Random Failures

[Guest Bjorn Ghezzi]

Hi everybody,just had a quick question. I selected random failures to be triggered from the PMDG menu in FS9 a couple of days ago before flying the 744F. I set the rate at 1 in 10 hours.I checked today as I was doing another flight with the 744F and saw that the tick-box was unchecked.I just wanted to know if every time I want to fly with a PMDG aircraft the random failure mode has to be re-selected or if once I choose random failures the module "memorizes" my preference thus leaving it active for the next flights.Thank you.Regards,Bjorn

[Guest svedman]

You'll have to re-select this option for each flight / simulator restart.Best regards,

[Guest Moviedirector20]

That seems pretty poorly planned to me? If you select one in every 30 hours, unless you have a 30 hour flight (which is not happening lol) you have to recheck it everytime. A hassle, plus it reminds you that it might be comming, defying the point.

[Guest gremel]

Random failure mode in the PMDG software pkg. should be 'random'. By that, I mean you should be able to check the box "[X]" for random failures and NOT have to put any time constraints on it. Maybe it's a FS9 limitation but if it's not, I vote for checking the random failures box and having a failure randomly happen at anytime instead of a selected 'time-limited' input which takes away from the suspense of the failure mode's purpose.Regards & just my opinion, no flames intended.jack

[rsrandazzo 6,353]

Andras-It was not "Poorly Planned." It was intentional.If we allowed you to turn it on and leave it on- invariably we'd have folks turning the system on, then forgetting about it. When the airplane began to act up as requested, they would come here and begin posting upset posts about how the simulation doesn't work, etc etc. As such, we felt that it was best to ensure that in order to interact with the abnormal condictions, you must want to.If you set the failure rate for 1 in every 30 hours, your statistical rate of failure on three successive flights of 10 hours is the same as it would be for one flight of 30 hours.In other words- just because you set the mode at the beginning of a flight doesn't mean that you will experience a failure.

[rsrandazzo 6,353]

Bjorn-We considered allowing users to set/forget the rates of failure. Upon further consideration we elected to require that you take the effort to re-set the system any time you load the airplane because of the propensity for users to think that "correctly implemented failurs" were problems with the simulation.

[Guest Bjorn Ghezzi]

Hello Robert,thank you for clearing this point. It does make sense the way you decided to implement this function. As a matter of fact if thinking about choosing this mode on a 4 or 5 hour flight it is more likely that you will have time to be in front of the sim and thus deal with the failure. But if people forgot this option on, chose to do a 10 hour long haul flight, and then while cruising went about their business, and a failure happened because they forgot to de-select the option, it would be frustrating at best if that failure jeopardized the flight, and possibly caused the plane to crash! :-))So I agree with this decision and will just have to remember to select it when I want to.Thanks again for this great add-on.Best regards,Bjorn

[rsrandazzo 6,353]

Bjorn-Precisely! Implementing a "perpetual" failures feature is really childs-play from a code standpoint.... but we really felt that doing so would come back to haunt us.We answer a lot of customer email, so we have a pretty good idea of what things to be cautious of when it comes to sound design principles. Your example is exactly the scenario that we would hear from angry customers, I'm sure! LOL....

[RedLion 0]

>It does make sense the way you decided to implement this function. >As a matter of fact if thinking about choosing this mode on a 4 or >5 hour flight it is more likely that you will have time to be in >front of the sim and thus deal with the failure. But if people >forgot this option on, chose to do a 10 hour long haul flight, and >then while cruising went about their business, and a failure >happened because they forgot to de-select the option, it would be >frustrating at best if that failure jeopardized the flight, and >possibly caused the plane to crash! )Hello Gentlemen.First of all, I'm proud owner of PMDG 747-400 for FS9 and FSX! Attractive product and Service! Thanks PMDG!Please, read the quote above.Sorry for returning to this post after a year but I have a strong feeling that there should be an option to enable random failures "forever"!I want failures to happen (not in real life :)) and I don't want to know that in next 10 hours my flight will be smooth!We're here because of reality, right? So, let it be!!!I like the Queen (In The Skies) very much and I have a real fun to fly it! I fly a lot for Virtual Airline but I don't earn money for PIREPs!I can't say to my wife: "Honey, We can't go to the store right now but after this flight we may buy more food!" Sorry for my English but I believe you get my point! My life continues while Queen is in the skies and I (as many of you) out of screen for my businesses!Not once, I forgot to check fuel pumps configuration on long haul! No need to say more!So, I have a couple of suggestions for PMDG:1. Ability to have random failures "forever" as an option.2. Let the Failures to happen random times at random intervals. Random number at aircraft loading.3. "Pause simulation at Failure/Warning" option just like "Pause simulation at TOD"Best regardsLev Feldman.

[FLEX1978 373]

I have to agree with you on having a feature where you can check the box and leave it. It is really the only thing I dont like about flying this aircraft. However I would say the likelyhood of PMDG changing this feature for the 747 is about 0.0000000000001% Maybe the MD11 will be better :) Rob

[Guest Eek]

I'd like to second Lev's suggestions. Why should the idiots ruin the sim for the rest of us?EwingKATLAlcohol, Tobacco and Firearms should be a store, not a government agency.MSI K8N Neo2 PlatinumAMD Opteron 185 2.6 Ghz Dual Core2GB Kingston HyperX (2X1GB) Dual Channel DDR 2-3-2-6 @ 1TXFX nVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS 256MB DDR3 AGPSound Blaster Audigy LSSilverStone Decathlon 750W +12v@60A +5v@30AFS9 on WinXPPro (SP1)

[Guest gregsh00]

Even a aircraft config file option that requires manual edit would be fine with me. That way only those users that REALLY want the failures option permanently enabled could leave it on and leave it hidden for the casual pilots.I really like the pause on failure option for those long unattended flights as a check box option.Cheers,Greg Smith

[RedLion 0]

F/O: BATTERY SWITCH - ONCAPT: SETF/O: STANDBY POWER SELECTOR - AUTOCAPT: SETF/O: HYDRAULIC DEMAND PUMP SELECTORS