You know, if I had purchased it for the full price the other day and then found out that they lowered the price like that I would be highly pi$$ed! This is not the way to insure customer loyalty, it is a way to seperate people from their money and that is it. Oh, I can see lowering the price after months or years once the product is essentially "dead" but after a few days, I would be one angry customer. I guess that is why I am smart enough to avoid such a company. I will admit though that if their offering was better than PMDG's, and there were the reviews to back it up, I might consider buying it but I would have to think long and hard given their track record.Philip Olsonhttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/supporter.jpg

The only ones that have been released are the -700, -800, and -200 - the NG's are in the library here and at flightsim.com.

I have bought other aircraft from Ariane in the past and got the same email but this "loyal" customer will NOT pay those kinds of prices. Not when there is a quality alternative at a much lower price. Get a clue Ariane Design. Most people will not pay that kind of money for an add on aircraft. Not even your "loyal" customers. edit I'd like to add that I have always found it VERY strange that Ariane does not nor ever had a customer Forum, an FAQ or many other things that most developers provide for their paying customers.Willhttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/ng_driver.jpg

I have the product. Don't be so hard against Ariane. They have done great work with it as its the first NG panel they have ever made. The framerate with my computer was same like with default C172 - all the time maximum. The Icing effects are marvellous! Never seen before in FS. There are also many tricks that I have neither seen yet and deserve attention and further development. I am not going to report about the failures here, I will report them to Ariane and as long as they will fix the issues, I dont say a bad word. Remember - PMDG wasnt too realistic either when they released their first version. If Ariane can work with us and give out free updates, it seems to be a quite good way to go. I am not calling anybody to buy it, its up to you. PMDG systems currently are more realistic, but it does not mean that Ariane cant do it. Be adults now and think positively. They have made a big step forward in FS addon development and I see that we can expect good products from them.

> I have always found it VERY strange that>Ariane does not nor ever had a customer Forum,Me too. And I heard pretty bizarre explanations from Ariane. First I heard fom their beta tester "no one will host our forum" as if they would not be able to set up their own. Then I heard that "we want to avoid large number of abusive posts" which is also strange considering that other moderated forums have simple defense - they delete such posts.Michael J.http://www.reality-xp.com/community/nr/rsc/rxp-higher.jpg

>> The Icing effects are marvellous! Never seen before in FSThe freeware DC-9 by Stellan Hilmerby (much recommended, just BTW) offers that feature too. Never seen before must not mean it wasn't there yet ;)Another BTW, even at that price you accept failures and missing features and wait for patches ? Mike

"I have the product. Don't be so hard against Ariane."Hi Georg,I see the PMDG in your sig so I wish to make a suggestion... all everybody wants here is a concise (read: objective) report on what the Ariane package offers. If you own the PMDG it would seem that you are in a perfect position to offer such a review to those who might be interested in the Ariane.GregP.S. I'm a GA only type of a guy, so I wouldn't buy either. Nothing at stake here for me.

What exactly, are the big steps they have made? They have a plane with a clickable VC and a few gimmicky things like pushback trucks and icing windows. I fail to see how this plane is a big step forward, if anything it just goes backwards in payware development with bad support and horrible value. Just my .2 cents.

I agree with Michael J., regarding the moderated forums. Abusive posts could be deleted. I can't understand why a commercial company would decide against a very good way to provide product support (and also let customers help customers, which takes no time from the company), and if the products are truly good, also help build a following which will inevitably promote sales.Mike F.

>they will fix the issues, I dont say a bad word. Remember ->PMDG wasnt too realistic either when they released their first>version. If Ariane can work with us and give out free updates,>it seems to be a quite good way to go.But here are the main differences - PMDG has pretty free public forum, they did not hide behind a glossy website, they were assuring customers that they would fix all the problems, they were very upfront about it and they did not mind sporadic strong language directed at them. All this was in public domain. And nowhere did they brag about their product as being the Mother of all simulation - as one can get impression reading the Ariane website.Michael J.http://www.reality-xp.com/community/nr/rsc/rxp-higher.jpg

Hi, but just beacause WE think it

Hi, software will never be bug free, regardless of the price. My WinXP I use at home cost more, and talk about failures...

Never mind...

Hi Uwe. Personally, I don't hold Ariane's not having a support forum against them at all, they may have a good arguement against one, and the point about other software companies is valid. My comments were made more in the light of actually trying to think of something positive that could help both them and the customer, given Ariane's apparently unfortunate reputation. Support forums are common in the flight sim community, and are clearly useful. Ariane have obviously put a lot of development time and effort into this product, and their efforts in that light should be recognized - it just seems they have a lot of negative baggage to be overcome if they want the trust and faith of their client base (I assume it's us simmers!). I need to trust both their product (and their pricing) before I buy, and their having a forum is just one way of acheiving that. Mike F.

I'll wait to see an unbiased review