FLIGHT, the next Microsoft flight sim

mpicco said:
This is odd, hadn't they fired all their Flight Sim programmers?
[...] I hope this is like Flight Sim X.1 and not something that won't even be compatible with the current stuff. [...]
But if this new thing is indeed backwards compatible to X and FS2004, and with better graphics and optimization, then great!
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MadCat360 said:
They just disbanded the studio, I don't think they fired anyone. So they probably still have many of the same people working on it.
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Asad said:
As long as it's more of the same simulation and not dumbed-down mainstream shit, DO WANT, :drool:, etc.
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ACES, the studio responsible for FSX, was indeed disbanded and many people were fired. Some employees were retained by Microsoft, but not the entire team.

Also, from the AVSIM rumor mill:

Flight will not be backwards compatible. At all. Before ACES closed, they started work on the next Flight Simulator, and the very first thing they said was that the new Flight Sim would not be backwards compatible because the legacy code was severely weighing down the game and preventing it from moving forward as quickly as they would have liked. By dumping backwards compatibility, the simulator essentially started new so they could do new things with plane and flight models without worrying about breaking previous add-ons. The same concept stuck with Flight. Just look at the name! They dropped 'Simulator' to make sure people understand Flight will be different than the previous Simulators and will not support add-ons for those previous simulators.

Rumor has it that ACES was disbanded because the studio head refused to 'dumb down' the game at all for casual players, which didn't sit well with Microsoft. Flight is aimed at both introducing new players to Flight Sim (probably via an expansion of FSX's missions system) while pleasing long-time fans. Take that for what you will.

The final and most interesting rumor is that Flight is running a much more advanced version of the FS2004 codebase rather than FSX's. This last bit is based completely on a long-forgotten and vague forum post by an ACES team member before the studio closed on their progress with FSNext (the ACES sequel to FSX), so it may prove unfounded.
 
The old flight simulator was very user friendly even for newcomers. Turn on the engine by pressing Ctrl-E, instead of going through 10 minutes of checklists. I don't know how much dumber it can get before you can't even call it a simulator anymore...

I wouldn't be at all surprised if they closed down modding altogether and made a lot of pay to play content ? la Sims 3
 
mpicco said:
The old flight simulator was very user friendly even for newcomers. Turn on the engine by pressing Ctrl-E, instead of going through 10 minutes of checklists. I don't know how much dumber it can get before you can't even call it a simulator anymore...

I wouldn't be at all surprised if they closed down modding altogether and made a lot of pay to play content ? la Sims 3
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It's flight simulator not airplane maintenance simulator :p

It may not be a well-received point of view but personally I think there is a balance to strike with simulators, make it too realistic and it becomes a chore, only appreciated by hardcore enthusiasts. Of course there's no harm in having multiple difficulty levels to cater to a wider audience, if done properly.
 
thevictor390 said:
It's flight simulator not airplane maintenance simulator :p.
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Erm nah, that has nothing to do with maintenance. As it is I have to resort to add-ons like PMDG/Level-D etc. to get a good level of realism... Ctrl+E, really?

Also, FS already has "difficulty levels", they're just not defined as "easy" or "hard"... you get more detailed options, which is much better because you can strike a balance you like personally.
 
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Checklists are not about maintenance...
You know how you get in your car, you check the headlights are off, the handbrake is on, the car is not in gear, then you press the clutch, insert the key and turn it... That's a checklist but it's so short we do it mentally.
Airplanes are a bit more of a handful so pilots have "memory aids" in the form of a little book with all the things they have to do for each phase of the flight.

What I meant is, if you wanted to do things by the checklist, you could, and if you wanted to have just some random fun, you could too. FS was already user friendly enough.
 
Maintenance was the wrong word, and I see that the difficulty levels are already available. I guess what I am saying is, if I have just generated a virtual world for my virtual aircraft, I would like to assume it is ready to fly as well. :lol:

Looks like that option is already there. Now just give me something to do while flying and I'm happy (someone mentioned scenarios).
 
There are missions and included as well as add-on downloadable scenarios (millions of them - literally).

Victor - Have you played FS, btw? If so, which one?
 
2004, briefly, as well as a couple of other flight games that couldn't really be called simulators but are realistic style.
 
There were all kind of weird missions on Fsim X including landing a stunt plane on top of a moving bus, doing a Red Bull Air Race course, flying a Boeing 747 as part of a test flight and having your engines die on you mid-flight...
But the real fun from FSim comes from user created content. I mostly fly for my virtual airline and am happy carrying virtual people from here to there. FSpassengers adds some challenge and fun, too... the default terrain, even in X, is pretty low-resolution as far as elevation goes specially for places outside of the US and Europe. You can get elevation maps with resolutions up to 1 meter for most of the world making your flying much more realistic. If you cared enough, easy tools would let you add your own house after you model it and fly over it just for kicks.

Also, I just seen it

Strelok16 said:
X-Plane > All other Civvie flight sims
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Noooooooo.
 
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mpicco said:
There were all kind of weird missions on Fsim X including landing a stunt plane on top of a moving bus, doing a Red Bull Air Race course, flying a Boeing 747 as part of a test flight and having your engines die on you mid-flight...
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This is exactly the type of thing I would want to do. For reference, one of my favorite PS2 games.
 
I used to love Flight sims, but I had to stop playing when they started getting too intense for my computer. Unfortunately, I don't have the opportunity to get a new PC now, although I'd really want to play this new one. Even if they do set the requirements low, I don't want to play a scaled back version.
 
I have to admit, I don't get non-combat flight sims. It's kind of like if someone made a retail driving sim with realistic traffic - look at me, I'm flying my fake plane across the country to pretend deliver some fake things that don't even fake exist. :p At least flight sims are more interesting than fricking train simulators though.

having my fuel tanks ripped apart by punk tail gunners and then trying to limp back out of enemy territory > lol my engine had problems and I landed safely
 
Ramseus said:
I have to admit, I don't get non-combat flight sims. It's kind of like if someone made a retail driving sim with realistic traffic - look at me, I'm flying my fake plane across the country to pretend deliver some fake things that don't even fake exist. :p At least flight sims are more interesting than fricking train simulators though.

having my fuel tanks ripped apart by punk tail gunners and then trying to limp back out of enemy territory > lol my engine had problems and I landed safely
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That's exactly why I said I would need some kind of scenarios for this type of game.... and exactly why I liked Sky Odyssey so much. It's not realistic, the planes are made-up, but it all comes together when you're flying a '50s jet/propeller hybrid prototype into a cave dodging geysers and falling rocks.

I do understand the appeal of feeling like you are the actual pilot of an actual plane, throwing all the switches, checking all the readings, etc.... that part of it is just not for me.
 
[sarcasm]Well, I dont get racing sims. Here I am driving a non existent car on a non existent track beating non existent competitors.[/sarcasm]

The whole point of simulators is to be something you can't be in real life. I'm sorry if I tried to be a pilot once but ultimately I couldn't because of a problem in my eyes I had no control over and now I have to settle for a simulator ok?
And to be honest, someone really should make a driving simulator with realistic traffic and have all driving students complete at least 15 hours in it before they unleash them into the public roads.

I very much doubt you've ever played a combat simulator at all. RAF pilots in WW2 had to fly 2 or 3 hours, or more, to see a bit of action (and sometimes they just did their patrols and did nothing at all) and then came back home, another 2 hours of flying. According to you this is a lot better than civilian flight sims?
I've already flown in real life and will get my private pilot license one day. The guy who flew with me was impressed with my control, I'll put my chips on because I flew in sims since I was 15. You couldn't get a fighter jet to even start despite having "your tanks blown off over enemy territory" :rolleyes:
 
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mpicco said:
[sarcasm]Well, I dont get racing sims. Here I am driving a non existent car on a non existent track beating non existent competitors.[/sarcasm]

The whole point of simulators is to be something you can't be in real life. I'm sorry if I tried to be a pilot once but ultimately I couldn't because of a problem in my eyes I had no control over and now I have to settle for a simulator ok?
And to be honest, someone really should make a driving simulator with realistic traffic and have all driving students complete at least 15 hours in it before they unleash them into the public roads.

I very much doubt you've ever played a combat simulator at all. RAF pilots in WW2 had to fly 2 or 3 hours, or more, to see a bit of action (and sometimes they just did their patrols and did nothing at all) and then came back home, another 2 hours of flying. According to you this is a lot better than civilian flight sims?
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A driving simulator is different from a racing simulator, though we sometimes use the terms interchangeably. Racing is turning driving into a sport, just like that Red Bull event turns flying into a sport. A true driving simulator, i.e. normal cars on public roads, would be considerably less interesting indeed.

One major difference though is that nearly anybody can go out and drive a car nowadays, but not so much with a plane. Which is why I understand the appeal, even if I don't necessarily agree with it.
 
thevictor390 said:
A driving simulator is different from a racing simulator, though we sometimes use the terms interchangeably. Racing is turning driving into a sport, just like that Red Bull event turns flying into a sport. A true driving simulator, i.e. normal cars on public roads, would be considerably less interesting indeed.

One major difference though is that nearly anybody can go out and drive a car nowadays, but not so much with a plane. Which is why I understand the appeal, even if I don't necessarily agree with it.
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Not agreeing with it I can understand but I from here it seems Ramseus is trying to make it seem like "uh the badass fighter pilot > the nerdy kid with the broken engine", it kinda pisses me off. Cos playing the arcadey air combat games that will even let you fly if your tank was ripped, when in reality you'd plummet to earth very very soon, doesn't make you a fighter pilot at all where I have read blogs of simmers who were invited to try out real simulators (the kind companies use to train their pilots) and did very, very well.
 
So, Flight was just released...

[video=youtube;q-JluDG-OSE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-JluDG-OSE&hd=1[/video]

The free part is actually pretty good for what it is, though it already feels very restricted and it's just launch day.

You get a max of 2 airplanes free (The ICON A5 amphibian is included and you can get a Boeing Stearman by linking your Live account or creating one). You can also purchase a Maule Orion and a P-51. Each plane also has multiple paint schemes, but some must be unlocked by completing missions or challenges while others unlock based on rank.

The Big Island of Hawaii is the default location, with the rest of the chain (and a bonus Vans RV-7 plane) available for purchase.
 
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I might download this later, but I was disappointed to find that Microsoft is still using satellite images for terrain texturing. Please, especially for such a small game area, make the environment yourself. That's what X-plane 10 now does.
 
Forgot to add this to my last post...

They're already planning the following (with reason how I know in parentheses):

> At least 1 helicopter (a flying tip mentions using a helicopter to complete some tricky missions)
> At least 1 military airplane (there's an achievement for going Mach 3)
> At least 1 jetliner (there's an achievement for safely transporting 1 million passengers, and it'd be a pain to get with just two-seaters)
 
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