1 hour ago, abrams_tank said:

Free Flight with a plane that is compatible with MSFS 2024 and a well made plane is fine. For example, the Fenix and default Cessna 172 G1000.

A poorly made plane though will give you a bad time in MSFS 2024 Free Flight, such as the PC-24. But that is no different than MSFS 2020 if you use a poorly made plane.

Pretty much all I use is Fenix - we are lucky to have that 🙂

3 hours ago, Sonosusto said:

Today, I tried 2024 again this week just to find half of mouse, keyboard and honeycomb setup disappeared. Looked at all the profiles to no avail.

Strange how these things happen to some and not others - I have never experienced this behaviour. Only problem was getting used to the new interface which I now find OK.

3 hours ago, Sonosusto said:

I have reinstalled 2024 at least 5 times to get it to work. No mods, no addons, etc. Right now its in a default state again. Still, issues.

Same again - the only time I reinstalled was when I upgraded my storage to all M2 SSD drives.

Not saying it is perfect and I sympathise to those who have issues - the biggest gripe I had was the extraordinary load times at the start which were up to 15 mins, but that was resolved and now it loads quicker than 2020 for me.

I like it, and when the major developers get their aircraft converted over to 2024 then I will finally be saying goodbye to 2020.

3 hours ago, psolk said:

Peak player #'s for 2020 were like 61,000 I believe.  FS2020 whereas 2024 barely surpassed 10,000 whereas if the launch was successful I would garner that number would be over 100,000

2020 lost about 80% of its players in its first two months. 2024 has lost about 40%. Ergo, 2024 is relatively successful compared to 2020.

What they got wrong. I'll try to refrain from saying that they were economical with the truth. Was telling me that all my 2020 addons would work in 2024. So for me it's been a disappointment and a downgrade. I'm missing too many of the planes I thought I would have day one.

So. Even though I was assured otherwise..... None of my JF planes are available except for the RJ. None of my PMDG planes work. Nor does the unfinished E175/E195. Or the MD11.... I could go on!

So, basically, for me is a Fenix simulator and to them I bow low.

Edited January 6, 20251 yr by jarmstro

The biggest failure of 2024, in my humble opinion, is the lack of consistency.

Yesterday I had a fantastic free flight in the stock TB 930.  Great visuals, frame rates > 50, all controls worked fine.

Three hours later I started the sim, with no changes from earlier.  It needed 12-minutes to load (compared to 5 earlier), the frame rate sitting dark and cold at a stock airport was below 20.  In flight, Tiles were popping in and out and after a 15-minute flight I tried to land at the departure airport - frame rate dropped to single digits and the TBM 930 was uncontrollable.

And, the 2nd flight showed many new additions to the custom control profile for the TBM 930.  They were all in the right hand column and made no sense - and now I can't get rid of the Hold Reverse Thrust line.

When the 2024 sim is working it is great - but at least one out of every three sessions is a screaming disaster of one kind or another.

 

3 hours ago, scotchegg said:

2020 lost about 80% of its players in its first two months. 2024 has lost about 40%. Ergo, 2024 is relatively successful compared to 2020.

Did you actually type that with a straight face after looking at the actual Data? 

OK, 2024 lost 102% in the past 30 days.... Edit.  This was pointed out to be incorrect and a mistake on my part! Mea Culpa It has only lost 36% in December and 2% in the last 30 days to correct my mistake.

However, 

It is currently still losing Market Share to it's predecessor.  That's not a success. 

There are currently 1/3 more users in 2020 than in 2024 (as of this minute) 3,900 in 2024 vs 6,300 in 2020 December's peak for 2024 is almost 2020's daily user count today...  

Peak users are 10,000 in 2024, 61000 in 2020.  Had 2024 been an "actual success" I would have honestly expected they could have surpassed 100,000 and I think they would have done it easily.

But if this is your idea of a "relative" success then by all means...   

As I said, numbers don't lie and I am not happy about this or gloating, if MS bean counters are looking at the numbers and they all look like this at some point it is genuinely difficult to justify pouring money into something that is not showing positive returns.  All they care about is money, nothing else.  The subsequent damage from the launch is obvious, it wasn't just those 3 days, it's everyday since the launch as well despite those enjoying it here, I'm not concerned with a vocal few the same way people don't care about the vocal few in the negative here, the 10 loudest people don't determine the outcome or success,  I'm concerned with the only data we have available right now to form factual judgements.  

My honest hope and worst fear (in terms of flightsim not life LOL) is someone with a spreadsheet doesn't look at this and deems it a failure and pulls the plug, I couldn't think of anything worse for simmers, Asobo saved flight simming and re-exposed our great hobby to the masses in my opinion but if I was presenting these numbers to my boss I would be very hard pressed to show a positive side to this statistically or point to a "recovery" since the launch.  It's stagnant to negative trending. 

Based on MS track record of laying off almost 2,000 Blizzard staff, entire Titles shut down, heck their own history of killing off a flightsim franchise to think it couldn't happen if things don't improve would be a bit naïve in my simple opinion and a don't mean that in an insulting manner.  It comes from working in Tech.  It comes from witnessing 150,000 layoffs in my industry last year.  It comes from watching 11,000 of my co-workers some of who were among the best people I know and best workers I knew.  Watching people come back from maternity leave to get let go, Google making a couple ON maternity leave redundant while they were out It, people coming back from medical leave to get fired, it comes from watching Bell Labs shut down, it comes from watching GE, the almighty GE once led by Jack Welch split into 3 companies and watching GE as I knew it my entire life gone.  It comes from the harsh reality that no person, no team, no title and in some cases no company is beyond being impacted...     

Month	Avg. Players	Gain	% Gain	Peak Players
Last 30 Days	3,777.1	-102.3	-2.64%	6,757
December 2024	3,879.4	-2,186.1	-36.04%	7,981
November 2024	6,065.5	-	-	10,600

 

 

Edited January 7, 20251 yr by psolk

1 hour ago, scotchegg said:

2020 lost about 80% of its players in its first two months. 2024 has lost about 40%. Ergo, 2024 is relatively successful compared to 2020.

I think your stats are backwards, it appears that the 2024 base is shrinking and 2020 has taken the lead. Look at the survey that was run on Avsim, 2/3 of the voters are flying 2020. 

The biggest mistake is turning flight sim architecture into a streaming app and therefore waiting at the terminal for the sim to download!  Shame on Msobo!

7 hours ago, Sonosusto said:

This is my biggest gripe with everything: any developer, car manufacturer, motorcycle gear, woodworking tools, etc etc. Do NOT add features until the basic product functions perfectly first.

 

I agree completely, but on the other hand, you absolutely know that if MS released a perfectly-functioning sim without all those added features, people would be howling about that too.

Funny you should bring up woodworking tools. Sawstop is a great example of how to do it right. Back when they came out, they introduced a revolutionary feature on their table saw - a flesh-sensing blade stop so you wouldn't cut your finger off if you screwed up. But they also made very sure that the *rest* of the saw was one of the best money could buy until you got into the 5-figure commercial grade units. They got all the basic functions of the saw perfect, then added their whizbang new feature, and they made a killing off of it. (And the extra story about Bosch trying to steal their patented technology not realizing the guy who invented Sawstop is a patent attorney who would absolutely cream them in court was just icing on the cake).

 

 

2 hours ago, psolk said:

"2024 lost 102% in the past 30 days"

Your posted quote actually says

2 hours ago, psolk said:

Last 30 Days 3,777.1 -102.3 -2.64%

I have no comment to make about 2024's success or failure, but I just thought for a post that says "numbers don't lie" this was an unfortunate misquote on your part.

9 minutes ago, andy1252 said:

Your posted quote actually says

I have no comment to make about 2024's success or failure, but I just thought for a post that says "numbers don't lie" this was an unfortunate misquote on your part.

I do stand corrected!  Apologies.  Mistakes happen, I am far from flawless, shouldn't multitask lol. I noted that stat was inaccurate in my OP, thank you. Mea Culpa

Edited January 7, 20251 yr by psolk

2 hours ago, psolk said:

Did you actually type that with a straight face after looking at the actual Data?  OK, 2024 lost 102% in the past 30 days....  It is currently still losing Market Share to it's predecessor

No, it wasn’t a totally straight face, more a ‘you can use Steam numbers to prove anything’ kind of comment, however you seem to have taken it as such but confused number of people with percent. It’s 102 people, not percent. It’s 2.6%, as you yourself should have understood.

 

2 hours ago, psolk said:

There are currently 1/3 more users in 2020 than in 2024 (as of this minute) 3,900 in 2024 vs 6,300 in 2020 December's peak for 2024 is almost 2020's daily user count today... 

Again, not sure how meaningful that is. Look at XP11 vs 12 numbers on Steam.

 

1 hour ago, Bobsk8 said:

I think your stats are backwards, it appears that the 2024 base is shrinking and 2020 has taken the lead. Look at the survey that was run on Avsim, 2/3 of the voters are flying 2020. 

That doesn’t actually relate to my stat at all.

5 minutes ago, scotchegg said:

but confused number of people with percent. It’s 102 people, not percent. It’s 2.6%, as you yourself should have understood.

 

Yes this was a mistake on my part as prior acknowledged.  Mea Culpa.  

I do stand by the rest of my post however that was a considerable oversight and mistake on my part LOL.  Yes, I should have recognized that. 

Edited January 7, 20251 yr by psolk

7 minutes ago, psolk said:

I do stand by the rest of my post however

Don’t worry, I think we all know where you stand😅