First, congratulation with the release of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020. The game have done surprisingly well, especially with the non-simmer market. But it’s not without its problems. I’m aware that each aircraft in the game has their own issues, but that is not what I’m going to touch upon here. I want to discuss some core issues in the simulator that affect every aircraft. And also look at some of the issues with the world. These are all issues I hope Asobo and Microsoft will fix in the near future so addon developers will have to deal with it.
Control sensitivity changes with speed
The first major thing I noticed upon loading into the sim was the consistent roll rate no matter what your speed was. Meaning i had the same roll control at 60 knots as i had at 120 knots. After doing some digging on this I found that as you speed up, the game decreases your input. This is of course not realistic at all. But as far as i’m aware there is no option to turn this off. This feature might be good for people using low end hardware like gamepads or similar which does not have the same control resolution as higher end hardware.
The GIF below shows the C172 with a full right roll input, notice how the control surface decreases its angle when the speed increases.
I think that when all the assistance settings are set to the most realistic option this should not happen. The signal that the joystick is outputting should go directly to the control surfaces (only on planes that don’t have a flight computer of course). This might make it harder to fly faster aircraft like the TBM 930, as it’s quite the sensitive aircraft on the yoke. But this is something pilots need to learn and cope with. Aircraft should handle differently at different speeds and not always the same as they are currently doing.
This issue also exists with the nosewheel steering in the simulator. As you speed up the nosewheel steering gets less sensitive. This is an absolutely terrible thing to teach new pilots, and makes it really hard to do high speed taxiing as it almost removes all your control.
As one can see above, the nose wheel gives less deflection when the speed increases and more once the speed decreases.
One thing I’ve never understood in any of the Microsoft Flight simulators have been the yoke animations. Even tho my controls are set to be linear, the yokes and sticks in game are animated to look like im using the biggest control curve the world has ever seen. How hard would it be to code in “Yoke_Roll_Animation = Stick_Roll_Input”???
Airports from hell
One weird issue with the fantastic world of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 is the airports. During the first week following release I did around 10 full flights. And 6 of them could not be flown as planned, as the destination airport had major issues that made it unusable. The most common thing to happen was the world mesh being all weird and making the runway really hard or impossible to land on. (ENUL and ENVY pictured below)
(Note the parked aircraft on the left side of the hill)
Buildings on the runway is another common issue. (ENAE pictured below)
Another issue i’ve ran into are with renovated airports where the building data does not correspond with the satellite imagery.(ENGM pictured below)
Here the terminal is placed on top of the taxiway, so now there is no way to taxi to your assigned runway for takeoff. The picture above also shows the game rendering in buildings instead of jetways at the ramps.
In one of my first flights in this (to be) wonderful simulator I went to my local airport, ENSM, only to find the ramps have turned into car parks.
In short, There is a lot of issues with the airports in MFS2020. Both on the larger airports and especially on the smaller ones.
Missing airports
This one I can not wrap my head around. There are several major international airports missing from the game. Most noticeable ENSB and EKVG. It seems like most of the missing airports all over the world are from regions with very little to no satellite imagery. Like Asobo and Microsoft are trying to hide the lesser detailed parts of the world.
Other issues
There’s a lot to cover, from the “ballooning” effect when you dump flaps, or the game missenturpetring ridgle lift as turbulence. To the lack of P-factor (in the air) and the low fps on the prop animations during startup or shutdown. The last thing I want to touch on is all the lakes and rivers in the game being placed at the wrong elevation. In the areas where i fly, most lakes and/or rivers have this issue. There are only a handful of waters that look normal. But i’m hoping all the issues in this post will be fixed as soon as possible. especially the ones mentioned above with the controls of the aircraft.
Enjoy my little collection of world glitches with water and rivers:
