Aces High Bulletin Board
Help and Support Forums => Help and Training => Topic started by: bbosen on September 08, 2009, 07:14:41 AM
-
Tomorrow's the big day. Previously I mentioned that I've been asked to train a group of Boy Scouts in the principles of flight and flight simulation. I've added several more introductory video clips to the web site I made to introduce absolute beginners to Aces High.
This has been an interesting experience: Most of the boys fathers have told me that they've downloaded and watched all of the video clips, and they want to attend along with their sons. I hope I have enough computers (I've set up six computers on a LAN, and we'll be using AH version 2.12 Patch 4 to play Lan Head-to-Head with an offline mission, allowing them to divide up into teams and fly with/against each other, accompanied by myriad drones.)
I'm still hoping that the resulting web site will help introduce other absolute beginners to Aces High. Since my last announcement, I've added clips showing how to download, install, and configure the free software, and a few more advanced features beyond the basics of flight (map reading, "BarDar", "Radar", "Finding the Bad Guys", etc.)
Please check it out at your liesure and let me know what else you'd like to see there.
http://TechVideoReview.com/FlightSimMovies
I'll follow up with a description of the "Boy Scout Training" in a few days.
Regards,
-Peabody-
Network, Internetwork, and LAN setup
www.AskMisterWizard.com
-
I hope I have enough computers (I've set up six computers on a LAN, and we'll be using AH version 2.12 Patch 4 to play Lan Head-to-Head with an offline mission, allowing them to divide up into teams and fly with/against each other, accompanied by myriad drones.)
I didn't think AH supported H2H play anymore.
-
It doesn't. But I kept the old copies from V 2.12 Patch 4 for this event.
-Peabody-
-
Ahhh, that's smart. :aok
I wasn't smart enough to realize that it was only two releases ago that H2H was still supported.
-
I still hold out hope that they bring H2H back :x
-
Considering the circumstances, I would of called HTC for online accounts for the Boy Scouts for the day rather than use the older software. It is far too late to make those kind of arrangements, however.
Best of luck tomorrow! I remember learning (and never been to forget) pitch, roll, and yaw when I was about 4 years old from visiting NASA during summer vacation. You'd be surprised how much kids can absorb if they set their minds to it.
-
I was at NASA Houston alot as a kid. I used to fly with my Dad and Uncle all over too.
-
...... [After the event] ......
It went very verywell!
One of the expected scouts got sick and couldn't come, but I had 4 well-behaved Boy Scouts and 3 adult leaders in my lab for 2 hours last Wednesday. I was extremely impressed with these young gentlemen. They all arrived on time. They were well groomed, well-behaved, and polite, with no cussing, whining, or criticizing all evening.
I had previously advertised the training available at http://TechVideoReview.com/FlightSimMovies, by email thru their leaders, and they all knew that they would be issued a brief written test, to see if they had done their preparatory homework, before they would be allowed to fire guns in the simulator. All of the boys passed the 16-question exam with scores of 80% or higher. Even the adult leaders (some of whom had not gone to the web site for training) took the exam (but they didn't score as well, so they had to get a bit of additional instruction. I had set up a "briefing/training room" with a few of the movies from the web site on a big-screen projector).
I had 6 PCs set up with identical flight sim controls, all internetworked via WiFi. 5 were running PcLinuxOs, and the sixth was running Windows XP. With so many machines and so many newbies around, I had anticipated many problems, but had none. No disconnects. No reboots. No sessions lost. No need even to restart the "Practice Mission" that I had written, which allowed all 6 participants to fly with and against groups of drones in my historically-based "Solomon Islands" terrain. All of them had headsets and microphones, and we recorded the entire event on guncamera films from the perspective of all 6 machines. The recorded audio banter isn't very good; I hadn't coached them at all in radio discipline, and they had no clue about keeping messages brief and speaking with clarity. If I ever do this again, I'll include training on that subject. About halfway through the event we all lost AH voice. I had a rather small Linux machine acting as host, and I think there is some kind of a small memory leak in its Windows emulation which eventually overwhelmed AH voice. Everything else continued to work perfectly, however, and inasmuch as the boys weren't really effective with AH voice banter, they just switched to text messages for those infrequent events when they needed to communicate outside the rooms in which they were sitting.
I think it helped to have them all start out on the same team versus the drones, and it generated the kind of "teamwork" feelings that the Boy Scouts like to engender. Later on in the evening some of the adult leaders split off onto the opposing team, and that added an increased level of excitement that also went well.
All of the newbies hit the air with enough skill to immediately select and arm an aircraft, wait while "Auto Takeoff" got them off the ground, and then gently work the joystick for basic flight maneuvers. They had already been introduced to the "View System" so they knew how to look around. I had left "External Views" enabled on the server host, and I think that helped them a lot, as I saw that several of them preferred external views at first, until they got into combat (which pretty much forced them into the cockpit to use the gunsight).
By the time the evening was over, most of them had experienced several victories against drones, and 2 or 3 of them had victories versus one or more live opponents.
After about 90 minutes of flight, we retired to the kitchen for cookies, punch, and de-briefing. There were a few questions regarding how to obtain AH software (one father/son pair had already downloaded and installed it on their home PC), how much to pay for a joystick, etc. One family asked if the system was available for a Macintosh PC, and I told them "no" until I found out that they are equipped for dual-boot situations that include Windows XP.
Since the event, I've been approached by the Scoutmaster and one other adult leader with interest for additional events. All of the boys are scheduled, with 2 other scouting groups in the area, to go to the big "Wings over Houston" airshow on 31Oct2009, and then they're meeting with merit badge counsellors to try to qualify for the BSA's "Aviation" merit badge. I think I'm going to get the chance to do this with other Boy Scouts in the area.
I had a lot of fun, and I recommend this for recruiting into AH. I think several new people may eventually join us in the unfriendly skies as a result of this great evening. Eventually I'll post a couple of photos (and maybe a brief video clip) on the web site.
-Peabody-
-
That sounds like a great evening. How great of you to provide that experience and education.
I've heard that AH runs well on Macs that have an XP partition.
-
Big :salute for bbosen
A couple of tutorials on radio discipline would be great, even for a lot of current players. Might cut down the range vox banter in the MAs. :devil
-
Sounds like fun Peabody. There's a dot command that might have fixed the vox issue - .resetv
-
Awesome! :salute
-
Sounds like a great time! I am a Scoutmaster for a troop of 20. There are 3 patrols, so maybe I can break them up into 3 groups and do something like this for them too. Now... just need to find 6 or 7 PC's to run the game :huh
You dont live near PA do ya?
-
My guess is close to Houston since the boys are going to Wings in October.
Peabody sounds like it was very successful. You did an outstanding job there. <S>
-
Well done Peabody. <S>
Glad they enjoyed themselves.
-
Peabody Sir! <S> for a job well done. The important thing in my eyes is spending quality time with the scouts, donating your time, effort, and materials. The kids need that in order to be successful, even if they may not realize it until they're older, and may have kids of their own in scouts...
The fact that it had anything to do with AH is just icing on the cake...
-
Sounds like fun Peabody. There's a dot command that might have fixed the vox issue - .resetv
Thanks Moot. I didn't know about that one. I'll DEFINITELY give it a try next time I have a big group that overwhelms AH voice services. I wonder how many other "dot" commands are out there, unknown to me....?
--- Peabody ---
-
Is there a dot command that shows commands?
-
Dot commands are entered into the radio buffer as an alternative to the graphical user interface.
Commands Available Online Anytime
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
.accept GameID
.cstat
.decline GameID
.f GameID
.p GameID Text
.radio Number Channel
.report GameID
.s GameID
.showjoin State
.sqdaccept
.sqddecline
.sqddisband
.sqdeject GameID
.sqdinvite GameID
.sqdname SquadName
.sqdpermission GameID Permissions
.sqdwebpage WebPageAddress
.sqdwithdraw
.squelch GameID
.sr
.unsquelch GameID or ALL
.vreport GameID
.vsquelch
.vunsquelch
Commands Available In Flight Only
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
.ef (End flight)
.speed MPH (Speed between 100 and 400 MPH)
.salvo Dropcount (Valid range between 0 and 100)
.delay TimeInSecs (Valid range between 0.05 - 1.0)
Commands Available When Not In Flight
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
.fly
.country Number (1 is Bishops, 2 is Knights, 3 is Rooks)
.move Number (Number is the field number)
.handle YourHandle
.plane Number
.fuel FuelLoad (The fuel load must be from 0 to 3.)
.score
.sqdupload (Squad CO only: used to upload nose art)
.join GameID
.unjoin GameID
.changeid NewGameID (Only case may be changed)
.ord GroupNumber LoadoutNumber
Commands available Offline
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
.det ObjectName CountryNumber
.restore ObjectName
.load [planes|fields|var|filter] no parameter loads all
.save [planes|fields|var|filter] no parameter loads all
.vset VariableName Value
.eject GameID
.time HH MM Multiplier
.wind wind alt heading speed {rise} Sets all alts above the Entered Alt
.icon 0 or 1 (0 = FarIconSetting, 1 = NearIconSetting)
.reset CountryNumber (1, 2, or 3)
.jumptg TaskGroupNumber (Offline, CM)
.setdowntime ObjectType Downtime
.sethardness ObjectType Hardness
.objdefault
SAPP Commands
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
.torps
.ducttape
.killcon
.turnmod
.rollmod
.cloak
.rejecthits
-
Is there a dot command that shows commands?
Yes there is ............. type this into the radio buffer .help
-
Video clip of last Wednesday's BSA training session (90 seconds) available here:
http://www.techvideoreview.com/FlightSimMovies/General/H2hLans/H2hLansFullPage.htm
(Near the bottom of the page. Look for the title that says "Boy Scouts of America at the Flight Simulation Lab for a little LAN Head to Head Training".)
Regards,
-Peabody-
-
Pretty cool man!!