Here is an idea about improving the "flying with ghosts" experience :
Ghost flight tracks are generated from online events with long pre-flight waiting times to allow all pilots to join.
The offline pilot is interested in taking off at the same time as the ghosts, but as soon as he/she hits the "Fly" button.
As of now, shifting the offline start-time would result in a different weather because the start-time also defines the seed-time which impacts how the thermals are generated. Different start-times = different seed-times = different weather = little use of ghosts.
The only solution is for the offline pilot to join the 3D world as defined from the flight plan, and wait as long the ghosts did until the flight really starts. Having to waiting as long as 30 min before taking-off does not sound like a satisfying option.
A way to solve the inconcistency between these "seed times" would be to define (for a given task) :
- a "seed start time" setting the weather parameters and that couldn't be changed. This parameter should be stored in the fpl file
and
- a "task join time" that would give the hour of the day at which the player connects into the 3D world, and that could be adjusted by the player in the "free flight" menu
So the weather engine would rely on a parameter which is independent from the time the player joins. Problem solved!
I have little idea about the feasability of this feature into Condor 3, but hey, it is never too late to share one's thoughts.