Newbie Frustration

falcon409

falcon409

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Staff member
After flying Pro-Pilot, FS9, FSX and P3D since around 2004 I'm not exactly a newbie but MSFS has made me wonder, lol. Other than a few short sightseeing flights around familiar areas most of the remaining flights I've done have either ended in crashes or failed endings because I landed too fast (no I didn't), landed on the wrong rwy (there was only one, so NO) or bellied in at Pensacola NAS because the Jet I was flying opened the canopy and dropped the tail hook instead of lowering the gears, grrr, (I was using the button I had designated for landing gears, which by the way had worked for every other airplane I had flown).

The underlying problem, I'm pretty sure, is the mapping of my controllers and the fact that for years my controllers were all mapped and memorized and I knew exactly what every button was supposed to do(30 in all). I never used the keyboard or the mouse while flying. My intention now is to scrub what I've done up to this point and start over from scratch and map my CH Throttle and Logitech Extreme 3D Pro joystick as close to what I used prior to MSFS.

The overall experience while flying is amazing but I spend too much time trying to trim airplanes that seem dead set on doing what they want regardless of any inputs, and finding that buttons I programmed to do one thing do something else when I least expect it.
 
I have given up on their canned achievements tasks. I have taken off and landed but never received credit for either. I have landed on a couple of dozen grass runways but never gotten the "On the Green" achievement. It should be one of the easiest to get. For me the simulator has always been flying where I want to go how I want to go. I liked some of the missions in FSX but there hasn't been anything I like in MSFS 2020 on the same level. Vistually it is better than FSX but a lot of other things aren't as good.
 
falcon409 said:
After flying Pro-Pilot, FS9, FSX and P3D since around 2004 I'm not exactly a newbie but MSFS has made me wonder, lol. Other than a few short sightseeing flights around familiar areas most of the remaining flights I've done have either ended in crashes or failed endings because I landed too fast (no I didn't), landed on the wrong rwy (there was only one, so NO) or bellied in at Pensacola NAS because the Jet I was flying opened the canopy and dropped the tail hook instead of lowering the gears, grrr, (I was using the button I had designated for landing gears, which by the way had worked for every other airplane I had flown).

The underlying problem, I'm pretty sure, is the mapping of my controllers and the fact that for years my controllers were all mapped and memorized and I knew exactly what every button was supposed to do(30 in all). I never used the keyboard or the mouse while flying. My intention now is to scrub what I've done up to this point and start over from scratch and map my CH Throttle and Logitech Extreme 3D Pro joystick as close to what I used prior to MSFS.

The overall experience while flying is amazing but I spend too much time trying to trim airplanes that seem dead set on doing what they want regardless of any inputs, and finding that buttons I programmed to do one thing do something else when I least expect it.
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This is exactly my experience Ed!! 20 years happily flying FS2004, FSX and P3D and I can just about go for a nice sight-seeing in something simple in MSFS. And most of the reason is exactly as you say - controller/keyboard assignment. Why oh why did everything have to change so dramatically??🤬🤬!!
 
I feel your pain, Ed. It has taken me at least a year to get somewhat comfortable in MSFS. Mapping the controllers is/was the most frustrating and then I went and bought the Turtle Beach Flight Deck. Like Dave just said, "Why oh why did everything have to change so dramatically?".
 
Before MSFS I relied heavily on FSUIPC to map all my controls and started out on that path with MSFS. But it seems that as the updates were applied there was more and more that could be done mapping directly in MSFS and I have started going down that path as things seemed to stop working with FSUIPC for some reason. One of the few items I still map with FSUIPC is my throttles as that seems to be the easiest way to get the thrust reversers working. I do use SPADnext for my Logitech panels though and that is working well.

LouP
 
Trim is not dramatically if you choose/set the right "command " , i had problem with that too in the beginning , it´s easy to choose the wrong parameter :) ..... ( it is a long list with parameters )

HB
 
As a former president used to say, "I feel your pain." I get so frustrated trying to set up controllers. It used to be you had a throttle setting. It would work for all single engine airplanes. Now, you have, Throttle, throttle1, axis set throttle, throttle with reverser, throttle without reverser...well you get the idea. Even setting elevator and aileron trim has gotten complicated. I just spent most of the day trying to set up the Black Square Duke, which I paid $60 for, only to give up. Nothing is standard. Everything is some sort of variable.

I am ready to quit this stupid sim and just fly DCS. Maybe 24 will be better.
 
I share the same frustrations. And I'm sure it's how my controls are mapped. I wish there was just a setting to use standard FS keyboard commands that we've used for the last 30+ years.
 
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I actually kind of like mapping the functions on to my button-encrusted X56 HOTAS, and I even bought a button box so I could map still more.

It is nice that MSFS lets you save controller profiles, unlike P3D where I had to create different .cfg files and remember to load them off a disc when I switch to a different type of plane.

Once you get them mapped, I recommend the SonicViz Aircraft Manager add-on, which auto-loads your controller profiles when you switch planes, as well as offering several other UI improvements to the aircraft selection process.

One beef that I do have with MSFS is that it sometimes corrupts my controller profiles, assigning mappings that I definitely didn't assign, or sometimes copying a whole profile's mappings into a different profile. It seems to happen now and then when I switch between profiles too quickly. The profiles are stored in the cloud, but it is possible to backup your local copy.

It is also irritating that many functions are not available to map, for example there is no GEAR UP or GEAR DOWN that you could map to a persistent switch so that you could know the gear state from the switch position on your controller, there is only a toggle.

I have managed to achieve about 95% commonality between MSFS controller functions and my setups for FSX and P3D, both of which I still use.

August
 
I still use FSUIPC for all my controller mapping in MSFS as I have with all versions of FS and P3D from FS9 up and it works great for me.
In MSFS itself I made custom profiles for each of my controllers and deleted all functions for both axis and buttons from them so they don't interfere with FSUIPC.
 
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