Fired up MSFS again after a few months abstinence and decided to treat myself to a medium haul flight with the 747-800.

Real life intervened so I saved the game to resume another time. Rather dismayed to find the flakey save/load still persists. Autopilot off on resume and even after re-engaging could not get LNAV to re-engage. Cycled on and off several times to no avail. The FMC data was still present though I know in the past that has failed to restore and I presume can still be an issue.

I find it amazing after 18 months such a fundamental feature is still broken. Sadly it doesn't endear one to splashing out on expensive add ons (like the CRJ or forthcoming PMDG 737) until I can reliably save and resume a flight in progress. 

Edited February 14, 20224 yr by Elvensmith

absolutly with you. This save game issue is annoying me too. Also that one is still unable to change the weather when loading a flight

Does not cover the whole issue, but the menu bar issue:

Loading a flight (from cloud): menu bar is gone - Sim Update 8 Beta Testing / Miscellaneous - Microsoft Flight Simulator Forums

The Save issue is another where Asobo show their lack of knowledge of the FS genre then fail to understand what their customers are asking for. See also the Hybrid measurements that aren't hybrid and also just not grasping what people meant by a Replay system.

They'd do well to sit down with some grizzly old simmers and get to grips with what we had got used to 10 years ago like replays, saves etc.

This might be pretty much the LAST thing they'll fix, because otherwise they would have to fix it time and time again after every update, especially considering that their weather stuff is work-in-progress all over again.

1 hour ago, BillC said:

The Save issue is another where Asobo show their lack of knowledge of the FS genre then fail to understand what their customers are asking for. See also the Hybrid measurements that aren't hybrid and also just not grasping what people meant by a Replay system.

They'd do well to sit down with some grizzly old simmers and get to grips with what we had got used to 10 years ago like replays, saves etc.

I disagree, they know very well what their customers are asking for: Their customers don't need a save feature, because all those customers use the 748 for, is flying under bridges for 30 minutes and that's it.

Amen to this. I often don't have the time to finish a flight in one go (at least not the kind of flights I like to do) and hence quite often I don't fly at all. Which sucks. It would be great (and quite logical...) if we'd get a proper save function!!!

BTW What also doesn't help in this regard are the long loading times... I sometimes have 15 minutes or so to quickly do something on my PC and I'd love to do a short hop then or a short sightseeing flight but the loading times make this impossible. All my other games are loaded and ready to play within 10 to 20 seconds so... yeah, well... bye bye MSFS it is. As it is now I only fly whenever I know I at LEAST have 1.5 hours of time to play.

1 minute ago, tup61 said:

the long loading times

There are several discussions in these forums on how to minimize the loading times, especially if they are due to the presence of many add-ons in the Community folder. Someone did an informal poll and the median time was around 3-5 minutes if memory serves correctly. If yours are much longer, use of the Addon Linker software may help a lot.

16 minutes ago, jrw4 said:

There are several discussions in these forums on how to minimize the loading times, especially if they are due to the presence of many add-ons in the Community folder. Someone did an informal poll and the median time was around 3-5 minutes if memory serves correctly. If yours are much longer, use of the Addon Linker software may help a lot.

3-5 minutes is too long already imho. 😉 I only have two planes in my community folder (FBW and Kodiak) and that's it. Loading times are indeed around 3 to 5 and that's a lot if you only have 15 to 30 minutes to fly. But even if I have more time it sucks when life gets in the way and you can't finish a flight without being able to save it properly. Asobo really needs to give us a proper save option.

40 minutes ago, tup61 said:

BTW What also doesn't help in this regard are the long loading times...

 

35 minutes ago, jrw4 said:

There are several discussions in these forums on how to minimize the loading times

 

17 minutes ago, tup61 said:

3-5 minutes is too long already imho.

How did this topic on a legitimate "save" function all of a sudden morph to loading times? 

Back on topic, it (save function) may take a 3rd party app.  What I sorely wish is that someone would create an effective 'auto-save" at intervals similar to what FSUIPC provides in FSX and P3D.  The original post in this topic is right on!  It is yet another feature that has been around in previous FS versions that is not up to par here and needs to be!  And as Asobo has ignored as well auto-save is another example of 3rd party simulator technology that has been ignored.  Sad but true!

Edited February 14, 20224 yr by fppilot

I've only used the save feature in FSX for saving and resuming a flight to avoid a OOMs and blurries from the dreaded 4GB memory limit!🤣

It feels so good to finally fly a sim where this isn't required for heavy memory demanding aircraft and sceneries!😅

I hope they get the save feature together soon though!

 

At least it isn't like the save game feature in Train Sim World 2. Which I have learned has been around for literally years, in the other iterations of the sim. You resume a save and are almost guaranteed a red signal that never changes. So it's impossible to finish almost any journey. Which means I've stopped playing it, as I have up to 30 minutes available at a time, usually, and no route can realistically be driven in that time, especially some of the more interesting scenarios.

This bug was properly acknowledged around December, at last. But only to the extent of the new exec producer saying he really wants it to work... But he had a caveat. They know why it doesn't work, because of the file size needed for save games that capture all the signal data. Wow. It's one of the most important aspects of the save game in that sim. I'd happily accept a massive save file size just so I can play it and know I can resume and finish a scenario.

It'd be interesting to know what the issues are that Asobo faces with saving. But at least we can still fly to our destination, in some manner, even if certain states aren't restored upon loading. I'll take that over the red light of doom, but hopefully this is one Asobo can return to when other features are more stable.

Thanks for the supportive comments and as the OP I don't have any an issue with the slight divergence into loading times 🙂. In fact the frustration having sat waiting for the game to load only to find the game has corrupted doubles the annoyance!

I still enjoy MSFS for a quick GA or VFR flight and hopefully one day Asobo will sort it out. 

As a frequent user of TSW2, painfully aware of the save game fragility there too, particularly the complex commuter routes like Brighton Main Line so it's not just the flight sims who have to crack this issue.

That's the main reason I don't use big a/c in MSFS. I have simply not enough free time for medium or long-haul flights. An advanced "save flight" possibility is also desirable for training purposes, like difficult approaches. Currently, I stay with P3D when I wanna fly the big ones.

Edited February 14, 20224 yr by Nemo

The save load feature never worked well going back to FSX so I gave it a try in MSFS and the load (short final) actually worked and allowed me to land.  

Still not perfect but didn't crash the sim like in FSX / P3D.

ns