Activities

[Javis]

Are there any 'Activitists' around here in the neighborhood ? I mean simmers who actually fly Activities ?....

First thing i wonder about is if it's normal that the airplane icon on the Nav Map doesn't show up ??....

It only shows up once i click the blue 'back on track' button at the bottom of the screen. There it is alright but goes away again after a few seconds.... I tried a couple of Activities just to see about that but with all of 'em there simply is no airplane icon to go along with the white route line. If there's a G1000 on board, like in the Skyhawk with the Rijeka to Santorini Activity it's Ok because both the route line and airplane icon are there on the G1000 screen.

But what about the "Breckenridge to Mariposa Yosemite" Activity for instance, with the Zlin Savage Cub that has no nav instruments at all ? ... The only way to navigate is via the Nav Map that doesn't show the airplane icon... It is said that if you use the blue 'Back on Track' button you don't get any achievements or rewards or anything like that. Not that it would interest me at all but now i finally decided to have a go at these Activities i'd like to do it the right way.

So, i'd just like to know if it's actually the meaning of 'Activities' to NOT show the airplane icon on the Nav Map. Or is it a bug ?....

Also, does every Activity needs to be flown with the givin airplane or is there a way to fly any Activity with any airplane you'd want to fly it with ? (not exactly a glass cockpit fan you see..;-)

Must say i did very much enjoy the few Activities i tried so far (just the first few miles) because of the environment and sceneries which i would've probabely never seen without them.

There's not much talk about activities here so i hope atleast one 'activitist' may be able to shed some light on this Activity Department and particularly about the missing airplane on icon the Nav Map.

Thanks very much on forehand !

Oh, and another thing, what about those payware activities in the Market Place ? Some are even 15 euros, most are about 4 or 5 euro. Are they worth paying for you think ?....

[Tom Clayton]

The activities are, as far as I know, mostly locked down, since scoring is shared globally. They're also the part that make "hardcore" sim users say that MS and Asobo are selling out to the "video game" crowd.

Personally, I've done a few of the landing challenges, but that's it. Some of them are interesting, while others (King Air into Saba) seem just about impossible.

[keithb77]

Pretty sure it's intentional to hide your position, you don't want it to be too easy

For the Cub missions maybe you need to work out a route, write it down and fly by dead-reckoning...

I've created a lot of landing challenges and modified others that I've downloaded, to change the aircraft in use.
Should be in a .FLT file.

Wouldn't buy anything from the Marketplace in a hurry, look at F.to first. XBox users are the market for Marketplace missions.

[Spook48]

Also , if you use the "back on track" function , you won't get the achievement.
edit: aaaw , you already said that.

[Javis]

Thank you, gentlemen !

Ok, so it's intentional to have no airplane icon on the map. Good to know and not that much of a problem but i think i would have made that an option. I find the environment/scenery interesting enough for me to be entertained already, atleast with the first few activities i tried. I remember with the Cub act i can follow a river for quite a while.

IIRC activities in FSX/P3D and perhaps before as well were called 'adventures', i recall one particular one in 'MSFlight' (of all flightsims..) which i loved very much and will never forget. I did create a few myself as well which was a lot of fun.

Because at one time all the bridges crossing the Harlem- and East River in New York were actually there in FSX/P3D i had the pilot fly a movie location scout to sort out the best location for a scene with one of those bridges as the backdrop, i.e. fly low and slow underneath all the bridges and over them on the return trip while the scout would take snapshots. I believe i never uploaded it but i had a lotta fun myself creating it and flying it. In fact i wouldn't mind having another go at it here in MSFS..

So thanks a lot Keith, also for pointing out the way to possibly change the aircraft and not to buy any activities in a hurry from Marketplace.

@ Tom: i don't think i have come across any locked down activity so far... Maybe i'm not looking in the right place..? I have of course not finished any of them so i don't know about 'selling out to the video game crowd' but i'll certainly try and find out if there's any truth in that statement. ( i *can* imagine but let's see first.. ;-) The one 'landing challenge' i tried so far was not worth the word 'challenge' in my humble opinion..

@ Spook: yeah, i sure knew about that my friend, hehe

[Paul K]

For some reason, I've never done a single activity. Maybe that'll change in FS24, but so far the idea has never grabbed me.

[Tom Clayton]

@ Tom: i don't think i have come across any locked down activity so far... Maybe i'm not looking in the right place..? I have of course not finished any of them so i don't know about 'selling out to the video game crowd' but i'll certainly try and find out if there's any truth in that statement. ( i *can* imagine but let's see first.. ;-) The one 'landing challenge' i tried so far was not worth the word 'challenge' in my humble opinion..

I'm thinking mainly about the landing challenges that have a global scoreboard. I'm not even sure if the files are secured, but it only makes sense - otherwise you'd have users making all sorts of tweaks to be able to cheat their way to a higher score. But then come to think of it, the last time I ran one and absolutely greased the landing, my score was still only 10% of what was posted globally. So maybe the files are not locked, or maybe users have found another way to cheat them. Either way, I haven't tried any of them in months. I'm on my laptop right now, but I'll try to remember to look on my game rig when I get home to see if there are ways to edit the default activities.

[Javis]

Thanks Tom. Must say these landing challenges don't interest me very much. Feels like only eating the Cherry on the Cake and throw away the Cake itself. It *does* help a lot not becoming fat.

I see such wonderful and divers looking sceneries in the Screenshot forum i really love to have a look at myself. The few initial activity flights i did sofar showed me this might just be the best chance to see some of that. I only have to push myself to get along with a glass cockpit or atleast make friends with that G1000 (i'm an old VOR2VOR rambler with OBI's and ADF in my knapsack) and probabely then this activity world could become my oyster.

[paiken]

Get yourself a copy of Little Navmap. It's a freeware moving map program that tracks you as you fly. Makes the bush trip activities much easier when you can see where you are. I have done most of the bush trips, excepting the last two or three world updates with no issues. Technically it isn't cheating as MSFS has no way of knowing if you're using a third party program.

[Javis]

Thanks Paiken !

Oh yes, have my eyes on that Little Navmap for quite a while already. Just didn't find the time to install and get familiar with it sofar. This might be just the right time to finally get at it.

Thanks for the reminder !

[keithb77]

Technically it isn't cheating

So you're only cheating yourself...(of the challenge)...

[Tom Clayton]

In a real cockpit, there's no such thing as cheating. Anything that makes the pilot's job easier is a good thing. So if you want to call this a "simulator" and not a game, then bringing something along to make things easier is a plus!

[Sunny9850]

Are there any 'Activitists' around here in the neighborhood ? I mean simmers who actually fly Activities ?....

First thing i wonder about is if it's normal that the airplane icon on the Nav Map doesn't show up ??....

But what about the "Breckenridge to Mariposa Yosemite" Activity for instance, with the Zlin Savage Cub that has no nav instruments at all ? ... The only way to navigate is via the Nav Map that doesn't show the airplane icon... It is said that if you use the blue 'Back on Track' button you don't get any achievements or rewards or anything like that. Not that it would interest me at all but now i finally decided to have a go at these Activities i'd like to do it the right way.

Must say i did very much enjoy the few Activities i tried so far (just the first few miles) because of the environment and sceneries which i would've probabely never seen without them.

There's not much talk about activities here so i hope atleast one 'activitist' may be able to shed some light on this Activity Department and particularly about the missing airplane on icon the Nav Map.

The easier activities give you a GPS equipped aircraft and you see the WPs on the screen there.
The Mariposa is strictly whiskey compass and time….and of course looking out the windows.
the descriptions of each leg and the stunningly accurate visuals in MSFS actually make this one of my favorite activities.

I have flown that trip in part both in my Saratoga and in a friends SuperCub. And MSFS puts you right there. Simply incredible.

But for most of the activities I have used LLNM to plan the flight and to keep track of progress, because that’s what I did in the real airplane as well. Maps, notepad and pencil along with a dual stop watch was always on my kneeboard. Even if I just flew down to San Diego, which was pretty much “IFR” meaning the I10 and then the I15 from L67.

I would need to read a lot of rave reviews before I would shell out money for an activity like that. Simply because I don’t think I would refly them all that often. So it’s not worth it to me.

Landing challenges I have done a few, simply to see if I can get an airplane safety into a certain airport or not. The scoring is not really interesting to me. To be honest my PC is just not good enough to provide high enough stable FPS, to qualify among the top scorers.

[Javis]

Thanks very much for your input, Sunny, i do like your comments especially about the Mariposa activity !

All in all i have a much better understanding about MSFS activities now and how to use/fly them thanks to you guys. Actually i can't remember having ever been let down by response to my occasional inquiries about flight simulator- or real world aviation intricacies. Compliments to SOH and its friendly and competent user base !

And on the side i finally got that Little Nav Map i always wanted to have on my SSD as well !

Thanks again, gentlemen !