Kruger Park Landing Challenge 1,683,966 points, 3rd so far... Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024
Good score for a landing that looks easier than it really is, if we want a high score.
Why do I say 3rd when I appear 4th in the Leaderboard?
Well 1,818,600 is not a genuinely made score: it is a multiple of 200, the maximum score for Smoothness, corresponding to a Vertical Speed downwards of 0 foot per minute, which is impossible. 1,818,600 can only be done with a Smoothness of 200 for an impossible Vertical Speed of 0 feet per minute: this staying parallel over or on the runway.
Let me explain:
Here is the Formula to get the actual Score:
Score = (P + C) x S with:
P, Precision, and C, Centerline, up to 5000 points each (so a max P+C of 10,000) and
S, Smoothness, up to 200 , but then 200 corresponds to a vertical speed of 0 fpm, which is impossible! Practically, we can reach 198 or 199 with great difficulty, but NOT 200, since 0 fpm is staying parallel over the runway.
Unless that if we "already are" on the runway, by using Slew mode. That is exactly what happened in the FS 2020 landing challenges.
Slew mode is disabled in landing challenges, but an addon made it available again!
I even contacted a Flight Simulator Forum moderator in Spring 2022, complaining about cheaters, and he confirmed Microsoft/Asobo were fully aware about it! Here is the link:
https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/spot-landing-challenges-recent-scores-close-to-2-million-points-caused-by-a-bug-or-something-else/515923
While FS 2024 doesn't show the formula and 3 parameters to get the score, as we can see in the link above, FS 2020 indeed does! FS 2024 uses the same parameters and formula.
I never asked Microsoft/Asobo to ban or punish cheaters, but just to clean up the many Leaderboards with cheated scores, and to put systems in place, so that scores from known exploits would simply not appear in the leaderboards, with a message telling the cheaters in question not to do it again, and that the cheated scores would just be ignored. So, there would no point in anyone cheating, since it wouldn't pay.
Sadly, Microsoft/Asobo did nothing in FS 2020, since this started from around March 2022!
I am not aware of any other exploits. Other people might be.
So, to see how a particular Score can be reached, we must divide it, by the possible maximums Smoothness S, starting by 200, then down 1 each time. Any P+C being an INTEGER corresponds to a possible value. Here 1818600 is only possible with Smoothness S = 200, so it was a cheat.
Score Smoothness P + C
1818600 200 9093
1818600 199 9138.693467
1818600 198 9184.848485
1818600 197 9231.472081
1818600 196 9278.571429
1818600 195 9326.153846
1818600 194 9374.226804
1818600 193 9422.797927
1818600 192 9471.875
1818600 191 9521.465969
1818600 190 9571.578947
1818600 189 9622.222222
1818600 188 9673.404255
1818600 187 9725.13369
1818600 186 9777.419355
1818600 185 9830.27027
1818600 184 9883.695652
1818600 183 9937.704918
1818600 182 9992.307692
1818600 181 10047.51381 Here, we reach the end, as P+C are 10,000 points maximum: can't be above 10,000
Some multiples of 200 have more than one combinations of values, like 1819200: we can get 1819200 with S 200 or 192, with different P+C values. While 1819200 with S 200 is a cheat, 1819200 with S 192 is a genuine landing.
Score Smoothness P + C
1819200 200 9096
1819200 199 9141.708543
1819200 198 9187.878788
1819200 197 9234.517766
1819200 196 9281.632653
1819200 195 9329.230769
1819200 194 9377.319588
1819200 193 9425.906736
1819200 192 9475
1819200 191 9524.60733
1819200 190 9574.736842
1819200 189 9625.396825
1819200 188 9676.595745
1819200 187 9728.342246
1819200 186 9780.645161
1819200 185 9833.513514
1819200 184 9886.956522
1819200 183 9940.983607
1819200 182 9995.604396
1819200 181 10050.82873 Stop here!
Do you see the principle?
So, when a score is only possible with S = 200, this is a cheat for certain.
But when there is another possible smoothness to get the score, it is genuine if not a Smoothness of 200. So, in this case it could be both genuine and cheat. But the higher the score, the more likely it is indeed a cheat.
Going back to the first four scores, we get the following scores that can be done with the following values:
1,818,600:
Smoothness Precision + Centerline
200 9093 CHEAT !
1,815,543:
Smoothness Precision + Centerline
183 9921 Genuine
1,722,168:
Smoothness Precision + Centerline
189 9112 Genuine
1,683,966:
Smoothness Precision + Centerline
183 9202 Genuine