Well I don't think current sims are necessarily any more technical than they were 10 years ago, after all nobody forces you to use complex payware stuff & if you don't use complex scenery addons not much tweaking is required either. 

 

I think X plane with some more user friendly UI would fit newcomers just as well as the FS series has always done...

 

Try to look at it from the point of somebody new to the community. First, there are a kaleidoscope of products stretched across what seems like a zillion separate stores with planes and stuff of every type mentioning addons with a bewildering alphabet soup of names.

 

What are these things? Which are the best? How the heck do you install them? Wow, this looks complicated!

 

Now you go to the forum. People are talking about DX10 and modified configs, and OOM's and all sorts of stuff. There are endless discussions of climb rates and turn radius and gps and...... Gosh! all you wanted to do was fly!

 

Meanwhile the game/sim itself (especially if you are a modern gamer) looks like something from the stone age. Hmmmm...... do you really wanna go through all this? Or maybe just boot up GTAV and zoom around in some modern graphics without the alphabet soup and $300 to get the sim looking like something........

 

Oh. And some mean guy snarled at you to RTFM..........

 

So you presevere and get Xplane. You install the disks and eagerly boot up....... and get dumped in the cockpit of a jetliner, with a bazillion instruments staring you in the face.

 

Have fun!!!!

 

Gah!!! Ok, lets look at the interface and try to figure out........ Gah!!!!!!!

 

Ok, bye now.

 

 

Try to look at it from the point of somebody new to the community

 

We should indeed. Flight simulation out-of-the-box is no longer attractive to new comers when compared with what else is on the market.

 

Fire up FSX and, as I remember,  you're flying a micro-light over a harbour. How entertaining is that?

I think X plane with some more user friendly UI would fit newcomers just as well as the FS series has always done...

 

If you ask me the best way to get some newcomers would be starting to sell X plane through steam and then put it on huge sale. That would make a lot of people somewhat interested in flying to buy it just because of the sale, eventually some of them would most likely keep using it and maybe start buying some addons too. That's what one train simulator platform did in Steam a year or two ago, it was put on huge sale and you could get it for less than 5 euros or so. I believe some of the people who bought it just because of the price eventually found train simming interesting and bought DLC for it.

 

In the end FS isn't the only niche genre out there.

That's a very good point. (at least I thought so) and I suggested something similar a while ago. The only fly in the ointment would be the ginormous size of the download, but I argued then that since Xplane was modular, they could sell it by region and reduce the initial download size. I saw later that they had done just that by releasing an X-plane regional version (US) but they never brought it to steam!!!!!

 

At the very least they could have put the demo on there. (I don't understand LR)

 

Maybe a download version that ran without a disk would kill their anti-piracy? :unsure:

We should indeed. Flight simulation out-of-the-box is no longer attractive to new comers when compared with what else is on the market.

 

Fire up FSX and, as I remember,  you're flying a micro-light over a harbour. How entertaining is that?

 

True, I guess what we need is a simulator that doesn't miss any features that advanced simmers want (like Flight did) and yet includes extensive tutorials and a lot of missions to attract newcomers.

 

Nowadays it's possible to download custom user made content for a lot of games through Steam workshop, I guess something like that could work with a flight simulator too, especially if it includes some very user friendly tools for basic mission making. Maybe it could have its own easily accessible store full of quality third party payware DLC also. Definitely installing third party addons should be easier to attract more audience... 

True, I guess what we need is a simulator that doesn't miss any features that advanced simmers want (like Flight did) and yet includes extensive tutorials and a lot of missions to attract newcomers.

what we want and what we'll get are two different things. I see no sign of anyone being prepared to put up the money for it.

 

 

they never brought it to steam!!!!!

 

It could be even more interesting with the new SteamOS and SteamBox coming out. Add a cleaner and more approachable interface, and X-Plane would likely receive more interest.

FSX is dead, Long live Prepar3D V2!

FSX is dead, Long live Prepar3D V2!

Well said! Good to have an aviation company making a flight sim for a change. Would be nice if Boeing entered the race as well.

Would be nice if Boeing entered the race as well.

Why should Boeing want to - what's in it for Boeing?

Alright guys, I am going to solve everyone's problems, Starting tomorrow I am going to create a new Flight Simulator. It may take me a while but I am going to do it.

 

For today I am going to read up on my C++ for Dummies  :lol:

Alright guys, I am going to solve everyone's problems, Starting tomorrow I am going to create a new Flight Simulator. It may take me a while but I am going to do it.

 

For today I am going to read up on my C++ for Dummies  :lol:

Awesome!!!

 

When's the release date?  :lol:

Alright guys, I am going to solve everyone's problems, Starting tomorrow I am going to create a new Flight Simulator. It may take me a while but I am going to do it.

 

For today I am going to read up on my C++ for Dummies  :lol:

Wasn't there another whole thread that said something similar..............?

 

 

Wasn't there another whole thread that said something similar..............?

 

There was one which claimed to be serious but it's been dead for months. What a surprise!

Awesome!!!

 

When's the release date?  :lol:

 

I am going to borrow a line from the other developers and say 'I don't give out release dates'

 

But I would say sometime between now and hell freezing over   :lol:

Why should Boeing want to - what's in it for Boeing?

I don't understand your question? What's in it for Lockheed Martin?