fsxmissionguy

My point is that Asobo/Microsoft could have things like Tower views built into the main game ... however they deliberately left this out of the game, hoping a 3rd party dev would come along to fix that and charge people and sell the add-on through the Marketplace (which Microsoft gets an INSANE %age of the sale from). The sim lacks basic features that DID exist in the prior version (FSX). Such as functional ATC and AI aircraft and decent voices and user-built missions. A lot of the sim has been deliberately gutted in the hopes Microsoft can glom on to the sales of third-party fixes to its simulator. It's a horrible business model for the end user and as a result, I don't really fly the simulator any more and certainly don't develop for it any longer.

This is one of the most frustrating things about Asobo and Microsoft: Camera views such as tower views should be base in the game. Nobody should have to spend $30 to get this. Or AI traffic that works. Or decent ATC. The biggest problem with Flight Simulator today (aside from the landscape and world photogrammetry that is just plain UGLY) is Asobo/Microsoft deliberately crippling the base game in order to extract fees using inflated prices for third-party add-ons.

I've only flown the first couple of missions of this expansion pack, but they appear to be very well done. Kudos to Asobo. I hope this means that we'll soon have a mission system available for 3rd party developers to create this sort of content for the community. There is a LOT of pent-up demand that could accelerate use of the sim if there are exciting missions (real missions, not just fetch missions). Where's my Object Placement Tool!!!!???

I remember posting here in October, after the Alpha test Microsoft did, that this sim was not ready for release and shouldn't be released. And then for 3 solid days, I was excoriated - to the point where I stopped even coming to AVSIM for about 3 months. I was a Microsoft developer on FSX: Acceleration. I love the sim and have been proud to have my content featured in it. But boy did I learn a big lesson about sounding warnings on AVSIM. Never again.

The new problem I'm having is in career mode, when moving an aircraft or helicopter to a new destination to fly missions (which apparently is required) the helo appears to be just bouncing around until it crashes. This has the following effects: Fails the mission. Destroys the aircraft I purchased for the company. Ruins my pilot reputation scores. And then crashes the sim. Not. Ready.

I'm 3 days in and parts of the game seem to function OK, but I haven't tested large parts of it to see how WELL it works. I see what everybody else is seeing with respect to floating scenery, missing textures (pink buildings). However, almost all of the groundbreaking stuff does not work and there's simply no way it was beta tested. Career mode is broken in many ways. Too many to discuss here. Suffice it to say you will hate it right now. If you are considering purchase and have 2020 and can wait, then do so. This game was not ready for release and it shouldn't have been released. It's clear that a deadline was simply missed and Microsoft just had to have a title for Christmas. Bad move. That move cost Sony $200 million on their game that just tanked that way. That they showed the "influencers" only parts of the package was a huge tip-off. Asobo is being made to look very bad here.

Wait till your Career gets nerfed after 30 hours of flight, at level 19, with 26,000 credits saved up. Something is wrong with the Career Mode server??? I'm now seeing error messages in the game about their servers. Gonna go check on Kip On The Ground ... he may be suicidal. He's about 10 levels ahead of me and has been grinding for 3 of his company paid days off.

Microsoft.

Yes, do go and re-read that post, where I warned people that this game was not ready for release. It's not and wasn't 2 months ago. And still isn't.

I will say that Photogrammetry sucks and makes the sim look HORRID the closer you get to the ground (which is all we will do in certain flight modes like Firefighting, Search & Rescue, etc. Helicopter operations. It was fine in 2020 because you didn't get too close to the ground. But below 200 feet, this sim looks HORRID.

Installed. Two days. Works for the most part (in other words, I've had several CTDs inexplicably - mostly loading missions.) I've hit as much of the sim as I can Free Flight, Missions, Career, Challenges, Certifications, License tests (3, including Rotor), Free Flight. Have not done any in the Photography area. Haven't done MUCH at large airports yet or with lots of high settings, air traffic, etc. I bought the $99 version. Wishing I had bought the $69 version. Not seeing the additional value but there are a few more helicopter options (and that's my specialty). I suspect the free add-ons available at the usual places would be just as good. Control mapping was horrid and lots of frustration figuring out very poorly explained controls, especially with respect to helicopters. Shame we could not import control settings from 2020. That will frustrate a LOT of users to the point they will quit the game and give it bad reviews. An Asobo weakness is English as a second language. Anything language related is sub-par.

Yeah, those of us who are more "honest" don't get invited to these events and the "influencers" know what greases wheels. Is what it is. Microsoft wants to make money on Flight Simulator and "influencers" are "pitch men" not "reviewers." They got a free trip to the Grand Canyon, hotel, food, etc. out of it. Microsoft expects a return on that investment. You just have to keep that in mind when you're listening to people being paid in a way to promote a product.

There are lots of issues, but overall, it's going to be a good sim - it just isn't yet. The "missions" are a disappointment. Obviously they're procedurally generated and they all have the exact same feel, distance, canned commentary. It gets old after 1 day (keeping in mind, I'm only up to level 12 or so and have unlocked just a few specialties. But First Flight, Flightseeing ... very boring. There's just no soul to it, no drama. The early missions are a grind to get enough money to get certifications necessary to open up other (presumeably more exciting) missions. The "career" system will be OK for those who like that aspect of it, I suppose. The weekly Challenges should be fun. I found those worked VERY well and supply the drama missing in the rest of the sim. Lots of typos in the text and it's obvious that the developers and beta testers have English as a second language. The canned sound of the characters just do not have the proper "flight cadence." You'll have to just hear it for yourselves. There is a certain cadence that pilots use when they're speaking to ATC and this misses it completely - largely due to the use of AI generated commentary. It's just not good at this point. Certain missions are just not available and won't be regardless of your progress. They are waiting further development of the title. You're just not going to see the quality of missions we got in FSX, with real voice actors etc. It will feel very canned. The SDK isn't ready for mission development, so the kinds of missions we created in FSX: Accelleration! probably aren't going to be available initially (if ever.) I'm sad about that part. Was looking forward to recreating some of the FSX missions I developed and re-releasing them. Anyway, those are first thoughts. I won't be responding to comments or questions, as you might imagine if you know me.

You're right. And you're why.

Put up some numbers for ya'll on the Challenge menu if you ever get FS2024 installed.