A plea for your early release plan.

[macedk]

Please do not go the F-16 route. 

What I wish for in early release at least. 

1. Fully working flight model with damage model. Why ? We will all have to learn the ins and outs of this aircraft. Many will compare to existing rotor platforms and post their findings in awe or grief. If it it is not close to the final product, then why buy it early ? (F-14 seemed to have that idea)

2. The included weapons in early Access should be final versions with operation etc. 

3. Basically an overhaul of your early access approach. I know it's a damned if you do or damned if you don't, but there is leeway here. 

4. We are partners and your side wants to try your product but all that they have to say is uncertainty and questions on the present early Access model , A real life testpilot will not go on but's and iff's no way. Imagine what the 737-max pilot felt when his airplane did something that was total unnatural to him and his training, he found out the hard way and is dead today. We just reload.   But we have the passion to treat your product as the real thing.  

5. Fair shall be fair ....will there be development and tweaks and so on. Yes, but it should be minor not major. 

I think that in the hart of the DCS team they want the same thing that the customer wants, I've seen this in real life where the management didn't learn and had a clean canvas to paint on and failed . 

Let us  in unity get it right

[Dangerzone]

I'm a little confused. If early release should have fully working flight model with damage (which I like the idea of), but also plus the final versions of the weapons with operations... what is there remaining for early access? Wouldn't that go straight to official release as an open beta of the final product instead?  I'm guessing I'm missing something about the difference between early access vs open beta testing vs official final release of the product.

 

For me - I loved the FA-18 route. It gave me a chance to learn one small thing at a time, and grow as the development grew. I know and get that others would prefer to have it all together, but from my perspective - why not allow both as was done with the FA18? Early release get's the development in progress and those who don't want early release can just wait for the official release and not force others who don't want to wait to have to wait with them. The more people opting in for early release, the more bugs that are realised, and less for those who get the final release to deal with. 

 

I know I'm seeing things from a single perspective and I don't fly the F-16 so I'm not sure if there's other factors here that I'm missing, or if I've completely misunderstood what you're requesting. (Which considering the communication mistakes I have with my wife from time to time, is certainly possible  )

[fudabidu]

I'm sure it's going to release in a similar state as the Viper and Hornet. Barely useful, tons of missing features, bugs galore and temporary code causing weird behavior.

 

I'd just like the development to be more transparent. Don't force me to talk to moderators who barely know the aircraft and ask for TRK files that always come out broken. The best response you can expect is "I passed it to the devs" and then you wait for the next changelog to hopefully include a fix. That's not a very satisfactory process.

The Apache isn't going to change how 'bare bones' the helicopter experience is in general right now. Sling loading bugged, proper cargo management only with mods, other helicopter modules neglected for ages ... if ED decides to continue on the "new toys; no fixes"-route I don't see why the EA Apache would be worth it.