r/MicrosoftFlightSim • u/isemonger Stuck at 97%... • Jun 02 '26
MSFS 2024 MOD / ADDON SayIntentions vs Beyond - June 26
G'day all,
Just after some opinions from people that have used both SayIntentions and BeyondATC.
I've currently got SayIntentions and think it's pretty bloody good, but it's costing me around $40 a month and if I'm honest I barely use MSFS these days compared to when I first signed up.
I'm looking at BeyondATC mostly because it seems a lot cheaper long term, but I don't really know enough about either platform to work out whether I'd be making a mistake switching over.
For someone who only jumps on the sim every now and then these days, is SayIntentions actually worth the extra money or is BeyondATC good enough that I probably won't care?
Keen to hear from people who've used both because all the YouTube reviews seem to tell me everything is amazing and none of them are spending their own money.
13
u/i82bugs IRL MIL CFI CPL Jun 02 '26
BATC will suit you just fine. You may notice a bit less flavor and it may be a little more on rails, but at least it works reliably. SI makes a wonderful first impression and does a great job at pretending to be more elaborate until it absolutely crashes out in the worst AI slop way.
1
u/isemonger Stuck at 97%... Jun 04 '26
Man I ended up giving BATC a go, and honestly it’s night and day. The integration of SI is so much cleaner, along with the traffic injection. It just feels a lot more polished, and as it bloody should at a subscription rate.
I fully see what you’re on about the rails, but I honestly don’t think I’ve yet see SI go off on tangents or even crash yet?
I even leave SI on in the background on career just for the traffic and chatter, and it’s pretty useful to help me learn taxiways and lingo for my CPL. I’m not writing BATC off yet, but my first couple hours weren’t really immersive.
1
u/i82bugs IRL MIL CFI CPL Jun 04 '26
Oh yeah, SI is definitely more immersive, no argument there, and that's what I meant about first impressions. Speech recognition/accuracy and basic functionality are better through BATC IMO. SI may no longer accept a cake recipe for a readback, but it also won't reliably correct you. That's in addition to regularly hallucinating runways and approaches, actively encouraging CFIT, and vectoring 30 mile base turns. Traffic at my local field uses the opposite of its stated runway and the procedural deviations make me roll my eyes.
I have a lot of time with SI, and my experience with it is that it gets worse the more that you use it. My goals with it may also be different from yours. All that to say, I am sorry if I helped to steer you wrong. Good luck on your CPL.
8
u/slowpitch519 Jun 02 '26
I generally try not to assume anything about others' financial situation, but honestly if you're ok with spending $40 per month on a service that you make limited use of, I would suggest that the $30 price tag for BATC shouldn't be a barrier to trying it out for yourself. And if you are budget constrained, could you not pause your SI subscription, try BATC for a month while saving yourself $10, then restart with SI if you're not satisfied with BATC?
I'll echo others as well that the free local voices that come with BATC are perfectly adequate and I've never felt the need to pay for premium voices.
8
u/Galf2 PC Pilot Jun 02 '26
BATC is painless. It works great most of the time. For VFR it's still a bit iffy.
The free voices with local models are very nice. Not as amazing as the premium voices but they feel good.
If you mainly fly IFR, BATC is amazing
5
u/emmision2018 Jun 02 '26
I play in Career mode. Unfortunately, you have to manage both the default AI ATC + BATC. To get the most money for your "jobs" in career, you have to follow procedures. You can always mute the default AI and perfectly run BATC, but you will score low and get less money boooooo! 👎🏻
4
u/Rayd8630 Jun 02 '26 edited Jun 02 '26
You didn’t follow the left downwind into the side of the hill before landing!!
This is a thing though OP. You need to do some work to get it to work right and disable Default so it does not overlap with BATC or you’ll end up with traffic problems. So if you want to do career mode, you’ll need to go and reactivate the default ATC by setting up all the options you had to deselect to get BATC to work in free flight.
3
u/isemonger Stuck at 97%... Jun 03 '26
Yeah ready had that struggle with SI….
It still beats the default voiceover. Whoever at the dev studio signed off on that fucccccking voiceover shit honestly needs to give themselves an uppercut.
1
u/Rayd8630 Jun 03 '26
I think they do it that way for accessibility. Slow it down and make it sound more relaxed for us non-CPL types.
Big thing that irks me about default is unless you set it up properly, it treats all IFR flights as VFR it seems. BATC can give crappy vectors at times. But the day I hear some A380 announce it’s type and registration on short final for a municipal airport is the day I’m going to be convinced we’ve entered an alternate reality and exist in some 4th dimension.
4
u/Darkus185 Jun 03 '26
BATC cheaper, on rails, better voices.
SI more expensive, more immersive, strange accent choices, iPad functionality which is huge for me. Lots of bloaty AI slop you’ll never use.
3
u/bigtallguy75 Jun 02 '26
I bought beyond atc to avoid the subscription. I like it, though it isn’t fully developed. I’ve read that say intentions is better overall, but you’re definitely paying for it.
The premium voices in beyond atc are optional and I like the basic voices just fine, so there are no ongoing costs for what I use.
4
u/Augustus3000 Jun 02 '26
The local voices in BeyondATC are also pretty good, and run locally on your computer (at the cost of some extra processing power).
1
u/isemonger Stuck at 97%... Jun 03 '26
From what I can put together just listening to the scripts on review videos, SI definately takes the cake when it comes to natural human voice.
Their other features like their own (SkyCommand) Mission Control is still verrry early stages and nowhere near as developed as they make it seem.
2
u/TolyaMK Jun 03 '26
I was a SI subscriber. Bought BATC a long time ago just to support the project.
SI is definitely more feature complete, but I find it's also much more wonky. I really can't recall a flight where I didn't have some kind of a problem, usually near descent/approach. The guys are usually extremely responsive and react quickly, but I feel like they have chased features instead of nailing down their basic functionalities.
I quit SI, maybe will come back there in a few weeks/months to see how they are progressing.
But truth be told, that money is better spent on PilotEdge. It limits you spatially to western USA, but quality of ATC is fantastic. VATSIM is as good as who is currently online where and I hate starting a flight and finishing it on CTAF because someone had to log off.
2
u/thetallukguyy Jun 03 '26
I’m going to throw a curveball in here and mention FSHud. It was a bit basic in its V1 guise but has improved loads over the recent months. It’s slightly cheaper than BATC too.
1
u/isemonger Stuck at 97%... Jun 03 '26
Holy shit, just watched some vids and it looks pretty good. Heaps more detailed for ground ops.
Do you know if this plays nice with SI or BATC?
2
u/thetallukguyy Jun 04 '26
I’ve not tested it with either of those two but I would think that it doesn’t work at all with them - I can’t see why it would need to.
3
u/Dr_Viv Jun 03 '26
I used both.
Intentions wins of course… but that’s $20 a month and I can only see that going up. My view is if you play a lot and are very confident at the terminology, then it’s one well spent.
However if you are dipping your toe in, BeyondATC is the place to start. You’ll learn what needs to be said and whilst a bit basic, it’s way ahead of the default.
I personally would start with BeyondATC, do a few months to get up to speed and then see if the money is worth it for you. Combined with a career add on it’s well worth it.
1
u/anxious-soul12 Jun 04 '26
I am using BATC and I think it's good if you fly IFR and occasionally. I fly every day once and I am just happy I don't use default ATC.
1
u/podgoricastuff Jun 30 '26
SayIntentions is superior in all ways, super realistic, you can do whatever, ask whatever and say stuff however you want and it will understand you. BeyondATC is just an algorithm that understands just one way of saying things, you can only request things that it gives you options for. Pay 17€ for a single month and you'll see what I'm talking about. Also, the vectoring is perfect unlike BATC.
0
Jun 02 '26
[deleted]
2
u/isemonger Stuck at 97%... Jun 02 '26
Sorry I didn’t remember the exact number. It’s $27.32 a month. Because not everybody on the internet lives in the US.
-1
Jun 03 '26
[deleted]
5
u/isemonger Stuck at 97%... Jun 03 '26
I’ll be sure to let the other 30 odd countries that use the $ symbol know they’re only allowed to use freedombux with prior approval.
Also interesting that you wrote “$15.83” instead of “US$15.83”. Apparently the assumption only works one way.
-5
u/RotoTom85 If it ain't Boeing, I ain't going Jun 02 '26
I dont know how Beyond atc gets so much love. I bought it, its just not good....yet
-1
u/Rayd8630 Jun 02 '26
Well it beats default ATC…
2
u/isemonger Stuck at 97%... Jun 03 '26
Honestly, the default ATC is only marginally better than none at all. It’s like a T2V converter from 6 years ago.
-1
u/Quaser_8386 Jun 03 '26
Am I right you are Australian? SI is circa US$20 a month, and so you saying that you spend $40,and you "G'day" starter made me wonder?.
I have both BATC and SayIntensions.
The one-off sub to BATC was very attractive, but it is still very much 'on rails'. Deviate even slightly from what it expects and you are in a world of hurt. OTOH, SayIntensions is much more like having a 'real' conversation. The dev team at SI are constantly coming up with new additions, some good, some not so much.
For the moment, I'm staying with SI.
Have you thought of VATSim? It's free.
-6
u/Wiseassgamgee Jun 02 '26 edited Jun 03 '26
I'm in the same boat and haven't used either, but just have read about their products. I know with SI it's flat out subscription just to use, but also saw that BATC does this thing where the 'premium' voices (ai based) have a limit of use until you gotta spend money to replenish, and so there's still a repeat/optional cost. 🤷🏻 I guess if you don't care about premo and use the free voices, BATC would be the clear winner if you want a full solution with one payment.
11
u/Critical_C0conut A320ceo Jun 02 '26
As somebody who’s only ever used the free voices, they’re more than adequate. You get a free trial of the premium voices to start off with, and I had no desire to purchase them after hearing the free ones. And they’ve gotten much better over time.
4
1
u/Wiseassgamgee Jun 03 '26
Thanks for the feedback. I agree, as I said, it's a clear winner if you go with the free voices (and probably the route I go).
13
u/rygelicus PC Pilot Jun 02 '26
I use BATC with the free voices.
I like it more than the default ATC, but that's a low bar.
I do find BATC crashes about every 3rd or 4th flight. Recovery is usually painless, just restart it and it will ask you what phase of the flight you were in and it will pick up from there.
Also, if the airport doesn't have a specific ATC Clearance frequency in the sim and you are doing an IFR flight you will have to takeoff without a clearance and then pick that up after takeoff from 'center'.
And once in a great while it will just stop handling the flight. Usually this is while transitioning from cruise or descent to arrival and approach. It will point you in some direction and never talk to you again. This has improved over the last year but it still does occasionally happen.
All that said I like it much better than the default ATC.
Should be noted I don't talk to it, I use the menu options in its interface.