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Dovetail Games Presentation @ FlightSimCon 2016


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I am a little surprised at the lack of comments here so far and since I have never been afraid to step on my own foot or be wrong I will give this a whorl.^_^

 

I was not impressed with his presentation for a number of reasons, first and foremost Dovetail is a game developer. They may call this a simulation but according to what he said he is trying to bring new users into the fold and the starting platform is kind of setup like that, let's get the young people that are used to instant gratification into flying aircraft first and all that other stuff that hardcore simmers are interested in will be included way into the future. Unless you are into learning how to fly correctly and everything that goes along with it, and that includes tons and tons of information, than car racing and first person shooters are a heck of a lot more fun. That is why they are including all those PPL, CPL goals to give the users something to work towards. I don't know about the rest of you but I gave up on that in FSX because it didn't work quite right and learned the written lessons instead and practiced in free-flight instead. To be a simulation you need all of that, navigation, full aircraft systems, a well modeled VC, a well built and modeled GPS, realistic world, flight physics and dynamics, system failures  and everything that FSX and P3D already have. What made FSX such a popular platform also was it's SDK and the ability to allow everyday users to build and implement missions, aircraft, panels, gauges, scenery, 3rd party developers and such. I don't see that here with what he discussed in this session.

 

I understand what he was saying about everything going through Steam but that creates it's own set of problems for developers, this could end up being like their train sims where bugs are fixed Carenado style, one or two hotfixes and forget about it. This guy being the creative consultant in charge of the program is not even a flight simmer so what is important to us is not so important to him, during the Q&A you could see how what his vision is the way it will be made and he in a very politician like way, said sure, sure, sure maybe in the future but not right now and when on to the next question. Now I like the way they dealt with the interface so far, it looks good, what I don't see is how they are basing this off of the FSX platform without everything that FSX already has being included right from the start. They might not want to mention MS Flight for obvious reasons yet that is how I see this new sim being modeled after. They will include the whole world, great, they are working with ORBX, fantastic, their aircraft will be well modeled and include cockpits, even better, what I am not seeing or hearing at this point is a full fledged simulator using FSX as it's base.

 

So far I have spent a lot of money on FSX to get it where it is today and still have a way to go. I am on a fixed income and far from being even comfortable moneywise and need to be blown away to leave it or even to move away from it for just s**t's and giggles. This is why X-Plane or Aerofly or P3d is not yet on my PC, I leave that to the other guys that can afford to branch out to other flight sims. I went through a phase and bought every new aircraft that came out, it was cool but I was only slightly satisfied with flying them all because the newness of FSX was wearing off, they all flew basically the same and just looked different. Now I stick to the high end developers and get my thrills learning how aircraft really work and fly, one of the things lacking in FSX at the time. 

 

Unless the Dovetail flight simulator can surpass what P3D has now, work with all the peripherals that folks already own and work with the newer scenery and aircraft addons that I have then it will not be for me and from what was discussed in the video above that is not going to happen. Will the new crowd of up and coming sim fliers like it and want what they offer, if they do it right it very well could work for them as lots of people are fans of the Dovetail/Steam way of doing things.

 

From what I have seen of the Flight School they better get their act together and fast. JMO folks so please take it easy on me.:)     

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Brett, the parallels you draw to MS Flight are just creepy - it's looking and feeling like deja vu all over again.  What was the name of that MS twit/manager who pretty much tried giving us the same load of road apples - Joshua Howard I believe?  His early line for MS F-Light was that their focus was going to be to draw in a whole boatload of new, young users and that serious flight simmers would not be left out in the cold.  Sounds kind of familiar, doesn't it?

 

Did the MS deal with DTG include good ol' Joshua's marketing advice - free and worth every penny?  It's too soon to write this off, but folks should have their antennas up before putting down any pre-order money.  My advice to others is, don't let the promise of 64-bit put blinders on you for all the rest of what we already have in FSX.  Make them give us all of that too.  As I observed in another thread a while ago, the idea of a 64-bit stinker is not entirely out of the question.

 

John

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I'm in the same situation as Brett, satisfied with my FSX install and still have a few FTX regions to install and/or explore ( all of UK and Norway, half of Australia, NZ already installed but not much time there yet ) I have relatively few planes ( free and payware ) as I prefer to spend enough time in each of them to "feel at home".

 

As for new sims, I will do the same as with my other games, which is wait at least 6 months after release to have time to read reviews, watch videos, wait until main bugs are ironed out and have some content from 3d party developpers ( or free from modders ). This means I will seriously look at it around middle of next year. I have no problem with the Steam part as I've been on Steam for several years for other games and appreciate the way it works.

 

Of course some things in this video sound familiar but as I often say " you're never sheltered from a good surprise !" :)

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It looks like I'm the only one who's going to give this any time right now. I'm just wanting an alternative to FSX and all it's bugs. I quit FSX because I was sick of the constant battle against the OOM and the incessant tweaking and editing of files just to get it to run anywhere near enjoyable. When it reached the point where I was spending more time messing under the hood than actually playing it I decided it was time to bail out (pun intended).

 

This is why I'm so enthusiastic about this attempt at a new sim. Yes I know it's based on the old FSX engine but at least they're banging it out in 64 bit and hopefully will make addons more compatible in the future, too. I'm going to give them a fair shake and see how they do.

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Hi Steve, I am prepared to see how far they can go with this too. I have had the program for a while now and reasonably happy with what they have done but I feel this is a rushed release way before the product had matured enough. I'm writing a review now and I am trying to remain neutral to see what real benefits there are to the rookie pilot.

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I wish them every success and sincerely hope that they can correct the problems with Flying School and give the FS community what it wants and needs with the release of the next product.  Some of what I see and hear leads me to worry that may not be the way it plays out.

 

They're not going to get the message if we don't say what we like and don't like about what they've released and what we want to see in the next one.  If we're honest and objective and they listen and respond appropriately, they and our common community will be enhanced by what they do.  If not...?

 

John

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6 hours ago, Mistwalker said:

" It looks like I'm the only one who's going to give this any time right now. I'm just wanting an alternative to FSX and all it's bugs. I quit FSX because I was sick of the constant battle against the OOM and the incessant tweaking and editing of files just to get it to run anywhere near enjoyable. When it reached the point where I was spending more time messing under the hood than actually playing it I decided it was time to bail out (pun intended)."

 

I'm always surprised when I read how many problems people have with FSX. Does it come from trying to make it give more than what it was made for by stacking complex HD addons ?

 

Last time I installed my FSX Gold was when I built the PC I'm using at the moment. It was in Nov. 2013 and it's not even a high end one ( i5 4670k - AMD GPU 2Go ). Since then I'm flying almost daily with GA planes ( and Air Hauler ), mostly freeware, Alabeo and Carenado. Originally I had scenery from Flight 1 ( UTX + GEX ) with many freeware airfields on top, and I added Orbx FTX full fat regions plus a few of their airfields. It runs with medium settings ( and with AA x 8 and AF x 4 in Catalyst Center ) between 20 and 30 fps (limit). I touched my fsx.cfg once or twice to add a couple of classic tweaks. I use Nav software ( Plan G  or FS Commander 9 ) and a weather engine so I always have several windows open on two monitors. I have AI traffic from UT2 at 80% + free Orbx traffic and AI boat traffic from KL71.

 

So far I cannot remember a crash during a flight except a couple of times when it was my fault ( like pressing wrong keys... :) )  Does that mean I am just a lucky b....d ? :D

Edited by Corsaire31
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First I would like to apologize for not editing my above post, it was dinnertime and I just hit Save. My writing skills are poor and it's hard for me to organize my thoughts.:th_blush:

 

Don't worry Steve, you won't be the only one waiting in line for the release and I was only giving my point of view based on that one guy's presentation.(I should really learn his name, Peter Wright I think) Sorry you had so many problems with FSX and after reading through years of threads/posts I understand the frustration when that happens. :( Have you tried FSX:SE on a clean PC yet? 

 

In hindsight MS Flight could have been a decent simulator if they put more time into it, we don't have to rehash it's release shortcomings, what Flight didn't have was an owner/President behind the company that loved flying and had tons of money behind him aka. Bill Gates.^_^ Instead they rushed it out piecemeal in a free/then pay game formula. I also think that if MS had been honest with the entrenched flight sim community Flight(for what it was) might have had a chance, instead they set it up to fail by not putting their cards on the table.

 

So in a way I was thinking that exact same thing about Dovetails soon to be offering, they should just be upfront about it and not lead on the sim community that desperately is looking for the "Next Best" full fledged flight sim. They should embrace what they are going to offer to the gamer community and not stand up there with double talk because if they piss off the flight sim community all their negativity will rub off on the very same community they are trying to connect with.

 

Ok, I'm done trying to explain myself. Thanks for all the comments, I agree with them all.:) 

 

I will await Joe's review as I believe he can fairly look at the latest release for what it is, a intro into flying aircraft. It will not be an easy task. :salute: 

 

PS- Aimee looked cute as a button with her baby bump:yesa: 

  

 

 

 

 

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Brett I think its fine to say what you feel, it was not bad or anything and we all have opinions that should all be respected.

 

I got flight school, only used it for 78 minutes, not tried it since but its not aimed at me.

 

I am in no rush for their new sim, I will wait, I have P3D looking great and I am enjoying XP10. Also like everyone I have spent a fair amount on P3D/FSX so I am in no rush to buy them all again, if DTG is going to be that good it will be at least 12 months before decent addons are sorted....

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