mazex

Those solar panels IRL looks unrealistic and cartoonish. The Steam policy says I cannot request a refund if I have used the product for more than an hour that complicates the matter...

In the segment that buys all the premium packages, tons of modules where MS gets a share, I guess that the VR usage rate is actually pretty high. Do you have any data or is it just a guess like mine? VR for flight simming is the best thing since sliced bread. Especially if you have IRL flying experience. You don't look right ahead in an aircraft as you mainly do in a car (accept in towns).

Yes it really is annoying that Microsoft is investing in the flight simulator business again and rebuilds the codebase after just 4 years, trying to improve the simulation in aspects that cannot be done in patches to MSFS 2020. It would be better if they kept out of our hobby as they did for over a decade and let us few that really appreciate this continue in peace and quiet with X-plane, P3D (based on their old code), some decent Russian mil-sims and open source initiatives based on Falcon 4... EDIT: And it really is frustrating that they have said that they will continue to support FS 2020 for the ones that do not want to change over to FS 2024 yet while they iron out the bugs. It gets super confusing.

Flight unlimited is only sim where I remember managing doing a Lomcevak. No other sim is even close. As I remember it that was in FU2, but long time ago... Need to try it in MSFS 2024 later, don't expect it to even manage a vertical snap roll to start the rotation that you counter with full throttle and torque counter rotation after that...

I have a couple of 100 hours IRL, mostly in gliders. Flown some odd aircraft but never anything with more than one engine... I have aerobatics certification for gliders. To me, just taking a spin around the local club in a 172 feels much better than in 2020. More directional stability in som parts where sims are normally too "flimsy", and less in some where you are departing from the normal flight envelope. The thing that really makes the immersion soo much better is the landings. Just did a landing in heavy crosswind and had the best representation of that in a sim yet. You real pilots know what i am talking about. Most of times on a final you don't think of the fact that the nose is 20% off to the right and you are constantly doing rather big corrections in all directions... After landing a passenger might say: wow that landing was a bit scary, and you had to fight the trubulence really hard... Did I? You did not think about it... And then you just straight it out the last bit with some ground effect kicking in, and it might not be 100% straight and you get some side G. The thing missing is naturally the butt feeling when you pass through some turbulence 😉

Wow - I saw all the negative reviews on Steam and thought I would head over here to see how the adults react. The adults that where here when 2020 was released and in a couple of weeks it was really rather decent. In a few months it was actually rather good. And now it is the sim to beat... I got the initial problems like everyone else. But then took off in the TBM 930 that I know well, and was impressed with all the the small improvements. The throttle lever works, the heading bug mapping to a dial on my Virpil Hotas suddenly works correctly etc. The mandatory flight over my house shows good improvement with much more detail. The airfield where I had my first IRL solo suddenly looks really good with hangars, club houses etc in almost exactly the right place... I took off in an LS8 that I have many hours in IRL and it feels much better, small things like the wool thread behaving correctly and not silly like in 2020, the spoilers lever possible to map and neutralize for the correct action with the throttle... And the landings feel soo much better in all aircraft. So let's realize that this IS the shaky release of the next step in the sim we never thought would come back 6 years ago when we messed with terrains for old modded versions of FSX and Russian combat sims...

Sorry for the necrobump, could not help it after reading the presentation of the new career mode in MSFS 2024, I remembered this old thread I started just after MSFS was launched... I realized that it seems they agreed as this is the main new feature of 2024. They really should have done it for the original MSFS though...

Mmm - having worked with management and software strategies on large companies for many years, starting out as a developer initially, I am actually rather surprised. Many friends work in the gaming industry and all the talk is about creating a "game loop". And really - compared to many other things in MSFS, this should be rather easy, even though I might annoy many by daring to call it a game, instead of a simulator. There is actually almost no game loop at all. Discovery flights? Can already create any A to B in the world myself. Landing competitions? Done that many times IRL myself - never any crowds watching accept the other competitors... Reno was a try, but way too narrow niche... It's really just one big and truly magnificent sand box... That works for the VATSIM community that they for sure have already... I might naturally be wrong, pointing out that the emperor lacks clothing. But it sure looks that way to me...

I am necro-bumping this thread as I am so surprised that we still only have flight training and discovery flights in MSFS accept the best sandbox ever created for flight simulation... And sure - we have Reno air races that I bought to support the developers but have never even tried... Since I posted this first, a great number of things have been added and fixed in MSFS - but it really feels like adding an integrated career mode is a low hanging fruit? Why use external apps for this? As I said in my first post, how popular would Euro Truck Simulator 2 be without the career mode where you start with a crappy truck and select different jobs to earn money and upgrade it and you company? Imagine if you could just select "Go from X to Z" like in MSFS? How many would get hooked accept some real truck nerds? Sure - I have been flying simulators since the 80:ies and have hundreds of hours IRL - but I still use Neofly almost every time I fly in MSFS to add immersion... Why should I go from A to B - and not C? And did I really manage to do a really smooth touchdown on that odd airfield that I never would have visited otherwise as I had a very fragile cargo? I am sure that especially newcomers to simulators would appreciate it even more that are not flying a 737 over the Atlantic in VATSIM... -- And reading through my first post... Yes - I did buy the Twin Otter (that I never would have done without Neofly hooking me). And then a bunch of PMDG ac etc... Now I mostly fly the Citation in Neofly (expensive - so I had to fly a lot of cargo to buy it). The reason I returned to MSFS after a rather long break is that I saw the G5000 and Citation has been updated without mods. So will do some mission in Neofly with it. Left it at some odd airport in Germany so plan to look for missions from there to the UK, or maybe France? Let's see what missions are available. Meanwhile I can let a hired pilot continue hauling stuff in my old Baron to earn money... And I hopped down in my C208 to Africa for some real bush flying and left it in northern Nigeria if I remember it correctly? Maybe I should see what missions are available down there? But wait - first I need to update my Navigraph charts that I never would have subscribed to without Neofly... And when I say Neofly - I mean version 3.13 and not the new 4.x tech demo that is very odd right now. It's free and can be download here: https://www.neofly.net/download. But it would be soo much better having it integrated in MSFS on the home page as a standard part of the simulation by MS... Do you want to continue your career or fly a random A to B mission anywhere in the world? Mmm - wanted an airport with ILS so no missions to France or UK available from ETNH where I left my Citation Longitude months ago... There seems to be a VIP fight to EHVK though. Volkel AB? Actually heard about that somewhere - seems like a military base, need to readup on that and check the procedures... Would I ever have thought about flying there? No. Does it seem interesting? Yes... So would I ever have dreamt about flying from ETNH to EHVK otherwise? No way - it would have been Landvetter to Heathrow or similar. Done that before.

Do you mean because it is covered well in other external applications - or some other reason? The ones that don't like the gamey idea and fly on vatsim only in tubeliners sure would appreciate if MS + partners increased their sales due to more people getting sucked into the simulator and stays more than 20 hours of flight time?

I sign everything above. This would be the icing that really lifts the immersion. But if they just an IN GAME copy of Neofly it really would add a lot to start with - and it really is not that hard. Generate a number of different "missions" at every airport like Neofly does. Do some coding to verify that the pilot does the missions correctly by triggers etc (not that hard - Neofly does it through simconnect checking your state vs the mission parameters). Then add a market like Neofly where you can buy aircraft at every airport. Put the ones for sale on a row so that you can see them? Some UI work naturally but the work to do an internal Neofly "mission generator" / validator really should be rather easy (old developer so I am not just guessing - this really is something "the new guy" could do with some help from the UI people).

I have been simming since the Spectrum days. I have flown them all but never really got hooked with civilian simulators over the years as there was a lack of meaningful missions and campaigns / careers. Even though I like to learn a complex aircraft, the A to B jumps of my own choosing and not having a long term goal makes it less interesting for me. I guess I am a gamer at heart wrapped in a flight simmer shell. I did laugh at some friend that talked about being hooked playing Euro Truck simulator 2 and bought it on a Steam sale. Driving a truck from Gothenburg to Paris for hours? Seriously? Late that evening my wife opened the door at 2 am asking if I was not coming to bed... "Just a second darling - I have a tricky delivery to make in Berlin, if I get that done without damaging the cargo I can upgrade to a new engine!" Would I have played Euro Truck simulator for more than an hour if it had all the trucks in the world and I could chose any one to drive from any A to any B with rather cheesy graphics? No - but in ETS2 you start with a cheap truck that can just handle limited cargo that almost grinds to a halt going uphill. So by selecting different jobs you get the money for a new gearbox... Or a new engine... Or event that new truck. That is what keeps you doing it... The actual driving on highways is a nice relaxing experience where the digital miles fly by, when getting close to the destination you have to be more focused as the city driving is more demanding with the risk to collide in a roundabout. And then the last step with docking at the bay that is more millimeter precision. And the hours pass and you like many others realized you are hooked playing a darn truck simulator 🙂 But does the pattern of a long relaxing trip doing some navigational decisions with a focused approach to the target ending with millimeter precision remind us of something? Yes... And Euro truck without the career mode would be played by a couple of thousand truck lovers. Now millions are playing it. So I guess a lot of you civilian sim veterans have used Air Hauler, FSEconomy and what not. I have complained about the lack of meaningful missions in civilian simulators but never tried the third party career addons. Shame on me! Really! I downloaded Neofly after reading up on the different MSFS career modules. Many seemed to like it and it's free. So I decided to start with that. Before Neofly I think I had about 20 hours in MSFS. I really love the amazing scenery, trying the different planes, taking off and landing at airports I have experience from IRL etc. One evening here or there - going back to DCS and IL2 BoX the day after. Not any more since I started using Neofly... I started out with a PA28 (edited the database as I did not want to start in a 152 or 172). And I got hooked just like with Euro Truck Simulation at once. Five evenings in a row doing small cargo deliveries and passengers in Sweden and Denmark with my PA28. After a while I got myself an X Cub when I had the money to do the Emergency type missions better, landing near a crashed aircraft in the middle of nowhere. Then I got a loan to buy a Baron G58 to be able to do longer flights. With my last flight from LIHP to ENSP with VIPs that paid 123k I just paid off the loans on my G58 that was expensice at 650k... I have started to ogle the Cessna Caravan 208 but that is 1.3M for some serious bush missions with heavy cargo that pays a lot... So I really need to find some interesting mission that pays well at ENSP, but first I think it's time for an engine overhaul... So - for the ones that have not tried career modules - Neofly really is worth looking at. And for Microsoft - adding this in the core game will not be that hard. And you can hook old simmers like me that never stay with the civilian sims for more than a couple of days. Now I am really looking forward to Aerosoft releasing the Twin Otter. Before Neofly I would have bought the Spitfire that I suddenly realize is not that interesting for me in MSFS. Why a Spitfire? I can not do any real civilian flying in that! And that is what I am doing now. Reading up on the G1000 features that I really did not find that interesting compared to the systems of an F/A - 18. Now I want to know about all the features for my planned cargo mission to Gatwick... See you in the peaceful civilian skies - got to go fly a cargo mission!