AF disabled Various Mipmap and quality settings UCAWA settings: Screen resolution - 1024x768 and 1280x1024 Antialiasing - 0 thru 6 Filtering Aniso - any level Filtering Trilinear Filtering Bilinear DXT textures on/off External planetary clouds on/off In short I can't get them to show no matter what. Im using the 5.8 Cat's on my X800 (my profile isn't up to date) And just recently loaded tweaked drivers (NGO) but have yet to verify if the rings show or not. I'll take a trip over to Saturn tonight and see if the third party drivers have any effect.

Amen.

we don't entirely disagree on these topics. However, isn't the looting from bums and scum as you put it, just a side effect of capitalism? When you stress wealth, profit and power, people will do whatever they can to achieve it and are more likely to violate certain ethics and principals to attain it. It's the same as "crushing under their own weight" only in more descriptive terms. The problem lies with certain PEOPLE, not with the country or under which political system they live and operate. The private space flight is an excellent example of what we are capable of, but also keep in mind there was a reward at the end and that these guys did it more for the sheer enjoyment and prestige than as a profit making venture. When you add profit to the picture it changes everything. I like to buy quality products and don't mind spending more for them. My point was that the technology exists to produce even better quality but they don't do it because it hurts the bottom line and would raise the price to a point where people couldn't afford it in the first place. It's a widely known production factor called planned obsolescence.

Psirat, I even tried having them land on the flats surrounding a city or base. They are just too inexperienced to land without damage at this point. I've since just used the HALT waypoint and let them drift to the ground. One they touch the surface, I change the waypoint to DEPLOY MDRONE then order them to continue waypoints. They liftoff about five feet the settle back down and deploy. Sure it takes longer, but it's better than replacing and repairing shuttles every time I deploy drones. I'm sure once the AI increases it will be less of a problem.

Don't fool yourself too much Soback. Private companies lie cheat and steal ALL the time. Quotas exist in most large companies and people will always find ways to meet them even if they have to cut corners or lie about it. If only companies would stress quotas for quality it would be better. But wait that's a problem too because if they make their product too good, then it'll never need replacing or at the very least will need to be replaced far less often. They sell fewer product as a result. Sure they could just raise the price of the product but then people can't afford it... You obviously think the US version of Capitalism is the best thing ever, well that may be the case today, but I guarantee you it won't be so forever. All great societies get crushed under their own weight, especially those that think they won't... period. What's the one thing all those fallen societies have in common? Arrogance about their superiority. That's the most important lesson history has to teach us.

If you want the latest and greatest, get UCAWA.

Relax guys,it's a humor piece. However, Bush IS the President, the leader of our country and like it or not, leaders always get blamed when things go wrong even if they had no direct hand in the problem. It's in corporate culture and politics. Society has leaders not just to provide guidance and direction, but to take the fall when the feces hits the fan. Do you all forget how eager everyone was to blame Clinton for everything? Even how they STILL do it? It goes with the job, deal with it.

Jag, I don't disagree with you, I'm just stating the obvious. However, it confounds me how they think they can continue down this path with a finite resource. Thinking about the bottom line also involves some foresight. It behooves them to develop new business models and technology to ensure they can remain in business when the oil supply inevitably runs out. They aren't doing that.

I've actually seen enemy Space marines in the game, not sure if it was from BC or UC though. They definitely come out to play. In this case they were out fighting some NPC marines once when I jumped into a system. I had fun trying to kill them with the CC's main guns but it's impossible, so I tried to run them down GTA style and that's just as hard. I eventually got out on my own to chase them but gave up because they were jetting back to base and I couldn't catch up with them.

Thanks Wolfheart. I figured as much, I just didn't recall it being so bad before. Anyhow, after a lengthy repair stop I'm all set to go retrieve my drones and make some money to recoup the repair cost!

quote:Originally posted by Jaguar: quote:Originally posted by Grizzle: Jag, That's all well and good, but if you would read the article I referenced you'd see that admidst all these record profits the Oil companies have been boosting stock dividends rather than enhancing their infrastructure. Not to mention regardless of how many wells we drill and refineries we build, they'll all become useless when the oil runs out. A: there is PLENTY of oil, B: they can't enhance their infrastructure because the greenies are all over them, and C: there is NOTHING wrong with enhancing the value of their stock or dividends. They own the oil, they own the infrastructure, and therefore they can do whatever they feel they can get away with. It is PRIVATELY owned, and therefore, the law of supply and demand kick in. Make it more profitable to create more refineries, drill more wells, and build more tankers and pipelines and it will happen, but until the greenies get off their little back to nature kick, then the oil companies will work with what they've got. I hardly think the oil companies give a rats ass about what environmentalists think. They haven't beefed up infrastructure because they are afraid to glut the market and cause prices, and hence profits, to fall. I have nothing against their business practices, but they ALWAYS think about the bottom line.

quote:Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr: quote:Originally posted by Grizzle: (or maybe it was because I turned the music on, I usually play without it.) LMAO!!! Don't laugh! I've since taken to listening to Hearts of Space internet streams during gameplay. I'm not taking any unnecessary chances!