Forget who said that, but it’s one of my favorite quotes.
This is one of the concerns that many of us, that are enjoying the sim for what it is, a “flight simulator”, have. The fear of bored pilots pushes the software development away from the mundane details, in favour of the excitement of seeing your name at the top of the leaderboard.
The developers have tried to expand their audience. (Great, more users mean more profits and more high end 3rd party addons.) The imagery and hype attracted a ton of new people to the hobby. Many of those have been very disappointed and got bored real quick. “Where are the mission challenges?”, they ask. Use your imagination. You can fly any mission you would like. You know if you did well. Don’t need a scoring system and leaderboard.
Unfortunately, gaming is where the real money is. Not simulating. The developers will continue to put out landing challenges and bush trips. Things that, we the hobbyist have been doing on our own for years.
Want to go tearing up the sky with hundreds of online pilots, trying to see how many kills you can rack up? I think there is a game available for that, but it isn’t this one.
I welcome the new people to our longstanding simulation community, as long as they understand that “flight simulation” IS the end game for most of us. That is where we want to keep the focus for this title. I enjoy combat sim as well, but that is NOT what I purchased MSFS2020 for. Or FSX. Or Fsx9, 2004, 2002 …
Not so much bored … but when in cruse with the fantastic scenery to look at and that fabulous weather to admire … sometimes you need something else to do. In fact, I’m flying right now …
See, when I am flying, I am usually, how should I explain this…?, flying.
I have never had a problem with the AI Co-pilot. I have never turned it on.
I seldom have problems with the the GA autopilot. I seldom have it turned on. In the airliners I will use the automation in the cockpit but because it seems to be notoriously unreliable at times, I am always monitoring my route, confirming my fuel and navigation, planning my descent so when ATC forgets about me I can intervene. Knowing that ATC is likely going to assign me an arrival/approach that wasn’t planned for, I am planning for it, reviewing the plates and charts, so that when the unexpected is thrown at me, I don’t have to scramble while only 15 nm from a transition trying to figure out where I’m going or finding the waypoints to enter into the FMC.
You see, flying is a busy time, even when it’s not busy, because when it IS busy, the last thing I want to be is TOO busy.
Of course, sometimes I will hit the AP just because my beer is empty…
Good point in the original post. I come to the forums to find out features I may have missed, new addons i may not know about or discuss the sim in general. But when the forums are full of rants and complaints etc. its less relevant to the average simmer. If I want to hear people complain I’ll sit with the wife
Agreed. I have found some very useful bits. I have also been able to assist a number of users get past some of their “complaints” and learn to enjoy the sim.
If we all had to struggle through on our own like we did with “Flight Simulator II”…
Don’t knock what the forums offer, just learn to filter what some of the users have to offer.
I think that asking and claiming and keeping the pressure is good.
However, I also felt like leaving the forum was good for my soul.
it is a fight between the forum’s toxicity and our desire to get a good sim for the coming decades.
I think it all comes down to what you let bother you and what you don’t. I spend quite a bit of time on the forums, see a lot of negativity but also a lot of positivity. When I load up the sim, it’s me playing - not anyone else - so I let my self judge and enjoy the game as I see fit.
Yeah! I imagine myself in the middle of a war, bombs falling all over the place, bullets flying next to my head and me there feeling how wonderful life is, that little orange butterfly over there, the fresh smell of nature, of course it is mixed with a bit of gunpowder but I prefer to only smell the nature and ignore the gunpoweder life is wonderful right? lol just joking, it is hard for me to ignore the problems and enjoy the view when the autopilot is trying to kill me, but well, everyone has their own POV. Maybe I should start enjoying the AP trying to kill me, next time I will wear a parachute, that is real adrenaline
How about just turn off the autopilot and enjoy flying instead of riding?
I am having a hard time understanding spending my hard earned cash to buy a simulator and upgrade my computer just so I can get the same experience that I could get by watching youtube videos of other people flying.
I bought a flight simulator so I could, FLY.
yeah, its fun to fly by hand too. After 10 minutes it start to hurt my wrist, tweaking the trim and such. I mean, it’s fine if you want to fly by hand, but flying an airliner during 2 hours by hand? every single day during the next months? I doubt it. Nevermind, i think you got my point, cheers mate
Plain simple: from the menu in Google maps (three dashes top left) go to “my places” and select the “maps” tab. Select “create map” at the bottom and go from there.
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life is wonderful right? lol just joking, it is hard for me to ignore the problems and enjoy the view when the autopilot is trying to kill me, but well, everyone has their own POV. Maybe I should start enjoying the AP trying to kill me, next time I will wear a parachute, that is real adrenaline 