No standalone missions in MSFS 2024 is an epic dissapointment

[Major_Tinz]

My jaw dropped when I saw how cool the missions are in the upcoming 2024, but I nearly wept when I found out that you must follow a career path to play any of them.

I just don't have the time for managing careers and I like to just dive in and do what I want. I have over 200 aircraft in MSFS 2020 already, so I am very keen on the sim, but locking access to game elements behind a career mode is a massive limitation for me. It's like dangling all the best candy in front of me that I do not have time to grind for. I have the money set aside, just give me the content please. Is anyone else feeling like this or have mitigating ideas?

[TargetLost]

I guess there will be a way if not on game launch then maybe later. They sure want that MSFS2024.

Perosnal I have no issue with that at all. You can free fly what I do or you can fly it like a game in carrier mode.

I already did the later with 3 different pay add ons in the past Working your way up is what gives the carrier mode a point and once done the missions is your daily drivel. Both has it's values. I prefr if you can build a whole econmie/busines then or it fast gets boring.
From experience the carrier is climbed very fast. So it was in all this add ons.
So don't worry too much.

[ZombieHunter]

Its a huge misstep forcing you to go through a bunch of nonsense to get to them. Also the pre-flight crap on the ground I can do without. I don't want to have to do that garbage in a sim. I also don't want to do check-rides or any of that stuff b/c none of it in the sim could possibly measure up to real world standards and thus it is just busy work for the sake of busy work.

[Major_Tinz]

I am concerned that they are incorporating grind mechanics to unlock game elements (missions etc.) so that they can sell future components that alleviate the grind, at a cost of course. I agree with Microsoft that the sim needs to be "game-ified", as there are lots of people wanting that, but it's the strategy that they are using that is problematic for very busy people like me. I am a veteran gamer, and almost every time a game has grind like this, it's because I will have to pay more at some future point to mitigate that grind if I don't have endless months or even years worth of time to unlock things. I don't need this kind of psychological dopamine machine lure in the sim, as I have the money, I just want to access the content immediately, whenever I want. That's why I invested in over 200 aircraft in MSFS 2020 ... so that I can just jump in and fly. I can do that in DCS and I can do that in 2020 ... I can't do that n 2024, because the new content is locked away behind a career. I know I am repeating myself, but I am heavily disappointed and hope they open up missions to everyone.

[Witcher]

Looks like 2024 career/missions are no different to 2020/FSX training missions in that hours are accumulated only when you complete them.

I wonder how many will complete them in 2024 - more or less than 2020 training missions? I myself have flown over 100 times more hours Free Flight than training, except they are not counted.

[shadowgravy]

Asobo seems to have been heavily inspired by Neofly's career system. Asobo would be wise to imitate Neofly's 'freelance jobs' option as well.

[Major_Tinz]

Originally posted by Witcher:

Looks like 2024 career/missions are no different to 2020/FSX training missions in that hours are accumulated only when you complete them.

I wonder how many will complete them in 2024 - more or less than 2020 training missions? I myself have flown over 100 times more hours Free Flight than training, except they are not counted.

I hardly did any training missions in 2020. I prefer to get inspired by a YouTube video, then go and roleplay that same or similar scenario myself. Imagine now ... you see an amazing mission on YouTube, only you find out that it might actually take you several weeks or even months to reach it if you don't have time to grind a few long sessions. They have simultaneously dangled the sweet appeal of missions in 2024 as a key selling point over 2020, only to swipe it away at the last minute by locking them away behind a career path.

[Major_Tinz]

Originally posted by shadowgravy:

Asobo seems to have been heavily inspired by Neofly's career system. Asobo would be wise to imitate Neofly's 'freelance jobs' option as well.

Indeed ... perhaps the answer is third-party marketplace apps that can unlock the missions, or offer similar ones.

[TargetLost]

I think you all really worry too much. Microsoft fightsimulator has always been a do what you want product and you will still be able to do that. The carrier thing is an addition and done because the people requested it.
I also never flew microsofts missions with exception of a helicpoter mission once. Don't really see what they bring to the table. And about the log book or the total flighthours... aehm..those became reseted multiple time and i really care zero about that pointless number. It has no meaning.
It is much too eraly to panic about anything. We will see how it will be when it is there.
And Asobo did listen to the complains when FS2020 came out so if there are complains that the system is bad this way they will change it. Like said as I know them they want us to do freely what we wantever we want to do. That's far different from grinding games where there is an incidence to keep us much ppl on the server and as long as possible and sell stuff.
I might err but I believe you will climb so fast in that mode that after a month or two you have finished that mode anyway and don't even think about it anymore as a limitation.

[ZombieHunter]

Originally posted by TargetLost:

I think you all really worry too much. Microsoft fightsimulator has always been a do what you want product and you will still be able to do that. The carrier thing is an addition and done because the people requested it.
I also never flew microsofts missions with exception of a helicpoter mission once. Don't really see what they bring to the table. And about the log book or the total flighthours... aehm..those became reseted multiple time and i really care zero about that pointless number. It has no meaning.
It is much too eraly to panic about anything. We will see how it will be when it is there.
And Asobo did listen to the complains when FS2020 came out so if there are complains that the system is bad this way they will change it. Like said as I know them they want us to do freely what we wantever we want to do. That's far different from grinding games where there is an incidence to keep us much ppl on the server and as long as possible and sell stuff.
I might err but I believe you will climb so fast in that mode that after a month or two you have finished that mode anyway and don't even think about it anymore as a limitation.

I don't think we are panicking. We are experienced gamers and know the industry all too well. I think they are very legit concerns being talked about in a very calm manner.

[tmaddox]

Originally posted by shadowgravy:

Asobo seems to have been heavily inspired by Neofly's career system. Asobo would be wise to imitate Neofly's 'freelance jobs' option as well.

I have played a lot of Neofly, although not the freelance jobs. Don't you still have to have the proper license for them?

I am looking forward to the career system. It will be interesting to see how grindy it is. Looking at preview videos it appears in game money/credits is the limit to how fast you can advance (Turboprop shows 1.5 million while multi engine is 100K). Once you have enough it appears that there will be a check ride.

So I assume a Private Pilots license opens up a certain batch of jobs. Then when you get Multi-Engine it will open up even more, etc.

That said, I would be surprised if we don't see a mod or trainer to unlock everything or flood you with credits within days of release.

[Major_Tinz]

I saw in the live stream yesterday that there will be an option to skip the prerequisites for missions. The comment was brief, but it did appear that we will have the ability to skip the training element of missions if we feel we already know what to do. I am now waiting to see an influencer confirm this with more details. It surprises me considerably that this was not mentioned by anyone right from the start!

[shadowgravy]

Originally posted by tmaddox:

I have played a lot of Neofly, although not the freelance jobs. Don't you still have to have the proper license for them?

I don't know the depth of the Freelance Jobs option. In Neofly 4 I only have a Class A license and I was able to launch a Beechcraft Baron G58 mission tonight.

Originally posted by Major_Tinz:

I saw in the live stream yesterday that there will be an option to skip the prerequisites for missions. The comment was brief, but it did appear that we will have the ability to skip the training element of missions if we feel we already know what to do. I am now waiting to see an influencer confirm this with more details. It surprises me considerably that this was not mentioned by anyone right from the start!

This is the preview I watched:
https://youtu.be/3e2a0vrPo8A?si=BdylKl21EqGW6ykL
Go to 8:45 and the rep says players can skip the training but not the certification tests. However, Asobo may already be lifting even this requirement in response to feedback from the YouTubers and the flight sim community.

[Explorer]

Originally posted by Witcher:

Looks like 2024 career/missions are no different to 2020/FSX training missions in that hours are accumulated only when you complete them.

I wonder how many will complete them in 2024 - more or less than 2020 training missions? I myself have flown over 100 times more hours Free Flight than training, except they are not counted.

It has nothing to do with that in FS 2020. I have over 2000 hours of flight time logged before my hours stopped counting in my simulated logbook but have never flown a single flight lesson. The hours logged is just broken, has nothing to do with whether or not you took the lessons.

[Witcher]

Originally posted by Explorer:

Originally posted by Witcher:

Looks like 2024 career/missions are no different to 2020/FSX training missions in that hours are accumulated only when you complete them.

I wonder how many will complete them in 2024 - more or less than 2020 training missions? I myself have flown over 100 times more hours Free Flight than training, except they are not counted.

It has nothing to do with that in FS 2020. I have over 2000 hours of flight time logged before my hours stopped counting in my simulated logbook but have never flown a single flight lesson. The hours logged is just broken, has nothing to do with whether or not you took the lessons.

Welp, then it's been broken since FSX. Is there any hope it will be fixed in 2024 - i.e., your flight hours are counted in free flights?

I'm guessing not given default ATC and airports are not fixed in 2020

[Major_Tinz]

Originally posted by shadowgravy:

Originally posted by tmaddox:

I have played a lot of Neofly, although not the freelance jobs. Don't you still have to have the proper license for them?

I don't know the depth of the Freelance Jobs option. In Neofly 4 I only have a Class A license and I was able to launch a Beechcraft Baron G58 mission tonight.

Originally posted by Major_Tinz:

I saw in the live stream yesterday that there will be an option to skip the prerequisites for missions. The comment was brief, but it did appear that we will have the ability to skip the training element of missions if we feel we already know what to do. I am now waiting to see an influencer confirm this with more details. It surprises me considerably that this was not mentioned by anyone right from the start!

This is the preview I watched:
https://youtu.be/3e2a0vrPo8A?si=BdylKl21EqGW6ykL
Go to 8:45 and the rep says players can skip the training but not the certification tests. However, Asobo may already be lifting even this requirement in response to feedback from the YouTubers and the flight sim community.

This is helpful, thank you. Clarity starting to emerge. I want to just do missions and if I don't know what to do, I like to find a YouTube video tutorial.