2 hours ago, JohnRoberts said:

Much has been said about BATC. I am relatively new to BATC, having used PF3 for several years. My problem is the lack of international pilot voices. English UK, USA and AUS are available . Not realistic if flying say German or Spanish airlines . The discord site has been disappointing. Anyone have any input.

Its confusing to me why they don't do like so many other programs and allow user to utilise the ElevanLabs API.  For those of us with an ElevenLabs (or a bunch of other online voice generation platforms) account, we have access to 40+ voices from all sorts of regions. Why no jus allow us to use them and then we'd bear the cost of the characters as opposed to having BATC limit us to a handful of voices and buy characters from them.

 

And again, like every four weeks it seems, there are suddenly 3 rant threads opened about BATC. 

Doesn't bother me as I do not own anything with BATC but still smells fishy, can't help 

it IS really strange, thes appear always out of nowhere. Then again, some weeks not a single topic regarding BATC. I agree, fishy...

However, the recent posts are from well known members. 

Why @BWBriscoe is posting two separate threads here instead of contacting BATC support? 

Who knows 🤷

I don't think there's anything really fishy. The questions are reasonable, the discussions are decent. It doesnt' trip my "submarine marketing" flags. There's no unfair bashing, no discussion of amazing competitors etc. 

BATC has been weird for me as well, and they seem to have hit a roadblock in development. Maybe they will fix it, maybe not. However, I can totally believe that people are frustrated with various aspects of it, and come to chat about it. 

 

17 hours ago, KL Oo said:

Its confusing to me why they don't do like so many other programs and allow user to utilise the ElevanLabs API.  For those of us with an ElevenLabs (or a bunch of other online voice generation platforms) account, we have access to 40+ voices from all sorts of regions. Why no jus allow us to use them and then we'd bear the cost of the characters as opposed to having BATC limit us to a handful of voices and buy characters from them.

 

Might help with their synthesis speed. Even with the free, non-premium voices, it takes a while sometimes.

26 minutes ago, JonathanC said:

However, I can totally believe that people are frustrated with various aspects of it, and come to chat about it. 

Yes, at a second thought it isn't maybe that fishy (this round - other rounds earlier are). 

One post comes up and that maybe triggers another. 

 

But I m also frustrated with all ATC addons. All are slightly better then default (or not as worse as default), but not one is without frustration potential. 

Maybe this shows how difficult it is to make such an addon. 

4 hours ago, guenseli said:

Maybe this shows how difficult it is to make such an addon.

Got it in one! 👏 Twenty years on from Radar Contact and simmers still wait for one that can emulate real world ATC.

9 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Got it in one! 👏 Twenty years on from Radar Contact and simmers still wait for one that can emulate real world ATC.

Did you know the developer? I've always wondered why they didn't sell RC.

12 minutes ago, flyingscampi said:

Did you know the developer? I've always wondered why they didn't sell RC.

Yes. When v4 was released John Dekker very kindly paid my air fare and hotel accommodation for the AvSim Conference in Washington in 2006. The whole development team was there. It was a lovely experience with a visit to the Air & Space Museum nearby.

John decided to call it a day in 2018 and for reason unknown didn’t offer the source code (Visual Basic) to anyone. But he made it available free and even today people still ask the occasional question on the dedicated forum here. Since I made it available in the Library it’s been downloaded 112 times so there’s still interest in it.

Given it “talks” to P3D and FSX via SimConnect and also utilises FSUIPC it may be possible for some clever individuals to make it work with MSFS. It all depends on the SDK. Someone more knowledgeable than me would need to research it.

The traffic has definitely regressed in BATC which is a shame. But so has SayIntentions their traffic control has gone off a literal cliff and went from being the best option when it was in closed beta to now probably on par with BATC as the worst. 
 

only FShud gives me what I’m looking for when it comes to traffic which is also a shame since it’s voices are really poor. 

I've had Pilot2ATC V2 for a few years and bought V3 a short while ago. I've found myself going back to that program. Personally, the quality of the voices is less impoortant than the ATC ability. 

Edited October 28, 2025Oct 28 by The_Flying_Potato

On 3/23/2025 at 2:19 PM, knich said:

I'm seeing a lot of attacks on BATC cropping up and it makes me wonder if it is coordinated. 

BATC is an early access product that is optional to purchase.  It is $30.  I've seen less criticism on $60 products that some would say are garbage. 

BATC is a work in progress.  They are frequently updating the product and they have two modes --early access and experimental.  There is a ton of information out there about the product.  So everyone buying basically knows what they are getting and what are some of the challenges to come when they purchase.

It seems some are going beyond criticism of the product and are trying "scare" others from buying the product and offer no alternative other than a competitor who has, btw, its own flaws. 

Anyhow...I hope I am wrong about this.  

If BATC developers read this, thank you for trying to improve the ATC experience.  I have thoroughly enjoyed the product even though there are still some ways to go.  Ignore the detractors!   I purchased the experimental branch for $60 and I would have paid more compared with many other products I paid for that I still can't even use in 2024 or are worthless.  

The sad irony is that BATC or other ATC programs wouldn't exist if Microsoft had done ATC properly to start.  

Totally coordinated in my opinion its a fantastic program not perfect but what is. The latest attack was only yesterday totally unwarranted and incorrect.

3 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Given it “talks” to P3D and FSX via SimConnect and also utilises FSUIPC it may be possible for some clever individuals to make it work with MSFS. It all depends on the SDK. Someone more knowledgeable than me would need to research it.

As you may know I was a long-time user of RC, but my attempts to use it in MSFS were fruitless, and I think that even people more adept with FSUIPC etc. would find it impossible without the source code.

Sadly, even if it were possible somehow, I think the devotees of BATC, SI and FSHud would find it rather dated, with its lack or real support for SIDs, STARs and approaches, no real idea of MVAs etc. Too much is left to "pilot's discression" which wouldn't satisfy today's user expectations. The vectoring, emergency procedure support, etc was good for the time, but I'm sure the current crop of alternatives are improving all the time.

Indeed. I used RC back in the day and was very pleased with it. While it was better at calculating stepdowns and vectoring, everything else is no longer up to standard of what modern ATC add-ons provide, despite their current shortcomings.