To me MS Flight is just a platform just as FSX was platform I witch to build on. I think MGS has made a "simplified version of Flight Simulator" that was me quoting that by the way, for a reason. If you remember when FSX came out before the service packs, everything was single core driven and not set up for dual core. Windows Vista was right around the corner and FSX was its debut program. SP1 came out and fixed a few things here and there, but then came SP2 and it changed the way textures were handled, it added limited multicore functions and changed the way autogen was addressed. I hade paywere aircraft that no longer worked right. My canopy glass turned opaque and I needed to find a work around using a texture conversion tool that never really fixed the problem. 3pd had to issue SP2 fixes to their products. It became a big mess. Now we don't need to worry about SP2 issues with addons because it's the normal platform for FSX.It is my opinion and my belief that MS Flight is still a work in progress and has been stripped of most of the features we would expect from a Flight Simulator of the past because MGS wants to get it right the first time and not have to go backwards in development. Take ATC for instance, if we already had a basic FSX ATC in flight and the comunity wanted a much mor realistic ATC experience like Radar Contact mixed a little VATSIM and VOX ATC that gave us the complete experience, they would have to go back and reprogram the source code that would change many other parameters like AI aircraft, Gates, Taxiways, and so on. Then everything there could be affected and have to be redone and optimized. In the end you end up with a simple or not so simple thing snowballing into a huge mess with unexpected results. Instead when you start from scratch or "building from the ground up" you can taylor to the needs and wants of other more effectively. Maybe after A year or so when Flight is stabilized they will start letting the 3PD develope for flight with a much more refined SDK and a much more powerful platform to work with. I hope this is the case!!!Just my opinion.

I'm just looking at the head developers comments and his obvious vision and from that I have to assume much of what you are hoping for is wishful thinking.I'm not saying Flight is an arcade game. It's not. I'm not saying missions are bad. They can be fun.What I am saying is I can't foresee MS deviating from what you are already seeing as DLC. Things like regions, planes, and mission packs are what are going to make them the most money. Not ATC, AI, the ability to flight plan, real world weather, airline operations, etc.I think some are hoping that this is just a taste and suddenly MS just starts laying huge feature filled DLC's on us that bring Flight even with FSX (like the entire US, redone ATC, and the like). But if you look at the history of DLC, how companies work it, and how it usually flows, it's a system where you nickel and dime the customer for every little piece (I'm not commenting on the virtues of that, that's their choice). That's the entire point of DLC.I pray I'm wrong, but I think what you'll continue to see are $15 aircraft, $20-30 regions, and mission packs to go with them. They can pump those out fast with their resources and continue to make money. As a product with the market they themselves say they want to reach, there's a lifespan they have to think about as well. It won't be like FSX where we continue to play years from now (a few of you will, most won't). Casual gamers just don't operate like that for the most part and that's who the Flight team has said they are going after. MS may have a year to make most of what they hope to make off this project before gamers move onto the next thing. It works just like any incarnation of a game on a console that uses a DLC system. They are just a different breed of gamer. I wouldn't have such a cynical view if it weren't for the comments from their head developer himself. He's made it clear how he views the project. I'm not saying he's wrong or that some of you guys won't like it. I'm just saying I see very little reason to think Flight ever becomes more then what it is except for what amounts to just expansions of levels and planes.

Edited March 2, 201214 yr by bonchie

Maybe after A year or so when Flight is stabilized they will start letting the 3PD develope for flight with a much more refined SDK and a much more powerful platform to work with.

I wish you were right.

Unfortunately we are dealing with Microsoft here and they do have a history. So I do believe that you are more right than me and my wishfull thinking.