January 19th, 2023, MSFS Development Update

[ChaoticBeauty 6,692]

2 hours ago, bobcat999 said:

Thanks for what you did, and I hope you are not having a rough time! 

2 hours ago, pmb said:

Thank you for coming in, @ChaoticBeauty.

Thank you very much for the kind words, it means a lot! The last few months have been somewhat rough indeed, but things are thankfully coming into place now.

2 hours ago, bobcat999 said:

It might be because every time they say they will do something, and it doesn't quite turn out right, or takes longer than peoples expectations, they get panned for it!  So they have stopped setting themselves up for this. (I don't blame them!)

That's true, they really didn't do themselves any favours when assigning bugs and requests to a specific Sim Update or a certain year, and then constantly shifting their release date, quite often after they were due. There are still some things initially planned for late 2021 that are yet to come.

They could be more conservative while continuing to engage the community in the development though. For example, the Active Development slide was by far the most informative one yet relatively safe when it comes to delivering their promises, and the Community Triage section was extremely helpful for anyone not actively reading the official forums, yet was completely abandoned.

2 hours ago, bobcat999 said:

It is always nice to see a roadmap, but personally, as long as the sim keeps moving forward, I won't get bent out of shape about it. 
We are getting this sim improved month after month, and I know it isn't always to people's individual expectations, but it is without any extra cost - people seem to forget that.

Agreed with this. Even though they've been rather quiet lately, it really helps that MSFS is just in a very good overall place right now. Their generosity with the free content and Working Title updates is astonishing and inspires confidence in the future of the project, making it easier to overlook some of the long-standing issues.

Edited January 21, 2023 by ChaoticBeauty

[Dominique_K 10,133]

3 hours ago, ChaoticBeauty said:

I'll also admit that these weekly updates do not interest me anymore,

 

3 hours ago, pmb said:

they're becoming an empty shell.

I am with you both here. 

[F737MAX 5,509]

1 hour ago, ChaoticBeauty said:

things are thankfully coming into place now

Glad to see you posting here again.

  

4 hours ago, bobcat999 said:

It is always nice to see a roadmap, but personally, as long as the sim keeps moving forward, I won't get bent out of shape about it.

The issue is that some people will see a lack of a published roadmap as being evidence that there will be fewer sim updates and fixes, delivering content (WU and stuff to sell) instead.
As long as there is progress on fixing long-standing issues, keeping the roadmap as an internal document doesn't bother me.

[sniper31 627]

I simply appreciate that there are simmers out there who are willing to take the time to do these more complex informational posts in the first place. I don't necessarily injest all of the information presented, but it is a good resource to have available when looking for some current MSFS development tidbits. The efforts of all involved are appreciated by me 🙂 

[David Mills 4,722]

As far as lacking a current roadmap: Many features of the sim are already about as good as they can possibly be. Many areas of the world scenery are already practically indistinguishable from reality itself. And there are additional World Updates coming within weeks (New Zealand). The still-in-beta avionics update, again, is amazingly detailed and functional. I'm anxious for everyone to see the technical precision that's been achieved. And there are two additional Aircraft and Avionics Updates scheduled this year, probably directed toward the long-haul airliners.

There is a psychological phenomenon called hedonic adaptation in which people quickly become accustomed to the level of wealth surrounding them and can't imagine being happy with anything less. For example, during the stock market crash of 1929, there were brokers on Wall Street whose portfolios plunged from 10 million to 2 million dollars -- and they took the opportunity to literally jump out of windows to their deaths. Most of us here would be quite delighted to have 2 million left in our bank accounts. Likewise, we've become so accustomed to Asobo providing jaw-dropping weekly updates that a few weeks without a startling new announcement seems like a letdown. When the AAU beta is finalized and released, however, no one will feel that nothing's happening. Quite the contrary. For me, it's almost too many big changes to handle at once. And, again, other sims would be euphoric if they enjoyed the developer communication and sim update frequency that we enjoy here with MSFS, even during the winter "lull."

[737_800 434]

Why is there still no gaya vienna update? This is taking really long time. I wish microsoft could find a solution to integrate the updates faster into the market place, otherwise I will really be tempted not to buy in the market place anymore if other options are available.