My desktop will not start. I mean nothing, no fan, no on light, nothing. I push the start button, nothing happens.

I am pretty certain that the problem is the power source, but I am worried may be grasping at straws because I know that is something I can fix myself relatively cheaply. (I have replaced it before, but that was right after a power failure and so there was no doubt what the problem was.)

I spoke with a tech guy at a computer store, he thought the power source was the most likely problem too.

Does that sound right, should I just go ahead and replace it?

This was posted recently in the latest update thread:

Yes, I can confirm that none of you will see the next patch coming. It's chock full of content, but what that content actually is will make ALL you shit bricks.

When I read this my first thought was Omaha, but I have zero basis for this thought. There is also French Hope which has been dancing in the fringe for awhile too.

What does everyone else think, do we have a few wild theories anyone? Maybe some cryptic hints?

About 3 hours til they drop the puck, can't focus at all at work. Going nuts....

ARRRRRRGGGGGGG

Go Canucks Go!

This seems so obvious, but I can't remember it ever having been suggested before, nor can I find with a search.

Give the commander the option to, instead of using his artillery on the map, use it for counter artillery. The effect would be to re-set the opposing commanders artillery counter to zero. This would simulate 'disrupting' the enemy's artillery. The timing could be played with a little to make a game of trying to time the counter battery for maximum effect.

Now go ahead and tell me it is not possible with the BH2 engine...

So when I learned that Netflix was available for the Wii in Canada I tried it out last night. I signed up for a one month free trial, then I downloaded and set up Netflix on my Wii.

Later that evening I canceled my membership and deleted it from my Wii. The streaming was great, the movies downloaded and played instantly. As promised, there were 100's of movies to choose from. However the selection was like rummaging through the DVD bargain bin at Wal-Mart.

I'm sure it's not Netflix's fault. Movies people want to see, even older ones, redoubtably generate a steady reveune stream for the studios, so they are unwilling to license them to Netflix. Instead Netflix winds up with the dregs which the studios couldn't pay people to watch.

Interestingly, when I brought this up at work this morning, our receptionist said that she had Netflix and liked it. However she admitted that the movies were bad, but that she and her boyfriend liked to watch bad movies. Also, I have to admit that the foreign film, documentary, and TV series selections weren't bad.  Clearly Netflix has a business that works, but they are not going to make any money from me with their selection.

Its a shame they can't get a license for better movies. Even if they were pay-per-view I would not mind paying for it, so long as it was competitive with the movies available from my cable provider's video on demand service. The problem with my cable provider is the selection is limited. They have all the new releases, but beyond that there are maybe 100 other moves or so available. If I want to see an older movie, odds are it will not be available.

I have been thinking about the new mobile artillery, particularly one aspect of it:

All the player has to do is wait for the vehicle to come to a complete stop and account for the recoil of the gun.

Would it be possible to create a pickup kit which includes deployable chock blocks which artillerymen could deploy behind the gun to stop recoil? It would deploy in the same way you can deploy an HMG or Mortar. The block would simply be an object which cannot be entered and which could stop the artillery gun from rolling back too far.

How this would work is: You walk up to a Wesp and pickup the mobile artilleryman's  kit, which is found right beside the Wespe. Drive the Wespe to where you want to fire, get out, deploy the chock block behind the Wespe, then get back in and fire away.

The only problems I can see would be if this would cause lag, or if the BF2 engine would cause crazy @#$% to happen when a vehicle collides with a deployed object. (Both of which are likely knowing this game engine.) 

I just had a thought, is it possible to make a flag cap-able only by a player in a vehicle, say in a tank?

I am not a mapper or anything, but it seems to me that this would be an interesting option for a map designer to have. I am not thinking about changing any current maps, but it might be fun for some hypothetical flags on future maps.

Spitfire05's dev blog brought this up. I thought perhaps some of us in the community might have some good ideas on this point. This is what he had to say on it:

    Spawnwaves:
    With the next patch we'll be introducing a new gameplay change, called Spawnwaves. Originally brought up by developer Natty Wallo and inspired by the same BF1942 feature, many of our old timers will be familiar with this new addition. My hope is that this will add another layer of teamwork and immersion to FH2. The idea is to have the players spawn within the same general time frame and therefore boost the immersion and reinforce the idea that you're not alone on the battlefield.

    The new spawnwave system is very simple. Basically, the server automatically counts down in pre-determined intervals (set by server admins). When this countdown reaches zero, everyone on your team (who is dead) will be given a window of 7 seconds to spawn. At which point, another countdown will begin and the process will repeat. In essence, the player will have to do nothing but wait, and will look 100% identical to the older BF1942 spawnwave feature.

In general, I think this is a very good idea.

This is my thought on it:

Is it possible to have spawn waves for non-squad players, and normal spawns for squad players? My thinking is that spawn waves are intended to promote teamwork, however players in squads don't really need this extra immersion because, after all, they are in a squad. Also, granting a (slightly) faster spawn to squad players might also encourage players to squad up.