It seems if you want a realistic (or even working) experience you need a heavily modified plane, add-on airports, add-on scenery, add-on weather generator, add-on ATC, 3rd party flight planning, and 3rd party log book. 

I guess I’m glad that MS/Asobo have built a frame work to enable this, but from what I’ve read, even that’s not great  

Does Microsoft or Asobo do anything really well?

Admittedly I’m feeling a bit negative at the moment, but it could be because of all the mods and add-ons I need to pile on this Sim to get any sense of realism and even with all that there’s still glaring issues. The whole thing just feels like a kludge. 

Edited October 7, 20205 yr by Virtual-Chris

I haven't got any mods going at the moment and loving this sim. For the first time in a simulator I got really nervous when the cloud cover proved thicker than expected during a climb out of a valley with mountains all around. Granted, if all one wants to do is fly large jets on autopilot one probably wants to be patient for a few months.

I'm sorry you're having that experience! I feel nearly the opposite -- sure, I'd love to have my PMDG or FSL airliners working in MSFS, but what's there mostly works very well for me. I've been flying around mostly with the totally default C172 and having a great time. Scenery and weather are pretty close to perfect (a bit more lightning than seems plausible at times). I haven't even seen the need for any add-on scenery.

Weather add on? For what? From what I've read the REX addon breaks a lot of what makes the MSFS default weather such a breakthrough.

Clearly, there are aspects of the sim that need to be polished. But I remain pretty well blown away by what's already there. The feeling of a real world out the window is something I've never gotten before in any sim. For someone who doesn't always fly in North America or Europe, it's quite a stark difference from the legacy sims. Flying around mountainous southern Iran by moonlight is a frankly magical experience.

James

8 minutes ago, Virtual-Chris said:

because of all the mods and add-ons I need to pile on this Sim to get any sense of realism

This right here would be the case if you was just talking aircraft’s wise or going back to even P3D . 
in the days of FSX P3D till this day you do need to spend some $ to make both look like MSFS . 

The actual feeling of flight is better than in any other sim! I'm talking about those little bumps and movements you experience IRL. Weather, airflow, etc.

The planes themselve are not perfect. So if it is important to you that your plane flies exactly by the numbers, then MSFS is not very good at the moment. If you want to experience flight in terms of feeling, sound, visuals... it excels.

This is solely about GA planes. Jets are... 😞

Edited October 7, 20205 yr by tweekz

I’ve never had such an immersive feeling flying any other desktop simulator than what I get with msfs. It truly reminds me of my old days when I was IRL flying,. I couldn’t go back to any of my previous simulators. Even if we would not get airliners (PMDG etc) in this sim, I still wouldn’t see myself being able to go back unfortunately.

21 minutes ago, Virtual-Chris said:

It seems if you want a realistic (or even working) experience you need a heavily modified plane, add-on airports, add-on scenery, add-on weather generator, add-on ATC, 3rd party flight planning, and 3rd party log book. 

I guess I’m glad that MS/Asobo have built a frame work to enable this, but from what I’ve read, even that’s not great  

Does Microsoft or Asobo do anything really well?

Admittedly I’m feeling a bit negative at the moment, but it could be because of all the mods and add-ons I need to pile on this Sim to get any sense of realism and even with all that there’s still glaring issues. The whole thing just feels like a kludge. 

I don't understand your comment at all. You don't need any mods or any third party tools. Plan a flight from your local airport, fly it with the default real world weather and look out the window. It is so close to real that is seriously impressive. I have repeated more than a dozen real world flights I have done in MSFS and everything from the aircraft sounds to what I see out the window really brought those memories back for me. When VR arrives it will be a massive step forward in this sim. I flew exclusively in VR in P3D, and as hard as it to go back to 2D I have enjoyed MSFS far more than I thought I would. I can't go back to 2D at all in P3D.

Some people will never be happy I guess.

25 minutes ago, Virtual-Chris said:

Does Microsoft or Asobo do anything really well?

YES!

money... 😄

28 minutes ago, Virtual-Chris said:

It seems if you want a realistic (or even working) experience you need a heavily modified plane, add-on airports, add-on scenery, add-on weather generator, add-on ATC, 3rd party flight planning, and 3rd party log book. 

I guess I’m glad that MS/Asobo have built a frame work to enable this, but from what I’ve read, even that’s not great  

Does Microsoft or Asobo do anything really well?

Admittedly I’m feeling a bit negative at the moment, but it could be because of all the mods and add-ons I need to pile on this Sim to get any sense of realism and even with all that there’s still glaring issues. The whole thing just feels like a kludge. 

Sir, for the best experience with this sim, you MUST use it with your eyes OPEN.

30 minutes ago, Virtual-Chris said:

It seems if you want a realistic (or even working) experience you need a heavily modified plane, add-on airports, add-on scenery, add-on weather generator, add-on ATC, 3rd party flight planning, and 3rd party log book. 

I guess I’m glad that MS/Asobo have built a frame work to enable this, but from what I’ve read, even that’s not great  

Does Microsoft or Asobo do anything really well?

Admittedly I’m feeling a bit negative at the moment, but it could be because of all the mods and add-ons I need to pile on this Sim to get any sense of realism and even with all that there’s still glaring issues. The whole thing just feels like a kludge. 

Maybe you missed this thread?

 

About everything besides the aircrafts autopilots.

I suppose the best advice I can give the OP is don't believe everything you read.  At such an early stage there is nothing to be negative about in this sim.  Please name me one modern flight sim where some addon or other wasn't needed to 'complete' the experience.  I've never enjoyed a flightsim so much as this one and it is the first time in a sim that I chose not to fly because of the prevailing weather at my airport - totally socked-in (doing FlightSimEconomy flight) but chose instead to do some hanger flying working through some checklists in the TBM930.

One word - awesome, and can only get better!

Edited October 7, 20205 yr by Simjockey
Corrected 'was' to 'wasn't' - line 2.

2 minutes ago, DJJose said:

Maybe you missed this thread?

 

I agree they do lighting well.

In terms of community mods, they are definitely improving on the default stuff.. with the Garmins and such. But be wary of companies who rush products to market to meet the hype as a quick cash grab, especially companies who have a veritable army of shill accounts to constantly promote their products.