Just thought i'd throw my hand in and mention my progress and thought about the sim.
Having waited so long for a true Space Shuttle simulator I was determined to enjoy it. I've indulged in virtually all the other sims that have tried to reproduce the shuttle experience and got a lot out of them, but this Sim really has been worth the wait.
Bugs aside (only to be expected to be fair ) I jumped straight into my training starting with Landings .... many, many landings, before even thinking about a mission. It was tempting but with all the sparks flying about this and that not working I thought i'd wait it out a little until things settled.
Despite issues with my X52 joystick I managed to configure it one step at a time.
Setup for ease during landings primarily then practicing on obit phases. Spent the best part of an afternoon setting up the config for shuttle translation and then came the RMS.
Took a long time to get my head around the RMS but eventually I had the joystick setup to use it comfortably. Everything to do with the aft panels has been a joy to play around with. I got to say the camera views along with the monitor selection, view in VC mode etc etc have been fabulous to use. The functionality has been a lot more than I expected.
Anyways after a pre-patch STS-1 failure I completed STS-1 with a great deal of satisfaction. and prior to writing have just completed STS-8 with a perfect centreline landing (deadzones aside ).
Judicious use of time compression is a must from my experimentation with reentry. I haven't really experimented as much as i'd like but I don't think the sim handles time compression too good in that last phase of atmospheric entry. Not definite on that but from what i've seen I think it can seriously screw up your trajectory.
Anyways, STS-1 and STS-8 completed. Training for STS-41C next. I just hope by the time I complete all the missions at HIGH difficulty there will be a new batch of missions to train for.
In summary, SSM 2007 = way to good to rush
