I only ask because I’ve seen the likes of OnAir and others, and I don’t want to have to run an entire airline and micro-manage staff, facilities, and finances, etc. I would just like a basic job board - ‘Take this thing from A to B and collect a reward’.
Think of Elite Dangerous Horizons and the way that sim handles the issuing of jobs and rewards. That’s what I’m after. Just something - on a very basic, uncomplicated level - to give MSFS some purpose without falling down an unnecessarily elaborate or super-detailed hole.
Think of it as a random mission generator. Does any such thing exist for MSFS 2020?
Hi CalUKGR … you can use OnAir like that if you want. In their least ‘economically real’ environment, you can circumvent the skills tree and other aspects that make the management demanding, work as a one man/woman/person band and just run missions as you say.
But beware … you do get sucked in. That’s exactly what I planned to do and I now have a fleet of Caravans running all over Europe! And I’m flying a simulated desk from my real desk!
Can’t speak to other add ons - I haven’t tried FSE for example. But I’m enjoying OnAir and it has added ‘purpose’ to my flight sim time.
Very interesting and thank you for the response. I have looked at both OnAir and FSE, but neither in any great detail. I just got as far as their websites, a few videos, and was quickly put off by page after page of tables, charts and what looked like Excel spreadsheets. No… not for me.
As I said, I’m just looking for the equivalent of a MSFS ‘job board’. For example:
‘Here are some missions/jobs/tasks - see if you meet the criteria for any of them and accept the contract if you fancy giving one a go’.
So a typical job for me might be: ‘Deliver this chest freezer and medical supplies to [insert name of grass strip airport]’. Or perhaps delivering passengers (medical staff or contract workers, etc).
That kind of thing. Small-scale, very missions-based, but one-off and simply about completing that task, as a self-contained mission.
I would like this as well, and thinking about writing something if there is interest. I also just want random “missions” fly from A to B. And the user can select the desired range/time. I’ve tried OnAir, FSE, etc. and while they are cool it’s just too much for me. I just want to see some new areas, and try new airports. I randomly just pick flights on FlightAware and do those now…
Don’t know whether it would work for you, but in SimProToolKit there are options for ‘Real Flights’ - pick an airport and see all flights out - which you can then choose to turn into a flight plan
and also airline routes where you can select an airline and then turn any of their routes into a flight plan (this includes cargo airlines as well as passenger), so that may suit.
Probably more for airliners than GA, but some routes are probably viable and it may send you in some unexpected directions.
I’m planning to pick a flight from an airport and then at the destination see what flights go from that one and so on.
The program as a whole is a pretty sophisticated flight planner/logger, but the bit I showed here might be of use to someone who wants to inject some direction into where they fly without getting involved with one of the virtual airline sites.
Thank you - another intriguing suggestion. Always good to have options.
I am looking for something smaller - along the lines of NeoFly (see entry above) and also what FlippinFlow was discussing.
I tend to fly the Cessna Caravan mostly (I like it!), so ideally it would suit short-haul cargo/passenger deliveries. But the scope for challenging locations and conditions etc is all there. I’m not sure how a rewards system would be built into that - maybe just the kudos of having successfully completed the missions? It would give some purpose to flying about, though.
My thought was just a simple “mission” history board (list). Showing you the TO/FROM, distance traveled, total time, night/day, and successful landing Y/N. Then some other metrics like total number of miles flown, landing success rate %, etc.
The mission would be dynamically generated using user parameters - flight range/time, region (NA, Africa, etc.), etc. and the airport database in MSFS.
Seriously, simplicity is king here. I’m thinking about a simple ‘Job Board’ approach, with (as you suggest) randomly-generated missions (maybe a good idea to set a few criteria for accepting the missions - plane type?).
It’s just for fun and to offer a little purpose for flying between points, but if there was a way to tie-in a modest progression structure without all the real-time micro-management of one of the big applications that might be fun, too…
Good to hear there is some interest, and I’ve been looking for a project. I’m just debating if it would be better as a website, or a local application. I’m leaning to a local app just because MSFS integration and don’t really want to get into hosting. Also, I’m better at those and lazy. benefit of a website is you can have a “leader board” type thing.
I’m glad to see others are interested in this idea, too. I don’t have any programming skills, so I defer to you guys with the knowledge of what is and isn’t possible. I know there is a huge amount of talent on these boards. Every day it amazes me.
This might make a nice project for someone - maybe you? - and I feel sure there are many of us who don’t fancy getting bogged-down and overwhelmed with something like OnAir or FSE, but who would still like to run errands and ferry passengers about in MSFS.
Personally I am a fan of FSE (I’ve never tried the other one.) I’ve been using FSE back since 2004.
I’ve never been a fan of flying the heavies, always GA (which makes this sim a game changer for me.) I never jump around except for joining group flights. I started at my home location and flew to NYC then followed some local stuff. Where I landed last night, that is where I start today so if I want to fly the Grand Canyon and I’m on the east coast, I have to fly there in my 172 from the east coast.
I purchased a 172 in FSE and I pick up passengers and cargo along the way.
