Where are the developers?

[IDontLikeBigbrother]

Dear supreme longliving leader, I definitly agree with your idea about the tossing bombing inaccuracy. And I found another interesting detail is that if I toss 16 bombs, the hitting point will seperate in to two groups with 8 each.

 

But official liveries is not a good idea, because you have no option but only download them, and they are going to eat up your precious ssd drive space.

BTW, how is RAT now?

[Tyrant07]

Custom board numbers a kin to what we have in the Hornet and Av8B would be a nice edition for both the Viggen and the Tomcat. Hopefully Heatblur add this feature someday.

[IronMike]

Sometimes guys, I wish we'd throw around with less exaggerations. Nothing has been neglected really, the Viggen team continued to work just like it did before. It's just a small team, because that is what reality dictates.

 

 

Thank you renhanxue, my view since release too - spot on. (...)

 

What's more annoying is Cobra statments that fall dead flat 2 years later, perfect way to tell customers "I have your dollars already".

 

So, no matter IronMike posts here above I still see this as a hobby-business as renhanuxe so clearly put it. (...)

 

 

Here's a small reality-check @TheOden. I will say this once to you and once only, since all you do is seize any opportunity you can on any forum out there to blame Cobra for what I would say bluntly is your, my apologies, false sense of entitlement: you can call it what you like, the fact remains that this is a professional business, most of us work over time no matter if spare or full time, and that if it wasn't also our hobby (read the enthusiasm to work more than required), way less would be happening than it does. And I personally find it quite uncalled for to complain that our work suffers from family, etc, while in reality the opposite is the case. Of course: you would not know that. What you seem to fail to understand that despite all that, it is a super small business in a super small niche industry of an already small niche industry and that the Viggen is a niche aircraft even within this niche of a niche... So we cannot just speed up the process, because you feel that this or that should be delivered within this or that time frame. We do it as fast as we can, and often learn at the same time ourselves how long it takes in the first place, too. And unless twice or thrice as many Viggens would find an owner (just as an arbitrary number), this reality will not change. That's just how it is.

 

Now, to the promises: Suggesting that we would deliberately forget or just scratch what we promised, "because we already have your money" is downright preposterous. You've been repeating this same thing for almost 2 years now, since release actually (which tells me it is based on some personal grudge rather than a legitimate complaint, but ofc I can be wrong). Don't think we did not notice, but please, don't feel flattered either, it merely is that: taking notice. And I hope you don't mind if after all that bashing I'll step in to share our side of the story as well.

 

I'll tell you about promises: Cobra was the one who started 3rd party stuff in DCS, who took the first leap of faith. And what did he deliver with his team? The MiG-21. Then he proceeded to take another leap of faith and make the Viggen, an aircraft that isn't among the top selling in the first place, and a risk to make. And again he promises stuff on top of that, like the Draken AI, or the first realistic raytracing ground radar in DCS, the first realistic RWR and ELINT and name what you like. Then the Tomcat, which again comes with promises, the B version and the A version, a carrier, the A6 AI, 2 campaigns, multicrew (which already in the Tomcat's case is like working on 2 modules), a RIO AI, the introduction of wing wake and jetwash into DCS and a dozen other novalties and innovations... All these things come in large parts from his visionary thinking, from his wishes and promises to turn these wishes into reality, from promises that come from amidst ourselves to ourselves, because we did not come here as devs. Most of us grew up in this community, some of the folks here are family to me, to us. Luckily it so happens that we managed to turn the hobby into a business, but if you think that we do all that just for the money, or just for the hobby, you think wrong. Both is needed, you know, because life.

 

No passion, no promises, no visions - that is the safe play, the one that does never disappoint, the one where you can never go wrong and fail. The one where you can deliver a minimum for the same amount of money. But it is also the one that does not advance technologies that does not advance our hobby. Are we late on promises? Yes unfortunately we are, like I said, we learn, our enthusiasm and our own wishes drive us to promise things sometimes to come sooner than the reality. But look at the list above and answer me, if you think that we are after your money, or that we try to give our best to get you the best not only in quantity, but also in quality - which surprise, suprise: takes a lot of time. If we were in it for the money, both the Viggen and Tomcat could be called "released" tomorrow, "there, this is the final feature list", and we could still charge the same, and would we have not promised what we did, probably no one would ever complain either. But that is not who we are and what we are about. That is another reason why we make promises: to make it mandatory for us to deliver, trust me, some of these things take a huge extra toll and would no one know about it, it would be all too easy to toss them in favour of a much lighter schedule. Believe it or not, but what we do does not come without personal sacrifice. So call us hobby-business all you like, if you think that it insults us, let me tell you that it doesn't, to the contrary, I'll wear that badge with pride, because I know what it enables us to do, even if it takes sometimes longer than expected or than in a common business/enterprise. There's always positive and negative aspects, but imo the proximity we can have with our customers due to the smaller size, makes what we have much nicer.

 

Maybe think about that, the next time you point your finger into Cobra's direction, accusing him of greed, calling us a hobby-business and complaining about his promises. They don't fall flat, they just take time. Time I btw wasted on this reply, which is time I did not spend on the campaign or testing or actually flying for my personal fun once in a while again, and like I said: it will be the only time I write this. So please don't take this as an opener for a discussion. It is not. Please also don't take this personal. You don't have to apologize either, because as a matter of fact, I do understand the frustration to wait on things we like, 100%. But please understand that I will not stand by if you accuse us and particularly my boss and one of my best friends of the things you accused him above (over and over again btw).

 

I'd wish you could see it from our POV as well, sorry if you can't and of course it is your perogative to keep your opinion as is. I've said mine and that is that, take it or leave it.

 

The Devs are here however, the work continues, so let us please focus on important things again. At this point we should not have to earn your basic trust anymore, although I very much understand that trust needs to be earned and re-earned again, and we intend nothing short of that. But if you still question whether we are here to rip you off or not, sorry if I'll just move on in the future.

 

To all the rest of you, thank you for your incredibly kind patience with us, despite me answering harsh here, we understand that frustration and we do our best to mitigate it and we're far from perfect - we know that. There are sure a lot of things we can still improve. We do feel a strong responsibility towards all of you and we never keep you waiting with a light heart, please know this. :)

 

And when I mentioned that we have to put in some personal sacrifice, I did not mean it as a complaint: it is both our pleasure and honor and of course we take a lot of joy and pride in what we do.

Edited November 4, 2019 by IronMike

[IronMike]

Custom board numbers a kin to what we have in the Hornet and Av8B would be a nice edition for both the Viggen and the Tomcat. Hopefully Heatblur add this feature someday.

 

 

We will, however at the moment it is rather low on the priority list, with all the rest that comes before. In the Tomcat it poses an additional problem for us, as the modex numbers changed in shape and size quite a lot, this is one of the things delaying it as well, but we did not forget. Thank you for your kind patience with us.

[fl0w]

Maybe think about that, the next time you point your finger into Cobra's direction, accusing him of greed, calling us a hobby-business and complaining about his promises. They don't fall flat, they just take time.

 

[theOden]

Awesome IronMike, You just described a hobby-business.

But I see you guys are sensitive to when old statements are brought to light and will shut up from now on.

[IronMike]

Awesome IronMike, You just described a hobby-business.

But I see you guys are sensitive to when old statements are brought to light and will shut up from now on.

 

 

Better hobby-business than full-time troll. :smilewink:

[frosen]

IronMike et al; I hope you don't get fed up with us. There's always someone complaining about something but I would say the majority of us are extremely happy of what you bring to this community in terms of quality and deliverables.

 

Of course I also want to get the stuff sooner than later but if it weren't for you we wouldn't have the Viggen in the first place :)

[IronMike]

IronMike et al; I hope you don't get fed up with us. There's always someone complaining about something but I would say the majority of us are extremely happy of what you bring to this community in terms of quality and deliverables.

 

Of course I also want to get the stuff sooner than later but if it weren't for you we wouldn't have the Viggen in the first place :)

 

 

Thanks for the kind words, and no worries, we're far from getting fed up. It always was and it always will be a pleasure to work for and with this community.

[rrohde]

I would say the majority of us are extremely happy of what you bring to this community in terms of quality and deliverable.

 

Agreed; couldn't agree more. We're the happy - but silent - majority around here. :thumbup:

[Flappie]

Agreed; couldn't agree more. We're the happy - but silent - majority around here. :thumbup:

[Sajarov]

Agreed; couldn't agree more. We're the happy - but silent - majority around here. :thumbup:

:thumbup:

[Flanking Moustache]

Agreed; couldn't agree more. We're the happy - but silent - majority around here. :thumbup:

 

:thumbup: Absolutely!

I love the viggen as it is right now, and can't wait for the coming improvements.

[DerwischGER]

I would say the majority of us are extremely happy of what you bring to this community in terms of quality and deliverables.

I for one couldn't couldn't agree more. The Viggen is one of my absolute favorite and I can clearly see that a lot of love went into it. So count me into the happy :cheer3nc:camp!

[WildWeasel303]

I don't consider myself a DCS vet or even a "hardcore" user by any means (real life takes priority, especially with my job). That being said, I do try to keep current on what's going on with the sim and modules/3rd parties whenever I get a couple minutes of downtime (considering the number of modules I've invested in, like so many others, it's kind of an unwritten guideline at this point lol).

 

All that being said, reading through this thread has been one hell of a rollercoaster for emotions. There's plenty of frustration, annoyance, anger, happiness, etc. but despite all of it I can absolutely say without a shadow of a doubt that Heatblur's team/IronMike/Cobra go above and beyond when it comes to making this community a better place. Whether it's simple discussion, bug tracking/fixes, improvements, new features, additional content/modules, whatever; they absolutely CARE because they're passionate about the end result and what they're doing. I honestly wish that kind of passion was more abundant throughout this community and there was less negativity but like all things in life, there's always something/someone that has a glass half empty/pessimistic outlook and isn't afraid to be vocal about it.

 

All that being said (TL;DR), WELL DONE Heatblur and THANK YOU to IronMike for being so patient/passionate with this community as a whole. It truly shows and does not go unnoticed at all.

[GoosemanF7]

You Heatblur guys are just ****ing amazing. Dont listen to the haters. Just keep up the good work.

Will buy the F-14 right when i get home just to support you guys.

 

Is there some other way to support heatblur or other devs? Patreon? Paypal?

[veenee]

It would be nice if they started selling module t-shirts - Viggen driver and proud! :-)

[Sephyrius]

 

They should use this rating scale to evaluate the quality of each module/feature. The viggen is rated as seen above.

[LastRifleRound]

I'd buy an HB shirt, and that goes double for an HB Viggen shirt

[Canadus]

I'd buy an HB shirt, and that goes double for an HB Viggen shirt

 

Yes. Redo some Shirts and I would instantely buy some. Size Large, just in case... :D

[Boosterdog]

None of the modules are as bugged as my real life or the people i have to work with. As such they provide a very nice and enjoyable distraction from it and them. Ive also paid a lot more for a lot less (looks outside at his partner's mini with the creaking unfixable dashboard....)

 

The HB machines and the Mig21 have all brough me back to DCS and set the hook firmly this time. No complaints here.

[IronMike]

Your support, everyone, your passion and dedication to our modules and your restless help that you offer so that we can improve them, are appreciated beyond words.

 

The most important thing for us is that you thoroughly enjoy these products and that you feel that we care about your experience, when you fly them. This, above all.

 

And let us not forget: the good and the bad, the joy and the anger - it is all born out of passion and comes from true fans, we'd be daft if we would not recognize that. So even if you need to vent: we know where it is coming from, and it is appreciated just as much. But sometimes, of course, things need to be put a little bit into perspective. I strongly believe that the more honest we are with each other, the happier everyone can be.

 

S!