Final release date prediction

[Ramstein]

1 hour ago, Venom said:

In HB said "winter". In December we are again in winter so maybe we will have it for Christmas 2024.

here we go Winter

[Goofy12]

Too late….the SPRING sale just started…..winter is over……

[Hiob]

2 minutes ago, Venom said:

As I said in another post, winter will come back in December. So I expect a realease for Christmas 2024 aprox.

That joke really doesn’t get any better by the 100th repetition.

Get creative at least…..

[Richrach]

Well, none of you are Nostradamus...

[Gunfreak]

1 hour ago, Richrach said:

Well, none of you are Nostradamus...

You don't know if I'm a cazy renessanse guy high on a shrooms or not.

[Dragon1-1]

You all have it good, anyway, you preordered everything and are just waiting now. I'm on Steam, so I have to wait for them to actually announce the date to even submit a preorder.

And no, I'm not switching, despite problems I do get good deals in my own currency out of it.

[Ramstein]

2 hours ago, Richrach said:

Well, none of you are Nostradamus...

depends how you spell it

[Richrach]

Mongo no no eniwon name speel...

[wlhjr]

i doubt we are gonna see this thing anytime soon, so far there has just been HB produced eye candy. When it's in reviewers hands and vids are coming out, I'll get interested.

 

[Jacknemo]

I think that we might see the Phantom released in May or even June. 

This prediction is not based on any concrete evidence, just a feeling. 

[shocknawe371]

perhaps an explanation for the delay would help everyone. It appears quite self-evident that the extreme complexity of the F-4E has caused a delay, we get it you are covering new ground and new problems can emerge even quite late. A simple explanation would do alot to restore trust, we know that you are working as hard as you can but some need explanation. Anyway get it right, 1st day purchase for me.

[Tango3B]

So what we can probably say with certainty at this point is that the F-4E is now in ED's test cycle. And we all know that it can take a few weeks. Especially when a module brings so many potential innovations within the framework of DCS. So what can we do? We can only wish Heatblur that they have submitted a good test build and that they manage to eliminate all bugs in the next 14 days and that they manage to present a release candidate during this period. However, that might not be quite that easy. What I don't understand though...why doesn't any of the usual YouTubers have access to the F-4E? I mean, it may be that Heatblur is just too busy to make more videos at the moment...okay, but then why can't the usual YouTubers present some content in the meantime? I don't understand. In any case, that would make the waiting time much more bearable and prevent any speculation.

[Gunfreak]

Are we even sure HB has plans on letting big content creators get a sneak peak? 

Just because others do it. Doesn't mean HB will. I wasn't around when Viggen and F14 came so don't know if they did it then. 

While I'm in no hurry. It might be time for a statement from HB if they belive the "winter" window has slipped.

[Urbi]

Anyone can read on the Internet what advance payment means. I have exactly the same opinion as the majority of users who find the long waiting time unbearable. Since I paid with PayPal, buyer protection will be lost in the near future. I will report the incident as non-received goods and cancel the purchase contract and demand my money back. thank you Heatblur Simulations for this monetary policy.

[IronMike]

13 minutes ago, Urbi said:

Anyone can read on the Internet what advance payment means. I have exactly the same opinion as the majority of users who find the long waiting time unbearable. Since I paid with PayPal, buyer protection will be lost in the near future. I will report the incident as non-received goods and cancel the purchase contract and demand my money back. thank you Heatblur Simulations for this monetary policy.

You can also write us directly to support@heatblur.se and we will provide you a refund, no questions asked, paypal buyer protection expiring or not. This has always been and will continue to be our policy. Our sincere apologies for the wait.

Edited March 16 by IronMike

[Goldeagle365]

I'm confident that the F4 will be released when Heatblur is happy with the sim. Id rather they wait and get things sorted than release a bug ridden and unplayable mess. What Heatblur has set out to make is a huge jump in many areas of sim technology, and these things, understandably, take time, and as I've come to learn, deadline are never truly set in stone. . It saddens me to see people this upset over this. 

[Urbi]

22 minutes ago, IronMike said:

You can also write us directly to support@heatblur.se and we will provide you a refund, no questions asked, paypal buyer protection expiring or not. This has always been and will continue to be our policy. Our sincere apologies for the wait.

 

Thanks for your answer Iron Mike. I still have until next month. You should know what it means to report a dispute with PayPal. 6 months waiting time is not acceptable. Then you shouldn't have paid in advance. I have the right to go this route. So you will have to justify yourself and I will receive at least one answer for the non-fulfillment of the purchase contract, which you are withholding from the users here.

[Grundar]

1 hour ago, Goldeagle365 said:

I'm confident that the F4 will be released when Heatblur is happy with the sim. Id rather they wait and get things sorted than release a bug ridden and unplayable mess. What Heatblur has set out to make is a huge jump in many areas of sim technology, and these things, understandably, take time, and as I've come to learn, deadline are never truly set in stone. . It saddens me to see people this upset over this. 

Yes very much this. ED also have final say on release so they need to test it and a big module like the F4 will require that extended time to test I imagine. Heatblur have always been upfront about things (that they can be upfront with), they have yet to disappoint with any module.  The Viggen and the F-14 are incredible modules, I play them regularly to this day (even the Mig-21 when they were Leatherneck, I still enjoy to fire up).  Each of their module releases has always raised the bar for the DCS experience. Heatblur aren't a scam developer, they freely offer refunds if people so desire, just remember when it does see release, that pre-order discount does go away and you will be paying full price to get the module again   Well: If you cancel, you will be given a pre-order window discount extension of two-weeks for when you buy it anyway.

Edited March 17 by Grundar
updated pre-order info

[__Mad__]

Early Spring? YGBSM

[LordOrion]

On 3/15/2024 at 1:22 AM, LordOrion said:

Would be intersting (and nice) to know from HB what has actually caused this almost 5 months delay... Has anyone nuked the git server with the sources by any chance?

Looks like someone at HB read my post above:

https://store.heatblur.com/blogs/news/of-delays-and-silence

Long story short:

• Too many people sick (damn COVID!)
• The HBUI makes the game unplayable on a small but considerable share of systems (which is really bad).

The Release has been delayed to april/may.

[IronMike]

3 hours ago, Urbi said:

Thanks for your answer Iron Mike. I still have until next month. You should know what it means to report a dispute with PayPal. 6 months waiting time is not acceptable. Then you shouldn't have paid in advance. I have the right to go this route. So you will have to justify yourself and I will receive at least one answer for the non-fulfillment of the purchase contract, which you are withholding from the users here.

My apologies, I am not sure I understand what you mean? What exactly are we withholding?

What I meant was, that we will make sure that you get your money back, even if PayPal does not help you. By all means you have every right to go any route you desire of course.

[Kalasnkova74]

Before people start sharpening their pitchforks, please consult HBs update :

• When we began mass testing of the F-4 in January, we found that an estimated 5-10% of users had complete, game breaking, unusable lag with any and all UI elements due to a GPU bottleneck, and despite all-out efforts, truly day and night, to resolve these as soon as possible, we found ourselves at the mercy of a complex onion of PC hardware and OS interactions. Every time we thought we had a breakthrough, we’d run into another set of hardware and software combinations and be right back at step one. Every time this happened, we thought we were back on track, only to find ourselves behind schedule once again. Every time, this forced us back to the drawing board to reassess and try new solutions, and further shifted our timeline, yet disguised itself as something that appeared to be solvable in time.
  
  While concerning, we initially approached the issue with confidence. We’ve solved worse in the runup to the release of the F-14 and Viggen. Or so we thought. The core issue causing this turned out to be an incredibly complex, multi-layered onion involving both the Windows GPU scheduler as well as GPU process scheduling in DCS itself, mixed in with some deep, hardware level connections across various technologies, such as HAGS, resizable bar, and even specific GPU drivers.
  
  It took us hundreds of hours of debugging and bombarding the affected hardware and individuals with experimental builds, and in the end, despite also reaching out to industry contacts, we found no solution but to rewrite significant parts of our UI layer to solve the issue. Not only did we spend an inordinate amount of time trying every combination of solution we could think of, seemingly at the brink of a breakthrough, but in the end found no reasonable solution other than to go back and rewrite this key piece of the F-4.
  
  In summary, this issue has diverted a significant amount of resources to fix. Elusive issues with many elements out of our control can be a nightmare, especially when it comes to features which underpin the entirety of our product, and for the very first time in our entire decade long history… we just couldn’t find a solution except ripping it apart and building it back together. 

While an “I told you so” retort may be poor form, it has to be repeated: this is an ambitious project. HB is implementing many positive changes with this module, but each new feature requires testing, bug fixing, and retesting to confirm the bugs are fixed. We cannot have our cake and eat it too: the product can be delivered quickly, properly, or within financial and labor cost. We can have any two outcomes on a given project , but not all three at the same time. The same people willing to rip ED a new one for a delay are also the same people who’d rip them a new one if they met the deadline but had a buggy product. Let’s be better than that.

Note,  every successful aircraft project -yes, that includes the so-called “affordable” F-16 and A-10- completed suffered delays and overruns. Thats part of the game. We aviation fans stand frustrated when ignorant hit piece media gets released tearing down the program at the first sign of obstacles or problems . We groan when Congresscritters and reporters hurl complaints because Aircraft X is behind schedule. It’s the same story, just change the aircraft. The same things being said about the F-35 now were said about the F-15 & F-4. I don’t speak Russian, but I’m sure the Soviets traded similar internal critiques about the MiG-29 and Sukhoi 27 back in the day. We know in the end it’ll pan out, but that doesn’t stop the baloney slinging .

Let’s not do that , and extend the same courtesy to HB that we do to Lockheed Martin and other concerns when they too have delays. Give HB the chance to make it right in the end. That may take months, or they may even have to erase the whole thing and start over with a fresh codebase and a 2025 release date. It is what it is, and we’re better off letting HB make it work without pointless bickering, “is it here yet” threads or pointless epithets speculating that a conspiracy with the Illuminati and the Lizard People are secretly embargoing the F-4E release. 

Edited March 17 by Kalasnkova74

[Iron Sights]

Get it right and call me when it’s ready. From what I’ve seen, it will be worth the wait.

[Willykurtz]

Let's be honest, it was expected.

[giullep]

honestly HB is a really good group of guys and their products are exceptional. I believe that a problem can happen and having communicated it accordingly by updating us was important... I believe that the problem happens... we will anxiously await their new jewel.