Eskil

I recently acquired the latest mission pack from STEAM, "Arctic Rescue" (20 missions). When looking at them I found that the flight (.FLT) files were "compiled/coded" and totally unreadable. This is something I've never seen before. However, if you run a mission and save it, the resulting flight file is normal! Has anyone seen this kind of flight file before? Cheers, eskil

Solved! I must have been blind for some time now - it turns out that the dialogue box says "Save Flight" even when you are in a mission.

That very same thing has happened to me. I can't track exactly when, only that it must have been in the last few weeks or so. In my case what happens is that when I press the key to save a mission under way, I get the "Save Flight" box instead of "Save Mission". Most frustrating!

So we meet on this site too! Yes, these missions generally show up a number of errors and warnings. It surprises me that they will run at all... I will conduct some experiments with one of these and see if there is a specific fault that may be remedied. eskil

Some of the missions created with the Instant Mission Maker (IMM) can't be saved underway (or rather, they save as Free Flights, which is not helpful). Is there anyone out there who knows a way to modify these missions (for instance the FSX Simcopter missions on this site, so that they can be saved properly? It is infuriating to fly around for an hour or so, and then make a mistake and have to start from square one again! Cheers, eskil

Yes, I have flown it, and succeeded after some wrong ends. It seems to have a glitch right at the beginning, where the other F/A-18 is ready to go. Wait until it has stopped at the catapult, and then taxi to the other (left) catapult with the launch bar down (SHIFT+U). Attach to the catapult (SHIFT+I) and wait for the commands to increase power. When told to go, press (SHIFT+SPACE) to fire the catapult. If the mission has worked OK so far, you should have the Mission Compass indicating the position of your wingman (if it just shows the distance as 0.0 nm, you were too quick, and have to re-run the mission). I should mention that there are reports that the mission has a problem with SIMVAR (you do have that installed, haven't you? Otherwise the mission doesn't work.), so if you want to start from a save, you must exit FSX and start it again. Apparently you are not required to be extremely close to the other F/A-18, but it makes things easier. After a little while, you get the report of a bogey (now indicated by the Mission Compass), and then you are told to approach it while your wingman watches. You have to come close to this B-747 and stay there, flying at his speed (350 knots or so). A five second timer starts, and after that you have the ID. You are now to escort the bogey to Patrick AFB 120 nm off, staying close (you will be admonished if you stray, but I don't think the mission will fail). As he finally lands, fly really low over the control tower (buzz it - you will hear expletives!), and this will get you a separate reward! Now you go to refuel with the KC-135. This is a fiddly job, well described in the mission briefing, and when you finally have 60% in your tanks you can return to the carrier (Mission Compass points). You fly a complicated approach pattern and land on the deck (don't forget the hook (SHIFT+Q). When you come to a stop, the 'Success' message should come up, and you get the "Tanker" reward. Before landing, you can also buzz the carrier tower for a third reward. I hope this will help you out!

Solved! The missions produced for FSX-STEAM are indeed identical to the ones in the original FSX. The crux is of course that to download the missions packs so far available from STEAM (Dangerous Approaches and Cargo Crew - payware), you must first purchase and install the FSX-STEAM itself. After that, if you wish, you can copy the mission folders, the rewards, and the new categories used for them (or change the GUIDs in the .xml files to that of one of the original categories). So far I haven't seen any third party missions marketed specifically for STEAM, but any missions for FSX will work with it.

Does anyone out there know if missions (so far extremely few; all payware) created for FSX STEAM will work with the "old" FSX (Acceleration version)? I know that STEAM got rid of a lot of bugs and made the programme faster, but are the missions still written as .XML or .SPB files, and do they contain new commands that the old FSX doesn't understand? Cheers, eskil

Don, thank you very much. I was indeed able to extract the files from the .cab folder - that's how I found out which ones ought to be changed in colour.I do not have SDK installed. I take it from your reply that the folder doesn't need to be cabbed again. Would that mean leaving all the files as separates within the Panel folder under the aircraft in question? Regards, eskil

As you know, the knobs (SPD, HDG and ALT) in the default FSX A321 autopilot are clicked to activate the function, and then turn a shade darker - but only a little, and really difficult to see the difference at a glance.The images for these knobs must be in the Airbus_A321.cab file in the Panel folder, and there appear to be three or four .bmp files for each knob (off, off/night, on, and on/night).Is there someone out there who can extract (or already has?) these images, change the colour a bit (maybe white for off and black for on, or at least clearly different), and then fit the .cab file together again?!Incidentally, the default A321 appears to share this file with the iFDG A320 and the Project Airbus A318/A320, so these freeware aircraft ought to be able to benefit, too.