Alpha 60 stuff

[Will]

Hardy,

"Excessive" is not above everything, it implies a floor but not a ceiling.  It just means you're over some threshold, you've exceeded some value, but there may be many values left to go.  It doesn't imply that you've reached the maximum point.

"Extreme" is pretty close to maximal, implying a ceiling, the top of the scale.

Let's say the critical limit is 100 knots, but destruction happens at 150 knots.  (Kind of like the old Piper Tomahawk I trained in.)  Then 90 knots would be moderate, 100 kt would be critical, but then 120, 130, and 140 knots would all be excessive (meaning in excess of the critical value of 100 kt), but 149 and 150 kt would be extreme, the top of the scale.

John's suggestions are all fine, except for the last, which should be:

Will <<< John < PC < Scanno < Roddez < Matt

[Hardy Heinlin]

"Excessive" is not above everything, it implies a floor but not a ceiling.

[...]

Let's say the critical limit is 100 knots, but destruction happens at 150 knots.

I see it the same way, but my "floor" would be at 150 knots in this example :-)

I.e. the floor as a matter of definition. I regarded it as "Exceeding the scope of standard emergency training. Creativity required".

I find both words suitable:

No failures < Undemanding < Moderate < Critical < Extreme
No failures < Undemanding < Moderate < Critical < Excessive


|-|

[Will]

Sure, both of these are perfectly fine.

In fact, I love that definition: "Exceeding the scope of standard emergency training. Creativity required", this is quite good, please put that on the page, it's clear and makes perfect sense.

[Walter Kranl]

Amazing Hardy!

Re "Set unprepared cockpit":
If you press "Move a switch" more than once, more switches will be moved?
(same with "Blow a bulb" and Pull a CB").

Walter

[Richard McDonald Woods]

Or you could say that many pilot actions are critical to safe flight, and change the sequence to:

No failures < Undemanding < Moderate < Demanding < Extreme

Then,
- Undemanding can mean that it is normal to have to handle this situation
- Moderate can mean that some thought has to be made before acting in order to consider other effects that the decision may have
- Demanding can mean that, unless great thought is given to likely follow-on effects, there is a significant risk of safety violations occurring
- Extreme can mean that no pre-planned actions are available, and it is entirely up to the captain to use his best judgement to handle the situation, which is likely by its very nature to endanger aircraft safety, but hopefully less so than doing nothing.

[Shiv Mathur]

Is 'Extreme' worse than 'Excessive' ?  I wonder.

"There is an extremely large number of taxi drivers in this city" = The number is approaching 'saturation'.

"There is an excessively large number of taxi drivers in this city" = They can't earn a living any more ... just too many of them.


In fact, to my mind, 'excessive' implies that the situation is not recoverable.

I too liked John's No failures < Undemanding < Moderate < Critical < Extreme

[Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers]

"Critical" usually means (in technology) "at, but not over the safe limit". You can get out safely but the passage is narrow.

Is there merit in looking at the EICAS message hierarchy? Routine, checklist available, not trained, not considered because too unlikely?


Jeroen

[Shiv Mathur]

On second thoughts, isn't the word 'undemanding' a trifle cumbersome?

How about:  No failures < Moderate < Demanding < Critical < Extreme  ?

[Will]

ruhig < locker < alles klar < bescheuert < Wahnsinn

[Hardy Heinlin]

Walter, yes and yes. (However, if the random generator coincidentally hits a bulb that is already blown, then nothing will happen on that hit; like in a casino, you can't exactly count the button clicks).

...

Re complexity levels: The levels are defined like this:


Magenta:
Complexity will exceed the scope of standard emergency training. The chance of surviving is nearly zero.


Red:
Immediate landing required. Expect partial or total loss of thrust accompanied by limited electrical and hydraulic power, paired with reduced flight instrumentation.


Orange:
Landing at next suitable airport required. No hurry, but it would be unsafe not to land.


Green:
Minor cosmetical failures will occur.



|-|

[Hardy Heinlin]

[size=8](Click on pic to enlarge)[/size]

[Will]

What about a flashing RED zone called Kobayashi Maru?

:-)

[Will]

Has the "Random" page gone missing from the Malfunctions section?  Or does this page replace the old Random page?

[DavidP]

Wow. Breathtaking stuff indeed. My new credit card is valid to 2015 - hopefully I'll get to use it for PSX one day!

[Hardy Heinlin]

... does this page replace the old Random page?

Yes. Actually, the page was empty before.

Or do you mean PS1? Yes. Same answer.

However, random features are now available on the other malfunction pages as well.


|-|

[jgoggi]

Hardy, I wonder what the last Alpha will be before PSX enters Beta... Maybe Alpha 10000? I hope I can live long enough to have it in my hands  :mrgreen:

[Hardy Heinlin]

ruhig < locker < alles klar < bescheuert < Wahnsinn

Cliff Richard < Keith Richards < Baywatch Hasselhoff < MacGyver < Chuck Norris

[Will]

La Spezia < Gibraltar < Herbert Grönemeyer < Jürgen Prochnow < ALARM!!!!!!!

[Will]

What I can't intuitively get from your failure sliders is the rate of failures per unit time. In the last photo above, the third column shows the joined hemispheres right at "Critical." Does that mean you are guaranteed one critical failure? One critical failure per hour? One critical failure per phase of flight?  Per x miles?

[Hardy Heinlin]

Exactly this confusion from former PS1 times should be eliminiated by the new system. There should be no question anymore re "per hour" or "per 100 hours" etc.

The questions are now:

How complex will be the departure phase? And how complex will be the cruise phase? And the arrival phase?

The flight phase change-over points are at 18000 feet (plus a time delay as an anti-flip-flop hysterisis). Below 60 knots the system is disabled.

The complexity level within a flight phase depends on two factors:
1. Failure quantity (e.g. 3 engine fires are worse than 2)
2. Failure quality (a cabin decompression is worse than a blown light bulb)

These factors are both random controlled. The sliders set the approx average range. You won't exactly know what and how many failures will occur. You only have a rough idea of how difficult the flight phase is going to be.

In addition to this there's the transparency of the tape. The higher portion is less opaque than the lower one. The difference in transparency rises with the length of the slider tape. If it covers the whole scale, it means that it is very unlikely that the scenario in that flight phase will be excessive; it's more likely that only minor cosmetical problems occur -- or even no failures at all if the guaranteed level is at zero.


Cheers,

|-|ardy