FLYSIMWARE Cessna 414AW Chancellor Snippet 1

[regis9 3,999]

I may have missed it in this thread but will the GNS530/430 still be an option?  

[hangar 660]

Will we be flying this bird before the Springtime, is it known?

[ryanbatc 12,800]

30 minutes ago, regis9 said:

I may have missed it in this thread but will the GNS530/430 still be an option?  

Yeah that's still in the regular panel setup.

[psychedelic_tortilla 170]

1 hour ago, hangar said:

Will we be flying this bird before the Springtime, is it known?

It was mentioned here that there might be a beta in mid-February, available through the FlySimWare store. That sounds like it'll be a public beta, but I'm not sure.

I'm really looking forward to this plane. Fast, pressurized twin with steam gauges and a GTN 750? The dream! I've been looking for the combination of analog gauges, a modern navigation solution, and enough speed to fly a good distance on a VATSIM evening in about 2h for a while.

Edited January 26, 2022 by psychedelic_tortilla

[hangar 660]

@psychedelic_tortilla Thanks for that link. Sounds good, but unless there's a discounted pricing incentive for buying into the beta, I think I'll wait for final release. Hopefully beta won't need to be prolonged.

Edited January 26, 2022 by hangar

[ryanbatc 12,800]

1 hour ago, hangar said:

@psychedelic_tortilla Thanks for that link. Sounds good, but unless there's a discounted pricing incentive for buying into the beta, I think I'll wait for final release. Hopefully beta won't need to be prolonged.

I actually wish that more devs did this.  Support your early adopters!  I mean something significant though like 34.99 vs 49.99 etc.  Usually its early access but the price is the same for release so people will just wait.

[hangar 660]

22 minutes ago, ryanbatcund said:

Usually its early access but the price is the same for release so people will just wait.

You think so Ryan? I dunno, I often see the opposite happening where most people are willing to pay full price to beta test a product, even if it's a very early release and closer to alpha stage.

That frustrates me to see people doing that because it's created a real conundrum as far as what we can expect to get when we buy a new product. Often times the product release isn't even called a "beta", yet we pay our money in good faith only to come to understand in the end that we have just paid to beta test it.

Years ago companies had to have their own internal testing teams which were all paid employees. But because gamers tend to have an addictive personality flaw we end up paying for almost anything in any stage of development just so we can get our "fix", and it's really affected what we receive today in our gaming purchases as well as how we're treated by many developers and publishers.

I often feel alone when I end up being someone who waits instead of paying full price to leap in good faith.

So yea, as you said, I wish more devs would offer the discount for their beta testers these days. Its the honorable thing to do, IMO.

Edited January 26, 2022 by hangar

[Car147 2,276]

22 minutes ago, ryanbatcund said:

I actually wish that more devs did this.  Support your early adopters!  I mean something significant though like 34.99 vs 49.99 etc.  Usually its early access but the price is the same for release so people will just wait.

I think it's great that devs come on and involve the community in their project, you can see the pride they are taking in their creation, unlike some others i could name... but best not.

[DeepestRed 214]

31 minutes ago, hangar said:

You think so Ryan? I dunno, I often see the opposite happening where most people are willing to pay full price to beta test a product, even if it's a very early release and closer to alpha stage.

It's a not-uncommon thing in indie game development.  Steam actually has a question in their standard Early Access info form about whether or not the price will go up during development.   I just took a quick tour of the games that Steam currently list as their top selling EA titles.

Five (Ready or Not, Vampire Survivors, Phasmophobia, Dread Hunger, Satisfactory) state definitively that the price will go up as development progresses.  Another six (Project Zomboid, World Box, Hidden Deep, Valheim, Raft, BeamNG.drive) said it was possible or likely that prices would increase.  Only two (Baldur's Gate 3 and Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord) said definitively that the price would not go up. 

(Of the remainder, Pavlov VR was too vague to categorize, and 7 Days to Die has an incomplete profile.)

 

31 minutes ago, hangar said:

But because gamers tend to have an addictive personality flaw we end up paying for almost anything in any stage of development just so we can get our "fix", and it's really affected what we receive today in our gaming purchases as well as how we're treated by many developers and publishers.

I agree somewhat, but as a counterpoint:  a lot of this is a reaction to the realities of the industry.   AAA game prices have not remotely kept up with inflation -- I remember paying up to $60 for new games 20 years ago, and the top tier of games still regularly come out around that price range.   And that's only the AAA titles;  smaller, but still extremely high quality, ones are often found for $20 or less.   At the same time, the market's expectation for the content and quality of a game has increased, with the cost of development increasing likewise.  Few but the biggest studios these days can afford to eat the entire cost of a multi-year game development cycle until release.   A lot of smaller titles need the early access income to provide a continual stream of funding for the rest of the development cycle, and without it it would not be affordable.

At the same time, there is an acknowledgement that people buying in EA don't get the "full quantity" up front, and it seems fair to charge them less for that.  So many developers do.  🙂   This isn't to say there aren't developers who release cack and charge near full price for it, or who abandon development and stiff everyone who bought in early -- this does happen.   But on the whole, I don't mind too much the way the market currently works.   I know for me, as a gamer, there has never been the absolute feast of quality games coming out at affordable prices that there is now.  I could never hope to catch up with my Steam backlog at this point.

 

Edited January 26, 2022 by DeepestRed

[hangar 660]

15 minutes ago, DeepestRed said:

A lot of smaller titles need the early access income to provide a continual stream of funding for the rest of the development cycle, and without it it would not be affordable.

I have no problem with this, in fact I'm all for it.

I just wish that more software makers were honest and upfront about it. Go ahead...release early to help fund the remainder of work, but compensate the consumer for taking that early risk, in that the end product may not end up being what they initially had hoped for.

I don't mind paying more for a final release, as long as that final release is mostly bug free and functions as advertised.

[ark 1,288]

I can tell you from experience that when Flysimware releases a Beta, it is clearly called a Beta. And Flysimware updates have always been free.

Al

Edited January 26, 2022 by ark

[Ryanmlt1 15]

12 hours ago, Flysimware said:

There is no fps hit. And we decided for now to go with this layout. If we decide to introduce our Garmin autopilot at a later time then we will include the layout our tech pilot has on his C414AW. So it will have a transponder above the right unit and a AP above the left unit. 

So is it a Garmin GFC600? That would be awesome!

Edited January 27, 2022 by Ryanmlt1

[Flysimware 647]

Another snippet. Sorry been super busy trying to get the beta ready!

 

[ryanbatc 12,800]

Hah fantastic!

[Flysimware 647]

On 1/26/2022 at 9:16 AM, hangar said:

I have no problem with this, in fact I'm all for it.

I just wish that more software makers were honest and upfront about it. Go ahead...release early to help fund the remainder of work, but compensate the consumer for taking that early risk, in that the end product may not end up being what they initially had hoped for.

I don't mind paying more for a final release, as long as that final release is mostly bug free and functions as advertised.

The beta is not actually a complete beta. It is our final product but we find that in the first 3 weeks we always find reported issues from customers that the few beta testers never catch issues nor myself or it broke at a later time. And here is why.

Over the last couple of months while some systems work they break as other things get changed. And this can get missed by our regular testers as this aircraft has way more systems than a typical default plane. We push the limits on systems and our few testers are just not familiar with every detail i have put into the systems. So if i was the only tester it could take another 3 months for me to make sure everything i coded is still working.

 Another reason is customers may not like something and we want to change it during beta.

I also get hundreds of requests to help beta. And i hate telling everyone they can't. I also can't afford to have testers leak the product and the ones i do trust do not always have time to spend the hundreds of hours it requires to beta a product with systems like this. So i prefer to allow anyone to be part of the beta.

And last we do not release to vendors during beta because in the past every time we have to make an update we now have to update all of the vendors and some are very slow to update including the Marketplace. We are still not sure if the market place even notifies customers.

I hope i said this well as after 17 years under my wing i find this is best to keep everyone happy!!! Feel free to wait it's not about funding.

Edited February 2, 2022 by Flysimware