Flight simulator economy (campaign mode)

[Nick Bolton 0]

Ever heard of a flight sim eco game/app?

A flight sim eco (“flight simulator economy”) game/app, which is a fun way to add immersion and meaning to flight simulators like Flight Simulator 2020. It's like a campaign mode, but it's a separate gamified app that runs alongside a flight simulator and connects via a plugin. Notable apps in this genre are: OnAir, Air Hauler 2, and FSEconomy.

This genre has actually been around for years (maybe 10+ years). But, FSEconomy is extremely archaic now, Air Hauler 2 has an overly complex interface (some say unfinished), and OnAir has a poorly designed server architecture (slow page loads, downtime, etc).

I've been using OnAir for a few months and was totally addicted, but I found their customer support a little bit lacking, the screens very slow to load, and the 3 hours of weekly downtime was driving me nuts (they also banned me on Discord for criticising them on this issue). It's because they insist on using a slow monolithic TCP/IP server instead of speedy modern serverless pub/sub... their view on architecture is surprisingly old fashioned.

So, I decided to fund development of a competitor app and we're now in the user experience (UX) design stage. If you're interested in sharing your thoughts about how we should go about this, here's a few UX research questions: https://research.typeform.com/to/FIMkVF6Q

[OSM 683]

😂😂😂

[Maxis 1,864]

Airline economy simulatiors are not my thing but if that happened to you is true as you stated i applaud you for actually attempting to try to provide an alternative or solution to the issue your having with the present software you are using.

Hopefully you can get some input which will actually be useful in your software development.

 

Cheers

[bendead 1,085]

I have a strong feeling that we will see an official MSFS DLC about pilot career/airline light management mode soon after the XBOX release.

[kaosfere 3,115]

NeoFly.

[Chock 17,769]

4 hours ago, Nick Bolton said:

Air Hauler 2 has an overly complex interface (some say unfinished)

Who says that? AH2 has got a great GUI and it is in no way unfinished; it receives frequent updates and additional features to ensure it works with other add-ons which come out from time to time, that's not 'unfinished', that's good developer support. Don't confuse comprehensive with complex either.

But all of this is a moot point because AH2 in its present form is not for MSFS anyway. There is a new version of AH due out for MSFS (in a couple of weeks) and it's worth noting that it features a redesigned GUI too, one which is geared toward MSFS as this image shows.

Does anyone think this looks 'overly complex'?

Edited November 23, 2020 by Chock

[Nick Bolton 0]

On 11/23/2020 at 8:46 PM, bendead said:

I have a strong feeling that we will see an official MSFS DLC about pilot career/airline light management mode soon after the XBOX release.

That would be amazing! Is there any news on this?

On 11/23/2020 at 8:41 PM, Maxis said:

i applaud you for actually attempting to try to provide an alternative

Thank you, that means a lot to me.

On 11/23/2020 at 11:13 PM, kaosfere said:

NeoFly.

Yes! I've heard a lot about NeoFly since I started researching. Why isn't it the market leader? Most people seem to use OnAir.

On 11/23/2020 at 11:55 PM, Chock said:

Does anyone think this looks 'overly complex'?

Aha, well that's new! Kudos to AH for dropping the Microsoft Office 2010 theme! I will give this new version a try.

[kaosfere 3,115]

10 minutes ago, Nick Bolton said:

Why isn't it the market leader?

I think two reasons.   One is that it's a little bit rougher around the edges than OnAir which can turn people off at first -- although recent versions have improved a lot.   The other is that they have slightly different focii;  OnAir seems to attract the airliner crowd more, whereas NeoFly, while it's added some ATP missions, is much more centered on smaller scale "bush" operations.

(Not that you can't do both with either, but NeoFly has more of a scrappy feel to it, whereas OnAir seems to want to be its own virtual airline + Air Hauler).

[Nick Bolton 0]

1 minute ago, kaosfere said:

Not that you can't do both with either

Is trying to do both akin to trying to be all things to all people? I'm wondering if trying to cater to both the bush crowd and the airline crowd is too ambitious... that said, I do tend to flit between both depending on my mood.

[Nick Bolton 0]

12 hours ago, kaosfere said:

I think two reasons.

Ah, I just realised reason #3. NeoFly doesn't support X Plane 11 or P3D (it's for FS2020 only). This made me sad.

[eagleblue 0]

FSeconomy is the most fun and you escape the supervisor crawling up your you know what after a hard day in RL.