Well know minor issues never fixed

There are few well known minor issues since day one and I wonder why it’s so difficult to fix them…I’m not speaking of major problems (i.e. CTD, stutters, photogrammetry, LOD, flight behaviour etc.) that have been partially addressed and are for sure extremely hard to fix, just few silly glitches however quite tedious.
My list:

  • Never reach the correct altitude for ATC…it was apparently sorted but it’s back now with SU6
  • ATC constantly asking to pass from one flight control to another: “contact XXXX center”
  • ATC asking if you have a plane in sight at 6 o’clock…
  • cars driving at ridicolous speed, not to mention the ones that are flying but maybe this aspect is more difficult to solve rather than the speed.
  • generic planes at the airports are always the same giant model (no matter the size of the airport) and the graphic quality is very bad.

In my opinion ATC in MSFS is always going to be in a dismal state, it always has been in flight sims. I honestly think it’s in best interest that the flight sim community start looking into third party alternatives dedicated to this stuff be it VATSIM, IVAO, PilotEdge, POSCON or Pilot2ATC. I’ve been using VATSIM for a very, very long time. I’ve used it in FS9, FSX, P3Dv3, P3Dv4, P3Dv5, XP11, MSFS. Like I said, ATC in flight sims has never been that good, third-party alternatives simply can’t be beat and because of this I just don’t see any real effort being put forth into fixing it up and improving it as those who truly do care about ATC will look elsewhere for it. As they say actions speak louder than words. Asobo may say they will fix and improve it but I will be utterly shocked if that happens to a degree worth talking about. It will be a massive undertaking and I just don’t see it happening with the alternatives out there.

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In their last Q and A, I believe Asobo mentioned WT will be addressing ATC…probably mid-late 2022 timeframe.

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They indeed said they would, but I don’t think it will be anything special. Think about it, ATC is a very complex matter and stock ATC has always been rather poor. With third-party ATC solutions in abundance I just don’t see them putting much effort into the stock ATC.

I’m not sure. I mean yes I agree ATC is complex (I am ATC), but thinking about the amount of work WT put into the G1000 Nxi, CJ4 etc… I believe they’ll bring that level of advancement to ATC.

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Sure they will fix it up and improve it but to a level that is even remotely close to the solutions that are already out there? Not a chance. I just don’t see any substantial effort being put forth by Asobo or some third-party hired because of what is already out there and because of it’s sheer complexity.

I get it, I really do. ATC in stock MSFS is rather appalling and people want better not having to run to VATSIM or other solutions however it’s pretty much always been like that if you wish for better ATC. In this series as well as other sims. Not only is it terrible it’s extremely basic, offers very little flexibility, not proper and some cases the phraseology is highly obsolete.

I hate to be a Debbie Downer here but I just wouldn’t get too hopeful of what is to come when it comes to the future of ATC in MSFS. To reiterate ATC is a very complex subject matter and being a controller yourself you should know this (which you have acknowledged).

In addition to this the way things work in one country isn’t exactly the same as another. I remember when I did my first flights in the United Kingdom, Germany and Switzerland on VATSIM. Being a user of VATSIM for 12 years at that point I had to look up a whole lot. Completely different than how we do things here in the United States. I remember my first IFR clearance in Canada, it threw me off when I went to CRAFT it down. You think this is going to come to MSFS stock? Of course not.

Many controllers on VATSIM are real world controllers. I know one in ZLA that actually controls ZTL in reality. Heck, I myself am working on becoming a ZLA controller on VATSIM (not a controller in reality).

Again, as I’ve said in other threads I do highly suggest that you and everybody else that really wants a better ATC experience look into VATSIM or other solutions if you want an enthralling ATC experience. I would not wait and hope for a miracle with stock ATC. I just can’t foresee it happening, it will always be subpar if you ask me.

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Wait, are you saying ATC will likely not get any better? Can you rephrase?
:grinning: :grinning:

Could it get any worse? :rofl:

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Sure, let me clear things up as I may have contradicted myself a bit. I’m saying I think people shouldn’t expect miracles to happen. I feel at most ATC will be fixed to a level that makes it “usable” (i.e. ATC will stop instructing you to drop below an MVA and causing possible CFIT) and that improvements across the board will be rather minor, nothing to write home about.

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Everyone is entitled to their opinions, but for my two cents:

I haven’t experienced this problem since SU6. Are you sure you have the correct baro setting at the time?

The only times I experience this is when I am flying along a wiggley international border and and am crossing back and forth between two countries. Presumably the same thing happens when flying along a non-straight centre zone border. Obviously this wouldn’t happen in real life, but it’s clear to see why it is happening in the sim. I am certain if Asobo straightened out the borders to mitigate against this people would be complaining that at X coordinates they should be talking to YYYYY but are still on ZZZZZ :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

Can’t say any of these issues really bother me. Have been flight simming since FS98 where roads were zig zag straight sections of texture-less dark grey. We have come a very long way, I’m not sure any of us should be losing sleep over traffic doing 90 instead of 70 or the polycount of static/AI models! :laughing:

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I do hope that for the interest of my fellow flight simmers who don’t wish to use VATSIM or other solutions are able to get decent ATC at some point and I end up eating crow. I hope I am completely wrong about all of this but honestly I just don’t see it really improving much. Maybe my standards are ridiculously high, higher than the average simmer. Maybe some people really just don’t care how complex or lack thereof stock ATC is. They just want ATC that at least “works” and it’s fidelity being a topic for another day.

The cars have slowed down considerably since release, but still need to move half their speed again IMO.

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I disagree. We certainly should expect these things to be fixed, over time.

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These expedite calls are caused by the system expecting a flight level, when you’re still on altitudes (or more likely vice versa: say FL140 vs 14000’), or your barometer is set correctly when the sim is on something slightly different.

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I’m sure it will however stock ATC in a flight sim will always be dismal and bleak in my opinion. Will be utterly surprised if this changes.

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Just want to say I’m sorry if I come across as dogmatic to other users of this forum, just throwing my $0.02 into the matter.

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I’m hoping that at least if the framework is put in place, and is accessible, then we can mod it as required to make it to standard. But they absolutely need to get the background fundamentals right for us to be able to do that.

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I completely agree.

MSFS has a community folder and supports mods so yes there is nothing wrong with using them. However there are a couple of areas Asobo consider their baby that they are not going to open up for devs, notably weather even if a couple of mods can loosely simulate thermals they are limited and will always be unable to interact with the sim’s own weather which will when finished include the real thing and also default scenery. ATC may yet prove to be another area but obviously not in it’s current state and who knows what else? We are seriously talking about ten years in development with the Metaverse as it’s end product so if anyone doesn’t like this idea of continuous change and updates then there are alternatives.

I will just add that right now they are working on core functionality but there will come a time when they say “Well that’s that done, now let’s go and fix the Isle of Man”.

I don‘t expect perfection but I‘d be glad if ATC didn‘t advise me to climb to FL680 when I request a decrease from FL310 to 290.

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