I couldn’t describe with how much enthusiasm I welcomed MSFS two and a half months ago and how excited I was to discover everything that it had to offer. I didn’t care that the sim crashed sometimes because I was eager to start that flight again and immerse myself in that magic environment that was so unique to this sim.
I was ok with the airport lights being on all the time, I was ready to accept the reduction in the vegetation draw distance that came with the first updates, I was ready to accept the fact that the sim is crashing about as much as it did in the first day, I started to raise my browse when the smallest clouds were creating dramatic thunderstorms, but now I’m questioning whether or not Asobo and Microsoft are taking their jobs seriously.
I just can’t imagine that someone who takes any pride in their work would accept to release an update that brings such a visual degradation. The night flying not only has lost its magic, but it has become a big source of frustration. In addition to that the airport lights are so big and bright now that they can be seen more than 10 nm away in a sunny day. I don’t want to sound like I’m entitled to anything, but I think it is fair to ask what has been promised, the visual quality of the sim that we paid for.
I’m really starting to doubt Microsoft and Asobo’s motivation to do a good job with these updates, now that more than 1M copies of the sim have been sold, and believe me there is nothing that I want more than to be proven wrong.
I can’t ask for my money back, but I know I’m not going to spend another cent on any addons, not until I see that the situation moves into the right direction. If we can’t make our voices heard then maybe the third party developers can. I wish them luck!
How is this a bugs topic? I think it’s better if you move this to the general discussions category and not flood the bugs with irrelevant posts so the real bug topics can get the right focus.
I agree with you. Topic moved.
In my opinion the underlying problem is the X-Box version.
I´m sure a lot of people will disagree, and of course there will be exceptions, but I honestly believe 95% of people who will use the “simulator” in a X-Box couldn´t care less about the “simulation” part of the program. They are looking for a “game of planes”. And most of them won´t worry about autopilots, VORs, ADFs or IMC. They want beautifull scenery, lots of eye-candy, and aircraft just flyable enough to try some manual landings, and some fun crashes into buildings, until the next alien-shooting title comes along and they move on.
I think Microsoft-Asobo are focusing in that part of the public right now, and we must accept that is a legitimate position on their part, to make the product as profitable as posible by atracting a wider user audience. Flight simulators have always been a very niche product.
I believe they are taking the product to a level where X-Box hardware can run it properly, and focusing on eye candy for those users. That´s why we have elephants and birds, rainbows and our houses, the most exagerated visual icing in the planes, or that ridiculous jet-exhaust in the airliners. It´s fun, looks cool, and if it´s not realistic… well… too bad.
We “simmers” are in no way better than those users, but sure we have different interests. What we miss will go unnoticed for most first time users of “simulators” (probably, even Asobo developers, and that would certainly explain a lot of things…). And that´s why for the first time since FS98 I have aircraft with which I´m unable to track a VOR radial because it is not implemented, that´s why I can see my house and have the most mesmerizing sunsets, but don´t have a stable autopilot to fly by the numbers. I think we are not their priority… yet.
I accept that.
I really love the product. I had my fair share of dissapointing and game-breaking bugs with the updates, but I have also seen improvements, and I´m sure the wait will be worth it. I´m completely blown away by how much potential I see in this product, and with the help of the amazing guys and gals from A320NX project, FS2020 has given me, not only my worst dissapointments in any software, but also the most mesmerizing virtual-flying experiences in my life (and I have been simming since FS98).
I´ll be patient. I won´t quit. For now, I can fly my Iberia A320NX to La Palma doing a visual approach until VORs are fixed and I can fly that VOR-NDB again by the numbers.
I´m sure when the X-Box version is out, we will see more focus in instruments, autopilots, and simulation in itself.
(BTW, I agree this posts would be better placed in general discussion).
Very nicely said!
I have to agree that this sim has given me the most amazing flying experience as well, but unfortunately that memory is being offset by this terrible frustration that I’m feeling right now.
Don’t get me wrong, i’m not going anywhere either, but I’ll be flying the old sim for longer than I thought.
I think they’re shooting themselves in the foot with that.
Simmers want a hi-fidelity simulation experience. Gamers want gameplay. This software has neither. Simmers are sticking with it as we keep being told things will improve, gamers will get bored after the first dozen flights as there’s nothing to actually do in the game, other than fly around looking at scenery.
I couldn’t agree more. The gamers move on to the next big title, only simmer are going to stick with FS for the ten year cycle. MS in particular must be aware of this, they have a long enough history with this genre after all to know which way the wind blows.
There is probably more than just the XBOX release standing in the way right now. Thinking about performance issues, stability issues and VR here. Fixing the performance and stability issues and completing major pillars like DX12, VR and XBOX will pave the way for polishing things like light visibility range, bloom corona sizes (which is a scaling issue for all I know) and all the details like that.
They already stated in the Q&A that a performance upgrade is on the way in the next release (6), which is only the first of more to come and they are currently hard at work on VR, XBOX and DX12 all at the same time.
They clearly stated that after they finished getting more performance they will add more sliders and allow already existing sliders to push things further for people who like more visual quality over FPS. With the remaining time they have now they clearly focus on low hanging fruit that improves the experience on both desktop, VR and XBOX like with the night lighting tweaks.
It is sad to see they are still working on the foundation so long after release, it shouldn’t have been released until that was solid as a fully finished product. Had they given it the stamp ‘early access’ there would be a lot less disappointment. I would have also paid fully to support that early access version.
But that doesn’t mean that I don’t like what it is right now, I still love it with all of its problems. You’ll see that eventually after VR, XBOX and DX12 are fully implemented and functional there will be a raise in quality again. They ARE really listening, a lot of the issues we see are just not having a high enough priority right now.
So if you can’t bear the ever changing and sometimes failing product it is right now you might be better off parking it for a couple of months until at least after the XBOX, DX12 and VR launches.