I know this is probably not possible, or not something most people want, but is it possible for there to be a more realistic damage model and more realistic damage effects in the future? It looks a lot like the fire effects still look basically the same as in FSX, and it would be interesting to have your engine cut out or blow out from overstressing it, instead of a black screen. Same goes for overstressing your aircraft. It would be more interesting to see it break up. I’m sure this would probably require an ESRB change, but would making it DLC make it a possibility?
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Honestly, I’d even like to have some sort of damage model. It’s not like that the real pilots can just turn their damage off, they will have to face some sort of error, whether to great, or to small. It would be nice to get a grasp on a “belly landing,” or an engine failure (this could be easier just by shutting down the engine, but where’s the fun in that?), or a landing gear failure, without the use of “Assists.”
And with O.P., plane tearing apart from over-stress, would be pretty cool, but quite difficult if not built ‘into’ the plane models from start, I believe. Only game I know that has this damage is War Thunder.
And in reply to OP: No ESRB change, as there’s nothing involved to require change. Is it adding violence? Only if passengers become an entity within game, where you actually can see them in airports, or watch them being driven by bus up to your plane and board by mobile stairs. Weapons? Only if they introduce fighter jets/bombers/attack choppers/AC-130. Drugs/Sex/Rock n Roll? Only if there becomes Cartel style missions.
Oh I would love to see damage modeled. Explosions, planes flying apart, landing gear getting ripped off that kind of stuff. I doubt they will do it but it would be very cool to see. Probably wouldn’t make it run any better either lol. It would be like combining FS and BeamNG. Good luck running that lol.
And yes, I think having the planes come apart or get crushed would require a complete overhaul of the models in the game. And I certainly don’t see them doing that. Could be an option with add ons though? I think explosions, fire, tire smoke and water effects should be doable though. I really like this sim but I will be honest and say I was rather let down and unimpressed with the water interaction in this sim. Flying close the water or landing on it is kind of gross its current state.
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I know it would be awesome to have a proper damage model, the problem is aircraft manufactures don’t exactly like to see their aircraft in a million pieces.
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IL-2 Sturmovik has an even better damage model than War Thunder, and I don’t really think aircraft manufacturers really would object to realistic destruction of aircraft in a simulation, as it really shouldn’t bring any negative light to their planes. Things break when they crash, and it’s not real, so it doesn’t really matter to anyone in reality, it’s just a nice extra effect. And back in the days before FSX, visual damage with bits and pieces flying off aircraft was modeled, albeit disabled in FS2002 and FS2004 by default, likely due to the cultural backlash 9/11 had caused. I think we have moved past that enough to consider a realistic damage model eventually though.
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I think they do care because I have seen it mentioned in several cases where manufacturers for both cars and planes put that restriction on licensing the product for use. If it was true or not I do not know. I can say I have dealt with the big three GM, Ford and Chrysler before and they are very picky.
I also play Second Life and I used to be a content creator there. We made Drag Racing cars and had a racing sim. We tried to get permission from them to use their names and likeness in the game. Dodge said no because they were thinking of doing it (they never did). GM said yes but the price to do it was insanely high and the rules very strict to the point where it wasn’t worth it. Ford not only said no, they sent out cease and dissist letters and threatened to sue if we did it lmao. And I know of at least two content creators that got their accounts taken away for continuing to use trademarked names on their cars.
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In the event of a crash, the background should not be black, but remain transparent (so that you can better see where and how you crashed)
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I know this might not be important but I think it would be cool to see the plane disintegrate instead of a black screen. It doesn’t have to be very complex, maybe just better than the one in X-plane, but I understand that if it isn’t good it might ruin the realism of the surrounding environment and the sim as a whole. Just an idea 
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Yes, in many ways I would like to see this too. But… I can do without it also.
In iRacing there are many cars, just like there are many planes here in MSFS.
In iRacing, introducing cars that get damage to them created many bugs in that sim. Thirty planes and the chance of creating many new bugs to this sim is just not worth the thrill of watching a plane crack up; to me.
I could totally do without a damage model in MSFS. In my opinion, the bugs are just not worth it.
The damage model in iRacing was a contributing factor in my leaving that sim, at least for a while until they sort it out and make it work for either driver involved in a crash.
Sorry, but I am going to have to press the “no” button here.
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Seems in poor taste considering the real life crashes in recent history. The Boeing Max, Air Asiana, 9/11, etc, etc, etc. Hard ‘no’ from me.
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In my opinion at least something would be better than the current black screen “you broke something” we have right now. Even X-Plane has some modicum of a damage model where if you really bonk the airplane onto the runway it’ll break systems without kicking you out of the plane.
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Yup. I too would like to skid along the runway, or sink into water instead of an instant black screen. It doesn’t really have to contain any visual damage. Investigating the place after the crash could be nice too.
On top of that it would indeed be nice if you are unable to start up the engine, have malfunctioning flaps, …
Right now taxiing your Zlin slowly into a building causes death. 
Now I can imagine bumping a 747 into a building at 3kts will cause a lot of damage to the plane and building because of its weight. But a zlin at 3kts should still be able to fly I think? It may not be safe but oh well.
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Yup the damage model makes no sense. You also get death / end of flight if one of your wheels touches the water while taxiing on a beach, but you can slam your plane hard on landing and it’s fine, as long as your propeller doesn’t touch the ground. The damage model is a joke and not worthy of a simulator.
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Damage modeling is definitely a must. Too much g forces, faulty gear / instruments etc must be simulated for this to be a respectable simulator. Otherwise it will just be all fun and games and pretty much not useful for real-life pilots. I am currently in the middle of my PPL studies and I’d like to see how the different extreme conditions really affect the planes.
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I mean it has no meaning setting the damage and failure on hard when you’ll get a black disappointing screen that says I broke the plane. It takes away the feeling not overspeeding on full toga or you’ll wat out with your flaps and those sort of stuff. Please give us more information about this topic
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More than anything, it is a licensing problem, as Boeing, Cessna, EADS, etc don’t want their planes / IP misused or misrepresented.
In any case, I wish we had overstressing, fire and rough landing effects. I would particularly love if the leveld of detail could be brought to the standard in IL-2 Battle of Stalingrad, where the landing gear breaks, implodes, the wings crack, etc if you land too hard, for example. Depending on speed and stress, ailerons and moving parts also will loosen up and break apart.
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I opened a small vent window in a Mooney aircraft. Yes, this would cause ‘damage’ but the sim rudely exited. That is ridiculous! In X-Plane, I once lowered the flaps at way too high a speed. The sim modeled a broken and extended left flap, but the the right still worked. With a lot of work I was able to land the plane, and learned a heck of a lot in the process. FS2020 would just quit, robbing the pilot of an extremely valuable lesson. I’ve submitted two bug reports about this behavior. Please do the same if you think that level of realism would be useful.
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The lack of damage simulation really limits the sims use as a training tool. You might break off landing gear, you might rip off a flap, maybe you brush a tree on your way out - these things happen, and it would be nice if we could teach how to recover rather than getting kicked out of the sim.
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I understand from a legality standpoint that damage models are a touchy subject with flight sims especially after 9/11. My suspicion is that governments have restricted the detail of flight sims because of the historical events that transpired that day. It is no small detail that the hijackers utilized a flight sim in their planning. So we must be extremely diligent and clear in what we are asking for here in an effort to appeal to the laws as well as satisfy the much needed emergency preparedness scenarios that could save a pilots life and their passengers if they had the opportunity to practice different scenarios outside of a real cockpit.
Stuck landing gear and being able to visually see that the landing gear is stuck. Visual engine fires / smoke from an engine especially in single prop aircraft where severe smoking could hinger VFR flight requiring one to switch to IFR. The ability to declare emergencies in flight and work through real emergencies with ATC / nearby aircraft( there are scenarios where other aircraft have visually inspected a fellow pilots aircraft to determine damage ). I feel like this would be a huge feature to add to the sim. One that real world pilots would and do deal with everyday. I am not looking for building damage models that is irresponsible. I just want to have actual damage shown visually as well as flight model wise with the addition of being able to declare emergency to ATC. Damaged control surfaces due to ice or even bird strike. Hitting the ground too hard during landing causing damage to the landing gear. Rather than just fading to black and calling it a day. Some of these situations can be completely salvageable. Loss of engine power, stuck control surfaces causing difficulty to land or restricting to only left or right turns. Overspeed that doesn’t result in destruction of the airframe but does cause damage to control surfaces. What about decompression for airlines forcing pilots to descend to flight levels where there is more oxygen. These are all very real scenarios that each have their own procedures to work through.
To add on here what about failure of glass cockpit instruments forcing us to go to backup analogue instruments. Smoke in cabin etc there are sooo many avenues to take to train for emergency situations. This could even push MSFS2020 to be the go to for airline training which would be a MASSIVE financial incentive to Asobo.
As an olive branch here fade to black when crashing into buildings absolutely. We should not feed into that kind of simming under ANY circumstances. I believe we can all agree on this.
As for full destruction of the aircraft. This could be an offering for flight crash investigators and could actually help find missing aircraft. The sim is detailed enough that a specific edition of the sim could be made to assist in investigations IRL. Since this is tied in with weather data in real time once fuel consumption / weight is fully fleshed out I could see this having multiple uses inside and outside of the sim.
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Its nice to have some damage model. But for me this can be reduced to smoke/fire effects. Even If its belly scraping over the runway or engine fires.
No need to display ripped of engines, wings or other parts.
Its a flight simulator, not a crash simulator!
The statement that this can help with rl investigation training or whatsoever, I can tell you allready it won’t . Trust me I know what iam talking about.