BMS 4.33 comment & question about saving game play.
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I just recently came across Falcon 4.0 on steam. I loved playing the game about 15 - 18 yrs ago. So I decided to give this a try (Falcon 4.0 plus BMS 4.33). I was impressed. But I soon found out that this beast has really gottin’ very challenging. No problem I like a good challenge.
The question I have is - [can you save game play like you can in MFS X SE]? Reason I ask, is this. I was in BMS training mission: Ground ops - going thru the procedures. In doing so, I was pausing game play as much as possible but eventually the mission ended on its own. So I had to start from beginning & I ran out of time again. Apparently the I older have gottin’ my brain has really slowed down.
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By save game play do you mean save video? So you can review later? If so there is ACMI which allows you to record your session then go back and watch. Also you should be able to freeze the sim so that everything stops, however, you can still change aircraft setups such as the avionics and radars and any usable system while paused. While frozen the in game clocks keeps ticking, so if you’re on a time sensitive objective then this will set you back. However, for training purposes this is an excellent way to stop the sim so you can refer to the manual and turn things on without worrying about losing control of the aircraft. I believe the default key mapping for this is “shift-p”.
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The question I have is - [can you save game play like you can in MFS X SE]? Reason I ask, is this. I was in BMS training mission: Ground ops - going thru the procedures. In doing so, I was pausing game play as much as possible but eventually the mission ended on its own. So I had to start from beginning & I ran out of time again. Apparently the I older have gottin’ my brain has really slowed down.
No not really. At least not quite like what you’re talking about, I think. There are save functions, but I don’t think they’ll accomplish what you desire.
Do not despair. When I started I had the same issue. As you begin to understand and remember the ramp start procedure you will move along more quickly and be able to complete the ground ops before the mission times out (actually, I think starting the jet will end the ‘timer’, but I’m not 100% sure on that).
This time is more a program setting with regard to idle aircraft on the tarmac. After a prescribed period of time they will ‘de-spawn’ in order to keep the spawn location open for future flights. It might be possible to change that ‘de-spawn’ time variable, but I wouldn’t recommend it unless you know what you’re doing (if it exists, it would be a global variable and effect flights in all aspects of the sim).
(That’s probably a poor explanation of what actually happens, but hopefully it conveys the idea.)
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By “game play” I mean “save the game” regardless of where I’m at in the game without pausing or freezing. But if I save the game, I would be able to quit the game & come back to where I exactly where I left off. As an example: I’m in the middle of a mission and I forgot I had to go pickup my grandson. I realize I have to leave the house right now in order to pick him on time. But when I get back from picking him up & I want to continue the game where I left off and if I can not save the game I would have start all over again. I hope this makes sense.
So, if all the game allows is pausing & freezing, that’s fine. I’ll deal with it. But it sure would be nice to save it.
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By “game play” I mean “save the game” regardless of where I’m at in the game without pausing or freezing. But if I save the game, I would be able to quit the game & come back to where I exactly where I left off. As an example: I’m in the middle of a mission and I forgot I had to go pickup my grandson. I realize I have to leave the house right now in order to pick him on time. But when I get back from picking him up & I want to continue the game where I left off and if I can not save the game I would have start all over again. I hope this makes sense.
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In a Campaign, this you can do. Quit 3D and in the 2D screen, choose “Save”. When you come back load that save, find your AC and jump in mid-flight.
In a TE you might be able to do this …. probably. BUT you lose the ability to re-run the TE (which is a common way of using a TE) from the beginning, until you edit the TE clock.
Training files, you might … might …. be able to do the same thing, but you’ll lose the ability to start the training mission from the beginning (because the clock has counted forward). For most training missions, that’s an issue. Compounding this is that TRN missions are not editable in the game mission editor, so you have jerk around files and extensions and use Mission Commander to make an ‘editable’ training mission.
I’d kind of have to look at the various scenarios to see how easy/hard each iteration is, but the above is generally correct … Campaign Save and Re-enter, easy / TE Save and Re-Enter, medium, might need to edit the TE clock to go back to the beginning / Training mission Save and Re-Enter, not so easy, but probably doable with some jiggering about.
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much thanks…… good explanation. it gives me something to look at. again much thanks
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What you can do is trigger a campaign save from the cockpit, exit the airplane handing it back over to the AI. And next time load that campaign save and steal that airplane mid-flight from the AI. It won’t be exactly how you left it but largely the same (position, weapons). Falcon’s pretty unique in that you can take off, hand the plane back to the AI, wait until just before the target and jump back in. In fact you could be flying a strike, encounter MiGs, exit and switch to the escort flight, fight, and return to the strike flight and continue to the target.
I’m sure it wouldn’t be satisfactory for ground ops though as the inexactness of resuming would be quite severe in this case.
A quick errand I’d use pause though.
