12 minutes ago, SergioCosta said:

I've decided not to use the sim until at least the load times improve to me. 15 minutes at a time, plus the eventual CTD makes the whole experience excrutiating.

I get that. Hope things improve for you soon, and when they do, looking forward to hearing more of your impressions.

And BTW, I agree that it would be nice to have an option of skipping the "grind" in the career for those who have no desire to grind.

3 minutes ago, kkbelos said:

Here in the official forum it is discussed (apparently with some proof, but I cant confirm) that the goal is to sell "credits" in the marketplace. 100 simcoins will cost 28 euros.

I've seen that but I am not sure how much that is true or speculation. I think that's a very bad call, if it happens. But considering the recent acquisitions Microsoft has done, and the fact that they need to ramp up profits, I don't see it as being impossible.

That would be very, very disappointing.

That's the whole concept of the career, to pass certification to be able to fly other type of aircraft / mission. I don't understand the complain, if you want to fly directly a 747 you can do it in free flight mode.

And as for grinding as soon as you have your own company (which require 20K) a basic fret mission in a C172  will earn you around 80K more or less, so much for grinding...

3 minutes ago, kkbelos said:

Here in the official forum it is discussed (apparently with some proof, but I cant confirm) that the goal is to sell "credits" in the marketplace. 100 simcoins will cost 28 euros.

This has to be something else than the career mode credits, I have to assume? Maybe this is a "currency" for purchasing addons?

From memory, taking the commercial rating costs 5000 credits. If it were in fact the case that you could buy 100 credits for 28 euros, that would equate to 1400 euros! Surely no one would pay that. So I have to think this is something else.

In any case, I find that credits haven't been the limiting factor for me in the career - what limits me usually is the number of missions I need to fly to progress to a specialization that I'm interested in.

3 minutes ago, Bushido5 said:

That's the whole concept of the career, to pass certification to be able to fly other type of aircraft / mission. I don't understand the complain, if you want to fly directly a 747 you can do it in free flight mode.

But you can't, for example, do aerial application or hoisting missions in free-flight mode. The only way to do those is to progress through the career, and this is where people are asking for an alternative.

3 minutes ago, Bushido5 said:

That's the whole concept of the career, to pass certification to be able to fly other type of aircraft / mission. I don't understand the complain, if you want to fly directly a 747 you can do it in free flight mode.

And as for grinding as soon as you have your own company (which require 20K) a basic fret mission in a C172  will earn you around 80K more or less, so much for grinding...

Here's the thing: I don't care about career mode. I don't want to do the career mode. I don't want to have my own company. None of that interests me.

I just want to be able to do crop dusting, sling loading, search and rescue without having to go through all that. Just hit free flight, select a mission type and fly it. I don't care about points, credits or anything else.

Yet, I can't do the things I do like and want to do because they are behind the career mode gate.

4 minutes ago, martinboehme said:

This has to be something else than the career mode credits, I have to assume? Maybe this is a "currency" for purchasing addons?

From what I remember seeing some time ago, when we purchase something on the marketplace, we pay real money that are transparently converted to a currency, which is then what's used to purchase the addons. I think that is done for legal purposes and we never get to see that translation (as far as I can remember).

I hope that's the case here.

@kkbelos check this thread here in the AVSIM forums: 

 

And this quote in the last post on that thread.

Quote

When you try to buy something off the Store (inside the game). It will tell you how much "Fligtsim coins" are equal to USD. 

Perhaps this is it but people decided to freak out?

36 minutes ago, SergioCosta said:

I've decided not to use the sim until at least the load times improve to me. 15 minutes at a time, plus the eventual CTD makes the whole experience excrutiating.

Yeah, no should pass judgement on much of the performance aspects of 2024 quite yet unless you're a glutton for punishment.  It will settle out sooner than later, meaning in weeks, not months/years.

23 minutes ago, Bushido5 said:

That's the whole concept of the career, to pass certification to be able to fly other type of aircraft / mission. I don't understand the complain, if you want to fly directly a 747 you can do it in free flight mode.

And as for grinding as soon as you have your own company (which require 20K) a basic fret mission in a C172  will earn you around 80K more or less, so much for grinding...

And that's fine.. but it would be ideal if they *also* gave the option to just experience the actual aviation activities directly without being tied to career mode? i.e. I just want to casually fire up the sim, choose a compatible aircraft for firefighting, and then go do that activity. Granted it might be harder to make these activities completely free-form but at the very least they could be decoupled from the career mode.
 

It also surprised me that helis still (only) start with engine(s) running when launching a new flight from a helipad. Sergio specifically mentioned this to Seb, who seemed surprised that it was the case (as he was in dev mode testing flight models/system/who-knows-what in the past) and I got the distinct impression we'd be given the option to start C+D on a helipad. And this was quite a while ago, so for the issue to persist in 2024 surprised me.

Hey, some of us actually like throwing switches and watching temps rise. 🤷‍♂️

3 minutes ago, lupedelupe said:

Sergio specifically mentioned this to Seb

Twice 🙂

13 minutes ago, lwt1971 said:

And that's fine.. but it would be ideal if they *also* gave the option to just experience the actual aviation activities directly without being tied to career mode? i.e. I just want to casually fire up the sim, choose a compatible aircraft for firefighting, and then go do that activity. Granted it might be harder to make these activities completely free-form but at the very least they could be decoupled from the career mode.
 

Very simply, this ^^^

... exactly @psolk. Some of us have progressed past our teenage years!

😋

3 hours ago, SergioCosta said:

@kkbelos check this thread here in the AVSIM forums: 

 

And this quote in the last post on that thread.

Perhaps this is it but people decided to freak out?

Hi Sergio, probably you are right, which makes me much less worried about the possible introduction of pay to play and similar ideas.