stekeller

ohsirus: That is fine - thanks for the open mind. If there are features you would like please let us know. Basically we aim to implement as many features as we can, so it helps to let us know if one is more important than another. jcomm: Glad to hear it! And please let us know about any glitches or features you want added as well.

Happy New Year AVSIM! We were happy to see this announcement on AVSIM and I will go ahead and try to address some of the comments regarding the SSG 747-8i Advanced, which I will paraphrase below: "SSG has bad support" It is hard to answer this one other than to say we do our best. We try to get back to people as soon as possible with a solution to their problem. We are all avid simmers at SSG and we don't like to get the cold shoulder from a developer, so we definitely don't want to treat customers that way. If you have an issue please let me know. "Fan blades are backwards (metal texture on trailing edge)" It's funny that this slipped through the cracks. We had gone back and forth with some different versions of the N1 fan model during development. We will revisit this and where there are errors, they will be corrected. "FMC is the same as the UFMC. It has no custom avionics package" This is incorrect. Javier is the author of the UFMC and of the FMC in this aircraft, but they are not the same. The FMC is integrated into the displays and autoflight system. "ASN Review came up quick, was too positive, because of ASN's ties to Aerosoft" Angelique was kind enough to try the aircraft through the latter part of the development process. She gave us comments and inputs, and we made changes based on those (she is an aircraft engineer and knows what she is talking about), so that is how she was able to publish a review once the aircraft was released. She has no ties to Aerosoft (although she knows people there) and was stating her real feelings on the aircraft. Generally, those who fly it, like it (rather than looking at videos and screenshots). We understand what people have said about textures, but legibility and usability is good (which is very important to us). "No EEC or IRS" Well the EECs can be turned on and off, but there is not a whole lot to model there. This is not a procedures sim with cascading malfunctions, etc. As for the IRS, again, these are typically only touched during startup and were not modeled but system implementation will evolve. It is a matter of priorities. Some simmers like to get in and fly, and others like to do everything from "cold and dark" to shutdown. These Boeing airliners are incredibly complex. We tried to achieve a balance so that controls and systems that pilots use during normal flight operations are simulated, with a few non-normal procedures such as engine fires and fuel dumping simulated as well. "No virtual cabin" This comes down to framerates. I personally don't understand the appeal of a passenger cabin if I am flying an aircraft, but I realize that others really like it. We simply did not want to leave behind a large group of simmers by adding too many polygons. "Cockpit textures issues" The complaints have been heard ;-) "The product had a rocky launch" And nobody is more upset about that than we are. Unfortunately the problem was beyond our control, but of course we are still responsible. In the end, relatively few users were affected and the activation problem was solved within a few days. Feel free to ask any questions! Sincerely, - Stekeller

horani: About the FMS problems you are having. We know that some people had such issues when their X-Plane nav databases were not up to date but that seemed to fix the problem. You are correct that proper FMS functioning is crucial - so if there is a problem it will be fixed. Please let us know what the issues are on our support forum (I don't know if this is the right place for that). Also, this is not the UFMC, it is completely different and updated. Sure Javier is the author of both, but this is a custom plug-in specifically for the SSG 747-8 Advanced. You are entitled to your opinion about the price of the add-on, but we would never have released a non-functioning product. It worked for us in our testing, but items may have cropped up for users in ways we did not anticipate. That is the challenge of testing. So I am personally sorry you had a bad experience, but we aim to resolve all such issues and move forward with adding features and further enhancements as the product evolves. Sincerely, - Stekeller SSG

As a member of the SSG development team I was interested to see this thread. First of all, I don't feel comfortable criticizing any other developer. I have personally met at least one of the members of FlightFactor and they seem like a nice group of guys. They do great work and are obviously very dedicated. So I encourage everyone to try their products. I have the 777 but have not tried the 757 myself yet. As for the 747-8 Advanced, it has been quite well received, but the comments here are noted and I will bring them to the team's attention. About the lack of a load editor, frankly we did not feel it was necessary because the default X-Plane 10 menus are quite adequate in terms of selecting the weight you want and the fuel amount. However, we are now considering adding this feature. Same with the pushback truck. My comment was quoted here and I hope you realize I was trying to be funny. The reality is that there are some good freeware plug-ins for pushing back your aircraft in X-Plane, so again we did not feel one was necessary. But based on some of these comments, we are also considering adding one to the package. We have heard the criticisms of the cockpit textures, but honestly they have largely come from people who have not flown the add-on in the sim. Yes, they do seem a bit plain, but we focused on legibility, easy of use and functionality. However, updated textures are another item we will be working on. As developers (and avid simmers ourselves) we focused most of our energies on getting the airplane to fly correctly and exhibit proper performance. The dedicated and integrated FMC/ND/autoflight functionality and the systems have been complex and challenging - so we will always try to smooth out any kinks and make the experience as realistic and accurate as possible. Above all, we wanted the airplane to be fun to fly, and I feel we have succeeded there. Personally, flying the aircraft in mountainous terrain with the Vertical Situation Display "painting" the terrain ahead (a first for X-Plane as far as we know) is almost like science fiction. As a pilot, I would love to have such a display when flying around certain challenging airports - especially at night and in bad weather. It is an amazing tool Boeing has developed that I never quite appreciated until I saw it in action. You may be familiar with our freeware versions of the 747-8 and they have been quite popular. The SSG 747-8 Advanced is a quantum leap beyond those releases and we are very proud of it. So while some of the criticism here stings a bit, we will entertain all suggestions to improve the product and incorporate additional features into our future releases. I am happy to answer any questions and would like to wish everyone here at AVSIM Happy Holidays! Sincerely, - Stekeller SSG

Thank you for the compliments alexcolka! - Stekeller SSG