5 hours ago, FSXSEPilot said:

i honestly think FSW has no future, i think DTG will abandon it in 2018 just like they abandoned Flight School.

DTG didn't abandon Flight School, the product was a twofold exercise. DTG needed a proof of concept sim to show to developers to demonstrate the feasibility of going 64 bit with ESP, so they killed two birds with one stone and produced a chopped down test version of a 64 bit sim, and whilst they were at it, demoed the lessons feature by making it a flying school sim so they could make a few quid with it too, which was a smart business choice and also proved they could do more than simply give FSX a few tweaks and a new GUI.

Flight School still exists, you can play it, but it is essentially also incorporated into FSW too, and so they made FSW free to anyone who bought Flight School to get them on board with where they are up to. No business is going to invest all that time and effort into doing that, to then simply drop it, it is their core business strategy to have a platform they can sell DLC into, so without that base sim they would be abandoning their main business methodology, and they ain't gonna do that!

DTG have basically made next to nothing on FSW thus far by making it free to all who bought Flight School, which tells us that the work on FSW is quite clearly part of a long term business strategy. Abandoning that would mean they had no clue about business investment and planning. That is quite evidently not the case given that DTG has and continues to be regularly touted as one of the UK's 'ones to watch' by IT industry investment analysts. So I should think it unlikely that they don't know what they are doing!

I think the question is going to be  "Which Flightsim is the best one for me"?

Four contenders right now, with two somewhat stable platforms:  P3D and XPlane.

Two under development:  FSW and Aerofly.

For me, coming off FSX, P3DV4 is the logical choice.. but for others.. who knows?

51 minutes ago, Bert Pieke said:

I think the question is going to be  "Which Flightsim is the best one for me"?

 

True enough, and that's just enough gasoline to keep this thread burning for some time to come.

Also, I would suggest that in this particular discussion--which particular flight sim platform gives each of us the most bang for the buck--logic has nothing whatever to do with it. I'm not afraid to admit I pursue this hobby because it combines my enthusiasm for aviation with my desire for entertainment: neither of those has any basis whatever in logical choices. So my proudly a-logical choice is FSW.

 

    I am an aviation fan and a gamer. I like learning different things. I was an electronics tech in the Navy years ago, so things like VOR, ADF and GPS arouse my curiosity. I like flight simming because it gives me the opportunity to dabble in these mysteries to get me from point A to B. What I am not is a pilot. Fear of heights, lol. Therefore, I don’t need to spend tons of money on the genre. I’m not looking for a deep study sim. I have a yoke, MFD, and joystick. I have X=plane 11, FSX:SE and FSW and a small amount of DLC.

    That said, and this is only my opinion, but it seems to me, after reading many forums and comments on flight simulation news sights, and watching videos on Youtube, that there are people out there that wish only for FSW and Dovetail games to fail miserably. I hope that doesn’t happen. I don’t wish for any other simulator to fail.

   I guess what I am trying to say is that I think there is a niche out there for FSW. There are probably a lot like myself who just want something simple to start and maybe build up from there. FSW seems to hold this promise as it continues to develop. I have had no problems using FSW as is, so it can only get better as far as I am concerned. I am enjoying providing feedback to the developers. I made a mission for FSW and put it on the Workshop.  People seemed to like it and that gave me a sense of accomplishment, though nobody here would probably even bat an eyelash at it. But it was enough that I now want to make more and delve deeper into the Mission Tool. That is the first time I have ever put anything in a Workshop and I have used Steam for years. Now I am interested in adding voice-overs to replace the synth ones in the Mission Tool. I'ts been fun so far.

   Whichever simulator someone chooses, I hope they enjoy it. For me FSX:SE is going into the recycle bin and I will use X-plane 11 and FSW.

21 hours ago, switch686 said:

 Whichever simulator someone chooses, I hope they enjoy it. For me FSX:SE is going into the recycle bin and I will use X-plane 11 and FSW.

Well said @switch686  I'm personally hoping for a little more out of FSW.  I wish I could look out into the future and know what the end product will be.  Right now, I fly FSX-SE, XP11 and FSW.  I like all three for specific reasons.  I have many hundreds of dollars invested in FSX-SE and it currently runs great.  I am more or less dabbling in FSW and XP11 at the moment.  I've been holding off on P3D for one reason or another, but I think the P3Dv4 offer is the most "complete" main stream flight sim on a 64bit platform.  I think if I wanted to trash FSX-SE, then my progression certainly would be P3Dv4 hands down.  Then there is AeroFly2, which is pretty good in it's own right, but it is another incomplete sim like XP11 and FSW.  I don't have the patience quite honestly to sit and wait to see where these go.  That's why I say I'm dabbling with XP11 and FSW.  I still fly in FSX-SE 99.9% of the time, but for me to totally trash it and all of the add-ons for it, one of the others has to stand out in a way that will force my hand to change, but for now, I'm going to continue my FSX-SE 32bit simming.

Edited June 26, 20178 yr by n4gix
deleted excessive quote!

   I guess that since I haven't spent to much money on add-ons, it is easier for me to ditch FSX:SE. This bring up another question. My son just downloaded FSX:SE today since it was on sale on Steam. I just became aware of this. We live in the same household but have separate Steam accounts. Can I give him my add-on planes that I purchased since I will not be using it anymore? Sounds silly, but I am just not sure...Most are from third party websites...

Edited June 26, 20178 yr by switch686
Added info

7 hours ago, switch686 said:

 That said, and this is only my opinion, but it seems to me, after reading many forums and comments on flight simulation news sights, and watching videos on Youtube, that there are people out there that wish only for FSW and Dovetail games to fail miserably. I hope that doesn’t happen. I don’t wish for any other simulator to fail.

It's not just your opinion, it's actually not that unusual for people to want some things to fail and to even get vocal about it. There is a perfectly rational explanation for it too, the Germans even have a word for it which has made it into other languages - Schadenfreude - which translates approximately as 'harm-joy'. Although there are several theories about why some people might elicit pleasure from other people's failures; apart from possibly being some kind of psychopath, there is one very obvious explanation where flight simmers indulging in it is concerned, and you're going to see a lot of it right now because of there being several choices of new flight sims being available...

Let's say you've decided to go with choosing XPlane 11 as your 'sim of choice' (it could just as easily be one of the others though); there are a lot of freebie enhancements available for it, but it probably won't be too long before you will be buying some add-on utilities for it and some shiny new payware aeroplanes. So, you pay 60 quid for the base sim, then maybe 20 quid each for a couple of things to perhaps improve AI and flight planning, then you might buy a couple of add on aeroplanes for 30 quid each. Even at that early stage of adopting it and adding stuff, if you've just purchased those things, you're into 160 quid's worth of 'investment in your choice'. That's going to give you an emotional investment in it too; you will want reassurance that you've 'backed the right horse' so to speak. What better way to reinforce the notion that you have been wise in your selection and were smart enough to have picked the best option, than to criticise the other choices and wish them to not do so well as your preference? It makes you feel better about yourself if you do that.

Of course one could be more philanthropic about things and wish all sims well, and personally I try to do that, by 'spreading the love' a bit in that I've bought XPlane 11, P3D V4, FSX, FSX-SE, Flight Sim World, DCS, AeroFly FS2 and even Ready for Take Off and a bunch of other less well known ones as well, and I've bought add-ons for all those sims too (apart from RFTO and FSW since there are none for it, yet at least), but I can completely understand it when people don't do that, since it isn't cheap to be indulging in that kind of thing, so when people don't do that and go with one choice, it's just human nature kicking in, which is why we see people getting partisan about it.

14 minutes ago, switch686 said:

   I guess that since I haven't spent to much money on add-ons, it is easier for me to ditch FSX:SE. This bring up another question. My son just downloaded FSX:SE today since it was on sale on Steam. I just became aware of this. We live in the same household but have separate Steam accounts. Can I give him my add-on planes that I purchased since I will not be using it anymore? Sounds silly, but I am just not sure...Most are from third party websites...

You should be able to do that since you have the license keys and you have ditched FSX-SE from your pc.  That should clear you on installing on multiple machines which would violate EULA.

   I see your point Chock. I had FSX:SE already with add-on's. I purchased X Plane 10 and  bought some add-on planes. On sale of course. Then I bought X plane 11. One of my several add-on planes I bought for 10 worked in 11 and the other ones didn't, so I bought some for 11 as the developer said they wouldn't invest the time to make the older ones compatible. I guess this is where I go against the grain. I don't feel an emotional attachment just because I unwisely spent some money during a transitional period. Definitely not thousands as some have, but in my case hundreds of dollars, which seems like thousands to me. That's my fault.

Around the same time I bought Flight School just to try it, which was OK. Then I get gifted Flight Sim World. Instead of denigrating it, I would prefer to do my part to make it better. I guess I see potential where others don't. I actually saw a comment on another sight where someone claimed that they knew there was "turbulent conditions within management" at DTG. Guess they have a fly on the wall.

I have dabbled with flight sim since subLogic but am not a "serious" simmer. I just enjoy it at intervals. I don't understand this community and probably never will.

 

EDIT: My first time dabbling in a flight simulator, I would like for someone to try my Snowblind mission for FSW in the Steam workshop and give me some advice on how to make my missions better if someone doesn't mind. Not sure if this is the proper place to ask...

13 hours ago, switch686 said:

EDIT: My first time dabbling in a flight simulator, I would like for someone to try my Snowblind mission for FSW in the Steam workshop and give me some advice on how to make my missions better if someone doesn't mind. Not sure if this is the proper place to ask...

Worry not! If not here, then where?

On 6/25/2017 at 9:31 AM, Bert Pieke said:

I think the question is going to be  "Which Flightsim is the best one for me"?

Four contenders right now, with two somewhat stable platforms:  P3D and XPlane.

Two under development:  FSW and Aerofly.

For me, coming off FSX, P3DV4 is the logical choice.. but for others.. who knows?

I think that question breaks out two different ways.

For someone totally new to flight sims, the "Which flightsim is best for me" puts all the current sims on an equal basis. At least at first, before the newbie starts digging into the differences. At that point, a sim with an attractive UI and easy "on ramp" to learning how to fly, might be the one chosen. FSW has a shot at this market, especially with exposure on Steam.

For those of us who already own one or more sims, the situation is more complex. It's more like "Which flightsim offers me something I don't already have, or does it better?"

Uniquely for current FSX users who don't want to get involved with P3D, there is an attraction just in the move to 64-bits.

For everyone else -- those flying airliners in P3D, or GA and helicopters in XP11, or using VR in AFS2 -- there isn't anything compellingly new and different in FSW. At least not yet, but that could change in the future. A completely revamped sky and weather system might do it (TrueSKY?), but we still don't know if that's in the works or not.

I would agree. 

FSW may well be easier to get into and as such, be a good choice for a new user.

FSW comes with some nice planes, good default scenery, and attractive lighting..

As for the experienced FSX user, there is little new, and a lot of "incompletes" to deal with..  Lack of backward compatibility with FSX content, incomplete avionics in the otherwise nice airplanes, no DLC as yet to complete the experience... 

Fun to try, but life is short and other alternatives are available.

Hence my decision, after spending the requisite $25 for Early Access,  to uninstall FSW and Steam, and maybe have another look in 2018..

 

4 hours ago, Paraffin said:

For someone totally new to flight sims, the "Which flightsim is best for me" puts all the current sims on an equal basis.

Not really. FSX, P3D and X-Plane are all release versions whilst FSW is very much early access. Someone completely new to flight sims would be much better off choosing a product which was ready for market with expansion capabilities rather than something at a very early stage of development with a less certain future.

Here's my favorite quote from a developer  (VOXATC) regarding an open beta (which is of course far more polished after 6 release versions in this case, than an "early access" app):

Quote

Keep in mind this is a beta version and wait for the release version if prone to frustration due to software failures.

 

I'm not a new simmer, but I love FSW already (some old dogs dig those new tricks). Try a dawn or dusk flight (dawn might be better), fair weather theme, ultra settings, in the Super Cub from Bakersfield California north to Fresno or beyond. This is a pretty scenic flight in my ORBX'd FSX, but in default FSW: that's entertainment. (BTW, enjoying the generous conversation this thread has given space for)