One thing I miss about using MSFS vs. FSX is the community aspect. Although everyone has easy access to see other players in the world, there is no way to communicate in game and no central location for groups to make themselves known/attract new members. The only way to find like-minded people is to search across forums and random discord servers, which most players won’t do.
FSX Steam Edition had a very nice lobby where any user could host a server themselves, along with a title and short description. Any players joining multiplayer could browse the list of servers and find one specializing in their interests - live ATC, GA hops, formation, military, whatever. The server description usually had some rules and info on how to chat with the other players on discord or teamspeak. It was also possible to create private servers for times when you didn’t want random players joining in.
This system worked really well and I made a lot of friends by joining servers and eventually helping to run one. Conversely, I have gotten MANY comments on my formation screenshots from people saying that they wish they had friends to fly with. I would like to push for a similar system to be implemented in MSFS so that we can all have a better community.
Rather than actually hosting a session, which probably isn’t possible given the centralized game servers, my idea is to build on the existing ‘groups’ feature to create ‘super groups’ that act like the community servers in FSX. Here are some specific suggestions I have:
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Allow users to create persistent ‘super groups’ which remain active even if the creator isn’t online
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Create a lobby-type page within the game interface so that players can browse through them and join. Super groups should have titles, descriptions, and possibly categories which players can use to filter the list
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Super groups should have the option to be passworded or otherwise restricted in case they want to host private events
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Grant these super groups very high (50+) or unlimited player limits
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Once a player joins a super group, they see only the players in that group. This is critical for events like airshows where you don’t want to see random people flying in the same area
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Allow the super group to set the time and weather for all members
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Create an assignable admin role within the group that can remove players, change settings, etc.
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Possibly create a text chat system within the group