Landing Challenges could have been more like FSX's Missions?

User Support Hub User Interface & Activities
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Whilst I appreciate there are those who love the point-scoring contest, there’s aesthetically no real difference between flying these challenges in the activity menu and just recreating the same approach yourself in Free flight.

There is so much more than could have been added to these challenges to make them infinitely more unique and re-playable. such as:

  • Real voice recordings for ATC comms between you and the Tower
  • AI traffic with their own recordings for landing clearances, taxi etc
  • Purposely placed sea/road traffic under your flightpath
  • A queue of AI aircraft awaiting takeoff at the busiest airports
  • Alternate ending - (a go-around should be a perfectly acceptable way to end the scenario)
  • The option of taxiing to the gate, with continuous ATC chatter
  • Your co-pilot telling you he/she could have landed it better :stuck_out_tongue:

For those who owned FSX, this will all sound quite familiar (even if the missions weren’t just landing segments). In contrast, there is a real lack of atmosphere and a sense of ‘occasion’ with these activities currently.

Really think Asobo missed a trick here. Keen to hear your thoughts and ideas.

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To be quite honest, I’m disappointed missions were not included as part of the sim. Missions (in addition to the excellent learning center) are why I still think FSX is fundamentally the best sim ever made.

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I really enjoy the landing challenges. I often jump on voice chat with some friends, or other forum moderators and we continuously shoot a portion of the challenges to see who can get the best score. Sadly, many of them are pilots and I am not so I never ever win.

However, I agree, I loved the FSX missions and I really hope to see them in the simulator at some point. Ideally a collection would be added by Asobo for free over time, but if they add the activity category then I would be happy to buy high quality mission packs from third-parties as well.

When doing the Japan and US tours, I thought of the Hawaiian Check Ride mission. It would not take much work to convert those into similar styled missions. If missions do make it into the sim one day, I’m going straight for the dual engine failure mission :smiley:

Edit: there is room on the activities menu for a third type of activity. So maybe adding support for missions is planned one day™.

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Loved those emergency missions!. :smiley:

But even the laid-back landing missions such as “Sitka Approach” in C172 were very immersive and fun, thanks to the realistic comms and AI plane/boat traffic.

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My favourite was the Space Shuttle ■■■■■■ mission. That was so fun to do. And that blind carrier landing on critical fuel. That was so challenging but so satisfying.

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I hope that they will improve the way we can see scores on the landing challenges, because so far, the only way to see yours is to do it again. You should be able to see the leaderboard without in the menu without having to load the challenge.

Mission wise, I loved the one with the ski Maul where you had to do a rescue mission on a mountain

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Watch videos of landing/approach missions in Flight Sim World. That would be nearly ideal presentation. FSW started as Dovetail Flight School and retained its educational value. I wish they find a way to release their content for MSFS some day

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I’m astonished. Because they are good for training and learning - this is a return to FS2004/FSX “Machado” style, but way more limited. But also because they want to sell this as an XBox game.

What’s the game element here ? Selling to people who are enthusiastic flight simmers, like starting from cold and dark, going through VATSIM/IVAO, fine, I can see that even if it doesn’t quite work yet, but gamers, once they’ve done the training and flown round their house, what do they actually do next ? The Bush trips are really just practicing VFR.

At the moment, despite the addition of take off / landing in the A320, there’s still no way in to the airliners (possibly because they don’t work properly) like the Scottish flight in FSX Mission 8 or something.

In fact the documentation is a joke. Non existent. Referring people to A320 manuals and so on is just plain stupid (even if it worked like those).

Asobo need to stop drawing pretty graphics and make the basics work and provide some half decent documentation and training materials. They could simply adopt the FSX Machado material for a start, which isn’t missions per se, but is actually pretty good, and better than than the MSFS equivalent.

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Ah, you mean stop doing what the flight sim community has been complaining about and requesting for more years than I care to remember? Of course if they do what you say then everyone would be complaining that the graphics weren’t good enough and say the sim wasn’t up to modern standards.

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This mission from FSX is a decent example of the point I’m trying to get across. Now just imagine how much more immersive MSFS’s landing challenges would be with customized ATC, pre-programmed traffic, and a sense of purpose about your visit to the airport.

(Please excuse this person’s very steep approach… )

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@JohnnyDioxin @PaulRobson8096 i think there can be the best of both worlds. A mission creation team will not impact progress of the graphics/engine and vice versa.

You’re right, Asobo has given us an excellent sim with excellent graphics which has been asked for for years now.

But it’s true, what do the casual simmers do once they exhausted the random flying? Hell, I consider myself a “serious” simmer, and I still have the itch to do these FSX-style missions (I can already hear the “hardcore simmers” screaming at me for gamification of their serious sim).

I think missions, from Loopy Larry to Limited Options, would be an incredible asset to this simulator.

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Probably a decent thread to post the mission edits i made at release.

I’m surprised & disappointed we didn’t get FSX style missions as it would’ve captured a bigger audience & kept them playing for longer. Especially considering the large audience MSFS captured with the whole graphics side of things. FSX missions were how i fell in love with aviation & flight sims at a young age.

I’m hopeful we get them at some point, it’d be ridiculous if we didn’t but i can also understand that they wouldn’t be all that with the current limited range of aircraft at the moment. Perhaps after Helicopters are added & more aircraft variety they will do a missions pack. Even if they just add some unique aircraft with a missions pack like i imagined below.

LevelCapGaming posted a video near release that spoke about the lack of missions & showed my designs that half a million have seen. So hopefully Asobo are aware it’s very much sought after.

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This looks really nice… can’t wait.

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Some missions here:
I will also recreate some FSX mission in future.

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A good thing about the FSX missions was the variety. I remember working my way through them as soon as I got the discs, and learning a lot as I progressed.

Unfortunately, FS2020 does not (yet) have gliders and helicopters for example, which limits the challenges they can offer. I have not touched the tutorials (having been put off by video shots I’ve seen), and have only tried a few of the challenges, especially as I now need to temporarily remove the A320 neo mod to even get access to them. (Why on earth don’t they sort that out?)

I am still disappointed that, despite producing incredible graphics, in many other ways they took a step back. I know they will in a year or two replace some of them (seasons, helicopters etc), but some of the extras in FSX will never be incorporated in FS2020, and I believe many of the bugs will never be fully fixed either. Asobo seem intent on pet minority projects (eg VR) rather than look at what users enjoy in the other sims and follow suit accordingly.

Patience is said to be a virtue, but Asobo have made it a necessity.

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If they allows modded airplanes in the challenges the leaderboards would quickly become useless. We can all just change the stall speed to 1 knot and have perfect landings.

Maybe they could allow us to fly with modded airplanes, but restrict them from getting added to the leaderboard?

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Since 0.5.2 FBW mod has the same sim file name as default A320, so I just complete Charles de Gaule challenge with A32NX mod. There is just a small problem with PFD is not loaded properly. Works fine after restat. Even leadersboard works.

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I’d be happy with that. What I don’t like is having to install a mod to get the sim more usable, but then having parts of the Sim not available.

Especially since Asobo themselves have welcomed the FlyByWire version.

NB I’m not sure which of the few mods I’ve added causes the problem, but all of them I have had to install to make the Sim more usable.

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I agree, the FSX missions were very educational and like someone else in this thread said, it’s truly how I fell in love with aviation at a young age.

I don’t agree that we are limited in the amount of challenges that can be provided due to the aircraft selection. Minus the missions for helicopters and gliders, we would still be able to fly the following missions (caution: nostalgia incoming)

Tutorial 1: First Take-off [Edwards Air Force Base]

Tutorial 2: Basics of Flight [Hong Kong]

Tutorial 3: Finding Your Way [Aubenas]

Tutorial 4: Ground Operations [Indianapolis]

Tutorial 5: Approaching the Airport [Indianapolis]

Tutorial 6: Introduction to Mountain Flying [Idaho]

Tutorial 8: Transitioning to Jets [Scotland]

Sitka Approach [Sitka Rocky Gutierrez Airport]

Midwest Fly-in [Indianapolis]

Hawaiian Checkout [Hawaii]

San Juan Island Run [Washington]

Flour Power [Princess Juliana International Airport]

Telluride Landing [Telluride Regional Airport]

Rome-Naples Airline Run [Italy]

Secret Shuttle [Nevada]

Game Park Patrol [Hwange National Park]

Down Under [Sydney]

Caribbean Landing [Princess Juliana International Airport]

Paris Airshow Demonstration Flight [Le Bourget Airport]

Flying Blind Across the Channel [English Channel]

Swiss Outing [Switzerland]

Innsbruck Approach [Innsbruck Airport]

Aleutian Cargo Run (deluxe version only) [Fox Islands]

Loopy Larry [Wittman Regional Airport]

Amazon Trek (deluxe version only) [Peru]

Tokyo Executive Transport (the second half of the mission) [Tokyo]

Jet City (deluxe version only) [Boeing Field]

Denali Base Camp Charter (deluxe version only) [Denali National Park and Preserve]

Lost in the Triangle [Miami]

Jet Truck Drag Race (deluxe version only) [Wittman Regional Airport]

Civil Air Patrol Search (deluxe version only) [Salmon River Mountains]

Amsterdam-London Airline Run (deluxe version only) [Netherlands]

Africa Relief [Great Rift Valley]

Quito Approach [Mariscal Sucre International Airport]

Catalina Day Spa [San Pedro Channel]

Limited Options (deluxe version only) [Faadhippolhu Atoll]

Monsoon Approach [Changi International Airport]

747 Test Flight (deluxe version only) [Mojave Air & Space Port]

Dutch Harbour Approach [Dutch Harbour Airport]

Yakutat Mail Run (deluxe version only) [St. Elias Mountains]

Red Bull Time Trial [Salzburg Airport]

Red Bull Time Trial (without arrows)

Seems like plenty of content. And the things I’d do to fly all of these missions with the beautiful scenery in this sim…

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They are pretty good now. They don’t need to upgrade them further. They need to make the planes work properly, the ATC work properly, ILS etc.

A cynic who was a developer (e.g. me) would wonder if they were focusing on the looks because they wrote that bit, so they understand it, and they don’t understand the rest of it which was lifted from FSX.