I am about to pull trigger and download the game but trying to decide if the upgrades are worth it.   I want more planes and airports and disappointed that I can't seem to find them via freeware downloads.  Here are my questions........  If I choose standard is there an option to upgrade or purchase more later?  I am new to this sight and new to forms so do yall have suggestions before purchasing??  Have you found download sights?  Thoughts???

6 hours ago, ttopper said:

If I choose standard is there an option to upgrade or purchase more later?  

Yes. You can upgrade in-game in-sim, via its Marketplace. You can also do so via the Microsoft Store app (and presumably via Steam if that's your chosen point of purchase). If you trial Xbox Game Pass (assuming you don't already have it), you can try out the basic version for free.

 

Oh, and welcome to the forum. Only some of us bite! Though we are approaching Halloween, so that number may increase!😁

Edited October 13, 20205 yr by 109Sqn
Welcome!

Basically:

- 10 airports and 10 aircraft for the price of one aftermarket aircraft or airport is very very cheap

- that said, if you never fly the particular addon planes or land at any of the airports it is not a bargain

- my personal assessment is the overall quality of the deluxe planes is average and airports good

- you can upgrade the basic sim later through the marketplace but it will cost slightly more that way

 

NOTE: if you do go with the game pass option to try it out, there have been reported issues with people buying the deluxe upgrades while on game pass and then trying to buy the game outright

Edited October 13, 20205 yr by Glenn Fitzpatrick

I am in a holding pattern for buying a big version instead sticking with the GamePass version.  If the aircraft interest you in whatever edition you choose and they meet your needs it may be worth it.  Not sure if the airports are worth it if I was doing it for the airport I would rather save the money and just buy independent add-ons as they get released for the ones I want.  I will say if you are trying to buy it outright its better to just buy the version you think you want the upgrade pricing is a bit....weird.

Personally, what I have found of value in the premium/deluxe package after 300 hrs (long flights in background on cruise while working from home :P) is the following:

Deluxe:

172 Steamer is only available in Deluxe edition. This has been in the top 3 planes ive flown in game. There likely will be 3rd party 172's that are better but will probably be 20-30$ by the time they are available. If you go with base version you are stuck with the G1000, for now. IMO the 172 is the main reason to buy the ~30$ upgrade to Deluxe, all the airports and other planes are gravy so that probably makes it worth it. Especially if they surprise us all and really polish up the planes and flight mechanics a bit. 

I also "like" the diamond planes. Not that I fly them very often. The aerobat is cool, but its only a little different than the base 152 (skylights, livery, maybe they modelled a little extra stress tolerance?). And the Baron is ok, but people have issues with the G1000 in it I believe. 

As for the airports, my stomping grounds are Washington State and Texas, so far I havent messed with them too much. But Deluxe O'Hare is cool if you arent going to buy the FSDreamteam O'Hare. I do some long flights so places like Cape Town are good to have.

Overall if you buy it off the bat and not as a store upgrade (the upgrade prices are outrageous in comparison), it is def worth the price. 

Premium Deluxe:

The 787 and the Longitude really SHOULD be worth it, but they are in a sorry state right now. If they worked a little better it would be great value for the next ~30$ from Deluxe to Premium Deluxe. The plane that does work and that I do like is the Shock ULTRA, it can land just about anywhere and is very simple for just tooting around VFR. I use it to Island hop the San Juan Islands and land in peoples front yards, but the cubs in the base game might satisfy most people. The Cirrus SR22 is ok, I couldnt say how well it replicates the real cirrus but ive heard people like it.

Premium Deluxe also has some really important airports included: Denver, Frankfurt, London Heathrow and San Francisco. Thats a lot of ground to cover and without those detailed out, it would be kind of lame, so if you dont get it expect to pay for addons for those four if you are doing any tubeliner flying. 

-----

Bottom line is: If you buy the premium deluxe package before you have bought the base game (or along with it so to speak), it is worth it IMO - especially if you have the minimum faith that Asobo will deliver a bit more polish to the upgrade planes. All the airports are pretty good and they are all huge and important, the planes hopefully will be better eventually, but even the ones that do work ok probably add up to more than the 60 dollars for the total upgrade (if you were to compare to entry level payware). If you buy the base game first, and then decide to upgrade, I think they charge about $100 on TOP of the base game. That... Is a hard question. Objectively, it might actually be worth it even then, but it depends on how impressed you are with the sim and how much faith you have that they really are going to follow through with this sim. Because if you end up really liking it that much you will probably end up buying 3rd party scenery anyways for all of those airports if you cared about them in the first place and didnt have the upgrade versions. 

9 hours ago, ttopper said:

I am about to pull trigger and download the game but trying to decide if the upgrades are worth it.   I want more planes and airports and disappointed that I can't seem to find them via freeware downloads.  Here are my questions........  If I choose standard is there an option to upgrade or purchase more later?  I am new to this sight and new to forms so do yall have suggestions before purchasing??  Have you found download sights?  Thoughts???

Regarding aircraft, buying extra editions of the game actually adds more things that don't work correctly, from avionics, flight model, engine model, to list a few. You decide.

yall are awesome!!!!!!   I have never been on forum and it is great to have such good replies.  I think I am going to at least go for deluxe and depending on how the week goes do premium.  I do love the variety of planes but most of mine are cargo or unique planes so I am more excited to see what add on's become available for freeware.  right now most my stuff is from https://flyawaysimulation.com/downloads/fsx/

 

What are yalls thoughts about the city specifics?  I am just outside of Austin TX and hoping to have some decent mapping since the last was so outdated to my area.  I love flying around different areas before or after we have traveled there but I want there to be some kind of realism to it.  I love island hoping with little planes and sea planes to check out different strips. 

 

Supersasquatch - your reply was a big help very intuitive!

 

 

42 minutes ago, ttopper said:

 

 

What are yalls thoughts about the city specifics?  I am just outside of Austin TX and hoping to have some decent mapping since the last was so outdated to my area.  I love flying around different areas before or after we have traveled there but I want there to be some kind of realism to it.  I love island hoping with little planes and sea planes to check out different strips. 

 

 

The photogrammetry is based on Bing maps which is not quite as ggod in many areas as Google maps.

What you will find is where the city is in Bing maps with good 3D photogrammetry the game creates a very believable representation of the actual city (with the odd melted building). Where Bing maps is only 2D the cities are populated with autogen buildings which are roughly the right size and type but are not going to match the exact actual building.

In other words it depends how good any particular city is represented in Bing maps.

Personally I am waiting till closer to Christmas to see if it goes on sale of the price drops.. Right now with game pass I only get like 6.00 off standard edition if I but.  So far with game pass i have spent about 5 or 6 dollars on msfs. Nest month when my game pass goes up to 10 dollars I might pull the trigger and just buy it out right because if I wait any longer I am just wasting money through game pass subscription costs. Meow.

I'm sort of love/hate in regards to the photogrammetry (I believe USA has more PG in game than the entire world combined). I recall Austin looks pretty good. I kind of like the crispness of the autogen areas, but the PG definitely looks great from 2000ft up (discounting the funky tree LOD pyramids). Ive actually come to prefer areas that I am not familiar with, that have autogen but individually custom modeled POI's. For example London with the controversial Orbx addon. One thing I think we need on the default MSFS POI's is some night lighting, so few have any at all so they are the only buildings at night that arent lit up. 

 

If you upgrade to the deluxe and premium later, I think it costs $25 more than if buying it originally.

I made mistake of buying standard, then had to upgrade.

These are the Texas cities in MSFS with photogrametry

https://www.fanbyte.com/guides/a-complete-list-of-all-photorealistic-cities-in-microsoft-flight-simulator-2020/

• • Amarillo
  • Austin
  • Brownsville
  • Corpus Christi
  • El Paso
  • Fort Worth
  • Galveston
  • Houston
  • Kingwood
  • Laredo
  • Longview
  • Lubbock
  • McAllen
  • Midland
  • San Antonio
  • The Woodlands

If you fly to your own house in a photogrametric city, it will look real. (use the drone (INSERT key) to fly nice and slow in your neighborhood after 'active pausing' your plane). Cut and paste your location coordinates from google maps of your house address into the 'search' bar in the main MFSF window and there will be a marker in the sky above your house when you fly. Have to use Control-V to paste text in the search bar.

In a non photogrametric city, the roofline will have the correct shape, but there may not be for instance bay windows, doors in the wrong place, no porch, etc.  I was surprised the houses of people we know and visit were wrong looking (but the right size and in the right place) because no phgtry in their town.

Edited October 15, 20205 yr by Fielder

9 hours ago, Fielder said:

 

If you upgrade to the deluxe and premium later, I think it costs $25 more than if buying it originally.

I made mistake of buying standard, then had to upgrade.

These are the Texas cities in MSFS with photogrametry

https://www.fanbyte.com/guides/a-complete-list-of-all-photorealistic-cities-in-microsoft-flight-simulator-2020/

• • Amarillo
  • Austin
  • Brownsville
  • Corpus Christi
  • El Paso
  • Fort Worth
  • Galveston
  • Houston
  • Kingwood
  • Laredo
  • Longview
  • Lubbock
  • McAllen
  • Midland
  • San Antonio
  • The Woodlands

woooooooohooooooooo!!!!!!!! 

 

SOLD DONE Decision made!