[TX-EcoDragon]

As a long time simmer who's gotten used to clickable cockpits (and a pilot who is as well) I feel that they are critical to an immersive sim. . .particularly as complexity of the aircraft increases. Along with accurate flight physics, this feature is a big factor in what makes or breaks most sims for me. IL-2 was the first and last sim that I continued to play despite very simplified systems management and cockpit interface . . .but at this point I'd expect no less than clickable cockpits in any future titles.

LockOn is the worst example of a useable control interface I've seen, and ten years earlier the Jane's and MSFS sims were doing clickable displays, rotating knobs etc. I would LOVE to have a panel that communicates things to me so that I didn't need a big scrolling text log in the right of the screen, I would love to not need to remember obscure keyboard commands to do things like advance the supercharger stage, set mix/prop/mags etc. I never used LockOn for anything other than formation flying with an aerobatic team, and the lack of clickable cockpits is the main reason why. It’s always seemed a bit odd to be staring at a switch right in front of you that you can’t flip. . .

Some people will not care one way or another about these things, but these people are generally going to be what I'd call gamers first and foremost. Perhaps it is them that a software producer would rather cater to, but there are pilots out there who also enjoy realism and utility, and there are dedicated flight sim pilots who would as well. Those that have never flown with these features might not have much basis for comparison, or perhaps it's really all about the combat game vs the flight simulation.

For people who don't want to use these things (or who fly with cockpit off), they can go on using the keyboard commands, but it's my opinion that no self respecting simulation will ignore these features.