Dear Jorg,
Let me preface this by saying that I am not going to go far into issues regarding the servers, or specific bugs within specific packages. I believe that these will of course be solved over time. Nor will I get into matters regarding performance for individuals, as this is always tricky to get right first time.
This letter will revolve more around the design and testing ethos for MSFS 2024, I am sure the community as a whole would appreciate some clear and concise answers regarding the points that I am about to make.
So, letās get into it;
āFor the community ā with the communityā;
A rather odd motto to have, given that 2 weeks later we still have no way of accessing textures to even make liveries with. The 3rd party developers that your product relies on do not have the SDK tools that they need. Why was this not prioritized for release? Even if it meant pausing work on some of the game modes. Prioritizing these things would have absolutely saved the sim from the outset.
One thing which made MSFS 2020 look a bit cheap was that the various AAUs - along with the 40th Anniversary Edition content - added aircraft of wildly varied levels of detail and fidelity, all of which used their own specific systems. The A310 used Inibuildsā EFB design, the 787 used itās built-in one, and the 747 had nothing at all despite having one modeled. It felt sporadic and random, as if these products/updates were shoe-horned in.
2024 should have been a way to start over with this. To make all default aircraft use the same EFB, to be up to the same standards as each other, and use common systems for fuel/weight/planning. But even the partnered developers are missing tools which would allow their aircraft to blend in nicely with the rest of the default aircraft. This time from the outset we are dealing with aircraft which look and feel sporadic and random.
Career Mode;
Career mode was marketed extremely heavily at all stages during the run-up to 2024. It was where you put the most effort in pushing to attract players. After the initial preview video, many people could not be blamed for thinking that 2024 would be entirely mission-based. You even had to quickly make an announcement to clear up that fact.
So what went wrong here? The mess that is career mode is massively off-putting to anyone who is not a die-hard flight sim fan. I am pretty sure that any new players attracted to the prospect of a mission-based flight game have already gone, after seeing that the tutorial sections are teaching them the wrong things before struggling through the certifications, and finally getting punished for ānot complyingā with things that are clearly bugged. Or running out of fuel because that is also bugged.
We also see that the final certification for airliners, containing the A400 and Beluga, is locked behind a āComing Soonā tag, despite the Beluga being for sale for 306M Credits. Yet the Heavy Cargo specialty is obtainable despite containing no Compatible Aircraft. Why are they not both locked? Why is one even locked at all?
What even is this design ethos? Again, it looks sporadic and random.
Personally I persisted through the bugs and horrible ādesignā choices, to buy a CJ4 for 7M credits. Only to find out that it is not assigned to any missions. The same can be said for some other aircraft.
As someone with many years of software testing experience, I honestly believe that career mode was not tested at all.
Marketplace;
The Marketplace is coming soon, thatās nice to know. What is not nice is seeing a bright green āBuy More Stuff On The Marketplaceā button on every livery selection, aircraft selection, company aircraft screen, a button in the top right and more.
Whoever decided that this many buttons trying to sell you extra stuff needs to go back to designing phone games. This level of upselling has no place in a flight simulator. It looks cheap and tacky. We know where the marketplace is, we will use it when we want it.
Control binding UI (and the UI in general);
It has been quite standard for decades, for a game which uses a lot of control bindings to offer the user some information on what button they have bound to what control, and a system to replace the old binding or ignore it. We even had this system in 2020. But it seems to have been forgotten for 2024. Instead we get a little number telling us that this button has been bound elsewhere, with no additional information. If you want to find out what that button is bound to, you have to manually search and manually unbind it. Why was this deemed a good design?
There are not many loading screens in 2024, but most of the ones which do exist contain visual errors which - when noticed - are impossible to unsee (The screen with the C172 flying, used when loading Ferry Flight for example). This must mean that whoever took these screenshots were either not paying any attention, or deemed that the visual issues were fine. Either way, it looks cheap and nasty for the screenshots used in your loading screens to contain square trees or melted buildings. It screams āThis is as good as youāre gonna getā.
Personally I am a fan of the new UI, aesthetically at least. Iām not sure why Free Flight (by far the most used mode) gets the smallest segment of the main menu, but given the other weird design choices, I am not surprised.
Bugs;
As I have said, I am someone with many many years of software testing experience, on a very high level. I am perfectly aware of the fact that many bugs will be found as soon as the floodgates are opened to players. However, pre-release testing seems to have been done in a sporadic and random way with no proper methodology behind it. There are an unfathomable amount of immediately obvious issues and bugs which are reproducible every single time, by every single user. Some of these even lock the user out of content.
A few of these getting through would be understandable, but the sheer indescribable amount can only mean one thing, that the deadline for release was never going to be met without them.
The State of Things To Come;
Jorg, you are the head honcho when it comes to this simulator. You seem like a nice, friendly chap. I understand that you probably have many people above and below you who are demanding deadlines and features. But I think now would be the time to stop being so ā ā ā ā ā ā friendly and push back at them, for the sake of the franchise.
I am sure you are well aware that you are in the unfortunate position of having to turn this around, and that time is of the essence. There are a few things that you and your team can do to elevate the pressure;
Allow your Community Team deeper insight into what is going on. The MSFS Community Team needs to be able to create far more transparency with daily written updates as to what is being worked on, and to allow them to give proper answers to questions raised by the community.
Allow us to see the status of bug reports. Currently the community submit them into the void, get a generic response and then have nothing else to do but complain further about them. At least seeing that your bug has been reproduced internally, or is being worked on, would add transparency and ease-of-mind for both sides.
Push the update which allows users to download the streamed content ASAP. This should be a priority at this point (as it should have been implemented from day 1). When users have downloaded their favorite packages, it would ease the load on the streaming servers. It would also open the doors for livery artists to get to work - which would help to keep the user experience fresh whilst the other issues get sorted.
Updates need to come fast. Rapid-fire Hotfixes wherever you can, even if it only solves the smallest of issues. When something is fixed, test and send. You can not rely on pushing bi-weekly or even monthly updates, there will be nobody left to receive them.
I hope that this letter has at least found itās way onto Jorgās screen,
I remain hopeful that it will at least be acknowledged.
Thanks.
