YS Flight Simulator

This flight simulator was developed by a Japanese man whose name goes by Soji Yamakawa, who developed this simulator during his college years back in 1999, and to this date many people consider it to be one of the best free flight simulators you could get. However, after having played in the online community for a few weeks, I'd like to take this time to make a full review of the simulator as well as the online community behind it, YSFHQ. Let's talk about the simulator itself. The program is a freeware program that can be customized to your liking with customized scenery, ground objects, and aircraft. The main advantages here is that, in comparison to other high-end flight simulators such as Flight Simulator X, X-Plane or Prepar3D, the YS Flight Simulator does not demand high performance from computers - any computer that can run DirectX or OpenGL will work, which is great for people like myself who do not have the money to buy expensive gaming computers that cost thousands of dollars as we have an easy outlet to aviation. Being able to customize aircraft to your own liking is also very nice as well - this gives you plenty of options such as making your own virtual airline, military squadron, or aerobatic squadron without too much hassle. You can even fly in your own customized scenery as well. That's pretty cool. The scenery isn't perfect though - you can only fly in small- to medium-scale maps without having FPS issues; also you can't simulate all of the real-life weather conditions such as snow, rain, etc.as you only have visibility and wind conditions that are kept constant throughout the flight. The simulator's controls themselves are simplified in a way that all aircraft share in general - the cockpit interior designs are only for show; otherwise, the controls are done via keyboard, mouse and/or joystick control. The autopilot controls are simplified as well, such as takeoff, holding pattern (circle), straight and level, landing (ILS), and Heading Bug. It's not too bad - it allows amateur pilots to get the feel of different aircraft without having to spend too much time learning different autopilot controls. That's pretty neat. However, when it comes to the online community known as YSFHQ, things start to go downhill. You'll be dealing with a community that consists of toxic people who will ban you if you do not follow what they want you to do. Most of the admins there (not all of them though, 'cause I know at least one admin who is ACTUALLY pretty nice) refuse to take action when it comes to community issues and fails to intervene until it's too late. Some of the admins, in addition to several notable members (names withdrawn to protect privacy), will actually go out of their way to berate and/or bully other people, as well as shooting down/vulching civilian aircraft. IT MUST ALSO BE NOTED THAT THERE ARE MEMBERS IN THE COMMUNITY WHO WILL ACTIVELY BERATE THOSE WHO ARE GOING THROUGH PERSONAL PROBLEMS IN REAL LIFE. There were at least three incidents in which police got involved because of how other members took things too far, and yet the admins STILL placed the blame on the innocent people who are going through personal troubles in real life. Furthermore, I would also like to mention that there has been a case where people had their email addresses and phone numbers hacked by an admin member as well. This is a serious case of privacy intrusion. To those of you considering playing this game, please proceed with caution. if you only intend to use this program for offline flying, then this simulator is right for you - the DirectX design as well as the open source program integrity will open more options for your offline flights. HOWEVER, if you are looking for an online flight simulation community, then you're in for a big disappointment. Stay away from YSFHQ like the plague - the administration is just purely horrible. If you are looking to fly online, it's best to save up for a high-quality gaming computer that can run Prepar3D. It's much better of an investment that way. And a side note to those of you defending YSFHQ, congratulations - you've just proved to everyone else how much of careless jerks you are as well as how freeware flight simulation community is dying away. Male or female, NOBODY deserves to go through cases where they are being coerced by others to harm themselves. You want to save YSFHQ? Start by learning to provide emotional support. I would recommend this simulator to others had it not been for the online community bringing it down. I'm sorry I had to be harsh on this, but unfortunately this is the reality. However, I will still give the creator of the simulator some credit for making an easily accessible simulator, so I'll rate this game 55 points out of 100.