Arctic and Antarctic flying

Hello, MS and Asobo, hope you see this!! Before I start: I am perfectly aware of the issues /missing features that have priority for the next few months and need fixing, so I am aware that none of those requests present in my post have any priority right now whatsoever. Regardless, I have a few thoughts to add, regarding the state of the arctic/antarctic regions.

So basically it would be really nice, if over time you could fix the arctic region and the antarctic continent, as well as adding content there, like missions, landmarks, location specific animals, add missing airstrips and airports like [ICAO] ENSB for example, Oilrigs, shipping lanes and so on.

I (and surely many others!) am a huge fan of flying in those locations, especially places like Franz Josef land and surrounding islands, Jan Mayen island(gorgeous!! Especially the research station and Volcano) the Svalbard archipelago (one of my dream locations, containing Pyramiden town with the famous Hotel and Swimming Hall, Longyearbyen town, Ny Alesund research station and Hamnerabben airport (ENAS), Hiorthhamn abandoned mining town, Grumant, Barentsburg, Sveagruva airstrip (ENSA), all helipads on the archipelago, the Svalbard Seed vault and Satellite station and also the station on Bear Island (located between Norway and Svalbard), Novaja Zemlja, Severnaya Zemlja, Alert airport etc. There are tons of locations that are amazing.

Now, I know there are already towns where there should be in the arctic, but the Bing maps in those regions are mostly low quality, so I feel like Bing and Microsoft could maybe step up and make it possible to enjoy those beautiful and pristine regions of our world with accurate land features, sharp satellite imagery and accurate mesh and not filled with trees, low quality textures and bad mesh, like now. Maybe you could also add Oilrigs in the arctic region and add the proper fauna also, that would add so much to the sim.

Imagine the feeling when flying in the beautiful arctic sky, while observing marine animals and bears, seals, walruses, birds etc on the shores of the islands. That would be a dream, and I know for sure that this is possible to achieve with the tech in Msfs2020.

As for Antarctica, it would be nice visiting stations like Amundsen-Scott, McMurdo, Neumayer, Vostok etc) but also the Bransfield Strait and King George island. A nice and accurate Kerguelen islands would be awesome, too, including the stations and landmarks.

I know this is A LOT to ask but no other sim has done it properly, ever. There were add-ons, but it wasn’t a satisfactory experience in previous sims. I believe with the tech you got in Msfs2020 you can create an absolutely astonishing representation of those beautiful regions, that will pull more people towards the poles (pollution is virtual anyway in our case :grin: )

Now, for the missions I thought you could do stuff like: Transport workers to oilrigs (once choppers are available), Rescue workers, Fly material and food delivery missions to remote stations or haul tourists around for sightseeing, do animal survey flights, fly scientists to specific spots, watch them unload material and set it up or simply pick them up and load their stuff in, scan the environment for Icebears and follow them, deliver material to aid the construction of a station, Drop Cargo packs on Expedition ships and so on. Another nice addition would be historic landmarks, so that you could for example visit the sites where the shipwrecks of the H.M.S Terror and H.M.S Erebus lay, when the Franklin expedition failed or visualize the routes of the great arctic and antarctic explorers, so that we can follow them or even add stuff like the “the snow cruiser” that was abandoned.

The love for a product is in the details, so adding a few of those things would be so great. Of course everybody will just say that those are requests for third parties to realize, but I think that Asobo/ Microsoft can do a lot before that. (Satellite Image quality, Mesh, Missions, flora and fauna, basic airports) and third parties would focus on stuff like landmarks, more complex missions, highly detailed airports with appropriate vehicles, special objects like abandoned tents, crates, snowmobiles etc, glaciers, detailed stations etc.

This is a huge topic and undoubtedly niche, but I think ignoring it and not improve those regions would be a lost opportunity, given the functionality, fidelty and tech present in the sim.

Thanks for reading, and I would love to hear the opinions of some other arctic and antarctic fans. Let’s phantasize a bit (Like flying for Lufttransport A.S in Svalbard and serve the region or fly a C-130 to the south pole) :smile: Cheers!

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