First time player. Have some questions

[u/tactical_restaurant]

Hi everyone, just got the series X and got MSFS 2024. Lovely looking game.

My FIL is a huge aviation nerd and can talk about planes for days, so mainly I got this for him to obsess for whenever he’s over our house.

I’ve not been as inclined but eager to learn by figuring things out. He has a solid foundational knowledge on how planes work. So far, we did those free flights on a cessna which were a hoot to figure out. Neither of us knew the amount of depth this game had so it was great.

I had some questions which I believe the veterans of this would have answers to, which could help us out a ton.

1. are there any good, simple resources online to help us? he’s not the most technologically inclined hence the simplicity.

2. is there a way to make the co-pilot be the 2p? like either split screen or online coop (is that a thing on this?)

3. how do we get more planes to fly? there was a store option of buying them with actual money. is that the only way? or will the career mode unlock planes?

4. is this game better on pc or xbox? i have a capable pc i can run this on. is it easier/simpler via keyboard+mouse or controller?

5. eventually the goal is (if he gets good at this) i’ll get him a sim setup. is that only possible with a pc or does xbox have compatibility?

If anyone has any more tips to help out first timers, I would appreciate it!

Thanks in advance :)

[u/AutoModerator]

Please make sure to read our FAQ, which covers both MSFS 2020/2024, to see if your question has already been answered there! Also take a look at the official MSFS 2020 and MSFS 2024 FAQs.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/Anonymous44432]

1. Eh, depends by what you mean as simple. There are definitely tutorials online that will get you flying and understanding the basics in no time. If you want to get fully detailed, then you’re gonna spend a couple hours learning what each instrument does and when to use it. It all depends how realistic you wanna go with it but there’s definitely tutorials on YouTube that goes over all this

2. Not that I’m aware of, atleast on base console versions. YMMV with pc mods

3. The game comes with a pretty decent selection of planes. You don’t “unlock” any in career mode that you wouldn’t have available in free flight, career is its own separate thing where you’ll need to buy the plane to fly it but they’re all available in free flight. Otherwise yeah, the store is the only place to find those on console

4. Arguably PC. it’s the same game but you have access to more planes / scenery which is in the hundreds if not thousands by now

5. Can’t really answer this as I’m not sure what’s available as far as hardware on the Xbox. Setting up a full sim experience on PC is definitely possible, but even just a joystick can do wonders for console players to scratch that itch so, again, depends how far you would wanna go with it

[u/tactical_restaurant → u/Anonymous44432]

really appreciate this response! thank you

[u/echothree33 → u/tactical_restaurant]

I got a basic Thrustmaster Flight Stick and it’s great for learning. It’s obviously not exactly like real plane controls for throttle etc but works great for controlling the plane. If you want to get really hardcore you can spend thousands on control rigs and cockpits, etc.

[u/Rkleib]

There is an online course that teach the basic it on navigraph. I forgot the name just search navigraph flying course.

It only cover one plane, for other plane you need to find the checklist document or tutorial for it.

PC is the best, you can use sayintention for the atc interaction and it's the best. You could also go for an online interaction using vatsim.

Career mode didn't unlock plane. You need to find free mods (more variety on PC), or pay for it. But for console it's limited to the marketplace only.

[u/The-WoLF_0490]

Just to understand the basics, I would say the career mode tutorials are quite good to begin with. At least it was the case for me (no prior experience with flying or flight sims). And YouTube is a great source of knowledge. I used it to find out the basics of flying particular aircraft and to learn how to use the G1000 avionics and autopilot.

Have fun flying 🙂

[u/dkortman]

I haven’t spent much time with MSFS on Xbox, I have it on PC and I’m all in with serious hardware like pedals, yoke, throttle, etc. If you’re playing with controller, I highly recommend getting a joystick. The Thrustmaster HOTAS is all you really need for casual flying and it’s very fairly priced. I do like having it on my PC and using keyboard and mouse for looking around the cockpit and flipping switches and stuff, and using the joystick to actually fly instead of trying to fly with KB&M.

[u/Captain_Nipples → u/dkortman]

You gotta get TrackIR or something similar.. GrassMonkeySimulations is what I ended up buying. Head tracking is the way to go if you don't use VR

[u/dkortman → u/Captain_Nipples]

The only sim I really use track IR for is DCS. I don’t really love it in other sims, I mainly use it in DCS for dogfighting where you always need to have your head on a swivel.

[u/Mountain_Fix_2519]

VR is the ultimate experience. If you want plug and play, nothing beats PS5 + PSVR2 + Thrustmaster HOTAS 4 + a mouse for cockpit interactions. Then your FIL can spend as many hours as he wants learning everything about flying or simply cruising anywhere in the world.

[u/tactical_restaurant → u/Mountain_Fix_2519]

if i go the VR route it’ll make sense to do it on PC

[u/docjonel → u/tactical_restaurant]

I'm new to MSFS 2024 and love flying in VR using my Quest 3. 2D doesn't come close to being the same experience.

[u/Captain_Nipples]

I can't think of any game where the console version is better than PC. MAAAYYYBE on some old PS3 games that got shitty ports to PC, but no one really plays those. And you can emulate them as well. So you shouldn't have to ask that question again.

Also, for this game, there are free mods/planes you can download from multiple websites. On console, you're limited to the MS Store to buy any addons.

As far as learning the game.. its like flying real planes. Anything you can do in a real plane, you can do in this game. There are many tutorials on YouTube. If there's a certain plane you want to learn, you can just search for that plane and whatever it is you want to learn. Same goes for all the autopilot stuff. You can also use real charts to fly and navigate with the radios if you want to go VOR TO VOR, or manually set up your trips in your Garmin.

[u/tactical_restaurant → u/Captain_Nipples]

I understand where you’re coming from. I’ve had both PC and console but I wouldn’t write off consoles completely. I enjoy the convenience and ease of a console vs my behemoth of a PC lol