Jump to content
Sign in to follow this  
Heimi

Good for newbies ?

Recommended Posts

There's also been a lot of unrealistic expectation in the flightsim community fabricated out of vague marketing-speak.

 

The issues is not about not understanding how to assign axes, it's about bits of the UI being hidden and no visual indication the drop-down lists are scrollable.

 

 

Spot-on!

Share this post


Link to post

Hi all,

 

so DTG said that it is aimed to beginners of the hobby, or people interested and new to flight sims.

You can say what you want about it like it or not, but here are 3 items that i think would scare off the "target audience"

 

1.

For me the biggest bummer was not being able to setup my controls to get it flying.

I`m not a beginner but i didn`t found the "axes" dropdown and i was overwhelmed after years of FSX absence  by the magnitude of controls... hundreds... and you need maybe 10-20? Some events aren`t even simulated.

So i needed 30 minutes to figure that out, and went flying. Then anoter 20 minutes to fine tune and some extra assignments and to elminate interfering commands that were auto-binded.

Not really good for an introduction into flight simming.

 

2.

The next stumbling block: I gave it to my wife without comments to do the lessons. She didn`t understand half of the tasks she was adviced to do by the virtual teacher. Without previous knowledge of the Instruments and their reading she had no fun in the beginning.

 

3.

My wife and a friend said: Ugly graphics except for the plane, this is a new game?

 

About #2, I definitely agree. The lessons require quite a bit of previous knowledge and assume you can read the basic flight instruments already. The virtual instructor also assumes a lot of prior knowledge, and you need additional flying skills to anticipate

the glitches and plain lies he tells.

For a game called flight "school", the lessons seem rushed and poorly thought out, and there aren't enough of them. Flight Unlimited II had excellent lessons in 1997, why is this so hard today?

 

 

#3: Again, agreed. It still looks like FSX from 2006. Casual "gamers" will expect much better (GTA 5).


Asus Prime X370 Pro / Ryzen 7 3800X / 32 GB DDR4 3600 MHz / Gainward Ghost RTX 3060 Ti
MSFS / XP

Share this post


Link to post

Really don't get the comments about the controls...

 

How is this different from FSX selectin the different areas, including axis? Did you have to think about for more than 60 seconds..?

 

I am sorry, but it is. 1st, I have the "Saitek Cessna Pro Pilot" Yoke, Pedals and TrimWheel. These entries are too long to fit into the boxes, thus they're cut and I've just got three identical entries "Saitek Cessna Pro Pilot". Funny, isn't it? 2nd, the first drop-down menu ("Calibrations") has sort of a scrollbar, but it took me a Jordan King video to recognize this (tiny) scrollbar to get to the "Axis" entry. User reports show I am not alone. 3rd, nearly all default entries for my Saitek gear were plainly wrong, I don't recall any other simulator getting the default entries for my controls so wrong as FlightSchool did. 

 

I think I know the controls interfaces of all present simulators (including AeroflyFS2 and X-Plane, which some find "difficult", which I wouldn't agree to). In my eyes, FlightSchool has the best looking, but worst working controls interface. I doubt the typical newbe would be more clever in handling my issues.

 

I don't speak about other UI glitches and the graphics yet.

 

Kind regards. Michael


MSFS, Beta tester of Simdocks, SPAD.neXt, and FS-FlightControl

Intel i7-13700K / AsRock Z790 / Crucial 32 GB DDR 5 / ASUS RTX 4080OC 16GB / BeQuiet ATX 1000W / WD m.2 NVMe 2TB (System) / WD m.2 NVMe 4 TB (MSFS) / WD HDD 10 TB / XTOP+Saitek hardware panel /  LG 34UM95 3440 x 1440  / HP Reverb 1 (2160x2160 per eye) / Win 11

Share this post


Link to post

I am sorry, but it is. 1st, I have the "Saitek Cessna Pro Pilot" Yoke, Pedals and TrimWheel. These entries are too long to fit into the boxes, thus they're cut and I've just got three identical entries "Saitek Cessna Pro Pilot".

Because all newbies just happen to have these sort of controls just lying around at home? OK it's good feedback for DTG to change for the flight simulator due towards the end of year assuming you've reported this to them but not really relevant for the target market.

 

 

I doubt the typical newbe would be more clever in handling my issues.

 

I doubt the typical newbie will have much more than a joystick.

  • Upvote 1

Give people power to really test their personality.

Share this post


Link to post

 

 


I doubt the typical newbie will have much more than a joystick.
0

 

And some will want to fly with the keyboard only. 


 

BOBSK8             MSFS 2020 ,    ,PMDG 737-600-800PMDG DC6 , A2A Comanche, Fenix A320,    Milviz C 310 ,  FSLTL  

TrackIR   Avliasoft EFB2    FSI Panel ,  ATC  by PF3  , A Pilots LIfe V2 ,  CLX PC , Auto FPS

 

Share this post


Link to post

The flighplanner is neat and much improved to FSX/P3D.

I disagree with this. The flight planner is actually extremely limited compared with the FSX/P3D one. The map visuals are quite nice, sure, and it's certainly easy to select a departure point and destination, but beyond that there is no way to select what gate you start at (you just start on the end of a runway, end of story), no navlog generated (so how are you supposed to do any VOR navigation if you can't look up the beacon frequency on your navlog?), no way to choose between VFR or IFR flights (I guess the game is mainly geared to VFR flying though) or anything of that sort.

 

So some prettier graphics and simpler interface notwithstanding, overall the flight planner is a major step backwards IMO.

 

That aside, I don't think the game is as friendly to newbies as it could be. For example, the lesson on VOR navigation has several references to an autopilot. Umm ... WHAT autopilot? Neither of the default aircraft in this game have autopilots! Also, the margins between success and failure in the Approach and Landing lesson in particular are far too fine. I have been failed several times in that lesson for being "too slow" on my final approach, yet I was only FRACTIONALLY below 55 mph (probably doing 51 or 52), and after getting the "Nope, we're too slow" message, the instructor then said "Right on speed and glideslope. Nice." But by then it was too late, because I'd already been deemed to have failed the mission. I find that quite utterly ridiculous and unfair. The instructor should warn you if your speed is wrong, not give you an instant fail. And the tolerance margins need to be increased a little.

 

Another bugbear of mine is the ATC and pilot voices in free flight. They sound like robots! Or like third-rate pop singers with autotune. Game for newbies or not, it's completely unacceptable for ATC and pilots to have voices as bad as that. (The voices in the lessons and missions are fine - the problem is with the ATC interaction during free flights.)

 

I think the basic concept of the game is good, and the Orbx scenery naturally looks fantastic. But it has a number of bugs and design flaws that really need to be ironed out. I actually think the FSX lessons (well, some of them) are better for newbies than this game at the moment.

Share this post


Link to post

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this  
  • Tom Allensworth,
    Founder of AVSIM Online


  • Flight Simulation's Premier Resource!

    AVSIM is a free service to the flight simulation community. AVSIM is staffed completely by volunteers and all funds donated to AVSIM go directly back to supporting the community. Your donation here helps to pay our bandwidth costs, emergency funding, and other general costs that crop up from time to time. Thank you for your support!

    Click here for more information and to see all donations year to date.
×
×
  • Create New...