Aerosoft will now charge you for 'true' P3Dv4 updates....

[Parping Couplet 117]

2 hours ago, carlito777 said:

Honestly, I'm really fed up with developers who refer to EULAs and past "promises" to justify why they either do not provide updates or why they charge for them no matter how small they are. Developers should be concerned with customer satisfaction and not what they are legally obliged to do. And you know what? There are actually developers out there who think this way. Look at Flightbeam, FlyTampa, 29Palms, etc. They don't always justify themselves but rather provide extensive upgrades for free to make their customers happy. And that is why I will focus on spending money with these developers in the future...

The other aspect that often gets overlooked in these arguments is that any developer has to put R&D time and cost into its add-ons in order to keep a saleable product on the market when a new P3D version appears. While the blame is usually placed at the feet of "entitled" customers expecting free upgrades, the truth is that these add-ons are dead in the water unless they are made compatible.

I think it's also something of an indictment of the Aerosoft business model of primarily selling add ons made by other than in house developers. That is always going to be less nimble by its very nature. The problem is that we end up with add-ons that gather dust through incompatibility, when almost every other developer has a full range of products available for use with the latest P3D iteration. This has been happening for some time with Aerosoft products. It's not new because of 64 bit.

And let's not forget that so many years of stability with FSX broke the cycle of a new MS sim every couple of years or so. Sure that's benefited the customer, but it also gave add-ons an incredibly extended sales curve. Now the game has changed and a big publisher like Aerosoft should be more adaptable and they've ended up looking totally disorganized.

Some folks on here tend to moan and groan about FSDT, but their airports, which equate in size and complexity to any Aerosoft Mega Airport, were all available and freely updated on Day One of P3DV4 release. Fly Tampa more or less the same. Even all UK2000 airports have now made the jump. It can be done, but Aerosoft has decided to complicate things by offering an improved product before what most people really wanted; a quick and dirty straight port to the latest version of P3D, with enhancements like dynamic lighting to follow as and when.

It's not an issue of having to pay a small upgrade fee, which I am happy to do for genuine and significant improvements. The bigger issue is Aerosoft doing their own thing and not listening to their customers.

[KenVerburg 23]

If you enter the previous license key for Frankfurt 2.0 in their order form (and I suspect same will happen with other stores), then it's a € 4.99 ex. VAT upgrade, which also seems to be close to the price difference between the price I originally bought it for (€ 30.46) and the new price (€ 35.54)

[Christopher Low 5,353]

I am not sure that P3D v3 could be considered to be a "dinosaur". The fact that so many addons still do not work properly in P3D v4 (and this includes AI planes) is one of the main reasons why I have not upgraded to it. The elimination of the VAS problem is a big incentive, but at the moment I am quite happy to do simple circuits at the major UK airports in my PMDG and Quality Wings (and very soon TFDi) airliners. The VAS problem is basically non existent with flights like this

[CFIJose 5,485]

I just saw their price for a new pro release, $35. They must be out of their minds.

[Woozie 732]

20 minutes ago, DJJose said:

I just saw their price for a new pro release, $35. They must be out of their minds.

well, its a pro version for professional customers, so its only for licensed real world pilots with a full motion level D simulator in the basement...And 35$ are peanuts if you can afford a full motion sim!

Jokes aside, the P3Dv3 version was only 5$ cheaper. Its quite a big airport, pretty detailed and it looks and performs nice on v4, including night lighting. The 35$ tag is Flightbeam/FlyTampa territory and qualitywise its not much behind their products. 

Its priced OK in my opinion

[Boeing or not going 578]

I think I'll ask here since Aerosoft has been in a grumpy banning mood lately...

The Frankfurt v2 used to have an upgrade price from the original Mega Frankfurt buyers. I never bought the new version and the p3dv4 version says the upgrade is only for current v2 users. How do I get an upgrade price for the p3dv4 version from the original Frankfurt? If this has been covered before sorry I'm quite busy currently.

[B777ER 2,486]

And the DL don't work anyways. Appears they forgot to include effects files. Not very "professional" 

[B777ER 2,486]

3 hours ago, officercrockey said:

Yeah look at PacSim. A one man show. All his 15+ sceneries available for P3Dv4. For free if you owned it before. Even the old ones feom 2011 and before. 

Actually two, his wife I believe does all the autogen placement. Very good team they make! 

[honanhal 1,420]

Their Frankfurt v2 was OK (apart from the fact that it was a bit of a VAS monster) quality-wise, but certainly not on a FlyTampa or Flightbeam level. The quality of the airport itself lagged significantly behind those, and there was no modeling of the city itself included. I wouldn't call their new pricing outrageous, exactly, but it's fair to say it doesn't represent the best value for money in the addon airport genre.

James

[warbirds 555]

How was/is their Munich? Trying to compare their Munich with the Taxi2gate Munich. I do have p3dv4 and realize one or both might not work.

[Woozie 732]

39 minutes ago, B777ER said:

And the DL don't work anyways. Appears they forgot to include effects files. Not very "professional" 

Dynamic lighting works fine for me, i doubt that any files got forgotten (at least in the simmarket installer)

[Woozie 732]

1 hour ago, 777200lrf said:

I think I'll ask here since Aerosoft has been in a grumpy banning mood lately...

The Frankfurt v2 used to have an upgrade price from the original Mega Frankfurt buyers. I never bought the new version and the p3dv4 version says the upgrade is only for current v2 users. How do I get an upgrade price for the p3dv4 version from the original Frankfurt? If this has been covered before sorry I'm quite busy currently.

It seems that the upgrade path from Mega Frankfurt to V2 is still available, on simmarket its 20EUR. The upgrade from V2 to V2 Pro is 5 EUR, so its gonna be 25 in total. Thats 5 EUR less than the full price

[joemiller 269]

12 hours ago, swiesma said:

I tell you a secret: you don't have to buy it.

 

You bought the v3 compatible version. Migrating to v4 means work to do. And this work should be payed. Or do you guys work for free? No? I thought so ;-)

 Ahahahaha  This did it for me. it cannot get simpler. Great comment! 

 

[ZKOKQ 984]

Lets compare AS EDDF with FB KSFO

 

From Mir at Flightbeam:

CHANGELOG (v2.0)

- Now uses Flightbeam Manager. Couatl and Addon Manager support has been dropped.
- Enhanced performance. Most systems see 10-40% performance increase
- Stutters on approach have been resolved.
- Dynamic Lighting feature has been added for P3D v4 (be sure to turn it on in the Manager first)
- SODE jetways added: This means you can now operate dual jetways as well.
- Realistic Water puddles added
- Enhanced ground textures throughout airport
- New lamp floodlights
- Several gate revisions
- Fixed issue with objects popping into sight
- Added new runway: Taxiway C (Air Canada only)
- many more smaller items, too many to list.


This update is FREE. Cool right? Over a month of development went into this update and we listened to your feedback. We support our customers.. and we hope you support us back. Check out some of our other products and give them a spin. The more support we have, the quicker and higher quality products you receive.
Already have all our products? Tell your friends about us, or better yet, gift them with a Flightbeam Airport.

Thanks for your continued support!

 

[B777ER 2,486]

57 minutes ago, Woozie said:

Dynamic lighting works fine for me, i doubt that any files got forgotten (at least in the simmarket installer)

It's already acknowledged on their forum they need to update it.