A different approach to development

[Guest Leafhopper]

MSFS has historically tried to develop a product with a world wide appeal and have been very successful but I wonder if the state of the art today may present an opportunity for a change in Aces focus for the future FS incarnations: Here is what I mean:1. With FSX (and past versions) there are/were many people disappointed with the level of

[Mace 1,918]

Don't worry grasshoppa, I am not going to shoot at you.I think your idea is interesting, and yes to some extent that's how it was with SubLogic. But imagine the sheer numbers of people it would require to create these packages, for example. I think the problem lies in the number of people on Microsofts FS team. They only have enough as the market dictates. Imagine what we would have, if they had 2x as many people on their team?RhettAMD 3700+ (@2.5 ghz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (94.47), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2 GB Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8, WD 250 gig 7200 rpm SATA2, CoolerMaster Praetorian

[Chock 17,769]

As much as I liked the Fly and Flight Unlimited sims, the fact that scenery was extremely limited in much of the world was a bit of a turn off for me, and I daresay some other people felt the same.(somewhat ironic in a title called Flight Unlimited in fact) When I used to use the old SubLogic versions of Flight Simulator, they were also like that, with pretty much the San Fransisco area modelled and not a lot else in anything other than rudimentary detail, I daresay that most veteran FS users could probably navigate blindfold around the Sausalito VORs because of that :-). Of course that was a long time ago, and the fact that you actually could buzz about in a Cessna on your computer in the original versions of FS was enough of a marvel to make that lack of a worldwide database less of an issue.The problem with your scenario, at least froma scenery point of view, is that for many buyers of FS, if some attempt was not made in the default FS to at least have a crack at a reasonably accurate layout of their part of the world, there would be many people who were stuck without any decent scenery for their particular locale, as it would be dependent on developers having enough potential buyers to make having a go at a particular area's scenery worthwhile. To some extent this is actually true now, as despite China being an emerging market, there are many airports on that continent that simply aren't included in FS, including some quite well known ones, such as Lhasa for example.So although I'm sure the idea would be appealing to those who lived near a big airport in the USA, which would almost certainly get modelled, I can't see it being hugely popular in say, Australia, or Poland or any number of places that have never seen any huge attempts at add-on scenery for FS. It's an intruiging idea, but I'm not sure every FS user around the world would welcome it when you bear those issues in mind.

[Guest Leafhopper]

I think it would work something like this:MS would sub out the geographical areas for the landclass, textures, and autogen, airport buildings etc. Then, for a US release, the "Standard" FS?? base sim would be packaged with N. America and sold as one package. The same for Europe, Asia, and all the others. Then, If I wanted, I could purchase the addon for Europe or whatever. There would be a PRO version for the heavies, the people who want the commercial aviation end of it. This would be a higher powered (technologically) sim using the same base which could have much less in the way of rural area autogen and other memory hungry things they never see. Or, maybe it just has everything bundled together. The problem I see with FSX is that it lacks those wonderful finishing touches that make us go out and buy addons that overwrite a lot of Microsoft's work. I believe industry calls this "outsourcing". MS can concentrate on what makes the sim tick (smoothly) and require their subs to develop to certain standards that keep it running smoothly.I spent a fortune (well, for me) on FS9 trying to make it look like my part of the country. I'd spend that amount again, up front, for a sim that would deliver initially what I have piece-mealed together over the past couple of years, especially if it offered that out of the box.

[Guest babua]

Its time MS made FS into a catalog based sales. Here is my catalog:1. Microsoft Flight Simulator FSX Base Package: $ 202. Multi core version: Add $20 extra3. SLI & DX10 graphics version: Add $154. Complete World Scenery database: $705. By continents: $20 each6. Multiplayer: $57. Autogen: $50 credit if you choose!8. Additional Aircraft: $10 each9. Detailed airports: $ 5 each10. Environment Improvements: $20 (includes zoo tycoon animals, real weather, ATC, missions)11. Online activation: $20 credit