What?! I can't save my flight!?

[Chris B.]

I often like to save a flight if it's a long one to continue it later but this doesn't seem to be agreeable with FSpassengers. It says that I
either have to abort the session. Are there any other simmers out there that like to save and resume a flight? FSpassengers is awesome
but it looks like I'm confined to 1-2 hour flights if I want to get anywhere and I hate to use the time accelleration feature and for me it kills
the realism, just seems like a toy program then when you can just 'slew' thorugh the world.

Thanx,
Chris in Iowa, USA

[Ryanamur]

Hi Chris,

Yes, it's been brought up a few times since FsPassengers was release (I don't think any of the Beta Testers brought it up before). I'm sure that Dan
will look closely at this possible option. There are a few gameplay issue to consider (like saving your flight at various points to ensure that you
can salvage it if you crash) but on the whole, I think that this could be a good feature.

I've actually put a tag on this request on the development site so that people don't have to bring this topic up again.

Phil



Post Edited ( 07-11-05 21:31 )

[redhmt]

I agree with Chris, it would be handy to be able to save,at moment if you are doing a long flight and have to leave it for a while
your only options are abort it or pause the sim until you can finish it.

[pagir]

In the earlier beta stage of FsP a saving option was designed and tried but it didn't work that well...

I'm sure Dan will continue to investigate this option...

Pagir

[Chris B.]

Thanx Ryanamur for putting a tag of this issue for the development site.
I hate to think that people would view it as a cheat in the case of a crash. I'm the type of person that knows that cheating is only fooling
myself.
I'm in this sim for the trials and tribulations that real life throw at you. If I crash, it was the culmination of a lot of things, some my part
(poor call of judgement, some fate (weather, flameout on takeoff). It kind of writes a chapter to a close when there's a crash. Should we
deny the two truths of life, death and taxes? The new chapter would be to start a new company name (and logo sticker look too!) and
trying to 'live' in your virtual life. Remember those tamagoochi things that kids were dragging around that needed feeding, attention and
other things otherwise they die! Well those kids didn't have a "load settings back" ability. I figure that us folks can take the essence of
failure instead of covering it up with denial or pride. Come on! I'm 29 and those kids with dying tamahoochies were like 5 right?
The fun is seeing how far you can make it in FSP. How much money you can make, planes to buy, or.... go broke. It's all writing in
progress with a wildly randomness about it! I love it! Congrats to Dan and the team on an immense program!
Perhaps something in the order of a progressive saving module within FSP. It would keep a monitor of your flight time and various
items like current damages, passenger condition, etc. but as soon as you want to stop or save the session it creates an
irreversible "time stamp" of the situation linked to the company, thus hindering those cheaters from going back to an earlier state only to
save their bacon.
Just a thought and I know I ranted a but back there... I also know that Dan needs a lot of well deserved rest after launching this
phenominal program!

Like McDonals says......."I'm loving it!!!!"

Chris B.

[Ryanamur]

Hi Chris,

You're right and I totally agree with you... if only people were always that open to losing everything they've worked long hours to attain

Phil

[Pracines]

I will share what I do for long flights.

Although I have not tried it with FS passengers, I will soon.

I am a very dedicated flight simmer, so when I do a flight --- I DO a flight--- . For example if I choose to fly an airline pilot day from
city to city maybe 4-5 citys I only get "away" from my computer when I am parked at the gate. If I choose to fly a flight of say 3-8 hours I will
generally get up to cruise and let the plane fly itself and I will check it about every hour. this is where the AUTO feature of FSpassengers
will be good for me. If I am flying a 9+ hour flight I get up to cruise and go sleep while the plane is flying and wake up ( yes I set my alarm
clock---I am a really dedicated simmer) well before the descent to land. But always I intend to get my flights done without exiting FS9 at
all, unless a power failure happens or something of that nature.

As a matter of fact I rarely even exit FS9. With very little else on my P4 3.2ghz 2 gig mem 70 gigHD computer, FS9 rules my system.

As a matter of realism its better for me to do it this way, plus I have a very flexible work/home schedule that allows for lots of FS9 with
FSP! And all the other most excellent add-ons that work great with FSP!!! Not many people in the whole world are happier than me right
now.

I believe that FSP is available to us for the reason of increasing realism, so I keep it as real as it can be.

PR

[DBE]

Pracines wrote:
...I will generally get up to cruise and let the plane fly itself and I will check it about every hour....

What about when you are flying IFR? If you receive an ATC request and don't respond, your flight plan gets cancelled..

[pegase]

What about when you are flying IFR? If you receive an ATC request and don't respond, your flight plan gets cancelled..

I do like Pracines for longs or even medium flights and have been "kicked out" from ATC number of times.

Simple, re-open your flight plan, resave it answer NO to the question "place aircraft on starting point. When you re-ask an authorisation, the ATC
will take you in hand where you are.

Now I can imagine folks like Brad will cry reading that; It is simply abandon of our plane and passengers.... As well I know the real pilot lr cannot
stop in flight,OK but we ar virtual pilot of virtual plane transporting virtual passengers. At the same time we are real family members, have real
friends , real job which can eventually get the priority at any time.

I am fan of flight simming and don't want to give up. But I cannot imagine refusing the attention I ow to anyone or anything REAL just because I
still have 9 hours flight time to my virtual destination.

I read that save/reload is not supported for now. If it is a technical choice, OK, I can imagine there is big work time to do it and am fully
satisfied to get FSPassenger as it is NOW without save/reload rather than waiting endlessly a total perfection.

But I would not make a philosophic issue about saving/reloading as "cheating" . It is personal choice,. If someone start a flight and must interrupt
for several hours. pausing the game and waste electric power would be fair game while the sequence save, stop, restart, reload would be a "cheat "?
remember we are virtual pilots but some are real fire mens, doctors, technicians or simply parents who can be called at anytime when necessary.

Even for cheaters, If one save a flight begining the approach to reload in case of unhappy end... where is the problem ? Up to each of us to know what
we are doing and why.

[Gibbmusic]

DBE wrote:

What about when you are flying IFR? If you receive an ATC request and don't respond, your flight plan gets cancelled..

HINT HINT HINT:
When you get up to cruise altitude and you wish to walk away from FS9 for a while without worrying about ATC kicking you, here's a little
trick to use:
Wait until ATC hands you off to another control center. They'll tell you to contact blah blah center on blah blah frequency. Acknowledge
the handoff and then change to the next frequency, but DON'T contact the new center. Just close the ATC window and walk away. They'll
never call you until you re-establish contact. When it gets close to time for you to start your descent, just press the '~' key to reopen the
ATC window and it'll have the closest control center ready for you to contact them. Just contact them and they'll pick you up like you were
never gone. Be aware sometimes they'll give you some weird vectors for a minute because I think they are a bit confused. If you vector
you in a weird direction, something way off course, just ignore them for a second and they'll eventually catch up and vector you correctly.

Just make sure you give them enough time to descend you properly, you don't want to have to do a dive of death.

Gibbmusic

[Chris B.]

Thanx for everyone's input to this thread. I didn't mean to sound critical of the program not having a save feature. I think the program is
great and yesterday I went ahead and bought it! I know there will be updates in the future and through the natural evolution of things it will
take shape according to the whims of the forum. By the way this forum site is great too! Fast and active!

I should add that I don't quite like the thought of starting a flight and then leaving it for hours while I sleep. For one it wastes electricity and
as a pilot one should be monitoring the condition of the plane and passengers. For now I've decided to only plan destinations that are at
the end of my session time. That way I can kind of bunny hop around the world.

Chris

[pagir]

Chris B. wrote:
Thanx for everyone's input to this thread. I didn't mean to sound critical of the program not having a save feature. I think the program is
great and yesterday I went ahead and bought it! I know there will be updates in the future and through the natural evolution of things it will
take shape according to the whims of the forum. By the way this forum site is great too! Fast and active!

I should add that I don't quite like the thought of starting a flight and then leaving it for hours while I sleep. For one it wastes electricity and
as a pilot one should be monitoring the condition of the plane and passengers. For now I've decided to only plan destinations that are at
the end of my session time. That way I can kind of bunny hop around the world.

Chris

If you want to diseable de 30% penalty for accelerated time, you can in the edit file...

I don't have much time either, so... I did it...

pagir



Post Edited ( 07-12-05 16:34 )

[Big Vern]

From a slightly different angle, the ability to save is also a protection against PC crashes as well as virtual plane crashes...

[Chris B.]

Good point Big Vern.... I guess I never thought of that since I've got a well running/maintained puter.

Say... how do you guys add the nameplate logo. I've got a .jpg file all set up and ready but how do you attach?

Thanx,
Chris

[Ryanamur]

Well, with FsP you guy can no longer simply walk away for hours. You might end up at the bottom of the Atlantic faster then you think . Also, what's
the point of walking away for an hour. If you're gonna do that you can't really say that you're much better then someone using the accelerator! In
fact, the guy using the accelerator might actually have more flying experience then you do even if he's running on X16 !