Correct I should have just said it juggles you from frequency to frequency in general along your flight. Very annoying.
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I love it when non-software developers say âIt surely wouldnât be that hard toâŠâ. Actually it IS that hard. Very hard. How do I know that? Because no one has done it well. No one. Give me one example of any third-party ATC program that works with multiplayer the way you describe. If it were easy, there would be several examples. Please donât assume how easy or difficult something is to implement unless you are in the industry yourself. You can make a request of the developers and the community can decide a priority but they get to figure out if they can do it. And if there is a great need, some third party software developer may try to do it. But it will be a lot of work and you should expect a high price for such an addon.
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There was a comment from a previous Q&A that Microsoft China is working on a âcool somethingâ [upgrade/replacement/addition?] for ATC.
Edit, found the post, it was about making voices sound more real and not a logic upgrade.
I dont actually find ATC that bad to be honest. Sure there are a few issues with frequency swaps when there are different control areas overlapping that would not happen in real life (or at least has not happened to me 
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- If the ATIS is giving you wind information and runway in use and ATC tells you the opposite that is just wrong and could potentially cause some excitement.
- Quite a few airports have a ATIS frequency but then you donât actually get any informationâŠlike the guys just forgot to make the tape
At first I thought it was out of range but even directly over the airport ⊠zip zilch nada. - If vectored to a RUNWAY that should mean you are indeed being vectored to a point from which you can land on that runway without any acrobatic moves. Currently that is not the case but did work in FS9/FSX
Yes an âunableâ option would be nice but unlikely to happen.
The dive-bomber approach was with us in FS9/X and could usually remedied by simply asking for a step down altitude. That so far seems to work in MSFS as well. Though sometimes the sim seems to have different charts than I do as far as MCAs.
What does still work is simply not signing in with the next ATC frequency and fly your plan until you are close to the destination. The IFR plan is still active and you simply sign in with the controller in the final sector.
If you ask for a change to your flight level Atc agrees and Directs you to climb or descend accordingly and then communicates later referring to the level you were on originally before the flight level change.
Or use the default binding SHIFT-P (like it was in FSX) to toggle a straight pushback, works every time.
Well weâve already got 3 kinds of multiplayer. Live, all and group only. Nothing wrong with changing the rules for live to âyou must spawn at a gate/parking spotâ. Of course, that would mean theyâd have to review all 37,000 airports to ensure there actually is a parking spot defined. A lot donât have any.
Psst. I am a developer. Just not of games. And if the server knows where every aircraft is then itâs possible to code some control over it.
Multiplayer is there in the forms you mentioned. But normally the point of multiplayer is having maximum interactivity with other players. In this sim, other players are just âthereâ visually and nothing more. Because we have client-side ATC, thereâs even less interaction than we get with Live / AI Traffic.
Thereâs nothing stopping people from grouping up, getting on Discord or something and having a group / formation flight. Iâm sure thatâs a lot of fun. Ditto if youâre flying on VatSim or similar network with a real controller funneling traffic. But stock, the multiplayer really adds little to the sim other than adding more planes in the sky for the appearance of more traffic. For the more hardcore simmers, it even tends to be an annoyance because planes spawn on runways and often just sit there for extended periods.
I have a sneaky suspicion (and I fully admit I could be completely wrong) that at least a small part of the reason thereâs no interactivity on ATC is to keep the game G-rated. You canât hear any potentially inappropriate / offensive / racist call signs, just like you canât see tail numbers of other planes, likely for the same reason. And you can bet there are plenty of those considering how heavily theyâre trying to target the kiddies on XBox.
Please reread what I said. Since you are a developer, you must know that just because something is possible doesnât make it easy.
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Ive stopped using ATC for everything expect pushback (if you can get pushback!)
Issues ive had
Descend to late
multiple transfers within a minute
descend to x level then immediately climb to x level to then be told you will need to descend to x level where you started⊠etc
hold for traffic on taxiway (no traffic on taxiway in fact no traffic at the airport)
and of course the pushback interaction is completely wrong.
VFR is far less hassle than IFR. You can contact ATC to takeoff, taxi, and land with next to no bother.
One thing I noticed during an IFR flight was when I was given an approach, and I noticed the option to request a new one. I tried this out, and you can make the request, but it isnât so much as acknowledged. Multiple requests are completely ignored for some reason, and you have to accept what they give.
Not quite rightâŠusually if you request an approach other than the one assigned you will be cleared for your requested approach. Even if you request the downwind runway just for fun you normally get that with the appropriate circle to land additon.
But I have had one situation where i did not want the VOR-DME approach because of the higher minimums when there was a perfectly fine ILS to the same runwayâŠand in that one case ATC did not work as usualâŠit did not reply at all.
So since there is no FAA to pull my ticket I simply ignored the lady and flew the approach I wanted
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In real life, sure, but not in the sim. I can lean on option 2 but ATC never acknowledge my request. The only one that works is option 1, which is to acknowledge what they already told me.
Even if I do that, then make a request for a new approach, then select the transition, they still donât acknowledge.
This is with the Navigraph data, in case that matters.
I am talking in the sim mate, otherwise I certainly would not have ignored the ATC command and done what I felt is betterâŠthat only works if you are the Congressman heading the Aviation panel 
I do exactly that all the time in the sim and pick the approach I want from the options.
ATC : 8DT cleared VOR-DME 17 approach âŠ
8DT : Standby
8DT : Request ILS-Y TNS Transition
ATC : 8DT cleared ILS-Y TNS Transition, cleared direct TNS.
UsuallyâŠlike I said one time no matter what I did I could not get ATC to react.
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ATC needs to be totally reworked. It has no semblance to reality. Current ICAO phraseology is very brief and concise. Phonetic alphabet used in call signs and stations or airports using 3 or 4 letter ICAO designators. Also planes land AGAINST the wind, not WITH the wind! I have learned to ignore the takeoff, taxi out, and landing directives from this phoney ATC. Transferring from one control sector frequency to another is not an issue since it does happen RW. ATC has seemingly been dumbed-down for the âgamerâ crowd at the expense of those who want more simulated realism. Yes, we need 3rd party for this. I have used FSX along with UT live and UT2 and they at least were workable (discounting their sophomoric attempt at vectoring). In the mean time, I have found the best way is to program my flight along with a flight level (altitude) and then use ATC clearance but takeoff from the logically correct runway, vector myself to intercept FMS course, and once given clearance to my filed altitude, I just let AI handle it and ignore all the ridiculous commands. Usually I can count on ATC giving me the wrong approach to the logically wrong runway at my destination. I simply vector myself unto the appropriate final approach course and land (with ATC yelling to clear the runway). I then contact ground after runway exit and I will follow their instructs to parking.
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Here are some images of me attempting to request a different approach to one I am given, and failing.
No matter how many times I do it, or the approach I choose, the sequence of âSelect another approachâ, then âRequest approach from controllerâ is ignored. Not rejected, no response at all from ATC, as if I never requested it.
I assume I am supposed to get some kind of response here, either accept my request or deny it, just as they do for flight level changes.
This was while in contact with Center. I cancelled my IFR plan, and file again, but this time after entering the approach for RNAV 7. Again, I was given visual runway 7. A little later I was instructed to switch to the tower. Again, my alternative approaches are ignored.
I see one line that may be the cause of the hang upâŠafter the initial standby which is acknowledged by ATC you are once again promted to acknowledge and then promted againâŠlooks like it took too long before you selected and requested the approach.
At that point ATC seems to be stuck in the loop of the original approach.
So far I have only had one occasion where it did not want to cooperate and that was an airport in the Cabo Verde IslandsâŠ
I just did another flight to GCLP and ATC let me have the approach I wanted no problem.
Sorry - Iâve not bothered with default ATC, are you saying that it does or doesnât use decimal?
Iâll try and be snappier next time!
The other thing I thought of was it would reject runway 25 if it was not the active. So as you can see I tried multiple times for runway 7, and each time it was rejected.
Iâll have to retry, perhaps at a busier airport with multiple runways.
Also, I didnât start the flight as an IFR flight, but VFR, with only the departure airport on the map screen.
I never filed an IFR flight on the ramp, I merely took off, then contacted Centre to request an instrument landing. Could that be wrong?