9 hours ago, hansb57 said:

According to the Navigraph survey from 2020 there are hardly any simmers in Asia. (or at least who participated in the survey)

I wasn't even aware of this survey, and I personally know a lot of flight simmers in Asia.

42 minutes ago, captain420 said:

I wasn't even aware of this survey, and I personally know a lot of flight simmers in Asia.

Not to mention the fact that, if it was a survey of Navigraph users, then that just means that there might not be a lot of Navigraph users in Asia  It could have nothing whatsoever to do with the number of MSFS users in Asia.

3 hours ago, Sigwolf said:

Not to mention the fact that, if it was a survey of Navigraph users, then that just means that there might not be a lot of Navigraph users in Asia  It could have nothing whatsoever to do with the number of MSFS users in Asia.

mathematically you're correct. But it is an indication from which part the most interest in MSFS comes.

 

Navigraph is not a good place to sample.

For starters a lot of people using Navigraph will tend to fly in the Flight Levels on autopilot and probably do not really care too much about scenery or POI outside the major airports at each end. 

A survey of Navigraph users is more likely to reveal what areas have poor International Airports with bad ILS than anything else. 

I lived twenty years in Asia, now retired in Europe, I would therefore not tick any relevant box in that "survey" - assuming I filled it in the first place - although I spend a lot of my virtual flying time in Asia. I too regret the very limited number of available quality add-ons for this wonderful region.

MSFS is an extraordinary opportunity to discover our world as it really is, and it is somewhat surprising that so many simmers only remain within their limited geographical boundaries, feeling little to no interest for parts of the world they dont know. Overflying unknown territories is a tiny first step for a better understanding of what is going on in some places...

I'm waiting patiently for an Australian/NZ update.

I’ve been flying a bit over the MFS planet and, as is, believe me, MFS is not half-bad in most of the places I have been compared to what we had before. Instead of a blanket request, do Asia, do South Am, do Africa etc. I’d focus on specifics. Do this and that in Asia etc.

For instance, in Asia, Bangkok is in dire need of a make over. In Vietnam give us a decent Halong Bay (same for Guilin...), in Central Asia some mountain textures are blurry and so on and so forth. 

In South Am, crisscrossing Peru these days I am impressed by the quality of the mesh and ground imagery but more POI would be welcome. 

I have not yet flew much in Africa except in Somalia/Ethiopia, Sahara and Morocco which are quite nice for what I need from them.

In Oceania, I only long for the islands from Guadalcanal to the Samoas, building and vegetation, autogen, watermasks, mesh.

Big airports ? Naaah, give me smallish quaint regional airports like, in Thailand, Mae Hong Son. Or even not so quaint.

And, my pet peeve, get us rid of the BS.ai multistorey habitation buildings I see everywhere in the countryside. 

About the user base, lets keep in mind that we are not talking about a market product with a price tag  like the Orbx regions which need to have a payback but of a freebie made to keep the interest up in the core product, to get articles, reviews etc. To have people talk and write about MFS. Even if few simmers fly Peru or Bolivia, having an update with the colonial cathedrals, Machu Pichu, the mining installations etc would be still good for the sim.

About Asia, I do not know of any serious flight simulation market study but I am a bit skeptical to hear that there is no market there as Orbx John Venema has said for years.

34 minutes ago, Dominique_K said:

About Asia, I do not know of any serious flight simulation market study but I am a bit skeptical to hear that there is no market there as Orbx John Venema has said for years.

Just as a matter of numbers, there are nearly ten times as many people in Asia as in all of Europe put together. Even if the flightsim community is much less robust (even by an order of magnitude) than in, say, Germany, you’re talking about a huge number of people and a very large potential market. I’m very skeptical that the Navigraph survey is painting a full picture of flightsimmers anywhere, let alone in Asia.

When people like Venema say flatly that there’s no Asian market, I suspect what they’re really saying is “there’s no market for expensive paid addons.” And sure, there may not be an existing market that will buy $30 airports and $120 aircraft in any volume. Sometimes you have to meet your customers where they are, though — the same thing was true when MSFS launched. In that case, most developers were smart and dropped their prices to reach a much larger market. Why not try the same thing to break into the Asian market?

(Also, I don’t live in Asia but I want to fly in Asia. There’s probably a decent number of people like me, too!)

James

Edited August 22, 20214 yr by honanhal
Typo

51 minutes ago, honanhal said:

 

(Also, I don’t live in Asia but I want to fly in Asia. There’s probably a decent number of people like me, too!)

James

Orbx has always had very reasonable prices and even more with their multi-annual sales.

We have had , over the years, some discussions there about their Open LC Asia which has honestly become a farce. He alluded both to the lack of user base and the piracy issue.

The former is no surprise when they had mostly focused on doing the West coast and Northern Europe, again and again.  It might not titillate the Japanese or Chinese simmer as much as their own region 😄. The latter is a bit strange as most of game piracy is done in the West I believe.

But Orbx is not the only one to have neglected the Asian market... 

And yes, no need to be an Asian to love flying there.

 

Here is an excellent VOHS

https://flightsim.to/file/8026/vohs-rajiv-gandhi-international-airport

A superb VIDP

https://flightsim.to/file/7681/vidp-indira-gandhi-international-airport

and an awesome VOMM

https://flightsim.to/file/10471/vomm-chennai-international-airport

Thanks to the creator rcavinash123

So, hop into your fav A32NX in an Indigo livery (the worlds biggest A320 Neo operator), and hop away between these three Asian cities.

Or do a reasonably short international hop to 

https://flightsim.to/file/14639/doha-city-and-hamad-airport-v2-wip

Indigo flight schedule here - https://www.goindigo.in/content/dam/indigov2/6e-website/information/flight-schedule/2020/11/Flight_Schedule.xlsx