Would anyone participate?

[bgenesis]

If we (my friend and I) were to host a virtual fly-in/airshow, would people participate as long as it was well organised and interesting? I don't see many events going on in FS' multiplayer world as of late and I wouldn't mind seeing my own event up there for people to join in.

Anyway, we're deciding on the list of events, if people wish to contribute any ideas or participate in the airshow itself (rather than just flying in) please go here:

http://avwiki.spheredev.net/index.php?title=Flightsim/Multiplayer/Airshow
(Feel free to register and join in with the wiki!)

I'm a newbie to flight simulator multiplayer, and I will sightsee some other events (care to point out any post-May?) to see how it is all carried out (I have a basic idea.) We're planning on scheduling the show for autumn if people are interested... please give me your feedback.

Thanks in advance, bg.

[salt_air]

Hi bg,

Welcome to the forum. The forum moderators here have been organizing monthly events since the forum was started, about a year ago now, other than that there have been a few impromtu events. All of these have been annouced through posts here in this forum. The "monthlys" have been sanctioned and require prior registration and passwords to participate, the others have been a kind of "come as you are" thing. Both have been very successful and supported. I'm sure if you and your friend announced an event that there would be a good response to it. You know "build it and they will come". I would strongly advise researching right here, in this forum, any or all of the past events. You name it and thanks to the forum moderators, Ed(LJ922) and Geoff(capn_sonic) in no particular order, have done it or something close. If you or anyone else would aspire to create an on-line event centered around MS Flight Simulator all the info needed would come from these guys. As well as your own research you could get a lot of info and answers to any questions you may have by asking them directly as they are both very accomodating as well. You can look elseware but these two are the best. Hope this is some help to ya and look forward to your announcement.

Best regards,

[capn_sonic]

Hey bg,
Welcome to our humble abode my friend. I would be very interested in following your 'planning stages' for an airshow. It is something I have been toying with in the back of my mind for some time now. As an impromptu event you should get quite a bit of interest, not just here but beyond here also. I will be watching this one with anticipation. If you need any help then shove a note on this forum and there are a great bunch folk that would reply to you relatively quickly.

One of the things that has the potential to spoil an airshow is the sheer volume of spectators that would cripple the framerates for the participants, so based on that fact I would recommend you do either, or both, of the following:
1: Set a minimum system spec for anyone who wishes to participate. Make that system spec quite high.
or
2: Ensure that all spectators join in observer mode only.

Don't know if you have your own server but you are welcome to use ours for the event if you like.

Best
Geoff (capn_sonic@flightsim.com)
http://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/Attachments/up1/76826.jpg

[bgenesis]

Thanks both of you... now I don't have anywhere to run a server anyway so I would be very glad if you could help me out there.

I also wanted to know if any events were coming up, so I could watch and find out how things are run if you know what I mean.

Next, are there any virtual flying clubs still around? I want to start using FS' multiplayer features in a more day-to-day environment.

Until then, back to exam revision!!

~bg

[salt_air]

Hey bg,

There's a bunch of us that participate in regular events which are usually are held around the second Sunday in each month. You should plan to come out and join us on the next one in a couple of weeks.
Announcement will be made in this forum with all the details (times and dates and any thing else that would be needed). Any one can take part in these events. They would be an excellent place to find out how things are run. As far as day-to-day multi-player environment you should download a free program that gives you an up to the minute listing of multi-player servers and there addresses that are running all sorts of flights. Go to http://www.chocolatesoftware.com/fshostspy/ and download the FSHost Spy Ver. 1.1 . Not FSHost . You might want to pick-up a free program that is popular as well for voice communication from
http://www.goteamspeak.com and download the TS2 Client in the quick downloads section upper right on the home page. Each site has a lot of info and help if needed.

We have a great time at these events, but it's also where I've been able to find out from the others how to do just about anything that MSFS is capable of doing. See ya next month.

Best,

[bgenesis]

Awesome salt_air, do these events work like flyins? Well, then I better practice, I'm not a *very* good pilot right now. :D Well, see ya next month (If there aren't any exams I have to revise for!!)

~BG

[salt_air]

No worries BG,

Quite often the events include a fly-in as a part of it, fly-out as well. That's when we usually chat about ideas and questions. It's a really relaxed and friendly atmosphere. Frankly , I can't think of any subject in FS that hasn't been discussed at any level. So far we've done things like: Fly-in to a couple of different locations and then switch over to play golf, those that didn't want to play took flying tours of the scenery, Kapalua in Hawaii, for example. We've had serval competitions like landing DHC-6 Twin Otters on top of Mt. Mckinley after flying from Anchorage AK to a cabin at the base of the mountain. There was a glider/parasail event in Nepal where we flew off of MT Everest to a target area. Powerboat races around Nassau, after a fly-in of course. Refueled F-18 Hornets(mid-air) over Bermuda.
Just a few all of which can be read about in detail here in the forum. You'll have to go back a couple of pages to find them but it's worth it. Any of the scenery or equipment downloads required were free and readily available right here as well as immediate help, if needed, with their installation. We are a group of FS "nuts" from all walks of life, all ages, and from all over the world(England, Europe, Australia, Canada, and several states in the US, hope I didn't leave anybody out) that love to fly and love to help out anybody that's interested in joining in on the fun. Look forward to meeting you out on the server. Anytime you can fly just hook-up to the server here at 82.152.80.185 and get to know everybody. Even if nobody else is on, sooner or later someone will show up. Come on out, your missing out on a lot of great stuff and it's all free. Oh yeah, last February three websites: FlightSim, Av sim, and Sim Outhouse raced around the world in the mother of all events. Took four days 24/7. Must have been two or three dozen pilots on our team taking two hour turns. There will be a journal released any time now on that one. Awesome.

Speak soon,

[bgenesis]

That race must have been awesome! I'm planning a Spitfire race sometime as well, not to mention the virtual counterpart of the cross-Australia Tiger Moth Rally...

Lots of great events cooking up I see. I was also planning on creating a small site that would take a tally on everything going on in the community. Stuff like a VA register, an events calendar for you multiplayer buffs... tell me what you think!

[salt_air]

Tell ya what,

We are (this month) trying to give are moderators a break by "coming up" with ideas for an event in May. Why don't you send the ideas that you have to Ed(LJ922)or Geoff(capn_sonic) or just post them here. You've got some great ideas about things to do. So far all of your suggestions have been right on. I'll sign up right now for the Tiger Moth or the Spit event.

I'm attaching a rough draft of a journal about the race.

Best regards,

[bgenesis]

Thank you salt_air! I'll start organising these events as soon as my exams are over. I am also creating a website (with my PHP skillz XD) to act as a centre for the events (as Smitty's site worked for the RTW relay).

A few quetsions though.
- What information/forms should the site(s) have? Should I create a forum?
- Smitty's site had information on weather etc. I will hopefully find a way to automate that, but how do I take information from flight simulator? Are there programs for this? Do I need to take any info from FS?
- What do I need to organise for such an event? Rules, etc?

This is my first time, so I'd appreciate any help. Once again, thanks for all your help salt_air!! Everything should begin end-May (after my exams!!)

~BG

[bgenesis]

I also wanted to ask (sorry for the double post - editing period expired apparently) if anyone would rather join a round-the-world any aircraft rally, rather than just spitfires (which can get slow.)

However, it would work on a different system from the cross-forum relay.

[salt_air]

BG,

Glad to help, but the real tech stuff is over my head. I just have a great appreciation for it, no skills at all in applying what little I understand about it. Smitty and John Mueller both had sites that we used during the event. They were the real genius behind what was going on in that respect during the race. Since you are kinda busy now(exams) I'd just take whatever opportunity you have to enter an event or two and see just what is going on on how things are set-up.
Mostly you will be the one who decides these things and I would think that practice will make perfect. Just throw something out there for us to try and take note of thoughts and comments. It's always constructive and friendly and won't hurt a bit. If it was me I'd keep it simple so I could spend more time havig fun and less time trying to manage things, unless that's fun for ya. It is for some. Ok look forward to see what you'll come up with and I'll see ya goofing off on the server in your spare time or in the next event. Bye for now.

Regards,

[bgenesis]

As you can see, I'm getting my creative juices flowing and have made a banner (feel free to use it). With some free time I'll also begin working on a website:

- Signups
- Rules & Info
- Special stuff for on the day ;)

The events I'm considering handling:

- Cross-Aus Tiger Moth Rally :: This will be good for starters as it should be relatively easy to organise, and if anyone's ever watched the real thing (Discovery Wings Tigermoth Night) you'll know how it works, and it's GREAT fun.

- RTW Spitfire Rally '05 :: Like Spits? You'll love this. I know I will.

I like managing things and having a website that does it all for me will make it even easier (the magic of PHP)... see you on the server sometime (no one was online today, maybe cause I'm on UK GMT time.)

[capn_sonic]

I have exactly the same problem.
It seems that the server, which is located in a spare bedroom on my house near Liverpool-UK, is at it's busiest during the small hours of the morning, of which I am usually asleep :-)
The best time to find someone on, if you are in the UK as I am, is after 8pm local time.
One of the reasons we try to time the monthly events for 21:00 is to reach a happy medium with all the time zones accross the world. It's kinda impossible to hit the mark with everyone but 21:00 BST seems to work Ok. Haven't had any complaints as of yet.

This months event will be posted shortly, It is a really simple event this month and Ideal for any newcomers to join in due to it's lack of complexity, Why not give it a shot and join us. Details will be up soon.

Best
Geoff (capn_sonic@flightsim.com)
http://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/Attachments/up1/76826.jpg

[bgenesis]

I've got a question for you all... would you rather have it an all-Spitfire contest, or a WW2 aircraft contest (Mustangs, Me109's, Zeroes...) tell me what you think.

The first event we are organising is the Cross-Aus Tiger Moth Rally, so grab tiger4free.zip, make your own liveries and get ready!!

The beginnings of a website are up at:
http://wbdevents.spheredev.net/

[salt_air]

Hey BG,

Gonna be out on the server (82.152.80.185) May 1, Sunday 2100 BST till whenever. Be a bunch of us on trying to get conections worked out for teamspeak and what ever else you would need to participate in the regular events here. Be a good time to see what's going on and how it's done. Afterwards Geoff will be grilling some hot dogs and hamburgers for us all, so come on out. See you there, I'll be bringing in a case of "cold ones" to chase down the food.

Best,

[bgenesis]

Cool, I'll try to be there! So that's 9pm UK time, correct? Awesome, I'll have to get teamspeak... don't make fun of my voice! ;)

See ya there,

[salt_air]

Hey man,

This is not an oppourtunity to make fun of anyone for anything and never will be. It's just an oppourtunity to meet fellow enthusiasts at all levels and make friends while you learn in the best possible environment. Look forward to talking and listening to ya Sunday. Just hope that I can help in some way and share what has been given to me.

Best,



:-)

[bgenesis]

Cool, well, I'll be there with my BD5J. Should have finished lots of exam revision by then and I'll give myself the free time.