Besides the already known bugs, one of the things that bothers me the most is how missions end abruptly and take us straight back to the menu. With that in mind, I’d like to suggest some improvements for Career Mode:
Context
Currently, when we finish a freelancer mission, our plane remains at the last airport where we landed. However, there’s no option to decide to continue from that location.
It’s worth noting that these options would only make sense for players who already own their aircraft (i.e., their first company) or have a rented plane – which isn’t even an option in the game right now.
Suggestions
Persistence system:
Don’t automatically end the mission upon arriving at the airport. The idea is to give the player the option to either finish or continue from that point.
Freedom at the last airport:
After arriving at the last airport, the player could:
Refuel and repair their plane;
Choose new missions from that airport;
Freely fly to a new location and then select missions from there.
(The idea is to open the mission map without ending the current state, maintaining persistence.)
Option to skip initial cutscenes:
At first, the cutscenes are interesting, but over time, many players just want to go straight to preparing for their flight.
Choice between real weather or presets:
Allow players to configure weather and time of day before starting a flight.
Flexibility during missions:
Allow players to land at intermediate airports (not the final destination) during missions, for instance, to refuel.
Recovery after technical issues:
If the connection drops, a CTD (crash to desktop) occurs, or the PC power goes out, the game could place the plane at the closest airport to where the problem happened upon restarting.
Conclusion
I believe these options would greatly enhance the immersion of the MSFS2024 Career Mode. For those who prefer to continue returning to the menu after each mission to select the next one, that option could also remain available, as it is today.
I’m basing these suggestions on the Neofly 4 addon, which offers an excellent career mode. However, having these features natively available in MSFS2024 would be a true game changer, especially since the new simulator has already innovated significantly by introducing Career Mode.
Yes, this should be a simple modality - like owning a company and aircraft, but the missions are completely customizable, generate no income, and the aircraft are persistent.
Micro transaction me for fuel at 2 cents a gallon. Make me pay 5 cents for that quart of oil. Hit me with a ten cent landing fee.
Gratefully, I’m still flying IRL. I’d bet there would be a market for old-timers to feel the exhilaration (panic, LOL?) of having to pay for fuel or ramp fees.
I would love to see more options for persistence in the game, whether that’s by allowing Free Flight in career mode or just adding an option for aircraft persistence and wear-and-tear in general. I also really like the idea of picking up where you left off (or left your plane, I guess).
Ideally, I’d love to see these features as options in Free Flight for the most flexibility.
Also, please don’t give them ideas about MTX for gas and tie-down fees
Set yourself up as a Squadron Pilot. This is a bod who has finished their tour and stayed in the Service. Part-time instructor and general flying dogs-body to fly errands for the Station or Wing Commander.
The aeroplane is kept in Tip-Top condition and prepared by ground crew for your flight.
I thought they were called .STN or Situation files. May have been an earlier version. I have been simming since SubLogic Flight Simulator so versions do blur from one to another.
I am currently on my ninth Around the World flight in MSFS, starting with FSX. I started simming with SubLogic Flight Simulator in around 1985 but FSX was when I first attempted the AtW (Around the World) flights, all in real time and all in real weather using GA singles or light twins.
Currently my frustration in FS2024 is that I can’t even get my aircraft to have the same registration number, let alone the persistence that is mentioned above.
The old situation files that we could save in the old versions of the sim were perfect for saving locations when relaunching the sim. I do hope that Asobo and MS get enthused a bit more in this direction. But first, please fix the aircraft registration number issue.
Oh yes, I vaguely remember .STN files, but man…that was a long time ago. I don’t know of a way to do that with MSFS2024. Probably I would write down my fuel etc. and try my best to replicate where I last ended. The A2A Comanche may do that in '24 presently but I haven’t yet loaded it in.
There is something amiss currently in '24 regarding the registration/labels and even some liveries on some default aircraft “blinking” (CJ4). MS/Asobo know about this as it has been bug reported.
Nice to see another SubLogic person around. I was only 12 years old in 1985 when I started with FS-II but there are some unforgettable memories with that sim.
Not sure if Asobo have acknowledged the issues but in the below thread I know a number of people have used the official feedback form, and many of them have noted the flickering livery thing, among other problems:
Yep, there are some really great 3rd party planes that do this at the micro level. For those planes, we’d really only need MS to spawn where we parked it (be it at a named tie-down at a published airport or the foot of a mountain where we’d pitched our Parallel 42 tent).
Simple state saving / location spawning would be (I would think) an EASY first step.
They could enhance that mode with user-created “trips”. Pick a plane, fill in your destination airport(s), no way to turn real weather off, you have to hold / earn an instrument rating to go IFR, you must land at your desired airports and return home, you “pay” for fuel and oil along the way, and you get brownie points for completing your journey.
Who wouldn’t want to sit atop the “Brownie Points” leaderboard!?!
At the beginning of MS2020, I vowed to only fly in LIVE WEATHER.
My problem was when the weather was fine, I’d be out on my bike.
So I created some ‘Average’ weather files.
I fly the IRIS Grob 115 Tutor, The IRIS Texan II and Flight Replicas Spitfire Mk1.
Have also the other two Spits, MkV and Mk IX. Aeroplane Heaven and FlyingIron.
Microsoft has done this once upon ago - in MS Flight! - you could leave your plane any time, walk around, even quit the flight and close the game, come back and find your plane where you left it in the state you left it. Sometimes it did not work - once I landed near the telescope in Hawaii, walked around and did not find my plane - it was gone by the wind, really!
There was an option to change your plane in the aerobatic competition mission - you were selecting a plane, flying aerobatic, landing and after landing leaving the plane, going to the next parked plane and taking that plane. All the planes of the game were parked there in that mission.
I don’t know about an allcaps EASY but then again, i’m not a programmer and feel rather stupid whenever i try to do some very basic scripting already, maybe i’m just not the brightest of the bunch…
However, given it took Asobo/MS from 2020 to 2024 and a whole new iteration of a game before allowing us to use custom map locations to spawn in cold and dark, i’d think we’re still a long shot away from “true persistence”, regardless of what 3rd Party devs like A2A and others already managed to do (since FSX at a minimum in case of A2A Accusim products).