Reality Check

[Jaxsimmer 147]

Good Morning.

I have been a lurker on Avsim for a long, long time. As a R/W pilot who worked his way up to Bonanzas in the 80's and early 90's, only to have his wings clipped by having kids, I've spent almost thirty years yearning to get back into that real cockpit.

Now that I am in my sixties, I realize that it probably isn't that smart for me to spend that money and take that risk again, especially since half the time I cannot even remember what I had for breakfast, let alone remember all the FARs and whatnot...so what I have left is simulation.

My hopes were dashed when FSX stopped development, then even more so when Flight, which had soooo much promise, ended up the way it did. I tried Xplane, and others, but nothing ever satisfied me like the MS franchise did. So I put simulation away and moved onto other things.

So I was elated when the news leaked that MS was restarting the franchise.

In the interest of being short, let me say I am extremely pleased with this new product. Does it have bugs? YES! But is it preferable to enjoy an incredible, game changing product that is 95% good and that has some bugs rather than to sit around and whine about 5% of issues? For me it is.

I know nobody on here will believe me, but I went into my garage, dusted off my ten year old cobbled together i7 960 with 24GB and 5400 RPM drives, went out and paid about $300 for a NVidia 1660Ti, slapped a fresh load of Windows 10 on it, and...the thing runs like a champ on the high settings. I am amazed! It even is passable on ultra in most areas. Based on the many of the comments on here, I expected it to not even taxi to the runway.

Look, two hundred years ago most of us would have been spending our days trying to figure out how to get our next meal by hunting something or picking something in the broiling sun, or hoping not to get eaten by some wild animal, or hoping not to die from some disease or other person by forty. So for us to sit with a full belly in our air conditioned world, in front of a computer screen, and complain that some switch on a virtual cockpit instrument doesn't quite work as planned or some virtual plane doesn't have quite the same performance as one in the real world...and act like that is the end of the world...is just plain silly...puns intended.

I can guarantee you every developer working on this product didn't go the extra mile and stay up the extra sleepless night just for the cash....they did it because they were excited to create something all of us would be wowed by. So the constant bashing has to be disheartening to them. Just like Pavlov's dog, they need positive reinforcement from us, not negative! Let's use carrots, not sticks!

I have been in the tech business since I sold my first Apple II with 16K, and I still have a business which sells Azure, and MS365, and Server 2019, and many, many other products from many other developers. I have never yet seen a product which didn't have bugs in it. Was this released prematurely. Probably. But I would rather enjoy a product with a small amount of bugs now then wait forever for perfection.

So to everyone...take a deep breath. Look on the glass half full side and appreciate what we have been given here, and let's hope for the best that MS and Asobo will keep that ten year promise. So far, it looks like they are keeping their word.

Good Simming!

P.S. I just flew out of Hailey, Idaho up into the Pioneer mountains just next to Sun Valley. I have hiked to Pioneer Cabin, which is a tiny cabin 9500 feet up in the middle of nowhere. To my amazement the cabin is in the sim and you can even see the trail that leads to it. I sent the pic to friends who have hiked with me and they were floored.

Edited September 19, 2020 by Jaxsimmer

[Carts85 1,203]

Good post and I agree it’s important to have a bit of perspective. 
I wasn’t around here for the FSX launch but I believe it was pretty similar if not worse. Things will settle down and the speed these guys are working to fix things I think will see less and less of the “I’ve had it with MS” etc...

If anything the complaints about knobs not working etc is a clear sign just how excelllent this sim is.

[wim123 758]

great post..the trouble is a lot of ppl see only the broken stuff.

[RobJC 2,069]

Good post. We all need to keep the big picture in mind here. 

[rtodepart 761]

Nice post . like others had mentioned some always look for the broken parts and make it their job  yeah they sometimes act like they almost got paid to look for the non simulator related details and bash down what we we have now . Not perfect but it will get near there in the future.

with bugs yet but i love it . 

[Stoopy 1,571]

6 hours ago, Jaxsimmer said:

Look, two hundred years ago most of us would have been spending our days trying to figure out how to get our next meal by hunting something or picking something in the broiling sun, or hoping not to get eaten by some wild animal, or hoping not to die from some disease or other person by forty. So for us to sit with a full belly in our air conditioned world, in front of a computer screen, and complain that some switch on a virtual cockpit instrument doesn't quite work as planned or some virtual plane doesn't have quite the same performance as one in the real world...and act like that is the end of the world...is just plain silly...puns intended.

I am going to print, frame this and hang it by my PC!

I am in a somewhat similar situation.  Will turn 60 in a few months and have been an airplane junkie my while life. Took flight lessons as a young man starting when I was 13 and then off an on as the years went by and money allowed, but life, love and family in that order put the keibash on an aviation license or career.  Now that I'm older and can afford it, it doesn't make sense to pursue real world flying from a fiscal or physical perspective. But man am I having a fantastic time with this sim relieving memories of old flights and seeing old stomping grounds that never was possible with anything before it, and I truly have tried them all.

Great post.

Edited September 19, 2020 by Stoopy

[Jaxsimmer 147]

Thanks everyone. It is refreshing to see there are others who share my sentiments. Stoopy, that is so cool how you did that with the old pic in the new sim.

I just completed a hand flown IFR Citation flight from Baton Rouge to Jacksonville on an Xbox controller my son left hanging around in same garage (probably forgot) when he went to college. I finally have figured out how to tweak this thing and trim the beast...so it can be done. Literally never looked out the window except for takeoff and the last mile on final and taxi at the destination.

Can't wait to purchase a decent yoke, throttles, and pedals.

Happy Flying!

JAXSimmer

Edited September 19, 2020 by Jaxsimmer

[Jetman67 517]

A really excellent post and very true, I'm enjoying the Sim warts and all.im in a similar situation to you re real world flying, had not flown for 11 years but just for fun went up for some revision, hasn't been easy as I am a fair amount dumber than I was before, but it's a lot of fun and I think I will be back to private standard soon, at least I will be able to jump into a trusty c172 and have a joy flight them enjoy the Sim also

 

Cheers

Wayne

Edited September 19, 2020 by Jetman67

[himmelhorse 1,276]

10 hours ago, wim123 said:

great post..the trouble is a lot of ppl see only the broken stuff

To be fair, the trouble is that a lot of the people who cannot see the good stuff are too busy trying to sort out the broken stuff, to put their heads up to look around. 

I am not one of these people with a broken system, but, can you imagine the unholy joy that the sufferers experience, when they read that xxx or yyy do not have any problems at all. I could understand statements like the one I quoted, if all the problems were imagined or trivial.  They are not, even if the problem is blown way out of proportion, it is still, very significant to that person. The problem is further compounded if the simmer is experienced and has previously had no issues.

Comments like these, credible, true or otherwise, are not the best example of how to help someone solve these issues.  I totally agree with everything the OP has said, and even reacted to it. We definitely need carrots and to throw the sticks away, to try to encourage the sufferers, and all of this so that everybody can eventually really enjoy this sim.

Tony  

[Maxis 1,857]

Im glad the people who had this update work for them .. More power to them. Doesn't discount the fact that the enjoyment i get out of this sim had come to a complete halt since this patch appeared. Now everyone can have different opinions on this issue and that's fine. But im so sorry i cannot yet congratulate Asobo because in my experience this patch is not a "job well done". Im here for the airliners.. and the experience of simming from cold and dark gate to gate. The main aircraft that i committed to using is broken.. You completely follow the checklist and your going to have an engine die on you. Ok .. i gave that a pass and moved to completing some bush challenges which i started pre patch because i thaught .. hmm let me try out this VFR thing.. Flew 160 miles in a slow word not allowed plane im not too fond of in order to complete a leg of the challenge.. Hmm .. oh gee that  doesn't work either? Ok .. lemme try ... another ... oh wait .. sids and stars arent loading and mfd's are randomly going black.

No forget it.. for what i use this sim for its completely broken and rather than try and tinker with a program that i gladly and without question paid $120.00 and worked on day 1 just to get it to fly i refuse out of principle. I am not a company's beta tester and when you sell a product with features at least make sure the features still work when you claim to patch something else. I'm not expecting perfection but its waay too many bugs  for this patch.

Like you i stopped siming when FSX came out because unfortunately i could not afford the HW to run it properly. So i held on to FS2004 with all its addons for a long time while i could. I was also heartbroken when Aces closed. When MS revealed this new sim i was and still am 1000% on board and fortunately this summer i was able to spend around $2000 to build a system that can properly run this sim and upon release i was an extremely happy camper So please imagine my dismay when after applying this performance update every thing that previously worked no problems is broken or requires some stupid workaround to get going.

Bottom line look .. im not one to distill or take away other peoples happiness. But on the other side of the coin for people who use other aspects of the sim Asobo has dropped the ball. Whats even more infuriating is that they do not do hotfixes so we pretty much have to wait for another full on patch to fix the myriad of bugs they released last patch. Hopefully Asobo comes good but this patch to me hurt more than helped.

[Noel 4,487]

It's really remarkable and I wish all the best for MS/Asobo to continue to develop what amounts to a truly groundbreaking product.  I did not appreciate just how much it would matter to me to be much closer to being in the real world versus the landclass w/ artwork world.  It's way more than just 'eye candy', it really adds to the immersion in a way I had not predicted.  I think that may come from not paying as much attention to the landclass/artwork world as it was just not very inspiring.

[pjs37 319]

Lovely story I appreciate your insights into this.  I hope it brings you many years of enjoyment.

[desbean 357]

15 hours ago, wim123 said:

great post..the trouble is a lot of ppl see only the broken stuff.

My use of the sim has ended since the patch broke every plane that I fly, so I guess it's hard to see the forest for the trees.

[Ricardo41 5,936]

4 hours ago, himmelhorse said:

To be fair, the trouble is that a lot of the people who cannot see the good stuff are too busy trying to sort out the broken stuff, to put their heads up to look around. 

I am not one of these people with a broken system, but, can you imagine the unholy joy that the sufferers experience, when they read that xxx or yyy do not have any problems at all. I could understand statements like the one I quoted, if all the problems were imagined or trivial.  They are not, even if the problem is blown way out of proportion, it is still, very significant to that person. The problem is further compounded if the simmer is experienced and has previously had no issues.

Comments like these, credible, true or otherwise, are not the best example of how to help someone solve these issues.  I totally agree with everything the OP has said, and even reacted to it. We definitely need carrots and to throw the sticks away, to try to encourage the sufferers, and all of this so that everybody can eventually really enjoy this sim.

Tony  

Oh, boy, "suffering", really? It's a game, it's not that the doctor just broke terrible news to you. The game has a few bugs, and people start throwing temper tantrums. But that's the reality of Avsim. 

[himmelhorse 1,276]

Ricardo41,

If you do not understand the intent, I am in the wrong game.

Many apologies for causing you this much anguish. It has to far worse that what these people are going through 

Tony