It's insane nowadays but people keep accepting it. Just look here, the users were shafted only 4 years ago and will now happily pay for it again and stand up like Microsoft/Asobo soldiers for the new game. The extras (DLC's) we once called "expansion packs" you would no doubt remember. You bought the game, then they might've released an expansion pack but it was usually considerably cheaper than the game itself and came with a reasonable amount of content. Today, they separate all the individual components of an expansion pack to charge more and as you mentioned, make it almost compulsory to buy some of the DLC's in order to have a base game with an acceptable enough amount of content. It has all gone crazy and for myself, honestly, the new games bring nothing while the old games bring total enjoyment without the frustration. FS2004 is rock solid and frustration free. I just load it up and enjoy myself.

Only once did I buy into one of these "perpetual beta" games;  in the year I played there were nine "new version"/"latest build"/"recent release" issues (that's roughly one every six weeks).  Not patches, you had to d/l the entire 2gig+ each time, and about every third release rendered half the existing mods incompatible (several modders tired of spending more time updating old mods than creating new ones and moved on).  At this point that game was about four years old ...yet none of these new versions addressed any of the complaints players had been voicing during those four years.  I look on such projects as job security for the devs - if they ever actually finish the job they must look for new work.   "Incomplete"?  Remember when you could get a free demo of a game?  Play one level or drive one car or play for thirty minutes.  The norm today seems to be to sell you that demo, at a full game price, then nickel and dime you death with "DLC".  One railroad simulator sounded interesting, til I noticed for the $60 price you got two trains and two routes ...that's it;  yet their website was full of page after page of extras, from a boxcar for $1 to a large route for over $100.  Someone in the forum added it all up - there was $9000 of extras available.  Not saying all that should have been included, but certainly with that much "in stock" the base game could have had more.  Imagine if FS had only provided two aircraft and two airports.

I have the old SR22 files that I backed up before I updated to SU14 and the SR22T turbo in SU14. I’ve been trying to edit the files of the old SR22 to make it still be able to be installed with the new SR22T seeing that they are two different aircraft. I would like to still fly the old SR22 with my old created liveries. Anyone know what I have to edit (thinking aircraft.cfg of the old SR22) to make them both be able to be accessed in the sim at the same time?

2020 was also on a 10 year cycle and people assumed there would be nothing to buy for 10 years. SURPRISE!!! 2024 will be 2020 except with the updates that you thought you already paid for that should be in 2020. If you want to continue the original 2020 10 year cycle, you have to buy it again in the form of 2024! By 2028, maybe earlier, maybe later, you will buy it yet again! lol Meantime, the wanting, wanting, wanting of features and the frustration of bugs will remain indefinitely! This is modern gaming. MSFS is no different to any other game.

They swear that 2024 is going to be on a ten year cycle, and that 2020 will get updates alongside. I sure hope they stick with that promise. 

Glad to provide some quality entertainment!     The US Navy may ban me from ever flying the Sea Dart again.  Glad I have the British Spitfire already in my Hangar.  🙂  

Enjoying the DC-3's and the 80th Anniversary posts!  🙂  

Perhaps! That'd fit nicely I think

Magnificent aircraft!  This is the panel I use. I added the extra gauge cover shown by the arrow and Penguins logo (bottom left) as the interior and exterior of my 500 are also NHL Penguins themed,  

Yes, totally. Games died by 2010 imo. Now we just have lots of MSFS equivalents in every genre. Like MSFS, they don't ever finish the game, they give you an incomplete bug ridden version of the game. It's update after update and then eventually they release another version to make you re-buy the same game and you repeat previous process OMG! It never ends.     

I heard they are getting rid of VOR not ILS, ILS is pretty solid. Disclaimer, not a pilot

This weekend's fly-in event is from Barcelona to Mallorca, Spain.  Become a DAL Virtual pilot to participate in this or future events.   https://www.dalvirtual.com/

I did try MSFS and I went back to the FS2004 version. Don't get me wrong, the graphics and scenery were outstanding, but I had a lot of issues with the program itself. Sometimes I would get errors in mid flight and it would shut down, the updates were complicated and sometimes didn't take, and the panels - well, I just couldn't seem to become accustomed to them. I didn't even bother trying to figure out how to get in the cfg files or update the panels themselves. But it was a great experience that showed me to stick with FS 2004. I can do anything in this one and I don't have to be on-line all the time to make it work properly.   However, I support you folks that like this program. It just wasn't right for my preferences. Good Luck to you all in finding what you can be satisfied with. In the end, that's really all that counts no matter what anyone else articulates.

How are you measuring depth? In MSFS we have the latest RNAV approaches and landings (which are replacing the old ILS systems), up-to-date GPS, EFIS and FADEC systems even on light aircraft, accurate fly-by-wire systems on default airliners which were only available as payware in previous sims, plus the old-timers with steam gauges etc. to puzzle all the young 'uns...  Gentlemen, let's not make this about the have's and have not's - you don't need a whizz-bang PC to run MSFS, in fact MSFS ran better on my old PC than FS2004 and FSX ever did! As for the learning curve with MSFS, all of us know from long experience that you only get OUT of flight sim as much as you put IN.

Also, if you like keeping up with your flight hours, just keep in mind that speeding up the sim logs your hours in that time speed (so for example if you fly a 4 hour flight at 2x speed, MSFS only logs 2 hours for your flight time).