Originally, just SU1 and SU2 were going to be bug fix SU’s, but now SU3 will also be an additional bug fix SU. My question then is, what are the planned focus areas of further SUs?
Rough plans of course, nothing in stone. But I for one would love to know what SU we are planning on finally launching bush trips which were supposed to be at release. We know Working Title is working on ATC currently, what SU would we think that may fall. There are requests for Career Mode. I get that stabilizing the sim for everyone is the priority, thus SU1-3. But I would love to know when we can expect some of the things that we have been promised, or just didn’t come complete at launch but should have.
I would love to get a dedicated SU for a weather system rework. After seeing what Xplane did with their WX system, I think MSFS is falling behind. And maybe we’ll finally get a detailed default Weather Radar System…
If Microsoft hired HifiSim like they did WorkingTitle, this could really be nice. The skies in FS are lacking variation, and this would make me jump to FS2024 immediately.
Good question, but I don’t think anyone here can give you a definitive answer. Would be a good question for the next dev. livestream, whenever that is announced.
I too, would like to see a “Working-Title-like” effort on the weather. For example there are no meaningful consequences for entering a CB (t-storm) these days in live weather. I don’t know what happened because it seemed like it used to get nasty a couple of years ago when you got in a CB. Maybe that’s just my selective memory though.
I know no one here can give the answer. This would have to be something that is announced in a Dev Q&A. But since the only way to we have to communicate is via these forums, I am posting the question so that it can be planned for in a future Q&A.
Take like Bush Trips. If you use one of the third party addons, you get a default screen for it, and you can do the bush trip in very limited ways. But we can’t submit Bug reports on it since even though it is using the SDK and pulling up screens that are in the base game, it still isn’t officially supported. We can’t put in WIsh List items for it, they get rejected, because it isn’t officially released yet. So there is this kind of limbo where you can’t report issues, you can’t put in requests for changes, but then there is no official word on when they are targetting at doing the official release. That puts 3rd party bush trip developers and customers in a bit of a bad space where we aren’t even allowed to do anything officially.
SayIntentions and BeyondATC are releasing new updates soon which will support ATC. Do people invest in the third party addon, or do they wait for what Working Title is working on? Timeframes do effect decisions. MilTech is releasing a new mission system. Do people invest in that, or do they wait for the updates to Career Mode.
Just a rough idea of when these type of things are being targetted for would be helpful. It doesn’t have to be set in stone. Say ATC is being targetted for SU4, but then they find there are issues and need more time and it slips to SU5. Fine. But if ATC isn’t going to be targetted until SU7 say, then people might think investing in one of the addons might make sense.
I mean these are all things that were supposed to be present at launch. I’m not beating anyone up on that. But it is reasonable that customers be given some idea of when these things that didn’t make it into launch are going to be addressed.
Another vote for a dedicated weather update. I think 2024’s clouds and lighting are very good, but we need more variety, definition, and turbulence. (As a side note, XP can look stunning in some shots, but I’ve seen too many videos with weird looking blobs to think it’s reliably and consistently good in motion)
Well, basically even communication through these forums won’t provide you an answer as basically the team doesn’t really know which SU will be next as this heavily depends on external processes like first party aircraft creators and data delivery from different services.
To me that doesn’t matter. People will buy what they feel like is best. The sim is a platform and won’t feature everything in all detail, so add-ons and mods will always have their place. The best example is the 737 Max 8 - the default one won’t be a replacement for a high detailed one by PMDG or iFly. It’s simply a different market. Some may wait to see what Asobo or WT will create, however those looking for the extra bit won’t do so.
I know. I know no one here can answer the question. Only Jorge, Seb, and Martial can. I know that.
This is putting this out here so that it can be raised as a topic in the Dev Q&A. I have no CHOICE to post here though as this is the only communication means we have to talk to Jorge and Asobo. Not posting anything means that this will stay silent, and we will be in the dark on what the estimated schedules are.
I’ve tried posting questions during the Dev Q&A itself. Those questions get glossed over and ignored in real time. So I am putting this out here first so that it can be a scheduled question, and hopefully gaining support from the community that they would like the answer too. But so far, all I am getting is “Dude, stop posting this stuff here because no one can answer you”. If I don’t post here, how is it EVER going to be answered.
Sorry but I cannot confirm that. My success rate on questions asked vs. answered on the dev stream is 50/50, both in chat and on the questions collected beforehand.
The thing is that the three guys sitting there don’t know it all. They prepare answers to the most wished/impactful questions and other than that may only have a general status they can see on some Kanban board (“That’s in progress”). I don’t blame them as there are hundreds of items in progress and it’s not their job to track them.
The people who know are not on camera. There are individual teams working on different topics across the project and the most detailed status is within the individuals actually working on something or testing it internally. And that doesn’t change over here as also in this case the developers are not active in this forum.
The only place on which you can encounter some of the guys is the developer forums, however that’s mainly the SDK teams place and obviously they won’t talk about new features another team is working on.
I don’t think it’s about stopping you to post anything but about keeping expectations in check, both with the sim as an open platform and with the persons communicating with the crowd.
In the past, when the date of a dev. livestream is announced, the CMs usually also post a link to a webform where you can ask your questions - e.g. for the March dev. livestream, the link to the webform was posted in this Development Update. The webform link may be included in CM posts on other social media platforms too, but since I don’t monitor those I cannot say for certain that this is the case.
I am not blaming them. But it is also an uncomfortable question too. Ever since Mabel announced in FlightSim Expo that missions wouldn’t load into the marketplace, I was asking what that meant, if it meant that bush trips were not in 2024. The answer was finally “Everything that is in 2020 is in 2024. We have not removed anything, we have only added”. And I get it, development was very behind. I am not faulting that. But now questions about when this code will be finished are never answered. There is code in 2024. Otherwise a default screen wouldn’t come up. Otherwise you couldn’t do very remedial things for the mission. But it isn’t finished. But even though the code is in the release, it isn’t “official” so bug reports and wish list items get immediately rejected by stating it isn’t official code. So since bush trips aren’t all that popular and its an embarrassing topic to cover, simpler questions are covered.
This isn’t about blaming. It isn’t about giving the developers a hard time. I fail to understand why people are so against me asking for a general timeframes. Is bush trips SU4, SU5 or SU12? Is ATC slated for SU4 or SU5? I expect that Career being the most popular, the wish list items will probably be updates SU4 which sets other things back farther. I am not expecting those answers will be today. I’m not expecting they will be in this forum. Like I said, SayIntentions is planning their ATC release pretty soon. People would probably like to know when enhancements to ATC are coming in sim as compared to having to purchase a subscription. I bought 2024 exclusively for bush trips. Not an exaggeration. View my 4 year history on this forum and you will see that is all I have talked about doing. So I am not trying to troll. But I am curious at to a general timeframe when I will get what I bought and when I can use the sim. If you buy hardware, and the hardware doesn’t work, you ask what you need to do to get what you paid for. If you buy something from Amazon and it hasn’t arrived, you ask Amazon when you can expect delivery. I am not doing anything out of the realm of what you do for any other purchase. SU4 is the last SU of the year, and like I said, I highly suspect that is going to be Career oriented. So am I looking at March next year? Am I looking at summer? Is it something even planned for 2026 at all? You all get to use the sim. And to post bug reports on things that are wrong. And to post wish list items. I can’t even do that since bush trips isn’t the “official release” code yet. It is exceedingly frustrating being in limbo, and not even being told when you are going to be whole.
I’m not so sure about that. SU1 beta was released Jan23rd. Assuming SU2 goes final next week, that’s 2 SU’s within a 3 month and 1 week period.
I’m guessing we will see more than 4 SU’s in 2024 and rightfully so.
I understand your passion for bush trips and your desire to keep asking when they will be included. It is possible Jorg doesn’t even know at this point in time. As you know Asobo has a lot on their plate with continued bug fixes that are affecting most users. When the time comes for bush trips hopefully the majority of bugs will be squashed making bush trips more enjoyable.
As has been suggested, post your questions for the next dev stream. Maybe they will have a better idea then when bush trips will be added.
Good luck
Jorg has said there are only 4 SU’s planned this year, with each SU taking about 3 months of development. SU3 is planned for around July, and SU4 is planned for around September. FIguring that Asobo has the last two weeks off in December for the holidays, that would perhaps put the beta for SU5 in January.
Pretty hard to say, anything we say would be speculation at this point. For me as long as we get the promised being able to download aircraft and airports rather than streaming and massive performance fixes for SU3, I would be happy. It also seems Asobo has tackled a lot of the issues from the wish list and bug list with SU2. As long as they get SU2 and SU3 right and have the sim running really well I will be happy. SU4 and beyond can maybe be fixes and improvements like ATC, weather system, etc. Only time will tell.
Bug fixes, what else? The game still feels like a pre-alpha, especially on Xbox where it’s barely playable. There are fundamental operational and controller input issues that make flying borderline impossible. The game shipped with ~18,000 logged bugs. The Career mode is basically a string of errors, the ATC is barely usable, and on Xbox the graphics and performance are abysmal, lightyears behind MSFS 2020. The developers have no choice but to spend this year with further bug fixes, otherwise players will not purchase add-ons in the marketplace and the business will shrink or collapse, undermining the future of the franchise.
So both SU3 and SU4 will be purely bug fixes (hopefully), and new features will not arrive until next year. Given the condition of the game, I think it’s a good thing.
The problem with a decidated sim update for something is that there are many teams working on all different kinds of stuff.
To have a dedicated update of X, those teams would either have to drop what they’re doing and re-skill themselves on weather or whatever the update might be, which they were not hired for, or they would have to simply hold off on deploying whatever it is that they made until the next release.
I feel for you. I’ve never done a bush trip in my life, but I know how important they are to you.
What I would have loved to have said to you would be to hop on I-90 this June, head over to FSExpo in Providence and talk to the team personally. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like they’re going to be there.
I’ll use one of my three dev stream questions to ask about bush trips next time. At least there would be two people asking about them.
