Carlos, I've never been banned from any other forum.  Only Orbx.

 

Stephen, a couple months ago I totaled up my purchases from The Flightsim Store over the years.  A bit over $3,000.00.  Well over 90% of those purchases were Orbx products including their Lancair.  And while I enjoy the senior discount  I've never had the opportunity to take advantage of the sales.  I already had everything that was on sale when the sale began.

 

A total of 93 purchases beginning with PNW and PFJ in March of 2013.

 

Noel

It seems whenever I am banned from the FTX Forum I find myself back here.

 

Yep, it happened again.  But I was just politely expressing my opinion in a calm manner (using my regular writing style) and JV blocked the thread and put me on suspension for a month.  I can read the forum and my PMs but I am unable to respond or post anything until August 1st.

 

This makes my third suspension.

 

I was simply stating that I was tired of all the tweaking and maintenance that has to be done with P3D/Orbx and that I was uninstalling Orbx and going back to FS2004 which is less intimidating to someone with my limited expertise.  Most of the respondents were in agreement and wished me well with FS2004 and then JV closed the thread and suspending my posting privileges.

 

Noel

I love ORBX products, ONLY when they aren't causing problems.  With the ever present issues with Vector (whenever that sorts itself out), to their "full fat" regions, which look absolutely stunny at the cost of OOMing into the next century, I have to agree that you have to walk a very fine line with getting the scenery to behave just right for your own system.  I agree that there seems to be way too much work that has to go in to tweaking a sim to cooperate with the scenery.  I may sound like I am contradicting myself from earlier posts at ORBX's forum, but I feel like now I am being pulled in every direction.  A little for scenery, a little more for an aircraft and then whatever is left is pulled towards weather.  It's great to have a fully customized simulator, but as you and many others have pointed out, there can be way too much work getting a sim to run correctly, as opposed to actual flying.

 

With the direction ORBX is moving in now, it may or may not make things even more difficult.  i had another OOM this past weekend, one I'd never had before for the area I flew, and I'd bet real money it has to do with ORBX's unified system.  I'd seen a lot of folks over at the ORBX forum asking about getting SCE support, or at least having ORBX code work with SCE.  I don't use it but it's either shell out for a program to fix scenery loading, that should have been fixed by the scenery loading code (i.e. Unified LCLookup) or just stick with having Global base installed and nothing else and be happy with that.

 

I should count myself lucky that I was recently banned for a whole day, due to JV stating I was spamming the forum, when in reality, the ORBX crew was nowhere to be seen and a lot of folks needed some help.

 

I am honestly at the point of uninstalling/deleting all my ORBX scenery, starting over with just the FTX base, not opting in for the unified migration and leaving it at that until everything cools down with ORBX's changeover, store, new content, and whatever else they have up their collective sleeves.  Gotta lay low and stay out of the fray, or else I'll just upset someone on the team.

I've bought 87 ORBX payware sceneries plus a number of other products they promoted. What kept me coming back for more after once being slammed and banned were some wonderful ORBX staff and members that always treated me with great courtesy and respect behind the scenes.

 

The only advice I can give is to realize that not everyone thinks and acts the same way, nor does any person always get everything right, while sometimes everyone gets everything right. I have sure made my share of mistakes, bad calls and poor judgments too when such decisions were mine to make.

 

Perhaps the best thing is to hold your friends close, and those who are not yet friends, even closer. It seems to me in such matters that to err is human, to forgive and to forget is divine, or something like that. The forgetting part is the hardest for me, but am working on it!

 

I really favour ORBX products, but came to realize that the products themselves are all my money has ever really paid for. The comradery and friendship I have enjoyed online at ORBX and here at AVSIM was never sold, nor ever paid for, but has been a gift given by those looking for the same in return.

 

Being treated fairly, decently and with courtesy is what is all too often lost in the balance, and sometimes falls through the cracks, not just there, but everywhere. It is what it is, but whatever it is I am thankful to have been able to fly with the brightest and the best, y'all included!

 

Kind regards,

Not long after the Unified LCLookup migration debacle, JV posted a "clarification" message, that included a statement that turned my stomach...something to the effect that (loosely paraphrased) "their business model had the change for the sake of the shareholders." (I'm sure someone will dig up the exact quote, so don't quote me right now)

 

Shareholders, really?

 

Have the largest flight sim developers grown that big in their businesses to warrant shareholders?  With all the grown-up titles being thrown around to boot, how is it that ORBX has shareholders?

 

It sure would explain a lot, and not all good.

I never liked the "business relationship only" comment that I am reasonably sure was made at some point in the past. Frankly, I don't see the relationship between developers and customers in that way where the flight simulation community is concerned. The community itself is a big part of why some developers have made names for themselves, and they should never forget that.

The community itself is a big part of why some developers have made names for themselves, and they should never forget that.

 

A very good point that seems to be missing the mark these days.  There are a lot of "freebie" folks out there who put things together for the community and don't ask for anything in return. While I never doubted the talent and potential of certain big-name developers, as they got bigger, they became more out of touch and had to put on their "business" face.  Of course, that sort of rhetoric has flown around so much that anyone with a gripe or beef about a product or products, is usually handed the line of "well go out and create your own business!"

 

A little more to add to Christopher's statement though and it's that the customers drive the business, and they can make or break a company in an instant.

 

I just noticed that Christoper is a beta tester for UK2000 scenery, and it is a reminder that some developers should be constantly applauded for the work they do, such in the case of Gary at UK2000.  There's a guy who pretty much runs his own business by himself, does all the work, but charges very reasonable rates for his products and provides great support.  Here's hoping he never sells out.

I never liked the "business relationship only" comment that I am reasonably sure was made at some point in the past. Frankly, I don't see the relationship between developers and customers in that way where the flight simulation community is concerned. The community itself is a big part of why some developers have made names for themselves, and they should never forget that.

 

We never forget who we're working for ® - Lockheed Martin.

 

Kind regards, Michael

Hope Lockheed Martin includes us in on that promise Michael !

 

I guess we will see if there are updates or fixes inbound for version 3 beyond 3.3.5., or if will that be it and will be asked to ante up for 4.0 sooner rather than later.

 

Kind regards,

If and when LM releases a 4.0 version, and it's filled with high performance and efficiency, eliminating the long-standing issues they can take my money on the spot.

 

 

Shortly after that I got banned for almost a year.  I said I was not going to get out my prayer rug, face Australia, get on my knees and chant 'Akbar Orbyx'.  I deserved that one too.

 

Good one, though.

 

 

going back to FS2004

 

Welcome back to the bright side!

 

 

This is just bad manners I can't tolerate.

 

I agree totally. One of the reasons I never migrated to FSX or P3D from FS2004.

Sascha

 

 

fairly, decently and with courtesy

 

Indeed, and certain people over at ORBX occ

 

I'd say I have been a good customer. I bought every Orbyx product released to date.

 

Maybe they felt that they got everything out of you they would get? Seriously, this attitude towards your own customers makes me mad. This comes of having a monopoly on FSX/P3D texture addons.

Sascha

 

 

It's called AeroflyFS2

 

I just got AeroflyFS1 and was very impressed! Granted it does not do much for the systems-as-real-as-it-gets guys, but the overall feeling of flight is pretty good. In AeroflyFS2 you get a whole lot of planes plus hifidelity airports. Adding those up in terms of P3D or FSX addons it's a real bargain. Remember that PMDG systems and Accusim also work outside of the sim ...

Some may view flightsimming as a simulation, others a game.  In reality, from a more Zen point of view, we only are playing with electricity.

 

The whole banning thing gets pretty silly.  Sometimes one can learn a lot more from the critical remarks than obsequious praise.  After all, one might not spot a problem until it has been pointed out.  If one does not spot a problem, it probably will not get fixed.

 

But then again, many people like to surround themselves with "yes" men.

Sascha, for me moving back to FS2004 has put the 'F' back into the FUN of flightsimming. 

 

Since I now have a system I had built specifically for FSX and Orbx FS2004 literally screams.  I can fly from San Francisco to Reno without OOMs, stutters, or suffering framerate drops in metropolitan areas with lots of ai.

 

Let me put it like this.

 

If I was still current and had the choice to fly from Napa County Airport to Truckee in a nice new Malibu or an old Tripacer I'd choose the Tripacer.

 

If I had the choice of driving from Sacramento to South Lake Tahoe in a Lexus or an old MG TD I'd choose the MG.

 

Thomas Wolf, you were wrong.  In flight simmng you CAN go home again.  I just did it.

 

Noel

I guess ORBx should count themselves lucky that most of their customers are "yes" men :wink:

I guess ORBx should count themselves lucky that most of their customers are "yes" men :wink:

That's a grossly unfair statement.  Why not just call them "satisfied customers" and leave it at that?

Sorry to hear Birdguy. Yes it has good banter on there so look forward to your return in August

Hi Noel,

 

first of all sorry that you got banned from ORBX. It looks like that critical feedback or in your case a complain was not welcome in a "support" forum. I do understand your point as i did the same tweaking to get certain ORBX releases to run on my fairly high performance and healthy system. For ex some english airfields are quite a mess. They look stunning but the performance is somewhere below of what i call a smooth sim experience.  I them installed them and uninstalled them. Why complaining it is how it is -a fail sale. My consequence, my own personal virtual BREXIT  - i stay way from ORBX England add ons.

 

The question is, what is/was your intension when complaining? As for me im seeing the forums as a support platform. After buying some great HQ but crappy performing ORBX add ons i got careful. For now I´ll wait for feedback from other customers and/or try out the surrounding scenery where an ORBX airfield should be placed. So when the performance without the add on is already "bad" it certainly won´t get any better with the add on installed. 

 

Anyway deleting and/or banning someone who give a critical feedback can not be the right way. For now ORBX is on the high top but forgetting about the people who made the ORBX what it is today can be the deep fall from the FS Olymp in the future.

 

PS i do remember the FS9 times and they were great Definitely one of the best simulator titles ever created.