Could 2020 have a life of its own "outsourced" to the modding community

Discussion Hub Aircraft
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With reading the various issues with 24 and hanging on to hope that it will become the next gen in simulation that everyone is wanting but…
Reading about the key wishlist/issue being the encryption of aircraft files effectively stopping the most loved “DIY” liveries… Not to mention… the community/mods is the real life and blood of fs…

Got me thinking…

2020 vs 2024, in my opinion, doesn’t seem to be quite like the gulf like we had between 2004 and fsx…

Is there much under the hood for more coding and improving, is there much life left in 2020 for modification and growth??

Could 2020 become a outsourced project (a bit like open office or apache word) a community driven freeware project, exclusively for those who want to fly the highest fidelity aircraft…
Could 2020 have a life of its own, a life that could still live on for a number of years…
Could 2020 become like the “ultra specific high fidelity” experience that the small part of the community are craving for and…

Even if asobo/MS keep a finger in some sort of money tree (so that they dont feel like its going to compete directly with 24), but open it up and allow it to have a life of its own and, especially while the bugs in 24 get ironed out…
This could be a perfect opportunity to alleviate some of the upset customers…

I get the feeling the frustration seems to be mainly the people who were expecting to go into the A321 XL and program a full simbrief flight, with sids and stars, and start it from cold and dark and expect all the various fms functions, such as holds or sec flight plan functions to work…

Unlike the gulf between FS9 vs FSX…
20 vs 24, the stunning scene wow factor is basically the same, and, 24 at its current best with those who get to experience it at its best…Then going back into 2020…
I wouldn’t say its that big a step down isnt it??
I get the feeling that 2020 is one of those games that has absolutely nailed it in many ways, bit like Lez zep III and Queen II in that, it will become a timeless classic that is leaps and bounds ahead of anything pre and post and that, you cannot get any better than those peaks…
If you go back to fs95 or msfs2020… from like 2040…
Or…
From listing to Tay Tay or Harry Stiles LP to, Queen II or Led Zep III (hands down thee best led zep album)
You’d quite happily spend a good six months flying all your old aircraft in msfs2020…

What do you guys think…

Could having msfs2020 become almost like a outsourced/high fidelity/community led project that could actually complement 24 and not be threat in anyway to 24??
Especially while 24 gets through all of its teething problems??

Unlike fsx, i certainly feel like the options/opportunities/future for 2020 seems more endless, especially if its just for the community who actually couldn’t care less for “seasons” or tire tracts, and would love it if the wind was more realistic but just want to fly some amazing works of art (bae 146) in some of the most stunning scenery ever created that is… msfs2020…
Im sure even asobo and ms could work along side such a project or collaboration…

I guess its also convincing the main aircraft developers, like pmdg “commitment” to 24 (747 exclusively for 24…), that there is still a sizable community in 2020 for their products to make money

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The biggest problem with this is that 2020 still does a fair bit of streaming to get the sim to look as good as it does. That means servers and a money stream to keep them running.

I can’t see MSobo giving FS20 away to be developed as a competitor to FS24, because that is what it would become.

Could they keep it but make it open so not their responsibility and still provide the FS20 servers. With the caveat that the code created is theirs (at leas this would give them something back). I still doubt it.

Could they repeat the P3D arrangement that I believe allowed P3D to develop a simulator for commercial use only, possibly (the cost to the end user was a big hike in the price – find if you are creating say a simulator rig for paying customers). Again at the moment I doubt it.

Still and interesting thought, sPK

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You wonder if they could “donate” it to the community and all but open it right up for “freeware” developers to keep the game relevant for the hard core “high fidelity/study level” simmers, but still took any future sales from the game itself…
Still run it parallel with the flagship 24 but let the modders give it a life of its own…
That kinda wouldn’t be competing with that brand as it would still be “under” Microsoft…
It could still work like that…
I do reckon that there is still plenty of life in 2020, as in the current graphics, I cant really see being “aged” like going back to fsx…
The server thing, I never really thought about that, and kinda dont understand in the cost aspect…
I just assumed that ms own the servers so that its effectively using those servers for free…
But I’m guessing those servers are owned by someone else??

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The big problem I see is the server side. The sim relies heavily on servers to stream data, so if MS were to “give” FS2020 to the community, either they would also need to “give” us server space, or the community would need to come up with a server solution of its own - not exactly cheap, and I doubt MS would ever agree to that. The most practical option might be if they opened FS2020 up and turned it into a monthly subscription service at a low rate to cover server costs. I don’t see any of that actually happening, though, because they aren’t going to do something that would compete with their new flagship FS24.

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Or make the whole game downloadable for those with enough (I-don’t-know-how-much) money to buy that much storage.

What a dream to have the whole thing on one’s home computer and open-source development ongoing from people devoted to making it the best sim in the world.

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This server thing really has a lot to answer for doesn’t it…
Never herd about this server thing back in my day of “for windows 95…”
How much are we looking at regarding the servers… would we get enough by putting a “digital” hat around the “digital” room…
:rofl::rofl:

But seriously, do you think there could be life in 2020 with some open source options and having it as a 24 alternative… especially if its for us who only want to fly vatism etc…
The foundations are there as in the physical world…

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There is zero chance of this happening because if they did this, the community project would end up being better than the paid one. They would have a competitor that they can’t compete with. Money is king.

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Realistically, that’s just not going to happen. Your best hope would be maybe to get MS to take off encryption and then the community can at least do more work there, but even that is unlikely as MS does not want to encourage any competition to FS24. On the plus side, the servers are still alive for now. FS2020 can still be used as-is, and it’s still really good. In fact, I’m not even buying FS24 until it gets out of beta, so for me FS2020 is still “it”.