8 minutes ago, virtuali said:

That's the issue: you assumed you were up to date, because you sometime got update notifications from Simmarket. But the only time you were notified, was when we decided to upload a new installer to Simmarket, which happens much less often than *actual* updates to the product, because of course we had a separate Live Updater way before we had an "app" to also do installation, so we didn't update the installers each time the actual product got an update.

So, before the FSDT app, you had to:

- Rely on Simmarket to know there's an update. So you missed all the updates that didn't require a new installer.

- Augment that information with the FSDT Live update, which did only updates, but not installs.

- Activate the license with a separate app ( the Addon Manager, in FSX/P3D or the installer itself in MSFS )

- Use another app ( the browser ) to retrieve get your keys.

- Use the browser to get the installer, which in case of MSFS would require logging on different websites ( Simmarket, or Digital River ), and Digital River downloads had an expiration date.

Now, with the FSDT app, if you need to reinstall, ALL you need is THERE. No logins, no installers ( at least for MSFS, FSX/P3D installs will come later ), activation, deactivation, and check for udpates, it's all there, and instead of a separate install+update at the end, the latest files are downloaded while they are installed.

Way easier and faster, no comparison.

First of all, you now turned this into a "advantages of the FSDT Universal Installer / Updater" thing, but the thread is about the simmarket app. I totally agree that tools like your FSDT Updater do their job, but that is NOT the question here...

Then: if you now seriously state that the old approach was an issue because customers only got notified about an update on simmarket when it required a new installer but not when it was just an update... seriously? As a customer I could not care less about those things, if FSDT sells on simmarket, it is their god**** job to provide the updates in a fast and reliable manner and provide the relevant info along. Otherwise do not offer your products on this platform, easy as this. It is NOT THE DUTY of your paying customer to care about such things, turning the obvious inadequate process in this regard into an argument PRO separate FSDT tool makes this utterly ridiculous, because obviously the "issue" was not related to simmarket or the fact that they host updates etc. online on a web platform, but simply the inadequate process to deliver FSDT updates to simmarket...

Or, in other words: because we from FSDT failed to provide updates to simmarket, we developed an own tool taking care of everything. But because we do not want to loose the sales from simmarket, we still sell our products over there. Although this now means that besides the FSDT Updater you now also have to download the simmarket app. That would at least be honest...

38 minutes ago, AnkH said:

First of all, you now turned this into a "advantages of the FSDT Universal Installer / Updater" thing, but the thread is about the simmarket app. I totally agree that tools like your FSDT Updater do their job, but that is NOT the question here...

And that's precisely to prevent spreading of the wrong attitude of disliking an app "just because it's an app", without considering how each separate one works.

 

38 minutes ago, AnkH said:

Then: if you now seriously state that the old approach was an issue because customers only got notified about an update on simmarket when it required a new installer but not when it was just an update... seriously? As a customer I could not care less about those things, if FSDT sells on simmarket, it is their god**** job to provide the updates in a fast and reliable manner and provide the relevant info along.

Now you are trying to turn the obvious advantage of having an installer that downloaded the latest stuff at the end, which resulted in NOT having the need to update the installer each time there's any kind of update, into a "problem", as if we weren't "doing our job", when in fact it's exactly the opposite.

 

38 minutes ago, AnkH said:

Or, in other words: because we from FSDT failed to provide updates to simmarket, we developed an own tool taking care of everything. But because we do not want to loose the sales from simmarket, we still sell our products over there.

That's not the case, at all.

Since we already had an installer that didn't require much maintenance, didn't require users constantly redownloading and reinstalling, because it was helped with a separate Live Update app, we made the obvious choice of combining Install+Update in a single app for all our products, instead of forcing users to keep track of multiple installers AND a separate updater.

 

Quote

Although this now means that besides the FSDT Updater you now also have to download the simmarket app. That would at least be honest...

Here, instead, you got it completely wrong. Since our Updater is ALSO an installer, you don't need the Simmarket app, at all.

In fact, strictly speaking, we haven't even introduced a "new app". It might look like it, but in fact it's the same "old" FSDT Live Updater, but now it can change its interface depending on the shortcut it's launched from, and now it's able to install without an installer, and activate/deactivate outside the sim.

Edited April 4, 20224 yr by virtuali

1 hour ago, AnkH said:

Yeah, this Aerosoft updater is another of those half-baked tools nobody wants, they still did not manage to make the tool capable of updating everything and every second update it still tells you "this is a full replacement of the older version and needs to be downloaded seperately from the shop page".

This was true for the Aerosoft Lauchner which was indeed a pain. The present Aerosoft One tool does all the installation, no manual downloads, all updates done in the tool, it works similarly to ORBX Central or the FSDT Installer.

Kind regards, Michael

I buy lots of addons and have Aerosoft updater, Aerosoft One, Orbx Central, FSDT Live Update, Contrail, Simmarket app, FBW Installer, Steam. They all work  well and I have had no problem whatsoever. So like them. It's a great trend. Bought two addons with Simmarket app the other day  and it worked perfect.

Let's suppose that when we log onto Simmarket there was an icon which tells you if you had a product that could be updated in your account. This would work a whole lot like the Simmarket app. BUT the app also places on the front page exciting new products for sale!

Here's an idea: When you push the seatbelts or no smoking toggle in the Concorde the attendant could could announce that message. But first remind the passengers of other nice planes which DC designs sells on Simmarket!

I've most definitely purchased my last product from Simmarket.

I buy a LOT of addons, and so have a desktop full of addon installers like Contrail, Orbx etc. What definitely strikes me about all of them is that they don't feel like they're there for my benefit, but are sales tools for the respective vendors. There seem to be a variety of download mechanisms, verification and licence handling techniques, and target locations for the products. Personally, I don't have a problem with the "standard" way of downloading and installing from a vendor's website. It mostly works (or increasingly - worked, in the past tense) fine.

What I'd really like to see is some smart coder to come up with something conceptually similar to the addons linker, but to manage purchase and installs in a combined way from all the various major vendor sites. I almost like the Orbx Central thingy, but what I don't like about it is the fact that it won't let me blank out stuff I will never ever buy (either because I don't care for the product of because I bought it outside of Orbx). I seem to recall that a couple of the other mechanisms at least let me filter down to show only what I've already purchased.

Simmarket, from whom I've bought by far the bulk of my MSFS addons, makes keeping tabs on my purchases very easy via the website - I can list by order or by product bought. I wasn't impressed by their app and am happy that I don't HAVE to use it (for now, at least).

Bottom line though is that most vendors are not seriously interested in making my software life easier, they just want to sell more stuff. Way of the world these days. People complain about Amazon's business practices (and I can certainly sympathise with a lot of that) but they know how to keep the customer satisfied. Their customer service is far beyond anything in this simulator world (and to my surprise, so is eBay these days).

I  totally agree...downloading from the website was a lot faster...specially that they provided mirror links to choose from