After being in love with the PNW, I'm not seeing the value of the addon airports. I recently purchased Concrete and Darrington ($60) and dont really see the value vs. just buying PNW ($40). PNW default airports are very good and the little bit of eye candy that you get in return doesnt justify the cost of the addon airports. Anyone else feel the same way. I will be putting the wallet away until there is another big release from FTX.

I have to completely disagree! Not only are these airports meticulously crafted, but they are emotionally engaging. I have squandered so much on useless scenery, especially for fs9, and I can honestly say that FTX is the best scenery for FSX that anyone can buy.Just look at the big picture. Not only did they reduce their rates, but they are always giving away free airports and goodies. That's to everyone, not just the proud supporters. If you doubt me, just download the latest freeware PNW airports from Oz, and you will understand my point of view.

I get the impression that the addon airports where meant for downloading BoB and go walk around the towns. I guess from the cockpit view I must me missing alot. I would rather see FTX release 3 airports at a time for say $50 then one at a time for $30. That way you can fly from A to B to C and enjoy the routes and the approaches. The mural on the side of the police station is cool and all but I purchased FSX for the airplanes and the VFR flying. Maybe alittle less detail and more airports for the same $30 is all.

The immersion factor these (or any other well done airport scenery for that matter) bring in is well worth every nickle. I wish they had more......(my wallet on the other hand!).I LOVE them....I just flew the Bird Dog into Darrington and was awestruck. Then I flew the Carenado 172N into 2S1 and almost clipped the power lines on short final, seeing the orange obstruction ball at the last second (causing my heart to skip a beat). Almost as if I was really flying....How can you beat that? (and 2S1 is FREE!)

I agree that the immersion factor is the highest I've ever seen but I agree with Honda... there's a lot of stuff that would be neat in car or riding a bike, but you don't always see these things flying a plane. Sorta overkill imho to have every little shopping store modeled...

I was doubtful about getting Darrington, but now I spend so much time flying out of there I had to get Concrete as well.I'll happily give them my money if they keep producing this stuff.

I'm finding that everytime I fly out of Darrington,Concrete or Bill Womack's fantastic Stark's Twin Oaks I'm finding something new and different,I've probably spent 90% of my FSX Flight time in the PNW area since it was released,I've bought scenery/airports in the past that I've only flown in/out of once and were a huge waste of money for me.The fact that ORBX/FTX are creating airports/scenery that can be flown to and from in short hops low and slow is incredibly immersive for me.I think for myself I'm getting a fantastic value for my ca$h.

I do think it helps to use a car (or BOB, or whatever) to explore these places - not just because it's fun to do so, but because, once you've done that, you're going to have a different view about what you see next time you flyby/land. Whilst I agree that the default strips are good, the payware stuff adds so much more - but you will benefit most from it, if you've had a good look at it, I think.

It's nearly impossible to make everybody happy. Even in this thread, you've got Hondabuff commenting that he wishes we would stop focusing on so many off-field details and do the stuff you can see from a plane, while J van E hasn't bought 7S3 specifically because I didn't do enough off-airport modeling. From the reception the Orbx fields have had, I'd say there's a sizable number of people who are looking for nice, high-detail GA airports, so I reckon we'll just go on producing them. One thing I'm not sure about is the modeling of towns sited near the airports. Originally, my thought was that anything that's not reachable by plane (at least not legally :( ) was sort of overkill. I like a nice patch of high-res aerial ground blended into the background, but I never tended to do much modeling of specific buildings that weren't on or very near the airport. However, it seems that this is one of the favorite features of scenery like Darrington or Concrete, so I might have to consider adding them to upcoming projects. In the case of Stark's Twin Oaks, there is not town there, just miles of farmland and orchards, which I took pains to re-create.Would it be hijacking this thread to ask how people feel about paying extra for details like fully modeled towns that you can only really see with a bloke like Bob? I smell a blog poll coming on...

Well well, what an interesting discussion..Firstly let me agree that the price of PNW is far too low for what it's cost us to produce. It will take 12 months before we break even. But PNW is a loss-leader product, and a 'sandbox' for us to make payware and freeware airports in.We make the payware airports because nearly 40% of PNW customers buy them, and a survey we conducted on our forums suggested that eventually over 70% of PNW customers will buy them long term.We are also trying to create a whole new way to enjoy the sim, extending the experience far outside the cockpit and trying to appeal to the 'explore and discover' demographic. The strong sales of both PNW and these add-on airports suggests we are right in our assumption that this is what simmers want. I had a meeting with ACES three years ago at DEVCON in Bellevue and told them this was the direction that flightsim was heading - to a more experienced-based simulator that was much more immersive than ever before. Everyone in that room agreed with me at the time.We intend to release many more of these airports in each of the regions we produce, and of course we'll continue to thank our customers for their loyalty by releasing payware-quality freeware sceneries as well (Portland City being next).In terms of detail? We're just getting started really. We have stuff in the pipeline which will add incredible detail not just to smaller airports but large internationals too. And wait until you see what the 1S2/3W5 team does at Orcas Island!Remember Richard Goldstein and the GeoRender series? I bought all of his stuff back then. You can blame Richard for igniting the spark in our eyes that makes us go to such detail in FSX.

What I've really been enjoying about my purchase of the Tamworth airport scenery for ORBX AU is the way the entire town and suburbs a mile or two away have been added. All the buildings in various sizes and configurations look very convincing from the air (I'm not talking about street-level viewing of business signs, etc., just the eye-pleasing variety and detail of the layout that suggests a real community.) I would gladly pay for that kind of quality below the traffic pattern and beyond.John

I bought everything ORBX/FTX had to offer until now and couldn't be happier ! i started this hobby with FS9 in 2004 after being bored with racing sims; since PNW and those new payware airports, the immersion is even greater ! you can fly, you can walk (with BoB thanks!) and you can drive around with numerous freeware cars and trucks !And i still have to discover all in Australia ( my country of choice to move in the next 15 years or so...)Last week end the Wife and I took our motorhome and went to the 1000 Islands area in Ontario (3 hours drive from Montreal) and took the 5 hours cruise on the St-Lawrence river, that gave me the idea to duplicate this journey with a boat just for fun !? FSX permits all that folks.....Thank you guys from ORBX, keep it coming ! now if only you would do Montreal and the Laurentians or Adirondacks region...... :(Alain from Montreal

.... and I have to take my hat off to JohnV and Co. too. I'm hooked! I now fly PNW only. This is the stuff that built FlyTampa's reputation. Build great quality airports; the best. In John's case - he's building the bl**** scenery as well as the airports! This is how it looks in Google Earth. Having seen their large Australian airports I'm now expecting to see something like - perhaps better than - Flight Scenery's "Portland" when FTX Portland comes out. And I'll buy it. And KSEA. Great Stuff. Many thanks, John.

Well, I guess that's your opinion. I happen to love their addon airports and the detail they bring to the area surrounding the airport. It all depends on what you want in your install of FSX. If you are saying that the airports are over priced, I will sorely disagree with you. There is great attention to detail in the aiports and surrounding scenery which involves a heck of a lot of developement time.

Thats all relative .. your FSX program has more in it vs the ANY addons but it costs roughly the same. Just saying the the price is not based on development time. The price is based on what the market supports. :(

I guess I'm in the minority here too because I'm interested in FSX purely for the flying and for looking at different country's scenery and landscape from the sky above them and taking different routes from country to country, city to city on all the continents. When I start up FSX, I really have no desire to take a walk or drive around a town first, there are other simulations out there I can play if I want to do that.John said that the PNW region is a "loss-leader" and I guess the same goes for the FTX AU regions as well, which I think is a pity because I would much prefer the company to concentrate on creating regions that work towards spanning the globe and I would very happily pay more for those regions.This is just my opinion and all that said, I do love the work FTX does and so far I have bought the AU Blue and Gold regions and a few AU airports and I will absolutely continue to support FTX by buying their future regions.Mark

Well well, what an interesting discussion..Firstly let me agree that the price of PNW is far too low for what it's cost us to produce. It will take 12 months before we break even. But PNW is a loss-leader product, and a 'sandbox' for us to make payware and freeware airports in.We make the payware airports because nearly 40% of PNW customers buy them, and a survey we conducted on our forums suggested that eventually over 70% of PNW customers will buy them long term.We are also trying to create a whole new way to enjoy the sim, extending the experience far outside the cockpit and trying to appeal to the 'explore and discover' demographic. The strong sales of both PNW and these add-on airports suggests we are right in our assumption that this is what simmers want. I had a meeting with ACES three years ago at DEVCON in Bellevue and told them this was the direction that flightsim was heading - to a more experienced-based simulator that was much more immersive than ever before. Everyone in that room agreed with me at the time.We intend to release many more of these airports in each of the regions we produce, and of course we'll continue to thank our customers for their loyalty by releasing payware-quality freeware sceneries as well (Portland City being next).In terms of detail? We're just getting started really. We have stuff in the pipeline which will add incredible detail not just to smaller airports but large internationals too. And wait until you see what the 1S2/3W5 team does at Orcas Island!Remember Richard Goldstein and the GeoRender series? I bought all of his stuff back then. You can blame Richard for igniting the spark in our eyes that makes us go to such detail in FSX.

Funny you mention Richard as I just told a friend who was looking at my FS blog that his airports are "alive" even back in FS2002. And when I pulled my Bird Dog into Concrete and seen those people hanging out by the FBO chatting on their cell phones it blew me away (and embarrased by my poor landing) and it also made me think of Richards Geo Renders (that I still love in FS9).The ORBX gang should be darn proud as your products made this FS9 fan a fan of FSX too. Until I got the OZ DVD. I never he had FSX running.....