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  • Real World Time

    Hello. I think that now we are becoming more realistic with fsx comms, I think that we should use real world time in the server. There are 4 main reasons for this.

    1. Having out-dated time makes it harder to find accurate metars and wx info.

    2. Many people prefer to fly at earlier times (especially on weekends and holidays).

    3. If we fly in the night for even just an hour every weekday evening, it would help to improve our flying skill so much and make us less hating of night flights.

    4. It just generally makes it more realistic

    Example: Recently, a few of us were flying KMIA to TNCM one noon (early evening for me). However, everyone went berserk at the fact it was night when it was day in real night. Also, for my West Indian (now known as Caribbean) tour last week, it was night for a high duration of it which was quite annoying.

    I hope you will take this into consideration as I feel this will make this server a much better place to be on.
    13
    Yes
    23.08%
    3
    No
    76.92%
    10

    The poll is expired.


  • #2
    Djchanas, while I do agree with you to an extent, allow me to explain what someone else will explain again later. As I understand it, the server is kept at GMT-7 because the majority of the members of the site and therefore pilots in the server live in the U.S. and would prefer to be able to come home from a day of work and fly around during the day. Many of them enjoy that. Not being an admin I can't really say much more because I don't know much more. However I do know this.

    Several people from several places (myself included) have attempted to build a case for a real zulu time setting on the server, to date not one has been successful. It's an administrative decision and even though I don't entirely agree with it I have come to actually enjoy it a bit. I love flying at night, so in order to do that I often have to fly in places I've never been before because that's where it's dark. As I said I'm sure someone else will come in behind me and explain it in a manner better than my own. I hope I was able to shed just a bit more light on it. Till then, you can find me in the dark.
    When God finally says, "King, my office. Now!" I want to go barreling in there half spun out with holes in my clothes, smoke rising from me, and my hair in a mess. I want to be busy. I don't want to go explain myself and not have a great story to go along with it.

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    • #3
      hi, in adition to Gimpy, i have a FSOpen.net registered Server down in the German Lobby what we use normaly for Groupflights (at Day-Time when it is dark on the Main Server )for our HotDog Air Service. So if a Group of European pilots need Daylight somewhere, feel free to ask me for boot em up. this server runs the same setup like the mainserver does and is staying at my home in Spain.
      CaseyRyback59/Andreas
      Staff Member
      VA-Manager

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      • #4
        Originally posted by Djchanas View Post
        Hello. I think that now we are becoming more realistic with fsx comms, I think that we should use real world time in the server. There are 4 main reasons for this.

        1. Having out-dated time makes it harder to find accurate metars and wx info.

        2. Many people prefer to fly at earlier times (especially on weekends and holidays).

        3. If we fly in the night for even just an hour every weekday evening, it would help to improve our flying skill so much and make us less hating of night flights.

        4. It just generally makes it more realistic

        Example: Recently, a few of us were flying KMIA to TNCM one noon (early evening for me). However, everyone went berserk at the fact it was night when it was day in real night. Also, for my West Indian (now known as Caribbean) tour last week, it was night for a high duration of it which was quite annoying.

        I hope you will take this into consideration as I feel this will make this server a much better place to be on.
        I very much disagree with this proposal. And FSX comms were enabled by mistake, not by design. I trust that we will restore TeamSpeak-only comms very soon, which is what this community prefers. Point by point:

        1. It's very easy to find accurate METARS and weather info, whatever the time is set to. Don't assume you have anything like real world weather on the server anyway, so any METARS will be close to useless as Jeppesen weather has not been available for years. If you want to fly real world weather, get FSrealWX lite (freeware) or Active Sky Next (payware). They give you METARS too. Or you can get METARS from Skyvector or Plan-G, although they're useless unless you have a real world weather engine client-side.

        2. Most people prefer to fly in the evening, US time. Most people are at work, or at school, or are busy with real world errands during the day. Take regular samples of this server's population for a few weeks and you'll see.

        3. The world is wide. People choose where to fly. It's always night somewhere. If people want to do night flying, they will. Meanwhile, though they're not averse to occasional night flying, a lot of people like to fly at daytime most of the time, and they like to fly with friends around their home country. Do you think people would spend hard cash on fancy US scenery if they didn't want to see it? So with the majority of pilots being US based, it makes sense to keep the offset.

        4. There are people who think realism is king. But there are degrees. Unless you are sitting inside a full-size commercial simulator with full-motion hydraulics and with accurate and comprehensive single-airplane hardware and software (such as I built professionally) - plus a pressure suit if you like flying military planes - realism will not really be there to any great degree. So we all "make believe" to some extent and get immersed to some degree. Immersion is helped more by aircraft sight, sound and handling, plus weather and scenery, than what time of day it is. But even then it only helps, because - in the end - you become immersed only to the extent you give yourself permission to be. There are other FSX servers around that are closer to Zulu, just like there are other servers which are heavily ATC based for those who like that kind of role-playing. This community has chosen otherwise.

        If you have organized a group flight, and it's been on the calendar for several days, why not contact the FSX server admin and request a different time shift for your event, or even special weather? Such requests are often viewed favorably if made politely and with enough notice.

        Comment


        • #5
          Djchanas,

          let me try and answer your points:

          1. Having out-dated time makes it harder to find accurate metars and wx info.
          Metar information and weather info is taken from real world time. So if you are using a weather engine or checking the real life metar it is going to be the same as it is in the real world right now. The only difference is visually the sun / moon is going to be in a different place. On top of that the server uses the native "real-world" Jepperson weather which is not that accurate anyway.

          2. Many people prefer to fly at earlier times (especially on weekends and holidays).
          Indeed, people love to fly at all times of day and night in their own real world locations. As a very wide and extensive global community we support everyone by supporting everyone who after going to school / college / work for the day would like to fly in their local area and not always at night! If you are flying earlier then remember that at least half the globe is always in daylight!

          3. If we fly in the night for even just an hour every weekday evening, it would help to improve our flying skill so much and make us less hating of night flights.
          It is not about hating or loving night flying, it is more about the experience of a group flight. A group flight where there is nothing to see except the occasional flash of navigation lights can be a little tedious. Group flights are as much about the journey as it is the destination.

          4. It just generally makes it more realistic
          In the end this is a simulation and something for everyone to enjoy. Whilst we take a degree of realism seriously in our community, at the same time we came here to fly and that's exactly what we are going to do.

          Group flight concerns
          In the case of group flights we do sometimes change the time on the server to accommodate group flights. I would strongly recommend that you take a look over the guides we have on how to get the most of your group flight to look for some pointers!

          http://msflights.net/forum/showthrea...t-Group-Flight

          Additionally as Casey has said his Hotdog server is available on request as it is opposite the Msflights server in terms of day/night cycle.

          I hope this clarifies the reasoning behind the server time

          Safe skies

          Novawing24
          Per Ardua Ad Astra

          Check out my videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/Novawing24
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          Official Novawing24 website! http://www.novawing24.com
          My Onedrive! http://tinyurl.com/novawing24-onedrive

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          • #6
            The server is always set to -5 hours. The logic behind that is most people like to fly in their home areas, and most people can only fly after they get home from work and eat dinner.

            So with the -5 hours offset, whether you live in the United States, Germany or Australia you can fly in daylight around your country after work and dinner

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            • #7
              What does "realism" mean anyway? This is a flight simulation game, where we have the opition to control many of the parameters we chose to fly in. Why remove this capability based on some sort of sense of "realism" that really is a illusion we want in the first place. There are ways to get exactly the effect you want, and they have been explaned to you in detail in this thread, so use them. Why prevent others from getting more enjoyment in this game to satisfy your need for "realism"?

              -Coast
              "Having fun with friends! "

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              • #8
                what about weekends?

                Comment


                • #9
                  Weekend, weekday... My availability is the same either way. During the day I'll be doing house/yard work, taking the kid to the park, spending time with my family to not piss off my wife, etc. The only "free" time I have the potential for is during naps, or after I put the kid to bed.

                  Now those may not be issues in your life, but according to the 2013 AVSIM demographic survey, an overwhelming majority of flight sim enthusiasts are over 26. I would guess for most of them, they will have additional responsibilities that require their attention on weekends. Of course everyone's schedules and priorities are different. Having it set to -5 all the time helps accommodate the majority of people consistently.
                  - Michael
                  Check out my cockpit build!

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                  • #10
                    well. i think, everything is said about it and we are pleased now more than 2 years with it. there is no reason to change it because of the needs of a 12 years old kid
                    CaseyRyback59/Andreas
                    Staff Member
                    VA-Manager

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Would a smaller time off set be a compromise? say roughly half, rounding up? so if its -5 then change to -3, or -7 to -4. I agree sometimes it is annoying to fly at night when you don't want to, but my work schedule is very sporadic, If I don't want to fly at night I will usually explore Europe like the alps if I am up in the morning at US Eastern time. So for me it has given me a push to explore new and different unseen(by me) lands. I enjoy visual flying a lot, but I am planning to go to school for aviation and would like to gain some realistic COMs skills. I know for sure this is not the server for that (except maybe 1 on 1 flying with a real world pilot here). I have been looking for places to do that sort of thing and if you need assistance finding one I am sure I can point you in a starting direction for that upon request in a private message. However I do primarily fly here because it is a community and I enjoy flying with people I know. I encourage you to do the same, but keep in mind please do not advertise other servers or sites on this server. It is probably against the rules and even if it isn't it is rude and fairly annoying.

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                      • #12
                        Remember as well that the days are getting shorter... In a few months it will be dark at 5:30 PM. Think about how the offset would affect that.
                        - Michael
                        Check out my cockpit build!

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          I could be evil and suggest something like a rolling off-set... say, an additional -1 hour or +1 hour every 24 hours, resulting in a 23-hour FSX day.

                          I won't suggest that, though, for two primary reasons:
                          - It will mean kicking everyone off of the server at some point every day in order to set the new server time.
                          - It will mean somebody will have the responsibility to reset the server every day, without vacations, sick days, or overtime pay.

                          Needless to say (but I'm going to say it anyway), such a 23-hour scheme would be pretty cool, IMHO!

                          P.S.- Just think about all of the open-world games on the PC and console gaming markets today. How many of them have weather that stays the same for an hour -- or even 15 minutes? How many sunrises and sunsets can a gamer sit through in a two-hour gaming session? I'm sure this comment will draw at least some un-written debate, but wouldn't a flight simulator with more dynamic day/night cycles and weather changes keep simmers/gamers/pilots in their "seats" looking out the "window" rather than bored on set-it-and-forget-it autopilot flights?
                          Take the time, a second to soar; for soon after, beckons a second more.

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                          • #14
                            Btw, do i feel it wrong or trying theese youngsters here peace by peace to change everything into an arcade flying game with all their new groups for airshows with weekly Gamertags changing ect...what is going on here?
                            CaseyRyback59/Andreas
                            Staff Member
                            VA-Manager

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by Wingman View Post
                              I'm sure this comment will draw at least some un-written debate, but wouldn't a flight simulator with more dynamic day/night cycles and weather changes keep simmers/gamers/pilots in their "seats" looking out the "window" rather than bored on set-it-and-forget-it autopilot flights?
                              Boredom is entirely the responsibility of the person feeling bored. It's never anyone else's responsibility to provide them this or that stimulus or to vary their routine to stop them getting bored. Each of us has the opportunity every moment to make the most of that moment. Consequently, I find wonder every moment of every day, and I am never (and, I think, never have been) bored.

                              On the other hand, that doesn't mean you have to be passive and accept what you're given. I know what I like, and if a place stops providing what I like, I simply go elsewhere for it - or just do something else entirely. What we have here already as regards server times is what I like. It was part of the reason for my coming here in the first place. Change it, and I'll just go elsewhere - no biggy.

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