Having so much fun with Neofly - this is needed in MSFS core

[mazex 419]

I have been simming since the Spectrum days. I have flown them all but never really got hooked with civilian simulators over the years as there was a lack of meaningful missions and campaigns / careers. Even though I like to learn a complex aircraft, the A to B jumps of my own choosing and not having a long term goal makes it less interesting for me. I guess I am a gamer at heart wrapped in a flight simmer shell. 

I did laugh at some friend that talked about being hooked playing Euro Truck simulator 2 and bought it on a Steam sale. Driving a truck from Gothenburg to Paris for hours? Seriously? Late that evening my wife opened the door at 2 am asking if I was not coming to bed... "Just a second darling - I have a tricky delivery to make in Berlin, if I get that done without damaging the cargo I can upgrade to a new engine!" Would I have played Euro Truck simulator for more than an hour if it had all the trucks in the world and I could chose any one to drive from any A to any B with rather cheesy graphics? No - but in ETS2 you start with a cheap truck that can just handle limited cargo that almost grinds to a halt going uphill. So by selecting different jobs you get the money for a new gearbox... Or a new engine... Or event that new truck. That is what keeps you doing it... The actual driving on highways is a nice relaxing experience where the digital miles fly by, when getting close to the destination you have to be more focused as the city driving is more demanding with the risk to collide in a roundabout. And then the last step with docking at the bay that is more millimeter precision. And the hours pass and you like many others realized you are hooked playing a darn truck simulator 🙂 But does the pattern of a long relaxing trip doing some navigational decisions with a focused approach to the target ending with millimeter precision remind us of something? Yes... And Euro truck without the career mode would be played by a couple of thousand truck lovers. Now millions are playing it.

So I guess a lot of you civilian sim veterans have used Air Hauler, FSEconomy and what not.  I have complained about the lack of meaningful missions in civilian simulators but never tried the third party career addons. Shame on me! Really!

I downloaded Neofly after reading up on the different MSFS career modules. Many seemed to like it and it's free. So I decided to start with that. Before Neofly I think I had about 20 hours in MSFS. I really love the amazing scenery, trying the different planes, taking off and landing at airports I have experience from IRL etc. One evening here or there - going back to DCS and IL2 BoX the day after. Not any more since I started using Neofly... I started out with a PA28 (edited the database as I did not want to start in a 152 or 172). And I got hooked just like with Euro Truck Simulation at once. Five evenings in a row doing small cargo deliveries and passengers in Sweden and Denmark with my PA28. After a while I got myself an X Cub when I had the money to do the Emergency type missions better, landing near a crashed aircraft in the middle of nowhere. Then I got a loan to buy a Baron G58 to be able to do longer flights. With my last flight from LIHP to ENSP with VIPs that paid 123k I just paid off the loans on my G58 that was expensice at 650k... I have started to ogle the Cessna Caravan 208 but that is 1.3M for some serious bush missions with heavy cargo that pays a lot... So I really need to find some interesting mission that pays well at ENSP, but first I think it's time for an engine overhaul...

So - for the ones that have not tried career modules - Neofly really is worth looking at. And for Microsoft - adding this in the core game will not be that hard. And you can hook old simmers like me that never stay with the civilian sims for more than a couple of days. Now I am really looking forward to Aerosoft releasing the Twin Otter. Before Neofly I would have bought the Spitfire that I suddenly realize is not that interesting for me in MSFS. Why a Spitfire? I can not do any real civilian flying in that! And that is what I am doing now. Reading up on the G1000 features that I really did not find that interesting compared to the systems of an F/A - 18. Now I want to know about all the features for my planned cargo mission to Gatwick...

See you in the peaceful civilian skies - got to go fly a cargo mission!

Edited April 2, 2021 by mazex

[ThomseN_inc 1,128]

I agree at some points. But i guess a real career mode would'nt work too well. A thing between career and Neofly or Airhauler would be nice. Something that throws missions at you and provides a little context to the whole thing. But i guess that would make changes to the visual model necessary. For me there is no point in flying 400 kgs of Cargo across Europe or 4 VIPs to the Bahamas when all you see is an empty cabin behind you. MSFS feels very emtpy at this point.

But back to the OP. Someting like a missiongenerator that simulates being a hired pilot would do it for me. "Fly this from there to there."  I know there are some and i am using them too but i'd welcome an ingame option.

As an alternative you can of course join one of the many virtual airlines which offer great options.

On the other side i tend to fly like i do it in RL. Charter my plane and go discover new places.

[langly 129]

16 hours ago, ThomseN_inc said:

I agree at some points. But i guess a real career mode would'nt work too well. A thing between career and Neofly or Airhauler would be nice. Something that throws missions at you and provides a little context to the whole thing. But i guess that would make changes to the visual model necessary. For me there is no point in flying 400 kgs of Cargo across Europe or 4 VIPs to the Bahamas when all you see is an empty cabin behind you. MSFS feels very emtpy at this point.

But back to the OP. Someting like a missiongenerator that simulates being a hired pilot would do it for me. "Fly this from there to there."  I know there are some and i am using them too but i'd welcome an ingame option.

As an alternative you can of course join one of the many virtual airlines which offer great options.

On the other side i tend to fly like i do it in RL. Charter my plane and go discover new places.

The Skypark pretty much fits this perfectly.

[ThomseN_inc 1,128]

4 hours ago, langly said:

The Skypark pretty much fits this perfectly.

Will check that! 🙂

[in2tech 588]

23 hours ago, mazex said:

See you in the peaceful civilian skies - got to go fly a cargo mission!

Glad to see you are having fun flying in NeoFly. Just glad to see all the options in MSFS ( as well as other sims ). There are a ton of options in MSFS if you enjoy trying different things. From mods, to liveries, bush missions ( both build in and community ones ), scenery, etc... I would like to see some type of career in MSFS, not sure how it would work? But let NeoFly, OnAIr, Air Hauler, SkyPark, etc... do their thing too, Free or Paid.

Most important thing is you are having FUN!

[filou 2,738]

I have tried several and I still feel outside of MSFS this is the biggest problem for me.

 

-I need a real building and hangar at or near the airport of my choice inside MSFS.

-I need to be able to change the color and shape of this building and put the name of the company I want

-I need a real office interactive above this building with a 360 view of the airport and the runways

-The planes I would use will be with unique liverie

-Flight plan generator from this airport and not a straight line flight plan

-I need a large interactive screen in my office with all the curves of all  my activities.Simple and efficient with a world or country map

-i need an AI assistant and AI pilots with random levels with contract.

-If the "Live" weather is too bad for some of your planes, they cannot take off.

etc...

 

But the most important :Everything must be inside the simulator, this is the key to success and believe me that would change everything.

With MSFS I expect new and original things that come out of the ordinary than Airport & Plane.

[RustyFlyer 182]

On 4/2/2021 at 2:58 AM, mazex said:

"... I ...a...m ... hooked playing Euro Truck simulator 2 ...The actual driving on highways is a nice relaxing experience ... when getting close to the destination you have to be more focused as the city driving is more demanding ... And ... docking at the bay that is more millimeter precision. And ... you like many others realized you are hooked playing a darn truck simulator 🙂 ... And ... Now millions are playing it..."

What a terrific post! I could not agree more- ETS2 is tremendous fun! MFS indeed has the potential to provide a varied and enjoyable aviation experience to a great many.

I would disagree with one thing though: I kind of like the scenery in ETS2 lol 😅😎 and I do not think it is "cheesy", but to each his own!

One minor difference for me is that, when my wife opens the den door at 2:00 in the morning, my response of late is:  "I'll be in in a minute, sweetheart, I have to sink a putt for a birdie..." 😎

[I've recently rediscovered & reintroduced myself to v-golf in the form of PGA Tour 2K21. It's great fun and there are hundreds and hundreds of wonderful & widely varying courses to play... many of them created by very talented members of the community. (I started playing v-golf with Links 386 Pro during the reign of the dinosaurs lol 😅.)]

Again, thanks for the great & fun-to-read post!

Edited April 3, 2021 by RustyFlyer

[kakihara123 144]

1 hour ago, filou said:

I have tried several and I still feel outside of MSFS this is the biggest problem for me.

 

-I need a real building and hangar at or near the airport of my choice inside MSFS.

-I need to be able to change the color and shape of this building and put the name of the company I want

-I need a real office interactive above this building with a 360 view of the airport and the runways

-The planes I would use will be with unique liverie

-Flight plan generator from this airport and not a straight line flight plan

-I need a large interactive screen in my office with all the curves of all  my activities.Simple and efficient with a world or country map

-i need an AI assistant and AI pilots with random levels with contract.

-If the "Live" weather is too bad for some of your planes, they cannot take off.

etc...

 

But the most important :Everything must be inside the simulator, this is the key to success and believe me that would change everything.

With MSFS I expect new and original things that come out of the ordinary than Airport & Plane.

Yeah I agree. I use Onair but thunder only. I don't see the point of managing AI planes that are not present in the sim itself. Also transporting stuff is kind of meaningless. 

People are simply cargo atm. And cargo spawns and disappears with not furher interaction. Although I have no idea how that could change. It's not like one of those sims where towns develop based on deliveries of goods because well... those are ready there.

[ricka47 611]

12 hours ago, langly said:

The Skypark pretty much fits this perfectly.

I would second that. I picked The Skypark up abut a week ago and it is a lot of fun. Since I basically want to fly and not run an airline, it provides the proper balance of structure and freedom. It's still in early access so there is much more to come from what I hear.

[mazex 419]

16 hours ago, filou said:

I have tried several and I still feel outside of MSFS this is the biggest problem for me.

 

-I need a real building and hangar at or near the airport of my choice inside MSFS.

-I need to be able to change the color and shape of this building and put the name of the company I want

-I need a real office interactive above this building with a 360 view of the airport and the runways

-The planes I would use will be with unique liverie

-Flight plan generator from this airport and not a straight line flight plan

-I need a large interactive screen in my office with all the curves of all  my activities.Simple and efficient with a world or country map

-i need an AI assistant and AI pilots with random levels with contract.

-If the "Live" weather is too bad for some of your planes, they cannot take off.

etc...

 

But the most important :Everything must be inside the simulator, this is the key to success and believe me that would change everything.

With MSFS I expect new and original things that come out of the ordinary than Airport & Plane.

I sign everything above. This would be the icing that really lifts the immersion. But if they just an IN GAME copy of Neofly it really would add a lot to start with - and it really is not that hard. Generate a number of different "missions" at every airport like Neofly does. Do some coding to verify that the pilot does the missions correctly by triggers etc (not that hard - Neofly does it through simconnect checking your state vs the mission parameters). Then add a market like Neofly where you can buy aircraft at every airport. Put the ones for sale on a row so that you can see them? Some UI work  naturally but the work to do an internal Neofly "mission generator" / validator really should be rather easy (old developer so I am not just guessing - this really is something "the new guy" could do with some help from the UI people).

[filou 2,738]

Yes there is nothing difficult . They know how to do Airports, they know how to do Control Tower, they know how to do transparent windows, they know how to do checklists interactive etc....

When I am in my office I want to see through the windows MSFS continue to function.

Just combine what they already know how to do with what they already know how to do...

There is no technical problem but a big problem of lack of NG imagination .

That they do not hesitate to contact me I have my school bag full of new NG ideas.

 

[kaosfere 3,115]

I love career mode addons.  I've spent a lot of time in NeoFly, FSEconomy, and both versions of Air Hauler.  Having something in-built eventually would be nice, but can you imagine the uproar there would be from certain quarters if Asobo started spending time working on that while people were still unsatisfied with the core simulation?  🙂  We already get ranting about the world updates from folks who don't seem to understand that the people who are making scenery aren't necessarily the ones building the game engine;  in this case they well could be.

[filou 2,738]

7 minutes ago, kaosfere said:

I love career mode addons.  I've spent a lot of time in NeoFly, FSEconomy, and both versions of Air Hauler.  Having something in-built eventually would be nice, but can you imagine the uproar there would be from certain quarters if Asobo started spending time working on that while people were still unsatisfied with the core simulation?  🙂  We already get ranting about the world updates from folks who don't seem to understand that the people who are making scenery aren't necessarily the ones building the game engine;  in this case they well could be.

There is no need  ASOBO for this kind of software.

[mazex 419]

On 4/4/2021 at 5:06 PM, filou said:

There is no need  ASOBO for this kind of software.

Do you mean because it is covered well in other external applications - or some other reason?

The ones that don't like the gamey idea and fly on vatsim only in tubeliners sure would appreciate if MS + partners increased their sales due to more people getting sucked into the simulator and stays more than 20 hours of flight time?

[filou 2,738]

1 hour ago, mazex said:

Do you mean because it is covered well in other external applications - or some other reason?

The ones that don't like the gamey idea and fly on vatsim only in tubeliners sure would appreciate if MS + partners increased their sales due to more people getting sucked into the simulator and stays more than 20 hours of flight time?

Yes it is covered well in other external applications and developers can do much better than what already exists.