I don’t want to report any new bugs, that’s tedious these days because you don’t know where to start. I want to make my personal comparison between FS20 and FS24 and only look at the basic differences.
FS24 is a game that’s almost 100% server-based. While FS20 had around 100 GB of data on the disk and only loaded the landscape data, FS24 only takes up 10 GB of fixed data storage and only uses “streaming” to get all the data needed for the game. This sometimes means annoyingly long wait times when starting a mission or a complete standstill (then only CTRL-ALT-DEL helps). It’s even more annoying when a mission is disrupted or interrupted during a career mission (more on that later), then maybe much money is gone or a lot of money is needed to repair it. When the flight or mission finally starts, there are often strange textures (server issue). A super fast computer or a super fast network connection doesn’t help, the bottleneck is the MS server. This means that even if all the bugs are ironed out, the problems caused by server issues will remain.
I thought (like many of us) that the new FS24 was a version of FS20 that was improved in some important features. Revised flight models, improved graphics, faster loading times, etc. In fact, the core of FS24 has (maybe) been rewritten from scratch. This explains the countless bugs. Just one example, the C208: thrust reversal cannot be set, the engine howls when throttle is idle, cold start does not work… I’ll stop here, everyone can add their favorite bugs. Every FS24 simmer with FS20 experience has his own impression of whether the graphics are now significantly better, whether the flight models have been effectively redesigned and whether the loading times are now acceptable.
I still haven’t fully understood the new UI, especially the interface for the controller settings. There are three settings levels that are supposed to allow maximum flexibility. Instead, I still don’t know how and where I have to save settings for a specific aircraft or for all in general. This is probably because I can’t understand the programmers’ thought processes. If Asobo had just rewritten a few important things and adopted all the functioning features of FS20, everyone would have been happy. Instead, many (like me) are going back to the good old FS20. You know what you have, there are only small flaws.
The career mode is another fundamental difference to FS20. This new element now has a broader meaning in the game. While free flying with any aircraft has previously been the fun part of the game, the new motto is: No flying fun but business pain. You fly straight ahead for hours to pay for repairs or to save up for a new aircraft. This gives FS24 career mode the character of a business simulation. Not only are the skills for mastering flying challenges in demand, but management tasks have now been added. The poor but honest airline manager is panting after earning money and is surprised every day by new bills for repairs and insurance. Now he has to fly whether he wants to or not, the fun is gone. Is that the intention of a flight simulator?
In German, there is a made-up word for the process of making something worse when you want to improve it: “verschlimmbessern”. In English, it could be called “worsimpro”. It is a common process these days when developing new hardware and software products, unfortunately also at Asobo. Small steps forward, big leaps backwards. Four years ago, Asobo introduced a new generation of flight simulators that could definitely be called revolutionary, the MSFS 2020. Now they wanted to revolutionize the revolution again and developed the MSFS 2024, which more or less went wrong. What was good can no longer be found, but you can find new things that are not good at all.
The bitter realization is that it doesn’t get any better. Because the three most important changes to FS 20, 1. streaming only, 2. new UI of the controls and 3. career mode are basic elements of FS 24. These basic elements cannot simply, fundamentally be changed by updates. It sounds ironic, but only MSFS 2028 will perhaps be a new and true flight sim revolution - if Asobo has learned from the current disaster.
I have drawn my conclusions from this comparison, I’m sticking with the good old MSFS 2020. That doesn’t mean that FS20 is free of bugs. But the bugs that still exist in FS20 are mostly cosmetic, not truly frustrating.
I thought about asking for a refund a few times, but then I told myself that it was my fault for having pre-ordered FS24 without waiting for the posts that were posted here. I had trusted in Asobo’s abilities, my fault.