FSP is so frustrating

[Myrm]

Hi

I have flown with FSP for about 2 months now, and though it is a great program, it really is frustrating.

Take my last three flights for example;

Flight 1: Made a perfect landing (according to the debrief) and received no penalty points. Yet only received 30 reward points for landing
at the right airport.

Flight 2: Perfect flight according to the debrief, but landed too heavy: Reward points 30, penalty points -230

Flight 3: Perfect landing: No reward points whatsoever. Penalty points decucted over 300 points as I was told I had landed at the wrong
airport (which is a load of rubbish as I landed at EDDB as planned), and also told that I did not declare an emergency, yet there were no
inflight emergencies whatsoever.

My verdict:

In theory a great program, but in practise not user friendly at all. Why am I rewarded so little for a perfect flight, yet penalised so heavily
when mistakes are made?

Why am I being penalised for landing at the wrong airport, when in fact I landed at the correct airport (second time this has happened),
why have I been penalised for not declaring an emergency when there were no emergencies? (again not the first time this has
happened)?

Sorry, very disillusioned with this very unfair add-on, and as a result I am considering uninstalling it and sending it where it belongs; in
the recycle bin!

[olseric]

Why am I rewarded so little for a perfect flight, yet penalised so heavily when mistakes are made?

I suspect that this is modeled on real-world. Think about it...do you, as a passenger now, really care about much of anything on board
the plane as long as: 1) You make it to your destination on time, 2) You get your free snacks, and 3) The pilot does his/her job and
doesn't crash? Such is life...in reality, the "normal" flights aren't really noticed or rewarded...they're expected. But now, if you screw up,
everyone will notice.

Why am I being penalised for landing at the wrong airport, when in fact I landed at the correct airport

This has been discussed in great detail before. Is there another airport close by? Are you using default scenery there, or an addon, or
even a different AFCAD? FS PAX determines what airport you're at from the FS9 GPS, therefore, if there's another airport closer, it will
detect you landing there. See the thread about Amsterdam Schiphol (EHAM) for more info on that.

why have I been penalised for not declaring an emergency when there were no emergencies?

Are you sure this is the case? There are emergencies that "build" over time that on a short flight, you may have overlooked. The easiest
way to determine whether or not there is, in fact, an emergency or not is to turn on the "cheat" icon that will display in your status window.
It may cost you a few points in the end if one does occur, but you'll be sure not to miss it.

I'm sure with some more use and just getting used to the program, you'll find, like the rest of us did, that this is truly a must-have addon.

[Myrm]

Hi Olseric

Many thanks for your reply.

Regarding your points;

1. In FSP you are trying to build up a company and do well, so the reward points should reflect this. If you have made a perfect flight then
you should be rewarded much better than you currently are. Yes the passengers may not be generous as all they care about is food, a
comfortable flight, and getting where they want. But you should also be rewarded by a separate "authority" other than the passengers, so
that you piloting is also rewarding perhaps by a Pilots Governing Body, and not just the selfish passengers.

2. If there is an airport nearby, FSP may detect you landing there instead of your planned airport? Sorry, that is not good enough. The
FSP program should be able to differentiate between two airports, regardless of their proximity to one another. This is a bug which
needs addressing in my opinion.

3. Yes, I am sure there were no emergencies in flight. In the debriefing why was the nature of the emergency not stated?

Thanks again for your reply.

[Eclipz]

Hi...

imagine you're a passenger... you know you're going to EDDB but, when you're in flight, you don't really know where you are and when you land, you
imagine you are at EDDB... what a surprise to discover you're somewhere else... so it's possible to have a good flight (good food, a lot of drink,
cool movies, ...) and, in the same time, be furious because you are not where you are supposed to be... the flight is one thing, the destination is
another one, the most important... it's better to have a flight without watching a movie but arriving where it's supposed to arrive... do you see what
i mean ? so i think it's normal to be penalized...

talking about not declaring emergencies, let me explain : if you land on another airport than your destination, the only acceptable reason is to have
an emergency... so, if you arrive somewhere else than EDDB without emergency, you're wrong and you get penalty points... the report doesn't say you
have to declare an emergency, it just focus on the point that you didn't land at EDDB and, as you didn't declare any emergency, you should'nt be where
you are.

a reason for fsp to tell you you're not at the good airport is writing mistake... at the end of a flight, i got penalty points because i didn't land
at the good airport... i was starting to shoot my computer when i saw the destination i entered : LFBP instead of LFPB...

sorry if my english is not correct...

vincent

[AeroJim]

More than once i have made the mistake of typing in the wrong destination. It's a small mistake which causes big problems. Also
olseric, about the passengers and pilot pts., one thing i think many people kind of don't realize here is that there are two seperate point
ratings, passenger opinion (reputation) and than pilot points, what your passengers think was a perfect flight could have been a horrible
flight in truth because of piloting mistakes, but than again, a perfect landing, etc, that is more or less expected of the pilot, i know i
wouldnt get in a plane with someone that sometimes makes a good landing, so be happy with the (nice) next to your landing descent
rate and keep on flying.

[olseric]

one thing i think many people kind of don't realize here is that there are two seperate point ratings

Great point!

[eazy]

Let's look at those poor rewards:

- A "nice" landing (touch-down at less than -300fpm VS, what can generally be considered as a normal landing):
50 pts

- Perfect flight with satisfied passengers:
150 pts

- Landing at the scheduled airport:
30 pts

- Reaching your destination within scheduled arrival time (now block time):
100 pts

That is 330 points for an uneventful (boring) "perfect" flight thinking in normal categories. Not too bad after all?!
Plus lots of extra points if
- your flight takes longer than 2 hrs w/o time acceleration
- you take-off or approach in bad or extreme weather (some turbulence or slight rain, voilà: 100pts earned)
- you land safely despite an a/c failure

Even with some penalties this should get you enough points to be promoted to Captain before you can spell "SWAFO" in full length...
(sorry SWACPT! )

I think what upset you most was the penalty for not reaching the planned destination. As Eric stated above this can happen with
some special scenery add-ons but those are very few! And it's not a bug related to FSP.

Hint: If you can't land at EDDB just go to Tegel

Seriously: Get yourself a cool drink, do some flights, declare some emergencies, get promoted and you'll agree to the vast majority
of FSP users that it's the best FS add-on ever!

[Vince H]

Myrm, I think the word 'perfect' here means 'normal'. And I don't think one should be given a bonus for every normal flight completed.

Vince

[Jetsgo]

If the penalties are bothering you to a point where you do not want to use the program anymore, you can always try disableing such
penalties to customize your FsP flights. Good luck and keep at it!

[SWAFO]

This has been discussed previously. Look at it this way: There are thousands of flights everyday world wide (if not tens of thousands).
Usually, everything goes well, however once in a while there's an accident/crash. People talk about a crash for a very long time, it's the
focus of media attention, etc. Yet, the tens of thousands of flights a day that go by without incident are never discussed! The public
remembers bad events more than good ones. It's simple sociology!

[Myrm]

Hi

Many thanks everybody for your replies. Some of which I found encouraging and helpful, whilst others I found completely unhelpful.

What I would like to see in future versions of FSP is perhaps a difficulty level selection:

For example;

EASY = FSP far more rewarding for perfect ("normal") flights, less harsh on the penalties.

NORMAL = As per default FSP options

HARD = FSP is "tight" when it comes to giving reward points, and unforgiving on penalty points.

[lightrail]

The difficulty is already there - just switch off the penalties you don't want to apply - i.e. lights or wrong airport.

[Myrm]

lightrail wrote:
The difficulty is already there - just switch off the penalties you don't want to apply - i.e. lights or wrong airport.

Very true Lightrail, but I was thinking more of changes to the points scheme, rather than disabling various options to obtain them.

Thank you for your reply to my post.

[SWAFO]

lightrail wrote:
The difficulty is already there - just switch off the penalties you don't want to apply - i.e. lights or wrong airport.

Yep, he's right! I found that I was constantly penalized for doing things that are acceptable in reality, so I have a few penalties disabled.
That's what's great about FSP... you can fine tune it.

[omarza]

"and also told that I did not declare an emergency, yet there were no inflight emergencies whatsoever."


Just a quick remark regarding those emergencies... what aircraft are you flying... the reason I ask is because I have had the same... no emergency and I triple checked as I expected an emergency due to having had the failure setting on 100%... there was none... everything 100% normal and I was penalized for not calling an emergency. I even went and checked again after I got the message... fuel was pefect etc... restarted the engines and again checked everything and everything was perfect. That ONLY happened to me thus far on the Dash 7 and I cant remeber it happening on another aircraft... and yes thats why I fixed its fuel gauges as I thought that might have been the culprit.. but it wasnt as the gauges now works perfect and still getting emergencies for no emergency on that aircraft and NO idea what emergency its referring to. What i'm trying to say is that maybe certain aircraft doesnt trigger properly via the emergency system as i'm taking a wild guess here... problem on my side.. definately not as I can give you every setting on every gauge in those flights as I wrote them down in flight and even after touchdown for double check. Also I tested every failure via FS9 and everyone worked fine... thats why I were led to believe it might be the fuel guages... maybe a leak on a non-existant tank?... dunno.

Maybe I should add that I do get failures on the Dash 7 but its once in a while it penalizes me for an error that doesnt exist. I must also maybe mention the fuel tanks on the Dash 7 arent straightforward as it took me some time to customize the fuel gauges to work properly with the 4 different fuel tanks and it functions now 100%... thats why I think the fuel drain (failure) maybe occurs on a set tank which might be different for that particular aircraft... once again as mentioned above a very wild guess.



Post Edited ( 09-04-05 00:34 )