Ok, I just came off a mutliplayer session with a nice fellow whom I had the opportunity to chat with for awhile, and we were discussing certain details of the new sim and comparing what we liked and didnt like, etc. One of the things brought up was about certain missing features that were included in fs2004 but left out of fsx.Before i explain, let me just give a very brief synopsis of the new multiplayer experience for those of you who havent had the opportunity to install or purchase the game yet (keeping in mind ive only used mp for a few hours so far so i may not be too accurate):I feel that INITIALLY there were 4 things that stood out right away for me...1. The new multiplayer lobby/interface - once signed on you can look for a friend or chat awhile with buddies before booting up a flying session or picking one to join from the list...its a bit over simplified in layout and features but a step in the right direction nonetheless, and very very simple and fast to get in on. I feel it needs to give you some more info about the active servers running though, would be nice anyway not a huge deal.2. The MP Options Interface screens - once you set your desired options once they are saved so hosting after that first time is only a matter of a few clicks and presto youre on the tarmac...again, very simple to accomplish. This is where youll specify such things desired as number of players allowed to join, your atc name, hosting options like allowing shared cockpits, whether or not clients can change realism settings, how the VOIP is handled, etc.3. Once in the session there are 2 more things you may notice right away...the first is how smooth the planes in the session appear when you are close by to them...maybe i just havent experienced any lag yet but you can formation fly much easier now, no more jumpiness and crashing when your still 25 feet away from another plane...another thing is the ambient sounds of the connected planes as they soar overhead or when they takeoff and land...you can actually hear them now and it really brings the experience alot closer to being right there in your face, nice. Also you can see all the aircraft lights now...finally!4. Voice - youll want to map 2 commands for this. One for transmitting on a radio freq. in range and another for transmitting to all players connected regardless of what freq theyre on. Its not perfectly reliable (some glitches here and there) but for me so far its been very good about 80% of the time and sounds great as long as folks have their mics setup correctly...i cant tell you how much fun it is to be able to really tune your comm radios for a purpose now instead of just atis :-)Alright so now heres some bad news and the question:once in a session you cannot change ceratin settings such as switching planes, changing weather or time of day, nor changing airports from the menu. To do any of these things youll have to back out of the session and reload all over again...a real pain...and this is my question, WHY were these options/abilities omitted?...is there a valid reason why it needs to stay this way or can this be patched?The other problem ive seen so far is that you cant kick/boot the nasty children from your server :-)...you know..the ones who dive-bomb onto the runway and become a lawndart, yet have perfect aim so they end up taking you out with them. The help section tells you how to do it but its simply wrong, it doesnt work the way they say it should...perhaps another item to add to the patch list? If you right click on a name in the chat window its supposed to let you ban them, but that option is always greyed out...and besides there should be a simple kick option instead of just banning.Thats about it for now...personally, omissions aside for now i think its a nice step forward compared to fs2004 MP...it gives those folks who arent vatsim fans the ability to get online fast, meet new friends, voice chat and do it all in an environment thats very casual and not by the book...its whatever you want it to be as you can host it yourself if you like....umm, just beware of the lawndarts, lolDave

Bump...anyone have any knowledge of these 2 questions?:1. once in a session you cannot change ceratin settings such as switching planes, changing weather or time of day, nor changing airports from the menu. To do any of these things youll have to back out of the session and reload all over again...a real pain...and this is my question, WHY were these options/abilities omitted?...is there a valid reason why it needs to stay this way or can this be patched?2. The other problem ive seen so far is that you cant kick/boot the nasty children from your server ...you know..the ones who dive-bomb onto the runway and become a lawndart, yet have perfect aim so they end up taking you out with them. The help section tells you how to do it but its simply wrong, it doesnt work the way they say it should...perhaps another item to add to the patch list? If you right click on a name in the chat window its supposed to let you ban them, but that option is always greyed out...and besides there should be a simple kick option instead of just banning.

>1. once in a session you cannot change ceratin settings such>as switching planes, changing weather or time of day, nor>changing airports from the menu. To do any of these things>youll have to back out of the session and reload all over>again...a real pain...and this is my question, WHY were these>options/abilities omitted?...is there a valid reason why it>needs to stay this way or can this be patched?Multiplayer was *completely* rewritten for this version. When we designed the new feature set we decided to make it more like traditional MP games where the host sets the parameters for all the other users. If you recall, FS2004 let everyone set their own conditions, which turned out to be very confusing for users. ("Do you see the island now?" "What island, it's midnight on my sim?!" )That said, there are some things you can change *but* the host must enable session users to pause the sim (it's one of the session host options) so that dialogs can be opened.>2. The other problem ive seen so far is that you cant>kick/boot the nasty children from your server ...you know..the>ones who dive-bomb onto the runway and become a lawndart, yet>have perfect aim so they end up taking you out with them. The>help section tells you how to do it but its simply wrong, it>doesnt work the way they say it should...perhaps another item>to add to the patch list? If you right click on a name in the>chat window its supposed to let you ban them, but that option>is always greyed out...and besides there should be a simple>kick option instead of just banning.Yep, that was a feature that just didn't make it in time. You can boot players from the lobby before entering the game but not once you start flying. Until we fix that you can use the banned players list to keep track of the griefers and boot them when you see them.Let us know if you have more questions.

>>That said, there are some things you can change *but* the host>must enable session users to pause the sim (it's one of the>session host options) so that dialogs can be opened.>what can be changed when allowing clients to pause, and will it effect the server or only the client machine?...oh and if the premise was to give the host full control so theres less confusion then why not at least allow the HOST to change settings as desired from within the session?...youve not only stopped clients from doing it (which is a great idea) but youve also "jailed" the host here. Allowing the host to chage these items from within a session just seems more logical or at least more user friendly, no?> Until we fix that you can use the>banned players list to keep track of the griefers and boot>them when you see them.>ok, do you know if there will be a quick fix patch for this particular feature or will it have to wait for the dx10 patch?tdragger, thanks so much for the assist and also for keeping an eye out on these forums...MUCH appreciated!Dave