1.6.11.0 regression: AI airline traffic communicates much less frequently with Tower/Ground/etc

Sim Update 4 Beta | MSFS 2024 ATC, Traffic & NAVAIDs
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ISSUE DESCRIPTION

Description of the issue:

Prior to 1.6.11.0 you could hear (and see on the ATC panel) AI traffic communicating with the Tower, Ground or Clearance controller. This is no longer the case on version 1.6.11.0. Not only is there no audible comms but no entry on the ATC panel either. Note I have ULTRA AI traffic so plenty to be seen - just not heard. see update in post below: actually you do hear a very occasional interaction but it’s so infrequent now (even at a busy airport with plenty of taxiing, landing traffic I had one audible interaction in the 30mins I tested) that it should be considered a regression compared to previous versions. You hear multiple interactions per minute previously.

FREQUENCY OF ISSUE

How often does this occur for you (Example: Just once, every time on sim load, intermittently)?

Always.

REPRODUCTION STEPS

Please list clear steps you took in order to help our test team reproduce the same issue:

  1. Start flight at any busy airport with AI traffic (just to increase chance of seeing AI traffic)

  2. Tune radio to ground or clearance or tower

  3. observe traffic moving and landing but virtually zero communications are heard since 1.6.11.0

YOUR SETTINGS

If the issue still occurs with no mods and add-ons, please continue to report your issue. If not, please move this post to the User Support Hub.

What peripherals are you using:

[PC Only] Are you using Developer Mode or have you made any changes to it?

No

[PC Only] What GPU (Graphics Card) do you use?

RTX5090

[PC Only] What other relevant PC specs can you share?

9800X3d/64Gb/500mbps

MEDIA

Please add a screenshot or video of the issue occurring.

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Update: So after sitting at Heathrow EGLL for 20 minutes watching plenty of traffic but hearing nothing I submitted the bug report. Then almost immediately after I did this I heard an interaction! However that was a one off and I heard nothing again for 10 minutes; so I restarted the sim and loaded the same scenario and once again as I’m typing this update 15 minutes later and no comms heard.

By the way, prior to 1.6.11.0 I would sit and watch and listen to traffic for a long time as I found it entertaining so I know for certain this is a regression in that version.

My guess is the conditions for AI traffic to communicate have been changed and are so low that almost no interaction takes place.

Edit - I’ve changed thread title to reflect new findings.

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Over the past few days my sim-time has been mostly spent sitting at various airports in different countries with the COM radio alternating between clearance, ground and tower. In hours of observation I saw plenty of AI traffic activity: taxiing, takeoff and landing but I’d estimate that only 20% of that traffic was heard communicating on the radio (and ATC panel). So to clarify my bug report I would say that there has definitely been a regression in 1.6.11.0 regarding how frequent these exchanges used to take place.

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Again this is a problem of immersion. At one time it was nice - especially on a long journey, hearing different voices just made the whole flight feel more comfortable. On my last flight, I heard a few comments but not enough to compensate for the long periods of silence.

This has always been a problem in one way or another. Once upon a time (in FS2020), too many comms made it impossible to get a word in edgewise. Now it has gone too far in the other direction.

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I see this topic has 12 votes and yet remains without a ‘feedback-logged’ tag. How will the devs ever become aware of this bug if not reported from this forum?

I’ve added to this thread as I think I’m hearing less and less ATC interactions as the beta 4 releases are made.