Guys,

I had to share this thought, because it turns out to be one of the reasons I started to become fun of some simulation platforms, namely combat, like War Thunder, DCS World and IL-2 Battle of series... and for a time getting away from civil flightsims, with the advent of MFS having changed the course.

Problem ( for me ) is I really like to think of a simulation platform as a continuous development platform, without an index, like 9, 10, 11, 12 ( go figure... ) or whatever.

For years, since around 1992, I started buying all versions of MS FS, then Air Transport Pilot and Airline Simulator, Flight Unlimited, Sierra Propilot, Fly!, Light Aircraft Simulator ( LAS ), ELITE, X-Plane... and it always was a pita to change version... change everything, most of the time losing functionality and / or  even having to buy again stuff 😕

I love War Thunder, DCS even if it has an associated version index, IL-2 BoS... and now I am becoming a fan of MFS, and holding spending my money, for instance, in X-Plane stuff ( and the same used to apply to P3D ) because I never know what's going to happen as a new version get's released.

MFS, as far as I can tell, is going to be pretty much like War Thunder ( no pun intended !... ) with guarantee of compatibility along it's evolution. 

Of course the introduction of new features will always require add-on updates / upgrades, but it's not like closing a document and having to start, sometimes almost from scratch, a new one...

Edited December 29, 20205 yr by jcomm

Compatibility is overrated 😃. Whats the benefit ? Saving a couple of hundreds every two or  three years ?   A version-sequenced sim has an enormous advantage : stability of the gameplay for the shelf life of the product. There are always annoying flaws of course but we learn to live with them.

P3D brought us a new paradigm with half a dozen of updates/HF a year, each bringing only marginal improvements to the gameplay (a.k.a. flying) and I found it an undesirable pain. MFS is presently even worse, it is like walking in a bog, an unstable traitorous ground . You don’t have previsibility from one update to the other, each step can suck your gameplay down. 

Simmers want to play, not to test.  Give me an imperfect but a stable version over a continuously upgraded sim anyday. The next version will be better but in the meantime I will enjoy the sim as it is.

Edited December 29, 20205 yr by Dominique_K

Thx Dominique - it's always good to have a different view. I agree with some of what you wrote, but then, I still prefer the "ongoing chaos..." approach :-)

Hey, you needed a contradictory point of view to energize the debate, didn't you  😄 !

Continuous upgrades would be nice if they brought us new features working seamlessly in the sim. Value. 

This is not how it works. The developer does not do a favor to us but to him. Under the pretext of a commitment to continuous improvements, he takes the liberty to release and cash early on a product not  ready for prime time. Never been so obvious with MSF but it is also true with the last two versions of P3D.

The streaming distribution makes it worse as the developer now can remotely tamper the version without our consent, actually downgrading  what was purchased (cf watermasking, etc.). 

PS  I am not familiar with XP so I can't comment.

 

Edited December 29, 20205 yr by Dominique_K

Of course Dominique - the contradictory - is always a good practice when trying to think about any decision in life 🙂

I see your point, and I understand and even agree with most of it, but at the same time I never like the change from betwee versions. Even installing new versions of P3D in the past was always something that, as simple as it could be, was a pita for me, but that's just me... 😉

Again, thx for your comments !