I mean sure, they could program something like that. But I have never ever seen a game title that has implemented something like that. The majority won’t let you connect to their servers if you haven’t patched, and most games anymore you can’t even play unless you connect to the server.
EDIT: It all comes down to the money. Just like with the slow phase-out of SLI and Crossfire, there just isn’t a market big enough of people who want that feature for developers to bother with it. Most, I’m guessing 90% or up of players will want the latest and greatest version of a game.
Microsoft doesn’t even give you a choice of installing OS updates anymore unless you’re an enterprise customer.
Obviously, the issues and implications of “Updates” is a very complex one, and the needs and requirements differ vastly, even for Online games in general, and Fs2020 specifically.
Nice to see so many participating in this Topic, and contributing useful and thoughtful input, in a courteous manner.
That raises an interesting thought.
If there is a Commercial use License for FS2020 ( the Google search I did not find anything specific), I wonder if that would include the Commercial Operator the option of installing Updates ?
ie If a Commercial Sim manufacturer were able to get licensed to use MS2020, would they want Option to update, to avoid Automatic Updates that could bring down all their install base of Simulators,
Theoretically, an enterprise, or multi-user license would probably have some additional customizations to the functionality. However, the reason that you didn’t find anything about it, is the simple fact that the game isn’t currently good enough to be marketed B2B. An enterprise customer would absolutely not tolerate the level of ____ that is the current state of the software. Maybe once they get it fixed.
This game is online only. You were not given a license key for the game - it is tied to an online account (steam or Microsoft). No online, no game. Otherwise, I suspect they would have no way of verifying if you legally owned a license for the title.
I have moderately fast wireline ADSL, and also a 4G router.
The unfixed issue with looping downloads from the Microsoft store means that I can’t use the ADSL. It’s very reliable for everything, but the Microsoft Store chokes on that connection. Don’t know why.
The 4G router is metered, not faster than the ADSL, and has a 130GB limit. I reached the limit very quickly, but in the end it managed the MSFS 1st installation. Then I had to live with no more quota for most of the month.
Then we got the first update. No more quota, so I had to use a hotspot using my phone. 90GB…
Since I bought MSFS my PC has been spending 2 weeks 24x7 mostly trying to download.
I’m ok with the simulator. It’s a game and it’s complex and can have some bugs.
But that MS can’t get the installation right is bad.
I agree, there’s a NEED for an option to choose when to update. And the downloads are way to big.
I do not think that is strictly true.
(a) You can run it without your PC having an Internet connection
(b) You can run it with your PC having an Internet connection, setting the Option in the sim NOT to use Internet.(for ??? )
(c) You can run it with Internet, and get all the features that the Internet connections gives you.
What is not clear to me, if you use Option (b), is if it does the Update check or not.
I get the impression, you can run it without Internet, as long as you do not manually change anything in the files, outside of the game.
I ran it sever time without Internet, and it ,loaded and ran fine, obviously with without updating any scenery, but if you have previously, specifically cached an area, then you have the same scenery there, as you would online.
However, as soon as I changed anything, even if it was in the Community folder structure, it started requesting a disk, untill such time that restored Internet.
More than happy with that … more to the point, the Upsetting thing is loosing Internet .. how can anyone SURVIVE without Internet ?
FishDude1072 I’m not ignoring you – but the BOT has asked me to stop talking directly to you, and I must of course comply, or risk the wrath of the Forum Bot !!
Ohhh Changed my mind, just CLICKED in your Name and read what it had to say.
I will be Ignoring you, with the excellent Forum Ignore feature
I am probably one of the few here that can sympathise, in general, with your point of view. Everybody nowadays seems to know better than us and forces decisions upon us, effectively giving us no choice rather giving us an option for more choices. You have to wonder sometimes whether there are ulterior motives.
That said, ONLINE gaming is probably one of the more understandable reasons for forced updates. It makes sense, at least to me, that everybody is on the same and latest version. It’s unfortunate for some simmers when the latest is not the greatest but I can’t really see that developers have much choice. I think we all need to be on the same version.
Part of the issue is that with an application like this whose core functionality is tied to network servers, any change in data schema or protocol will render the application useless if the client is not updated to correctly reflect the changes present on the server. I hate forced updates. But I understand.
Re: Windows XP and the importance of keeping your operating system up to date. Does anyone remember the Code Red worm?
It affected the Microsoft Webserver IIS and had an estimated cost of $2.6 billion in July and August of 2001. The irony of Code Red was that is attacked a vulnerability in IIS, patches were released that fixed this vulnerability, and yet people still get upset over security fixes.
You’re right of course. But security fixes can frequently cause second and third order effects for production software and other systems. This is one of the main reasons that enterprise customers can defer… But most of those can also take additional measures at an edge device. There is an argument that cuts both ways here. I think that in the realm of online gaming, it generally has to be forced updates.
So we HAVE to update if they say so. So be it. But! How about letting the user download it at their own pace THEN install it, like many other APPS? Wouldn’t that be a reasonable comprimise?
At least then, you can run the software (offline presumably) until you have downloaded and installed the update. Which might also be helpful for those running low on disk space.
Eagle Dynamics DCSWorld is heavily used online, gives you the choice when to update, or not, whether to buy a module or not, and it relies on server settings to determine whether players with a particular version and/or mod can join in, plus a completely offline version if that is what you want - with the proviso that you log in now and again to allow licence checks.
Since we are able to mod this sim as with others, I don’t see how the argument that all users must have the same version is valid, and why updates (in my case at least-on the last one) can be as large as a complete install. Alternatively, I’m a fan of regional scenery. It can reduce the amount you might have to dl by a huge amount, if that is what is making up the bulk of the update. That way, if you only fly in Europe, you can DL that, fly online and no one gets hurt..
