Since I focused on the mission system for much of the tech alpha I thought I would bring up some of my observations. I am fully aware these may or may not be addressed/fixed in the final build. More or less I'm just wondering aloud to see what everyone else might think about it. 

Likes:
That you can skip taxing and jump straight to take-off. 
Avatar mode for walking around the aircraft.
Route displays rectangles in the air for newer pilots to guide them.
Dialog from the passengers during the flight adds to immersion. (Even though the dialog was cringy at times.)
Paying for certifications is a one and done thing.  If you fail the certification, you are able to retake it as many times as needed without having to pay again.
Pilot levels add another layer to the career missions. (I was able to reach level 8 fairly quick. I imagine it will slow significantly as you progress.)
The jump in certification cost will keep you busy. Example: Your Instrument rating will cost 175,000 credits and Airline Transport Pilot is 1,000,000 credits.

 

Dislikes/Unknowns:
Not being able to skip the intro walk-up when the mission starts. 
*EFB was frustrating to use and appeared to not be fully implemented. (This could have an entire post by itself.)
*Missions seem to be 'On Rails' and do not allow for alternate ATC options or much in the way of planning your own flight. 
*Cost of certifications in relation to mission length at the higher level could be unbalanced.
Company tab has not been referenced or review by anyone, not even a grain of information has been dangled before us.  (It's really up in the air what this will/will not offer. Opening this up with the SDK could be the best thing they could do. I believe that Jord said this would not allow for VA's and is a missed opportunity to add another layer to the Multiplayer aspect of MSFS.)

 

Possible Alpha Issues:
Skipping taxi during a mission doesn't always work with smaller strips and can even cause the sim to crash. 
QOL changes to avatar mode. Example: When performing the walk around I would have to right-click to get the mouse pointer to appear so I could left-click to remove the covers.
Route rectangles are above mission altitude possibly resulting in a lower score.
Magenta line disappearing from EFB and G1000. This appeared to be working fine at the beginning of the tech alpha and only started later in the second day.
Later missions were buggy, often displaying code hooks instead of actual text needed.
Mission airports and surrounding areas seemed to implement newer grass/tree models/textures during missions than when in free flight. Noticed this at my home airport.

* = Was not able to fully test due to content not being available with time available or could also be a possible alpha issue.

 

 

I believe that is all for now. Been trying to process all that for a detailed write-up and had the time to type it out today. I am really excited about the new sim and look forward to all it has to offer. Now, I'm interested in hearing what you all thought of it. Do you agree with some of the things I listed? Can you add to it, good or bad?

I am no expert when it comes to flying and I accept criticism if I am wrong in any of the above due to being unaware of how something works, ect. 
 

Edited October 17, 20241 yr by Lotharen

I think it's a good list. I agree that the pathway to follow will be nice for some; I strongly suspect that it can be turned off (I hope?) as I'd rather follow the flight plan on my own, but I think having the option is a positive. 

I'll be curious to see where they go w/ the EFB, as I'm sure they'll start getting feedback early about how it can be improved. I know Working Title did the flight-planning stuff; I wonder how involved they were w/ the EFB design? 

 

I'm betting mission implementation will be highly polarizing (I know, I'm really going out on a limb saying anything in flight sim will be polarizing, haha). I'm looking forward to it, warts and all, and will expect some constructive criticism (and a lot of unconstructive criticism...) that will shape the future of the missions for the next several years. I also think once third parties are able to develop their own missions it will enhance things quite a bit in the same way third parties fill out the scenery/aircraft. 

As for the awkward passenger dialogue, I absolutely was cringing listening to it and I kind of loved it in a weird way. Made me chuckle and it's not completely unrealistic 😂

I never have and never will do any of the missions. Would be very happy if I could remove the option from the main screen entirely.  

1 minute ago, St Mawgan said:

I never have and never will do any of the missions. Would be very happy if I could remove the option from the main screen entirely.  

I bet you could put a piece of duct tape on your monitor the same size, shape, and location of the menu option. Then you'll never have to see it! 

Jokes aside, I think it's completely fair and valid for someone to never want to touch the missions/career, but to act as if you can't even stand looking at the menu option is a bit hyperbolic. I doubt it will affect your ability to enjoy free flight.

2 minutes ago, Dermot McClusky said:

I bet you could put a piece of duct tape on your monitor the same size, shape, and location of the menu option. Then you'll never have to see it! 

Jokes aside, I think it's completely fair and valid for someone to never want to touch the missions/career, but to act as if you can't even stand looking at the menu option is a bit hyperbolic. I doubt it will affect your ability to enjoy free flight.

From what I can see the Free Flight button is quite small in MS2024. Most of the screen is given over to the other nonsense. But yes, your eye gets used to only seeing what you are looking for in the end😉

It's a tech Alpha you likes and dislikes may very well turn out to be irrelevant as you were not testing the finished product.

Once the product releases to the masses your points might be relevant!

 

@Dermot McClusky You can turn the pathways off. I noticed that in the assistance options I believe.

Just now, tpete61 said:

It's a tech Alpha you likes and dislikes may very well turn out to be irrelevant as you were not testing the finished product.

Once the product releases to the masses your points might be relevant!

 

Did I not say that in my post? or did you just not read it? 

This is like sitting by a camp fire and discussing something you like. You talk about the 'what-if's' and the 'could-be's' and if you don't like doing that you go to another camp site.

Maybe change the title from Mission Discussion which sounds like a general discussion about the merits of having missions to something more aimed at attracting mission fans specifically. 

4 minutes ago, Lotharen said:

Did I not say that in my post? or did you just not read it? 

This is like sitting by a camp fire and discussing something you like. You talk about the 'what-if's' and the 'could-be's' and if you don't like doing that you go to another camp site.

Agreed, I think we can all just have a nice "what if?" discussion with the overarching caveat that we don't know what the final product will bring. I thought your points were interesting. 

I'll add that I'm curious to see how simple vs complex the check rides will be for stuff like commercial airline piloting. My assumption is that it will be quite limited and it'll be up to the "student" to have the curiosity/motivation to learn more complex details, especially since there's such a wide variety of aircraft types w/ different procedures that will have to be adapted to a universal test. But again, this is also where I could see 3rd parties shine if given the ability to create their own content.

11 minutes ago, St Mawgan said:

Maybe change the title from Mission Discussion which sounds like a general discussion about the merits of having missions to something more aimed at attracting mission fans specifically. 

Was able to change it. Hopefully that will make the heart of the topic more visible. 

13 minutes ago, Dermot McClusky said:

Agreed, I think we can all just have a nice "what if?" discussion with the overarching caveat that we don't know what the final product will bring. I thought your points were interesting. 

I'll add that I'm curious to see how simple vs complex the check rides will be for stuff like commercial airline piloting. My assumption is that it will be quite limited and it'll be up to the "student" to have the curiosity/motivation to learn more complex details, especially since there's such a wide variety of aircraft types w/ different procedures that will have to be adapted to a universal test. But again, this is also where I could see 3rd parties shine if given the ability to create their own content.

Yeah, thought this would be a good place for everyone to talk about what they liked about it and what they didn't like. What they thought could be improved upon and what could just have been absent from the Alpha. We are speculating here, sure, but its fun!

I'm not sure if I'm happy that we have to use the dreadful ingame ATC, although I did enjoy the missions.

When FSHud is up and running for FS2024 I don't want to have to be contacting the in game ATC for clearance.  

1 hour ago, Langeveldt said:

I'm not sure if I'm happy that we have to use the dreadful ingame ATC, although I did enjoy the missions.

When FSHud is up and running for FS2024 I don't want to have to be contacting the in game ATC for clearance.  

This will be the #1 reason I don’t do any more missions if it’s not possible to use a 3rd party ATC.  They didn’t do anything to improve ATC and even though they have “plans” it won’t touch what I’m getting with Say Intentions.AI now.  From what I’ve heard in all the previews the ATC is actually worse than 2020 with its phraseology.  I’m hopeful that you can turn ATC off completely in the menus like I do now and that will eliminate the requirements during the missions.