Curvature of the earth- aparently impossible aerocache

[Antares666]

I dont know if this is just another supposed easter egg for upcoming content, but if it isnt, it seems impossible to obtain this aerocache with the current available planes...
Aparently, we need to climb to the altitude record of the Sr-71 of a staggering 85k something feet over honolulu airport...
I really dont think that any of the prop planes available can get anywhere near this altitude...
Can anyone do this?

So my question is, MS better listen to all the suggestions that are lying around and really make this game a whole lot better, and with A LOT more planes and locations, not just alaska and a few more bush planes.
MS came up with a potentially successfull game, but they have to listen to the community. strictly casual players will never buy anything because its a boring concept for that sort of player(no combat or anything like that) and once they get bored of the free content, they will leave...
So MS really needs to appeal to the sim fans, even though this isn't as complicated as FS it still has a good compromise between sim and proper fun, but we really need more stuff to do and more places and more planes...If MS is going to try to milk a few € for every single plane and dlc, then they might asweel just kill the projecto cause it wont last very long that way...

[bastila13091]

Yes. That is an easter egg for future missions. If you look at the awards and achievements, alot of those are too. This game is far from being "done".

[Antares666]

so that has to mean that there will be jet engines?, because i really don't think that any prop can get there...

[bastila13091]

Yes. They are long from being done. They havent announced most of what they want to do yet besides Alaska.

[Fabe_ca]

Let's just hope the game lasts long enough for them to add all this stuff.

[Tuold]

So my question is, MS better listen to all the suggestions that are lying around and really make this game a whole lot better, and with A LOT more planes and locations, not just alaska and a few more bush planes.
...

Honestly, I hope Microsoft doesn't listen to ALL the suggestions or else we'll end up with a Space Shuttle launch pad at Hilo.

And if they do add jets to this game just how many airports will that limit us? Personally, I can see adding a couple helicopters (I think they use American Eurocopter AS350 "A-Star" on Hawaii tours)and few small single and double engine prop planes like a Piper Meridian or a De Havilland DHC-8. But what do you really want jets for? (Unless we can use them to navigate to Alaska)

If you really want the whole enchilada you can buy MS Flight Simulator X for around twenty five bucks on Amazon.com. I like the local flavor this smaller scope game offers and I hope they keep it that way. I find seat of the pants bush flying a lot more fun than long range navigation.

[DreadMetis]

Just for you to know, a Flight Studio dev have talked of a 2-years minimum developpment plan for the game, with something like one new plane a month and a sceneric addon every three months.

There will definitely be jets in Flight. But I think creating a plane is taking time, and yes the game is at it's sheer beginning, we can expect much more from it and the Studio seems to respond quite quick to players' reactions :)

[Antares666]

Honestly, I hope Microsoft doesn't listen to ALL the suggestions or else we'll end up with a Space Shuttle launch pad at Hilo.

And if they do add jets to this game just how many airports will that limit us? Personally, I can see adding a couple helicopters (I think they use American Eurocopter AS350 "A-Star" on Hawaii tours)and few small single and double engine prop planes like a Piper Meridian or a De Havilland DHC-8. But what do you really want jets for? (Unless we can use them to navigate to Alaska)

If you really want the whole enchilada you can buy MS Flight Simulator X for around twenty five bucks on Amazon.com. I like the local flavor this smaller scope game offers and I hope they keep it that way. I find seat of the pants bush flying a lot more fun than long range navigation.

Of course, not ALL the suggestions...I don't want a new FS...Unlike so many others i actually like Flight mechanics. And i was never a big fan of FS, simply because it's too complicated... Flight got a good compromise between HC Sim and game...On the other hand i Dont like carrying ghost passengers, i dont like paying 30€ for just a few islands and 2 extra planes. There should be more varied missions, instead of just burgers, sightseeing and passenger runs, that rescue mission on the A5 was actually kinda cool, why not make more of those... One thing is for sure, if MS doesn't come close to FS in terms of content (locations, planes and missions) Flight is as good as dead...
As for the jets, i wouldn't mind at all if there weren't any, i just wondered how are we supposed to reach 85k feet without one...

As for the alaska pack, they better do a better job on those issues, im certainly not gonna shell out another 30€ for just 2 more planes...

[raven2751]

i've only managed to get to about 36000 ft in the P-51 (in the specs for this plane the highest it is supposed to go is 41000 ft), but on the way down i did manage to get the Supersonic Achievement, i was doing about 600+ knots before i had to pull up at almost 1000 ft.

lets hope the next plane is a jet that can reach the required altitude and can reach at least mach 2.5 Mig 25, F-15 or even better to get 2 achievements (or 3 if you don't have the Supersonic one) and the aerocache in question we could have the SR-71, but i'm not sure if any of the landing strips could handle the SR-71.

[wlayton27]

I've been thinking about cheating on this one ... could it be possible to save any flight and modify the file from an editor to change altitude to 85,000 feet? I'm usually pretty good at altering variables in compiled files from gVim ... just as long as I can maintain the file's character length so I don't have to adjust the file headers.

[RoboRay]

Yes, it's been done before.

But what's the point of "achieving" something by hacking a save-game file?

[wlayton27]

Yes, it's been done before.

But what's the point of "achieving" something by hacking a save-game file?

That's true, I don't usually take too much joy in hacking games to get impossible achievements, unless they're hacker-themed games like Uplink or Hacker Evolution ... then it's all part of the experience. :D

Rather than reinvent the wheel, I'll see what others have figured out with saved free flights and build from there ... sounds like fun to start 85,000 feet in the atmosphere and dive to ridiculous speeds, or start at mach 3+ and climb into a very tall knife stall. Is it apparent that I'm getting a bit bored today? :D

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

EDIT:

I've done it ... didn't find anything suitable online from other users so I patiently dug through the 1s and 0s with my code-reading spectacles and found the GPS coordinates and altitude data in the free flight save files.

Went ahead and uploaded a RAR file that contains the save files to "filedropper.com" ... the first file host I could find on Google. Let me know if you want these files and the FileDropper link below is giving you trouble (such as silly surveys or what-not ... it's not my intention to promote web surveys).

http://www.filedropper.com/curvature

Instructions for use:

After downloading the curvature.rar archive, extract its contents into your Documents library under the directory "Documents\Flight\Shared\Free Flight".

Start the game, and optionally you can select the "Curvature of the Earth" aerocache and select "begin hunt."

Go to Free flight, select "Load Free Flight," and choose "Curvature of the Earth" from the list. The aerocache should automatically be picked up as soon as the game loads ... enjoy your descent.

(Note: I used the standard Icon A5 so that you can load the file even if you haven't purchased any DLC other than the Hawaii pack, and if you haven't unlocked any special paint skins.)

Edit 2:

Just downloaded the file myself to make sure it's accessible. The download link is the grey button down the page under the "URL:" and "Embed:" code blocks. Just above the tacky hot pink "sign up now" button.

[robskij]

i managed to get the icon to way above 100k altitude (althought the altimeter stopped at 100k) it was a game bug and i tell the story in one of the other unofficial forums... (although i didnt stumble across the curvature of the earth cache en route)

see http://msflightforum.myfastforum.org/about243.html

hacking a game save... well thats just plain cheating dude.... wheres the fun or indeed skill in that..... enjoy the game....

respect
robskij

Catch me as BigBadWolfski in flight

[wlayton27]

i managed to get the icon to way above 100k altitude (althought the altimeter stopped at 100k) it was a game bug and i tell the story in one of the other unofficial forums... (although i didnt stumble across the curvature of the earth cache en route)

see http://msflightforum.myfastforum.org/about243.html

hacking a game save... well thats just plain cheating dude.... wheres the fun or indeed skill in that..... enjoy the game....

respect
robskij

Catch me as BigBadWolfski in flight

That was an interesting story ... I thought you found some kind of altitude exploit for the Icon, but it was just a one time glitch. Do you think gravity was pulling the wrong way? :D

"Hacking" a game save to get at that one particular aerocache isn't really cheating because there is no other way to achieve the goal; besides there's no harm in it.

As for the skill involved, it felt pretty rewarding for me when I finally cracked the pattern in the random-looking ASCII characters. I really thought it was outside of my code-breaking skill level, but I had a bit of luck and spotted a sequence midway through the file. Just take a look at the silly file and you take a guess where the altitude value is stored (hint-- it's after the savegame's name and in the middle of the file somewhere) ... it's harder than it sounds.

[RoboRay]

"Hacking" a game save to get at that one particular aerocache isn't really cheating because there is no other way to achieve the goal

Do you honestly believe that, or are you still trying to convince yourself?

[AzureWX]

As far as Xbox Live is concerned (and that includes the Games for Windows Live system as well), modifying saves to obtain achievements is indeed cheating.

Don't cheat in a game unless cheats have been deliberately enabled.
Don't modify or hack game content to create cheats.
Don’t make unauthorized modifications to your account profile or its contents.
Don't intentionally play with someone who is using unauthorized software or methods to help inflate your game rank or gamerscore.
Link (http://www.xbox.com/en-US/Legal/CodeOfConduct)

[AzureWX]

It's not Microsoft's responsibility to keep you from cheating, and frankly I doubt that this is a scenario in which they'll enforce that rule. As far as it appearing in this forum, that part is up to the moderators.

Just be aware that the Live enforcement folks do consider it cheating and could at any point in the future revoke your access to the LIVE service or reduce your gamerscore.

Edit: that said, it probably won't happen. I don't think this game is that high of a priority.

[wlayton27]

That one aerocache is only worth 10,000 XP (there are much better ways to earn XP in the game than by collecting aerocaches), and it's not connected to any achievements so it adds nothing to the gamerscore at all.

The only reason I just had to have it was it was the only aerocache I didn't have and I felt that it was taunting me long enough. I'm not looking to gain rank or collect every single award or aerocache just so I can rub it in other people's noses.

If MS comes out with an aircraft that's even capable of operating at altitudes over 70,000 feet, I'll remove the link myself without having to be asked.

[AzureWX]

I'm referring to the generic Aerocache achievements, not anything in particular for Curvature of the Earth.

And I'm not criticizing you, I think it's awesome that you managed to find that tweak! Config spelunking is fun. I'm just trying to let you know that it's cheating as far as the Live people are concerned and that they've punished people in the past for less. ;)

[held]

When do we get it? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfXftI8Q7us) I want to see Hawaii from 85000 ft :) And I want the aerocache.

[houston144]

this is just a guess on possible future DLC, but this one stand out like a skunk at an opera...

http://www.aerospaceguide.net/spaceplanes/spaceshipone.html

Spaceshipone has three seats; one for the pilot and two for space tourists who will be able to make the minutes up and down flights once the test phase is over. Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites may use the SpaceShipOne rocketplane to win the $ 10 million X-Prize by flying three people twice into space in two weeks.

"Paul Allen, founder and chairman of Vulcan Inc is financing the SpaceShipOne project. He is also the co-founder of Microsoft."

(right above the Specification's for Space Ship 1 and White Knight)

[Prune]

Now that would be fun to fly. They could give you the choice of being the Spaceship pilot or the Mothership pilot. I know which one I would prefer to be though!

[houston144]

I can a couple of uses for it really, in mutiplayer player one could have "command" of the White Knight while carrying Space Ship 1, which would be manned by another player in mutiplayer...

Player 1 (P1) would have White Knight..
Player 2 (P2) would have Spaceship 1..

taking the COE aerocache, would involve P1 finding the best position which would enable P2 to intercept the COE Areo, get 4 players using 2 airframes combinations their could be a pretty interesting 'race'....take off..launch Space ship, white Knight returns, first one to put rubber on the tarmac wins but only if Space ship 1 of the same team also reaches a goal altitude and also returns first...

just speculation, seems like a rather interesting Idea.

[washu73]

I think I will wait till they release a plane like a SR71 or something of that ilk before I try for this one, The Mustang can get the high-flying glider cache but I was pushing the engine for everything it had to get that one, so I really think this one is impossible to get legitimately for the time being. (kinda like the mach 3 achivement, still gonna try for mach 2 in a mustang though just to see if I can, I got Mach 1 on my way down from a similar high altitude flight I did before the cache run.)

[DDawg_1956]

I hate hackers ....

now ... how do I hack the files to get to my skins in order to Paint my own plane ... :D

[EastCoastGuy]

Ask in the Support Forum -- I'm sure they'll tell you. ;)

[The Pandanator2]

this is just a guess on possible future DLC, but this one stand out like a skunk at an opera...

http://www.aerospaceguide.net/spaceplanes/spaceshipone.html

Spaceshipone has three seats; one for the pilot and two for space tourists who will be able to make the minutes up and down flights once the test phase is over. Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites may use the SpaceShipOne rocketplane to win the $ 10 million X-Prize by flying three people twice into space in two weeks.

"Paul Allen, founder and chairman of Vulcan Inc is financing the SpaceShipOne project. He is also the co-founder of Microsoft."

(right above the Specification's for Space Ship 1 and White Knight)

Wow! That would be really great. I can imagine the ad now..."Space! The final frontier. And now, you can experience it for only 10 million dollars!! Call now and we will throw in some astronaut ice cream for your trip!" :D

[DreadMetis]

About the CotE aerocache, and about the 85k ft save(s, cause it seems to have many differents), if you have nothing to communicate on, don't advertize. This aerocache is useless for now, not because we won't receive eventually a vehicule to go up there, but because MSF put in the game something about what they do not interact with players. You put too many teasers with no way to ease the ich, you got ♥♥♥♥♥...