Condor

So now with Condor 3 announced I wander what features and improvements current Condor users would like to see in V3. I suggest we should stick to serious and realistic features. I personally would like to see the following:

1) Flarm - so we can learn how to react quicker and better when we fly in RL, but with some option of 'stealth' mode to help prevent collisions but also stop people following each other.
2) Very important - possibility to reconnect when your internet connection comes back
3) Option to set a flight where you have to declare time of your task start, which was used in some RL competitions - again to prevent people following each other
4) Most importantly - less homogeneous weather with different areas having different and evolving weather + proper convergence lines. At the moment unfortunately sky in Condor hardly ever looks like the RL - Would be great if we could somewhat meet mister's Kawa high expectations

Afaik both flarm and more dynamic weather have been confirmed, including precipitation, convergence and controllable weather variation.

The good news is that the eSGP competition seems to have put a nice spotlight on Condor. I hope the Condor team can use this momentum to grow the dev team a bit - I feel like only having 1 engine dev is very limiting.

My feature requests will probably look a bit different than others because my focus is on using Condor as a training tool for local pilots. Dynamic weather will be a very nice feature for sure. But here are some other things I am hoping for:

1. Adjustable tree heights for the global trees (both deciduous and coniferous) - even something as simple as a numerical scale value - I live in an area where the trees are about twice the height of the standard trees in Condor - and this makes a big difference in training at airports that are surrounded by trees.
2. Sloped runways - not all of us are fortunate enough to fly at paved or nicely groomed airports.
3. Weather definition using something like drawable or importable skew-t data - given that the devs seem hesitant to support real world Wx data - at least allow us to use custom Skew-t diagrams to more easily define the weather to match local conditions.
4. Improved flight computer - maybe even offer some of the popular flight computer companies the ability to offer versions of their own flight computers for use in each glider - I wouldn't even mind if these were paid DLC content like the different gliders - but the built-in flight computer needs some love for sure.
5. Improved Landscape Editor features for us Landscape builders - I am still perturbed by the selection and zoom commands required by the Landscape Editor - it is one of the most miserable UI/UX experiences ever created.
6. Pawnee, CallAir or similar low-wing / agricultural tow plane - you know, the one's used by almost all gliding operations in the US.
7. Larger 3D object library... Currently, each landscape developer is left to find or create all of their own 3D objects . Like it or not, Condor is now living in a world where it will always be compared to MS FS 2020 - which has global 3D scenery. If you are still going to rely on scenery development from your user base, at least help us with nice library of objects to use.

I forgot about few more:

1) Ability to fly 2 seat gliders by 2 online pilots who can decide who has control. Piloting possible from both front and back. This could make interesting team competitions possible.

2) Gliders with electric sustainer motors and adjustable battery energy to make e-glider competitions possible - this could be a lot of fun - not needed right now but could be a good idea for the future.

By the way it is already possible to use external flight computer (see you, xc soar LK8000 or whatever you want) so current in condor flight computer is good enough and developing something that is already developed is ia waste of resources. Just my opinion.

Great exiting news! All the points mentioned during the stream sound very exciting.
Hopefully they are able to improve the weather model in mountainous terrain as well. Valley winds for example. Also improve the lift along the sunlit ridges. Currently it seems like the upwind side of the mountain always has the favour over the sunlit side, while in reality the sunny side is usually the better side until about 15-20 kmh. Looking forward

I would like to get two more data in the RaceResult.csv

Today it's

Rank,Status,Player,CN,RN,Plane,Dist,Time,Speed,Penalty,Score,TeamScore,Team

If we could get Water and FixBallast in the file written by the server, we can determine exactly the class in online flights without importing the IGC-file

LS4 without water -> Club, with water -> Standard
ASK21 without fixed ballast -> Club, with fixed ballast -> Two seater

and so on ...

If it would be a little thing, I accept it in Condor 2 too

Great news, can't wait for Condor 3

I hope for the new weather to allow more realistic "Jura" weather, where there is only weak lift which is far apart in the flatlands and good development in the hills/mountains.

What I would also greatly appreciate is importing of RL-Airspace files, or at least expand on the current penalty zones so we can create something close to RL airspace. Which is quite extensive in some areas (e.g. Switzerland).

As i'm going through instructor training I would value being able to sit in the back as an option.

(Now speaking as an organiser of VSC)

More realistic airspace support/import please

& second all the requests for more complex weather - this will be a great help for races.

bluefang wrote: ↑

Sun Sep 12, 2021 11:01 pm

[*]Pawnee, CallAir or similar low-wing / agricultural tow plane - you know, the one's used by almost all gliding operations in the US.

viewtopic.php?f=39&t=17946&start=345#p175461

bluefang wrote: ↑

Sun Sep 12, 2021 11:01 pm

[*]Larger 3D object library... Currently, each landscape developer is left to find or create all of their own 3D objects . Like it or not, Condor is now living in a world where it will always be compared to MS FS 2020 - which has global 3D scenery. If you are still going to rely on scenery development from your user base, at least help us with nice library of objects to use.[/list]

I don't think the Condor team has much time making models for landscapes. It is up to the landscape creators themselves to make objects that suit their landscape. Maybe you can request objects you like/need from other landscape creators. Maybe they are willing to share their objects they have in their landscapes. I'm sure most of them don't mind sharing.

Maybe join this discord and see what is possible with other 3D artist. I'm in there as well and I can give some tips if you need them.

viewtopic.php?f=29&t=20843

The ability to share a single instance of a Condor session between two pilots, one in the front and one in the back. Thinking of a VR set up. Pretty please?

Save flights midair.

I play Condor mainly to get to know the Alps better and to plan future cross country flights with my paraglider.
Since I can only start at one airfield at a time, it always takes quite a while to fly back to the spot from which I will actually start my flight later.
It would be great if there was finally the possibility to save in the middle of a flight and then continue from there. Of course, the scoring of these flights must then be prevented. But since it only serves as training for "real life" for me, I wouldn't care at all.

Yep, I second that feature request. Far too often "real life" events interfere while being in the middle of a long flight in Condor. Not being able to save your session and resume at a later time is a feature almost any other sim offers out of the box.

It'd be great if real life airspace files could be loaded into Condor for use in tasks, unsure how feasible that would be? If that isn't so easy then upping the current penalty zone limit massively would have to suffice.

Also round penalty zones, for ATZ / restricted zones etc, would be great too

joheisenberg wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 13, 2021 11:32 pm

Save flights midair.

I play Condor mainly to get to know the Alps better and to plan future cross country flights with my paraglider.
Since I can only start at one airfield at a time, it always takes quite a while to fly back to the spot from which I will actually start my flight later.
It would be great if there was finally the possibility to save in the middle of a flight and then continue from there. Of course, the scoring of these flights must then be prevented. But since it only serves as training for "real life" for me, I wouldn't care at all.

Maybe it would be helpful in your case, to be able to set an airborne start in a task independent from an airport