If you're one of those people ranting about the fact that FSX includes fun missions, then this is for you:Sounds like you're a little afraid of challenging your flying skills? The beauty of a flight simulator is that you CAN do things that you can't in real life. As long as the flight and engine dynamics are well modelled, what's it matter anyway?I'm sick of people wanting a dry simulator that simply simulates procedural flight. It's boring. I spend a lot of time flying hellicopters (at 100% realism, and I'm at the point where I can fly anywhere and do anything in one), aerobatic aircraft, and jet fighters, because I know that my flying skills are being well crafted as a result.I'm looking forward to pylon and hoop challenges, as well as procedural and RL challenges. I guess that makes me a more diverse simmer, huh?I understand you might like to just push buttons, but please understand we're not all like that. Some of us actually want some challenges as well.I applaud the ACES team for making FSX a more diverse flight sim.Oh, and another thing. I'll try and explain this to you like you're a 2 year old. Ready? Here goes...YOU DON'T HAVE TO FLY THE MISSIONS. YOU CAN ACTUALLY GO AHEAD AND DO WHAT YOU WERE DOING IN FS9!!!!Now go on and repeat that to yourself 1000 times, and hopefully you'll get it. NOTHING has even remotely suggested that the flight dynamics engine or the engine modelling or ground handling have been sacrificed, and are worse than in FS9. If anything, all indications point to improvements in those areas.Anyway, that's MY rant.James

I'm with you on that %100 I'm looking forward to some missions so I can fine tune my flying skills and have some fun while I'm at it. These missions may sound like a bad idea to some and to all the nay sayers just don't fly the missions, problem solved. I am greatly looking forward to it and I know a lot of other people are as well.

Flight Sim is not dry at all. I have fun as much as the next guy, when I'm not 'flying the line' I do airshows quite a lot, practicing my precision along a runway and turning, looping etc. back to the runway, heck ya think I keep military planes and old warbirds just to gather dust? I've also in the past flown an F111 through the mountains near Aviano en route to Paris, and at low level the whole way at around 600KIAS. I've flown Hercs into warzones using FSP and had my butt shot off on several occasions, on one occasion over South America I lost all (yes you heard right ALL) my instruments in a storm in zero visibility. Needless to say I didn't land the plane on that occasion, it's (as I found out the hard way) impossible to fly in mountains in zero vis. with no instruments telling how fast you're going or whether you're climbing/diving/turning etc.So yeah I'm as much for fun as the next guy, but I don't want to see FSX turned into an XBox style arcade game. It is and should remain "As real as it gets", even the missions, you can have fun while keeping it realistic can't you?

So don't do the missions and it will be as realisitc as any other version of FS. I like to do things such as those and it is fun but at times it can get repetetive and boring and when I get tired of that I can fly some missions even if they are unrealistic atleast it's entertaining.

Hi James,>>>>Anyway, that's MY rant.<<<

Because of people like you, the time has come where missions for the kids will take priority over procedures. and then, it's just another game. remember the need for speed series? it devolved. remember midtown madness? it devolvedremember train simulator? it was cancelled so that resources can be diverted to the xboxand so forth. we can make missions now. you can do all the stupid stuff now. but when the selling point becomes them, you have a problem.

I think it is the missions that are going to add much reality to the sim-not make it more gamelike. It is a major selling point, and like all aspects of Fs, the missions sound like they will range from "gamelike" to extremely real-something for everyone-the ultimate secret as to why MSFS is still around while the other sims are not.An easy to program mission language means possibly extremely realistic atc, and interesting situations that occur in flying (conflicting traffic, animals on runway, atc mistakes/miscommunication etc.).I look forward to the mission capabilities, and see a more realistic sim here, not a less realistic one. How the end user chooses to use it is just another aspect of the beauty of this sim. I'll choose more realistic, and my grandson will choose game....http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/rxp-pilot.jpg

James,Personally I have nothing against the missions but mostly here, in these forus and other forums, are people who are dedicated to flying simming and also to enjoy the real procedures that pilots facing daily life; and in general, everything connected with aviation in real life. For us, this is the beauty of a flight simulator and also this is what we call enjoyment. If you are sick flying helicopters in 100% reality, then I recommend you to look elsewhere for an arcade game when you can shoot ducks or flying around ballons, pilars or you name it.FriendlyPanos

Hi, >>>Because of people like you, the time has come where missions for the kids will take priority over procedures. and then, it's just another game.<<<

>James,>>Personally I have nothing against the missions but mostly>here, in these forus and other forums, are people who are>dedicated to flying simming and also to enjoy the real>procedures that pilots facing daily life; and in general,>everything connected with aviation in real life. For us, this>is the beauty of a flight simulator and also this is what we>call enjoyment. If you are sick flying helicopters in 100%>reality, then I recommend you to look elsewhere for an arcade>game when you can shoot ducks or flying around ballons, pilars>or you name it.>Friendly>>PanosAmen to that !If you want to play, go buy and xbox or playstation. I use Flight simulator to immitate real life ops as closely as the sim allows me to, I don't see it as a game - even if it is classed as one.The whole IDEA is to make it "As real as it gets" remember, and like the previous poster said, different people find the "FUN" in the simulator in different things - some in the seriousness of it, and others seem to like playing around in it. If want to PLAY a game, i fire up something like Ridge racer, or Lumines or something like that !But hey - whatever floats your boat ! Bring on the missions, i don't care about them really - I make my own !Cheers :-)

I'm not a reality sim enthusiast, but I suspect those who are don't so much have a problem with the missions themselves, but the fact that development time was spent on them rather than more realistic ATC procedures or proper wear and tear simulation and failures or what will you have.At *this* point it's obvious that if you don't like the idea of missions you can ignore them. It's just that these guys and gals have been hoping for a different set of features for months and instead they got pylons :) Sure, the "sim" is still there, but from their POV it could've been better (based on what info we have at this point).

Missions are good as long as the graphics can keep up with the game elements characteristic of other games. Otherwise it's just a third rate attempt to bring some "fun" to the sim.In addition, while there has always been a huge market for the MS flight series (just to say that they bought the latest series), the reality is that the consistent user base is relatively small.My personal opinion (not that anyone is listening,lol) is that immersiveness will bring a broader base. Example, target some of the international airports and bring them to life with passengers, cargo, pilot lounge, traffic, tickets, sounds, etc. You as a pilot take your sim car to the airport, prep for the flight on the airline you make, etc. etc. Once the simulation pulls you in from a reality standpoint then the consistent user base will get bigger - and that's a goldmine for third party developers.The rate of change, however, has been small and conservative. It's time some leaps took place.

What if the missions one day leads to a full length feature film (ala Mission Impossible) - similar to the Halo 3 game/movie, and the characters of course appear in the game. The missions could include virtually anything (cars, boats, trains??), and not be just flight related. The possibilities..

All of us here love this sim. All those things mentioned about flying airshows or needling canyons in the F-111 are fine. I think it is also a question of age. Not meaning to insult the younger members of the forums but for most of us 30 + .. well we have used our imagination growing up. We played with simple toys and we used our imagination. LOL! Good example.. before computers we had model or toy airplanes that we would hold in our hands and make mock dogfights in the air with a friend! :^O Now days, kids boot up the computer or turn on the console. So the sandbox capabilties of FS2004 are fantastic no doubt... and those with the imagination find things to do no end! However we do need to refill our ranks with the younger generation. Those who may not always exercise the imagination...Missions are a great way of introducing these younger players as they have a goal. Spark that interest and that imagination and let them run from there. I think most critics of the missions think that they are a waste of dev time. Lets look at missions in another way. While I am not sure what the altitude limit of FSX is... some of these shots make me think of space. Hence if this is possible... think of all the space missions we could make! Gemini here we come! I am not saying low Earth orbit will be possible but I think missions and the SDK with effort by third party developers is going to make FSX boom!! Forget the pylons and floating rings and keep in mind that the missions could have the possibility of triggering other effects, weather or events......Lets keep an open mind, we shall see when everyone gets their eyes on the FSX and the SDK.

And i would argue they are just dumbing it down and compensating with eye candy that is already present in FS9 to a large degree, in the effort of preparing it for an Xbox port. because arcade features, if they sell, are perfectly suited for a console and a tv. honeslty though, i wouldn't have a problem with that if they implemented real damage for example. this would open the skies to combat which is something everyone has always wanted. and then you will have everyone happy. because it is a feature that can be used in so many ways. meanwhile, in what way can you use missions? like adventures? i don't know, last i checked those never sold well.... FS wouldn't be around if it weren't for the 3rd party developers. anyone cares about the defaul planes? anyone? :shrug: that's what i would say keeps the community going. and ms needs to make it simpler for developers to create quality. i am yet to locate something worthy of an upgrade. the lightning hasn't been touched which is a joke. actually it's a travesty. but as long as people can fly through hoops, that doesn't matter. nobody would be complaining about it if they really addressed the two sides of the user base. right now, they seem to be catering to the quake fan, while still using the old engine and its already painful limitations. i wonder if the promises of performance gains under vista will ever materialize either...