FS2004 Update Strategies?

[Hussein Patwa]

Hi.  I guess I'm just curious to know how you guys go about updating/adding to your FS2004 setup.  I mean, do you just buy/download anything that takes your fancy, or do you have some plan?

I usually download stuff as I need it, so if I decide I want to fly a 777 jet I'll go get it, and find a 777 in a livery that matches the airline that I either want to fly or that matches the part of the world I'm flying in.  Most of my flights are re-takes of flights I've taken in real life or of flights that friends/family are on or have been on.  At the moment, I'm planning flights to Colombo from London via Doha, because my friend's just flow there.  When he moves onto the Maldives for the second part of his hols, I plan to fly with him in real-time on FS.  I just came from downloading over 200MB of stuff, mostly scenery, but I also got a new panel for my 777-300ER (the one I downloaded previously had a bug that hid the heading part of the Autopilot, kinda important as the flight is 3639nm and I don't fancy correcting the bearing every few mins) and an FMC and flight planner. All freeware, and all quality stuff.  But the main thing is that all this stuff is just for that one flight.  When I head onto the Maldives, I'll get more scenery for that country, and a new Air Maldives jet.

So what are your strategies?  How do you organise all the downloads on your computer?  Do you keep a database of it all (hey, good idea! I think I might just do it myself) or what?  Just curious.

Hussein.

[BFMF]

I only download aircraft that I'm interested in, or scenery for areas that I fly into.

I do almost all of my flying in small single and twin engine aircrafts, and vintage aircrafts in Alaska, and the Pacific Northwest.

Therefore, I usually don't bother downloading aircraft packages that I'm not interesting in flying, or scenery packages for areas that i'll probably never fly to.

If I do find an addon I really like and that meets a specific criteria, I'll repackage it with any modifications (Which is usually the case ) i've made, and back it up

[Moach]

i usually do a daily check for new addons here in SimV... my first criteria is a DVC must be included in the model, if not, i just forget it... then i'll check the screenshots to see if it is all it's suposed to be, it usually is, freeware addons have been of excellent quality these days...

i don't really mind what type of aircraft it is... i'm pretty open minded about different styles of flying... i got from 747s to ultralights in my hangar (i also like helos, they are great with my 3D goggles)

my favourite style, of course, is airliners... but this type of addons are very hard to come across, all the good ones are payware, and since i don't have any money, i ended up making my own


all my downloaded planes, sceneries and whatnot are saved zipped in a folder before i unzip, this folder has become my personal archive and is now over 1GB wide...

if i ever need to reinstall FS, i'll never have to download all again... just install whatever or wherever i feel like flying

Moach

[Jakemaster]

I download things that I like, meaning a GA/small to medium prop with VC.  If im ever in the mood for something, I search for it and download it.

[Hussein Patwa]

Hmm, thanks interesting to hear your stories. I might take up that archive and storing in a folder idea.  Actually I will, I'll also rename all my downloaded files, 777cjpan2v.zip doesn't really give an indication of what's inside.  And msfs2.zip is even worse!  That's actually maldives scenery for fs2k4.

Cheers.

[simonmd]

I've got a folder in 'My Documents' called Flight Stuff. Whenever I download anything it's in there that it goes, NEVER straight into the main FS9 folder. It's subdevided into sub folders to try and keep things organised, AC, Panels, Sounds, Textures, Scenery. Once a file is downloaded i'll either open the zip file and copy'n'paste into FS9 or just intal from there if an intaller program is included. This way, whatever happens to FS9, I can wipe it a reinstal without loosing all the downloads.

As for strategy, if it's new and interesting, i'll get it!

[HyperionAirways]

I rarely go out and download random add-ons.  99% of the time I've read a review on it, seen screenshots that impress me, etc...