New to the FS 2020 Question

[b3burner]

I'm back after a very long break from flight sim. Sorry for the absence, but the break did me some good.

 

Anyway, so here we all are waiting for our new stuff to download. This brings to mind a ton of questions... sorry to have to drop all these on you guys at once, but I'm seeing all kinds of screens and progress bars flash before my very eyes... and I don't know what's going on.

 

1. How come when I pre-ordered this game back on July 23rd, they said I had to go through Microsoft and that Steam was not a player in all this?

 

Now today, I found out that they are. Kind of ticks me off. I would have much preferred to buy from Steam than Microsoft directly. Steam is very straight forward, and I trust them. They're not so convoluted-- with this whole "MS/XBox intertwining companies thing", that makes me very uncomfortable. I just don't know what company I'm dealing with.

 

2. Why does the opening Splash Screen say XBox instead of Flight Simulator?

 

Scared the heck out of me, as I know what I paid for, and it has nothing to do with owning an XBox Console. I wouldn't know the first thing about those... except people play GTA-V on them. Did I download the wrong thing? Did I open the wrong screen?

 

3. How come first time I opened the sim, the actions seemed out of order?

 

It wanted me to set my sliders for certain limited things, but then hung up, and next time in it wanted to download support materials, and thirdly the main game file-- "fs-bse-cgl-0.1.21.fspackage.011 ..." ?

 

Seems totally out of order. It should have DL'ed the main files first, then the support files, and then finally my slider preferences.

 

I wonder if this is a proper order, or hangups knocked these processes out of order. New anything scares the sh*t out of me.

Again, what did I do wrong? That can't possibly be right?

 

4. Why can't I open the Microsoft Forums page? The circle spins and spins and times out.

 

5. What is a 'gamertag' ?

 

Never heard that term in my life. I know what a username is, but not that other word.

 

Anyway, XBox asked me to pick one from a list of what I consider to be some pretty stupid ones that I would never want.

All I wanted was "B3_Burner". It's what I've always called myself online since I got my first computer back in 2002. Why would I want anything different?

 

So I entered it, and XBox froze up and won't let me go any further so I exited. I went back in to try to enter B3_Burner, accidently hovered over some picture, and next thing I knew, I was now called something like "Froggy Jump-Jump 21".

 

I'm not very pleased about this. XBox, you suck! They have no business having anything to do with Microsoft! They messed up my username... that is not easily forgivable in my opinion.

 

I now have to fly around the world being called that nonsense.

 

6. How come the first main file ( the fs-base-cgl thing), it was downloading an hour ago said it had a total size of 95.15GiB, and now the one I'm currently downloading -- same file name -- now only has 52.44GiB?

 

I stopped to enter some command code that people recommend, restarted it and now I apparently lost some GiB along the way. What went wrong? Does this mean it won't download correctly?

 

Any input on any of these, I would appreciate it. Thanks.

Edited August 18, 2020 by b3burner
I left something out that I wanted to ask

[gingertips]

gamertag is similar to your Steam profile.

 

Microsoft want to get as many people onto their platform, its that simple. Its a direct competitor to Steam. Its one of the reasons theyve made the standard flight sim available as part of the paid xbox for pc beta subscription which is currently discounted.

 

TBH im surprised they went live with Steam straight off the bat - would have thought they would have made it a week or so later before available through steam. Consider what happens with consoles - there are many titles which are either xbox exclusive or PS4 exclusive.

 

Cant answer your comments for 3,5 & 6 but hopefully someone else will be able to suggest

[loki]

For your first couple of questions the answer is that Xbox is Microsoft's gaming division, similar to Microsoft Gaming Studios was years ago. Xbox is not a separate company. While the Xbox brand was originally specific to Microsoft's console, it now encompasses all of their gaming products for both Xbox consoles and PCs.

 

In addition to the above, the new sim will also be released on the Xbox console, however, this is coming sometime in the future. Only the PC version is currently available at the moment.

 

Steam was not originally included in the distribution options and only became available recently.

 

The download order you experienced is correct. Those initial settings are about the interface so it knows what to use while walking through the rest of the process. And the total download size for the sim files is about 95GB, which is made up of many smaller packages.

 

To change your gamer tag, see the support page below.

 

https://support.xbox.com/help/account-profile/profile/change-xbox-live-gamertag

[b3burner]

For your first couple of questions the answer is (...)

Loki! Always good to hear from you! It's been way too long!

 

(...) that Xbox is Microsoft's gaming division, similar to Microsoft Gaming Studios was years ago. Xbox is not a separate company.

Ahh! That's the key point I didn't understand. That explains it right away. Glad you told me that.

 

While the Xbox brand was originally specific to Microsoft's console, it now encompasses all of their gaming products for both Xbox consoles and PCs.

Okay, I was not aware of that. I still had visions of my girlfriend's son playing console games with his friends while sitting on the floor in front of his TV downstairs. I guess things have come a long way since he last lived at home-- (he's since married and now has 2 kids... damn... I feel old). :cool:

 

In addition to the above, the new sim will also be released on the Xbox console, however, this is coming sometime in the future. Only the PC version is currently available at the moment.

Oh okay. I can't believe a game with this much "meat on the bone" (i.e.-- size and requirement) can be run on a console, but stranger things have happened in life.

 

Steam was not originally included in the distribution options and only became available recently.

Okay, well that's fine. Maybe the Microsoft purchase direct will be better in the long run. At least I'll be dealing with the company that started it all directly.

 

The download order you experienced is correct. Those initial settings are about the interface so it knows what to use while walking through the rest of the process.

Ahh hah!!!! So glad you said that. What I thought had happened was it was running one thing, I interrupted it, it forgot where it left off, and went onto doing something completely different. My fear being, that it was going to leave the other task 1/2 done, and never get back to it.

 

And the total download size for the sim files is about 95GB, which is made up of many smaller packages.

Again, glad you confirmed this very thing, as I'm (should say "we all are") new to this sim and it's an animal that behaves rather differently than the good 'ol worn out slippers I now call FS9.

 

To change your gamer tag, see the support page below.

 

https://support.xbox.com/help/account-profile/profile/change-xbox-live-gamertag

Thank you so much for the connection. I don't want to be "Landward Squid 94" anymore! ;)

 

Take care, and enjoy your travels in the new game. I imagine you've already flown over your own house? Yeah... I think we all have by now.

Edited August 18, 2020 by b3burner
Grammatical errors & misspellings

[b3burner]

gamertag is similar to your Steam profile.

Okay, cool. I was afraid I was signed onto XBox exclusively, which I originally thought had nothing to do with MS or the new sim. I now understand that I originally misunderstood !!! LOL

 

Microsoft want to get as many people onto their platform, its that simple. Its a direct competitor to Steam. Its one of the reasons they've made the standard flight sim available as part of the paid Xbox for pc beta subscription which is currently discounted.

All that makes a lot of sense now. Thanks for explaining.

 

TBH im surprised they went live with Steam straight off the bat - would have thought they would have made it a week or so later before available through steam. Consider what happens with consoles - there are many titles which are either xbox exclusive or PS4 exclusive.

Yes, I see what you mean. Maybe their logic was that the few thousands of people they would lose, to a Steam purchase, would be counter-acted by a greater attraction to the game, from people who would otherwise not buy it, if it wasn't on Steam. The logic being... bringing in more people is better than fewer, and it still bodes well for the 3rd party content providers, either way, who in turn support Microsoft.

 

Can't answer your comments for 3,5 & 6 but hopefully someone else will be able to suggest

That's okay, don't worry about it. You've helped more than enough, and I thank you. Have a nice day, and happy simming.

[loki]

Loki! Always good to hear from you! It's been way too long!

 

 

Ahh! That's the key point I didn't understand. That explains it right away. Glad you told me that.

 

 

Okay, I was not aware of that. I still had visions of my girlfriend's son playing console games with his friends while sitting on the floor in front of his TV downstairs. I guess things have come a long way since he last lived at home-- (he's since married and now has 2 kids... damn... I feel old). :cool:

 

 

Oh okay. I can't believe a game with this much "meat on the bone" (i.e.-- size and requirement) can be run on a console, but stranger things have happened in life.

 

Take care, and enjoy your travels in the new game. I imagine you've already flown over your own house? Yeah... I think we all have by now.

 

It's good to see you around here!

 

Modern consoles, especially the Xbox ones, have come a long ways from where they were 20+ years ago (which seems to be how many people still view them). The current Xbox One models and upcoming Xbox Series X all run a special version of Windows 10, as well as the custom operating system used for gaming. And the Xbox Series X itself looks like it will be just as powerful as a mid-range PC, with some features not available on PCs yet (the SSD integration and data streaming being a big one). So running a flight sim won't be that difficult for the console. On top of all of this, every report I have seen for the past several years puts the average age of console users over 30. Basically all those teenagers and university students who grew up playing games on consoles are still playing on them.

 

Yep, already found my house in the sim! Now checking out the rest of the world. :pilot: