Free Flight Only In 2024?

I am interested in purchasing FS2024 but here’s my question: don’t care especially about career mode, rescue mode or really any of the new specialty modes. I just want to fly in Free Flight and explore the new world, add some custom airports, etc.
How many bugs, errors and so on will I get just flying and enjoying the simulator in its most basic function? Thanks a lot!

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Get a game pass sub for 1 month and give it a try. That way you will see if it is working for you.

Other than this, review the bug section here and see if there is something that might become an issue for you.

Anyhow you can just fly around and enjoy if it runs on your system.

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With the basic Game Pass, which version of 2024 can you choose? Probably just the basic, but that would give me a month to try it out! Thanks for the idea!

how much vram do you have?
are you already a user of 2020?

Hi there, I think that you only get the Standard version through Game Pass.. I tried the Game Pass and decided to buy the Premium Deluxe version..

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You get the standard version. I only fly free flight.
Depends on what you’re looking for and if you are already using FS2020 and how many addons you have in that one, etc. .

If you’re like me and you have third party hardware, addons etc., stick with FS2020 for free flight. Else, give it a go, use the inibuilds airplanes for airliners and play around with the others. The quality is not consistent between the planes.

The Dreamliner in 24 is quite good, if you go for a version that has it and like airliners.

Bog stock 2024 with live weather.

In free flight the bugs are more aircraft related than anywhere else.
The G1000 equipped C172 is probably the most bug free aircraft in the sim. Though it’s not without minor problems it’s also one of the most enjoyable planes for free flight…as long as you’re not in a hurry…

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I only use 2024 in free flight due to the amount of bugs. You will encounter bugs in free flight as the game is not yet complete or stable, however those bugs will not be all the time, so you can play the game for short periods of time, avoid airports, as they are broken (or were last time I tried them) - I use float planes often, you can take off from and land on the sea without any issues - not very challenging, but it works unlike airports.

If you have 2020, buying 2024 to just use free flight will probably not take you any further forward. If (hopefully when) 2024 becomes more stable, it might be worth considering, but I struggle to find a reason to justify the cost if you have 2020 already. If you have Games Pass, give it a try, avoid streaming it via Games Pass, as that is so badly broken, you will be lucky to get to the menu, never mind into the air.

A lot will depend upon what platform you might run 24 on. The pilots with high end PCs are reporting the best performance in 24, both on YT and here in the Forums. Those with mid level or basic PC’s, not so much. I only do Free Flight on my Series X and at best 24 is as good as 2020. At worst, 2020 looks much better than 24. This is hard to pin down as it performs differently on different days/flights, there are so many variable and things in 24 are changing daily as bug fixes and other behind the scenes streaming stuff gets worked out. And so if you have a mid to high performing gaming PC, maybe go for it and enjoy some nice scenery. Less than that or on console, maybe just give it a pass for now or stick with 2020 until 24 grows up?

Freeflight varies a bit depending on the airplane, some aircraft are a hot mess, others are really pretty good.

All of this depends of course on your computer not being a potato, and your ability to wrap your mind around the control assignment set up parts of the UI which are very much a demented fever-dream of how UI’s work in the deepest pits of… Heck?

The simulation itself is actually pretty good.. I fly mostly small planes, so I haven’t spent much time in big jets, I’m assuming they are somewhat less good, but I don’t really know that.

If you’re planning to use the built in ATC or AI traffic, --please excuse me while I finish laughing coffee out my nose–, you might have a less than stellar experience, but if you own BATC from your time in 2020, you can use that in 2024 and it works really well.

Thats the basic situation, or at least, my personal opinion about it. I have a lot of faith that this sim will be a worthy successor, but the wheels at Asobo apparently move on a geological time-scale, so that might take a minute.

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Thanks for all of the advice! I think I will stick with 2020 for a while longer!

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Yes, if you already have FS2020 don’t bother with the new game. I play it but only because I bought it before release. I only do Free Flights and don’t see many improvements, if any. Somehow, they made ATC even worse than it is in 2020. Thankfully we have BATC working in 2024.
Data streaming is annoying, especially if you like to fly in various parts of the world. The only positive change is the game starts a lot faster, and I don’t experience a few seconds freezes when a 3rd party airport is being loaded on approach.

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I think its fair to say, and this would apply to almost any software really, that the less features you use, the less bugs you will encounter.

I gave up on the career mode, and just did free flights. That works well enough, but even then if you dig in to things like ATC, IFR flights etc. the more issues you will likely encounter.

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:100:

try it for yourself, for minimal cost…
whats also great about 2024, is you wont have to spend 24 hours downloading it :laughing:

everyone here has different setups/hardware, and also different ideas on what they want from the sim. some are casual players, some hardcore.

bare in mind a forum is never representative of the entire player base, most casual players will never come here, its focused on those wanting to express an opinion.

so, its natural that there will be different opinions, and we should all form our own.

for me, 2024 has its flaws, but its still a great sim, and some of the improvements are really nice.

give it a go… if it doesn’t work out for your, you still have 2020 :slight_smile:

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Free flight only here.
I would like to try career mode despite it to be not very realistic but reading about all the bugs there, I do not want to waste my time…

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Quite right. It will just frustrate you! I just started a freelancer mission and it immediately went pear shaped and I was penalised for not doing something the sim wouldn’t allow me to do. It’s just diabolically messed up. I just aborted before I’d even reached the runway. Things werent going to improve and I was not about to waste hours on something that was just going to get more frustrating as time went on. I’ve kind of given up on Career Mode now. Might come back to it in 6 months or whenever but for now I’m sticking with the 172 G1000 and touring in free flight. Could do that in 2020 of course. :roll_eyes:

What a hilarious thing to have to say for a Flight Simulator

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This is the way.

I can only speak from changing over from 2020 Xbox to pc 2024. I haven’t had any problems at all since I changed over other than avionics screens not available on the larger aircraft. That’s been recently I believe. I haven’t tried them since the update. I was like you , I wanted to do my own thing flying around where I wanted and didn’t want the career mode , but I pressed the button and tried it. I can honestly say I am enjoying it and I immediately go there now to progress my career. This wasn’t my intention, but I thought I might as well try it because it was there. So, I’m enjoying the flightsim now and making full use of the SIM . I haven’t returned to fs2020 because I want to remain using fs2024, having been disappointed with so many problems on Xbox fs2020. The start of msfs2024 wasn’t good for everyone but I think it’s got better a lot . I believe it’s going to be very much better than what it is mow and that good for me now. Hope that helps.