Hello, I got an email today from mamudesign offering me a discount on their products as someone who had previously donated.

http://mamudesign.eu

This is the dev who created the excellent powerlines and solar farms, marinas, and ski lifts addon.

I didn’t realize they had gone payware and I’m still using their freeware versions…I couldn’t find anything on their website to explain what is new or better with the version they are selling, can anyone provide any insight?

My advice would be to check in tomorrow again and see if the store is still online (1st April, cough, but I'm not sure myself at all as it is a lot of effort for just an aprils fool))

 

Not an April fool.

IIRC, it's to do with mamu82 perceiving an imbalance between charging Xbox users a fee for downloading his works off Marketplace as opposed to PC users getting them for free from FS.to

Not going to pass comment on whether that's a genuine argument / fair / appropriate / understandable...

Thanks, yeah If the payware version were the only ones that were going to be regularly updated etc, I could see paying for them again as they're literally products that I use every single flight.  But if it's just the same product then obviously no need to buy them.

It's been long gestating and is indeed part of a push to get the products on the marketplace. 

I seem to recall there were some mods that he wasn't completely satisfied with performance-wise, such as the marinas, so expect improvements. 

And there's this direct from the source

Much appreciated!

These are really good addons (honestly they always seemed good enough to be payware) and something I benefit from every flight so once these start getting updates I could see myself buying them.

Love his add-ons, should be default in Sim really and included in MSFS2024 so he gets a cut!

2 hours ago, F737MAX said:

Not an April fool.

IIRC, it's to do with mamu82 perceiving an imbalance between charging Xbox users a fee for downloading his works off Marketplace as opposed to PC users getting them for free from FS.to

Not going to pass comment on whether that's a genuine argument / fair / appropriate / understandable...

To me this shows the bigger issue that a developer like MamuDesigns was pretty much stuck in the application process for so long.

Meanwhile as we have all seen the ABSOLUTE TRASH that gets vetted, approved and listed on Marketplace.

Mamudesign addons were easily top 10 freeware. This developer deserves the profit at this point.

 

 

 

Edited April 1, 20242 yr by blueshark747

I easily pay for those products the moment I know what is different from the freeware variants. Not very wise from the dev to not make this clear right on top of his homepage...

Just came across this 3d in a Google search

Ahahahah didn't realize that the first "opening" day was fishy 🐟 

(There is a odd reason behind that choice:taxes terms !)

----

Hope that everyone understood the goal of my switch to payware, I have given so much explanation on the add-ons pages in the comments on .to and on the relevant Official msfs forums, + several talk on my (quite large!) discord, so really didn't think about it was required to add the same info in the website shop, if anyone feel it was a scam, my apologies . The overhead required to flip to payware it was massive, believe me!

 

-----

I take this opportunity to announce that,thanks to all of you, the Discord members collaboration, the official forum votes and LOT of people believing that my add-ons were worth,

I have finally been officially accepted into the MSFS Marketplace!

So hopefully, by the end of the Summer, Xbox user will enjoy my products too 

 

 

---

About the "former freewares", anyone can get in touch to ask for additions/modifications, if the game is able to support them, I will comply 😅

 

https://discord.com/invite/qmUDwnTmxW

Edited June 7, 20241 yr by mamu82

I'm a little bit disappointed to see such fantastic freeware products become payware, but I understand the reasons behind this.

One quick question, probably asked multiple times already (sorry about that): why isn't it possible to upload something freeware on the marketplace ? Is it because a marketplace member needs to pay some monthly/yearly membership fee or something like that ?

23 minutes ago, Daube said:

why isn't it possible to upload something freeware on the marketplace ?

Asobo just doesn't allow it yet, that's all.

Jorg said they want to do freeware marketplace in the latest Q&A.

Edited June 7, 20241 yr by Tuskin38

1 hour ago, mamu82 said:

I have finally been officially accepted into the MSFS Marketplace!

Congrats! I also have no issues about going payware if the addon deserves it and the three addons I use are certainly deserving it. BUT, as mentioned several times, as long as I do not know what benefit I really have when buying those three addons to replace my freeware variants, I wait. And I wait. Until somebody tells me, that the payware variants of project lifts, marinas and powerlines/solar farms offer something considerably more than the freeware variants, you have me off to go buying those addons. That easy 😉 

26 minutes ago, Daube said:

I'm a little bit disappointed to see such fantastic freeware products become payware, but I understand the reasons behind this.

One quick question, probably asked multiple times already (sorry about that): why isn't it possible to upload something freeware on the marketplace ? Is it because a marketplace member needs to pay some monthly/yearly membership fee or something like that ?

As per @Tuskin38 answer ,

They seem to have some ideas about freeware in marketplace (there are already some free products actually, but only from 1st party, some library related to 3rd party or some very specific products that modify core files slightly)

When thinking about the Marketplace, anyways, we have to think about everything else surprising it, like the cost in bandwidth (we all know how weak the game is!) and the "potential" quality or the potential support issues :in the free world, Devs are less likely to support their products (most simply loose interest in their creation once they have gone out of fashion)

A payware developer, because of everything involved being such kind of dev (at least in my country), is more keen to keep products up to date/create more /better products 

 

Of course there are several shades of Developers in both worlds

I'll keep an eye on the payware versions. As soon as there's something there that's improved over freeware (assuming this hasn't already happened) I'll 100% be buying them. Great addons, glad your Marketplace application was accepted.