First, let me say first that I have no inside knowledge about Flight whatsoever. What are the chances that Alaska will be a separate menu item from Hawaii, and you won't be able to fly between them even if you have an aircraft with the necessary range?While I can't imagine them doing this, I also can't see any way for the current map system to handle two areas 2000 miles apart in any kind of convenient manner. If they do make separate "games" out of each area, what statistics would you expect to be tracked separately for each? For example, you'll never get 1,000,000 passengers flying in just one area. But other stats like the achievement for landing at every airport, or "Mission Accomplished" for doing every mission in the game only make sense for each area separately. Does anyone see a can of worms being opened here? Anyone have any ideas?Hook

Does anyone see a can of worms being opened here? Anyone have any ideas?Hook

Well I didn't until now!!Good little bit of speculation there. There does seem like there could be a separation of stats here. I hope not, I would love to see each DLC be fluid with the next. Although if that were the case, each DLC would need to be in a fairly adjacent area, which would place a limit on MS plans... unless that's the way they're planning it.I know they've already said they're not focusing on having the whole globe, but it would be nice to have each area connected so we can make those flights. I'm really curious now how they're going to go about this.

I think that once you get far enough from a map area, they'll probably make you press <insert key here> to "warp" to where you are going. To stay in my MMO analogy of Flight, you get on a gryphon/spaceshuttle/whatever, you get a loading screen, then you have a brief cut scene of you entering the new area. You will do this EVERYTIME, for the life of the game. Unless they mod Flight to be the next FSX...I would expect the same variables to be tracked in each area. They would just change the name. For example variable name LandedAllHIAirports could then be LandedAllAKAirports. In this way, if the LandedAll<XX>Airports variable equals true for all areas, then you could get the "Mission Accomplished" achievement. I also think there will be specific missions tracked unique to the DLC map area. (For Example: Landed in DeadHorse Alaska in a blizzard)I've seen people go crazy trying to get all the achievements possible. Whether in a MMO or XBox. If it were me, I'd give a "Mission Accomplished: Hawaii" as well as "Mission Accomplished: The World". In this way you could get the more casual player to continue to play (by trying to complete all missions in a map area) and the hard core player will still have the "world" achievement to chase.They have already opened a can of worms, but the question is how will they deal with people's reaction to the can.

What are the chances that Alaska will be a separate menu item from Hawaii, and you won't be able to fly between them even if you have an aircraft with the necessary range?

I think that's almost guaranteed. Judging by Joshua Howard's interviews he can't understand anybody who would find long haul flying interesting, so I think it's very likely that Alaska and any future scenery DLC will be represented as a separate 'world' selectable from the main menu.

As it stands, even if it's separated out on the surface via menus etc you will still be able to fly between both. Flight is just a severely neutered ESP with a heart transplant. The entire globe still sits there in physical form, it's just MS is limiting your ability to spawn where you want at will.

Having flown IFR last weekend from Denham (UK) to Maastricht (Netherlands) in a small Cirrus SR22, I can confirm that the bit in-between the take-off / climb out phase and the descent / landing phase IS relatively tedious... Although chunky clouds (we had none this time) can still make such trips interesting!I hasten to add that I was not the pilot but did film the flight in HD with ATC exchanges - edited down to 5 mins if anyone is interested in real Flight with ATC ;)Just Google - youtube cirrus maastricht - should be right there...

First, let me say first that I have no inside knowledge about Flight whatsoever.What are the chances that Alaska will be a separate menu item from Hawaii, and you won't be able to fly between them even if you have an aircraft with the necessary range?While I can't imagine them doing this, I also can't see any way for the current map system to handle two areas 2000 miles apart in any kind of convenient manner.If they do make separate "games" out of each area, what statistics would you expect to be tracked separately for each? For example, you'll never get 1,000,000 passengers flying in just one area. But other stats like the achievement for landing at every airport, or "Mission Accomplished" for doing every mission in the game only make sense for each area separately.Does anyone see a can of worms being opened here? Anyone have any ideas?Hook

The achievements you mentioned already specify Hawaii. If Xbox DLC is anything to go by, expansion packs for Flight will each come with their own sets of achievements specific to that pack, while most of the awards just track individual stats common across the entire game, DLC or not.After seeing the expeditions out to French Frigate Shoals, Johnson Atoll, and Midway, I think it seems that the planet has been built with the intent that DLC areas will be dropped into the planet to exist simultaneously, and if you have the time and the fuel, you'll be able to fly between AK and HI. Should it be required at any time, the skip to waypoint button already provides the "warp" that will satisfy players who aren't interested in a long haul at 1x simulation rate.

The achievements you mentioned already specify Hawaii. If Xbox DLC is anything to go by, expansion packs for Flight will each come with their own sets of achievements specific to that pack, while most of the awards just track individual stats common across the entire game, DLC or not.

 

After seeing the expeditions out to French Frigate Shoals, Johnson Atoll, and Midway, I think it seems that the planet has been built with the intent that DLC areas will be dropped into the planet to exist simultaneously, and if you have the time and the fuel, you'll be able to fly between AK and HI. Should it be required at any time, the skip to waypoint button already provides the "warp" that will satisfy players who aren't interested in a long haul at 1x simulation rate.

 

you got me to think about trying KIRIBATI . i wonder if the mustang with several climbs/engine off glides , would get me that far . or even better how about palmyra island??

Flight is built on the same globe as FSX, so there will be no loading screens between detail area's. If you had the fuel and time, you could take off from Hawaii, fly around the very low detail world, and land back on Hawaii with no load screens. Its all there, just in an EXTREAMLY low resolution (1 pixel/square mile or something). If they had an aircraft with range, you could fly from Hawaii to the new Alaska zone non-stop. Its just Josh is reading market research thats telling him the masses dont want to spend 6 hours over open water doing nothing. I think I agree with him. Sure there are a few thousand "hard core" simmers that would like it, but the MILLIONS of people he is targeting simply wont. Thats why the "skip to waypoint" feature was added.

i wonder if the mustang with several climbs/engine off glides , would get me that far

 

It would actually be more fuel efficient to climb once and then cruise there with low RPM, low throttle, and leaned out fuel settings than to do it this way. Climbing gulps a lot of fuel.

Well im going to try.

Yep, this is exactly how I imagined the Alaska DLC to sit beside Hawaii, and I'm still thinking it will be. Basically, it'll be the old MS adage of "Where do you want to go today?" and you'll pick which 'adventure' you'd like to have, totally loaded separately to the other. The Maule will be there, with a quick conversion to skis and they'll be a new set of Aerocaches/Challenges. This will be the 'wash & repeat' recipe for 'European Adventure', 'Destination Tokyo', 'Middle Eastern Surprise' etc. etc.

Yep, this is exactly how I imagined the Alaska DLC to sit beside Hawaii, and I'm still thinking it will be. Basically, it'll be the old MS adage of "Where do you want to go today?" and you'll pick which 'adventure' you'd like to have, totally loaded separately to the other.

 

I tend to agree, I think it will probably be very much like that.

Flight is built on the same globe as FSX, so there will be no loading screens between detail area's. If you had the fuel and time, you could take off from Hawaii, fly around the very low detail world, and land back on Hawaii with no load screens. Its all there, just in an EXTREAMLY low resolution (1 pixel/square mile or something). If they had an aircraft with range, you could fly from Hawaii to the new Alaska zone non-stop.

 

But I'm sure that as it stands right now, as soon as you open up the map it resets your A/C position to the outer boundry when you return to A/C from map view. So you can only fly continuously if you never open the map. I think, because some strange things were happening to my A/C position when I tried to fly out as far away as I could.

What a bummer it will be if MS Flight geography is partioned the way X-Plane 10 is on the iPhone/iPad.

 

Having flown IFR last weekend from Denham (UK) to Maastricht (Netherlands) in a small Cirrus SR22, I can confirm that the bit in-between the take-off / climb out phase and the descent / landing phase IS relatively tedious... Although chunky clouds (we had none this time) can still make such trips interesting!

 

I hasten to add that I was not the pilot but did film the flight in HD with ATC exchanges - edited down to 5 mins if anyone is interested in real Flight with ATC ;)

 

Just Google - youtube cirrus maastricht - should be right there...

 

here's the link...