Sounds perfectly reasonable to me...My point still stands irrespective of what you read into the developers comments... The overwhelming tone by the so called "hard core" simmers was one that in any circumstance would have got any reasonable person's back up.It's interesting though that so many who previously bashed the product pre launch have turned around and have given their if not wholehearted support' date=' a grudging acknowledgement of the possibilities of this title even at this early phase of it's development. Well done to those...Anyway, it's their product and they can do as they please. Regardless of the whining, carping and bleating still emanating from some.[/quote']I'm not even sure what "hard core simmer" means. If it means someone who wants the ability to customize the simulator and fly in whatever area and conditions I choose, then yes, I guess I am "hard core".As for the comments, I don't agree with the tone and insulting nature of many of them but what can you expect when you take a franchise like FS and turn it into what Flight has become? It was bound to upset people, especially when all along the devs were telling us that our market would not be abandoned. As you said earlier " you reap what you sow" .......indeed.

Those airplanes are wonderful!

Hey guys. Interesting reading about the experiment that is "Flight". Very disappointed with the direction they are going so far. I hope I didn't miss any posts, but reading through I saw one mention the number of Facebook followers or "likes" for 'Flight'. Well I did a quick search for Microsoft Flight Pages and FSX pages on Facebook and came up with the following.Microsoft Flight Pages:http://www.facebook....com/#!/msflight 10,239 Likeshttp://www.facebook....osoftFlight2012 41 Likeshttp://www.facebook....104411702952366 2,851 LikesMicrosoft Flight Simulator X Pages:http://www.facebook....109562969069904 145,429 Likeshttp://www.facebook....110752908946809 20,556 Likes

And this is what Flight (the game) is competing against:Mass Effect: (Mass Effect 1 released November 20, 2007)http://www.facebook.com/masseffect 689,722 likesSkyrim (released Nov 11, 2011): http://www.facebook.com/pages/Elder-Scrolls-V-Skyrim/147031648682070 164,415 likeshttp://www.facebook.com/pages/Skyrim/145462488845092 448,207 likes Battlefield 3 (released October 25, 2011)http://www.facebook.com/battlefield.ea 209,691 likeshttp://www.facebook.com/pages/Battlefield-3/137409672949139 1,200,046 likesIf they continue to focus more on the game aspects of Flight to woo the gaming crowd, the competition is going to cream them. Flight cannot compete as a game, but it can compete as a flightsim . . . the sooner they realize that, the soon Flight will stand a chance of succeeding.

And yea, 4 of 5 aircraft can be flown very nice inside of envelope, but outside its acting like BF3.

hopefully among Microsoft's planned releases is an unlockable feature much like paints and awards. In fact anyone than does the aerobatic mission should 'earn'this.This new feature for Flight will be called "Stall".: DIt does bother me that there is no penalty for going outside the envelope.

Thanks for a very thorough interview. What I have taken away from the response is pretty much a "NO" on almost every concern you raised. Its clear that FLIGHT is never going to be a serious simulation, and MS will keep the 3rd party developers out of the loop. I don't have a lot of confidence that FLIGHT will survive as well as the Flight Simulator franchise. I think it is definitely a "casual" game; which is the intent. I might casually play it every once in a while, but will become a central source of activity for me? never.

hopefully among Microsoft's planned releases is an unlockable feature much like paints and awards. In fact anyone than does the aerobatic mission should 'earn'this.This new feature for Flight will be called "Stall".: DIt does bother me that there is no penalty for going outside the envelope.

Have you actually bothered to turn off the flight assists in the options? I can stall.Interestingly, I just fired up Flight and it took a looooong time to log in. But my RV6 now seems to have a stall horn. I could swear it didn't have that last weekend.

I have posted on many forums, the Flight Facebook pages, and even sent an E-mail to the Flight Dev team regarding "appropriate" aircraft, I sugested 5 aircraft that would sell to many people from simmers to noobs alike given the amount of help in the game (ex. Interactive Checklists, Aircraft tutorials, short cut buttons like "B" to start engines), here is the list below.....Aircraft - ATR-72-600: http://www.atraircra...600-series.htmlWhy? - This aircraft carries up to 90 passengers yet can still land on the smaller runways in the default island of Hawaii. The ATR-72-600 is used world wide in many populated and remote regions of the world, its fast, reliable, cost efficient, and has an extremely advanced avionics suite that can handle CAT III weather. Also the Turboprop engines on this aircraft are one of the coolest sounding, as they sound similar to jet engines on startup, yet inside the noise for a propeller aircraft is surprisingly quiet, its actually quieter than the Bombardier Q400 from what I have read. If jets are not on your list then this makes it the "ultimate" propeller driven aircraft in Flight. As the manufacturer's slogan for the 72-600 says "Proud to be Turboprop".Aircraft - Embraer E-175/195: http://www.embraerco...oducts_detail/2Why? - This aircraft resembles a 737 yet considerably smaller and can land/takeoff from many airports that the 737 can not. Very feature intensive and offers dynamic flexibility when it comes to distance of flights as its high speed gets you there quick, this would be a perfect aircraft to release before any larger jet would be made available if such an idea is on the table. This aircraft's specifications would easily meet the world of Flight and also afford those who want to be "airliners" the chance to feel like one.Aircraft - Hawker Beechcraft King Air 350i: http://www.hawkerbee.../king_air_350i/Why? - This is the latest rendition of the legendary King Air 350, its avionics suite is hard to beat as is its luxury, while most certainly not an airliner it can do 10-11 person fights and is used by Regional Airliners to get to many smaller airports, also used extensively by business executives and private charter flights as a turboprop is way more fuel efficient than a turbojet engine. The interesting thing here about bringing this into flight sooner than later is that aside form the "bush" landings this would most certainly replace the Maule overnight in terms to Cargo and Passenger missions, also Medical Missions as well, the real King Air 350 is used by paramedics in some regions to get critically sick passengers to the proper medical facilities in time. This aircraft (not variant) has been featured in many of Microsoft's past flight simulators and is a favorite amongst many simmers and real pilots alike, new users will also easily be able to say why this is one of the best planes on the market.Aircraft - Hawker Beechcraft Baron G58: http://www.hawkerbee...raft/baron_g58/Why? - Like the Maule? Well then the Baron 58 is also a good choice as it carries up to +1 more passenger but also has a higher MTOW over the Maule as well as a higher speed and service ceiling for those inter-island hops. Regional Airliners LOVE this plane as it can cover distance easily and efficiently and make profit. While this is not a "bush" plane it is a great little aircraft only slightly larger than the Cessna Corvalis TTX. This aircraft (not variant) has also been featured in many of Microsoft's past Flight Simulator games, and still remains a favorite amongst many simmers.Aircraft - Cessna Corvalis TTX: http://www.cessna.co...rvalis-ttx.htmlWhy? - This is probably the most impressive single engine aircraft I have ever seen, twin turbocharged with twin intercoolers, a 4 passenger cabin (pilot included) makes this a good plane for small charter flights, yet still fast and maneuverable. Its excellent frame body lines and power are not all, its avionics suite is also top notch yet easy to understand and takes a similar yet more feature advanced approach to the Icon A5, the Corvalis TTX would be the PERFECT upgrade from the Icon A5 or the RV-6.if anyone sees any fault in these requets let me know, im sure the ERJ-175/195 is "pushing it" but the King Air, Baron, and Corvalis TTX could easily fit in the game.

Good job! Offering some constructive criticism along with compelling reasons why things should be changed is the best approach to reach your goals IMHO.People just sending hate mail will most likely get them moved to the angry sim-nut folder by an assistant before someone important will see them...

People just sending hate mail will most likely get them moved to the angry sim-nut folder by an assistant before someone important will see them...

Actually, the most interesting hate mail gets printed out and posted on a bulletin board for everyone to giggle at. The one where I worked had a sign over the top, "We are suck."Hook

Very interesting! If the figures are correct I wonder why there was a decline in sales from fs2002 to fs2004. I seem to remember they where pretty similar fs2004 being more optimized and with few bugs, so why didnt it sell more... It was even the anniversary year for aviation. When it comes to FSX maybe the very steep system requirements made many steer away when they saw how it actually performed on regular systems. MS Flight performs very good, but for now they havent included "the living world" like FSX had.

I wish I had the answer to that. Mathijs also said something about the demise of PC-based gaming (here), but I think this is just one reason.Could also be a simple trend issue. I play a lot of adventure games when I'm not flying. This genre used to be almost dead ten years ago. But then, for some unknown reason, adventure games became very popular in Germany. Now these games are first published here and only when they fly in this market they are translated and published in English speaking markets.Or it is a matter of flight sims having become too complex to be approachable for novices. Although I must say that FSX actually did a good job to bring these people from zero to hero with the tutorial missions, flying lessons and all kinds of flight assists.I honestly don't know what happened to flight sim. If someone has a better theory, please post here!

Now these games are first published here and only when they fly in this market they are translated and published in English speaking markets.

I've noticed a bit of a trend where simulations of various sorts are published in Russia, then get translated.Hook

Tom,I disabled all the assists before I flew the first time. I have no idea what the assists do actually because I've never used them.I an also not a detractor of Flight. I support its mission and hope it succeeds.I stand by my conviction that you must go out of your way to induce a stall. Waaay out of your way.Below VA I should I not stall if I abruptly pull back hard on the elevator?I am also able to maintain a climb will full up elevator and full power when starting from slow flight. Its comical to watchas the aircraft buffets around but climbs away at a decent rate.No, flying on the edge is extremely forgiving. Too forgiving IMO.

Thanks for a very thorough interview. What I have taken away from the response is pretty much a "NO" on almost every concern you raised. Its clear that FLIGHT is never going to be a serious simulation, and MS will keep the 3rd party developers out of the loop.

I keep seeing this sentiment, and dissapointment, expressed in regards to Flight not being a simulation, or what the serious flight simmer wants it to be. Maybe I read things wrong, but then I have always been a " glass half full" kind of guy. While I can see from comments by JH some would be dissappointed that some of their most valid concerns were not addressed and answered directly, I myself do have hope in some things he has said.Some excerpts pasted below from JH in this interview:<<<This new version has always been about finding a way to bring the joy of flight to massive new audiences, and we felt that we couldn’t best do that by building Flight Simulator 11. However, we believe deeply in the value of that underlying simulation, and invested a lot in Flight to create a more sophisticated simulation than we ever had before.>>><<<One of those was breaking with the tools that enabled the rich 3rd party ecosystem we had with previous products in the franchise. I do think we will get back to that, but in the mean time we will be managing the content production. We‘re in discussions with other parties about having them develop content alongside us.>>><<< We do get requests from simmers for things like ATC, TrackIR, or making the whole world available, and where we can we are adjusting our future roadmap to accommodate these kinds of things.>>><<< However, we are working on ways to partner with other developers. As we get an ever better understanding of what the Flight customer wants (as opposed to what customers of the previous franchise products want), I see us meeting those needs through both internal and external development. >>><<< As I mentioned before, TrackIR is one of the requests we are getting from simmers. In an effort to balance our investments, we are considering how we can accommodate this request along with all of the other ways we want to grow the experience. >>>Again I am really a glass half full type of guy, and I remain hopeful that while Flight may not and probably will not ever develop into a full blown everything included that possibly can be included simulation like an FS11 - that much has been made fairly clear without ruling out the possibilty of actually developing an FS11 someday, I remain hopeful that as time goes on, more simulation aspects that the hard core flight simmer desires, will find their way into Flight.Regarding the above comment on Track IR highlited in red - I believe strongly that this is partly a result from us here, who own and use a Track IR - taking the time to send them emails asking for the support to be added, of course added with other venues as well such as Facebook, other forums, etc. I believe this is a perfect example of why it benefits us, who are passionate enough on the things we feel crucial for Flight - whilst being reasonable, to take the time to write the Flight team and express these desires. Again, they have asked for the feedback, and I do believe they are listening. While there are some things that will never make the cut, there are many that very well may - and if we do not take the time to provide this feedback, then those things are not going to be perceived to be all that big a deal to them...

Well, flight simulators are very alive, just lok at DCS, BMS, XP, RoF, IL COD, FSX... its alive like never before!

I stand by my conviction that you must go out of your way to induce a stall. Waaay out of your way.Below VA I should I not stall if I abruptly pull back hard on the elevator?I am also able to maintain a climb will full up elevator and full power when starting from slow flight. Its comical to watchas the aircraft buffets around but climbs away at a decent rate.No, flying on the edge is extremely forgiving. Too forgiving IMO.

I see what you mean. The aerodynamics in Flight are certainly not perfect, as I had already expressed in another discussion. But IMO they are way better than the ones from the default FSX planes and also better than many of the third party addon planes for it.Also, MS seems to have fixed some issues that had been bugging MSFS for a long time. For example: with constant-speed propeller planes, engine sound does no longer change with MP but rather with RPM.

 

Flight cannot compete as a game, but it can compete as a flightsim

Very well said. Flight will fail if it doesn't find an audience soon.

DCS, BMS, XP, RoF, IL COD, FSX

Best time for Flight Sims since the late 90's for sure.

The sound in FLIGHT is top notch. You hear the sound difference if you open a door, lower your flaps and one time a person was chasing me and crashed into the ocean below and behind me with a "Splash." I almost felt the need to look behind my chair.