Would you buy ORBX regions outside the "safe zone"?

[donnybalonny 46]

Hi

 

I´m just curious to know how others feel and I will start with the question:

 

Would you buy an ORBX region in South America/Africa/Asia ?

 

I´ve just finished the Mebar 2015 (awesome event, thank you) and it made me think how much I would like a Colombia ORBX region because its a very interesting flying area. There are many other places on planet earth that are equally interesting.

 

Untill now, all ORBX releases even the freeware ones have been in English speaking areas and one region in Scandinavia where everyone speaks english at a pretty high level. The only release that doesnt fit into that is the Port Moresby/PNG release (one of my favorites). All the regions/airports (exept aypy) are also in places with a strong economy (compared to the rest of the world) Thats what I call the safe zone. ORBX are pretty sure they will get their products sold. 

Most Regions (exept parts of Australia) are in cold or tempered part of the world if I´m not wrong. And all areas are "classical" flightsim areas. Lots of rocks and snow. Very few lagoons and palm trees.

 

I would personally hope they would change that and offer us something different, but maybe they are afraid that it wont sell or maybe they find it to be to difficult to find material for a product. What do I know? Nothing!

 

So let me hear what you think.

[mutley 4,498]

Hi Anders,

 

I would like to see a FTX region pack for South America, especially the west coast sections of Peru and Chile 

 

Don't forget we have FTX Global, FTX Vectors and FS Global mesh which enhances regions not covered by the area specific scenery, Open Landclass would make it a lot nicer in in South America as well.

 

Cheers

 

 

[britfrog 180]

In answer to your question , no I would not buy in other regions because i have made my decision on where i fly and i will only buy in those 2 regions, for that reason I have disposed of my collection of great Australian airports because after the first few flights, i never used them again. Similarly the PNW , yes there are some lovely airports but if you  buy them and use them only a few times one has to consider their purchase a waste of money.

unless you are made of money.

there is no doubt that there are some great airports in South America as there are in other parts of the world but having one small airport without decent scenery around it, and it is 6 hours flying from the next nearest highly detailed airport , for me is not interesting.

 

[Corsaire31 419]

With my Aéropostale adventure, I have been flying in South America for some time ( Brasil, Argentina, Chile, going now up to Peru and Bolivia) and plan a little more after, going down the Amazon river.

 

There are nice places indeed ( I liked Patagonia fjords and the crossing of the Andes mountains ) but like Nigel said these are flights I will be doing one time only. So I'm happy with Scenery Tech landclass, freeware mesh, GEX South America/Asia for the textures and all the freeware airports I am using (there are many available, even small ones). I don't think I would pay for an Orbx South America region.

 

For Africa, I have been flying the Atlantic coast from Morocco to Senegal and it's mostly desert, so I used the same combo with GEX Africa/Middle East. I have plans to make some bush flying in South Africa later, this might be a region I would be interested in. 

 

(*) I had the world covered with GEX World Edition before Orbx. The only Orbx regions I bought so far are Australia and New Zealand (-30% sale at Xmas ) as I plan to fly there my next winter "Down Under Tour 2015".  For airports I will use freeware as well as I don't see the point of buying airports where I will fly only once.

 

FSX is for me mainly a flight sim, so airports are not my priority anyway since I spend there 10 minutes landing and taxiing and 10 minutes taxiing and taking off.

I never bought an airport in fact, only use freeware.

[adrians69 159]

I think more the whole of Europe would be great in ORBX scenery eventually. I would invest in that. I use FTX Global with OpenLC and Vectors all together with FS Global mesh, but FTX 'Full Fat' regions in Europe would be great. 

[donnybalonny 46]

Adrian, you will get more Euro regions. If I´m not wrong ORBX is making a Germany region. The last ORBX Euro region that I will need.... Germany is one of the few places in continental Europe that has always been taken very well care of by Aerosoft. At least, I hope they will make sure that all the existing payware addons for germany will work with ORBX Germany.

 

I have Global/Vector/mesh for the planet, but without OpenLC its absolutely not the same as with OpenLC and ORBX has taken the decission to slow down the publishing of OpenLC (money question?). We dont know when The North American LC will be out (its 1,5 - 2 years late now) They have said it will be out soon for a very long time (standard payware blah blah) The rest of the world will take a long time. Most probably many years. And I personally dont think Orbx will release a south American and African OpenLC addon.

 

Nigel, I didnt ask about airports. I´m personally not so interested in airport addons unless its something i use as a HUB and visit very often. But the Fullfat regions really change things IMO  (the default airports in the regions are a LOT better than default fsx/p3d airports) and I would love to have something different from what they have released untill now. Peru would be great, Colombia as well, Indonesia wow etc. But thats just me.

 

My original question was if someone would buy a FullFat Orbx region outside what I call the ORBX safe zone. I was curious to know. I can see from the answers that besides Mutley and me..... no. Which is ok  

[Captain Coffee 2,030]

I would. I would like Mexico/Central/South America. I would fancy running drugs and guns to ORBx'd jungle strips in Air Hauler.

Not so interested in Africa personally at the moment, but eventually yes.

[needles 1,013]

Simple answer, Yes I would.

[donnybalonny 46]

I would. I would like Mexico/Central/South America. I would fancy running drugs and guns to ORBx'd jungle strips in Air Hauler.

Not so interested in Africa personally at the moment, but eventually yes.

 

Me to. I´ve been to Mex and central america many years ago. I simfly there quite often. Its one of "my places" But I´m more into flying señoritas than to drugs and guns.

 

BTW, ofiicially and geografically, Mexico is part of North America, so I wonder if its going to be included in the Orbx OpenLC NA? If its ever to be released   

[adrians69 159]

Outside of the 'safe zone' I would be interested in Africa definitely.

[allardjd 1,853]

I think it's a marketing decision. Most people fly most of the time in areas or at least in the general regions where they live, and for the most part their scenery buying habits reflect that. South America, Central America and Mexico, for instance, are not exactly hotbeds of flight simulation activity compared to Europe and the US. The add-on software marketers understand that. They may eventually add those remote areas of lower population density and lower flight simming popularity, particularly in highly scenic places (don't expect Sudan or Chad anytime soon), but will mainly first saturate the areas where the market will best reward them.

John

[donnybalonny 46]

There are a loads of flight simmers in the "rest of the world" But maybe you dont meet them. They are on forums that are not english spoken. There are tons of freeware material for Asia/aouth america etc. made by people from there

I think its more a matter of buying potential. People from poor countrys dont buy ORBX scenery for simple reason that they dont have the money. For someone living in Peru, an ORBX region is really a different price than for someone living in the US/UK. Even for those with Spanish/Greek etc. income, the relative difference is huge.

[allardjd 1,853]

All that notwithstanding (I won't quibble on the individual issues), my point remains - it's a marketing decision; they play to the markets with the potential to provide them with the most revenue. It's what companies are supposed to do.

John

[donnybalonny 46]

Oh yes, I agree. I forgot to write that in my last post.

But what interested me was to know if some of the simmers from the part of the world, where a fullfat ORBX region is not going to change their daily economic life would ALSO buy a region outside what they normally do.  Maybe ORBX would sell more Central America/ Indonesia/ Peru/ whatever than they believe.

Right now, to me it looks like they´ve gone 100% back into safe zone, spitting out airport addons. There´s not so much talking about them anymore and I have a feeling that they are saturating their own field. Personally, as a costumer, I would be more interested in buying a region in another part of the world, than buying 2 airport/airfield addons.

Thats why I asked, 

[stu7708 244]

I'd say it all depends on if the region looks interesting to fly in or not rather than the geographical location (although I'd be first in line for FTX Sweden even if it's mostly flat ).

 

Looking back at my default experiences large parts of central/south America could qualify and my top pick is much like the one Joe made, the western coast with Chile and Peru (any full region covering Patagonia would be an instant buy for me).  

 

In Africa I can't really think of a regions I've flown in that have the same appeal to me, possibly with the exception of Lesotho, that little country contains many interesting airports, and all of them can be covered in a 3 hour flight....

 

ORBX Nepal would also be more or less an automatic buy for me. China is also an interesting area that didn't get much love from MS in the default version.. Lot's and lot's of airports missing, some very interesting ones in Tibet and elsewhere. But I guess one issue there is to get hold of proper data to model it...

[dogtrack 346]

I'd say it all depends on if the region looks interesting to fly in or not rather than the geographical location.

 

I fully agree with you there Mikael. Hence Norway is the only ORBX EU product that I use. Prefer quality Photo Scenery where available. Plus all the available Object type addons etc.

 

Have USA lower48 and Western Europe pretty much covered. Just need to finish the central France area from SceneryBox.

[Corsaire31 419]

@ dogtrack : 

 

If you like photo scenery ( I don't..  ) for France you should be looking at France VFR products, they are far ahead the most popular over here. They sell regional software, so covering the whole country costs some money though.

[Captain Coffee 2,030]

I agree that I would rather buy a region outside said "safe zone" than buy airports within regions I already own.

 

If I buy an airport it is only because it is in a stunning location, or I visit it Very frequently (KTVL for example..and I am considering KBLU because it is on the way to/back from KTVL and my "Safe Zone"; the SF Bay area and about a 200-300 mile radius from it.

 

Buying regions is more motivating to me to get me to check out new places to fly...and it feels like a LOT more bang for my buck.

 

The only airport i feel is a Must Have to me, I don't buy because the KSFO area is changing so fast, I haven't seen any addon airports or San Francisco city scenery that even slighlty resembles the current city/area around...there is a new green glass fronted high rise going up every couple months in San Francisco these days...crazy amount of building going on there.