Just now, Pompey said:

"Hang on , I’ll just ask the “say intentions “ controller what they think on the matter "

 

😆  Loving SI so far.  Nice to have so many "smart" ATC options!

Well at least BATC won't be over $300 a year. 

ATC without ai traffic is like airport without runway.

In my best Arnold voice:

"Do it!! Do it now!!! What are you waiting for???"

 

For me personally, traffic is a big "eh". I know other people are big on it, but please let us get a decent ATC now and release the traffic doodad when it's ready. Either way the traffic folks will have to wait, so...

 

Russ

 

 

41 minutes ago, Bobsk8 said:

Well at least BATC won't be over $300 a year. 

Haven't really kept up with the simulation community in the past many months and word not allowed, you weren't kidding. 30 bucks a month for an addon, that is insane.

54 minutes ago, b1bmsgt said:

For me personally, traffic is a big "eh". I know other people are big on it, but please let us get a decent ATC now and release the traffic doodad when it's ready. Either way the traffic folks will have to wait, so...

Agreed. Yes, I definitely eventually want it controlling traffic too, but right now I'd be happy with an ATC that controls me half-way competently and doesn't start me down so late that I'm 10k AGL over the threshold or get stuck in that stupid constant climb/descent/climb loop when on descent in the mountains.

My unpopular opinion is that it's a bad idea. The moment they go to early access they'll be diverting the majority of their dev time to bug fixes, troubleshooting, and customer complaints. The end result is we'll get the final package a lot later than we would have had they just waited until it was ready.

From a software development and agile delivery standpoint, early access is the same as agile. You are delivering small chunks of features to deliver instant value to the customer along a schedule. This brings a major advantage. Even with a QA team, they are only testing in regard to acceptance criteria. They are testing functionality as designed. When you early access in a agile flow, costumers use the product based on the use cases they have. This is where the valuable feedback and advantage comes from. One, you deliver value instantly, two, you get the feedback that will actually shape your product through out development. In the end, you deliver what the customer wants based on their needs. Plus, you do the work in small manageable chunks, thus making delivery attainable within a schedule. After all, that's the basis on agile versus waterfall delivery in a finished product at the end. Waterfall is change adverse. Agile puts the voice of the customer at the center of development and leverage on delivering exactly what the customer needs. In fact, all of us are receiving our products in an  agile flow and don't even realize it😝.    

Edited March 27, 20242 yr by G550flyer
edit

paying for early access with "promised" features down the road. Seems the community will never learn it doesn't benefit the customer at all and only benefits the developer. There is no reason to release an unfinished product as others have said all it will do is lead to complaints about bugs and it being unfinished at some point with constant request of when it will be updated. Also What is the point of having ATC if it isnt controlling any traffic around you? NO MORE EARLY ACCESS! 

 

7 minutes ago, environmental_ice said:

paying for early access with "promised" features down the road. Seems the community will never learn it doesn't benefit the customer at all and only benefits the developer. There is no reason to release an unfinished product as others have said all it will do is lead to complaints about bugs and it being unfinished at some point with constant request of when it will be updated. Also What is the point of having ATC if it isnt controlling any traffic around you? NO MORE EARLY ACCESS! 

I generally agree with you, but this is a different case: It's not "release early with bugs or later without bugs", it's more "release one finished and polished part of the product and the other part later". It's a bit like releasing the Fenix without an external engine model instead of waiting another 2 years to finish that. And I think we all agree that was a good decision from Fenix.

EDIT: As for ATC without AI control - that's very useful, because you'll get the appropriate runways, SIDs, STARs, altitude clearances, taxi instructions, and - most importantly - vectors for your flight. It's not like ATC is only needed for separation in real life, it's also an important service for IFR flights. So when one part of ATC is ready, why not use that while waiting for the second part?
Default MSFS AI can be improved quite significantly with AIGround and AIFlow.

Edited March 27, 20242 yr by Fiorentoni

11 minutes ago, WestAir said:

My unpopular opinion is that it's a bad idea. The moment they go to early access they'll be diverting the majority of their dev time to bug fixes, troubleshooting, and customer complaints. The end result is we'll get the final package a lot later than we would have had they just waited until it was ready.

On the flip side, that allows them deal with bugs in the core ATC experience and get that stable before it starts dealing with AI aircraft as well.

There could also be a financial consideration as to why they would like to get it out in a staged manner.

G

I voted later, just to annoy those who want it NOW!  😄

Seriously though, I did vote the later option (not the 'much later' option) because it seems that everything that's released now is either early access, or a paid beta.   I prefer buying something like a A2A or Blank Square product, that you know is well rounded and will be a great experience from the outset.

(Says he who is paying to be in the Say Intentions beta!)

The BeyondATC team should release sooner, without the AI traffic feature. The reason is, if the MSFS team announces that there will be an overhaul of ATC in MSFS 2024, and the new ATC for MSFS 2024 is similar to BeyondATC in functionality, BeyondATC can lose a lot of money.

Unless the BeyondATC team knows what will be announced for MSFS 2024, it's in their interest to release earlier, without the AI traffic feature.

LATER-with AI Traffic

50 minutes ago, environmental_ice said:

paying for early access with "promised" features down the road. Seems the community will never learn it doesn't benefit the customer at all and only benefits the developer. There is no reason to release an unfinished product as others have said all it will do is lead to complaints about bugs and it being unfinished at some point with constant request of when it will be updated. Also What is the point of having ATC if it isnt controlling any traffic around you? NO MORE EARLY ACCESS! 

To be fair, the BeyondATC team slashed the price by half. It was $60 USD before, now it's $30 USD. And they even made the basic voice model free now, whereas they were charging for it before.

Even if they don't deliver on the features that they promised for the future, the fact that it's 1/2 price with free basic voices now, I don't see a big issue with it.

Edited March 27, 20242 yr by abrams_tank

6 hours ago, Lucky38i said:

Personally I've waited this long (what's a few more months), having FSLTL traffic being managed by BATC would seal the deal for an immersion factor for me. One thing I often disliked was the feeling of being alone on Vatsim (at times).

If I understand correctly, its not going to control any of your existing traffic, they have their own injector. 

Edited March 27, 20242 yr by Tuskin38