2 months since TGP release and today's OB was...

[nickos86]

Arctander, As long there'll be customers like Shimmergloom667 who'll regard the EA we got as "actually pretty fine" and be "chill" if the F-18's "EA takes 3 years"- we'll have to accept the status as is.

 

I don't know what were the EA sales of the F-16 vs F-18. The F-18 went EA even in a worse condition... I guess that releasing the F-16 before the F-18 got some of it's major systems done - got many people to "wait on the sideline" with the F-16 and see in what state it will be released. Maybe I'm wrong and the F-16 sales bypassed the F-18.

 

Honestly - not showing significant progress over the last few months with the F-18 and moving resources to the F-16... probably got the confidence of the customers to crack a bit (at least some of them).

 

Although what I wrote - I've bought the F-16. I wanted to invest in ED and I still want to believe in them. That doesn't mean I or anyone else should not criticize them and say "thank you" for an unfinished job.

[Peter22]

Totally disagree. Putting the Viper out was the most reasonable thing ED could have done, as the commonality in the code between the Viper and the Hornet is so big, so that they can now develop a lot of missing features and functions that apply to both aircraft like TWS and TGP functionality.

WRONG!!!!!

[fitness88]

I noticed the other day when my internet went down that I only had a limited period of time [a day or 2] to continue using single player.

 

 

What would happen if ED/DCS went out of business?

Would we lose the ability to fly single/multiplayer with all our purchased modules?

Edited October 4, 2019 by fitness88

[=4c=Nikola]

Whether you're rich or not is completely irrelevant. What is relevant is finding a business model that allows a satisfactory revenue stream while providing completed products. Many other developers have gone this way; IRacing, Photoshop etc. Pricing would change as well. I don't think you'd be paying $80 for a module.

 

If you're not rich then you don't play. You're not "entitled" to any product that's sold. If you were I'd have a Lamborghini setting in my driveway.

 

I'm not saying I'm happy with it as a consumer, but from a common sense business stand point it is an option that could ensure longevity of this market.

 

That's a dangerous game to play. They could benefit, or lose money, or highly probably, revenue would stay about the same. There is limited amount of money in the hobby.

 

Equally as he is not entitled to any product, ed is not entitled to his money. The problem is he doesn't need the product to survive, and ed may need his money to survive.

[Shimmergloom667]

That doesn't mean I or anyone else should not criticize them and say "thank you" for an unfinished job.

 

No one is holding you from criticizing them, it's just that there's people like me, who see things differently. And I want ED to know that people like me are out there, just like you want to make clear that there's criticism.

 

In the end they have to weigh these opinions and form a plan accordingly.

[Shimmergloom667]

[*]No ground radar for hornet and no TWS for air to air. No news related to these features.

 

The last announcement on TWS e.g. was 8 days ago, acknowledging that it will come out shortly after Viper's release for both Hornet and Viper, which makes sense given the high commonality of the underlying systems.

[WOPR]

We can talk about what we think ED should do and what they did to get the Viper out so fast, but the fact is we don't know and ED hasn't chosen to tell us must about why they did what they did (some reasons may be obvious and we are not legally entitled to much information) or how they're going to manage the timing of adding these features "developed in parallel." "Working on things" in parallel" isn't the same thing as "simultaneous release." i.e. The Litening Pod on the Viper is obviously farther along than the Hornet version, but IFF is obviously behind.

 

 

We also know nothing about their finances. 125 full-time employees takes a lot of income to keep going. To me this is a sign of robust business, but this is just speculation. On ED knows really knows their balance sheet.

[GazAce]

We're still in front man, we got the best Sim/Game on the planet!

 

I say, lets just work with and be happy with what we've got.

;)

[Outlaw24]

I also think the Hornet have gotten a raw deal as far as updates recently. However, now that the Viper has been released, we will see how the progress and attention to the Hornet will be. The next OB patch will answer alot of questions.

[Padonis]

With the current needs of AGM-62, Walleye are now as useful as a hole in a bridge. If I could choose armament, I would definitely like MK-77. And of course the TGP pod, which actually shows its position in "HUD".

Unfortunately, we have no influence on what and when will be done.

Edited October 4, 2019 by padonis

[JayBird]

Totally disagree. Putting the Viper out was the most reasonable thing ED could have done, as the commonality in the code between the Viper and the Hornet is so big, so that they can now develop a lot of missing features and functions that apply to both aircraft like TWS and TGP functionality.

 

I completely agree with you, ED needs the revenue new modules come, the Viper was officially announced at the start of the year, with it coming to early access ten months later. I understand the frustration with the lack of Hornet development, but now we have TWO amazing modules, that will progress together onto bigger and better things.

 

ED's API system for weapons and systems will only benefit future projects that we all want to see in the game. My hats off to ED for making the "tough" choice and pushing the Viper along to this stage.

[=4c=Nikola]

Viper has been released in such state that it needs even more work now.

[BaD CrC]

Welcome to our world guys! Lol! Choppers are at the bottom of the bottom of the priorities. 2 months for F18? We are counting in years guys for our bugs because of all the new fixed wings modules coming before. I don't feel sorry for you yet though. :)

[Padonis]

I completely agree with you, ED needs the revenue new modules come, the Viper was officially announced at the start of the year, with it coming to early access ten months later. I understand the frustration with the lack of Hornet development, but now we have TWO amazing modules, that will progress together onto bigger and better things.

 

ED's API system for weapons and systems will only benefit future projects that we all want to see in the game. My hats off to ED for making the "tough" choice and pushing the Viper along to this stage.

 

 

If someone were waiting for the F-16, and there are those who did not wait ... I might as well say that if they finished the F-18, the F-16 would look better after the premiere.

Next year, ED will have another great project, I'm afraid the F-16 will be in a situation where the F-18 is now. I have several years behind me, I hope I will live to the end :) .

Edited October 4, 2019 by padonis

[=4c=Nikola]

Welcome to our world guys! Lol! Choppers are at the bottom of the bottom of the priorities. 2 months for F18? We are counting in years guys for our bugs because of all the new fixed wings modules coming before. I don't feel sorry for you yet though. :)

 

You will get your 15 minutes when they move (now combined F18/F16) team to work on Mi-24, and leave two fighters incomplete :D

Edited October 4, 2019 by =4c=Nikola

[SmirkingGerbil]

Welcome to our world guys! Lol! Choppers are at the bottom of the bottom of the priorities. 2 months for F18? We are counting in years guys for our bugs because of all the new fixed wings modules coming before. I don't feel sorry for you yet though. :)

 

 

Right there with you - P-47D, but then again, I am happy with what we are getting (since they rescued it), and am willing to wait. But like you, watching these threads with the attendant wailing and gnashing of teeth, coupled with "We paid X, we are due a finished product!!!! *cough *cough can you say "EA", and other comments about how DCS should run their business . . . are certainly entertaining to lurk in.

[Outlaw24]

You will get your 15 minutes when they move (now combined F18/F16) team to work on Mi-24, and leave two fighters incomplete :D

 

:megalol:

[BaD CrC]

You will get your 15 minutes when they move (now combined F18/F16) team to work on Mi-24, and leave two fighters incomplete :D

 

Ah ah ! :megalol: Not holding my breath my friend. This Mi-24 has been announced for soooo long and did you see any in game yet? let's see....there must be some F-xxx left no? 5,14,15,16,18... 104 maybe before we are seing something with a rotor? :lol:

Edited October 4, 2019 by BaD CrC

[captflyby]

I put 1100 hours on the F/A-18C last year. Only about 100 this year for personal reasons, nothing to do with ED.

 

There is a LOT of things that are not (yet) modeled in this jet, but for the money it is one of the best modules I have ever flown, in any flight simulator system.

 

I have a former employee/friend who works for LM who used to be on the programming team of the F-35. YEARS of programming on that jet. It was always a work in progress...never completed...always being updated.

 

There are some things I suppose I can live without in an equally complex simulation.

 

Bottom line, for my personal use, the F/A-18C is a phenomenally complex jet, and I would imagine that you can program the thing for years and still not completely re-create its real life counterpart entirely.

 

For me personally, at some point I have to move on...and now that the Hornet mini-updates page has been closed, I imagine ED has also.

 

This is my mileage, yours may vary.

Edited October 4, 2019 by captflyby

[hanab]

Ed promised that hornet development will resume once the viper is released. now that hopefully wags respects what he writes and that the engineers will come Back to finish the job

[Padonis]

I hope. Otherwise, I will not consider buying a new DCS module, especially early access.

[robgraham]

I can't tell ED what to do, I've given Nick my thoughts on Hoggit about the Viper and the way I feel ED has been towards it's customers etc and while he responded I'm taking a 'wait and see' attitude. I can understand the OP's point of view and a lot of others, I myself am of the same mind, I really don't feel the viper should have ever taken resources from the Hornet, full stop end of question. But it has and it did, we can't change that fact and we can't really comment on how "ED" runs things, we never get to see that type of stuff.

 

What we can comment on though is if they are going to live up to the things Nick's stated over on Hoggit and that is to change some of the current culture and lack of transpanency that is happening, we kinda saw some of this with todays News Letter.. which had a lot more information then the Hornets release ever did on some of the behinds the scenes etc... And yet at the same time we have only a list of 'well the future' rather then a road map of 'near, mid, long' which was one of the things Nick had said he would look into fixing.

 

I'm not going to defend Eagle Dynamics for their choices because I don't agree with them, but there done. What I can hope is that as I've said we see some of these systems actually finished finally, not only for the Hornet, but also for other things (The weather, FLIR, Multicrew for the Huey) but lets face it we ALL knew that the Hornet wasn't getting a big update today, Matt basically told us as much a few weeks back :/ I doubt we'll see a proper Hornet update until November but I could be pleasantly surprised.

 

In the end we've paid money and while I hear Early Access thrown around a lot at times it's become very much a shield to use to try and silence any critics of the development pace etc, which isn't fair and I even said as much on hoggit.. The EA was in itself a suggested promise, Buy our product and we'll use that money to FINISH the product as quickly as we can. I can forgive bugs, I can forgive things taking longer then expected to code.. it's harder to forgive resources being moved away from something already paid for... even if in the end I brought the viper the day before EA release.. but then if you've looked at the AUD vs the USD atm.. the cost savings was the only real reason why.

[fitness88]

I asked a question several posts back and would like to try and please get an answer.

If ED closes their sim doors one day what happens to our sim modules? Will MP be able to be played elsewhere on another server perhaps? I know when my internet service is interrupted there's a message saying I can only fly for a couple of days.

If it could happen to Jane's sim division it could happen to any company.

[USA_Recon]

Well, hopefully we will see F-18/16 TWS soon

[=4c=Nikola]

I asked a question several posts back and would like to try and please get an answer.

If ED closes their sim doors one day what happens to our sim modules? Will MP be able to be played elsewhere on another server perhaps? I know when my internet service is interrupted there's a message saying I can only fly for a couple of days.

If it could happen to Jane's sim division it could happen to any company.

 

In such case, the practice is to release one final update to remove drm. That's what big publishers tend to do.