17 hours ago, FPVSteve said:

Flight Unlimited had excellent ATC.

Awesome ATC, but limited to a couple of regions. After FU, every other sim after that sounded robotic.

That's until now. I do admit, I watched a few VFR SI YT vidoes and I was impressed.

35 minutes ago, CFIJose said:

That's until now. I do admit, I watched a few VFR SI YT vidoes and I was impressed.

This brings me this though I have after 99% of my SayIntentions VFR flight : "There's a impressive whaouuu moment + an horrible moment".

After each flight, when I'm not lazy I have to go to the Discord and open a ticket because something goes wrong : looping clearance, non-sense taxi clearance (even on Taxituner airport), ATC that forgot me... etc...

And there's always these little things that are not at all realistic like the altimeter settings given with the point/decimal, the taxi clearance on crossing multiple runways and all ATIS delivering the density altitude. Imersion killers aside awesome voice quality and ambiance.

I truly think SI is incredible from what I've seen, especially if they can pull off multiplayer, that would really help with allowing me to fly with friends but still being controlled in areas that Vatsim isn't controlling.

I think though the most important thing and quite frankly a major blocker is the price. It's $20 a month or $195 a year (discounted rate). That's a major financial blocker to a lot of the simmers here ( I say here but I mean the wider community) and I really wish SI could formulate some kind of cheaper pricing options that's a lot more price friendly.  It would really drive adoption for what seems to be a really great program.

It makes sense that BATC won the award simply because it's way more financially accessible, you're basically winning by popularity at this point. Not making any knocks to BATC, I personally use it and love it.

I always preferred the way the ATC in Flight Unlimited 2/3 told me "cleared to cross runway 27L", instead of "continue taxi". That always seemed much more realistic to me.

We tend to sink a lot of money into our flight sim habit.  At least, I know I do.  We tend to spend on things to enhance our flying enjoyment.  I know I do.  So, whether it is aircraft, weather app, ground support, navigraph, etc., we like to expand our flight sim horizon.  I know I do.  Speaking of Navigraph - I don't see anyone griping about the cost of a monthly subscription, and all they provide are monthly airac cycles.  Again, I don't see anyone complaining about that cost.  I believe SayIntentions.ai's monthly fee is worth it based on the plethora of data being processed and what their app provides in the way of ai atc activities.  All the work that goes into programming to give a suitable atc app for flight sims with human voices that are smooth without pauses and grammar/pronunciation/emphasis is accurate in the sentences spoken by programmed ai.  All I'm saying is, they are doing a lot and I don't mind paying for their atc app.  To each, his own.  

 

We all over spend on our sims, especially on airport add-ons.

I decided to go with Beyond ATC and it's been a game changer for me. I finally have the ideal flightsim and I'm sticking with it as long as I can.

I don't begrudge anyone who wants to pay a monthly subscription fee for an ATC add-on.

I dont see SI offering a no cost option for their full products and services line based off of the fact that they have overhead cost. PilotEdge, which is the superior online ATC provider, has only a few voices and is a monthly service. They have been in business for years so the idea of a monthly fee will eventually break a company when there are non-monthly options hasnt shown true as of yet.

I just landed and for this flight I used the AI traffic of BATC and SI for ATC. Mainly for the fact that BATC really isnt set up for small, slow and low at the moment. However, since my flight was between two big airports (KHOU and KMSY) I wanted to see some traffic. Funny thing is that of all my flights so far using BATC, I have yet to be number 2 for departing or arriving. If I try to set my traffic higher which I have it set at 10 for departing and 5 for arriving, nothing changes on being sequenced into traffic, the radio just gets too hot for ATC to deal with me and I cant make any radio calls because its all AI eating up the freq. 

Once SI becomes a MP server with AI traffic, I will be more supportive of the fact that its a monthly cost which I have a feeling that will keep young people off of it. Not saying young people are doomed to ruin it, but I enjoy noticing so far that all the radio calls I hear on SI (since we can hear other users radios call) are highly professional. 

6 hours ago, beechcaptain said:

I know I do.  Speaking of Navigraph - I don't see anyone griping about the cost of a monthly subscription, and all they provide are monthly airac cycles.

That’s… pretty disingenuous. You may only utilise the AIRAC cycles but Navigraph offers quite a lot to both consumers and developers alike. Whether you use all it has to offer is up to you, but don’t lie about what they have to offer. Not to mention it’s still.. half the price of SI.

6 hours ago, beechcaptain said:

All I'm saying is, they are doing a lot and I don't mind paying for their atc app.  To each, his own

No one is denying that, I’m not sure why you suddenly got defensive over my comments. The truth of the matter is, it’s still cost prohibitive to a majority of people, that’s something that is worth considering.

10 minutes ago, Lucky38i said:

That’s… pretty disingenuous. You may only utilise the AIRAC cycles but Navigraph offers quite a lot to both consumers and developers alike. Whether you use all it has to offer is up to you, but don’t lie about what they have to offer. Not to mention it’s still.. half the price of SI.

No one is denying that, I’m not sure why you suddenly got defensive over my comments. The truth of the matter is, it’s still cost prohibitive to a majority of people, that’s something that is worth considering.

I think that's where OpenSky comes in - can't beat free for a price.
If you combine it with the multiplayer aspect which is also free, you basically get something like VATSIM but with 100% coverage around the world. 

1 hour ago, Georgleboui said:

I think that's where OpenSky comes in - can't beat free for a price.
If you combine it with the multiplayer aspect which is also free, you basically get something like VATSIM but with 100% coverage around the world. 

Now dont go pointing out the items that are counter productive to the arguments that it cost money monthly. Nor show photos that point out as far as ATC goes, while BATC cost money, OpenSky and SkyNet does the same thing for free. And certainly dont mention that it will have Xplane support. All those items are highly counter productive to the narrative at hand.  

BTW..if anyone is interested, I still have 8 more invites available to pass out to anyone wanting to try OpenSky. Just PM me your email address as thats how they get passed from me to whomever.

Edited March 18, 20251 yr by Ident

6 hours ago, Ident said:

Now dont go pointing out the items that are counter productive to the arguments that it cost money monthly. Nor show photos that point out as far as ATC goes, while BATC cost money, OpenSky and SkyNet does the same thing for free. And certainly dont mention that it will have Xplane support. All those items are highly counter productive to the narrative at hand.  

Ident I’m more than happy to be shown options that SI offers. I’m not on some mission to slander SI. I’m not trying to push some argument and refuse to listen to the other side. I’ve made no attempt at being disingenuous or argue in bad faith. Why get so defensive? I’ve  praised SI for what it is good at. 

 

8 hours ago, Georgleboui said:

free for a price.
If you combine it with the multiplayer aspect which is also free, you basically get something like VATSIM but with 100% coverage around the world

Skynet is the thing in REALLY excited for. Looking at opensky am I correct in thinking that it’s just slower and there’s no AI injection? I checked the website but can’t get a clear answer on that

3 hours ago, Lucky38i said:

Ident I’m more than happy to be shown options that SI offers. I’m not on some mission to slander SI. I’m not trying to push some argument and refuse to listen to the other side. I’ve made no attempt at being disingenuous or argue in bad faith. Why get so defensive? I’ve  praised SI for what it is good at. 

Lucky my reply was towards Georgleboui and it was tongue in cheek.

4 hours ago, Lucky38i said:

Skynet is the thing in REALLY excited for. Looking at opensky am I correct in thinking that it’s just slower and there’s no AI injection? I checked the website but can’t get a clear answer on that

It follows your simbrief flight plan and you can't deviate from it. So, no changing runways etc.

I did a quick test this weekend and even reading back clearance incorrectly I got "read back correct"

I don't think even in premium Skynet traffic is sequenced.

16 hours ago, Lucky38i said:

That’s… pretty disingenuous. You may only utilise the AIRAC cycles but Navigraph offers quite a lot to both consumers and developers alike. Whether you use all it has to offer is up to you, but don’t lie about what they have to offer. Not to mention it’s still.. half the price of SI.

No one is denying that, I’m not sure why you suddenly got defensive over my comments. The truth of the matter is, it’s still cost prohibitive to a majority of people, that’s something that is worth considering.

I was referring to the airac cycle use only.  Their other half, associated with Simbrief is not the gist of my post.  

Not defensive, just concerned. If others feel it is cost prohibitive, then they shouldn't purchase.  Fair enough.  Just not fair to bash SI because what they are providing, the hours of work they put into it justify the cost, imho. Ymmv.  I don't object to your opinion.  I just dislike people constantly griping about and/or bashing continuously.  If a majority find it cost prohibitive, then I don't think SI would continue at the high volume rate of production.  And, they are about to offer a more limited, free version for those who don't want to pay the $.  Is this becoming a beating the dead horse discussion.  I think so, so I'm done. Ciao