Number of Containers if "Estimate Passenger Number" option is disabled

[HardyZ]

Hello FS Dreamteam,
I refer to the topic http://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum/index.php/topic,22507.msg152070.html#msg152070 by RFarmah on November 28, 2019 (long time ago...)
It ends with answer #9 from Umberto on December 02, 2019:
"Please stand-by, I could replicate your problem and even posted a fix, but reverted it, because it caused errors when using GSX just for pushback. But we'll look at it again soon."

Has this topic ever been discussed again? I searched the forum but didn't find anything. Anyway, I ran into this exact problem yesterday (FSX with GSX 3.1.4). I know, the issue of "number of passengers" is discussed in many places, but it is precisely this problem in the case that the option "Estimate Passenger Number" is disabled.

Umberto writes in reply #4 on November 27, 2019 in the topic above: "If you disable the "Estimate Passenger Number" option, the payload won't matter anymore."
Unfortunately, this is exactly not true as Umberto also confirmed in answer #9. Correct: You can enter the number of passengers manually and they will be displayed correctly, but the number of containers being loaded still corresponds to the payload and not to the entered number of passengers.

Did I miss something or is this intentional?
Thank You for Your answer.

Appendum:
Of course, I have been very grateful for Your update service so far, but only if updates improve the software and don't remove features that I once paid for. I can definitely remember that the number of containers according to the number of passengers used to work correctly in an earlier version.
Otherwise it would be better to stop supporting FSX or P3D completely. This all the more since we have no possibility of rolling back to an earlier properly working version.

[virtuali]

You are referring to very old threads, and lots has changed since then, most importantly the addition of Simbrief integration.

The number of containers, if the airplane is not cargo, is no longer based on "just" the passengers number / 220 lbs, as it always was. This approach had issues, because it couldn't account large and small airplanes at the same time, or with combi configurations, resulting in either big airplanes always using the max amount of loaders even if they were half empty, or small planes never using the max amount of loaders even if they were almost full.

The current method is more realistic, because instead of using the passengers number as an absolute value, it will calculate a fill up ratio based on the actual number of passengers against the Maximum amount of passengers that airplane can carry, adjusting the number of loaders/containers in proportion to that ratio so, no matter how large the airplane is, the number of loaders/containers would always be variable to give an idea of how "full" the airplane is, no matter its size.

The issue is, the "Max amount of passengers" is not a data we have from the sim. But we DO get it from Simbrief, so we use it if we have it. This means, if you use Simbrief, GSX will be able to calculate this loading ratio, which is valid regardless if the number of passengers was read from Simbrief or typed manually.

If you don't use Simbrief, the number of loaders will be based on Payload, which means the actual Payload at the time you called Boarding. This is also changed and improved, because it's not a straight Payload / 220 lbs as before, but it's again a ratio between the maximum payload and the actual payload. The difference here is we don't need Simbrief to calculate the ratio, it's made using this formulas:

Max Payload = Max Gross Weight - Fuel Weight - Empty Weight

Actual Payload = Total Weight - Fuel Weight - Empty Weight

Here, not using Simbrief means the actual payload depends on what the payload was when you called GSX boarding so, if you called it with the plane empty, you'll always see 1 cart. However, if you DO use Simbrief, the actual payload will be calculated using the PLANNED payload, so it wouldn't depend on the airplane load at the time you called Boarding.

[HardyZ]

Hello Umberto,
thank you for clarifying that you changed the method of calculating the containers in connection with the integration of Simbrief.
However, as a long-time FSX Simmer and user of GSX Level 2, I don't want to be forced to also use Simbrief. There are other flight planning apps that I really appreciate.
Since manually entering payload and passenger weight in the FSX menu is very awkward and difficult to calculate, I really appreciated the simple and quick way to influence the number of containers as desired by using this option. Even if the formula "passengers number / 220 lbs" was perhaps not that realistic: it was easy and quick. Currently it makes no difference to the number of containers whether the option is disabled or not. Only the number of passengers changes according to the manual entry.
I could imagine that it wouldn't be too difficult to use the old method for calculating the containers when entering the number of passengers manually without Simbrief. This can be noted in the popup text. And whoever doesn't want this can activate the option "Estimate Passenger Number" from the payload or Simbrief.

I would really appreciate it if you would make this possible again.