It could’ve been like Reno Air Races in 2020. If you wanted it, you could buy it and use it.
But for many of us long-time flight simulator users, it wasn’t something we wanted. We might’ve wanted to try some of the missions, but I’m not wasting hundreds of hours doing fake training to earn fake money so I can fight a fake fire.
It’s funny that they’re asking many commercial airline pilots to spend hundreds of hours doing missions to make fake money just so they can become a commercial pilot in the game.
In the process of doing that, they spent so much time working on that new stuff that they broke many of the fundamentals that always worked in the old version for decades.
Whoever was responsible for this game design didn’t respect or consult with the major user base who’ve been using this program for decades.
Career mode is entirely optional. Nobody is forced to use it. Its presence does not affect or detract from other modes such as free flight. If career mode does not interest you, then simply ignore it.
If we want to attract a new, younger generation of flight simmers, career mode needs to exist.
And if you have no interest in it (like I don’t) then you don’t ever have to touch it. I’ve spent the last few weeks in FS2024 quite happily flying my Fenix A320 around just like I did in FS2020. The only time I’m reminded career mode even exists is when I visit these forums.
It’s entirely optional and exists as a standalone function inside the sim, just like Discovery Flights, Bush Trips and Landing Challenges do in FS’20. It doesn’t affect Free Flight, Multiplayer or any other activity in FS’24.
If you check the list of Dev Partners and follow the Dev Streams, there is an immense level of cross-functional and inter disciplinary integration in the sim. No one resource is bottlenecked because of a function. That’s been an Urban Myth since Day 1 of FS’20.
It needs work. The concept of aviation gaming isn’t new. Airline Tycoon has a big following, and this is that game at a tactical level if you think about it. But that doesn’t make it less compelling to attract new and reengage existing users.
Here is a dose of reality: You (and me) are a minority. If they ask or consult the huge majority of the user base will be 100% happy about career mode.
I haven’t used it, I will never use it and I really don’t care about it but I’m not oppossed to have it in the sim, it is just something that a lot of users like and use, it doesn’t bother me it is a commercial decision by MS.
Don’t think we are the voice of the community, people doing A to B flights on Vatsim are a minority in this forum that is itself representing a minority of the user-base.
So the visual calibration page that does nothing (but worked in 2020) is not functioning because? Not too much of a stretch to say at least that their priorities are messed up. Also not much of a stretch to say that the person who coded the big visual “whoosh” every time you enter or exit anywhere could have easily ported the visual calibration code from 2020 and still had lots of time left over for “whoosh”.
This is about allocating money into a feature (and cannot be spend twice)
This is not about devs slowing each other down.(which I’m sure WILL happen with added functionality)
One simple example. Newly developed aircraft will have to work and be tested within the career mode code base.
Well, let’s forget about the testing part…
The Dev teams are distinct, that’s been the point since Day 1. You’re concerned someone can’t do two things at the same time, no problem. There’s more than one team that can pick up the work.
The backlog has always focused on game breaking defects first, then triages down to what can be done for the widest effect.
This is a never ending debate because my bugs aren’t your bugs, which aren’t everyone else’s bug that needs to get fixed first. I have my own set of peeves that remain unresolved.
The budget doesn’t affect you or me at a consumer level. We paid a fixed price for FS’20 at the beginning and not one cent more for the license. And every decision since then has been paramount about not passing costs onto the end user for additional content.
Zendesk and Wishlist exist to receive Voice of the Customer Feedback. I’ve used it, and it works. I’ve been the leading proponent and if you ask Working Title, the resident pain in the tuckus about upgrading the G3X to NXi standards. For years, nothing, then comes the AAU. Does it happen often enough? Probably not to anyone’s preferences but it does work.
But to get back on-topic, Career as a module inside the sim doesn’t detract from other sim functions.
Are we seriously going to debate on this?
MS/Asobo have now screwed up a release twice (FS20 FS24). Like big time.
I’ve been in software business for 30+ years and I’m sensing things are seriously wrong with management. Why don’t you be transparent and tell exactly how your workflows work. How you manage to create a disaster twice and not learn from things that go wrong. How you actually control quality etc etc etc etc.
Hell, even a noob can sense something fundamentally wrong with MS/Asobo.
Let’s get back on topic.
Career mode an add on?
We probably would’ve been better off with a third party add-on, just like BATC and SI are saving MS/Asobo’s *ss regarding traffic and ATC.
Because I’m not Microsoft. Check my title. Volunteer Mod Staff. I don’t work for the firm in any paid capacity. I serve at the Community Manager’s pleasure to coin the phrase from government service.
Now that being said, I can speak to how some of the sausage is made because I also work in a QA capacity for one of the Dev Partners on that Marquee. Neither of these roles is my day job btw. This is more for fun and interest. But for the record, we finished our work on time and on target for the sim launch - we built a handful of the new aircraft in the sim.
As far as disasters, well I was here for FS’20, and Asobo did a massive Sprint from August to nearly Christmas week that year, in the middle of Pandemic no less, to get the sim to a pre SU2 state. Which was incredible. I have nothing but admiration for those folks to have done that with an environment that was not built for remote work and collaboration at that level. I’ll politely but firmly disagree with you on using Disaster as an adjective.
Once again, Zendesk receives Voice of the Customer inputs. Feel free to create a ticket and ask there.
Check my title. Volunteer Mod Staff. I don’t work for the firm in any paid capacity. I serve at the Community Manager’s pleasure to coin the phrase from government service.