Well, I’m 190hrs or so into this flight sim - (probably 20 or so of those are installation hours which my Steam edition reckons is user time!). A few thoughts…
- Graphics
Due to my rubbish graphics card, I’m set at medium with a fair few things turned off. I get a frame rate slightly better than X-Plane11, which has the Orbx scenery for the UK with some UK airports installed. Base scenery in MS2020 is not at all bad, similar to XP11 and way better than FSX. I need an upgrade to get better frame rates, but can live with it a while longer while I do my research… - Load times
Much more bearable - XP11 load times took ages. Could have a bath, a cup of tea, and the thing would still be loading. Despite my rubbish graphics card, my load times are far more bearable. - Flight planning
I know others will swear by 3rd party planning - and I used one for XP11 - but I dont’ find the planner here too bad. Quick, easy to use, and generally does what it’s supposed to do. - Training
Apart from the second props training flight which is flawed, I found the props training flights informative and helpful. Jet training is woefully inadequate, considering the jet controls have come some way since I last flew jets. I didn’t bother flying jets in XP11 - too many flickering screens that made the data unreadable. No such problems in MS202 - but there really is scope for more jet training, particularly the airliners. - Base aircraft
I bought the top package on the grounds that any aircraft not included would cost more to purchase later. Decent selection of aircraft - far greater choice than XP11. No helicopters yet, but I’m not too worried about that. Haven’t yet purchased any third party aircraft. If there are third party aircraft out there that are better than the base aircraft provided, I’d be happy to receive recommendations! - ATC
Others may not agree with me, but I actually find that the ATC works just fine for me. IFR flights get decent ATC instructions en route, and I have confidence in it . ATC in FSX worked for me around 50% of the time. Twas a lottery if the ATC would keep up with the flight, and sometimes you got the most riduclous vectors. Don’t talk to me about ATC in X-Plane. X-Plane 10 was just appalling for ATC - totally unuseable. XP11 ATC was improved, but so time consuming to set up the IFR flight in-sim, and again it was a lottery if it actually worked for the entire flight. - Updates
Worrying that so many complain about frame rate drops after World Updates. And my goodness, they are some size. Refreshing that they are controlled in game rather than by Steam as at least the updates become available to us Steam folk at the same time as everyone else - didn’t happen with Steam version of XP11. Recent updates seem to have fixed the MFDs that don’t turn on when they’re supposed to - not had one of those for over a week…(touchwood). - Fav base aircraft
Like the Daher turbo prob a lot. Nice to have a GPS Baron that works - the GPS Baron in XP11 had an annoying glitch that made it just too annoying to fly. Enjoying the twin engined Diamond - first came across that in the doomed Flight Sim World. Like the Longtitude and of course the GPS Cessna. More to explore - need to brave the three airliners a bit more as I haven’t flown an airliner since FSX. Note - anyone here use the Thrustmaster Throttle designed around the Airbus Throttle?? Any good??
Another update after another 150hrs or so…
Thank you to folk that have been kind to answer some of my questions recently.