How to survive Update Day on an MMO

I hope this helps some people. First what is an MMO. it stands for Massive Multiplayer Online game. The similarity between all MMOs is Servers feed the game and lots of players play. Now whilst MSFS20202 is not a full blown MMO its as close as can be to not matter.

It seems like a simple ask but with an MMO a good known set up takes at least a week to confirm and is better when tested over a longer period. However the test settings will most probably not be your day to day normal settings. Its simply a known trusted good setting you use to test updates. You don’t need Frame counts or performance charts, you will know something is up because you will know this setup like the back of your hand and you will know how it feels.

  1. Get a known good set up. For MSFS2020 that means.
    Switch off Live Air Traffic
    Switch off Online Multiplayer
    Switch off Live weather (Off in data not in the settings tab at the top of the screen)

You cant skip this step, you can’t say yes but I play that way, you have to remove as much variance as possible. Saying “I turned 2 of the 3 off” is not OK, it has to be all three.

Again I dont expect you to play this way, this is just to set your known working set up.

Now you have removed a number of uncontrollable variables set your self to a single airport - the same each time, set the same time of day, set the same weather. Does not matter what any of these are just make them the same each and every time you test the game. Note for time of day also make sure your the same time of year, in some countries the difference between 4:30pm in winter and 4:30 pm in summer is literally night and day :slight_smile: .

Now the flight. Do the exact same circuit each and every time you test, no deviation, you need to be using the same scenery, same height, same turn profile. If you use ATC do the same calls each and every time.

Repeat over a number of days as assuming you are using Bing data there is still a variable component to your set up and that is servers delivering content.

Once your happy you have a repeatable experience vary settings around that scenario - Ultra Clouds / water/ trees etc, increase or decrease sliders. This will allow you to see the changes and the effects and to confirm you are at your best setting. Be warned this will take days/weeks of effort but if you get it right you will hopefully be saved from Rage Quiting!

  1. Be very wary of playing on or 2-3 days after an update, why - servers.! These feed your system and are under huge pressure to deliver content and upgrades. Also the usage is highest as the Youtubers, and the “i’ll try it next patch” updaters all come back to sell their wares and test the latest and possibly greatest new thing. Many of us who use MMOs like Elite Dangerous simply avoid that “update” week.

Sounds simple but it will take a long time, if you post at the end of today, I did all that and tomorrow its not working, your not even close to having a default set up. 1 week minimum, reboot between tests to be sure your machine is the same as it always was.

I hope this helps someone out there who has not experienced MMO updates before.

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