Mission Builder: Persistence, Open-endedness, and Compl...

[MM 424]

Hi Mike, Jason, (and Paul),Just a question

[slashed2 53]

I like this post. For those anticipating missions and mission building I am curious as to the differences between ABL and the new xml system as far as complexity and what type of things can be done.Not having actually written any adventures for fs9 I plunged into the SDK yesterday and noticed the logic and triggers etc, though not having tried anything out yet, I wondered what the differences would be. It seems the current ABL is limited a bit as to what types of trigger events can occur. The new system allows for AI, animation and other types of visual happenings via branching logic whereas the current ABL allows for system failures, sound and the display of text among other things.Just wondering if anyone with current ABL knowledge can verify my hypothesis on the differences. I'm really anticipating learning more on adventures and the potential of tne new XML based mission creation, which seem to be a bit underutilized in current add-ons due to limitiations, or are add-ons using it and I just haven't realized it?Ian.

[P-12C 0]

>Will it be possible to finish one FSX session and save>the current state-of-the-world

[P-12C 0]

>I am curious as to the differences between>ABL and the new xml system as far as complexity and what type>of things can be done.I haven't actually used ABL, but I know it's powerful but not user friendly. All of our Lessons in FS9 were done with ABL. The beauty of the new system is that it's relatively easy to work with and powerful at the same time. This should mean mission downloads from the community will be frequent whereas ABL adventures are almost non-existant (there are a few of them).Most (maybe all?) of what can be done in ABL can be done in the new system.

[slashed2 53]

Well that's good news! I do alot of logical programming in VB from the backend of Excel along with Access database construction and taught myself C and dabbled in C++ 20 years ago so it seems pretty straightforward to me. I'll have to get my feet wet with the current language and get ready for the next version.If I had known how simple (relatively speaking) the logic and program structure was, I would have been writing these things from the beginning.Thanks for the explanation.Ian.

[MM 424]

Thanks, Paul.If one can save a mission and recommence, that is great. If the I/O is transparent (say, save the mission parameters in a file somewhere on the hard disk, perhaps a txt file) then users can share those "saved files". Guessing that this would work: Jones can fly the first part of a mission and save the resultant state-of-the-world in file MS1.txt He sends it to Smith and then Smith flies the next phase of the mission. She sends it to Johnson who takes over. And so on until the "mission is accomplished." Perhaps?Hmmm. Having an accessible file with the current "state-of-the-world" really opens up doors to imaginative design. It would be terrific if the "state-of-the-world" were divided between conditions that are unique to the current pilot (say aircraft, altitude, fuel, etc) and those conditions that are more general in the external environment (say triggers for locations visited). You can see where this leads...In any case, the mission builder looks to be a serious addition to FSX. It has the potential to add a new dimension to the flight sim experience. I guess my personal request is that the I/O be sufficiently transparent that ordinary users can gain access and share the various intermediate "states-of-the-world". That would be nifty.So great thanks for taking on the mission concept and making something serious out of it. BRAVO.Best,Mike MacKuen

[Guest]

What I want most of all is to use FS without it. From everything I read I am starting to get the impression that FS is turning into a kind of racing game where you have set objectives to complete and that it looks to be becoming impossible to NOT use missions.If that's the future, the future is definitely not for me.

[BaronKen 144]

>What I want most of all is to use FS without it. From>everything I read I am starting to get the impression that FS>is turning into a kind of racing game where you have set>objectives to complete and that it looks to be becoming>impossible to NOT use missions.>>If that's the future, the future is definitely not for me.Once again:Nothing could be further from the truth. It's been stated many times now that you will be able to use FSX the way you always have. The mission builder is new and is being added to enhance the sim in different ways for those who want to use it, and also to bring new simmers into the fold to expand the FS user base. You *do not* have to fly missions to use the new version.Hope this helps.