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Comment by dybber | Hacker News Reader

My biggest issue with Flight Simulator 2020 doesn’t seem to be addressed.

It contains tutorials on how to control the planes, but no storyline, no built in missions. If you are motivated by a narrative, this is not a game for you. It only does the simulation, but doesn’t really help people get into the game through a kind of narrative.

I have no desire to learn all the details of an aircrafts controls. I might have that, if there was a reason for me to learn those things, as a motivating story that would drag me in. I think it’s an enormous missed opportunity in terms of making the game appeal to a wider audience.

I still hope it will be there in 2024 edition, but this interview didn’t give me much hope.

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I think that is the whole sell of 2024? It is still a self guided story but, career mode you have to start as a student, earn your hours and licenses in order to take on bigger and more interesting jobs etc. Eventually you buy your own planes, which enables you to take on bigger jobs and so on.

So in theory from what I have seen, your story is that of a career pilot, with intro cutscenes and voice acting etc. This has all been shown already.

If you find it most fun to haul cargo, your story is that you will go get the licences, grind the smaller jobs. For more casual fun experience you might choose to specialise in agriculture jobs which are going to be more engaging/shorter.

The truth is though, it is a simulator, and flying takes fooreeever. You can't make casual flying and flight sim meet in the middle without throwing away 90% of the flying experience, which is level flight at altitude on your way to a destination.

This is why although I am an aviation fan, and a train fan, I don't play either sims. I have not got 2-8hrs to hurry up and wait.

jup, eurotruck simulator, but in the air, would be amazing

This is already confirmed as at least somewhat implemented. There are missions for things like search and rescue, farming, and oil rigs. There's also a new avatar mode to enable doing virtual walk arounds and the like.

https://msfsaddons.com/2024/09/19/heres-how-the-career-mode-...

It's obviously a personal taste thing, but a lot of people 'want' as much detail as possible; the satisfaction for them being that if they sat down in those cockpits, they'd have a good chance of being able to fly.. for a few minutes before crashing horrible anyway :)

That was my motivation and narrative for playing it anyway, and judging by some of the paid realism mods, I don't think I was the only one

mfs 2020 seems to do what it says on the label - be a simulator.

the entire point of a simulator is to give you the sandbox to do whatever you want while having as near of a realistic experience as possible.

if they try to add these things to the mix, i assume it is to make it more accessible to game pass audience, who might not shell out the full price just to try it out.

for many who love to play this genre, especially content creators, instead of expecting the game to give a storyline, they make their own! like for me it would be trying the 787 in the air routes where the landing strips do not support large planes for a hypothetical scenario, for example.

it not quite the same, but your own creativity is what give games like minecraft so much longevity. on the other hand, once you finish a "career mode" (as proposed for mfs 2024), you may not be motivated to restart.

Is Microsoft Flight Simulator meant to be that kind of game?

> I have no desire to learn all the details of an aircrafts controls.

Then there are different games where this is not expected. I have always thought MFS is meant to be as close as possible to true flight, to such an extent it can be used to practice actual routes.

The biggest part of MSFS 2024 is the 'career system' - ie proc. gen missions, I'm surprised you missed it.

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