How to Enjoy Career Mode

[SoFlyBob]

I first tried Career Mode not long after launch but didn’t last more than a dozen flights. It wasn’t so much the bugs at that time, but the first missions were Flightseeing with cringe AI voices and flying in circles through blue boxes. That introduction to Career Mode was (and still is) immersion breaking and overly gamified.

A couple of months ago I had a think again about how I might be able to enjoy the mode. I had previously used 3rd party career add ons which provided me with some degree of accomplishment, so I factored their pros and cons into my thoughts to come up with a strategy.

Firstly, my fly style is short VFR flights in VR, no longer than 90 minutes. I mostly fly in GA aircraft. Most of my missions are Ferry Flight, Cargo and VIP with a little Firefighting and Crop Dusting for variety.

Here are the rules I came up with

• Ignore the grind. I’m here for the flying! I run 3 small companies just to pay for maintenance and purchase the occasional plane. I mostly fly as an employee as there are more mission choices.

• Fly only aircraft that you enjoy !!!

• Turn off as much assistance as possible, especially those blue boxes, cancel IFR early in the flight

• Do flight planning outside of MSFS. I rarely use the EFB. Navigating is half the fun of the flight. I fly in VR so use Open Kneeboard to bring in screenshots from a flight plan I make in Little Nav Map and use other sources for maps etc, VOR info, Airport diagrams etc. I usually turn off GPS in planes with a glass cockpit

This is my wish list for Career Mode

• Add more native aircraft - would love the Beech 18, DC3, Twin Otter

• The Piper Dakota is my favourite craft but can only be used in Ferry Flight, more options please

• Give us a list view of owned aircraft and their position so we can click and be taken to them on the map

• Delete Flightseeing as the introductory missions, it must put so many people off

• Provide ATIS for departure and destination airports at the mission screen

• Keep ironing out ATC bugs and pathfinding to parking

• Add the ability to have home airfields with perks - perhaps reduced maintenance costs for aircraft there.

[lexmirnov]

These are good rules.

I’ve always loved adding some storyline to my flights. First FSEconomy, then various 3rd party addons, then Carreer mode — didn’t last long because of the bugs. Now I’m using AI to generate a story and missions for me, needs polishing, but overall the direction is very promising.

One thing I wouldn’t agree with is not using GPS. For me, it’s actually less realistic, because why wouldn’t I bring at least my phone with offline maps?

As for the wishlist, I actually want some built-in tool to “certify” any plane for the carreer. It shouldn’t be difficult to analyze plane’s characteristics and put it in the right category.

[PedroACE2559]

Each person enjoys the game their own way but we sure have very similar thoughts and I also prefer GA with analogue gauges in VR, but like some IMC challenges.

I used FSEconomy and NeoFly in the past to simulate an aviation career and venture out into unknown places in the world, but was excited when finally something similar and more integrated came with a flight simulator. I still waited to purchase until SU2 though, and it seems like I avoided the most serious problems with MSFS 2024 career mode and the rest.

Career mode reminds me, although in a gamified way, of most aeronautical career paths and choices. I had real world experience some decades ago in a small aviation school and even the hangar environment reminds me of those days of preparing missions.

From memory, these are the rules I fly by:

• Just like in other games, if you have to call it grind, it’s pain, not fun. So don’t worry about what gives you more money, just pick what you’d like and fly!

• Unless you prefer to play management games, mostly ignore videos and how-to’s about career mode. They are useful to understand how it works though, since MS/Asobo never cared to explain properly.

• Don’t stress about building a company, you can get enough money to do the certifications as an employee and can become a freelancer later. Only buy aircraft that you like, if you intend to fly them in your companies.

• Prepare your flight, like in the real world! Zoom in on the mission selection map to see if you are comfortable with departure and arrival locations, check the current weather and forecasts (METAR/TAF) in the EFB in the mission details screen, but be prepared for unexpected weather. Change the cruise level or the route in the EFB, to your preferences and actual aircraft performance, and click “Send to ATC and Avionics” before accepting the mission, I believe you can also do this later, but before contacting ATC.

• Try to fly in real-weather (red dot missions). Drag the time back and forward until you get a mission you like and are able to perform.

• If you prefer realism, turn off all assistances. Even if the airfield has no charts you just need to position yourself into the hold lines or shutdown circles. AFAIK wrong taxiways don’t carry penalties.

• Pay attention! If you prefer casual flying then career mode (as real life professional aviation) is probably not for you, as any mistakes and distractions can cost you.

• If you get annoyed by passengers robot voice yapping, avoid missions with passengers.

• Don’t skip. Didn’t you buy a flight simulator to fly? Just use 4x time acceleration in longer cruises.

• Do your comms. If they are bugged you can try to tune the controller in the aircraft radios or comm menu and choose the options there.

• If you don’t maintain your company aircraft you can expect malfunctions or weird behaviours during the mission. Don’t blame the simulator even if the wear is accelerated/gamified. You can always choose a safer mission (VMC, long runways) if you are unsure about the aircraft condition.

• Maximum insurance always!

• There will be unexpected bugs. Just try to workaround them and you’ll learn to get smoother missions with time, just like in the real world

• Never sell company aircraft, they’ll always provide some passive income and you can get more money by just doing more missions, even as an employee.

Career mode still has a lot, and I mean A LOT, of unfulfilled potential. Like the reduced specializations available for helicopters, the most versatile of aircraft! I mean, not even fire combat missions? Really?

And all those included aircraft, particularly in the Aviator Edition, that have no career mode support or just reduced support like my lovely Pilatus Porter than can only do skydiving and no light cargo in Papua

It’s a shame that even new MS/Asobo aircraft, like the F-27, don’t care to support career mode. It’s like one of the main advertised new features of MSFS 2024 was just put aside with the shame of releasing an unfinished product

[CharlieFox00]

I agree with most of OP’s points. Fly what you like, where you like, keep flights short, don’t worry about the grind. Avoid ATC, over-reliance on the blue paths, and the silly AI monologues as much as possible. Find where the weather is good and fly there. Doing that, there have been moments I really enjoyed career mode.

What killed it for me is all the silly, forced penalty minutiae, airports that aren’t correct or realistic, the inability to freely select my own routes and aircraft, the inability to divert, and the really horrible fuel planning where every flight feels like a fuel emergency.

Fix those things (ditch the silly monologues while you’re at it) and I’ll gladly give it another go.

[Zadma]

I agree fully with your entire post, and has been what I’ve tried to preach to the “grind” crowd since launch, but some people just want to eat their vegetables raw

Wanted to comment on a few of your wishlist items:

@SoFlyBob

Add more native aircraft - would love the Beech 18, DC3, Twin Otter

I am optimistic given the Career compatibility being added to the Aviator Edition aircraft with AAU4 that this will be common practice for those aircraft (including the very capable Beech 18) moving forward. Hopefully these AAUs can also include adding Career support to native aircraft like the DC3 and Twin Otter, but we’ll see. (Also the DC3’s “native” status is debatable as it seems to have no 2024 specific features other than having been compiled in the 2024 SDK, but I digress)

@SoFlyBob

The Piper Dakota is my favourite craft but can only be used in Ferry Flight, more options please

The Dakota is also compatible with First Flight and Flightseeing, but I see no reason it couldn’t also be configured for Charter Service - Private and even Cargo Transport - Light. If a 172 can do it, a PA28 can as well!

@SoFlyBob

Give us a list view of owned aircraft and their position so we can click and be taken to them on the map

I fully agree there needs to be a native solution for this, however I’ve come up with one that works well for me outside of the sim. I track all of my Career flights with Volanta making sure to create/save each unique airframe. Then I assign a “home” airport to each aircraft based on the location of the gold star/qualifier mission for that aircraft’s company’s specialization. For example, the first Flightseeing mission takes place at LIPV, so if I filter to only look at my aircraft “homed” at LIPV, I now have a quick glance at my fleet of Flightseeing aircraft.

Of course, with this method you can search by any number of things, so if you know what type of plane you want to fly, but don’t care/aren’t sure what mission type you want to do, you can find all of those type and decide from there. In this example, I’m looking up all of my C172s in my fleet regardless of specialization/company. For this you also want to include the filter “home: away” to only show the aircraft you’ve assigned a home airport for, otherwise you’ll see non-Career aircraft you’ve flown.

@SoFlyBob

Delete Flightseeing as the introductory missions, it must put so many people off

I don’t disagree - though I think a few key improvements to Flightseeing could make a major difference, such as:

• dramatically improve the quality and variety of the AI dialogue
• give us interesting places to visit on Flightseeing missions - if I start a flightseeing mission near NYC, please do not have me circle around “Anthony’s Bodega” as if it’s a major tourist destination

@SoFlyBob

Provide ATIS for departure and destination airports at the mission screen

Would also love this, though in the meantime be sure to check out the METAR for those airports as that can give most of the useful information.

[PedroACE2559]

@CharlieFox00

the really horrible fuel planning

To solve this you can bind a key to refuel in-flight without penalties. I have to use it for the PC-24.

[ElvishHat1303]

You are not obliged to fly with default fuel. Just refuel your aircraft before mission start.

[Zadma]

A) this only applies to Freelance flights, not Employee

B) the mission generator will provide missions that aircraft can often just barely make, even will full tanks (which often cause it to be overweight at takeoff anyway)

[ElvishHat1303]

This applies to Employee too. The screenshot above was taken for employee mission, just click “manage aircraft” button, go in and refuel your aircraft. I personally just manage fuel through simbrief with the other required calculations.

Mission generation sucks, I agree

[CharlieFox00]

Yep, I’m talking employee flights. I don’t want to deal with maintenance, etc, so I prefer employee mode. That said, I shouldn’t have to take off with dangerously low fuel (little to no mandatory reserve).

[PedroACE2559]

AFAIK you can refuel before the flight in the aircraft management screen like ElvishHat1303 showed. This applies to both employee and freelancer modes, but in freelancer the fuel load is persistent in each owned aircraft and the refueling comes out of your pocket.

I thought you meant that even with full fuel (below MTOW) you couldn’t complete the mission. The keybind refueling “cheat” is the solution to that problem and I don’t think you’re even charged in freelancer, so don’t let MS/Asobo hear about it because they think a single-player mode should be competitive

[Kulch]

The refuel binding also doesn’t work in all aircraft, some 3rd party’s won’t let you do it
I’ve had fuel some scares in the Kodiak
Always fill atleast 1 qtr tank more than the reccomended line

[JM2355]

Currently the #1 complaint I have is how absolutely atrocious the ATC is, it is slow and buggy. I like flying private charter in my Cessna Citation which always forces IFR but does not always let me cancel the IFR. The times I do get to cancel I enjoy the missions because I get to do a sane descent profile without ATC piping up about me being at the wrong altitude. Medium cargo is great because they are always at least partially VFR and ATC will always tell me to cancel IFR which has always worked to “forcefully quit” IFR.

As for the slowness, if I fly above central Europe where there is a lot of traffic I will often get ATC piping up about “report traffic in sight” when said traffic has already passed me by ten seconds ago. Worst case was when I was flying a VFR medium cargo and I see an airliner zoom over me during their climb, clearing me by about 50 feet. A full five seconds after is when ATC STARTS their transmission about “traffic at 12 o’clock”.

[JM2355]

What killed it for me is all the silly, forced penalty minutiae

I always fly at lower cruise speed than the aircraft wants me to or is able to because it will sometimes randomly throw a +10, if not more, IAS increase, put me in overspeed, which the game deducts reputation points for.

airports that aren’t correct or realistic

I always check both the departure and arrival airports in the EFB before accepting the mission because I know sometimes there literally is no airport there. This works most of the time but sometimes you do get a broken airport that looked right in the EFB. I have landed at an airport that had a village on the taxiway, that of course had collision on the buildings, making completing it impossible. What first prompted me to stop trusting the missions and check the EFB was when I was doing a charter mission on my Vision Jet, arrived at the airport and there was no airport there, only a village. I thought maybe it is a tiny grass airstrip that is hard to see so I did a low and slow pass directly above the airport, lengthwise of the supposed runway but could not see anything. There was a small field in the middle of the village so I landed there, just barely, but it did not count obviously.

inability to freely select my own routes and aircraft

I think you can, if you plan it in the EFB and send it to ATC and/or avionics. Not sure if the game recognises it, I would not be surprised if it does not. For the aircraft, I know in freelance missions you can transfer the closest aircraft but not sure if you can transfer an aircraft that is further away. For employee missions it kinda makes sense that you have to fly the aircraft they have.

horrible fuel planning where every flight feels like a fuel emergency.

It used to be that you could not refuel the aircraft in employee missions, and any mission with the De Havilland DHC-2 would always run out of fuel. I had to avoid that aircraft. However, other aircraft were also always dangerously low on fuel but at least the missions were completable. For freelance missions I always add 20% of the aircraft total fuel capacity to the recommended fuel load, for the PC-12 for example that is 240kg extra. However, some of the missions have me almost overweight already at the recommended fuel load so I have started many missions dangerously overweight. Thinking of renaming my cargo company to Aerosucre.

[CharlieFox00]

@JM2355

I think you can, if you plan it in the EFB

I’m not talking about a flight plan, I’m talking about an airport pairing. A route structure.

[Kulch]

In the mission preflight world map go into EFB change the flight rules to VFR then send to ATC and load mission

You will have 1 objective. Fly to destination
ATC doesn’t get involved

[SoFlyBob]

@Zadma

@SoFlyBob

Provide ATIS for departure and destination airports at the mission screen

Would also love this, though in the meantime be sure to check out the METAR for those airports as that can give most of the useful information.

Just to clarify -I normally do this, but it is a number of clicks into the mission screen only to discover that weather conditions are not suitable. It would be better if METAR was visible on the map or mission list. Even better would be a filter for VFR suitable flights.
And while I’m talking filters - how about a filter for mission length?

Also, I had a flight the other day where even after cancelling IFR, the ATC failed to acknowledge that I’d landed on the correct runway of the correct airport. I had to press skip to descent in order to land again and complete the mission. Since then, I have been creating a VFR flight plan in little Nav Map, importing it to Flight Planner, then loading it into the EFB - and ATC has so far, been behaving.

[Zadma]

@SoFlyBob

And while I’m talking filters - how about a filter for mission length?

A thousand times, this. Time is the absolute number one factor for me in deciding a mission to fly because how much time I have to fly is usually the main thing I have no control over. 50+ missions of 3+ hours length are useless to me when I may only have 60-90 minutes in the sim. The challenging part of that kind of filter though comes down to the variance between how long a mission is based on the aircraft you choose (assuming we’re talking Freelance). A Charter - VIP flight flown in the Cessna 404 Titan is going to be a hell of a lot longer than the same flight flown in a Citation Longitude - so which time should it show for filtering purposes? Do we pick an aircraft first and then see missions for it, and the time will change based on that? I don’t think it currently does.

[FlipperAlloy30]

@SoFlyBob

It would be better if METAR was visible on the map or mission list. Even better would be a filter for VFR suitable flights.
And while I’m talking filters - how about a filter for mission length?

This sounds similar to what is shown on SayIntentions SkyOps Missions briefings.

[TOLOWTERRAIN723]

@CharlieFox00

What killed it for me is all the silly, forced penalty minutiae, airports that aren’t correct or realistic, the inability to freely select my own routes and aircraft, the inability to divert, and the really horrible fuel planning where every flight feels like a fuel emergency.

Fix those things (ditch the silly monologues while you’re at it) and I’ll gladly give it another go

after using career for several months i have to agree

i have to say that it has a huge plus, that is,. it takes care of where to fly today… for those days when i’m lazy and i end up just shooting approaches into klax. takes care of that.

otherwise, it has a lot of potential, but a few things killed it for me

1. we can’t use our own awesome aircraft we all bought and paid for. this was a deal breaker for me. i understand the reasons for this, still, something should be done.
2. there seems to be only one criteria for how much you get paid: mission duration, that’s it. if you want to earn the big bucks you have to fly a 14hr flight, which is, of course, nigh impossible without skipping. And i consider skipping to be blasphemy.
3. the broken ratio between earnings and maintenance costs, specially in passive income. Unless you pull some wolf of wallstreet magic, im pretty sure that you always loose.

i enjoyed it.. for a while… but then i found myself back in free flight as it was all my life

if they do some sort of (big) reset, reshuffle, and relaunch career, i will certainly try again