I guess we see in a few weeks whether Asobo had this secret build several weeks ahead of the Alpha version or not. The more I think about it the less sense it makes.

As a tester I am not allowed to say anything. As frustrating as this is when reading most of the garbage written about FS by simmers that have never even seen the opening credits let alone flown it. I am happy to follow the NDA because flying anything else now leaves a sour taste. Hopefully the NDA will be lifted slightly once the beta is released, the post above says it all, thank you ludekbrno.

And I quote:- "You have to know, that public alpha isn't the same build, which they have for internal testing. There is exist more aplha or beta builds, which must be much more far, than alpha for public testers. So i don't say, that release version will be bug-less, but i'm sure, that it will be a good surprise."

Edited July 14, 20205 yr by SierraHotel

1 hour ago, Kopteeni said:

What would be the point of making the thousands of Alpha testers test an old build?

Telemetry, hardware compatibilty and squashing the most obvious bugs. And keeping some good stuff in reserve for an "announcement effect" to boost the sales.

6 minutes ago, Dominique_K said:

Telemetry, hardware compatibilty and squashing the most obvious bugs. And keeping some good stuff in reserve for an "announcement effect" to boost the sales.

That makes a bit of sense but when you think about the massive amount of data and reports that are coming in from the 10 000 Alpha testers. That otherwise very useful data would all be from an old build and there'd have to be a tedious extra step of investigating if the reported issues can be reproduced in the more recent build where it's often challenging enough to reproduce a bug in the same build.

Edited July 14, 20205 yr by Kopteeni

21 minutes ago, SierraHotel said:

"You have to know, that public alpha isn't the same build

The "same build" is not the same as an old build.

If I were to collect a mountain of user data from thousands of testers in a software project I would make sure the data is as close to the dev build as possible. Giving Alpha testers an older build and accepting the negative effect it would have on the usage data relevancy just for the sake of having a surprise in launch day just doesn't make any sense at all.

1 hour ago, filou said:

 It will be the same for me without hesitation!  

Yes it can not be worse than P3D and XP which are not at all finished. MSFS 2020 will certainly be the best in this category...without too much difficulty.

I think, this pretty much summarizes it. None of the triple will be bugfree in the foreseeable future (if ever) but MSFS is going to open a new era of flight simulation. And yes, I know what I am writing about.

Kind regards, Michael

3 minutes ago, pmb said:

And yes, I know what I am writing about.

Well, I'm glad you added that clarification. Otherwise, how would we have been able to put full trust in your statement and accept it as 100% fact?

Edited July 14, 20205 yr by Kopteeni

1 minute ago, pmb said:

 . And yes, I know what I am writing about.

 

You certainly do, Michael. I've read your posts for many years here and at Orbx and I know you for a knowledgeable  simmer with well-balanced opinions. Very welcome feedback for a non alpha tester like me, thanks.

13 minutes ago, Dominique_K said:

Very welcome feedback for a non alpha tester like me, thanks.

That's one thing I never will understand why you, ChaoticBeauty, and couple of others were not selected for alpha, just to honor their dedication.

Kind regards, Michael

17 minutes ago, Dominique_K said:

You certainly do, Michael. I've read your posts for many years here and at Orbx and I know you for a knowledgeable  simmer with well-balanced opinions. Very welcome feedback for a non alpha tester like me, thanks.

Not forgetting Michael's outstanding contributions to AFS 2!

32 minutes ago, pmb said:

That's one thing I never will understand why you, ChaoticBeauty, and couple of others were not selected for alpha, just to honor their dedication.

Kind regards, Michael

in another life 😉

The reason they have released the sim "early" is obvious. The incessant moaning and griping plus unhinged conspiracy theories and nit-picking on the Avism forums finally became an existential crisis for the developers. Better to release it now than to suffer the psychic shock any longer. In fact the United Nations has declared as a form a torture the continual posting of that gif showing a guy trying to get through the White House fence whilst shouting "LET ME IN!".

5 hours ago, pmb said:

I think, this pretty much summarizes it. None of the triple will be bugfree in the foreseeable future (if ever) but MSFS is going to open a new era of flight simulation. And yes, I know what I am writing about.

Kind regards, Michael

"MSFS is going to open a new era of flight simulation"

 We agree that this is exactly what interests us.It's a bit the end of prehistory for my greatest happiness.A kind of new fuel for our passion with a new system less archaic and more attractive to the new generation.

Well, it's clear to me they are releasing early whether due to MS marketing demand or some other reason. This leads me to believe one of the items on their wishlist, TrackIR will not make the release. Maybe it will come later but until it does this software is a no go for me. I refuse to use Chaseplane or some stupid hatswitch to pan around in VC. Both of those options are ridiculous. I have a 55in 4k tv at a zoom of .80, TrackIR is the only way to go for me.

Edited July 14, 20205 yr by B777ER