this completely defeats the purpose of FLIGHT simulator
2 Likes
We allow folks to climb in and fly aircraft with any experience, why not the same for ATC?
I like the idea, but I will temper that with VATSIM and Pilot2ATC are correct in raising the bar and mandating some accountability.
1 Like
I think user flair would help clear this up. Wish that were an option.
A very large majority of this forum is pc users and responses will be pc centric by default unless the question clearly states “for Xbox”.
That’s a very fair point (and likely we’d get a bit off-topic debating it in depth here, so I’ll be brief).
With the huge numbers of Xbox players hitting MSFS shortly, I think the balance of posters will change, but in the meantime (and ahead of any ‘flair’ updates) I’ll treat discussions as PC-aimed unless otherwise highlighted.
I’ll quietly reverse myself out of this thread. Thanks. 
I think you miss my point, in FSX there were variable multiplayer sessions that you could join not just the one multiplayer sessions if you didn’t know
So in theory I could set up an ATC fly in to say LEPA and invite people to join if they didn’t take it seriously you had the ability to kick them out of your own session as admin
That’s my point, not a general free for all
That was in game spywhich was a partner to Microsoft back in the day
I believe FS open carried it on where you would use a microphone and teamspeak as in game spy , that’s what I am referring to
So in essence a private session for serious simmers, like vatsim but not as complicated for pilots who would learn the basics of communicating with ATC, I did a lot of controlling and was pretty good at it , other controllers were at other airports too so it was if you like a basic version of vatsim but not as detailed but still serious enough to enjoy and learn
2 Likes
See my point , it doesn’t if you have lots of different multiplayer sessions
1 Like
Lol hey we’re all friends having a discussion. Sorry if I came off the wrong way. XB players bringing more attention to MSFS will only make it a better product. I’d be 100% for Vatsim finding a way for XB players to join, especially if they wanted to be ATC. Growing the Vatsim network can only make it better. At any point in time in the afternoon (US-Eastern) there may be 60 or so controllers and <1000 flights leaving some airports without traffic for over an hour.
1 Like
Wow. That took way too long to figure out how to reply. Anyway. To the effect of Vatsim. It is in fact a great option for someone who wants to do ultra serious sim sessions but to be honest is pretty hands off with regards to training.
A corollary to the tower controller option in fsx was that you could generally fly in a room that you choose and had a level of professionalism that matched what you were looking for. Often I would fly with Eastern Hops which was professionally set up but would let less experienced controllers learn, albeit somewhat clunkily, under the supervision of more experienced controllers. Sometimes it was chaotic, but more often it was a fun and encouraging environment where you didn’t have to worry about being booted from the server if you said “cleared to cross runway 27” (see vatsim).
Unfortunately in msfs it seems to be one open world and not individual rooms that can be locked off like fsx so I do understand now the difficultly of opening up a tower option to the general community. Having an open tower option that anyone can choose and then having vatsim also trying to control their own airports would generate chaos as everyone chooses to try to control the New York bravo, none of whom are talking to each other.
So, unfortunately. I guess I reneg on my position. With the massive conglomerate flight world rather than individual channels I guess you can’t have people signing on as tower controllers freely and then bombing an organized structure like vatsim. Unfortunately so go the days of fsx of congenially helping a newbie tower controller to learn the lingo and structure of issuing instructions. With that I also assume goes the days of AirForceProud making videos of the hilarious chaos of his tower control videos. It would seem that we’ve opted to take the game out of flight simulator and made it a full on flight sim. Whether or not that’s for better or worse is a different debate altogether.
It’s true in situations where you have no regulation to the atc seats there has been some pretty horrendous chaos to ensue for pilots and the atc alike. But in most situations I’ve encountered you have to pass at least a practical prior to being allowed to sign in as atc in pretty much any discord server. Has this been your experience?
I think the fundamental difference is are we playing a game or are we playing a flight sim or is there a gray area? If you wanna try out the atc seat should you have to dedicate a couple months to study and memorization like in vatsim or should it be as easy as eastern hops made it in fsx where you do a practical after reading a sheet of paper of the rules and so long as you’re not an absolute disaster then you can crack on. One would argue that this increases the availability of atc controllers to provide a more realistic sim experience rather than just relying on the more sparse availability of those who went through rigorous training. Where would you draw the line?
This is a great idea overall.
As a pilot, I think would only help to act as an ATC, get a view from the other side.
Want to be the tower controller at your home airport…? Set up a private room, add a number of aircraft and have fun. Or expand to the next level approach or departure (multiple controllers working together?) I am curious how the existing game/sim could handle it.
It’s a flight simulator. Why would I drive a boat in a game Meant for flying planes?
I don’t care how many multiplayer sessions there are. Go play boat simulator if you want to drive boats.
Really, can someone explain this to me? Why are we trying to drive boats in a flying game?
It’s honestly not a bad question. As I said earlier I had actually used fsx to help improve my real life coms. Do you not at all see how much better your understanding of coms would be if you have experience on both sides of it. The interactions per hour when I played as ATC in fsx were 10fold that of what I received when flying one route every two hours. I would argue that I actually derived more benefit with my coms practice on the ATC aspect of things than I did with simply flying. My instructors during my vfr certificate also said my coms we’re above average for my training.
Also, a video game, even a detailed flight sim, is meant to be played in whatever way you enjoy it most. Some people are sport fisherman. Some people fish just to sit in the sun, sip a beer, and get away from their wives. There is no “correct” way to play any video game.
1 Like
I didn’t write that post about boats
You know what , when flying the majority of the time I only occasionally used multiplayer it wasn’t a button to toggle like MSFS it was in a separate area where you had various sessions
I believe it’s a good idea but it would have to be tweaked. I’m sure they can come up with a level system where you could have ranks in layers or tiers maybe. Starting off at like a small airport then working up to some of the busiest like lax or atl. There would definitely have to be a lot of work put in to achieve the closest experience to realism. The current ATC is laughable at all stages of flight and it should definitely be considered now with the extension to Xbox and it’s lack of vatsim capability
1 Like
Thank youfor the explanation but it was aimed at me and I never wrote that post , but once again thanks for clearing that up
Now that is a good idea 
1 Like
Are you saying you don’t like to be told to fly FL190 in your cessna 152?
But despite what the previous poster lacked in eloquence, he didn’t bring up a bad point. It is a flight simulator, and obviously the devs have a lot on their plate. A leveled ATC qualifier built into the game would be a cool idea but who would be responsible for the quality assessments? I doubt MSFS wants to take on that job.
With FSX and the individual channels it was easy because each discord server could monitor its own channel and allow permissions through the discord server and not through the actual game. The server admins were responsible for administering permissions to work as ATC. Now they weren’t all spectacular but there were plenty of controllers and it was an eighth the hassle that getting qualified through VATSIM is.
Right now I don’t think the simulator is set up to have an tower option through the game itself because it would conflict with VATSIM in the single open world. If they did introduce channels then it would cripple their deal with VATSIM as people went to the discord servers as they’re so much more accessible. I doubt they’ll be willing to make such a drastic change to the open world and reneg on their deal with VATSIM all in one swoop.
Infinite flight does it pretty well with a large subscriber base on a mobile phone. You can report atc people and it gets reviewed like I said I think it would take a lot of work. They have three tiers casual atc intermediate and expert if I remember correctly and anyone that meets certain requirements they can choose to fly in whichever. I’m sure they are going to have to do something to incorporate Xbox highly doubt they’d just leave them without options
I’d like something like this. Kinda like the old days of AirforceProud95 and the antics he use to be up to in FSX. I have little to no desire to deal with strict ATC like Vatsim, but wouldn’t mind an option to just kick back and have some fun on chat.
Is this him?
