Community A320 mod team's plea for support

[SlowFlyer 78]

20 hours ago, styckx said:

Microsofts outlook on this is most likely "Want a study level a320? Build one yourself but you're not leeching off our property to do it"

Really? Is that what they would say?

I didn't get that impression from when this game was in beta...I got the impressing that they wanted to welcoming the small, independent modders and the community.

But you are probably right. The bottom-line is very important to most companies.  Better to throw their resources and limited time to the big, huge companies that can sell 120+ dollar addons (and not mods who are providing some great freeware). 

 

 

[dobee51 346]

6 hours ago, virtuali said:

 

But Asobo promised they would eventually add support for better PBR and, guess what: IT CAME WITH THE PATCH! We assumed they would delivered it, so we already prepared all our stuff for it, which explains why, the day after the patch, we released an update to our KORD scenery for MSFS, which adds full PBR on ground, and it looks so much better! So we can now have accurate airports with custom markings, without losing any of the visual features that makes MSFS so good to look at.

 

Thanks for the heads-up. I just ran FSDT Live Update.

[kapitan 90]

I believe the reason is simple

Asobo plans to release PRO versions of commercial airlines

Maybe you havent seen that in CONTENT MANAGER its already available for download a file called ASOBO-COMMERCIAL-FLIGHTS that todays is only a few mb in size and does nothing, I suspect its just the directory structure preparing it

[RamonB 449]

31 minutes ago, kapitan said:

believe the reason is simple

Asobo plans to release PRO versions of commercial airlines

Don't know how you came to that conclusion! But in case they do. That would be like a stab in the back if they purposely crippled the default NON PRO versions.
I'm not talking about "study level, full systems" default airplanes. Just flyable.

All I want from default Jet airplanes are correct specs/range and the ability to fly from A to B, with both engines running, electrical systems on, APU off, an Autopilot that follows commands and the flight plan. If user mods add more features, they are welcomed of course .

 

Edited September 18, 2020 by RamonB

[airlinejets 709]

21 minutes ago, kapitan said:

Maybe you havent seen that in CONTENT MANAGER its already available for download a file called ASOBO-COMMERCIAL-FLIGHTS

It could also simply mean they're adding more missions.

[omarsmak30 4,065]

53 minutes ago, kapitan said:

I believe the reason is simple

Asobo plans to release PRO versions of commercial airlines

Maybe you havent seen that in CONTENT MANAGER its already available for download a file called ASOBO-COMMERCIAL-FLIGHTS that todays is only a few mb in size and does nothing, I suspect its just the directory structure preparing it

The amount of made up theories here are bit funny sometimes 😄 . If you have a fact with an evidence (someone from Microsoft/Asobo said it), you are welcome to share it. 

[abrams_tank 7,392]

So, a lot of people are saying that Microsoft doesn't want to help the A320 mod team out because Microsoft can get a cut from every commercial 3rd party that sells the A320 in the marketplace.

This may not maximize Microsoft's profit and revenue if the free community A320 mod leads Microsoft to sell more copies of MSFS.

It's very basic math.  Let's say Microsoft makes an average gross profit of $40 for each copy of MSFS they sell (I will use an average profit because it could be the Standard Version, Deluxe Version, or Premium Deluxe Version being sold).  Furthermore, let's say Microsoft gets an average of a $20 cut for every commercial 3rd party A320 sold in the marketplace.

If the community A320 mod is really well done and leads to an extra 100K copies of MSFS being sold because people want to buy MSFS just for the free community A320 mod, that's a gross profit of 100,000 copies x $40 = $4 million for Microsoft.

Alternatively, if Microsoft makes the free community A320 mod unusable in the game, and instead people purchase 150K copies of the 3rd party commercial A320 in the marketplace, that's 150,000 copies x 20 = $3 million for Microsoft.

The bottom line is, Microsoft not supporting the community A320 mod team because Microsoft can make more money from their cut of commercial A320 sales in the market place is poorly thought out logic.  

Furthermore, if more copies of MSFS sell, some of those users may also make other purchases in the market place which leads to even more revenue for Microsoft.  In this example I provided, it would be in Microsoft's interest to promote the development of the community A320 mod to increase sales of MSFS, because they make more money that way.

The more deeper reason Microsoft may not want to support the community A320 mod is possibly related to legal reasons, and also any contracts they have signed with commercial 3rd party developers working on a commercial version of the A320 (especially if that commercial 3rd party developer may make additional planes for MSFS, other than the A320).  But the logic that Microsoft can make more money by getting a "cut" from commercial A320 sales is pretty bad logic IMO, especially if Microsoft can make more money from copies of MSFS sold, because people are buying MSFS to play the free community A320.

[Lenny777 299]

Hysterical ranting. It doesn't enhance your position to make your demands a public affair a month after release and in the same breath denigrate the product. I'd ignore the plaintive pleas for that alone 

[BIGSKY 316]

9 minutes ago, abrams_tank said:

 Furthermore, let's say Microsoft gets an average of a $20 cut for every commercial 3rd party A320 sold in the marketplace.

Doesn't this premise go against PMDG's CEO,Robert Randazzos business philosophy?

[n4gix 4,947]

There have been more than a few who've responded with well-considered and cogent replies.

The simply fact is that only a tiny handful of the GA are approaching a 'completed' status. None of the non-GA are anywhere near that but are still at the '1st pass' stage.

It is pretty much guaranteed that as Asobo continue to refine those aircraft to what they consider 'completed' status that every update will break some things.

[Will Fly For Cheese 1,710]

I think Asobo are busy enough with other things in MSFS right now and not worrying too much whether the EICAS annunciates the HYD on the screen correctly after APU is On.

Know what I mean?

 

[RobJC 2,069]

I don’t think i am going to touch mods for a long time in this sim after seeing all the issues a handful of people are having after installing mods. I will just wait. 

[pstrub 998]

On 9/18/2020 at 3:20 PM, ThrottleUp said:

I dont have MSFS yet and this one sentence has solved my dilemma. I was always wondering where to buy it from MS or Steam, now I know! Its a no brainer! Steam it is! Thank you for this info 🙂 

Careful though, this doesn't apply to the folder of the Deluxe and Premium content, they're still encrypted. However, the base files (launcher screen, downloader, etc) are located in your Steam folder, just like any other Steam game. This approx 1GB launcher the only part where Steam and Xbox store versions differ. The whole other content is handled and downloaded through MSFS, therefore it's exactly the same. When I switched from the EUR 1,- GamePass version to a bought Steam version, I didn't have to re-download any of the 90GB folder, just had to rename the folder inside the "Official" folder from sth like "Xbox" (not exactly sure anymore) to "Steam". 

Anyway, I still prefer the Steam version, the few times I had to interact with the MS Store I used many swear words, every time. From my personal experience I'd say it's counter-intuitive, annoying, and prone to come up with weird error messages... 

Edited September 20, 2020 by pstrub

[Ricardo41 5,935]

This "plea for help from the simmers' community" backfired more spectacularly than a cannon at Waterloo. 

[duckbilled 310]

On 9/18/2020 at 4:44 AM, virtuali said:

Asobo does listen to developers ...

The ellipses was added to save space:)

Thank you for this. I was originally supportive of this plea due to wanting progress on the new sim. In other words, I wanted MS/AS to do whatever it took to make it easier for developers to work on the sim. Your point and the others are well-taken.

Perhaps MS/AS and other developers should be more transparent, so the community can see how they are cooperating with 3rd party developers. All I keep hearing from developers is that the sim isn't fully baked, and the SDK is woefully inadequate. Even though I been around for many launches, this sim is so different from FS9, FSX and P3D. When I hear they aren't providing the resources, it makes me question that they will never provide the resources. With the other sims, I knew the community could overcome issues because developers like you have been doing for years.

As for the A320 mod, I really don't care about it that much. To me, it is a temporary fix until the real airlines come out. I'm more concerned about PMDG, Navigraph, GSX, high quality scenery, AI and perhaps, Active Sky. Freeware vs payware doesn't matter to me, but I do think prominence in the enthusiast community is key. I say this, because I think AIG should get the same treatments as large payware developers. If they are getting the attention they need, I'm satisfied.