3 minutes ago, shivers9 said:

Jeroen....You have 1000's of post here. That means that you have "earned the right" to have opinions. I think you are getting a bit of blow back because many folks come here to learn from the vast experience from guys like you. You may just be a little pre-mature in your post. I have said before that maybe in 10 years or so we will all be flying AFS2 but for now they are not even equal to the trash that was DTG. It is just a bit unfare to mislead folks on what may be just another goat rope. All of that junk has done damage to the hobby already.

I think I get your point, sometimes I may get carried away a bit too much LOL but afaik I didn't mislead people...? I didn't say everyone should get AFS2 because it's the best sim out there. On the contrary! It's just my idea that some people here aren't fair when it comes to AFS2. But maybe I am reading too much in some posts. ;)

8 minutes ago, Avidean said:

If I was asked which flight simulator to buy now I would say, if you want something that actually simulates flight and works well out of the box not requiring any payware addons it has to be X-Plane 11 (that's a new opinion for me). And if you want the highest fidelity to reality available and you are willing to spend money on addons its got to be Prepar3D.

Agreed. There isn't ONE sim I would suggest to everyone. If someone would ask me which (civil) flight sim to get I'd first ask: what would you like to do with it? Depending on the answer my advice could be either P3D, XP, AFS2. They all have their advantages and disadvantages. Imho there is no ONE SIM to rule them all. ;)

If anything this should tell everyone and anyone who likes flight simulation just how complex what we already have (P3D/XP11) is to build "from scratch".  I don't think iPACs ever had any delusions they would be able to compete feature for feature to P3D or XP11 within a year or two or three ... not without massive investments (and I'm not talking about crowd funding and Steam sales, but serious money would be needed ... Bill Gates kinda money).

As much as I love the flight simulator market, I know it's not in the same league as 3D shooters when it comes to budgets and developer resources ... again going back to Goat Simulator selling over a Million units in just 1 month, Crysis selling 1 Million units in just 1 week ... here is a list of best selling games (all platforms): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_games .  sorry, no flight simulator on that list, but take a look at the sales numbers (keep in mind all platforms) ... now list of best selling games for PC only platform: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_PC_games  (again look at the sales figures compared to all platforms ... order of magnitudes different). FSX is on that list at 1 Million as "Amateur Flight Simulation" ... oh the insult!

We live in a small niche market and there are no 1000 developers/artists/designers teams lined up to work on a Flight Simulator products for the PC.  The draw to this market is the add-on content, and that means the SDK.

I do chuckle when I see the "we need a flight simulator built from scratch" comments that keep re-surfacing ... unless someone here has a hotline to Bill Gates stash of cash and can convince him to do some charity work for the Flight Simulator community (because it would be charity as in NON-PROFIT).

Back on topic, with the funds available and size of the iPACS team, they accomplished a lot and they haven't "given up", they are just being realistic about their development schedule ... in the real world software engineers don't work for free, they have families, mortgages, food bills, utility bills, etc. and all the other expenses that comes with living a life.

We really should appreciate what we have and just how complex it is and just how hard it is to "start from scratch".

Cheers, Rob.

48 minutes ago, J van E said:

Where would P3D or XP be without addons...? DLC is just another word for addons. No one on this forums flies P3D without addons. Or do you think P3D would be much better off without addons?

I have puzzled over this question for literally years.

It's very Pavlovian.

Call something an Addon = Drool Eagerly

Call something DLC = Rage and strange rants.

One wonders what would have happened if Microsoft had released Flight simulator X: Acceleration into a community that had somehow developed the same mindset.

13 minutes ago, J van E said:

Agreed. There isn't ONE sim I would suggest to everyone. If someone would ask me which (civil) flight sim to get I'd first ask: what would you like to do with it? Depending on the answer my advice could be either P3D, XP, AFS2. They all have their advantages and disadvantages. Imho there is no ONE SIM to rule them all. 😉

I would say that's the sane way to approach it.

An addon is an optional extra i.e. something that you addon like an extension on your house.

DLC is something that should have been included in the first place like the plumbing in your house.

I'm hilarious! LOL!

23 minutes ago, HiFlyer said:

You might have liked Florida. The areas are getting bigger.............

Well, I got the Netherlands TE region for AFS2 and I have to say its fantastic. Wow. Probably the most impressive scenery package I have ever seen.

26 minutes ago, HiFlyer said:

You might have liked Florida. The areas are getting bigger.............

 

Edited August 16, 20187 yr by GHarrall
double post

32 minutes ago, Rob Ainscough said:

We really should appreciate what we have and just how complex it is and just how hard it is to "start from scratch".

Cheers, Rob.

I don't want to add argument on the sims themselves, there have been enough above and I agree to your statements.

As a close follower of the IPACS forums, I do NOT agree to the way they have been deleting critical comments, though. (And yes, I read DrHotwing's recent remark.) LM sometimes locks threads (and sometimes even for a reason). However, if they would apply the same level of sensitivity towards critical comments as IPACS does, their forums would be nearly empty.

And btw: A forum with some critical remarks has alway been more trustworthy than one with clappers only.

Kind regards, Michael

Edited August 16, 20187 yr by pmb

27 minutes ago, Rob Ainscough said:

We live in a small niche market

This topic is the first topic since November 22, 2017 that has reached 3 pages of content (with 39 replies). The topic that reached that amount of replies before that was from February 27, 2017 (also with 39 replies). What does that tell us about AFS2...? 😉 Seems like AFS2 is a very small niche market within a small niche market. I am happy AFS2 gets some more attention now (38 replies already!) but I also wonder how long it will last... 😎😋 I do applaud IPACS anyway for (still) giving it a try!

Edited August 16, 20187 yr by Guest

Certainly I agree with the sentiment and I wish the developers of all Flight simulation Products all the success in the world, except Captain Sim 😛

Edited August 16, 20187 yr by Guest

1 hour ago, Avidean said:

An addon is an optional extra i.e. something that you addon like an extension on your house.

DLC is something that should have been included in the first place like the plumbing in your house.

I'm hilarious! LOL!

That doesn't even make sense. All of Ipacs DLC so far has been scenery (Much of which has been free!!)

All enhancements to the engine  (plumbing in your house in your vernacular) have also been free, up to and including the internals to create the R22 and the R22 itself.

There's no practical way, even if they wanted to, for any company (including ipacs) to create the entire world in Orthos, so if that's what you think they should have included then you are asking the impossible.

The only thing that can be done is to create DLC, and even doing that has an associated cost in purchasing the orthos and other expenses that has to be recouped in the real world. (In which developers have bills and families)

Are you seriously making the suggestion that Ipacs should have released the whole world for free?

2 minutes ago, HiFlyer said:

That doesn't even make sense. All of Ipacs DLC so far has been scenery (Much of which has been free!!)

Well, sorry it wasn't obvious that it was a joke!

1 minute ago, Avidean said:

Well, sorry it wasn't obvious that it was a joke!

And it seems I was too dumb to get it. My Apologies.

13 minutes ago, J van E said:

This topic is the first topic since November 22, 2017 that has reached 3 pages of content (with 39 replies). The topic that reached that amount of replies before that was from February 27, 2017 (also with 39 replies). What does that tell us about AFS2...? 😉 Seems like AFS2 is a very small niche market within a small niche market. I am happy AFS2 gets some more attention now (38 replies already!) but I also wonder how long it will last... 😎😋 I do applaud IPACS anyway for (still) giving it a try!

LOL! Even I am drawn to gawk at fires, even though I fight the urge.

3 minutes ago, HiFlyer said:

And it seems I was too dumb to get it. My Apologies. 

Don't beat yourself up over it, we are all flight simmers after all 🤣