David Hingtgen

Mr March---my opinion would be that the VF-5000's nose cone, and "forward fuselage surrouding the canopy" is nigh-identical to the F-22's, but really doesn't match the YF-22 much---it is only slightly closer to the YF-22 than "any random fighter jet". But since Kawamori apparently drew the VF-5000 before the F-22's nose design was really known, he couldn't have copied it---so it's just coincidence. IMHO. And if he based if off the YF-22's nose (which was well-known at the time)---he wouldn't have gotten the shape he did, as it is only superficially similar. It is possible he tried to do a "final version of the YF-22 nose", heavily revising it---and ended up coming up with almost exactly with what the F-22's designers did.

I was thinking about it earlier, and while I personally bet on the Company (canonically), having it be Peter and Adam would be better.

Free mission works, it's almost impossible to get all the aces on just playing through campaign once. I got most, but had to go back to get a few I missed.

I'm buying it BECAUSE it's magenta. I want all my valks to look different. 1 "greyish white" one (Roy) is enough. My others are tan (YF-19), red (Milia) and soon-to-be blue (YF-21). And then a deep grey VF-11.

I'd like at least 24 hours---many people Tivo it etc and can't see it until the next day, or download it off NBC.

Depends on your definition of grey vs blue---all the greys are blue-greys and most of the blues are grey-blues.

I wonn't mod a fellow mod's posts, but c'mon DA, have a little respect for spoilers...

OK, so where can I buy it and get it fairly quickly? A lot of the "normal" places don't seem to have it/list it. I assume HLJ is already sold out etc, or that I'll be on the 3rd shipment etc if I order now. Suggestions? ::edit:: found it a few more places after searching harder:: Anyone know when LAFtoys is getting theirs in? Haven't bought from them yet, but since they're offering both Nora and MP-05 orders, it'd make it convenient.

We're specifically talking about the nose and forward fuselage, which are amazingly similar between the VF-5000 and F-22, and whether Kawamori was influenced by it, or it was just coincidence. The date the F-22 came out vs the date of the VF-5000 is thus important. The YF-22 isn't important, as its nose and forward fuselage are quite different from the F-22, and its nose is no more similar to the VF-5000 than the Rafale's nose is. Yes, the YF-22 and F-22 are very similar. But the noses are not, and that's the part being discussed as being very similar between the F-22 and VF-5000. And you quoted me in the exact point I'm making--I clearly stated the NOSE, NOSECONE, and CANOPY AREA are completely different. Did I say the planes were completely different? No, I said the NOSE, NOSECONE, and CANOPY were completely different. And they are. Which is the part of the VF-5000 we're talking about. Much like the Super Hornet and Legacy Hornet have completely different airbrakes, while being overall very similar-looking planes with many similar parts.

Happens all the time with trains and planes---scale-exclusive licenses. One company gets 1/400, another gets 1/200, someone has 1/87, etc.

Trust me, the YF-22 and F-22 nose, nosecone, and canopy area are COMPLETELY different. They look fairly similar from above, but at the angle the VF-5000 drawings are at, they're like entirely different planes. The YF-22's nose from head-on, has a "vertical diamond" profile with slab sides. Nothing's concave, nothing tapers or curves. Or even from above---look at the YF-22's nose. It's a triangle--the sides of the nose don't curve in as you move forward--it's just straight lines at an angle starting a bit ahead of the canopy front edge. It truly has a nose CONE. But the F-22's sides do curve, like 99% of fighter jets out there--it's ogival, kinda like a beehive. 3-view line art (especially just 1-view) can't show shapes well. Common problem in model planes---some company gets a perfect 3-view that's amazingly accurate, and makes a model using that as the only reference. And it'll look right from above, in front, and the side. But still looks really wrong at any other angle, because the drawings just didn't show important curves, cross-sections, etc.

If it takes all 1000 gamerpoints---it's not worth it. 50 team wins took me quite a few evenings online (unlocked tonight, started the 28th of Oct). 100 would take several more. I won more than I lost. 100 siege battles would take 2 to 3 times as long due to inherently longer battles. 100 battle royales would probably take as long as 100 siege, due to being harder to win----"no points for 2nd place". Plus, I've gone through the campaign 7 times now. Kinda sick of it (because it's mediocre to start with). I think only AC4 had more play-throughs--but they were fun every time. Heck, that may beat AC4. (I played AC4 a lot to be able to afford all the X-02's--they cost so much you'd spend an entire campaign getting enough money to buy ONE paint scheme--but the white one was worth the money) PS---anyone else find the impact crater in AC6? Only one AFAIK, final stage, east side of the only big island. If you veer slightly right near when you finally get to the chandelier itself you should pass over it. Being at high altitude helps see it.

Your last spoilery sentence: Absolutely. Plus she foreshadowed that blantantly too! Tonights's ep: Foreshadowing. And death.

Yeah, he had all the good lines this ep. Honestly, I'd watch "The HRG show". The last 30 secs etc I thought were obviously foreshadowed. As for Parkman--I'm surprised he went through with it.

I would do something with the legs--they're too monochrome when viewed from above. Either black like Dobber's (I think Nora's is black there too) or continue the splinter camo across them. In the end I think it came out looking more like the actual Ukranian splinter camo pattern--which is what the NSAWC F-14's camo was supposed to imitate I think. But the colors are basically the original standard Flanker colors. I've included drawings of both the current blue splinter pattern, and the original more grey scheme.

Just checked to be sure---the real F-22 wasn't revealed until April, 1997. Now, drawings/pics etc of what the final version would look like would have existed prior, but I doubt there'd be a 3 year lead of what it'd look like. (if he started working on it in 94 to be in a 95 book) Maybe he was predicting the future again, like when Sukhoi copied the YF-19?

What's the date of the VF-5000? (as in Kawamori drawing it). Because the YF-22 has an entirely different forward fuselage, so K. couldn't have copied from that. And the final F-22 fuselage I think was too late for him to be influenced by it.

Not AFAIK. MGC did update though--#2 in US, #21 in world. (And I got my Mass Effect tracking number)

Exactly. Before the Borg, the Feds had nothing BUT long-range exploration ships with "minimal" combat capability. Big ships with tons of supplies and crew, to go way out in the middle of nowhere and see what's there. Defense of the Federation was almost unthinkable---they were huge, with no enemies. Then the Borg, and the Dominion---and they started making smaller, more combat-oriented ships. (For all its ugliness, Voyager does remarkably well in combat) Even the biggest new ship (Sovereign) is still significantly smaller than the Galaxy. And it's as "long-term exploration" as they'll come for some years. I think part of the reason we see so many Mirandas and Excelsiors in combat are because they're among the few ships built with combat in mind---they were designed at the height of Klingon agression, etc. Even due to age, they might still do better than a lot of the Fed's big/new exploration ships.

If Mygamercard.net would update already, it'd show I'm #2 in the USA, achievement-wise. http://www.mygamercard.net/leaderboard.php...p;x=35&y=15 I have 760, but it still shows my score from 2 days ago, despite it updating my overall score. Also--darn, I was planning on being #1, since nobody had over 750 yesterday. At best I could tie, but it'd take well over an hour. Eh, I'll probably never get past 760. In 30 mins of trying the best I could manage to set up was a 1-on-1 Battle Royale. There's just nobody online, especially in anything not team battle. Can't imagine how people have the 100 siege and 100 royale wins. I haven't SEEN 100 siege battles available to play, much less participated.

There are 3 schemes for every plane. Shoot down the ace to get the 3rd scheme. Aces only show up in expert and higher modes. NOBODY has Ace of Aces yet. Exception: CFA-44. 2nd scheme is acquired by buying every scheme and weapon for every other plane (which means all aces have to be found and shot down). 3rd scheme requires all operation medals, S on every mission from Normal through Ace, the 2nd scheme, and 15 other "reward" medals.

12 hours to Mass Effect. Don't know of any Midnight sales though. But some stores are open at Midnight for OTHER games, so maybe... Anyways, EB has removed the "street date guarantee" from their site, so it's past the deadline to preorder now. I don't normally read Ctrl-Alt-Del, but this one's better than average, and about ME: http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/comic.php?d=20071119 (though the response choices are actually the source of the humor to me, not their stupid running gag of what's actually chosen)

F-22 and F-14 are the hardest Ace schemes to get. The F-14 doesn't seem to show up a lot of the time. It's operation "C" I think, stage 13. So either do operation C first, or last. (I'd try first). The F-22 is time-based. Beat the first half of the mission as quick as possible, and I do mean FAST. CFA-44 w/ADMM is about the only thing that can do it probably. Go east to the bombers, then loop around to the west. Once all helis, B-52's, and C-17's are down, if you were quick enough, Rafales and F-18's show up to the west. Take them down quick enough, and the F-22 ace appears. Took me several tries.

MW does seem to be blacklisted by several IPS's lately (apparently due to our latest domain/host being blacklisted, not MW specifically), has been an issue that crops up in different ways.

F-22 Ace scheme is a very blue one. It's still 'standard' F-22 camo pattern, just quite blue with a lot more contrast than the others. The F-14D Ace scheme is the F-14B/D prototype scheme--white with red/blue striping. 9 missions down, 6 to go on my speed run. Running about plus 2 mins from an "excellent" time. (Need to do it in less than 2:05 to get it---one guy did it in 1:50 and posted all his times---I'm 2 minutes slower than him---so I have 13 mins to spare over the next 6 missions-----only because I did amazingly well in missions 7 and 9)---before that I was running about 30-60 secs over his times. Which was cutting it VERY close----he had 15 mins to spare, and 1 min over compiled across 15 missions.... If I'm lucky I can have the final medal in a little over an hour more of playing time. 5:14 to take down the Aigaion and Strigon---with a Typhoon. (In retrospect, an Su-33 would have been better---I needed better yaw control, not the Typhoon's larger weapon load) Only mission so far I didn't use the CFA-44. I do wonder if rockets would be better than ADMM in some ground missions. (I KNEW they'd be better for the Aigaion---I'm using all 3 save slots just in case, so if something goes bad I don't have to re-do more than a few missions)