Hey there!
There have been a lot of recent posts regarding the poor state of MSFS 2024. While being among the ones that has a lot of complains, I wanted to make a thread with the main issues that I’ve seen mentioned, and several of them suffered. I believe a lot of us feel kinda deceived because we hear MS/Asobo/Jörg telling us that thousand of bugs have been solved, but our real experience with MSFS 2024 is that it’s advancing very slowly. While in this post I tried to gather the main issues I’ve seen mentioned again and again as complains, some things of course might have been left out unintentionally. For example, heli flying issues are left out because I don’t have enough experience to assess those. Same goes for Xbox issues or VR issues, which I know there are significant issues but can’t assess which are main, which are tangential, etc.
I don’t want this thread to derail into an argumentative fight. I guess we all more or less agree that the release state of the sim wasn’t acceptable and 7/8 months later still is unacceptable. Some may feel that advancements are being made, other may feel there aren’t, but that’s outside the scope of my post.
What I actually want to do is to mention the main things that are currently affecting the MSFS 2024 usage experience. As usual disclaimer, your mileage may vary, and the experience with the sim can be very different depending on the style and type of flights you do, or the luck you can have by having the sim running fine or not. So, I’m going to try to categorize what I find as the main issues, into four categories: 1. hardware issues, 2. interface, 3. Airplanes, 4. flight experience and 5. other issues. Lastly, some conclusions. These categories aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive, so I’m going to put a given issue into what I think it fits the most.
1. Hardware issues
- Very dissimilar experiences even with same or similar configurations. We’ve seen all threads with complains that people with a high end rig and good connectivity have issues, others have zero issues, etc. I see this as a serious issue, because there’s no way to ensure that people with an adequate configuration for running the sim will have an adequate experience. I count myself among the lucky ones, as I’m not getting serious issues, but I’ve seen people using rigs with higher specs than mine and better connectivity than me, having a miserable experience (frame drops, CTDs, etc.). I do believe this issue should be taken with more care. It can’t be that some people with an i14700 and a 4070 have a good experience, and the guy next to him with very similar specs has a horrible experience, with no explanation or reason whatsoever.
- Connectivity issues. For now, the online experience doesn’t seem to be stable either. Perhaps at release MS/Asobo didn’t consider the myriad of issues that might affect something like MSFS 2024 in online mode. ISP data compression, transparent proxies, DNS issues, while all these might not affect daily tasks, it might affect running MSFS 2024. In my experience, I have a 300mbps connection which is more than adequate, but my ISP uses data compression and tansparent proxies which DO affect MSFS 2024, and I’ve tested with a VPN to avoid them. This escalates to a lousy experience, where if you go to an external view and then come back to the cockpit you see during 5 or 10 seconds the cockpit reloading.
2. User interface
Generally we all agree that it’s kind of a step backwards. For example:
a) If you change your starting point, for example the gate, the whole flight plan is lost
b) If you change the airplane, the flight plan is lost
c) If you need to check the range with different fuel quantities, this involves clicking the airplane → configure → wait for model to be loaded since who knows why it isn’t stored → fuel and payload → manage fuel → adjust that circular slider → tap refuel → save and back → save and back again. Let’s assume you loaded too much fuel, you have to do everything again
d) That’s only for fuel, it isn’t even for payload, which has to be managed in the EFB.
e) Changing the fuel in the EFB doesn’t change the circle that shows the range. To see the circle changing, you need to re do all the steps described in c)
f) You can’t go back without saving changes! How a very basic button like that is missing?
This plagues the user interface and user experience in several places, this is just an example of how a very simple task like checking range and managing payload has become an unnecessarily complex procedure just because an inadequate user interface. One would assume that balancing payload, fuel, and range shouldn’t take more than moving some sliders, but it does, in an awful lot. One would assume that changing the departure gate wouldn’t lead to losing the flight plan, but it does, with no reason or explanation of why.
3. Airplanes
- I’m not going to detail for each airplane, because almost all airplanes have their dedicated thread, just pan . Some have seen advancements, but generally speaking the release state of the airplanes is very low, more when we consider the airplanes included in the highest priced MSFS 2024 editions. For example, the main reason why I went with a higher than base edition was the Twin Otter and mainly the Saab 340 as a complement for the ATR. Well, the ATR doesn’t work in 2024 -has lots of issues-, and the Saab 340 is a work in progress -and I’m being gentle using that denomination. This happens with a lot of airplanes (737 Max, PC-12 NGX, PC 24, etc.).
- I do believe this is worsened by the fact that some of us paid extra to have some specific airplanes, and they’re simply not there, and there isn’t a clear roadmap of fixes. For example, I fly a lot of turboprops, and they all have significant issues. The ATR has significant issues, and even new issues in 2024 ([msfs2024] atr 42-600 / 72-600) (this a 2020 MSFS paid addon). The Saab 340 also has significant issues ([MSFS2024] Saab 340B). Lastly the Twin Otter also has significant issues ([MSFS2024] De Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter). So, all in all, there’s no way to have a good turboprop passenger.
4. Flight experience
The flight experience varies a lot among users, and while some find the sim amazing, others find the sim pretty problematic. I’m going to just mention some issues:
4.1. ATC. We all know it’s a regression over 2020, and for now it’s either using a 3rd party tool, or just disregarding it. Errors like asking to climb when you’re on final, asking to descend when you have a mountain below you, disregarding the actual runway being used, are all over the place
4.2. Wrong airplanes in airports. We’ve all seen gliders at gates, etc. This kills immersion and while looks some something minor, having a gate with a glider and being unable to take that gate is ridiculous. Also, having an airplane just on top of you when you spawn at a given gate is also ridiculous
4.3. LOD issues. The terrain textures are amazing, but only when you get really close. As soon as you gain some altitude, everything starts to look blurry, much more in places with bad imagery. Some places actually have no detail, with several landmarks and terrain objects literally non existant (the whole Andes for example, or the Amazonas river). This is also an issue for VFR flights, because in some places, the references simply aren’t there. I’m not talking about “a small bridge over a river”, I’m talking about entire mountains.
4.4. Excessive trees. Reported, partially fixed, still there. You can see trees on mountains that never had a tree anywhere.
4.5. Excessive night lighting. While 2020 was known by its darkness, 2024 turned all the sliders to 100% and now you can see city lights coming through the clouds when you’re flying at FL350. This is kinda ridiculous. I know it might have a WOW effect for newcomers and be a selling point, but it’s ridiculous.
4.6. Live traffic simply doesn’t properly work
4.7. Some meteorological conditions are extremely off reality. For example, generally flying into clouds with a small airplane like the TBM is an instant airplane shaking, and this is completely absent.
4.8. Walkarounds are forced, in real life a CPT or FO typically doesn’t remove engine covers from an A320 or a 737, that’s a ground crew task or maintainance technicians.
4.9. EFB Issues. The EFB is completely inconsistent. Has reported errors in several places, when you go the map the airplane is centered in Greenwich instead of being centered in your departure airports, etc.
5. Other issues
- Game design: availability of missions outside career mode.
This has been mentioned several times, but I stil want to mention that it was never clearly informed that missions would only be available at career mode. Missions were one of the most shown things for 2024, and several of us bought it thinking about having something aside bush flights that would be short in duration, attractive, fun and entertaining. It came a very sour surprise to have all missions unavailable unless we have the time enroll in career mode, which several of us don’t have. - Open data for livery development
Despite MS/Asobo saying that making liveries shouldn’t be a serious issue, the lack of liveries for new airplanes is very noticeable. I’m not sure if it’s because it’s actually more complex -I’ve done just some small touches at some liveries in 2020, and by trial and error, wouldn’t call myself a knowledgeable person at this matter by any means-, or if it’s because the whole low energy, but there’s a substantial lack of liveries. I have the feeling that 8 months into 2020 we had much more community content. - Closed data for 3rd party creators and modders.
Several small issues might have been solved by the community, but this is very very difficult now, to the point that very small bugs that affect an airplane are in the queue. - General lack of advancement.
I understand that even 4 years later some 2020 bugs are still unsolved, nevertheless we expected something better in a new version. The fact that there are bugs reported six months ago, easily reproed, that are still only feedback logged, isn’t a good sign.
6. Some conclusions
I do believe right now it isn’t very easy to have an acceptable release state sim in a reasonable amount of time. I see so many issues, that I do believe no one will be reasonably happy with 2024 at least until SU4 or later, seeing what’s being fixed in SU3. However I do want to point out some things that might help:
a) Make simple tasks less cumbersome in the UI. The above examples show a good place to start.
b) Make missions available outside career mode. In my very humble opinion, this is overseen, and very important to have some more people enjoy the sim.
c) Make content optionally downloadable, both airplanes and ground textures, It’s been demonstrated how having a reasonable download speed isn’t any guarantee, because global networking is much more complex than just a given download speed. People with 100mbps connections can have a better experience than people with 300mbps connections.
d) See why people have so disperse experiences with similarly specced rigs.
e) Give a clear roadmap on the airplane feedback threads. The threads are populated with reports and little to no developers feedback.
f) Fix the main issues that plague the flight experience. For all of us, implementing a rule like “not an airliner then not at a gate” can’t be that difficult, however it takes months of solving. Explain why, and do not leave it at a “it’s more complex than that”. Don’t want to be rude, but either explain why it isn’t feasible in a reasonable amount of time, or fix it.
g) Fix the absurdly excessive night lighting, or the excessive amount of trees, promptly.
h) Improve terrain detail management. It can’t be that a mountain looks like garbage unless you’re 3nm away from it and then the generative algorithm starts adding the small objects (lines, shadows, small rocks, snow textures, etc) that give it some life and eye candy. I’ve flown over a mountain just a few feet over it and started panning around it, seeing how the generative algorithm started adding detail like rocks, small grass, etc). Now, unless I do that, the mountain looks the same or worse than in 2020. This isn’t really acceptable.
i) Fix the ATC. It isn’t understandable that it is in worse shape than in 2020 and, asks the same or more ridiculous things.
j) Fix the EFB. It’s the only interface for flight planning, it has to work properly.
k) Give some ETA for missing features like bush trips or Red Bull Racing.
Well, all this is my humble opinion. Anyone can add what they feel would be a significant improvement. I’d ask to not include in these issues things like “I like to fly the Pipistrel and the wheels don’t move at an adequate rotational speed when taxiing”, because I wouldn’t say that’s an issue that kills MSFS 2024 right now.
Hope this helps and adequately tackles a constructive criticism.
Best!
Seb
Edit: ■■■■ that’s way longer than what I thought when I started the draft in my notepad.