So, approximately a year ago, I made a thread about how the poor MSFS 2024 release almost made me quit sim flying. I had very high expectations, some of them my fault, some of them promoted by all the featured aspects in pre release media. All of this expectations were met by the crude reality we all know.
While I haven’t stopped sim flying, I do it with a lot less passion than before. I don’t browse possible hardware addons like before, I don’t have any significant expectations like before, I don’t eagerly wait for new releases, even my beloved 757. I don’t participate in forums or discord anymore, or if I do -like now-, it’s very scarce. Heck I don’t even look at things like rudder pedals or flight sticks. The yoke is literally a paperweight:
So, I’ve been doing some flights after each SU release, and I wanted to make a short recount of my biggest complains as to what I feel these days, having done some flights in the last few days.
My first significant issue, is that after more than a year after release, most of my preferred airplanes haven’t seen any significant bug fixing. I prefer to fly turboprop airlines, and both, ATR 42/72 and Saab 340B, are broken as in the first day. I fly in real time, which means night. The ATR still has that unknown source interior lighting, and the lights in Saab 340B still don’t work. The exaggerated reflections, even over instruments that aren’t lit by a given light, hasn’t been fixed and affects all airplanes. Just spawn at a parking spot and see how the lights from the vehicles reflect on the edges of a gauge, even if the gauge is dug in the bottom of the cockpit (can record a video of this, of course). The Twin Otter still has issues, some have been fixed, but they’re still there.
ATC, my biggest second issue, still has significant drawbacks. If I’m given FL100, then ask for FL70 while being at FL50, ATC asks me to “climb FL100 and expect FL70”. Reaching FL70 and staying there just triggers and indefinitely amount of “expedite your climb to FL100” requests. Yes, the loop about reissuing the flight plan has been fixed, and the ridiculous requests about climbing while on final have apparently been fixed. But after a year, I did expect something better, more even considering that it was said several times that the ATC was going to be fixed and an improvement over FS2020 issues. Even the issue of the ATC windows not scrolling correctly is still there (though less than before)
Third issue, is that liveries are scarce and far between. This isn’t directly MSobo fault, since they don’t create liveries, but apparently, for creators it isn’t that easy to migrate liveries from 2020 to 2024 (I’m no expert or creator, I’m just saying what I’ve seen commented). I’m flying these days without any of my preferred liveries since creators simply don’t want, don’t have time, or don’t find anything that motivates them to develop or port liveries for MSFS 2024.
Fourth issue, is that still the sim has those unknown random crashes and small bugs around. The web planner is still missing airports that actually exist and are in missions. The lighting issues mentioned above. The issues when loading airplanes. They’re not as frequent as before, that’s true. But it has been 14 months since release.
Fifth issue, and back to stock airplanes, is the amount of bugs that plagues them. I understand that stock airplanes might not have the same depth as studio airplanes, but “not too much depth” doesn’t mean “bugs”. The Inibuilds 320/321 AP has several times gone crazy. The 737 made the sim crash several times after 20 minutes of setting up a flight.
Sixth issue, game design and features. The highly promoted online schema that “allowed MSobo to fix things” was a promise that quickly vanished, after all, we still have to wait for SUs. The highly promoted missions, are still unavailable outside career mode. Career mode itself still has bugs. Bush flights are still absent. The Red Bull events are even less attractive than Reno races, which at least had the thrill of having the rest of the airplanes in flight. They are as boring as any other weekend activity. It’s almost a prowess to make a Red Bull event just as boring as any other activity. Oh, and flying with friends is still a miracle. Connected to the same server, everything correct, then I see my wingman, he doesn’t see me. Go to main menu, come back, and now no one sees noone. Come back, and we see each other for 15 minutes and then plane disappears but user tag is still there. Nice.
So, what’s the way I found to enjoy MSFS 2024? When flying airliners, by using it as a container for third party apps. Fly the Fenix or any other well regarded third party airplane, use BATC or something else third party for ATC, use custom third party airports, and disregard everything stock. And when flying GA or VFR, just enjoy the improved graphics when you’re close to something interesting (far away, still looks bad, the Andes looks all rounded for example). For the rest, it’s a deceiving experience.
Personally, I don’t think this should be the case. We should not depend and spend on third party apps simply because stock doesn’t work. We shouldn’t spend to “patch” the stock features because they’re broken. A feature should work, not be still bugged after 14 months.
It’s a shame. All I can do is have some hope, but after a year without significant fixes to stock airplanes, without basic issues sorted out, with dev reports saying that thousands of bugs are fixed but somehow overall game experience isn’t significantly better, I do feel taken as a fool.
Let’s see what time brings. I did expect things to get better within a year, sadly this wasn’t the case. Is it better? Of course, release was a tragedy and as I said, there have been improvements over time on certain areas (graphics are no doubt better, night lighting is nicer than at release, ATC does work better, etc.). Is it what was expected after a year? No, not at all, for all the reasons I mentioned above. I do hope things still improve, but I don’t know what to expect anymore, or if having expectations is itself a mistake.
Usual disclaimer, your experience might vary. I know that for many, the sim is fullfilling their expectations, is quite OK, and for what they do, it’s fine. I’m just giving my point of view.
Cheers and good flights!
Seb
