ATC voice FSX multiplayer session tonight!

[eurowing 13]

hi all,last week i have discovered the multiplayer function of FSX. i must say, personally my fs world has turned upside down.i no longer want to fy it, my favorite position now is in the tower. what a great platform the multiplayer function is for that!unfortunately, there are loads of people joining the sessions and act like 'players' and not simmers (fly around not communicating, placing the aircraft on the runway instead of the ramp, etc.). this messes up the entire job of both controller AND pilots that are taking that session seriously using proper radio procedures.for that reason, i would like to try a password protected session tonight, thursday, dec 14. it should be up and running at 1800 MST/Ariona time (1700 PST/0100 zulu), probably before that.location will be KTUS (Tucson int'l airport, Arizona) which guarantees VFR real world weather, parallel runways, and relatively good FPS. also, there are several airports in the vicinity to go into and return to KTUS. check http://naco.faa.gov/digital_tpp.asp?ver=06...&end=12-21-2006 for approach charts and airport diagrams.i am a real world flght instructor myself, so you can expect 'close to real' ATC instructions. all i am asking you is to read and follow the instructions on http://fs-mp.com/pilots.html which makes the job easier for all of us.if you would like to be a controller for ground, departure/arrival, or even control any of the nearby airports as for example KRYN, feel free to join, as well. this could be a lot of fun!after you log in just look for a session named AVSIM FRIENDS, located at KTUS, and the password will be AVSIM (capital letters). if you have any problems you can find me in the chat under the screenname flyingdenis.i really hope that alot of you will join me for a really good and fun session tonight.EDIT: POST A REPLY IF YOU PLAN ON BEING THERE!

[SAPilot 213]

Hi DenisGreat idea !! - also discovered MP in FSX a few weeks back and it is great flying experiences with ATC. The ATC hosting the session was also a real world pilot. Yes, is a bit of a problem to keep the "jokers" out. Would love to join your session but 01:00Z is sleeping time in Africa. Have a great time !.RegardsRobert

[Guest GA Flyer]

Havent had a chance to try MP yet but was wondering if in MP you could have a person in the ATC role, a person in the pilot role and a person in the shared cockpit role as an observer in the plane? Can this be done in one session? Can there be more than one controller in a session at a different airport?

[eurowing 13]

yes all these can be within the same session. multiple aircraft and multiple controllers! the max. number of aircraft is determined by the host of the session. i usually set a limit of 20 planes.all you need is a headset/mic. just don't ask me how exactly the shared cockpit works, i haven't tried that yet.

[Guest GA Flyer]

>yes all these can be within the same session.> just don't ask me how exactly the shared cockpit works, i haven't tried that yet.But your sure that you can share a cockpit in a MP session with many other players including ATC?

[eurowing 13]

i am not sure about ANY other player.it is a setting that you can enable/disable, that is all i know right now.

[DadJokeCinema 145]

Each player can share the cockpit with one other person.Say, for instance, you have five people on a server doing a flight together. One can be the controller at the departure airport, one guy in a plane by himself, one guy in a plane with another player sharing the cockpit with him, and another controller at the destination airport, all on the same server. I think the client has a max of 99 people, but I may be mistaken. As stated before, the person hosting sets the limits and other features, such as turning voice comms on or off, and setting either a "Global" radio where anyone who mics in can be heard by anyone else, or a by channel setting where players have to be tuned to the same frequency on their comm radios.There's a hotkey for radio comms, but when you are in shared cockpit mode, you can make the mics hot for inter-cockpit comms, so that anything you say gets heard by your copilot, and then either of you can use the hotkey to broadcast over the radio. All controls on the plane are shared at all times except the yoke, rudder and throttle, they have to be passed back and forth, but you can do whatever in the way of autopilot, radios, flaps, lights, etc.The only real limitation of the system is that you can only share your cockpit with one other person. A real benefit of the new view system, I found, is that when I joined a multiplayer server and found a guy sharing his cockpit, when I joined in I hopped over to the right seat and it really made the experience for me.I can't imagine why I haven't flown MP since the beta. Maybe tomorrow, tonight I am seeing a really good band down in Fredericksburg, assuming I ever get to leave.EDIT: Edited because I can't count.

[blave 0]

I'm kind of amused that the word is only now getting out about the new MP stuff in FS-X. I came late to the -X game due to not having my gaming PC set up for a while after it came out, but one of the first things I did was check out multiplayer mode based on what I'd read about the tower stuff. At any rate, MS did a really really good job with this. I have some minor gripes (I get kicked off the gamespy server every time I leave a session, and why can't it remember my gamespy password?) but overall it really adds a new dimension... And THEN there's the shared cockpit. That is gold.In an effort to find "as real as it gets" MP experiences, I have come across a couple groups (I'm sure there are more) that are really serious about this. Both of them have web sites, and they deliberately make it a little difficult to get passwords and such in an effort to keep these idiots that seem to enjoy ruining everyone else's experience out of their sessions. I have only flown with each a little bit but those experiences were quite positive.Here is one, although they are reworking their site at the moment:http://www.dimdjs.com/That guy is actually trying to get "tower controllers" to work shifts so that they can have more clock dial coverage. I hope it works out.And here's the other group, which is "on" only intermittentely and on the weekends, but their page is a good intro on how to and how not to fly in a "serious" MP session: http://www.sonicspike.net/fsx/BTW one of the most enjoyable MP experiences I've had was last weekend - I ended up on a session with a young gentleman that couldn't've been more than ten years old. The guy that had been manning the tower had to go attend to some Real Life nonsense, so the intrepid young airman declared that he was going to be tower... "Uh oh here we go" I thought but he did just an incredible job of clearing me out of SFO and then switching over to Departure to "handle my flight". Of course he made some procedural mistakes, but it was really a joy to hear this guy taking it so seriously and doing so well. He has clearly done a lot of homework.All he needs to do is turn down his mic volume by half next time 8^) .A final note - in case you didn't know, you can split the ATC voice transmit/receive channels (both in MP and in single player mode) out to a separate soundcard, and thus have ATC go through your headset while all other FS sounds go through your speakers - Just Like Real Life! I bought a $50 Logitech USB headset, which effectively has a soundcard built-in, for this purpose and it works really well. The procedure on how to set this up is in the FS-X Help.Dave Blevins

[Guest GA Flyer]

Brian and Dave,Great replies and insight. I havent had a chance to do anything online due to my wireless server is moving the ant soI currently have not internet.But I am very excited about MP with its new features. I posted this thread over in the Bush Flyers Unlimited Forum hoping to start seeing new ways we simmers can interact.http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho..._id=31069&page=Hopefully we will see more ways to use the sim with missions and MP. I think what is holding it back to a degree is that many users are trying to use FSX like FS9, becoming dissappointed and reverting back to FS9 then trying to find other ways outside the norm to enjoy FSX.

[Guest danzian]

>>A final note - in case you didn't know, you can split the ATC>voice transmit/receive channels (both in MP and in single>player mode) out to a separate soundcard, and thus have ATC go>through your headset while all other FS sounds go through your>speakers - Just Like Real Life! I bought a $50 Logitech USB>headset, which effectively has a soundcard built-in, for this>purpose and it works really well. The procedure on how to set>this up is in the FS-X Help.>>Dave BlevinsHi,Just a quick note that I found a USB audio adapter in ebay and it has worked great for me and my friends. It is very cheap and you would not have an extra headset laying aside collecting dust.http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?c...itSearch=SearchThanks.Danzian

[eurowing 13]

well, that didn't work so well. nobody there. maybe another time...

[beatle 0]

Hey Dave,<>That's a COPPA (Child Online Privacy Protection Act) thing, so you can thank the folks in the capital building for passing that stupid idiotic thing. Basically, if you were allowed to save passwords, then your kid could get on and have voice and text chat in the briefing room or game using your account/password instead of his/her own. There was actually a checkbox for it on the dialog about 18 months ago :->, but we had to pull it (basic CYA type stuff, you know how the Justice dept likes to take MS to court every few years :-> ).Tim

[Mace 1,917]

I think it would be fun, but I don't have high speed internet.I did online flying once in FS2004, and some stupid kid kept buzzing around me in the R22 helicopter, and even crashed into me once. All he could do was do "lolrz" and "lol" and "oops" when he ran into me.I was just trying to do some simple patterns around the field. :(RhettAMD 3700+ (@2530 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2 GB Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8, WD 250 gig 7200 rpm SATA2, CoolerMaster Praetorian

[Guest KaelOost]

Hey Dave and All,I've done a little multiplayer flying, but what holds me back is the fact that once I leave the area where the tower controller is, I've got no atc. If I wanted to fly from KSFO to KSEA, I can load up at KSFO (presuming there is a session and tower controller there) and get my clearences, taxi, take off, departure....but then what. I'm out of contact with atc. When I approach seattle, theres no atc...Am I missing something? This is where I think VATSIM could be useful, but the lat time I tried that it was choppy as all #### and the aircraft models other people where flying was nothing short of laughable...that was FS9.Any insight anybody?

[DadJokeCinema 145]

Ok, so here's the problem I'm facing.I'm seeing two basic server types today in a little bit of flying online1) crazy free for alls sans controllers with guys named KrazyK**t69 yelling into the mic and parking his CRJ halfway down the runway (this was my first experience today), or2) password protected servers instructing me to register on webpages with the caveat PRO PILOTS ONLY - PROPER PROCEDURE OR BANNED FOREVER!!!Which, incidentally, is a touch intimidating to a low-impact VFR guy like myself.Maybe I'll try again and find a good middle ground on there somewhere.