Gave Radar Contact V4 a chance - No regrets!

[RyanGA]

I know many here feel the same way I do about the default ATC AI. Below are my general gripes:

1) I use IceAI turned up to 40% density and the result is a never ending cycle of report traffic in sight.
2) I have the back and forth ping pong of ATC sending me to another frequency just to send me to another a few seconds later.
3) On long flights I tend to get up and walk around, eat dinner, take a dump, etc and that is ALWAYS when ATC chimes in to change freqs and when I don't reply cancels my flight plan.
4) Cluster fudge of traffic at the airport that the AI just can't handle leading to go arounds or endless waiting to take off which leads to delays.

Those were my main issues with the default AI and I looked at several mods that get rid of the default AI. I didn't take them seriously for the longest time because of how robotic the ATC sounds with them but can attest to the fact that the old dust covered mod Radar Contact does a good job with it. The only obvious robotic part was with numbers and letters which other speech sounding natural but after a day or so of using it I don't notice the robotic parts at all. Some of the voices are I would say as good as default ATC and who wouldn't love the various accents.

Here are the best parts of the program for me personally with how I play the game that solve the above issues I have with default ATC:

1) Report traffic in sight happens but is extremely seldom.

2) ATC requests to change freqs is far less frequent with no back to back requests.

3) You get a AI co pilot! Best part of the program in my opinion. I order him to handle the radios and now I can go take that dump with no worries about missing the ATC call because he is handling it. You can also hand the plane to him and he will fly to entire flight plan handling VORs and everything. He can't take off and he hands the plane back once the plane is on final but other than that you can hand the plane over at any time.

4) Traffic is now more spread out making use of more runways which leads to no go arounds for me so far or excessive waiting to take off. Last night in Atlanta for instance I saw one north side and one south side runway being used for landing and the other northern and southern runway being used for take offs. KATL was always a nightmare to take off or land in (at my IceAI traffic settings) with default ATC but not anymore.

Another plus is I use FSCaptain which includes airline emergency situations which mean little when the default ATC has no options for declaring a emergency. Radio Contact does however and can handle declaring and requesting a emergency landing at an alternate airport. In a non-emergency but still urgent nature, just last night I was on fumes coming into KATL and was told I would be in a holding pattern once I got closer because of heavy traffic but I was able to then tell them I'm very low on fuel. This led to them immediately sending me in ahead of the pack!

Only negative aspect of the mod (for me) is lack of ground taxi assist. You are now just told which runway to head to or what gate to park at after landing with no assist or taxi IDs. To get around this I simply use top-down view to see where the runway is in relation to where I am and map out the route myself. For 'taxi to the gate' after landing I use the GSX Mod's follow me car so there's no issue for me finding the gate to park at.

Just wanted to put this out there for those searching around for a ATC mod. I just wanted to share my experience with it. No regrets what so ever!

[tlvx]

I'm going to be honest... this reads like a paid advert.

So, what it needs is a full disclosure - of the author's affiliation.

Here's a good video that samples what the popular ATC addons sound like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5FO_yV9Wzw&hd=1
Although RC isn't the worst sounding... *all* of the addon ATC options still sound robotic.

Here's what people need to know:

Is the lack of ground control limited to, "ground taxi assist"?

How is the AI ground traffic controlled, versus the user aircraft?

[Minion of Speed]

It's 45 bucks.

[RyanGA]

Sorry if I sounded like a sales rep for the mod lol. I just got a little over enthusiastic when explaining it I guess. When I plopped down that much cash on a gamble on a program (with no demo available no less) that hasn't been worked on since 2007 I was scared to death it would be money wasted. When it wasn't and my experience with the game changed so dramatically, I'm eager to let others know.

For full disclosure, I spent the last several days watching countless youtube videos about the various ATC programs. Some sounded absolutely cringe worthy to me while others had no AI co pilot or worse did not handle AI traffic. RC seemed to be the best middle ground for what I personally wanted to solve the issues I have with the default ATC listed in my complaints above.

It may be a horrible solution depending how others might play the game.

Originally posted by tlvx:

Here's what people need to know:

1) Is the lack of ground control limited to, "ground taxi assist"?

2) How is the AI ground traffic controlled, versus the user aircraft?

1) From what I gather (which may or may not be accurate as the manual for RC is like a 300 page pdf file and I have not read it front to back) it works more less like the default AI except that no taxiway directions are given. ATC simply tells the AI which runway to taxi to. I have sat watching KATL in top down mode for extended periods of time and have not seen planes pass through each other on the same taxi way or bottle neck with no one moving so there seems to be some logic behind the scenes to keep the various taxi ways one direction.

When I'm told what runway to head to for take off I can get an idea of what taxi ways are flowing in which direction by watching the AI traffic before pushing back. I map it out in my head and then head out. For taxing after landing, again ATC just tells you what gate to taxi to but the mod GSX takes me there so I don't have to do what I do for take offs.

2) Unlike default ATC, taxi traffic (player included) is not told to 'hold position for Boeing' for example. AI planes stop and hold for me on their own if I am in their path. I as well will hold for them if they are passing by me but if their intentions are instead of passing me but to turn down the taxi way I'm on they will stop short of the turn to let me out.

I have yet to ever see two AI aircraft pass through each other as I've never seen them use a taxi way for two opposite directions at the same time nor have I seen them both stop because they are using the same taxi ways in two opposite directions. They do stop for each other to let others go by just as they do for me.

[Morag]

Originally posted by Ryan:

I just got a little over enthusiastic

When I saw you had 1500 hours in Farming Simulator....


...I knew you were legit.

[Zigarten]

I appreciate this review and it's enthusiasm! I figure if there's only one person who really likes something and 30 that don't, that's a pretty good indication. Don't dampen that spirit. We can all search engine something to death when it comes to spending our hard earned $$

[side-fish]

I actually don't have the money right now =P, but what you're saying sounds so appealing, I might keep an eye on this. I've basically given up on ATC. I've always been under the impression that you can't make the default ATC any better except changing the robotic voice. I guess I'm mistaken.

[BaBulie]

If anyone reads this that is searching for an alternative ATC program I would recommend Vox-ATC, you actually speak back to the controller with windows voice recognition, it works really well and it has all the features that RC has. The downside is that it's really expensive, like 70€ or something, but you can get a 7 day free full version trial to check it out.

[pirateinparadise]

Originally posted by tlvx:

I'm going to be honest... this reads like a paid advert.

LOL... This made me laugh. If my company paid some company or person to write an advert for us and they used the phrase "take a dump" anywhere in the material that we were paying for, they would be out the door on their ear in a hurry.

[Tonyml88]

Doesn't work for me. Total waste of money for me, and no response from the company to my requests for assistance.