So I’ve been flying online a lot (mostly along the west coast US) and I’m noticing the skies are empty. I might see one or two people around a busy airport like SFO or LAX but that’s about it. If I put my setting to all players the number of players visible (to me) increases dramatically so it’s not like nobody is playing the game. So why aren’t more people flying “online?”
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I think if you put the setting to all players you are only seeing those who are online. Players who are offline will never be visible to you
Live players and all players both show people who are online. The difference between live and all is what your time/weather settings are locked to. Live players ONLY shows other online players who are using live time and weather, this is why the weather button on the in game tab doesnt work. All players shows any player currently online, regardless of what time or weather they have set.
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So these other players will see me, and I will see them, but they may have different time and weather settings. Interesting… surprised how many people aren’t playing with live time and weather then.
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You’ll only see the people that use the same settings as you, and you will never see other people that have ‘offline’ selected.
So if you’re on ‘live players’, you’ll see others flying with ‘live players’.
If you’re on ‘All players’, you’ll see others flying with ‘All players’.
The ‘Live players’ mode forces the same (real) time and weather on everyone. It’s the more serious multiplayer mode. You’ll likely find more other players on the ‘All players’ mode.
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Yes, exactly. I could be flying in a blizzard in the middle of the night and you could be flying in clear skies at noon and we would both appear to each other.
I almost always play with live weather and time set but with all players set as my multiplayer mode. I dislike how few people I see in live mode and the inability to change weather/time without backing out to the menu, changing settings, and waiting to load back in. There’s little reason to ever use the live multiplayer preset, imo, since you can achieve the exact same thing without limiting yourself to who else appears. Now, if you were doing something where you cared how everyone reacted around you but couldn’t communicate with them, I could see the use for it.
Don’t hold me to this but I believe if you set your mode to “All players” you see people using both “All players” and “Live”. The “Live” players just dont see you.
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Its bugged to hell, turn internet options on and off and it usually makes online player aircraft pop back visible again.
You can also switch servers then switch back then it can reconnect which will then show players
For me is the opposite, I see no reason to use any other mode than live multiplayer. If I am flying multiplayer with someone I want them to have the same weather and time I have. I would never play multiplayer if not using live mode.
That’s kinda what I think too but flying without any other traffic at all is a bummer.
I guess I don’t really understand this logic unless you’re getting on, seeing a random person within the multiplayer show distance (50mi or whatever it is), and flying over to try and air stalk them. Assuming you’re playing with someone in the sense that you and I decide we want to fly somewhere together, or some means of us coordinating with each other, then there’s nothing stopping us from just setting our weather and time to live and, poof, we experience the same thing. The only thing that setting MP to live does, in the second scenario, is reduce the ambiance of having other, random, people flying around.
How often do you come in close enough contact with another plane, that you have no communication/coordination with, to actually appreciate a difference in wind speed/direction?
I could see an argument being made for forcing the same weather conditions so that all players are landing/taking off in the same direction as everyone else so sequencing doesn’t completely fall apart. But since the msfs MP doesn’t actually involve any interaction with other players, it’s really a visual argument vs a practical argument.
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Actually with the flybywirr a320 mod, we can now send text messages to others who have the mod from out flight computer.
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It feels a little weird living in the same world as other people but knowing they’re probably in some alternative reality. Then again, that’s kinda what the real world is actually like now so… 
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Yeah, if the weather is different then so are the in use runways and if they are in a blizzard and don’t have tcas then there is more collision risk.
Well, I don’t have any friends who fly multiplayer, so I’m not talking about your second scenario. I’m talking about (as an example) going to an airport where there is bad weather in real life and people are there trying to land in difficult conditions. I don’t want any noobs and trolls setting clean sky weather taking off from the wrong runway or doing loopings when other people are trying to practice IFR landings. So, I like everyone on the same page, and if the noobs come into such scenario I like to see them crashing. Maybe I’m weird, lol.
I always fly “all players” and mostly fly in the Philippines. Only see AI traffic every once in a while. Fact is, flight simulation is a niche hobby and we will never see millions of players online simultaneously.
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Most of the time I fly with All Players with my weather set to live weather but my time usually set to daytime. If I didn’t then I would always be flying at night and never get to see the scenery in the daytime.
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Is there a way to see which servers have the most players active?
Not that I’m aware of usa east normally has alot especially in us airspace, eu mainly find eu airspace players i play on is west or east normally