My Big Question...!

[mike_cyul]

I'm sort of with N2056 on this - there's only so many hours in a day, and making planes is veeery time consuming.

The times I have flown have been nice, however. The last time, I just casually entered a room, and found these guys flying formation in the Grumman Goose, in a strait line, on and on, and so I joined in and no one said anything. They were all talking with each other, and eventually I realized I was with a group of long-distance truckers, who were, I'm pretty sure, flying together from their cabs as they were parked for the night. Then the flying style sort of fit in, I thought. It was nice to be a part of it.

Mike

[MCDesigns]

I tried MP in FS9 and the actual visuals really put me off, non turning rotors, hide and seek mesh, making sure everyone had the same addons. Is FSX any better?

If so, I'd love to hook up, what are the things needed, especially for voice?

I'm wiith Glenn, no desire for any kind of structure, but more scenarios and such.

[glennc]

Ed, roger - but I want to be where the big TV is, too. I added another observation about the length of most of my flights - short.

Kiwikat, I guess I understand that. I have a feeling if I ever did it, I'd get hooked. Most of my week day flying is in two windows about an hour and a half wide so that limits availability.

One of the reasons I love these forums is conversations like this.

Glenn

[Kiwikat]

I tried MP in FS9 and the actual visuals really put me off, non turning rotors, hide and seek mesh, making sure everyone had the same addons. Is FSX any better?

If so, I'd love to hook up, what are the things needed, especially for voice?

FSX's multiplayer fixes most rotors and problems like that. Rarely you'll run into an issue, but I'd say it works about 95% of the time. You only play hide and seek if your fellow simmers are using different mesh. Even then, it is rarely a problem.

As for voice, download teamspeak. It isn't required though as FSX has its own voice transmission, however I find it to be far too quiet to be useful. Teamspeak always works better.

Kiwikat, I guess I understand that. I have a feeling if I ever did it, I'd get hooked. Most of my week day flying is in two windows about an hour and a half wide so that limits availability.

Most of my flights on multiplayer are less than an hour or are broken up into smaller hops.

[THibben]

Have never flown MP. I don't have the slightest idea how and guess I have never had the urge to try.

Tom

[spotlope]

I've flown MP maybe three times in six years, so I voted "never" (that's pretty close to never). The primary reasons are that I tend to fly on a whim here and there when I can squeeze it in between development sessions and the rest of real life, and secondarily that every time I've tried it, it's been a huge pain from a software and setup perspective. My rig, which is tuned very nicely for single player flights, seems to develop all new quirks when I join a MP flight. Consequently, I tend to take the easy way out and just fly alone.

I love the concept of MP flying, but the execution still leaves a lot to be desired IMO. Not counting it out for the future, though.

[Lotus]

Haven't flown singleplayer for pleasure in 3 years, not once. Can't be bothered, it just holds no attraction for me anymore. I didn't do much single in FS9 either. The two most memorable multi flights for me were both round-the-world hops. One in FS9 with two Spitfires (96 legs, 160 hours to complete) and the other the exact opposite, five SR-71s (12 legs, 13 hours of magnificent mach 3.2 mayhem).

I wish I could still enjoy singleplayer flight, but I get bored silly in about 5 mins, but then I've been using FS nonstop for 22 years haha.

Oh and my sessions have zero structure or rules. Put on some good tunes, pick a destination, blast through the mountains and have a cool philosophical discussion with my friends on whatever comes to mind. Sometimes we go for serious realism, sometimes we just do whatever we like, but I love it all.

Wish I had more time for them lately.


-Mike

[HeyChief]

Haven't flown MP for about 2 years now.
Did it all the time on the WSP servers with falcon and the rest of the gang.
My power supply burned up and it gave me a chance to get back into photography.
But now that I'm fully retired, I'll have the chance to do some online flying again.
I marked "rarely", but that will change in the weeks ahead.

HC

[jetstreamsky]

I fly MP once a week with a friend, I enjoy it immensely there`s something special about jumping in one kind of flying machine or other and just striking out somewhere different in the world. The shared experience and the views with two craft flying together over some interesting scenery is just great, perhaps the best flights are ridge soaring in the DG808S glider or the Genesis, you`ve got to work just that little bit more to stay aloft and together. The experience changes too whether it some GA machine, helicopters, gliders or even heavy metal navigating somewhere in foul weather.

[Hanimichal]

2.)
Multiplyer often flying.
because I prefer live real people in the trafic
And I´m not pilot and never be one. i'm only gamer and I like play with others :ernae:

3.)
I dont know

GameSpy: Hanibal__111

[falcon409]

Oh well, I just spent about 10m minutes typing a long winded response to what we've seen on the poll and instructions on how to get into an MP session using FSHost Client and Team Speak and I look up and the stupid browser closed on me. Geeeze Louise.

Oh well, if anyone is interested (and it would appear that's not the case, lol), download FSHost Client and Team Speak and Kiwikat or myself or anyone else who wishes to can answer any questions about getting up and running.

Thanks Kiwikat for a really eye opening poll. . .I'm still a bit zonked by the poor numbers for true MP aficionados. Hey, maybe when I wake up tomorrow morning we'll be ahead, lol.

[Francois]

I used to do it quite often and even have a MP server running still with some 10 groups on it using it.....

But I simply don't have the time anymore. It requires planning, for me usually at odd ours (being most people I know are in the US and I am in Western Europe), it requires a stable PC (which I have not due to teh many add-on projects and other work I do on it), and it requires some peace to sit down and 'waste' a few hours on others.

Waste of course is a joke... it was really fun while it lasted, for many years, but can't afford it now.

Still, I hope to see more people doing it again... it adds a separate facet to the simming.

[Overshoe]

I voted "never." One man's pleasure is another man's pain. I flew MP in FS9 for a year or so, but it was hit or miss and in the end seemed more like work than fun so I quit. I enjoyed flying with 2-3 friends on the one server with teamspeak, but that server went away and I never got comfortable anywhere else.
With FSX, the effort has not seemed worth it, although one of my close friends has started flying online so who knows?
Why don't more people fly online? Some don't know they can, some can't figure it out, some can't be bothered, some played all the missions and beat the game and tossed it in the corner, some don't have the equipment, some don't have the time, some have been insulted or abused. As many reasons as people I guess.

[SpaceWeevil]

Another MP virgin here. I tend to squeeze in short flights in the gaps between family, romance and music. Many times I've been at Duxford on non-show days and the Corsair or one of the Spits is trundled out for an air test and a short practice display - that's what I do most of the time.

The other issue is good old British "broadband." With my blistering IP profile of 1750kbps and two teenage daughters sharing my wireless connection, I barely have the bandwith for e-mail.

[Nick C]

In FS9 I used to fly on-line all the time, either on the Emma Field server (thanks Francois) or on occasion when that was down, on Netwings. Always with FSHost. The EFC server always used to have a few friendly people kicking around as did the Netwings server, although I preferred the EFC server as it was password protected and I wasn't asked "hey look at me landing on this roof in my 747" all the time...well except when members were drunk!

Then FSX divided the community and the servers grew quiet. Wheras before you could just fire up FSHost and Teamspeak and join a like minded bunch (of nutters usually), any MP event had to be planned otherwise you'd be on your own. So after a short while you stop dropping by the servers.

FSX - Gamespy. I took part in my first MP session in quite awhile on Sunday afternoon with Ian Pearson. We loaded up Gamespy and ran the L-39 in shared cockpit mode. I certainly had a blast. However, I had the sim set up to start Multiplayer in the Bushflying room where it's much quieter, but when I swapped to the Freeflight room afterwards to see what was going on, I was almost immediately kicked out. It took me 15 attempts to get logged back onto MP long enough to switch to the Bushflying room where it seems more stable.

Now in three weeks I won't remember tooling around having fun with a mate, I'll remember the bruise on my head which occurred while trying to log onto Gamespy.

So what about FSHost? It was excellent with FS9 and most likely still is, but it never worked as well with FSX and the lag stutters made it unusable in my eyes.

So to summarise, I love flying in MP, but I've found the environment in which I have to do it severely lacking. Sad really as I've never really enjoyed flying in the sim very much since I stopped flying FS9 in multiplayer.

[Nick C]

...eventually I realized I was with a group of long-distance truckers, who were, I'm pretty sure, flying together from their cabs as they were parked for the night. Then the flying style sort of fit in, I thought.

That makes me wonder how other professions would fly. What about those from the 'oldest profession', would they be bouncing and weaving all over the place, their engines screaming and groaning? Perhaps that's for another thread though. :d

[Kiwikat]

Thanks for the responses everyone. Keep them coming. It sounds like we could have enough interest to get a SOH group together.

[gigabyte]

I have always wanted to try multi player, but my main issue has been communication, really my problem is the sound quality of pc headsets. Being deaf and using a cochlear implant (which is WONDERFUL technology believe me) makes things like this hard, in order to get a headset that will work well with the implant means $$$ and I really can't justify the cost to just try it out. I do most of my flying with no sound at all and enjoy it very much.

[jankees]

Have never flown MP. I don't have the slightest idea how and guess I have never had the urge to try.

Tom

the same for me.
Apart from that, I paint aircraft, make test flights and continue painting..

[2Low]

1/ Done

2/ I voted never because although I've tried 4 or 5 times I was never able to succesfully stay logged on for more than 10 seconds or so. Very frustrating.

3/ I think many of the reasons people don't have already been hit on;

-don't know how (succesfully)
-don't know you can
-fear of being criticized for piloting ability
-been treated rudely in past mp experiences
-no set free time
-time zone/planning issues
-some use FS as an escape from everything and want to be alone
-fear it's too structured
-just plane shy (pun intended)
-for some the anomilies (seeing a 747 rather than a B-17), mesh issues, etc are too annoying
-no head set, slow typer
-don't know anyone else who does
-and on and on and on

I am very interested in MP but need help setting it up. I'm not a great pilot, don't know correct proceedures and navigation is something I could not figure out.

I'd like to fly with others for fun but also at times to learn. I learn better from listening, watching and doing along with the reading.

I've been using FSRecord to fly formation or play "follow the leader" but it would be more fun with others. I don't have a single friend into aeroplanes or simming so online flying would allow me to share this hobby with others.

If you start a group I'd join but would need help getting up and running. I don't have TrackIR but would purchase one soon if I could get multi player working.

Great poll.

[Kiwikat]

I'd be happy to give you a hand connecting to a server. PM me if you are interested sometime.

This also goes for anyone else that would like a hand with gamespy, FSHost, or Teamspeak.

[Francois]

I see a few people here who don't know HOW, both from a technical perspective and from a flying perspective.

We provided 'MP & Flying' lessons via the Emma Field Flying Club a few years ago and successfully got quite a few people to master both setting up multiplayer AND flying FS aircraft.

Key was to have a patient instructor, do it one-one-one or one-on-two (to get rid of the 'shy' thing) and to NOT make anything too formal.
Quite a few of the people who learned back then are the ones STILL flying MP today !

It was fun and rewarding to get people into this new aspect (to them) of simming and I wish I stil had the time to do it. But it DOES take time, especially with less computer-literate candidates...

[flyinjake]

My Dad and I have flown some MP in the past but over the last two years we have not. Seems like we are always on different paths plus my system and FSX have been fighting each other. When flying we would just pick an airport and pick a direction. We didnt fly in formation but we would generally head in the same direction.

An idea:
I would like to see some type of missions if possible. For example; I could go on a server and place my aircraft, or some other object, somewhere while others try to find it. Of course we would need to turn off markers so its not so easy to spot. Fly by and take a screen shot then post it back into a thread on SOH.

[falcon409]

Yea, good discussion going here to be sure. I wanted to post a few things to think about that folks can expect when setting up for Multiplayer Sessions using FSHost Client and Team Speak.

First off FSHost is used solely for FS9 MP Flights. . . .in FSX you must use FSHost Client which you can download on their website at
www.chocolatesoftware.com
In FS9 you don't have to remain in window mode to fly, but
in FSX you can only use window mode due to the chat window pop up. They have yet to figure a way to get it to show up with the view set to full. It's just the way it is so be aware of that.

Team Speak is used for Comm. You do not need TS to fly in Multiplayer. It's a great advantage, but I promise, you don't need it to fly. There is a chat box as part of FSHost Client that allows you to type your communications with other pilots. That comm scrolls across the top of the screen and everyone sees it.
The one big advantage to Team Speak is that while flying, you don't have to sit there typing while you're trying to set up to take off or land. So it does have it's advantages.

[falcon409]

Part 2, lol
Ok, one of the things that always bugged me about FS9 was that if you didn't have the same aircraft as the rest of the people flying and vise versa, you could be flying a tubeliner, but they would see you as a Cessna, lol. In FS9 you have to have the same aircraft and textures to see you partners correctly. A lot of times most were willing to switch prior to take off to something that everyone had, or something closer at least so you didn't have a 747 doing a hover over the rwy or setting down on top of a building, lol.

Well, with FSX (as long as everyone is flying FSX), you now have the option to select a player in the chatbox and then change the aircraft you see him flying into one you have in your hangar. Pretty cool actually, so flying dissimilar aircraft isn't as big a problem with FSX because you have the ability to change that. I know I saw a few who said the inability to see certain animations was a downer for them. There is a click box in FSX and FS9 Multiplayer setup that ensures that others can see your animations, That doesn't guarantee that every animated sequence can be seen (opening and closing canopies is one that doesn't always work), but generally flight control surfaces, lights and sometimes doors can be seen on other aircraft when animated.