I am not understanding ATC altitude directions

[RobJC 2,069]

I am flying the HondaJet from KDEN to KSLC. In SimBrief I specified the cruising altitude was 25,000 feet. I load the flight plan into the world map screen, and it looks like it loaded in the HJ. The whole flight ATC is telling me to descend to 8,200 feet. I requested that the cruising altitude be increased by 10,000 feet. ATC kept telling me to descend to 8,200 feet but expect FL350. This tells me that ATC knows I want to cruise at 25,000 feet (and it allowed me to increase it to 35,000 feet), but it still wants me to descend to 8,200 feet, which would have flown me into a mountain. 

Any idea what is going on here? 

[Tuskin38 6,492]

I guess you missed the initial altitude ATC requested you to reach before it would tell you to go higher.

[RobJC 2,069]

19 minutes ago, Tuskin38 said:

I guess you missed the initial altitude ATC requested you to reach before it would tell you to go higher.

It requested me to go to 10,000 which I did. But then it told me to go to 8,200. If I listened to it telling me to go to 8,200 I would have crashed. 

[Dave_YVR 973]

Sounds like you missed an intermediate altitude early on, but FL250 would also be wrong way to the direction of flight in this case.

[RobJC 2,069]

Thanks guys. So what would the correct altitude have been, flying from KDEN to KSLC? 

[Noel 4,499]

4 hours ago, Tuskin38 said:

I guess you missed the initial altitude ATC requested you to reach before it would tell you to go higher.

What would happen in the RW when a pilot overshoots an altitude?  Are they told to go back as is done in the sim?  

[Freo 83]

Your flight levels should be EVEN  thousands to FL 280 then FL 300, FL 320 etc etc

[RaptyrOne 1,409]

@RobJC That’s you and me both. I never understand this sims ATC logic when it comes to altitude/FL’s.

[Dave_YVR 973]

1 hour ago, Noel said:

What would happen in the RW when a pilot overshoots an altitude?  Are they told to go back as is done in the sim?  

 It would all depend on the situation, mainly if there's any conflicts ahead. Otherwise, they'd probably just deal with it and assign a new altitude. They would still probably get written up for busting the altitude as it was a deviation (this too would depend on location/region/country etc).

[Noel 4,499]

8 hours ago, Dave_YVR said:

 It would all depend on the situation, mainly if there's any conflicts ahead. Otherwise, they'd probably just deal with it and assign a new altitude. They would still probably get written up for busting the altitude as it was a deviation (this too would depend on location/region/country etc).

That was my guess they would assign a new altitude based on conditions.  That sounds like something that won't happen in MSFS

[RobJC 2,069]

Would an ATC add-on fix this issue? Or did i screw something up in SimBrief? Because listening to ATC all the time asking me to fly into a mountain is an immersion killer.