This is a lot of fun. I've always been a huge fan of flight sims, but I never realized that ATC was just as much fun.
Just a few notes:
* All the planes enter at 90 degree angles. I assume this is intentional, but it would be nice to have semi-random entry angles.
* There are a fixed number of planes in the simulation. It would be more challenging and fun if more planes would arrive while I'm taking care of the others.
* The words are small and hard to read.
All in all I think this is a really cool simulation. I can see myself wasting many more hours on it. Thanks!
I've found a new way to make airports handle twice as many departures per hour: send a plane to each end and tell them to take off at the same time! So far: 0 crashes!
It's the counter-intuitive out-of-the-box thinking that I come to HN for!
Fun, but not as good as the ATC game I know from the bsdgames package in many Linux distributions. This is a lot more graphical but there are a few disadvantages, mostly regarding input:
- Callsigns are long. In, let's call it bsdgames ATC, you have to type only one letter to indicate an aircraft. When Z is reached, you've long cleared A so the letter can be reused. This is more realistic though, I guess.
- It is not clear to me what an aircraft wants. Do all the flying ones want to land and all the landed ones to fly? Because in bsdgames ATC they each have a destination.
- The locations on the map (where you can fix an aircraft on, the triangles) are small and you have to properly look to make sure you typed it correctly. There is no highlighting like for planes.
- Runways are even harder to read. Here too there is no highlighting like for planes.
- You cannot send, as bsdgames ATC calls it, delayed commands (e.g. "N926JW fix QUITE then turn 0").
- You can not set an aircraft in "ignore mode", or otherwise mark it as "I have finished giving it directions".
- There is no command autocompletion. In bsdgames ATC you type "atdab0" to indicate "plane A, Turn to direction D (90 degrees) At Beacon 0." Or as the game displays it while you type the letters: "a: turn to 90 at beacon #0". After typing every letter, the game will display the next word to indicate it understood. (E.g. typing "at" it will display "a: turn to" and "atda" displays "a: turn to 90 at".)
There are a few things I really like though:
- The score system makes it not immediately 'game over' when you make a single simple mistake.
- It not only looks more modern, but because it's graphical and not ASCII there is a lot more space on the map to maneuver (at least it looks like that, maybe there are simply more planes). It also gives way more space for fix locations (triangles).
- Either this is common for ATC systems, or it looks like the good old bsdgames ATC. I like that it is a modern version which, with rather minor improvements, is better than the original.
- I wanted to be a realistic as possible, hence the long callsigns. However, all you have to type is the shortest unique callsign and that aircraft will be selected.
- If the aircraft has a red strip, it wants to land; if it's blue, it wants to takeoff and depart the area.
- The fix names are now bigger.
- The runway names are bigger. I'll make them more obvious, too.
- You cannot send delayed commands, just like real life.
- You can type "baw1234 tu 90 d 3 sp 2"; like callsigns, you only have to type the unique first few characters of the commands.
Its fun, The two speeds are at the extremes though, Maybe a third halfway between them.
Runway names are impossible to see while landing a plane and it's not obvious that takeoff always happen on *R runways.
If it was expanded it use actual flight data (if its legal) it would be something I could see myself losing a lot of time to it.
OK I know it's a simulation, but as a pilot, this really helps understand what ATC is going through. If I was a flight instructor, I'd recommend my students spend some time with this.
Same here. Safari 8.0.2 on Yosemite 10.10.2. It worked in Firefox though, but unfortunately didn't make me any good at the game. I couldn't get ILS. Maybe I didn't understand the landing part.
It'd be great to have the option to turn on/off radio chatter, the sort you hear when listening to real ATC transmissions. Would definitely make the experience feel a bit more immersive.
Can someone suggest a sim that handles real procedural / system design issues properly, like the difference between being a terminal ATC or a ARTCC ATC?
The real world is more of a team approach and most game sims have a pretty distorted view of reality. The guy who's doing ground taxi control at a tower doesn't usually moonlight at simultaneously running approach control while also simultaneously running departure control and enroute. A dude running approach 200 miles away usually doesn't get to play tower 200 miles away to tell a plane when they get to take off.
In my experience with aviation and ATC games, I haven't found one yet where the game designer was a pilot or ATC or listened on a scanner to pilots and ATC during the design phase.
I've also never seen a sim that handles dynamics for anything but planes. Real ATC is all about handling very local weather, and NOTAMS, and hot/cold MOAs (military training areas, if cold you just fly thru, if hot you get out of the way or get shot down). And of course it changes in real time not just once at game start. Also you trade / share space with other ATCs, so that dynamic would be interesting. And your shift doesn't end when all the planes land, you'll always both start and end a shift with planes in the air.
I don't expect much from the arcade games but there have been some sims out there that at least graphically have tried to look realistic and have at least sorta realistic procedures and limitations.
This is great. After a few minutes of being frantically overwhelmed I gradually figured things out. Cool to see what ATC has to deal with, I was always curious how that looked.
There are two things I'd like to see:
- More than two speed options. A slider, if possible?
- Some sort of simple scripting. I'd like to be able to dial in, "Navigate to WAYPOINT, then when you reach that, navigate to OTHER WAYPOINT, then descend to 5000 feet, then land on runway XX."
Waypoint scripting would be counter to how ATC works. The challenge is remembering your plan for each plane and mentally queuing up the instructions you need to give to pilots.
After going through the tutorial and landing a few planes, my first impression is the interface is extremely user hostile... I hope real ATC is better.
Some things I noticed.. There's no need for mouse, just keep on writing commands. It is also possible to use shortcuts and enter multiple commands at once. For example "ba577 c 5 t 270 takeoff".
Some indication of when aircraft are risking violation of separation would be handy, I assume that real ATC consoles have this? Its unclear what the scale is.
Voices would be great. Emergencies (minimal fuel, medical, etc) and weather would also be great!
Woah this is super fun and nothing was wrong with it. It was kind of annoying but I feel like all sims are that way. I want to be able to run different airports!!!! And a mode that just goes on forever would be awesome.
Needs better error correction when it comes to landing I haven't been able to land one yet I get it close to the lines but no cigar. I've resorted to just trying to get them to collide.
[+] [-] asherdavidson|11 years ago|reply
* All the planes enter at 90 degree angles. I assume this is intentional, but it would be nice to have semi-random entry angles.
* There are a fixed number of planes in the simulation. It would be more challenging and fun if more planes would arrive while I'm taking care of the others.
* The words are small and hard to read.
All in all I think this is a really cool simulation. I can see myself wasting many more hours on it. Thanks!
[+] [-] dsl|11 years ago|reply
http://www.bostonvirtualatc.com/ and others allow you to work as a controller for a virtual airspace populated by human "pilots."
[+] [-] jrockway|11 years ago|reply
It's the counter-intuitive out-of-the-box thinking that I come to HN for!
[+] [-] waterlesscloud|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jamesaguilar|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zlsa|11 years ago|reply
Sorry.
[+] [-] lucb1e|11 years ago|reply
- Callsigns are long. In, let's call it bsdgames ATC, you have to type only one letter to indicate an aircraft. When Z is reached, you've long cleared A so the letter can be reused. This is more realistic though, I guess.
- It is not clear to me what an aircraft wants. Do all the flying ones want to land and all the landed ones to fly? Because in bsdgames ATC they each have a destination.
- The locations on the map (where you can fix an aircraft on, the triangles) are small and you have to properly look to make sure you typed it correctly. There is no highlighting like for planes.
- Runways are even harder to read. Here too there is no highlighting like for planes.
- You cannot send, as bsdgames ATC calls it, delayed commands (e.g. "N926JW fix QUITE then turn 0").
- You can not set an aircraft in "ignore mode", or otherwise mark it as "I have finished giving it directions".
- There is no command autocompletion. In bsdgames ATC you type "atdab0" to indicate "plane A, Turn to direction D (90 degrees) At Beacon 0." Or as the game displays it while you type the letters: "a: turn to 90 at beacon #0". After typing every letter, the game will display the next word to indicate it understood. (E.g. typing "at" it will display "a: turn to" and "atda" displays "a: turn to 90 at".)
There are a few things I really like though:
- The score system makes it not immediately 'game over' when you make a single simple mistake.
- It not only looks more modern, but because it's graphical and not ASCII there is a lot more space on the map to maneuver (at least it looks like that, maybe there are simply more planes). It also gives way more space for fix locations (triangles).
- Either this is common for ATC systems, or it looks like the good old bsdgames ATC. I like that it is a modern version which, with rather minor improvements, is better than the original.
[+] [-] zlsa|11 years ago|reply
- I wanted to be a realistic as possible, hence the long callsigns. However, all you have to type is the shortest unique callsign and that aircraft will be selected.
- If the aircraft has a red strip, it wants to land; if it's blue, it wants to takeoff and depart the area.
- The fix names are now bigger.
- The runway names are bigger. I'll make them more obvious, too.
- You cannot send delayed commands, just like real life.
- You can type "baw1234 tu 90 d 3 sp 2"; like callsigns, you only have to type the unique first few characters of the commands.
[+] [-] danwakefield|11 years ago|reply
If it was expanded it use actual flight data (if its legal) it would be something I could see myself losing a lot of time to it.
[+] [-] asdfaoeu|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dshankar|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] breckenedge|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bulte-rs|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lisper|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eddieroger|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] maroonblazer|11 years ago|reply
It'd be great to have the option to turn on/off radio chatter, the sort you hear when listening to real ATC transmissions. Would definitely make the experience feel a bit more immersive.
[+] [-] 0xffff2|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] VLM|11 years ago|reply
The real world is more of a team approach and most game sims have a pretty distorted view of reality. The guy who's doing ground taxi control at a tower doesn't usually moonlight at simultaneously running approach control while also simultaneously running departure control and enroute. A dude running approach 200 miles away usually doesn't get to play tower 200 miles away to tell a plane when they get to take off.
In my experience with aviation and ATC games, I haven't found one yet where the game designer was a pilot or ATC or listened on a scanner to pilots and ATC during the design phase.
I've also never seen a sim that handles dynamics for anything but planes. Real ATC is all about handling very local weather, and NOTAMS, and hot/cold MOAs (military training areas, if cold you just fly thru, if hot you get out of the way or get shot down). And of course it changes in real time not just once at game start. Also you trade / share space with other ATCs, so that dynamic would be interesting. And your shift doesn't end when all the planes land, you'll always both start and end a shift with planes in the air.
I don't expect much from the arcade games but there have been some sims out there that at least graphically have tried to look realistic and have at least sorta realistic procedures and limitations.
[+] [-] bencoder|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dejawu|11 years ago|reply
There are two things I'd like to see:
- More than two speed options. A slider, if possible?
- Some sort of simple scripting. I'd like to be able to dial in, "Navigate to WAYPOINT, then when you reach that, navigate to OTHER WAYPOINT, then descend to 5000 feet, then land on runway XX."
[+] [-] dsl|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tantalor|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lisper|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jpalomaki|11 years ago|reply
In all it's simplicity this is really great.
[+] [-] zacharycohn|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bbarn|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] javindo|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] max0563|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jimmcslim|11 years ago|reply
Voices would be great. Emergencies (minimal fuel, medical, etc) and weather would also be great!
[+] [-] imownbey|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Moral_|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zrail|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rwmj|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pizzashark|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jarsj|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fnordfnordfnord|11 years ago|reply