I just learned about this NeoFly app, looks very interesting.  I've been flying with FSE for over a decade now, in various sims, but I think I'll try NeoFly to compare them and see which I like better.

 

Has anyone here used both NeoFly and FSE, and if so which did you like flying with more?

I am necro-bumping this thread as I am so surprised that we still only have flight training and discovery flights in MSFS accept the best sandbox ever created for flight simulation... And sure - we have Reno air races that I bought to support the developers but have never even tried...

Since I posted this first, a great number of things have been added and fixed in MSFS - but it really feels like adding an integrated career mode is a low hanging fruit? Why use external apps for this? As I said in my first post, how popular would Euro Truck Simulator 2 be without the career mode where you start with a crappy truck and select different jobs to earn money and upgrade it and you company? Imagine if you could just select "Go from X to Z" like in MSFS? How many would get hooked accept some real truck nerds? Sure - I have been flying simulators since the 80:ies and have hundreds of hours IRL - but I still use Neofly almost every time I fly in MSFS to add immersion... Why should I go from A to B - and not C? And did I really manage to do a really smooth touchdown on that odd airfield that I never would have visited otherwise as I had a very fragile cargo?

I am sure that especially newcomers to simulators would appreciate it even more that are not flying a 737 over the Atlantic in VATSIM... 

-- And reading through my first post... Yes - I did buy the Twin Otter (that I never would have done without Neofly hooking me). And then a bunch of PMDG ac etc... Now I mostly fly the Citation in Neofly (expensive - so I had to fly a lot of cargo to buy it). The reason I returned to MSFS after a rather long break is that I saw the G5000 and Citation has been updated without mods. So will do some mission in Neofly with it. Left it at some odd airport in Germany so plan to look for missions from there to the UK, or maybe France? Let's see what missions are available. Meanwhile I can let a hired pilot continue hauling stuff in my old Baron to earn money... And I hopped down in my C208 to Africa for some real bush flying and left it in northern Nigeria if I remember it correctly? Maybe I should see what missions are available down there? But wait - first I need to update my Navigraph charts that I never would have subscribed to without Neofly...

And when I say Neofly - I mean version 3.13 and not the new 4.x tech demo that is very odd right now. It's free and can be download here: https://www.neofly.net/download. But it would be soo much better having it integrated in MSFS on the home page as a standard part of the simulation by MS... Do you want to continue your career or fly a random A to B mission anywhere in the world?

Mmm - wanted an airport with ILS so no missions to France or UK available from ETNH where I left my Citation Longitude months ago... There seems to be a VIP fight to EHVK though. Volkel AB? Actually heard about that somewhere - seems like a military base, need to readup on that and check the procedures... Would I ever have thought about flying there? No. Does it seem interesting? Yes... So would I ever have dreamt about flying from ETNH to EHVK otherwise? No way - it would have been Landvetter to Heathrow or similar. Done that before.

Edited February 4, 20233 yr by mazex

5 hours ago, mazex said:

And sure - we have Reno air races that I bought to support the developers but have never even tried...but it really feels like adding an integrated career mode is a low hanging fruit? Why use external apps for this?

You've hit the nail squarely on the head:  not everyone has anywhere near the same needs/desires when it comes to something like career mode and including them all in the sim is just a massive waste of programming resources, and including one is even a poor fit because once again--we all have very different needs in this regard.  I have maybe 3000 hours in MSFS and have never done a single mission and I'm sure I'm not alone. 

Coming from P3D w/ FSCaptain I tried AH2 and that was a severe misfit for me as it's an airline management sim and offers essentially little to nothing for piloting per se.  As an airline flyer Neofly was a bad fit so never even tried it.  I found A Pilot's Life Chapter 2 and that has been a great fit.  A component of it most important to me is scoring all flights according to a robust list of criteria which advances your pilot rating among other things.   This addon provides the meaning and also helps you learn what matters to some degree.  I will fly for a given airline and after tiring of its RW routes will apply for a job w/ another airline in a different part of the world and this has taken me into terminals I never knew existed and would likely have never tried.

APLv2 is a robust up w/ a connection to the community of its several thousand users and continues under active devlopment.  I would not want MS/A to dedicate any resources to career modes it's already being done elsewhere and w/ sufficient variability to support a wide variety of potential users.

Mmm - having worked with management and software strategies on large companies for many years, starting out as a developer initially, I am actually rather surprised. Many friends work in the gaming industry and all the talk is about creating a "game loop". And really - compared to many other things in MSFS, this should be rather easy, even though I might annoy many by daring to call it a game, instead of a simulator. There is actually almost no game loop at all.

Discovery flights? Can already create any A to B in the world myself. Landing competitions? Done that many times IRL myself - never any crowds watching accept the other competitors... Reno was a try, but way too narrow niche... It's really just one big and truly magnificent sand box... That works for the VATSIM community that they for sure have already...

I might naturally be wrong, pointing out that the emperor lacks clothing. But it sure looks that way to me...

Edited February 4, 20233 yr by mazex

I switched to Neofly 4 Beta.  It is better than 3 but very much a work in progress.

15 hours ago, mazex said:

I might naturally be wrong, pointing out that the emperor lacks clothing. But it sure looks that way to me...

I agree with you entirely, a career mode in the game would be fantastic especially for those on console who can’t access neo-fly, sky park  etc, 

Rather than Microsoft/asobo get involved they could just get one of the existing providers to make it, as they’ve done with perfect flight (bush trips) working title (avionics) Gaya, or Orbx (updated airports/scenery/poi’s) FSacademy missions etc etc.

People on the console are crying out for some sort of structure in the game and a career mode would be awesome. 

Sorry for the necrobump, could not help it after reading the presentation of the new career mode in MSFS 2024, I remembered this old thread I started just after MSFS was launched... I realized that it seems they agreed as this is the main new feature of 2024. They really should have done it for the original MSFS though...