15 hours ago, Kristofski said:

So this is fixed now? I read that initially and was very concerned that something easy like that is still lingering 2 years later. How different is the weight and balance from 2020? I always used the in-game fuel/weight menu not the main menu one, as it works easier for tuning weights to match Neofly missions.

Yes, the fuel bug has been fixed for a long time now. I believe the insurance issues were mostly fixed as well. I max out insurance for planes that AI employees fly, but they've never crashed. I've also personally never crashed but had a landing gear failure due to some of the wonky wear-and-tear functionality. Walk-arounds are a must (or paying your mechanic more often to do the checks for you). Unfortunately, if you find an issue during walk around, you can't fix it unless you abort the mission, but wear-and-tear is progressive so if you do the walk around for each flight you can fix something before it gets into yellow/red health. I forget what weight and balance was like in 2020, but it's all done via the tablet in 2024 missions.

15 hours ago, Kristofski said:

I assume you need to go back to the world map every time between missions? Is there an in-game mission window?

Yes, you go back to the world map after each mission. There is no in-game mission window. Typically, there is no flight out of your landing location and you have a pay a small fee to relocate your aircraft to the nearest airport with a suitable mission.

15 hours ago, Kristofski said:

The example you give where you spawn in a building and automatically lose progress is just stunningly unacceptable to me, like, that should be a number 1 priority to fix if that's happening. You should not lose points, money, progress, XP etc if the game crashes to desktop, or otherwise bugs out.

Just a note that this has never happened to me, I think it was more common in the pre-SU1 days. But you should still zoom into your takeoff and landing airports, as the mission generator can pick some tiny strips (residential air parks, a local farmer's air strip, etc). Airfields with full taxiways, even if they are untowered, are going to have better handling of taxiing and parking than some of the tiny locations. The mission-breaking bugs I've had have usually been at tiny airfields with no taxiways and likely a single parking location.

15 hours ago, Kristofski said:

Are there save slots? Can you backup progression in anyway? You said Abort (Ctrl+Alt+Del) is better than landing in bad conditions or at poor runways for your aircraft - are you able to filter destinations?

No save slots or backups. By "abort", I just mean picking abort in the menu option, which just aborts the mission and sends you back to the world map with no penalty other than the small costs of fuel and relocation for the aircraft. It also removes that mission from the generator in the near future. You cannot filter destinations, which is why looking into your destination is so important.

15 hours ago, Kristofski said:

And is there a difficulty slider/settings to customize the career difficulty? Or does Asobo/Microsoft force Career mode at 100% realistic? Like, weather settings for example, Are you forced to fly in Live Weather after you get the IFR certification (I think I read that elsewhere)? Or can you still choose clear skies and progress?

I believe assistances are allowed (auto rudder, auto mixture, and other global sim assistances), but nothing that affects scoring. I have no clue how weather works... it seems to be some type of live weather after the IFR certification, but mission types that require good weather will always give you good weather (flight seeing, aerial advertising, sky diving, ag spraying, etc). The "live" weather will apply mostly to the longer cargo/passenger missions. You can also adjust the time... I have no clue is historical weather is implemented though.

From some of your questions, you may be expecting too much out of what is available in the current mission system. It's all procedurally generated and the sim will give you odd scenarios if you blindly choose missions. ATC is just as broken in missions as it is in free flight. But as someone who views flight planning more like homework than fun, I appreciate that career mode gives me a suggested route to airports in locations I may not fly into otherwise. In 2020, I spent way too much time putt-putting VFR around my home airport. In 2024 I've probably been around 80% of the US and parts of Canada, Europe, Japan and Korea.

At any rate, I hope the sim runs well on your system assuming you get the Game Pass trial up and running. If you want to purchase you'll just need to uninstall and reinstall from Steam if the MS Store doesn't have similar discounts to Steam.

On 4/21/2026 at 2:49 PM, gunther said:

And for the record, 2024 performs way worse on my system (i7-9700K, RX6700XT, 64GB RAM, 4K) while 2020 runs just fine at a fixed 30fps at similar settings.

Also, for the record, 2020 performs well on my system (i5-11600K, 3080ti, 64GB RAM, 4K) while 2024 runs just fine at a fixed 30fps at similar settings.

Which illustrates really that the best thing to do is try MSFS 2024 for yourself
For every "It's dreadful" there are several "It's wonderfuls" and you and anyone else wringing their hands are left with with no clear answer, because there isn't one.

Edited April 22Apr 22 by Reader

Thank you all for your insights and answers - very helpful for fence sitters like me. I was able to get the game pass and install 2024 last night, still working on graphic settings and rebinding controls, haven't even tried to set up P2ATC yet, but so far, its running. Tried a quick free flight and some landing challenges to quickly see a few different regions and feel out the differences between the versions. More to try, more settings to adjust. The Plane Variety and Planes themselves are definitely an improvement to 2020.

12 hours ago, Funky D said:

Yes, you go back to the world map after each mission. There is no in-game mission window. Typically, there is no flight out of your landing location and you have a pay a small fee to relocate your aircraft to the nearest airport with a suitable mission.

The Good News here I suppose is that Neofly still works with Free Flight and 2024. I can see myself trying the career mode but going back to Neofly if there are too many frustrations with the little things like not generating a mission from the airport you just landed at - you'd think that would be easy to code in. Especially since the EFB tablet is right there.

7 hours ago, Kristofski said:

Thank you all for your insights and answers - very helpful for fence sitters like me. I was able to get the game pass and install 2024 last night, still working on graphic settings and rebinding controls, haven't even tried to set up P2ATC yet, but so far, its running. Tried a quick free flight and some landing challenges to quickly see a few different regions and feel out the differences between the versions. More to try, more settings to adjust. The Plane Variety and Planes themselves are definitely an improvement to 2020.

The Good News here I suppose is that Neofly still works with Free Flight and 2024. I can see myself trying the career mode but going back to Neofly if there are too many frustrations with the little things like not generating a mission from the airport you just landed at - you'd think that would be easy to code in. Especially since the EFB tablet is right there.

This is a great result mate.  You'll really like 2024.  Tinker a bit, spend some time to get your settings right and enjoy.

Jase