Why are there no long-range biz jets?

[hqmurphy 7]

@FalconAF I appreciate the response my friend. Although I understand where you’re coming from, I believe your statements may be a bit misdirected — at least within the realms of this thread.

 

The reason being:

1. I agree with your point about developers having a small team that must continually update products, but that hasn’t stopped them has it? They make airliners, GA, sceneries etc. but not Biz Jets.

2. Similar to the above, developers (no matter the scale of the team), take on the task of creating P3D products like airliners, turboprops, single-engines that must continuously be updated. Yet, Biz Jets don’t get the same attention.

 

Open to any feedback about the above

[FalconAF 213]

On ‎7‎/‎2‎/‎2018 at 5:31 PM, hqmurphy said:

 I appreciate the response my friend. Although I understand where you’re coming from, I believe your statements may be a bit misdirected — at least within the realms of this thread.

 

The reason being:

1. I agree with your point about developers having a small team that must continually update products, but that hasn’t stopped them has it? They make airliners, GA, sceneries etc. but not Biz Jets.

2. Similar to the above, developers (no matter the scale of the team), take on the task of creating P3D products like airliners, turboprops, single-engines that must continuously be updated. Yet, Biz Jets don’t get the same attention.

 

Open to any feedback about the above

1.  Yes, they still make addons.  But when they were doing it for FSX "boxed" (the primary flight sim of choice for about 10 years), the platform they were making addons for was a stable target.  After the first couple of FSX updates culminating with Acceleration, an AIRCRAFT addon developer didn't have to worry about a new FSX platform update causing the AIRPLANE to not work anymore (but that even ended with FSX Steam).  But even with the old "boxed" FSX, keeping a scenery product like an airport current was still a problem, and always has been in the flight sim community.  Case in point, the "latest and greatest updated" KLAS STILL has the wrong runway numbers and ILS navigation for them.  And there is STILL not a current payware KORD even after the new runway configurations in the real world quite a while ago.  And in most cases, a scenery product has a much better chance of selling more units of sale than an airplane addon.  Regardless of the type of airplane a person likes to fly in the sim, they can usually fly it into/out of an airport addon (depending on the size of the airport of course). 

2.  It's all about Supply and Demand.  Developers in the flight sim community aren't selling a million copies of their addons.  Biz jets traditionally don't sell as well as other aircraft.  Do you honestly think that if someone could "Get Rich" developing a biz jet for P3D, it wouldn't have been done by now?  Heck, look at the size of "The Company" who created and/or marketed the Cessna Citation Mustang biz jet for FSX.  Rave reviews, at least from the people who liked it and bought it to fly it. And those same people have been BEGGING for an updated P3D 64-bit version.  And even though "The Company" has promised it several times, it hasn't happened yet for the 64-bit version.  I bought the 32-bit P3D version, but that is useless now for my 64-bit P3D.  How long now?  How long has P3D been available in all it's different versions?  And should it be updated for BOTH 32-bit P3D and 64-bit P3D now?  If it was THAT profitable, why not the 64-bit version yet?  P3D is still too much of a moving target for some (many?) developers.  Heck, companies and developers are STILL getting flack from people using FSX when a product isn't updated for THEIR sim.  And the new XML addon installation method recommendation for P3D STILL isn't being used by many developers, nor have they updated their previous product lines to it yet.  They can't afford to do it, or they aren't interested in doing it "for free" or getting lambasted if they charged a price to do it.  Or....maybe if they are a one-man company (or 2 or 3) they don't want the hassle of learning the XML method at all.

No, I don't have any "insider information".  But it's fairly obvious that biz jets aren't a high priority developer addon for P3D because ONE factor would be it wouldn't sell enough units of the product to be very profitable (yet) for a developer to do it.  The last thing I would do if I was a developer right now would be to take 6 months or more to build a quality addon, only knowing that in 12 months or so I'm gonna start getting lambasted by my previous customers who bought it because a P3D update made it incompatible, and I haven't provided a totally free update to it "already".

Edited July 4, 2018 by FalconAF

[Deltaair1212 53]

I would personally love for more devs to pick up on biz jets. For me, I like the Carenado S550 because it has a descent range on it... I can go from California to Michigan with my tanks nearly full, and I can scurry out of smaller airports too. Which is always cool because it gives you more options. In real life I work at a corporate flight department for a major oil and gas company, and we have one G5, and two G550’s. Those things can literally fly forever! We go from Houston to the Middle East often and it’s the perfect planes for the operations. But there is A LOT that goes into those jets. Literally. Not something one or two people could tackle and make a version for flight sim. And that’s if Gulfstream ever lifts the ban.