Bringing pilots to the game...

[staib 1]

Just thought I'd share a nice flying experience that I had with Flight this afternoon.

 

Inspired by J van E's pictures on 'the big VOR topic' thread, I had been practicing some VOR flying, between Upper Paauilo and Honakaa, heading up and back down that Hilo VOR in various weather conditions, when I was joined on one the little strips by a guy in a Stearman.

 

So, we started chatting via the text box, before moving to voice (that does work well) to simplify chatting. Turns out the guy had only flown FS2004 before, and was just feeling out the free big island and wondering whether to get the Maule or the other islands. After some lazy flying around together and some circuits at Waimea, he had decided to get both Maule and the other islands.

 

A twenty minute break for snacking and downloading and we were back in the game again, this time flying up the North coast of Oahu at 750ft. Listening to someone else delighting in the views (they have come along a bit since 2004) and recognising golf courses, and other road and land features from a driving game, Test Drive Unlimited 2 (set on Oahu) that he had enjoyed a year or so ago, made the VFR flight up to Dillingham really enjoyable.

 

At Dillingham we had another 5 min break to grab us a coffee (in real life) and I then explained the basics of an ILS approach and how to tune the Maule's radios, before we set our NAV1 radios for the ILS into 08L at Honolulu, and set off down the coast to intercept it and land.

 

Seeing a lot more pilots by now in the session, we headed back to the Big Island, and had some fun tormenting the passengers on that cruise ship in Hilo...

 

Flight's 'social' features and easy implementation of VoIP seem to meet the needs of today's connected generations.

[Guest]

Great story! Maybe I should get a mic for my PC...

[staib 1]

Do it! :Just Kidding:

[frankla 44]

A twenty minute break for snacking and downloading and we were back in the game again, this time flying up the North coast of Oahu at 750ft. Listening to someone else delighting in the views (they have come along a bit since 2004) and recognising golf courses, and other road and land features from a driving game, Test Drive Unlimited 2 (set on Oahu) that he had enjoyed a year or so ago, made the VFR flight up to Dillingham really enjoyable.

 

I don't mean to hijack this thread but your description of views made me wonder how it would have been so cool to see the cars on the roads below. (I know, its not about flying, but have loved the idea of cars since the days when they were represented with just moving lights at night in FS2000-FS2002). Does anyone know if AI can be added as a DLC? Or is it something that is incompatible with the live aspect of Flight?

[HiFlyer 9,343]

Is anyone getting a lag/stuuter free experience with MP? my first couple of experiences were so poor that i havent even cared to go back to unlock the stearman paint job i wanted.

 

thinking about upping my cable bill, thoughts?

 

Flight multiflyer stutters.

 

I am told that this is a difficulty with the MS live system, and is not likely to change anytime soon. Just how stuttery it is from one session to the other is variable, but it seems most people don't find it a deal-breaker, and as the OP notes, the radios work well and contribute much to the feeling of community within the game.

 

New pilots wondering about diving further into the sim can now (if they are very lucky) find open-minded veterans to help them in a relationship akin to that of having a flight instructor available, perhaps lessening the learning curve of certain aspects of simulation that might otherwise be daunting to explore.

 

The ease of multiplayer and pilot to pilot communication (even with stuttering) is a game-changer, and one of the things that makes flight fun!

 

http://youtu.be/K3Wi1o8_CzI

[rtodepart 761]

Hi thanks for the video. I hope the devs implement a bit more on some of the ideas related to the controllers side of flighr posted on the beta forums so that the multiplayer session's get even better. It feels so much better and realistic to be able to use the comm radios the way they work in RL. that feature itself tells me that ms has something else in the way regarding communication ...

[jcomm 5,890]

Can two online players share the same airplane as pilot/co-pilot?

[RoboRay 126]

No AFAIK but, since the other player would be invisible, I'd love to hop in somebody's plane without them knowing it to randomly hit buttons and flip switches in-flight.

[staib 1]

No AFAIK but, since the other player would be invisible, I'd love to hop in somebody's plane without them knowing it to randomly hit buttons and flip switches in-flight.

Bad, RR! But quite funny - I think I'd just open their door, as they are on finals... :)

 

jcomm - if you are flying identical planes, in the same direction (or on the ground) and chatting to each other, it's pretty easy to explain things...

[jcomm 5,890]

jcomm - if you are flying identical planes, in the same direction (or on the ground) and chatting to each other, it's pretty easy to explain things...

 

Ok! Now I get it :-)....

Although I never played a Lot online, in FSX I used to fly a few helicopter flights with a co-pilot :-) I believe this is not yet possible in FLIGHT, but might be a request for future versions...

[HiFlyer 9,343]

Ok! Now I get it :-)....

Although I never played a Lot online, in FSX I used to fly a few helicopter flights with a co-pilot :-) I believe this is not yet possible in FLIGHT, but might be a request for future versions...

 

You can follow/observe other pilots in the game, which also helps.

[AzureWX 0]

Flight multiflyer stutters.

 

I am told that this is a difficulty with the MS live system, and is not likely to change anytime soon. Just how stuttery it is from one session to the other is variable, but it seems most people don't find it a deal-breaker, and as the OP notes, the radios work well and contribute much to the feeling of community within the game.

 

New pilots wondering about diving further into the sim can now (if they are very lucky) find open-minded veterans to help them in a relationship akin to that of having a flight instructor available, perhaps lessening the learning curve of certain aspects of simulation that might otherwise be daunting to explore.

 

The ease of multiplayer and pilot to pilot communication (even with stuttering) is a game-changer, and one of the things that makes flight fun!

 

Just a side note, I was in that session and the player who recorded the video was the only really laggy player. The rest of us were only seeing him bouncing all over the place, and as we flew over Kohala he revealed that he was simultaneously downloading a large number of sizeable files.

 

There are some serious downsides to the peer-to-peer networking model used by Flight, but that guy's experience is absolutely not typical. If you have a good connection (and so does the host), the game runs remarkably well. The problem is that there is no speed requirement to host, so if you have Johnny Idaho trying to run a session off his 2mbps down .5mbps up DSL connection, you're going to run into issues.

 

Personally I run into a boatload of problems that seem to stem from my using a wireless network that's fairly low-capacity, but that's life. I'm probably going to be using a hard-wired connection for my PC once I get an apartment, so hopefully that will solve that problem.

[va6pc 0]

HI all

I found when ifirst started with flight in multiplayer everyone seemed to want to either text or chat. I took a break for a couple of days and when i came back i cant get ANYONE to say hello or chat .really weird .i mean not any respose except for one time when i landed on the runway stopped to keep other player for crasing into me and the plane in front of me starts up, turns around,and lines and hits . There was about 8planes there and they seem like a clique or friends or something. The weird thing was it was as if they were communicating over radio or skype os something. I tried several times to talk on ALL CHAT AND TEXT but was ignored. Seems like they have switched the radio frequeny so they could talk privately .kind of disappointed that mp gamers would keep other people out or least type or use all call to say that they would like to be private and not crash or dive bomb me. I do like the radio talking to other people for help,company while you fly, and fun stuff to do.Would really like to know if other people noticed this as well or is my text or talk button broken? ?

 

[Voics 0]

HI all

I found when ifirst started with flight in multiplayer everyone seemed to want to either text or chat. I took a break for a couple of days and when i came back i cant get ANYONE to say hello or chat .really weird .i mean not any respose except for one time when i landed on the runway stopped to keep other player for crasing into me and the plane in front of me starts up, turns around,and lines and hits . There was about 8planes there and they seem like a clique or friends or something. The weird thing was it was as if they were communicating over radio or skype os something. I tried several times to talk on ALL CHAT AND TEXT but was ignored. Seems like they have switched the radio frequeny so they could talk privately .kind of disappointed that mp gamers would keep other people out or least type or use all call to say that they would like to be private and not crash or dive bomb me. I do like the radio talking to other people for help,company while you fly, and fun stuff to do.Would really like to know if other people noticed this as well or is my text or talk button broken? ?

 

Have you checked your Games for Windows Live privacy settings? By default they lock you out of any text or voice comms... maybe yours have been re-set somehow?

[va6pc 0]

Will do that , thank you. Feel kind of silly now actually;-)