3 minutes ago, FBW737 said:

Fligthsim.to is awesome!

I absolutely agree, the only thing I wish they had, would be a program that will check mods installed in your community folder and alert you or do updates on it's own.

A bit like MSFS community downloader but for flightsim.to

1 minute ago, bendead said:

I absolutely agree, the only thing I wish they had, would be a program that will check mods installed in your community folder and alert you or do updates on it's own.

A bit like MSFS community downloader but for flightsim.to

They do keep track of your downloads and if you go to your account page they list addons you've downloaded that have updates. It takes a little maintenance, i.e. if you remove a particular addon from your community folder permanently then you should remove it from you downloaded list otherwise you will keep getting notification for updates. It takes a little getting used to but I have it down to fine art now and it free! 😁

2 minutes ago, FBW737 said:

They do keep track of your downloads and if you go to your account page they list addons you've downloaded that have updates. It takes a little maintenance, i.e. if you remove a particular addon from your community folder permanently then you should remove it from you downloaded list otherwise you will keep getting notification for updates. It takes a little getting used to but I have it down to fine art now and it free! 😁

I will give it a shot 😉

Edited March 16, 20224 yr by bendead

7 minutes ago, bendead said:

I will give it a shot 😉

I would say that the most important thing to do up front before you start plonking third party folders in your community folder is to download and figure out the addon linker which you will use to manage and categorize you addons:

https://flightsim.to/file/1572/msfs-addons-linker

Edited March 16, 20224 yr by FBW737

46 minutes ago, Benjamin J said:

I still buy quite a lot, but I limit myself to buying the addons I want when they are on sale, with some notable exceptions. For example, I recently got FlyTampa's Las Vegas and Toronto, and will probably get their Boston when it's released. Their quality is always top notch and with the price, especially at the lowr-than-P3D price point that they release addons for MSFS. Other developers, particularly of airports that are not my focus, I'll get on sale. Recently I bought a slew of OrbX airports during their March Madness sale, for instance.

I do feel, as others said, that the default airports are sometimes of sufficient quality, particularly if it's an airport that is not super important for me, that I don't really feel the need to get a payware addon for it (freeware of course is a different story). But that's really only true for the default enhanced airports. The likes of Atlanta, Orlando, Zurich... these are all good enough for me, although I'd like to get rid of those default jetways at some point. The default not enhanced airports I still find quite bad, in general, and will buy addons to get better representations for those. BEcause for me having an okay terminal layout is not enough. I do want to see  a model that actually looks like the airport I'm flying into.

FlyTampa almost never goes on sale, so there is no reason to wait for a sale. Day one buy always.

2 minutes ago, FBW737 said:

I would say that the most important thing to do up front before you start plonking third party folders in your community folder is to download and figure out the addon linker which you will use to manage and categorize you addons:

https://flightsim.to/file/1572/msfs-addons-linker

I have never used addon linker, and MSFS loads up quite fast.  What is the rationale for using addon linker?

1 minute ago, Noel said:

I have never used addon linker, and MSFS loads up quite fast.  What is the rationale for using addon linker?

Mostly evading mod conflicts and/or un-updated mods leading to CTD. When you only have like the 4 mods/sceneries active, that you need for todays flight, a CTD will be MUCH easier to trace back, compared to when you have 200 mods active.
The more time passes... the more sim updates.... the more mods and even payware sceneries will become incompatible and this will come back to bite you one day. I can guarantee you tracing back a CTD to a certain mod with 200 mods active is true pain, and it is always the most unlikely one. Just sucks all your energy out.

3 minutes ago, Fiorentoni said:

Mostly evading mod conflicts and/or un-updated mods leading to CTD. When you only have like the 4 mods/sceneries active, that you need for todays flight, a CTD will be MUCH easier to trace back, compared to when you have 200 mods active.
The more time passes... the more sim updates.... the more mods and even payware sceneries will become incompatible and this will come back to bite you one day. I can guarantee you tracing back a CTD to a certain mod with 200 mods active is true pain, and it is always the most unlikely one. Just sucks all your energy out.

Or, to put it more simply, the less you have running, the less there is to go wrong!😊

3 minutes ago, Noel said:

I have never used addon linker, and MSFS loads up quite fast.  What is the rationale for using addon linker?

Well for a start you can have a file tree to categorize you addons. you can turn addons on/off with a check mark in a box. you can completely empty you community folder with a couple of mouse click and put everything back the same way. I have about 150 addons in the community folder. Addons linker helps me to manage them very easily compared to if they were just dumped in the community folder.

I don't mind buying small payware airports (single runway airports) but I resist buying large mega hubs.. not because of fps.. but because MSFS still does not have basic intelligent AI behavior, still waiting for dual jetway connections (a must for large mega hubs), GSX, SODE etc.. all of these are sorely missed in a mega hub.. even with AIG, AI behavior is too clumsy that I turn it off and go with static AI.. this looks ok for small airports but is eerily quiet on larger hubs.. so that's the reason I fly only to GA or small airports.. 

No new bought sceneries in about a year as my routes are covered.  Maybe some Bahama scenery soon though.

ns

I bought at most 6 sceneries since FS5 was released in the nineties...

With the advent of MFS, and the World Updates ( which I do not even have installed - waiting for Portugal & Spain to get released, and that one I will download ), stuff like LPMA or the rest of the portuguese aerodromes is so good already by default and for my level of use that I am more than fine with what MFS + WUs offers...

Edited March 16, 20224 yr by jcomm

I have enough sceneries all over.

I still will buy major US airport and EU airports and Indian airports and special airports like Paro Paro etc and major Scenery Vendor.

But I am looking forward to the Airbus, PMDG, MD80 and few GA.

 

I looked through my list of licenses and came up with (11) that I have purchased for MSFS 2020.  Of note is that I do not purchase them just to fly to and check out.  Instead I purchase them specifically if my predetermined circuit of flights already has me flying into and then out of that area.  And that only if they look especially good. 

An example of that is KPIE, St Petersburg-Clearwater, Florida.  I was sim flying there to take in the Indycar St. Pete Grand Prix auto race.  So I took a look at the Fsxscenery airport for MSFS 2020, liked it, and purchased it.  Another example is the Orbx Key West (KEYW).  It was a jumping off point for my current Caribbean trek, so likewise I purchased it.

I have accumulated a total of 267 addon airports for MSFS, including those (11) payware airports. The remainder are freeware.  All in the USA, Canada, Caribbean, and a couple in Mexico on the Yucatan.

Edited March 16, 20224 yr by fppilot

If its somewhere I want, and will fly semi regularly, yeah.