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Flight Deck III Update for FS2004

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Guest Ideas

A "Free" update is now available for Flight Deck III as long as you are willing to "Pay" shipping and handling. I always was taught that Free and Pay were mutually exclusive. Maybe I am getting cynical in my old age, but I get upset when people cannot support their customers without adding more to their own pocket. I have purchased just about every add-on that Abacus put together (Notice: "Put Together" as some are just collections of what were once Freeware add-ons.) and now they want to charge "Shipping and handling" for an update. Hmmm, let us evaluate, shipping 39 cents, an envelope, 30 cents, my share of a minimum wage flunkies pay to address an envelope 50 cents, and let's pay for the CD (although they say it is free) 50 cents Total = $1.69. So where does the extra money go? Free Update? Nope, you pay for it!

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Guest wathomas777

Quit your Griping. Did MS give you a free "update" to FS2004Did your Car Dealer upgrade your ride to next years model for free?Why do people like you expect to buy a new flight simulator, and not moan and groan, but GOD help you if you should pay a couple bucks to upgrade your add-on.For Heaven's sake, Get a Grip!!!You bought an add-on for FS2002 NOT FS2004. So if you want to "continue" use it, load it on FS2002 and be quiet.Just be glad that you don't have to purchase the add-on all over again.Hey, Microsoft basically tweaked FS2002 to make FS2004, and we all bought the new version without much complaint.I bought their "aircraft collectors" collection for FS2002, and really like the planes. I asked them if it would be upgraded, and they said that many of the planes were FS2000 era planes, and probably would not be updated. Ok fine. I bought the planes for FS2002. Pay your shipping and handling and stop moaning. At least you didn't have to pay for the whole thing over again, like all of us who purchased Flight Simulator "again".It's a way of life. Get used to it. Someone has to pay for the labor.Last time I checked. Buying Windows 3.1 didn't guranteee me free upgrades to the Windows OS for life. what makes you think buying Flight Deck for FS2002 entitles you to any different?

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Guest CargoMun

Last time I checked you could get free updates and patches for all windows products for free, SP packs and what not from windowsupdate. Not the same?This is 2nd time this analogy is beeing used and its just stupid.Of course you can also order windows cd's and pay shipping but at least they offer the option of downloading it for free.

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Guest panda234

It's just a sneaky way of charging for an update. Worse than charging for the update is that not only do you have pay but you have to go through the inconvenience of waiting for a CD. They should have just charged less for the update (no shipping, handling, and CD costs) and put it out there for download. Less hassle, less waste, and more honest...rgds,billg

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Here is a reply I received today after emailing my displeasure.I have over $300.00 is addons and Abacus is the only Company wanting me to pay for an update.after posting my displeasure with Abacus for charging for a 2004 update I feel I need to post their reply.Hi Dave,Thank you for the email concerning your thoughts on the upgrade policy and price for Flight Deck 3. We've been evaluating how to best utilize our upgrade policies. We constantly monitor our customer's comments and try to make sure we don't lose sight of it all. Your comments were constructive and we will take them. On a side note, I can understand your point of view completely. If the update we are simple matter of making the planes work in FS2004, it would most likely be free. The problem is there was much more involved in making everything work in FS2004 - to summarize these updates there is a new FSUIPC.DLL that is no longer freeware so we had to purchase a license for using the new DLL file. ArrCab had to be updated to work with the new DLL file as well. All of the Flight Dynamic files had to be updated to work correctly in FS2004. Instrument panels were updated to be more accurate and include all required high-tech instrumentation - which means the Virtual Cockpits also had to be updated. Textures and MDL files were also updated. Along with these updates, we are also including a new Fresnel Lens system to add more realism to the carrier operations and the S-3 Viking. The decision to charge for an update is based on the amount of work involved to develop the update. The FD3 packages was a good 4 months in development starting December 2002, plus another 2 months to be accurately FS2004 compatible. Thank you for your comments. Regards, Adam HoweAbacus Softwareadam@abacuspub.com

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Guest wathomas777

Ok, this analogy is plain stupid.Sure,Can you please tell me, what justifys your expectation that the software developer massively retool the software so that it works within FS2004. With the added benefits that FS2004 has to offer.Who should pay those additional development costs.Ok, so it's an "upgrade" to an existing product and not a new one.Would you have preferred that Abacas said that FDIII would not be compatible with FS2004. Then updated the code, and released Flight Deck 4? and made you pay full price. for a NEW product?Would that have made you happier?Was Windows 98 that different from Win95? Was Windows ME that different from 98? And yet there was no upgrade path to those. and Those are all based on the same Win95 Kernel. Security updates and SP's are a bit different than making the product compatible with an entirely new piece of software.Considering that Abacus added some very important functionality to the upgrade that was previously not there, and also had to license FSUIPC, and such, I think you are dang lucky they just didn't release it as an entirely new product and stick you with buying it over again.But go ahead and complain. What a rotten deal you're getting.Talk about ungrateful.........

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Guest wathomas777

Sounds more than reasonable to me.In fact, sounds like they could have released it as Flight Deck 4 and charged full price.I would think that paying shipping and handling on that upgrade is a bargain in anyone's book.

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Guest Ideas

Note: Abacus is the one saying it is a "FREE Update" they obviously do not know the meaning of "FREE"

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Guest Ideas

Okay, another analogy for our ununderstanding friends out there. I come to your house and ring your doorbell. I tell you I have a "FREE" Six-Pack of Beer in my car which is parked at the end of your sidewalk. You say, "Great, I need that". I tell you, "Okay, I just need $15.00 so I can unlock my Car Door."Now does that clear things up? It is not the fact that they want to charge something for the Upgrade, it is the fact that they want to insult the intelligence of people by saying it is "Free" when it is not!

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Guest panda234

Ideas, I agree with you. Not only do I feel like I'm having one pulled over on me, but in order to continue with the charade I have pay extra for the CD and shipping and handling and have to wait X number of days for it to arrive. It's bad enough having my intelligence insulted, but I don't want to be inconvenienced and pay extra for the honour.Ironically, given what they have done to improve the program, charging for the upgrade seems entirely justified. However, that is not the point. It is the way they've gone about it. rgds,billg

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