MS Flight

[Guest veeray]

[Emmeth: Yes Europe on Mondays North America on Tuesdays... and most likely a september to december release period for Christmas. Out of 365 it is possible to narrow it down to just 8 to 10 days in particular :)

[Tierborn 191]

aren't we all seeking for realism that MS claimed but never delivered to a default airplane nor to weather or scenery?looking some where else (third party products) is the only answer, and to get it to work (near/close to OK) there has to be some (sometimes a lot) of tweaking, is this good coding?I never asked for a perfect product, but when something is advertised to be (AS REAL AS IT GETS), it must deliver or allow other products to deliver with out having the end user to keep tweaking and fine tuning.Thanks

"As real as it gets"  doesnt not say 'As real as it gets with any addons" .. you just made that last part up. :(  And "As real as it gets"  is still true with the base product.  Please name another consumer based flight simulator that is more "Real".

[mgh 89]

aren't we all seeking for realism that MS claimed but never delivered to a default airplane nor to weather or scenery?looking some where else (third party products) is the only answer, and to get it to work (near/close to OK) there has to be some (sometimes a lot) of tweaking, is this good coding?I never asked for a perfect product, but when something is advertised to be (AS REAL AS IT GETS), it must deliver or allow other products to deliver with out having the end user to keep tweaking and fine tuning.Thanks

You are being naive if you take advertising puffery like "as real as it gets" literally. Taking that literally would mean it should be a full motion simulator with every instrument and control behaving as in real life. Of course, if that's what you want you can have it, but it will cost you about $15 million instead of less than $50. Flight Simulator is a computer game that delivers what it promises out of the box.

[dmaher 0]

That's not speculation.During last 30 years I learned how to gauge the release date with a good degree of precision after analyzing infos, press releases, videos, promos, demos etc....Two of the three videos have not been taken from the game , they are simply a cheap rendering exercise, made just to announce a brand new fashion game. The third video is clearly light years before a rough pre-alpha stage. I would dare to say that the code is compiled in the first couple of lines only.Told that, even stones would agree that it would be insane imagining a release before AT LEAST a year and a half. Maybe Fall 2012 would be more appropriate as forecast.In addition nowdays it is a common practice announcing a new game at least a year before the release, usually a year and a half it is the thumb rule if the marketing dept want to maximize the advertising effect given by media. The Witcher 2 for example has been announced a year an a half ago and it will be published on spring 2011. I am plenty of real examples like that and examples are facts, not opinions.The real huge difference is that The Witcher ( for example ) was a pretty solid game from a tech point of view, FSX was a crappy mess of bugs instead, even after the lastest Service Pack.

There's nothing wrong with a bit of speculation :)Something to chew on while we wait for news.

[HughesMDflyer4 470]

That's not speculation.

It could actually be thought of as speculation. You are basing your thought of off guessing and analyzing data from other games. Microsoft Flight is brand new. Things may not be done as they would be on other games. Microsoft has not given a release date for Flight. So, any dates that non-flight members give will be....speculation. Now, I personally think Flight will come out in the 2nd to 3rd quarter of 2011. But again, that is speculation.

[Tierborn 191]

That's not speculation.During last 30 years I learned how to gauge the release date with a good degree of precision after analyzing infos, press releases, videos, promos, demos etc....Two of the three videos have not been taken from the game , they are simply a cheap rendering exercise, made just to announce a brand new fashion game.  The third video is clearly light years before a rough pre-alpha stage.  I would dare to say that the code is compiled in the first couple of lines only.Told that, even stones would agree that it would be insane imagining a release before AT LEAST a year and a half. Maybe Fall 2012 would be more appropriate as forecast.In addition nowdays it is a common practice announcing a new game at least a year before the release, usually a year and a half it is the thumb rule if the marketing dept want to maximize the advertising effect given by media. The Witcher 2 for example has been announced a year an a half ago and it will be published on spring 2011. I am plenty of real examples like that and examples are facts, not opinions.The real huge difference is that The Witcher ( for example ) was a pretty solid game from a tech point of view, FSX was a crappy mess of bugs instead, even after the lastest Service Pack.

This is the definition of speculation.  Only way for it not to be speculation, is if you would have seen a MS target release date.

[Chock 17,769]

Flight is supposedly currently at the stage of an alpha version which is being tested internally at the moment. How long that makes it away from beta and a release is anybody's guess though.Al

[dmaher 0]

^^^ It most certainly is speculation. And I agree likely in alpha right now. The “beta not before Christmas” comments makes me think beta will begin at the end of February to beginning of April. Likely four months of beta ( that's long). And that’s pushing August September. Stores by October. Perfect schedule for Christmas 2011 :)

[byork 2,260]

^^^ It most certainly is speculation. And I agree likely in alpha right now. The “beta not before Christmas” comments makes me think beta will begin at the end of February to beginning of April. Likely four months of beta ( that's long). And that’s pushing August September. Stores by October. Perfect schedule for Christmas 2011 :)

What I'd like to know is how much of a re-write Flight is going to be...I recall right after MS axed ACES that some of the sacked ACES members made some comments about how FS11 was shaping up... it was supposed to have some pretty neat new features like Sky Diving, etc.Is Flight supposed to pick up where the old FS11 team left off? Or is truly starting fresh?Based on what I've seen, I'd speculate that they simply picked up from where the old ACES team stopped working, but as always it's a big 'who knows'.I guess if we see Skydiving in Flight, then we'll know :(

[Chock 17,769]

Since the stated aim of Flight is to still cater for the traditional simmer audience with a freshened up version of MSFS, but to also include stuff to appeal to more casual types, it'd be my guess that they'd run with the mission theme a bit more, maybe stick some combat elements in there such as the ability for things you fire or drop to have collision detection, and then jazz the appearance up a bit as far as the GUI goes so that it looks more like a game on the front end when you fire it up. Under that it will probably effectively be FS11 with proper multi-core and GPU support and some better graphics capabilities.Al

[Guest]

You are all pointing me as a speculator so you made me cry I consider myself offended

[Tierborn 191]

Since the stated aim of Flight is to still cater for the traditional simmer audience with a freshened up version of MSFS, but to also include stuff to appeal to more casual types, it'd be my guess that they'd run with the mission theme a bit more, maybe stick some combat elements in there such as the ability for things you fire or drop to have collision detection, and then jazz the appearance up a bit as far as the GUI goes so that it looks more like a game on the front end when you fire it up. Under that it will probably effectively be FS11 with proper multi-core and GPU support and some better graphics capabilities.Al

I believe the mission theme would appeal to tons of the enthusiasts as well.  One of the elements I hope for is a real career mode.  One where you start in flight school earning a single engine, multi- engine, corporate pilot, various levels of commuter pilot, ATP pilot.

[mmann 72]

I believe the mission theme would appeal to tons of the enthusiasts as well. One of the elements I hope for is a real career mode. One where you start in flight school earning a single engine, multi- engine, corporate pilot, various levels of commuter pilot, ATP pilot.

Great idea!! I always found the Flight Lessons with Rod Machado to be too buggy and the Cessna from FSX and FS2004 seems to perform differently from the Cessna from FS2002 which AFAIK the flight lessons were initially written for.Regards, Mike Mann

[Chock 17,769]

I believe the mission theme would appeal to tons of the enthusiasts as well.  One of the elements I hope for is a real career mode.  One where you start in flight school earning a single engine, multi- engine, corporate pilot, various levels of commuter pilot, ATP pilot.

Well, if the developers have got any sense they'll certainly want to look at that since it would appear to a feature which many simmers tend to want. Even a cursory glance at other sims and forums would reveal that traditionally where combat sims are concerned, the biggest and most common wished-for feature is a dynamic campaign (one of the things which made Falcon so great in fact, since you could do that multiplayer too). And if one looks at a lot of train simulators, notably Railworks, its 'career missions' have been a big talking point and probably helped to shift a few copies. I reckon if Slopey would have made Air Hauler multiplayer, he'd be retired in the Bahamas by now LOL.Ironically enough though, it is actually entirely possible to have a persistent career mode entirely within in FSX via the present mission system. Aerosoft demonstrated that is perfectly achievable with the wonderful African Airstrip Adventures, which is entirely open-ended, generates jobs for you to do and tracks your earnings, which are basically the elements you would need for a pilot career in a flight sim. If I was Mister Microsoft, I'd have snagged the makers of African Airstrip Adventures on day one of recruitment for people to join the Flight development team.Al

[Guest jahman]

You are all pointing me as a speculator so you made me cry I consider myself offended

No need to consider yourself offended at all! You are on the right track.To speculate (Verb):

1. (intransitive) to think, meditate or reflect on a subject; to deliberate or cogitate
2. (intransitive) to make an inference based on inconclusive evidence; to surmise or conjecture
3. (intransitive, business, finance) to make a risky trade in the hope of making a profit; to venture or gamble

Speculator (Noun):

1. (business, finance, flight simulation) One who speculates; as in investing, one who is willing totake volatile risks upon invested principle for the potential of substantial returns.

Cheers,- jahman.