A suggestion of a feature to scheduled flights

A

Aleksi Laine

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Today 4:53 AM
Hi,

I am very new here, having signed up a few hours ago and not having flown a single flight, but I hope I am still entitled to give a humble suggestion to see what kind of a response there will be :)

Although I have no experience of VA flying before, I know that having a schedule will add a whole new exciting dimension to my flying. Your flight schedule system already is leap forward in my FS experience, but still there's something I probably would change.

From the manual I've understood that the schedules are more of... suggestions, than actual timetables. If I'm wrong, this post has no point and you can just ignore me :oops: but if I'm not, what would be your thoughts on making the schedules more strict? I mean that there could be rewards for making the schedule, and/or penalties if not. I noticed this kind of a system on European Virtual Airlines (albeit, chose Air-Child due to other structural things). However, they have this pay/h -system and the bonus affects that. In Air-Child's case the only thing I can think of which might be easy to implement would be giving an extra point if flight schedule is met, or subtracting one point if not.

If not for all career options, this could be added to advanced and professional careers only. Or just professional.

Ok, yeah, just thought I'd check if there was room for discussion about a feature like this :)
 
Welcome Aleksi,

Your suggestion makes perfect sense to me.

Say you are in professional career, then you have to fly on the day of the flight in the schedule, take off at the time the flight is booked for, along with land when the flight is due (within a certain tolerance).

I will forward Peter (the programmer) on to this post, and see what he makes of the idea (along with how hard it would be to program)
 
Thank you :)

I believe it would make flying more realistic and immersive and increase the sense of accomplishment if successful. Also perhaps if coupled with a possible extra point or something this could increase the appeal of scheduled flights?

Really looking forward to finally getting familiarized with my F1 ATR and starting flights for the airline ^^
 
Hi,

It is an intriguing idea that I think has some merit.

However, I have one reservation: For me, flying is almost exclusively done in the evenings when work is done, the kid is put to bed and the wife is appeased. I imagine that I am not alone with these conditions.

If I had to fly scheduled times only, my choice of flights would be very limited. Besides, I think that one if the advantages with virtual flying is that we can modify weather and time to make our flights just as challenging as we like. Thus, I think that I should be able to fly a daylight flight even though it's nighttime in the real world (otherwise, I would never see any of my daylight scenery... :) )

What I believe should be important is meeting the flight timings and not the time itself (i.e. the duration of the flight does not exceed the planned duration, so the virtual passengers are not delayed).

Therefore, I would personally like such an 'accuracy system' more if it worked something like this:
Extra points are awarded if you meet the block to block time for your scheduled flight, regardless of the actual time the flight is flown.
I wouldn't really mind if additional extra points where awarded for also flying the correct time slots, but for me personally, it would not add to the fun.

Best regards,
 
Anders Fasterholt Theut said:
Hi,

However, I have one reservation: For me, flying is almost exclusively done in the evenings when work is done, the kid is put to bed and the wife is appeased. I imagine that I am not alone with these conditions.
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Hi Anders, I think what Aleksi meant was (or at least I took it as) if you book a flight for departure at 23.00, then you set your flight simulator time to this time so you make a night time flight. You don't have to physically start the flight at 11 at night when everyone else is still sleeping.

As it is now, you can book a flight for departure at 23.00, which would be a night flight, but set flight sim for a noon takeoff.
 
Andrew Williams said:
Hi Anders, I think what Aleksi meant was (or at least I took it as) if you book a flight for departure at 23.00, then you set your flight simulator time to this time so you make a night time flight. You don't have to physically start the flight at 11 at night when everyone else is still sleeping.
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Yes, although I, being a fan of extreme realism, would not mind if the scheduled times would actually apply to e.g. real world UTC time. I do, however, understand that for some people it becomes too restricted to be fun or might even make flying impossible for some. But if there was an OPTION to require flying the correct real world time, I would take it to make it even more realistic. I'm a student myself with not too binding a schedule so I should be able to find some flights that fit my calendar, book them, and be ready to fly when the time comes.

I realize that I'm starting to ask quite a lot and I don't want to push it, especially with no real experience of flying with you yet. I will enjoy the current system, but don't think I have much to lose in proposing features that I think might improve my experience. I do not expect all of my wishes to be fulfilled :) I'm already thankful for the attention my proposal has got
 
I am all for options as long as they don't limit pilot choices involuntarily.

I think it is a really great idea as long as it is rewarding (extra points for being on time) and not limiting.

If I were to implement it myself, it would look like this:
Basic Career:
* no changes

Advanced Career:
* One extra point is awarded for being on time (not exceeding the ETE)
* One extra point for flying the correct time (ETD and ETA in the simulator must match the schedule)

Professional Career:
* As for advanced plus
* One extra point if real world UTC + SIM time ETD match with scheduled ETD
Option: a scheduled flight report will only be acknowledged if the simulator ETD is no more than 90min delayed as opposed to scheduled ETD

What do you and others think?

Best regards,
 
Hello Anders,

that sounds good for me. We have some similar ideas for the economic part, in which we are working (please don't ask for a release date). We will think about it.
 
Anders, your thoughts are very much same to mine :)

Although that sounds like a lot of extra points. But on the other hand what I especially like about that scoring system is that in addition to scheduled flights it would also make professional career more appealing.

I admit, I'm a little competitive a person :p and if everyone had professional career here, everyone would be required to collect the points to achieve "certifications" for bigger aircraft, giving more reason to be proud to fly e.g. a 747.

And I'm not saying that I frown upon those who take the basic career to get to fly any aircraft immediately. I also considered it since I am familiar with the Level-D 767 and could have gotten flying immediately with that, but ended up being the perfectionist I am and chose to finally learn to fly the ATR I bought couple weeks ago.

But yeah, sorry about the rant, in short: a system like the one Anders suggested would get my full support :yes:
 
Anders Fasterholt Theut said:
Basic Career:
* no changes

Advanced Career:
* One extra point is awarded for being on time (not exceeding the ETE)
* One extra point for flying the correct time (ETD and ETA in the simulator must match the schedule)

Professional Career:
* As for advanced plus
* One extra point if real world UTC + SIM time ETD match with scheduled ETD
Option: a scheduled flight report will only be acknowledged if the simulator ETD is no more than 90min delayed as opposed to scheduled ETD
Click to expand...

You mention bonus points for on time, good flying, but should there not also be the risk of losing points if you depart late, arrive late by a certain amount of time, crash land, etc?
 
Andrew Williams said:
You mention bonus points for on time, good flying, but should there not also be the risk of losing points if you depart late, arrive late by a certain amount of time, crash land, etc?
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I'm definitely in for the penalties as well, adds a little more excitement. Oh I love the thought of situations like where you realize you might be running late on arrival and ask the ATC to expedite your landing and request the most direct approach.

But I just want to make one thing clear for myself. When you say "risk of losing points if you crash land" do you mean decreasing points of the particular flight or deducting one's already earned points? Crash landing sounds to me like something that should at least lead to rejection of the flight report if one even can be made out of such flight :p
 
otherwise, I would never see any of my daylight scenery
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Although funny, that's not true because it's daytime in other time zones while it's dark in western Europe.
I do, however, understand that for some people it becomes too restricted to be fun
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Exactly, I'm one of those pilots. I'm allergic to an overload of rules and especially for penalties. There are already so many VA's and online flying networks that strive to "as real as it gets" to choose from.
From the manual I've understood that the schedules are more of... suggestions, than actual timetables.
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They work very well for me. I fly a scheduled flight, park my aircraft. The next time I look up the tables where I can go from there and adjust the departure time so I can fly at the current actual UTC time.

I hope at least the Basic Career will be left as it is indefinitely, I like freedom. :cheers:

I do have a suggestion myself: what about Air-Child tours :?: I was thinking; Air-Child registers where you fly to and from so it could also register if you've flown all legs of a tour and give you a tour badge/medal. It doesn't need to register if you've flow the legs in the right order, just that you've completed them all.
 
Thanks for all your input, gents! Much appreciated. As Norbert already said, it is something we have in mind as one possible improvement with the economic extension. We also favour to make this a part of the professional career, but maybe still as an option to chose or to leave.
And as Norbert also wrote, we can't tell at themoment when this will happen. We'd really like to bring this extension on the way, this year. At least in parts. But no guarantees given ;)
All kinds of further suggestions are welcome, though.
 
Oh, I got another suggestion.

I do not know how this works now, but in case it is not this way, let me suggest it :p

In basic career, where you can take a scheduled plane and fly it from anywhere you like, I suppose the plane ends up where the flight ends? Well I was just thinking, that it would be easier for advanced and professional careers to plan flights ahead, if the basic career flights would not affect the location of planes. Meaning they would stay at the airport they were before the flight.

I myself at least try to fly my successive flights from the airports I last landed at. If I was aiming to fly one plane's schedule to a point where I could switch to another plane it would increase the chances of me catching the plane that I want, if no one snatched the plane away :p

Again just a humble suggestion. And as I said, I have not researched how it already works :)
 
In basic career, where you can take a scheduled plane and fly it from anywhere you like, I suppose the plane ends up where the flight ends? Well I was just thinking, that it would be easier for advanced and professional careers to plan flights ahead, if the basic career flights would not affect the location of planes. Meaning they would stay at the airport they were before the flight.
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I believe this is already being looked at. See
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.
Planes are moved, regardless of your career mode. That means also in basic mode. In the first years we thought it was ok this way. But we need to change it anyway, in regards to the further extension of VA system and careers. This is part of major changes and will take a while.
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I'm actually not sure if it's still the case. Wasn't it changed to a state where others don't see the plane move :?: I actually like to see some effect of what I'm doing; a career mode that doesn't do anything visible is quite useless.
I myself at least try to fly my successive flights from the airports I last landed at
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I do mainly the same and stay in basic career for this reason. Maybe that's not really necessary, I'm not sure.

We might both consider the fact that real pilots do also fly a lot from airports they didn't land at(themselves). Regional pilots fly a lot on jump seats and even have to take buses sometimes. Yes, "pilot" was a glamorous job in the 50's. :)
 
Hey,

oh yeah, seems that this suggestion was a little useless then.
Barthe Hogenboom said:
I actually like to see some effect of what I'm doing; a career mode that doesn't do anything visible is quite useless.
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I can see your point, but, well, that kind of mentality is why I'm using professional career..
Barthe Hogenboom said:
I do mainly the same and stay in basic career for this reason. Maybe that's not really necessary, I'm not sure.

We might both consider the fact that real pilots do also fly a lot from airports they didn't land at(themselves). Regional pilots fly a lot on jump seats and even have to take buses sometimes. Yes, "pilot" was a glamorous job in the 50's.
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You're right, it's not unrealistic to start a flight from somewhere else than where the last ended. I guess I should lay off of some of my principles. However, I do not appreciate aircraft teleporting from an airfield to another. I guess one could consider it as the plane having been transferred from the previous flight's endpoint, but... no, this kind of weakens the immersion of the whole airline-idea for me.

However, I think this conversation might be a little pointless now :p and just to let you know, I do support the idea of giving the possibility to fly the way each individual wants :)

Br,
Aleksi
 
We have actually had quite a bit of discussion behind the scenes about the movement of planes and pilots.

The problem is:-

Pilot 1 is in pro Career mode, is just starting out, and flies his ATR to EGNT
Pilot 2 is in pro Career mode and well into his career, flies his 737 to EGNT
Pilot 2 then sees an ATR parked there, and takes that for a flight somewhere.
Pilot 1 is stuck at EGNT with a 737 that he doesn't have a license to fly.

There is a solution in the pipelines for when the business/financial simulation is created, but that could be a long way off yet :roll:
 
Hey Rafel,

You are correct, they could book a charter as the charters are set now. But I would assume in the more professional careers the charter aircraft would also be set to fly from where they land.

If the charters stay as they are, then this won't be an issue :)
 
Pilot 1 is in pro Career mode, is just starting out, and flies his ATR to EGNT
Pilot 2 is in pro Career mode and well into his career, flies his 737 to EGNT
Pilot 2 then sees an ATR parked there, and takes that for a flight somewhere.
Pilot 1 is stuck at EGNT with a 737 that he doesn't have a license to fly.
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You've got an interesting IT problem there :!:

But couldn't pilot 1 avoid this problem by planning and registering his/her flight from EGNT ahead before signing off for the night :?: He/she would have 3 days to claim the ATR before any other pilot can "steal" it. If you just mention this precaution in the manual losing your aircraft would be a result of bad planning just as in real life.

In real life, when an aircraft has a technical problem at the last minute and another company aircraft is sitting in the hangar that's not scheduled it would be used instead. When someone forgot to schedule the aircraft in the hangar it's just bad management.
 
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