Missions news from the development team

[mutley 4,498]

As game designers, we are tasked with creating a fun flying game that will appeal to a wide variety of players. In this article, we look at that problem and some of the mechanics we are employing to reach our goals. Ultimately, you will be the judge of how successful we have been, and you can, in turn, influence where we take the game in the future.

Most games are very direct in establishing what the player is expected to do in order to succeed. Whether these are tasks, activities, challenges, missions, or whatever, the player is drawn through the game in a carefully designed sequence. This sequence typically increases in difficulty over what we call a “challenge ramp,” with careful consideration given to balance how much challenge the player must face in fun and exciting gameplay against potential frustration if the ramp is too steep.

Flight is a game that is designed for a wide range of players, not just a typical simulation enthusiast. Anyone interested in flying or aviation at any level will find enjoyment in Flight, whether it is through missions or via an ad-hoc Free Flight mode. This creates an interesting problem when designing the challenge ramp for game missions, because we must account for a very broad range of knowledge and skills, while keeping the experience fun, interesting, and rewarding for all players.

Missions in Microsoft Flight are designed to guide the player through the game objectives, from simple tasks like flying to a waypoint to performing challenging aerobatic routines to transporting scared passengers through bad weather at night. We have tackled the challenge ramp design problem by creating a variety of missions for our players to experience, each helping them to become more accomplished and skilled along their career path. The pathway to becoming a skilled virtual pilot in Flight is not linear like in a traditional game, but rather it splits into multiple paths which converge further along in their overall career.

We are using awards, achievements, and experience points to “reward” players that accomplish something in the game. How much the player earns is often directly related to how successful they are in a given mission, such as how well they land the aircraft. This way, players of all ability levels can earn something and aspire to do better with each attempt until they can get a perfect score.

Players can fly quick and exciting challenges that test their skills even if they only have a few minutes to play. Alternatively, players can fly “story-based” missions such as finding a missing person or playing a key role in an event. Another way to play is flying jobs such as carrying cargo or passengers from one location to another using piloting skills and knowledge to get them to the destination safely. Of course, players can always choose to fly freely without guidance in order to simply enjoy the beauty of the world, fiddle with the knobs and switches in the cockpit, or put an aircraft through its paces. Each of these experiences is different and enriches the game overall, providing short-term and longer-term gameplay.

There are other ways we have designed fun activities into the game that we will discuss in future articles. Ultimately, players of all skill levels will find fun, challenging, and beautiful experiences in Flight.

Thank you,

The Microsoft Flight Development Team

http://www.microsoft.com/games/flight/#news-flight-missions

[ddavid 149]

Are we there, yet... zzzzz

Ciao - Dai.

[mutley 4,498]

You have to believe the hype Dai, this obviously for newcomers

[Tim_A 997]

Sounds just like FSX...

[M31 0]

I actually like the FSX missions, sometimes you just want to let your hair down in flight sim as well as do a round the world flight or just fly A to B as realistically as possible ... I'm glad the missions will still be kept on in Flight, they will be an option and you don't have to fly them, but some of them were damn fun all the same.

Who never enjoyed the Amazon mission in FSX never enjoyed a good film too

Having said that, I'll be glad when we can see a bit more than Hawaii from Flight though and also bit more openness ... will all my panels work with it, ETC ... they do them selves no favours with this secrecy IMHO.

[allardjd 1,853]

None of that concerns me so much as their stated intent to close the door to the add-on market except those that proceed through their own add-on market. If you consider the great variety of things and the depth of the body of knowledge and expertise that's evolved for FS9 and FSX freeware and payware it's staggering. Consider what's out there in terms of aircraft, repaints, scenery, gauges, tools, utilities and all the rest - Microsoft has and has decided that none of it will happen for Flight unless it's through them and they get their piece of the money. The door to all that is going to be closed.

 

The basic software had better be pretty darned good, because that's pretty much all there's going to be for quite some time. Yes, some add-ons will make it to market through their store, but the truly new and innovative will not pass muster and will be locked out. Do you think that the Orbx "painted on" airports that completely broke the mold of airport bgls would be allowed through in that kind of marketing scenario, for instance? I doubt it.

 

I can't imagine what is going to happen to the payware developers, the freeware developers and the download sites. Some will survive and make the leap by agreeing to dance to the MS music and market their carefully conforming products through the MS On-Line Store. The rest will either continue to survive providing the kinds of things they do now to die-hard FS9 and FSX users or will fold their respective tents and go away. I'd guess that MS will be the final arbiter of whether an add-on product is worthy of making it to the virtual shelves of their store, meaning that in practical terms, only those add-ons that will have very broad appeal, i.e. will sell in large volume, will make it to the marketplace. If you want an odd or obscure livery for a current airliner - never mind a custom livery - forget it. If you'd like to have a flying model of little-known historical military aircraft, or enhanced scenery for a local airpatch, my guess is that you'll be out of luck. I'll make a prediction here - whatever passes for a SDK for MS Flight will have to be bought and paid for - a license for the package, in place of what we now have free.

 

This is a major paradigm shift for the support of FS add-ons and is not a beautiful picutre. Flight Simulator will become a one size fits all scenario and the flexibility, richness and variety that we enjoy today will not be available.

 

Read what's in the press release above - - - do you think that's being written for the way YOU fly FS9 or FSX today? I think for most the answer will be no. In my opinion, Flight is being aimed at dragging in as many of the console gamers as possible, for them to use for a few months and abandon for the next great thing. Don't throw away your FS9 and FSX disks - I think you may want to have them for quite a while to come.

 

This is my opinion only and I hope to be proved wrong. Someone is sure to pop up and say that this is the same model as the Apple App Store and brings all kinds of benefits. Of course there will be some - we've all been stung by freeware or even payware that didn't work well - or at all. This may lessen that, but will also stifle the the quantity and innovativeness of new add-ons and will utterly eliminate freeware.

 

[/rant]

 

John