Hello everybody,
Here comes a new ATC-pie release (v1.5.0), with the major addition being an extended set of ATC coordination features for multi-player, in particular an integrated ATC text chat system, allowing to communicate off the public channels. ATCs can now coordinate with other controllers without mixing with the radio chat every pilot can read.
A new "ATC text chat" dock panel (SHIFT+F8) now allows:
- private text chat with any other ATC callsign, easily accessible by double-clicking on the ATC callsign in the usual ATC dock
- general ATC chatroom, for open discussions, accessible through the "select" button, leaving the field blank
- icon notifications of unread messages...
The good thing about it is that it uses IRC, which means that anybody without ATC-pie can still open an IRC client and take part in the chats. The precious interoperability with OpenRadar is therefore preserved again (also read the updated wiki user guide section on "strip exchange"). The default channel proposed is #atc on the FlightGear IRC server, which a while ago already hosted ATC communication but has been deserted since.
A new dependency for this feature is the Python3 IRC library, but like the speech synth/recog ones you may install it later. The program will still run, only the added features mentioned here will be disabled. See README and wiki installation guide.
Further extensions in this version:
- strip auto-print option from filed FPLs, for due departures from base airport, or arrivals --> see new options in local settings dialog
- ATC-pie clients (if both using this feature) may now exchange *ALL* strips regardless of the limitations of the historic service
- "Who has" requests to ask the ATC network who is controlling a specific callsign
- "!!dup" warning on strips when a callsign appears on more than one strip