Just wondering how many past versions of RC have been sold and how many version 3 copies do you think will sell in the few months following release? Though I have never used past versions of RC it looks like you have a pretty neat product and I find it interesting how people make a niche in an industry like this. Sounds like a nice little business.Maybe I should have invested 70k on software development rather than flight school. I would probably be making more money! :)P.S. I was just looking at the Avsim 2002 survey. I was suprised that such a small percentage of users are actual pilots. I wonder if folks that tend to seek out a program like RC are the users that tend to have some kind of aviation ticket.

Interesting question.The numbers would be fun to see.I also have a question for John & Doug.Has MS ever tried to contact you to teach them how to make a good ATC program? They must have seen RC and tried to duplicate it in some way. Is there any chance that you think they may have bought a copy under an assumed name, to try and pick it apart for a new version of FS?http://www3.telus.net/dport1/dansig.jpg

checking through the registered users, i did find a couple if microsoft.com email addresses.maybe they wanted to fly rc at home :-)

Good point Dan,Had you noticed how they always seem to bring out a new version of FS a few months to a year after we release RC :-hmmmWe release RC1, a bit later they release FS2000We release RC2, after a while they put out FS2002.Now we are releasing version 3, I confidently predict a new version of FS will appear after a suitable delay to pick off our best ideas :-abductI think jd needs to get his legal team looking at this :-eekFS2004 - the greatest ever addon for Radar Contact :-lolAll the best,John

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http://www.jdtllc.com/images/RCbeta.jpg

Be careful of what you wish; I know you didn't mean it like that, but if MS didn't keep improving then you wouldn't be releasing new versions either! I'm just hoping to see vectoring and sequencing of AI in RC4!

>>...if MS didn't keep improving then you wouldn't be releasing new versions either!;) , guaranteed! I put some time in on v4 speculations yesterday 'z a matter of fact.

OK, but you'd be limited by whatever the FS interface is. Presumably, the most recent RC version takes maximum advantage of the current FS interface, right? So, when MS added ATC in FS2K2, RC went from an adventure add-on to an ATC interface. If 2K2 never came about would RC3 be what it is? And RC4 will likely improve upon the technology of FS2K4. It's a rather co-dependent relationship.

Oh absolutely! We'll take max advantage of whatever they release, and hopefully interaction with AI (among other issues) will become possible.But, we don't need FS to progress for us to progress. We took a significant chunk out of the user-request list to build v3. That by no means says that list is now small! Even after putting the veto on many requests/ideas, it's still pages and pages, and I suspect after we get used to v3 it'll become pages and pages and pages :-cool For 90% of those requests/ideas, FS does not have to progress beyond what it is today. RC is very healthy, for years to come! You of course are correct Dennis too; the better they become, so shall we. We all benefit ;)

i was testing v3 prior to the release of fs2002. v3 works on fs98, fs2000, and fs2002.i think we are good for fs2004