Just wanted to share my point of view of Flight as a beginner and how it got me interested in flight simulation. I started this as a reply to another thread but given it was so long, I thought I should put it into it's own thread.

 

The way I see it, and I may of course be wrong!, is that Flight will add some of the missing features that were in previous versions of FS (there are listed radio frequencies for weather and air traffic at airports which would be very odd to put in if there were no intentions whatsoever to implement it at some point). Also, if you click on an airport to pull up the airport info, there are greyed out boxes to the left of the Job Board and Take Off buttons. Presumably, these will be replaced with buttons at some point. There are also indications that jets are going to be introduced at some point... achievements such as the Curvature of the Earth Aerocache, the Reach 50,000 ft award

(which shows an airplane on it), the transport 1,000,000 passengers, Mach 2 and 3 Awards... etc... There are also details on the ground that are filling in such as dumpsters between hangars, smoke from smokestacks, helicopters at some airports... It seems like they do have plans to bring ATC, jets, more movement, etc.. to the game just that, unfortunately, these things take a lot of time... and even more time to do them well...

 

I actually bought FSX after flying Flight. Partly because there are books covering more advanced topics such as instrument flying that use FSX but also because I am interested in learning some of those things as well that perhaps aren't in Flight at this time (at the time, I didn't realize VOR and ILS were in Flight). I can't really use FSX, however, since it crashes rather easily on my computer and to prevent it from stuttering, I have to put in on Medium/Low for most things so that I get scenery that looks like pyramids in the middle of Vermont (as an example)!

 

I tried flying from the nearest airport to me (Rockliffe Ottawa, located adjacent to the Ottawa River, beside the Canadian Aviation and Space Museum which has an iconic shape to it). While I am very familiar with the area, the view from FSX were nowhere near what it looks like in real life. I tried installing addon scenery for the airport and area but, unfortunately, it was buggy and crashed the program... I probably would have been able to get it to work... eventually but it would have taken a few hours to work out all the details. From this point of view, I think Flight is on the right track in terms of simplying add-ons and, if or when they allow 3rd party add-ons, I hope they use a robust model for them so that you don't have to fiddle around with them to get them to work. The downside to

that, however, is to make it more robust also means the add-ons will likely have more limitations on them.

 

I don't know what MS plans for future releases, but if I were them, I would set it up so that new users start in Hawaii as they do know with small GA aircraft and VFR... then they slowly move up to faster aircraft (RV6 - which by the way was very hard for me to deal with at first even though it is now my favourite) and have lessons that help them learn instrument flying and procedures then they can graduate (and pay) to fly more advanced aircraft in more locations and so on. In fact, the same as what you would do if you were a new pilot. The reason I think that model is better than just making everything available is that people can have incremental goals to reach for(which can be linked in some way to paying for the privilege of moving up)... getting faster aircraft, getting instrument rating,

flying a jet... That helps to keep people in the game.

 

Just as importantly, it helps to avoid what happened to me with XPlane and what likely would happen to many new users of most Flight Sim products. They load up the game, go to the 737 or 747, try to take off, realize there are soooo many buttons and controls, perhaps manage to takeoff and crash a few times and give up. That's exactly what happened to me when I bought XPlane 9 last year... I chose one of the more advanced aircraft (because it's a jet and it's cool right?) After a few tries, I gave up... Uninstalled XPlane and told myself that clearly this is too complicated, too much to learn, overwhelming... I'll do something else instead.

 

I did, however, take a look at Flight (1) because trying it was free (2) it was a download and I didn't have to go buy a physical disk, and (3) it didn't seem so overwhelming. In fact, when I used it for the first time there was a tutorial on basic flying that starts you off in the air so that you can trying flying right away. As well, the tutorial guides you through basic manoeuvers as well as which keys to press (if using a keyboard) because when you're first using a simulator, and probably don't yet have a joystick or yoke (I didn't at the time), it's easy to forget which key does what.

 

There are some comments that go along the line of "that's ok, but there should be an option to go to advanced mode right away." My problem with that is that even novices will do that, have trouble and give up. If there was an 'advanced option' to skip to more complicated planes and procedures, heck! I would have said yes to it even if I was a beginner. No one wants to be in the 'beginner' category. I agree that it's tedious for those that have lots of flight sim experience. But I think it's be pretty well advertised that the game was made more for beginners to grow with the game.

 

As such, I don't think the so called 'lack of DLC' is a problem. For newer players, like myself, that I am assuming are the primary target audience, the DLC that is available at this point will probably keep most of us busy until Alaska comes out! Even more so for those that didn't start playing the game right at its inception. I've done all the missions but one, but I don't have all the Aerocaches and I don't think I've done a third of the challenges nor many of the jobs.

 

So to sum up, as a younger individual with no prior sim experience before using Flight (actually, not completely true, as mentioned above, I bought and used XPlane 9 2-3 times before giving up), I consider myself part of their target audience. I guess I view Flight as a work in progress that develops over time and that as my experience grows, the game will grow alongside over the long term (years, rather than weeks and months).

 

My 2 pennies... (while I still have some, they're being eliminated in Canada this fall!)

Yes, you pretty much nailed that assessment.

 

More than you just being the target audience, you are in the group of people that can potentially regrow the declining "serious simmer" population to the point where the "Next Great Flight Sim" could be considered a viable proposition from a development and marketing standpoint.

Yes, you pretty much nailed that assessment.

 

More than you just being the target audience, you are in the group of people that can potentially regrow the declining "serious simmer" population to the point where the "Next Great Flight Sim" could be considered a viable proposition from a development and marketing standpoint.

 

+1

Excellent post.

Yep, I agree with your view! Thx for posting it !!!

Yes, yes, yes! A great post. I have mentioned elsewhere the pleasure of 'meeting' less experienced pilots in the game and by playing follow-my-leader games showing them basic flying skills, or just chatting about the game and what stuff in the cockpit means and does...

 

It would be great if the experts in the sim community took the opportunity to give back to the genre in this way, rather than grumbling about what the game hasn't given to them...

Great post.

I am pretty new to flight sims, and I have to say, I am still disgruntled by the lack of TrackIR support, and I am totally bewildered by the lack of cockpits in not one but two of the current plane models.

Give us functional cockpits, or give us laser cannons. One or the other. (I hope you all catch the meaning of my sentiment, I obviously don't ACTUALLY want laser cannons)

It's either an arcade game or a sim, not both, and cockpitless planes do nothing for nobody.

I do, however, hang on to hope. It's still a new product! I believe it was a mistake for them to not include TrackIR support....they apparently plan to remedy that mistake. (fingers crossed) It was a mistake to release planes without working cockpits....big deal, they will learn through experience...none of us will make those purchases. If they have included gameplay that appeals to 'gamers' and not 'simmers', that doesn't bother me because a flight around hot air baloons does not detract from the potential of the product, nor is it in any way bothersome once I've wasted the 5 minutes it takes to get past it.

I THINK the flight model is reasonable.

bottom line is that I believe that not now, not tomorrow, maybe not even this month or even year, but I believe that this might evolve into the flight sim we all want it to be.

Great post Sigma54!

Hi guys

Very nice posts. After seeing the other warbird skins, I was about to lose it if they did put out the P40 with or without a cockpit. Then I started thinking like you guys that there was , even now , alot of things that a causual flight gamer would have no interest in. Except for cockpitless warbirds of course, lol. Why would microsoft include this stuff if they weren't going to allow it to function at some point. In saying that though , I am starting to lose interest in the game as it stands and hoping that they WILL soon at least throw us bone here as a longtime flight simmer and enable some of the features that we already have in past sims. I actually like it even as a game but I hope they don't string me along for 6months and then go BTW those greyed out or blackened features are never going to be implimented. Know what I mean ? ?

I could tolerate the cockpitless planes a lot better if they would at least alternate releases... sell us a plane with a cockpit on even months and offer a plane without a cockpit on odd months.

 

If they get more people interested in Flight with cheap, cockpitless old warbirds, that's great. I just wish MS would sell something that I want. From time to time.

Hey Robo

That would work too. Or even autopilot for my saitek multipanel , hehe

I could tolerate the cockpitless planes a lot better if they would at least alternate releases... sell us a plane with a cockpit on even months and offer a plane without a cockpit on odd months.

 

I think that would be a good idea. I personally don't have much interest in cockpitless planes or warplanes. I do have the plane that came with the Steam bundle though and it was fun to fly with for a bit. It doesn't bother me if they release cockpitless planes as long as they make sure to give a reasonable range of planes with cockpits as well (popular or frequently requested planes such as Cessna 172 should definitely have cockpits).

Myself I am rather skeptical about Flight ever becoming airliner simulator. Sure, they might add few airliners, but they are worth nothing unless they actually have all those knobs and switches that often make new simmers confused, because without those you simply can't simulate operating real jetliner at all. Of course starting with more simple GA planes is easier start for simming career. Also big majority of flight simmers who fly big jets want to fly real world routes, a 747 with only Hawaii and Alaska to fly around would just not sell among most simmers.

In my opinion beginner mode would just prevent new people from actually learning how to operate their aircrafts, learning curve is part of flight simulation that can't be taken away without losing idea of simulation.