Flight - an enigma

[malibu43 2]

I think the path the Flight team has chosen makes sense. Get the bugs worked out of the main game engine. Enhance it and optimize it. Get some market feedback to understand who the customer's are and what they really want. Nail down the game engine. THEN open it up to 3PD.

 

If they open it up to 3PD right now it would be a mess to keep all the 3PD stuff updated (both released and in development) as the game engine evolves over the next year or so.

[Bobsk8 12,586]

I think the path the Flight team has chosen makes sense. Get the bugs worked out of the main game engine. Enhance it and optimize it. Get some market feedback to understand who the customer's are and what they really want. Nail down the game engine. THEN open it up to 3PD.

 

If they open it up to 3PD right now it would be a mess to keep all the 3PD stuff updated (both released and in development) as the game engine evolves over the next year or so.

 

The only thing that concerns me, is when the third party apps start appearing, that the smooth operation of Flight will start to degrade. The one upside to this is, someone buying a 3rd party app, installing it and seeing this happen, can quickly hit the uninstall menu and return to square one.

[lthendrix 25]

what you all forget is the game is called FLIGHT not scenery .....I think that I like the flight dynamics enough to keep loading up flight

[rtodepart 761]

If they do open it up to 3PD in the future i can imagine we will be almost 100% sure every addon will be compatible with what we will have installed already . we all know that in the fsx world sometimes when we had to do a complete reinstall some addons will act up a bit . with the system flight uses now that would go away i think ......

[trevorbee 0]

After TrackIR I have faith Microsoft is listening that's why I'm pointing them to Holger's work, FSCargo, and Misty Moorings. If they put a little effort into the scenery with detailed airports, static aircraft, deluxe bush planes, some form of ATC, and AI bush planes to add life to our already occupied multiplayer sessions Flight could be fantastic.

 

I actually would rather they hold off on any other scenery area until the get Alaska right as it could set the stage for the whole Flight environment moving forward...

 

The devs did a really good job with Hawaii (except for the lack of life). For me, Hawaii set the benchmark and I expected the same level of quality and detail to be worked into each new scenery.

 

I would also prefer it if the devs would spend some time on bringing Alaska up to the same quality level as Hawaii (or better) before starting on the next area.

 

I agree with all those who have pointed out the good things about Flight. I just think it is a shame that the quality seems to be dropping away so soon.

[HiFlyer 9,345]

I guess in the end its going to be a matter of expectation. When I first heard about another cockpitless plane, I was ready to jump up and down and rage a bit. In fact, I would probably be raging right now if they compounded their error with a price $35 or $50

 

I would have thought they were nuts. Instead, they offered a huge swath of land, a free if limited plane, all the goodness we already expect from flight graphics, hundreds of airports, very passable terrain........ and all for about the price I paid at the toll booth just to get into the city today ($12.00)

 

How much raging was actually reasonable?

 

Well a little of course, just because people are like that and so am I, but really? I see bad things and good things but in the whole, I have to give them a provisional pass because I think in the end that what they have done, at the price they did it, is just short of astonishing. Could it be better? Well heck yes, much better, but I suspect only at a price point that would scare off the casual users they are attempting to attract right now, who already think $7 for any plane (with or without cockpit) is bordering on theft.

 

They have a tough row to hoe, and I don't envy them, because for various and sundry reasons, they are not going to get the slack that just about anybody else could expect in these very early times. Their own instinctual tendency towards a secretiveness even MI6 could admire is not going to help things, either.

[trevorbee 0]

They have a tough row to hoe, and I don't envy them, because for various and sundry reasons, they are not going to get the slack that just about anybody else could expect in these very early times. Their own instinctual tendency towards a secretiveness even MI6 could admire is not going to help things, either.

 

Very true. The secretiveness thing is what fires me up from time to time. I want to know what they are planning. Jeepers, at this stage we cannot even be sure that they will ever release another de luxe aircraft.

[noffa 0]

I think the path the Flight team has chosen makes sense. Get the bugs worked out of the main game engine. Enhance it and optimize it. Get some market feedback to understand who the customer's are and what they really want. Nail down the game engine. THEN open it up to 3PD.

 

I won't be surprised if Flight is never opened. I think MS never made any money to speak of off Flight Simulator, but kept it for sentimental reasons or whatever. A pretty sizable 3rd party ecosystem was created around it, but virtually nothing trickled back to MS. In fact, people invested so heavily in 3rd party stuff that they probably did not want to upgrade when new releases came. Eventually, when the 2009 layoffs came, they killed Flight Simulator and took the opportunity to move to a closed platform. Now, MS controls the platform and the content, and I imagine is quite happy with that.

[Bobsk8 12,586]

 

I won't be surprised if Flight is never opened. I think MS never made any money to speak of off Flight Simulator, but kept it for sentimental reasons or whatever. A pretty sizable 3rd party ecosystem was created around it, but virtually nothing trickled back to MS. In fact, people invested so heavily in 3rd party stuff that they probably did not want to upgrade when new releases came. Eventually, when the 2009 layoffs came, they killed Flight Simulator and took the opportunity to move to a closed platform. Now, MS controls the platform and the content, and I imagine is quite happy with that.

 

MS just took a lesson from Apple probably. Apple seems to get very little flak for keeping a right rein on what can be put on many of their devices.

 

Tapatalk 2

[HiFlyer 9,345]

I can't really hold that against them either. The current market is so technically/enthusiast inclined, that 3Pd's, given free reign would likely tend to flood Flight with things/and price-points only acceptable to the current community. We would get a cool start on FSX and-a-half, but the masses would once again be marginalized and likely repeat history by staying away from an intimidating techno-fest guarded by impatient devotees growling "Read the fudgin' (100-plus page) manual, or go back to yer' Nintendo games!"

 

If I was Microsoft, that would not look like a savory stew by any stretch of the imagination. Whether their current remarkably clumsy-appearing attempts to change that dynamic and create a different type of market are being done in a way to encourage success is another debate entirely.

[Bobsk8 12,586]

If they do open it up to 3PD in the future i can imagine we will be almost 100% sure every addon will be compatible with what we will have installed already . we all know that in the fsx world sometimes when we had to do a complete reinstall some addons will act up a bit . with the system flight uses now that would go away i think ......

 

That is what I am afraid of, been there and done that with add-ons with FS. The other issue, is what happens when and if a 3rd party comes out with an aircraft that costs $30 or more. I can hear the screaming now, " If MS had given us that aircraft as part of the scenery, we wouldn't have to pay $30.." Think about the work that must have gone into Alaska by the Flight programmers, when a 3rd party programmer feels they can charge 25-45 dollars for one add on aircraft or a single airport scenery, which they do all the time.

[quadraspleen 7]

Another way of looking at the FLIGHT "ecosystem" is that BECAUSE it's the way it is (Cloud-based; DLC; online at the forefront, not hidden away unless you use VATSIM or similar) they can update the stuff that is broken/we don't like/we don't buy/wasn't implemented because the publisher (Microsoft) was hassling the dev team to get it out NOW, on-the-fly (pun intended)

 

It's a Good Thing imo that FLIGHT does it this way. Look how long it took to get SP1 and SP2 of FSX out, and the bugs are still there, too!

 

Of course they'll fix the real bugs! Why wouldn't they? And I have no doubt that good ideas WILL get implemented, I'm sure. And you'll get them as soon as they go live; you won't need to scan the website for an update; as with the update(s) that have already been (and quickly imo) it'll just be there updated! (with no stupid do you want to keep your controls boxes LOL)

 

New content can be delivered instantly (well..Microsoft instantly - see those little blue bars..you have 15 seconds remaining - 3 minutes later LOL) New ideas can just be stuck into the next mini-udpate..

 

This is not a FLIGHT drool, nor a prop particularly to MS, just an observation about how FLIGHT has moved our hobby into the online age.

 

They can finish it incrementally for all I care..as long as it remains cheap and they keep listening to people, it'll evolve..whether or not you use it is, as we all know, up to you..

 

Personally, while FLIGHT is a bit of an enema (props to Bill ) I really do like the way it FLIES, and as lthendrix says above: it's called FLIGHT :) (and it was nearly free)

 

Imagine, for a second, if we'd all bought boxed product...the scandal...

[Bobsk8 12,586]

Another way of looking at the FLIGHT "ecosystem" is that BECAUSE it's the way it is (Cloud-based; DLC; online at the forefront, not hidden away unless you use VATSIM or similar) they can update the stuff that is broken/we don't like/we don't buy/wasn't implemented because the publisher (Microsoft) was hassling the dev team to get it out NOW, on-the-fly (pun intended)

 

It's a Good Thing imo that FLIGHT does it this way. Look how long it took to get SP1 and SP2 of FSX out, and the bugs are still there, too!

 

Of course they'll fix the real bugs! Why wouldn't they? And I have no doubt that good ideas WILL get implemented, I'm sure. And you'll get them as soon as they go live; you won't need to scan the website for an update; as with the update(s) that have already been (and quickly imo) it'll just be there updated! (with no stupid do you want to keep your controls boxes LOL)

 

New content can be delivered instantly (well..Microsoft instantly - see those little blue bars..you have 15 seconds remaining - 3 minutes later LOL) New ideas can just be stuck into the next mini-udpate..

 

This is not a FLIGHT drool, nor a prop particularly to MS, just an observation about how FLIGHT has moved our hobby into the online age.

 

They can finish it incrementally for all I care..as long as it remains cheap and they keep listening to people, it'll evolve..whether or not you use it is, as we all know, up to you..

 

Personally, while FLIGHT is a bit of an enema (props to Bill ) I really do like the way it FLIES, and as lthendrix says above: it's called FLIGHT :) (and it was nearly free)

 

Imagine, for a second, if we'd all bought boxed product...the scandal...

 

 

I can remember very clearly the screaming and yelling that went on prior to SP1 and SP2, about how Microsoft and their products were total junk, and people were sorry they have bought the FS programs in the first place, because now they were beta testers for Microsoft, and they paid for the privilege. Then the SP's finally came out, and what happened, some problems went away, and others surfaced at the same time. More screaming an yelling. This went on for months and months.

 

Then the add on scenery and aircraft started appearing, and MS got blamed for their malfunctions....Go back and look at some of those old posts from 2004 and 2005, it's a riot....

[jcomm 5,890]

Wow, Flight is like flying a real plane!!!!!

 

Nice Signature :-)

[HiFlyer 9,345]

Then the add on scenery and aircraft started appearing, and MS got blamed for their malfunctions....Go back and look at some of those old posts from 2004 and 2005, it's a riot....

 

Its one of the first things I did when the initial yelling about flight began. I have said before that there is a lot of convenient amnesia going on about that, but I believe now that its just part of the change process.