LockOnFiles; where did it go?

I have no idea what was going on here. After GTAGaming (and GTA4-Mods), LockOnFiles suddenly go away. It's just like NarutoGet website I visited back then; no confirmation or news whatsoever whether it's going to disappear. I was just checking this out on a whim to see if my LOF profile still hold up. Turns out, LOF gone off the grid, and all mods pertaining older or even newer Eagle Dynamics games (Lock On, DCS: World, and many others) will be lost forever, just like GTAPoliceMods that was on the same generation as LOF.

Weirdly, tho, Google still track that website if you put in lockonfiles.com into the search query. However, any links it offered will simply go to nonexistent LOF website I mentioned earlier. I'm thinking that, probably it's about domain change that who knows what, or the website admin (probably Tom_Weiss?) can't maintain the prices he has to pay in order to keep the servers alive. It's one of two or many reasons why, as like with GTAPoliceMods, either the announcement isn't reached to all users, or the admin had to close it down without explaining why to the users. So to say, mods that made by famous users such as Combatace will be lost in LOF, just like Bxbugs123's development parts/kits that uploaded in GPM (GTAPoliceMods), and my mods uploaded there will be lost too (glad I still have the backup; probably buried down somewhere).

The only option right now to download older mods is via DCS website itself. It's regularly updated with more and more mods for DCS: World that is currently in development to add more playable planes and helicopters. However, not all mods that you want to expect will be at DCS website; some or maybe a lot are in LOF, so... yeah, it's most likely lost forever.

This in turns, mods like Armee de l'Air (AdA) that revamps default Mirage 2000 into 4 variants, along with its own adjustments (like new weapons, new features like squadron markings, and replacement of planes), and Virtual Naval Air Operations (VNAO) that simulates Super Hornet and Super Tomcat as flyable airplanes, will be gone without any trace to find them. Well, you get my point. There are some cool mods out there that can improve the mission editor more, and not just simple cosmetic changes or whatnot. AdA has its own adjustment on mission editor to display squadron insignia (in French it's called immatriculation) if the user selects an aircraft that came from a mod, and also make them flyable. VNAO updates the Hornet C and ugly F-14 Tomcat model to a more high-quality one (Hornet C is replaced by Super Hornet, while the ugly F-14 gets the new 3D model and updates the data), plus making them flyable. Recent VNAO version was a PITA, TBH, because you have to scour all over the Internet to find the Mediafire link that points to it. I was one of the lucky S.O.Bs to get my hands on that recent VNAO mod, because the owner (website admin) revamped the VNAO website to something else entirely last time I visited his website years ago, completely burying down or removing the VNAO mod download and wiki section. If there is time, I'll upload the VNAO and AdA mod to my secondary/backup Google Drive in case if any of you who still plays LOFC2 want to try them.

My only mod combines the AdA and VNAO elements while maintaining the original LockOn: FC2 aspects and also sh*t myself by adding Naruto elements in it. The only reason I uploaded here on this blog via Google Drive is that the size is enormous, more like mod pack, but not entirely a Total Conversion (TC) mod. Other file-hosting websites have restrictions of how big the file size a file is to upload, and for MEGA, you have to have an account to download the bigass-sized file because the download bandwidth of an unregistered user is mostly limited (registered user can still download the file, although it has a download bandwidth that can be regained if you wait, unless you signed up for premium version). And it was discontinued after finding out that 3ds Max 7 require me to downgrade my Windows to older ones like XP (and if forced, the only option is to use a virtual machine), and the last update fixes the bug and adds compatibility with DCS: Black Shark 1.0.2 (which uses the same game engine platform as LockOn: Flaming Cliffs 2), with support for Russian language too (I didn't get my hands on 1C version of the game; just the digital release available in the older website).

Oh, and not to mention Mod Manager (ModMan) for games like this is gone too if you check in on a nonexistent LOF website I said earlier.

If you're interested and still playing this old Lock On masterpiece, check in on my old mods below:

So, no message, no notifications that LOF is gone. Owner of GTAGaming said to the users who joined previously: so long and thanks for all the fish; however not with LOF and GTAPoliceMods. It's a mystery to me about what was going on and I wasn't aware, even during this Covid-19 days that who knows when it'll be over.

In that case, to everyone in LOF, thanks for allowing me to contribute into the community, even though it was short, for maybe 2 or 3 years before I moved on. I'll be fine without admin saying "thanks for all the fish", but to Tom_Weiss or whoever LOF website admin is, let me quote one sentence from Pixy in Ace Combat Zero:

Yo, buddy, still alive? And thanks, friend. See you again. 😊

Agung Paramtapa's Journal

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LockOnFiles; where did it go?

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