carybrown

Tinjaw, I appreciate your comments as well. I have added my "profile" to my "signature" (though I find it amazingly obnoxious to be forced to do that, and find the "justification" for it to be ludicrous). However, after a few days of screwing around with this, and with a "no joy" trying to get help from the publisher or from the developer, I've put this game away and don't foresee trying it again anytime soon. If my original post hadn't been deleted, if I hadn't been forced to "jump through hoops" in order to avoid further "NO WARNINGS, BUSTER" deletions, if someone had actually suggested ANY sort of way of fixing the FRIGGIN PROBLEM, well... I appreciate the suggestions for avoiding being "banned," but the fact that I have to "avoid" something like that in the first place is offensive. So, I'll consider this as a learning experience. I can still learn more, but for now... my experience has taught me that while the concept behind the BC games may be great, the execution has a few "issues," and the support is, honestly, not acceptable. YOU DO NOT DELETE A FIRST-TIME, LEGITIMATE SUPPORT POST FROM A NEW USER UNLESS YOU DON'T WANT ANY NEW USERS! THAT IS UTTERLY AND COMPLETELY INSULTING AND UNACCEPTABLE. I heard all sorts of stuff re: DS, and that got me curious, so I downloaded BC3Kv2 to "test drive" the concept. I actually liked it, so I went ahead and bought both BCMG and UC. I liked what I saw in them as well, but with the issues I've encountered, I was hoping for a bit of help. Instead of help, I'm forced to jump through a series of hoops just for the "privilege" of asking for how to do something that is not explained in the manual, or works differently than in the manual. So, bottom line - I COULD take this back (the GM a the store where I bought it told me that it's against their policy, generally, but when I mentioned the game he said he'd accept a return). But I don't want to. I bought it with the full knowledge that I was taking a risk at going against "general perception." I seem to have lost my gamble. So, I've spent my money, taken my chances, and I'll accept my loss. But I don't foresee buying anything more from 3000AD, and (based upon this issue that makes the game unplayable for me) I don't foresee ever playing UC. All it would have taken was a simple "here's what I think might be happening, and how you might try to fix it" from DS or one of the other devs, and I'd be a happy guy. Even a "no replies" would have annoyed me but not had this effect. The DELETION is what has, barring any unexpected event, convinced me that I shouldn't waste any more time with 3000AD. See, that was all it took to demonstrate to me that I'm not a "valued customer," and that my satisfaction is not even a remote concern to the people who SHOULD be concerned about that sort of thing. Companies that don't care about the satisfaction of their paying customers only last if they have a monopoly.

Thank you, ShoHashi and Street. You are correct, I had not yet done that (ie, put all my information in a "profile." Now, a repeat (not verbatim but close enough) of what my original request was... I got UC a few days back, and have been "testing it out." I've found something odd, and I can't quite figure out how to get around it. My ships seem to be stuck in VTOL mode, or shift into VTOL mode on their own (as far as I can tell). I have read the whole manual... yes, every last word of it. (Hey, I'm an old "Jane's" flight sim guy... ) And I did find one reference to VTOL-to-HTOL flight modes, where it states that when in "planetfall" situations you shift ... "automagically?"... from one mode to another once you reach a certain forward velocity. I've seen this happen in multiple situations, but I'll give you the two most indicative scenarios. 1) The first aviation "instant mission," which involves taking off from a carrier and intercepting some fighters on approach. I used "F" to lift off from the deck, and at an appropriate height used "W" to move forward. However, with "W" held down (and having previously hit the "9" key to, as I understand, shift the thrust range to the maximum range allowable), the maximum forward speed I was able to achieve was 31 (presumably kph). Not fast enough to transit into HTOL flight mode. You can guess the result. As a vertible "sitting duck," I got splashed pretty rapidly. The incoming fighters were LITERALLY able to fly circles around me. 2) The second scenario that really shows this issue was the "commander" instant mission involving the strike on an enemy station. I entered the mission, and on approach to the station, my battlecruiser suddenly shifted into VTOL flight mode... in space, mind you, and in a hostile situation. My concern was that maybe, somehow, some element of my setup is causing this to happen... since I seem to be the only person to have seen this exact bug (as far as I've been able to find on these forums). (I even went so far as to avoid the use of the term "bug" in my initial post.) I have tried with the joystick throttle set "on," and set "off," and there was no impact that I could see from doing so. I tried totally disabling my joystick (going keyboard-only) and ... "no joy." Note that I did NOT disconnect the stick, I only elected not to use it. My stick is a Thrustmaster HOTAS Cougar, with a set of SimPed rudder pedals (w. toebrakes). That's a total of 10 axes (2 for the stick, three for the rudder (two of them being for the toebrakes), 2 for the microstick, one for the throttle, and one each for the RNG and ANT knobs), and 28 "buttons" (four of which are actually the positions on a pair of slider switches). I also have a Saitek Cyborg USB Gold that I have config'd for L/H use, for situations where a two-handed control config is more appropriate (think Starfuries...). Anyway, I KNOW that the ability to shift into HTOL flight mode has to be there. Ideally, I'd want it to be like on a Harrier (where you have a manual lever (with assist, of course!) to "crank" the nozzles through their range of motion), or like on an attack helicopter where you have a subtle transition (I've flown a Cobra in real life... it's a very subtle thing, but it DOES happen... go fast enough and you start to fly like a fixed-wing craft). I can't help but wonder if there's some control to manually transition between modes, and somehow my joystick setup is engaging that. Of course, without knowing if something like that exists, must less what it might be... Anyway, I would appreciate any help you can give me. I can't think of a better place to look for an answer to this sort of question. Again, thanks, ShoHashi and Street.

I posted a request for assistance in the UC Tech Support forum last night. I did so after spending a long while reading the manual for an answer (didn't find one) and after doing a search of these forums (also didn't find one). This afternoon, I got home and decided to see if anyone had bothered to reply. And I discovered that my request for help is gone... deleted, apparently. Why deleted? I don't know... it's not like I violated any of the posted rules for this forum, and it's not like I'm some ... ahem... "clueless kiddie"... who's incapable of grasping these things. I'm a senior mechanical engineer working in advanced R&D for Westinghouse. Seems to me that this is someone's... ahem... way of telling me that I'm not wanted and that I should go home and stop playing in that someone's... ahem... sandbox. I could be mistaken, however, and I'd gladly offer my apologies for implying that if I were to be given another explanation as to what's happened. If not, well... I'm a person who believes in keeping an open mind. My first real interest in these games really came about as a result of seeing Mr. Smart being inappropriately abused in another forum (some jerk was pretending to be him, and posting intentionally inflammatory stuff just to get an anti-D.S. flamefest started). I tried out BC3000ADv2.0 and found it, while complex as heck, pretty entertaining. So, I decided to go out and buy the latest/greatest version on that basis. And so far, I've enjoyed the game (for the minimal amount of play I've gotten out of it) but have come across an issue... I'm not saying a BUG, because the issue might involve something at my end... but an issue which I have been unable to resolve on my own. So, I come here, to where I'm sure someone will be able to help me... I post a polite, respectful, and entirely appropriate request for help... and it "disappears." What am I supposed to think? For that matter, what is ANYONE supposed to think? Yes, it's true that this is not a "public" forum, but rather a private one. And the forum's owner/administrator has the legal right to delete any and all posts for any reason whatsoever. But no business can expect to be successful if they intentionally drive away new customers. IF.. and I say IF for the moment... my first-ever post to this forum, a legitimate request for technical assistance, was deleted just "because nobody owes me anything," well... that's true. I can take the game back and demand a refund, too. I don't owe anybody anything, either. But I'd really rather not. I WANT to enjoy this game. And I'd also really rather give the benefit of the doubt to the forum administrator/owner. It IS possible that this was just some forum bug... we'll find out soon enough. If this post goes "poof" too... that'll be my answer. And the game will go back...