Hi Robert,
How can I get into UFO (or spaceship mode) high above the earth so that I can move to wherever I wish to go and then zoom down to that part of the world?
You are in the UFO mode by default. Use the Enter key to enter/exit vehicle. In UFO mode you can fly freely up to the space and back using WASD+RF keys. If you need to go faster, adjust your speed by PgUp and PgDown keys.
I can't get the hatswitch on my joystick (a Microsoft Force Feedback 2) to work, so that I can use that to look around, rather than the mouse. I read a post from March 2012 on this forum that this functionality was meant to be included in a future patch? Should this now work with the current version?
Not yet supported but should be soon.
I saw a video about Lukla in Outerra. How can I find and get to that (or any other airport)?
Unfortunately, Lukla was created with an older terrain dataset, and when we imported a new enhanced one, the topology changed too much (both elevation and lon/lat bias) and the Lukla region became unusable. It will have to be redesigned, but first we want to enhance the editing tools for it.
Is there any shared 'saved' locations list that others have created that any Outerra user can also download and import into their list (there only appear to be 2 or 3 locations I can load into that came with the game)
Similarly, can the same thing be done in relation to roads and objects/places built by users?
Users can make available the content of their cache folder; upon copying it to your cache folder you'd have their objects/roads. Additionally you would need a cam file (from campos folder) that stores the camera position and orientation, so you can quickjump to the location.
Finally, I also saw that you are working with Sibwings on making the Birdog available to use in Outerra? Will that be released by you or them as additional freeware/payware and, if so, any idea when that is likely to become available?
We are finishing our work on the model importer, which will make it possible to import 3rd party models. It will be followed by a vehicle/aircraft configurator, so that the models can be bound to the appropriate flight dynamics models.
However, for Sibwings and other companies that would like to function commercially with their high quality models, we also need to add support for purchasing and automatic installation etc. We are working on this too and will inform when it will become available.