I’m concerned that there won’t be sufficient progression in the career modes, such as having very long-term goals that take a significant amount of time to achieve. After unlocking all certificates and specializations, what remains? Naturally, there’s the option of running your own company, but to my knowledge, we don’t have much information about what that involves.
We were discussing how careers could have multiple levels of “difficulty”… the harder you choose, the more real it gets, and the more points you can get…
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Does anyone that tried the career mode in the Alpha have a sense that it would be possible for future updates to add more goals/missions through content expansions or sim updates?
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My excitement is off the charts for (the potential) incorporation of fully live weather into the career modes and both the chaos and learning that’s going to induce. I’ve already been incorporating a weather brief into my streams, so it will be fun to see it come full circle.
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I assume and hope that Asobo will add more goals in the future and let the career system evolve. How much support the system gets will probably depend on how popular it is though.
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The career system is very impressive. I examined several First Flight missions in the alpha version, and each adhered to the proper entry procedures for the traffic pattern. The extensive list of parameters used to score my performance included elements such as timely ATC communications, accurate taxi routes, and appropriate taxi speeds.
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The impression I had from one of the interviews with David Dedeine is that Career mode as initially implemented is a starting point. Depending on feedback there is likely to be modifications and additions to career paths over 2024’s lifespan. I doubt that much will change in the first six months and probably longer.
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Hmmm. I flew 83 missions over the weekend and have to strongly disagree on the arrival pattern. More often than not they were unnecessarily complicated and not anywhere close to what is done in real life. At least not in European small-field VFR.
But I doubt that anywhere in the world you have to do a tight circle every time to enter base when you can just join over the reporting point for base. To give just one example.
But overall I have to agree that the system has quite some potential and I am curios to see longer and more challenging missions in the final release before I give my educated verdict on this new game feature.
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That would be nice if it ends up being easy
In that case, you have a lot more experience with the system!
I don’t have a PPL and I’m definitely not very knowledgeable about VFR, but I’ve seen examples of 45-degree downwind entries, entries into final, and entries to base, all of which seemed quite appropriate to me.
I did not see any suggested routes with a tight circle to enter the base as you described. Instead, it would suggest entry via the reporting point. However, I did experience one straight-in final approach that required me to lose altitude very rapidly to comply with the route.
An improvement suggestion would be to moderately relax the requirements for adhering to suggested routes, as they currently impose considerable constraints on flight paths. Nonetheless, there ought to be repercussions for choosing a route that is completely impractical.
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That sounds like work! 
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VFR in general has a lot of variation from country to country. Suggested VFR pattern entries are different enough that any global standardization in the sim is going to introduce inaccuracy. Then there’s the whole process of ADM that often dictates variation out of necessity and/or safety.
What if I’m flying from one nontowered field to another? Is it still going to make me talk to ATC or will self-announcing on CTAF be enough? I predict the on-rails nature of evaluation in the sim will fun afoul of real-world variation and obviate ADM.
Hah, I actually enjoy it! Doing an aviation weather breakdown is a nice break from the humdrum. It’s dynamic, impactful, and awe-inspiring. It involves physics, geography, meteorology, aviation, economics, pretty much pushes all my nerdy buttons. Then it’s fun to apply it to preflight planning, then see how close (or not) the sim gets it.
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I admire that attention to detail!
Man, I almost wish I was more clueless about flight training than I am. I would love if they actually made a realistic PPL program with actual flight lessons like steep turns, pattern work, navigation, stalls etc., but it seems like it’s very arcady and doesn’t really teach you anything. We will still have to use the internet and Youtube in order to learn how to fly. Or take actual flying lessons.
Maybe someone will create a module for this like the ones we have in DCS but instead of missions where we blow things up it will teach us how to fly VFR?
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I think what we will get by default is going to be mostly skin deep or may be a little bit more.
What we need to consider is that not everyone will be interested in slogging through a proper pilot training course, even a virtual one, before they can jump in to do their favourite mission. Forcing them to do that may put off a lot of new simmers, and old simmers too who may not want to slog through the same things they already know.
You can call it gamification and that’s ok, one of the primary purpose of the sim is to make young generation interested in aviation. And the gamified features can do that very well.
If people get interested enough, then comes the actual flight training. And strictly speaking, providing an in-depth pilot training course is probably not the highest priority for this sim. But if it provides options for third parties to create such in depth content, that should be sufficient.
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Correct, the PPL course is also just a small segment of the whole career thing.
I’m still hoping for someone to develop a third party module aimed at the serious flight simmer that wants to learn proper PPL procedures. I know I would have loved that before going into actual flight training.
I know how amazing and professional the mission modules for DCS can be and I would assume the MSFS 2024 market is a lot bigger so I don’t see why it wouldn’t be possible. All it takes is one programmer and one private pilot who work together.
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Isn’t it what FS Academy proposes ?
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I wasn’t aware of that. I’ll check it out!
I played a few career missions while i could. I enjoyed the premise but i find following the blue boxes kind of a buzz kill. Surely using the new EFB’s and flight planners could be leveraged more to show the intended route.
Maybe a beginner option includes the blue brackets, a medium option would be flight plan only on efb, and maybe expert had live weather and time, and who knows, maybe failures or somthing.
I’m sure they have a plan to flesh the whole thing out a little more.
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