Review: A good looking unfinished beta product

First of all let me say, this simulator looks absolutely beautifull. Yes, there are lot’s of scenery bugs and issues. But overall it looks so much better then everything else, i can somehow forgive the issues related to scenery. The performance seems to be all over the place for the moment now but most of the time i get a descent frame rate. I’m on a 1080ti - i7 7700k - 32Gb 3200 ddr4 - sim installed on own ssd. I get around 40fps on average. go’s as low as 20fps with the 787 at busy handcrafted airport (EHAM for example) To well over 60fps in a cessna somewhere on an remote island.

that said, I’d like to talk about the actual flying. Because that’s the most important part if you’d ask me.
There seem to be a big difference in flying experience between GA planes and airliners. While the GA planes feel really convincing, the airliners feel terrible.

First, i’d like to mention that the sensitivity’s of the controls are really horrible. I’m on a simple thrustmaster hotas joystick (thrustmaster t flight hotas x) and i’m unable to find descent settings that allow me precicion control over the aircrafts. When i put my axis sensitivity curves to 0, It requires very little input to pitch up/down left/right. It’s impossible to make a smooth flight like this. So i tried lowering the sensitivity and found that between -60 and -80 i was able to make smooth and small corrections. The problem now is however, that i’m unable to make bigger movements because the sensitivity curve go’s from almost flat to very steep in no time.

example: cessna 208 i can easily make a smooth take off, But when retracting flaps. I have to pull on the stick. But i have to pull so much that it go’s to the steep side of the curve so it becomes very sensitive all of the sudden. That makes for a very jerky flight. (i hope this all makes sense)

It’s very different from aircraft to aircraft. Most of the GA aircraft i’m able to fly okay, but that’s only when flying with little corrections. Trying to stall an aircraft of make some steep turns i always struggle to keep it smooth and not jerky.

So now let’s talk about the airliners/jets.

What - a - mess.

I haven’t had a single flight (during alpha, beta, and release) where everything went how it suposed to go. These planes are completely broken still. The autopilot problems may be fixed, The flight models and performance are still really bad.

Let’s talk about take off first. All the jet’s are overpowered. Even with full load they just go like rockets. it’s v1 - vr - and flaps up and back to idle before v2 or you’re going 300knots overspeeding. I mean, they tested this with REAL pilots and they were okay with that? So maybe i’m doing something wrong? I don’t know but i’ve never experienced these kind of trouble with other flight sims. I can take of with 50% N1 and still i need to be carefull to not overspeed during takoff. Also vertical speed are insane. 8000 fpm directly after positive rate is not uncommon. I don’t know why this is happening and if this is how airliners behave in real life and it’s just me doing things wrong, But that would also mean that any other flight sim is incorrect.

Then there’s the trim settings on takeoff. So when rolling to vR. most of the aircraft start rotating allready at 80kts or 100kts. So easy fix would be setting the correct take off trim. So i do that. And the plane stays on the ground till VR. But the problem is. When i pull back to rotate it won’t let me rotate smooth. It feels like i first have to fight the negative trim. Then i have to pull more before it will actually pitch up. and then waaaaay over VR speeds it finally go’s airborne. And now we’re flying a rocket. Ofcourse this also has to do with the control sensitivity.

But okay, we made it to the sky’s. Thrust is set to idle to not overspeed. Autothrust is armed. AP is on with vs and alt set. heading is set (let’s pretend we’re not flying an flightplan) So the autopilot is stabilizing the aircraft. Speeds are getting normal again and finally everything is smooth. From here on most of the autopilot systems seem to be fixed. Works as expected so that’s good. BUT: It’s so freaking aggresive. flying 200kts and setting speed to 220kts the autothrust go’s full throttle, go’s well over 220kts. Back to idle. everyone in the back had a heartattack for sure. Anyway we continue our pattern to circle back to the airport and intercept ils. All gp’s well. intercept is going great. Follows the glide slope and loc. Time to dissengage so flying manually now.

Here’s the biggest problem: Ground effect. I really love the fact that this is replicated in the sim. But it’s so bad, that it completely ruins the experience. So we’re comming in for touch down. 50,40,30,20 we pull back to idle, 10 we start our flare and BOOM back to the sky with 1000fpm. Why? How can the plane start climbing again while flying low speed with full flaps and throttle back to idle. Yeah sure they tested with real world pilots. Now whoever those pilots may be, I hope to never have to fly with them.
It’s like the plane have no weight at all.

But okay… after floating above the runway for a few miles the aircraft finally starts to come down (at stall speed haha)

But seriously, It’s really bad.

Anyway. I thought i’d take some time to write a review. But seeing how much i wrote allready i think there’s no point of writing more. There are soo many bugs/faults/wrongs at this moment. it’s impossible to adress them all in one post.

And ofcourse there’s nothing wrong with a few bugs on release. And i get that for asobo this is just the “beginning”. But this beginning cost me (and thousands of others) 120 euros. So it should be at least enjoyable and working.

I’m flying most of the time with the GA planes now. Because they seem to be alot better. Bit bummed i spend the extra because i really love the 787 in real life. But the sim completely ruined the airliners.

Conclusion: It’s a simulator still in early alpha/beta. I’m not gonna call it an arcade because there is alot of stuff simulated in depth. It’s just not finished. It’s not the beginning. It’s month’s and month’s before “the beginning”. I also don’t like the statements like: “We tested with real world pilots” Or “these are bugs and being worked on”… It’s to late for that. And no real world pilot is gonna say: “yeah my plane also go’s from 0 - 300 like that with 50%ng in a 6000fpm climb. That’s absolutely normal”

So, i know i’m gonna get alot of comments saying, Yeah but every new game comes with bugs and issues. And it’s a simulator so it’s super complicated and maybe you’re doing it all wrong. Or: give them some time and it will be better.

Well, they should have give themselfs some more time before releasing it and let thousands of people spend alot of money for an alpha product. No one expected this to be out so early. So they could easily spend a couple of month’s more on development without people even complaining about it.

Good day everyone! I hope this doesn’t sound to negative. Because there’s also alot of good things about this sim :smile:

23 Likes

I’m surprised no-one hasn’t responded to your post yet, but I for one think this is a useful post and a signal that’s being repeated on multiple places. I strongly urge Asobo to look at the flight model asap, because right now it’s Microsoft flight Arcade 2020,…

Well, the term arcade is not appropiate i think. They went in alot of depth regarding the flight model and environment. So the “sandbox” should be good. It’s just the aircraft themselfs not interpretated well into the sim.

I think it is such a shame the devs never listened to our constructive criticisms over the last 6 months this could have been so much better, more polished, with another 3 months work before launch , there are some things that are amazingly good and some things so disastrously bad even a 5 year old would have noticed.

Where exactly do you see the depth in the flight model then? If basic aspects such as weight, inertia et cetera are not taken into account how can the rest of the flight model be accurate?

My experience with XP11 and Condor tells me that it is possible to get decent flight models in games. Those two aren’t perfect either, but at least it feels closer to how it does in real life (Glider Pilot).

In general I do agree with the OP.
The airliners are a mess.
The GA is fun + you get to njoy the scenery more.

Until the issues are fixed and the full fidelity third party add ons are availabel I’m back to DCS and occasionally some MSFS GA circles for fun. I’ll give it at least a year before focusing on the MSFS again.

Well at this moment i don’t see the depth in the flight model either. But my point is that the basics they’ve created can be really good. I believe all the numbers are there (in terms of environment. wind. airflow. etc etc) But it’s just the planes not dealing with those numbers very well at this moment.

In a racing game you can have a great tyre model. But if you put the tyre model on a car with wrong data (weight, input, balance, suspension etc.) the car will be totally unrealistic. But this doesn’t mean it’s “arcade”. Because someone else can model a car with very acurate data in the same game using the same tyre model and the car drives realistic.

I think this is what’s happening here. The fundementals of physics can be really good. But the planes are all different in howl they deal with those physics. Hence some of the GA planes are better then others, and the airliners are just broken.

Yeah, agree with the jets. I also was taking-off with the a320 when suddenly right after take-off i got a overspeed warning. I was going 280 already with flaps still down… This is not correct. Who has tested this ??? Still a bug ? I’ll stick for the most realistic flight experience with fsx and pmdg for now and will wait when they release the 737 also for 2020…

There is no need to blame the testers. Things were reported but not fixed. If you are not happy, I would suggest to wait a few months until the first few patches are released.

I agree that it was released too soon (I think all testers agree with that) but that is the hard reality in software land. There are plenty funny youtube videos about that.

2 Likes

Yeah nice suggestion. Spend 120 bucks and now you sugest me to wait for a few month’s to enjoi my investment😂

This is why developers get away with this sh*t. If you’re spending money for a product and the product is bad they should know about it and they should feel it. Stop putting unfinished broken games on the market. Seems like an ungoing trend since the digital era.

Are you loading up your Jets with passengers cargo and fuel? The default is just 50% load.

Or you could just get a refund and watch the game on Youtube and Twitch.

2 Likes

No product will be 100% upon release especially with the amount of aircraft modeled.

The A/P for those I have tried certainly have issues and that’s okay. I’m certain the team will be working to address these concerns over the next few months.

Until then let’s wait for PMDG to release their beautful NG 37. I was one of the original beta testers for their first release many years ago.

Even with 100% load these issues exist. Also in real life it’s perfectly fine to fly with an empty plane. Ofcourse the plane will be configured differently. But they won’t become rockets that don’t want to land back on earth.

Have you even read my post? The autopilot is mostly fine. It’s not about that. And i don’t want the pmdg planes. I’m in no need for a “study level” aircraft as all of you like to call it.

I just want the default aircraft to work. They don’t have to be 100% realistic. But they do have to work.

In fsx the planes were very basic. But at least they worked.

I’ve spend 120 euros for this to enjoy. Not to wait for another investment before finally be able to enjoy…

1 Like

yesterday i took off in a 747 and somehow got it landed but i have over 400 claims now because all passengers made a number 2 in their pants.
As OP mentioned , it feels like the plane has zero weight , in RL both wings would have snapped off due to extreme movement while you try to nudge the plane with minimal input.
Also what’s up with them bricks over waterway’s (bridges) , i’ll give 1 example , queensboro bridge over the east river at NYC , approaching from the south it looks like a brick with a sticker on it , approaching from the north it’s half a brick with a kind of bridge sticking out of it , and motor vehicles are riding over the topside of the brick. and then there are a lot more bricks over the east river where you can’t go under the bridges because of artifacts under them.
Also have a good look at the night lights mapping , at LSGS airport at night it looks like a chinese lampion parade , so many lights floating in the air.

Ok back to being a paying customer and now pressed into service as beta tester.

Our voices in alpha were so loud but they didnt seem to listen. There was a whole thread on how to sim was not ready for release. We all lied to ourselves and thought there was a magic build that had everything fixed. Sad to learn that wasnt the case. Dont get me wrong this game is beautiful and has very big potential but i think we would of rather wait for a good release instead of getting an early release with many problems.

You realize that the scenery is not hand made? It’s auto-generated using AI algorithms trying to guess based on inconsistent and limited imagery what each bridge should look like.

Luckily for us, this also means that scenery improvements will be coming faster, for FREE and on a much wider scale than ever before. We just need to be a little patient for improved imagery and better AI to become available. My guess is, it won’t be a very long wait. At the rate AI is currently progressing and new satellites are being launched, in a few years, the rendering engine, we currently have, will be able to display scenery that is magnitudes better.

Hi
Thanks for the post, I attempted my first basic flight yesterday on the C172 and as a real world pilot with over 1,000 hours I can agree that the sensitivity of flight controls is totally unrealistic and virtually impossible to have a smooth flight, The sim looks good so hopefully this will be addressed soon. Will be trying a different aircraft later today which will hopefully be better! :slightly_frowning_face:

1 Like

Hi there. Im from Brazil. I got this version but Im very uncomfortable with the shaking and others troubles during take offs and landings. I try all airplanes and no one is smooth like the older versions of MFS. I`m very very very desapointed with this purchase. I do not recomend it. Thanks. Alfredo