I find it quite appalling at the negativity that is permeating through forums and social.  Its a real shame its come to this.   Something we've been asking for over a decade, and we have finally gotten here with a generational leap in technology albeit in its infancy.  Too many are expecting their Prepar3d or Xplane with all their addons in high fidelity and then some.  How about you all reinstall that copy of FSX, or xplane, in default, and see what you get out of the box.   Even the latest P3D V5. Out of the box. Zero addons.  Review the default.   How do you like it?   Looks like word not allowed to me.   And if there was zero 3PDs for it, very few would be flying it. 

Now MSFS in 2020 has come a very long way, and provides an experience like no other default sim as it is.   To not provide some criticism is also not reasonable.  It has its flaws, some of them glaring with a strobe light.   But you wont find default aircraft like we have in any of the above mentioned sims in their default state.  You wont get the lighting, atmospherics and default WX looking like that either in the previous sims default.   And the scenery, of which many call eye candy, is quite stunning.  Yes there are problems.  Are they deal breakers? I've seen building that look melted. Bridges that appear solid and or cars going through the underlayer.  Rivers that have weird elevation along the banks, or are suddenly way higher than the surrounding land. Heck my high rise (a 30 year old building) doesnt even exist.  If you look and concentrate  on only flaws, you will find a ton.  But the big picture with its surroundings overal is the best thing we could have.   Orbx or Megascenery Earth all over the place but included in the default.   Sure it can be cleaned up, but thats hopefully what the SDK will provide.   

As for aircraft, too many expect high fidelity payware standards.  Would I like to see improvements? Absolutely and voiced my concerns along with hundreds others in the alpha beta especially regarding basic autopilot for new flight simmers curious to join. The individual aircraft need to have more unique characters as they are more similar than anything in their flight dynamics yet its acceptable for now for exploration until some advanced aircraft come out. But again the default aircraft in P3D FSX and XP were never really usable at all. Its the addon market that elevated it to what we have today. 

Updates will come. Updates within. No more uninstalling client, content, reboot reinstall client content and hope it all works.  They will fix the core and its foundations. To expect it to be immediate, is not reasonable.  Yes IMO it was a little rushed.   But now we have a choice as a community. We embrace it and move forward, or go back 10 years once again and rely on the old tech we have been flying with all these years with micro steps in improvement when the next big version hits. So if you are having issues, try and sort them out, look for work arounds.  Just because there is no profile for your hardware, have you tried clearing it all out and mapping your own ? Yes its cumbersome, but it should work out.  Too many stomp their feet and scream for a refund, without trying to work things out first.   This is not a 200sq km GTA game, this is the world, with all kinds of special modelling to enhance it that just needs time to mature. Have a little patience and see what we can all build together.  Developers and the user community. 

For me I am enjoying it alot to just fly around and explore in VFR.  And when my high fidelity payware airliners come over, I will be there to support it going forward and im sure there will be fantastic IFR flying.   Because this is the hobby I live and breath and unequivocally enjoy for more than 30 years.   

Nice post Dave. Well said.

It was rushed because the forums wanted it and MS wanted it out before turning the marketing on to the next big event due in November.  

8 minutes ago, G-RFRY said:

It was rushed because the forums wanted it and MS wanted it out before turning the marketing on to the next big event due in November.  

They rushed it because the forums wanted it? Wow, didn't realise the AVSIM crowd could be so influential.... There I was thinking it was a probably a business decision

Rushed or not, we dont know the full internal dynamics.   The reality is its here now. Fully released.   Whats in the past is water under the bridge.  We expressed our opinion if its ready for a release in the alpha beta.  But there is significantly higher positions up in MS that ultimately make the decision regardless of opinion.   Now that its here, we have a foundation, although showing cracks, can certainly be cemented up. Too build on it going forward with strong developing tools for payware parties and freeware parties is what leaps the rest forward.  Its a beautiful sim, just have to keep perspective relative to the past. 

After playing around today after sitting some issues I love it, thank you asobo

Just now, KL Oo said:

They rushed it because the forums wanted it? Wow, didn't realise the AVSIM crowd could be so influential.... There I was thinking it was a probably a business decision

Avsim is not the only forum or have you not worked that out Reddit and other forums FB Twitter.

Just now, G-RFRY said:

Avsim is not the only forum or have you not worked that out Reddit and other forums FB Twitter.

Sorry Ray, I don't buy it. They've been working on it for four years. You're telling me they realised it now instead of in 4 or 6 months because the forums wanted it. 

I think more likely it was a decision based in finance. 

Agreed. Lower your pitchforks and enjoy the best base simulator ever released. The foundations are there for something amazing. 

1 minute ago, KL Oo said:

Sorry Ray, I don't buy it. They've been working on it for four years. You're telling me they realised it now instead of in 4 or 6 months because the forums wanted it. 

I think more likely it was a decision based in finance. 

Agreed MS are broke and need the money.

MS aren't broke but Xbox Game Studios are. Their exclusive game for XSX (Halo Infinite) has been in development for more than 5 years and has just been delayed because of bad graphics. This will affect also the sales of XSX so yeah they are in a very bad situation

Edited August 19, 20205 yr by cepact

I agree that expectations were high, and in some cases very unrealistic. Especially when it comes to airliner fidelity.

But when the G1000 included has less functionality, and is more buggy than the GPS in FS2002, people have the right to voice their disappointment.

There were two camps as far as I can see:

1. The gamers wanted it released because the pretty scenery is all they need as they fly in 3rd person anyway

2. The serious simmers didn't because autopilot,  RNAV, flight models etc etc were just not up to snuff

and of course loads of people couldn't care either way because Game Pass let's you try it out for £1 for the first month, and if they're already a subscriber it doesn't cost them anything for whatever quick flying fix they need.

This is a great platform to start with. We will have a September release, an October release, a November release etc. We have a bunch of releases slated for 2021 including multipe world updates. This is not a final release.

PMDG and the other vaulted study level aircraft are currently in development and will be available. There will be many familiar addons that will come online and expand the sim. There will also be, I am sure, amazing new addons that we have not even contemplated that will blow our minds. 

Let's please be grateful that we have (even though it has bugs and issues) a modern platform that will continue to evolve backed by Microsoft and Asobo Studio. 

Good grief, would it be better if we only had Prepar3d v5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4 and v6.x (coming in 2022/3), as well as and X-Plane 11.5 beta 274 and X-Plane 12.

I am glad we have a new and modern platform, with issues and a team to fix the issues, than no new platform at all. 

Even with all of it's limitations, it is still among all competitors, and right now, the one which brings me the closest "feel of being there", a mix of graphics, flight modelling, weather modelling, atc modelling, AI modelling, etc...

Is it sharp perfect ? Of course it isn't ! Is it here to stay and get even better and better - I am almost 100% sure it is.