For me without a doubt: HiFi and BATC--tending to the most underdeveloped and yet central aspects of the sim.

BBC News - Microsoft video games division lays off 1,900 staff
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-68093970

51 minutes ago, St Mawgan said:

BBC News - Microsoft video games division lays off 1,900 staff
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-68093970

Don't think its got anything to do with MSFS. Theres many "divisions" within their divisions so I think MSFS is quite safe, FS has always been the golden child of MS, I think were safe for now. I knew MSFS was doing well when they announced 2024, then the developers started echoing how well the market is compared to older platforms. 

2 hours ago, St Mawgan said:

BBC News - Microsoft video games division lays off 1,900 staff
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-68093970

Ya this is a trimming of overlap workforce due to the Activision acquisition. For MSFS itself MS has been expanding significantly, in fact doubled its extended team size to 500+ as part of MSFS 2024 development.

https://www.pcgamer.com/microsoft-cuts-1900-jobs-at-activision-blizzard-and-xbox-blizzard-president-mike-ybarra-leaves-the-company-and-the-studios-survival-game-has-been-cancelled/
The message reads: "It’s been a little over three months since the Activision, Blizzard, and King teams joined Microsoft. As we move forward in 2024, the leadership of Microsoft Gaming and Activision Blizzard is committed to aligning on a strategy and an execution plan with a sustainable cost structure that will support the whole of our growing business."
It emphasises "areas of overlap" as the root cause for the decision. "We have made the painful decision to reduce the size of our gaming workforce by approximately 1,900 roles out of the 22,000 people on our team."
 

Edited January 25, 20242 yr by lwt1971

5 hours ago, fluffyflops said:

The fact its flies like a block of flats

the fact the doors are wrong 

the fact that ND on the skippers side doesnt work on random flights. 

the pitch 

the trim 

the brakes.

Sure, happy to address these issues! 🙂

For control feel, we got a lot of feedback on that from our type rated 78 test pilots. The control feel, due to the FBW, is quite surprisingly light on the real aircraft. We had a colorful anecdote from one real world pilot about during training, he was over-controlling the aircraft, and got some quick scolding from the instructor, telling the pilot to delicately, gingerly hold the control wheel more like <insert colorful private parts anecdote here>. We also got some very adamant feedback that the control carryover in the plane is basically non-existent. The plane responds nearly instantly and when input is removed has little to no carryover, but arrests the pitch or roll rate right away. So, we chose to use the manufacturer data, real world control laws, and pilot feedback to as closely replicate the actual flying experience as much as can be in a simulator. This may be contrary to one's expectations given the size of the aircraft, but we felt it important not to add artificial weight or slow reactivity.

For the doors, WT doesn't handle art or have any art staff, so that report would be something for Zendesk.

For the pitch and trim, the test pilots reported being able to use the settings they expect from the real airplane with the sim plane, and were especially happy with the approach pitch angle. The trim system uses the same math and FBW control loop as the real aircraft, and has identical response times (rate of change in trim speed per second). Additionally, the trim settings for the takeoff and landing phases match the documentation provided by the manufacturer.

And finally, for the brakes, the braking ability was calibrated over many many hours and tests to match the manufacturer provided performance data for stopping distances.

Hope that provides some insight!

EDIT: Forgot to add, we were not able to reproduce until just recently the ND blank flight plan issue, despite many hours and attempts. However, we do feel we have an idea of what the issue may be now (a very tricky hardware timing based race condition based on some in-sim timings we don't have control over), and so hope to be able to fix this in a future update.

Edited January 25, 20242 yr by MattNischan

If I was Microsoft… I’d organise a flight sim show in England. There hasn’t been one here since 2019. It seems remarkable that a company so wealthy cannot make the effort to organise one.

England is a small country and there are plenty of suitable venues including the National Motorcycle Museum near Birmingham Airport and the Concorde hangar at Manchester Airport.

It seems bizarre that having produced such a popular simulation it doesn’t seem interested in promoting it in a country with so many flight sim enthusiasts. ☹️

8 hours ago, fluffyflops said:

The fact its flies like a block of flats

the fact the doors are wrong 

the fact that ND on the skippers side doesnt work on random flights. 

the pitch 

the trim 

the brakes.

other that its great..... 

 

 

Type-rated 787 pilot on these very forums gave it a strong thumbs up. You may know more about how a block of flats flies, but gonna go with his opinion for the 787.

Edited January 26, 20242 yr by scotchegg

Having been on both sides of acquisitions involving large companies, survived multiple layoffs and dealt with the disruption caused I'd say the last thing you want is for your favorite small development studio to be bought by a larger company. 

At best you're looking at delays, potentially cancelled projects and lots of stress on both sides.  A bigger risk is that key people will leave, get removed or shuffled into the larger organization leaving you with nothing but a brand name and stagnant products.  Big companies have a bad habit of forgetting that the most important part of the company being acquired is the people who work there.

WT seems to be an exceptional case and were of course working for free before being hired on.  I'd say that as long as your favorite developer is financially healthy and producing good products, just let them be.

Edited January 26, 20242 yr by stalz

4 hours ago, scotchegg said:

Type-rated 787 pilot on these very forums gave it a strong thumbs up. You may know more about how a block of flats flies, but gonna go with his opinion for the 787.

I also work at the same company as him and I also know a number of tc's tri and tre's at the airline that think its a steaming pile of poo, ive also been in that same airline a long time in numerous roles, not to mention, i know aload of the ex virgin guys (not so lucky as John) who ended at Norse, and Tui (after longtail went under), a number of them thinks it gash. Again one is a TRI  

just because one driver on here thinks its ok, doesnt mean they all do, and I know plenty who think its junk.   

my beef is everytime you go mention someone on the horizon issues discord, you get "nothing we can do, its WTs problem" and then bugger all gets done.  The guys at horizon are doing an amazing job for free,  yet these clowns at WT can even fix a small thing like a simple door.....its heartbreaking.

If i did as rubbush a  job as some of these developers do, id of been fired years ago, if I did a job  as rubbish as some of the devs in the hobby 

if we keep accepting half finished tattle,  and then white knight the developers and pilots who have their twitch and youtube "oh look at me " begging bowls its no wonder the standard of addons are garbage

 

19 hours ago, tup61 said:

I would NEVER EVER buy an Apple computer for home use.

Well, that seems odd to me.  I find OSX to be really well thought thru for home use, for common practical things like photo management, iMessage and the ability to easily share photos and videos quickly and easily to individuals and group messages, Calendar, and of course browsing and email.  I find all of them user-friendly.  I started out with Windows 3.1 and currently use Win 10, but that is only for FS and a couple other games.  I do use MS Office for Mac because I'm experienced in Office apps from work.  I'm fine in either camp for "home" use, but prefer OSX overall I think because components are relatively seamless.  Of course it's well integrated with iPhone/iPad, and we share iCloud storage.

Edited January 26, 20242 yr by Noel

On 1/24/2024 at 8:30 PM, lupedelupe said:

Apple. Because they make better OSs. 😆

lupedelupe comes through again (and again).

Being selfish, I would buy the Russian company 1C. They released the 3rd version about a month ago.

 

 

 

I love how at least half the replies answer a different question to the one asked😁

 

P.S. Anti-flame disclaimer (meant as JUST a light hearted comment in a light hearted thread no offence intended)🤠

The car I buy next depends a great deal on its price. The same issue arises  when MS goes shopping. Something that will likely be very valuable to MS will probably demand a huge fee. This is why MS won't be buying most of, or perhaps any of, the suggestions in this thread.

6 hours ago, fluffyflops said:

yet these clowns at WT can even fix a small thing like a simple door.....

At this point you're being slanderous just for the sake of it. Matt responded to what WT's aims for the 787 is and art is not one of them. He made a whole in-depth response about all of your complaints but I guess it was easier to respond scotchegg than provide a proper response to Matt?