Can anyone give me a single reason why I should keep this hobby?

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21

As you can see you’re not alone in this feeling. We love flight simming but hate the version of 2024 that was marketed and sold to us (two obviously different things.)

After getting a refund on Nov 21st, I took a long break/hiatus from flight simming and the forums from Nov 24 - May 11 this year. I’ve been focusing my time and attention elsewhere.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again here.

I’ve enrolled in Helicopter training and taken my first lesson last week, two more lessons coming this week. I’ve spent the last 6months studying Helicopter Online Ground School. I could have purchased a real nice PC setup by now but I’ll just go fly for real. I want a new career and to do something meaningful (CFI, utility pilot, Helitack fire ops, and eventually HEMS with enough hours.) While I don’t sim anymore I’m still thankful that MSFS lit spark and a fire inside to inspire and motivate me to change my life forever.

22

I identify with your pain. I appreciate that building a PC, or buying one, just for this hobby, is expensive but if you can find the money then this is the only way to play it. I gave up in FS2020 with my Xbox Series X , they never got it to work properly. They never will with FS2024 because the sim is too demanding of the hardware. A modest budget PC will be way better than a console. However if you want to run 4k then you will need a midrange PC.

23

Buying a console I feel is quite a mistake. I made that mistake of buying a PS5 in mid 2023. This is the bigger problem than MSFS.
The PS5 only plays games that Sony offers for it (and you can’t even play PS games before PS4 on it).
It supports keyboard and mouse which is half the story - the other half being that if a game does not bother to support them then its not supported.
And lastly welcome to subscriptions monthly even for just playing online the games you have actually bought.
I guess the Xbox environment will be something similar. Consoles are to me the dumbest box to exist in modern tech and is a bit anti-consumer as well - you can’t play all games you like on a ‘dedicated gaming console’ because the game got released on a different platform and prices of games can be increased at will.

However I did not drag on it, built a modest PC in Feb-2024 with a Ryzen 7600, RTX 3060 and 32 GB DDR5 RAM.
This basic setup runs MSFS 24 quite well at upto 1440p.

So you can course correct and get rid of the xbox, buy a PC and move on.

24

This post should inspire everyone to be patient and wait for improvements, or learn, or get a PC upgrade. Moreover, the community sentiment you expressed is a very good reason for all to remain in MSFS - either one.
There is so much value in this hobby, sadly this world is full of instant gratification issues.
Nowadays, every thing is available instantly online.
I recall the days, as many of you might, when you would get home to check the old analog/mechanical dial phones to see who the last caller was and ring them back. Or not as the case may be. None of us felt that unusual because that was the norm. You would just accept someone would get to it eventually.

Maybe there is something in that - learn to be patient, enjoy the slow journey, have fun in the parts of MSFS that you can while you wait!

25

Why are you so obsessed with FS2024? Why not just use FS2020 for the time being, which will run nicely on the Xbox X? That may well restore the joy.

26

Hi Im Joe and I try see some positives in current state of msfs. Hi Joe! :person_frowning::person_tipping_hand::person_raising_hand::person_frowning::person_raising_hand::person_shrugging:

27

dont have a xbox so cannot comment on this
suggest to swtich to a PC with decent flight yoke throttle and pedals.
in my case VR Quest3.
mine is a 7900x3d CPU and 3090 Nvidia the experience is quite nice i have to say
i will not defend Asobo or MS but if you fly payware addons like blacksquare Duke or TBM850, the DA42 COWS WBSIM c152, some FSReborn aircraft or FlightFX P180, A380 or 350, PMDG 777 for example. or even the longitude you can get a nice and enjoying time in msfs2024. avoid carrer.
dont take it too seriously, eg the LOD issues. if its not that sharp in distance so be it.
leave the windows as stock as you can, no fancy addons/plugins, no SU betas, hand select the community folder, as few addons as possible, only those confirmed working. ATC eg FSHud or Beyond ATC.
for me it works quite fine atm. dont fly so many airliners atm, GA is stutter free.
had serious stutters with the A350 or 787 but dont remember if it was in SU1 or SU2.
if worse comes to worse take the hotstart challenger 650 for a trip (over in xplane), looking out of the window wont happen that much.
blue skies !

28

I’m a PC flight simmer that’s been doing this hobby since the mid 90’s. I understand your frustration. When FS24 was announced, I was resistant to it because I enjoy FS2020 so much. I couldn’t resolve the paradox of things being different enough to warrant a new sim, and yet 99.9% of 2020 content was supposed to transfer over seamlessly.

The promises in gains, features, and compatibility were impressive, and by release date I was at least paying attention, though still with reservation. Due to “global market concerns”, I bought a new computer so that I’d be in a good position either to run FS2020 very well or be decently set when/if I switched over to FS24. You know the rest of the story - the disaster of release fracturing the community, destroying our faith and good will, and the slow recovery efforts.

I’m not sure where you got the impression that XBox would be more stable than PC, considering the checkered track record for FS2020 on console. Frankly, I don’t get why anyone would play this on XBox unless due to financial constraints - that which I fully understand. My point for saying this is not to attack console players. I’ve played console games going back to the late 80’s, and I have an XBox One that I enjoy. I just wouldn’t expect a full on flight simulator to work well on console. I would expect there to be issues and reduced quality, just like when I play Cities: Skylines or Forza on my XBox I see limitations in graphics and simulation that I would expect to be better on PC.

I haven’t bought FS24 not because I’m not interested, but because I remain frustrated and disappointed with its launch and where it is today. I fly FS2020 and still love it. I understand that it is a harder pill to swallow if you’ve already bought '24, but I would recommend giving '2020 another shot. If you are able to get a PC, it’s definitely worth trying '2020 again, and X-Plane becomes a valid option as well. I would caution to study up on DCS before trying it, since you are new to the hobby. DCS is very detail-oriented and could easily be overwhelming if you’re not looking for that level of fidelity.

29

The actual vague figure given by Asobo was “the vast majority of marketplace content”. See my post in another thread where I highlighted that this was a fairly meaningless statement that could result in a lot of things not working, and was accused of fearmongering. :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

30

My take on this was a funny graph that I saw and posted in a memes thread on here - the higher spec the PC, the less time you’ll end up actually playing games on it. The Xbox has its benefits of being just a case of switch it on a go compared to a PC that needs lots of tweaking and maintenance to keep it running at its best (community folder etc). My time on the sim is limited so I’d prefer to spend my time flying rather than tweaking settings

But financial is definitely a thing. I just can’t justify forking out £2500+ on a PC that will run the sim perfectly. It works fine on the Xbox and is reliable (or at least 2020 is) so that will do for now

31

3 reasons:

  • You love the experience when it works
  • MSFS is likely to improve further (even if it takes longer than expected) on Xbox and PC
  • Simulation is not going away (X-Plane, DCS, etc…)

At the same time, it is wise to set MSFS aside when it is more frustrating than fun.

I also came to MSFS via Xbox, in 2022, and it was a very bumpy ride. In fact when I joined SU 8 had just been released, and it was virtually unplayable on Xbox due to CTDs and memory issues. I had assumed: Microsoft hardware and software, best chance of things working… there was a LOT to learn about how MSFS is more of an experiment, in spite of it being marketed as a polished product. I have some choice words for the marketing department if our paths ever crossed (which they won’t).

I did join the Beta testing (because, frankly, it was the only way to justify all the time I was spending trying to troubleshoot), and to their credit, Microsoft and Asobo did discover and fix a lot of the memory issues. For a while last year MSFS 2020 was enjoyable for me on Xbox X. At the same time, there were months at a time when I had to turn it off and walk away for my own sanity.

I sold my Xbox a few weeks after 2024 was released, for 2 reasons:

  • It was painfully obvious 2024 was not ready, and given the updated system requirements, which Xbox barely meets, I knew it was going to be a long time before 2024 was optimized enough for any kind of reliability on Xbox - and that’s the key word.
  • Having tasted the potential of flight simulation, I wanted a better experience: triple screens, options for alternative ATC, non-marketplace content, and even X-Plane, DCS, etc. A PC makes those accessible.

Of course, a PC for flight sim requires pretty capable hardware, money, trial and error, time and patience. So I started a piggy bank fund, and a plan, made a list, and after quiet a while, I’m halfway there (waiting for sanity in the GPU market). Mostly, though, it was making the decision that it was worth the investment for me as a longer term project.

I’m as disappointed by the 2024 launch as everyone else, but I do think (hope at least) that Jorg, Seb, and Phil Spencer (cough) have learned some lessons. I do believe they have the resources and commitment to make MSFS a proper, stable, and more reliable platform for users, and developers - IF they learned from mistakes.

And if they didn’t… I’ve seen enough about X-Plane and DCS, that for me, for a while at least, even if MSFS never delivered anything again, it’s worth it for me to try a PC… But I do believe MSFS will get better, with time. At the same time, I still see the desperate need for an internal QA team with the authority to ensure a more reliable and consistent user experience.

32

Honestly I’ve spent a ton and went from XBSX to PC more than a year ago, blah blah pc is great blah blah.

I would go back to KISS on XBOX. Just snipe the few quality add-ons you know are great, only download areas that you’ll fly, streamline and enjoy. I have a mamoth 2020 on my PC(a ton of freeware for most of it) and half of it is an areas I haven’t seen or checked since the day I got it, looked at it, forgot about it. Just keep it simple and personalized and free of bloat. Should be a decent upgrade in 16 for XB. For 2024, I upgraded a bit to run it well, pre-ordered the PD version, and personally don’t feel like I’m even going to spend any real time in it until 2026 other than bee bopping around to see what’s what from time to time. 2020’s just in a happy mid-life state right now.

I can’t even stand the voices on 2024 missions, and I don’t see that changing. i think free NeoFly(of course on PC only blah blah blah) is better. Just hold the line and get some solid hours in on 2020 until they sort 24 and shiny new generation of PC’s settles down a bit too. 2024 is in such a mess right now you’d never know it was ‘modernized’. Until they put assets back on the HD again there’s not much benefit of all the optimizations they made, I think they’ve regressed some itof back having to stream it all.

Sims do have a tendency to get us on a constant path of purchasing things. In reality if you just laid out $980,000 for your new SR22, you’d probably just be flying an SR22 for a while…

33

I think the most frustrating thing in all this, and the reason for people to be angry with fs24 is that there is immense potential for a truly fantastic simulator, but it’s the mismanagement in getting there by the developers that’s the problem.

The dreadful launch should have been a sign of things to come and it seems it was. Unfortunately I feel the production is half baked at the moment and simply scandalous at other times…I mean come on, the regressions between builds, the slow beta process, the apparent lack of proper in house testing and the shear lack of communication from the developers is astounding.

But it’s the obvious potential that keeps us coming back for more, even though we are not happy with sim right now,

And then there’s also the hope that things will get there eventually.

I get seriously disheartened on many occasions with fs24, and I may be a glutton for punishment, but I have commited myself to keep using it as my sole simulator due to the potential (yeah, that word again) that I can see and that I also believe will be realised due to the commitment and enthusiasm of the development team. We know that they can do it, albeit slowly, because of how msfs2020 has matured.

Let’s not forget that this is cutting edge technology for simming in many ways and the way I see it is that Asobo are experimenting a little along the way to get the absolute best they can get out of fs24 and the franchise as a whole.

We might not all agree on the way it’s been handled until now but there is always room for improvement and I’m sure they’ll get to where we all want to be with this hobby in due course. It has been proven with msfs 2020 that they can bring the simulator to maturity. I just think that the WAY they are doing it is off.

So then it’s just down to two choices really…give up the sim and in some cases the entire hobby for something else, or be patient and stick with it.

34

Is this hobby fun for you?

Do you feel better with it in your life?

If the answer for either of these is “no”, you have no reason to keep doing it. Plain and simple.

If you want a reason to “stay” or not, the only correct answer is to enjoy yourself.

If you asked a rethorical question merely to draw attention to another general rant on 2024’s issues, then I’d be a lot less sympathetic

35

I have been simming for many years and have my PPL and went through this with FS 2020 in the early months. I got so frustrated I deleted 2020 and went to DCS and didn’t come back to 2020 until about a year before 2024 came out. If the bad outweighs the good then find something else to do. It’s a game after all and it’s just not worth the constant frustration. Life is too short. Perhaps pick it back up in a year or two. I have been pretty lucky with 2024 so far but if it starts to cause me so many issues so that it is rarely fun, then I will ditch it.

36

I don’t understand. How does one delete MSFS 2020 and go to DCS? They’re just way too different. While I no longer really use MSFS 2020 I do use MSFS 2024 and DCS heavily. MSFS 2024 doesn’t replace DCS and vice versa.

37

Well we’re talking about someone within the limits of Xbox. For XB I would just keep it 2020 and mitigate any excess.

38

It’s true that MSFS and DCS cater to different segments of the flight sim community, but there is overlap. You can be a huge military aircraft fan (like me) and enjoy non-combat flying, training, and procedures all around the world in MSFS. And you can drill down into further detail with DCS. And while it sacrifices the global map, you obviously unlock the whole other realm of combat operations. This may not appeal to you if you only fly airliners, but as for me, yes I totally get it.

39

It did replace it for some time. It just depends on what you like to fly and do while flying. I was okay trading civilian for military and blowing some stuff up. :grin:

40

I think that says it all,

If the sim is having a Significant ADVERSE impact on your mental health, then that is the ONE IMPORTANT reason to give it a break, at least until such time you can resolve that issue.

There are are more important things in life that MSFS, and 2024 will be here today, gone tomorrow, and everyone will move on… hopefully without risk of damage to their mental health.