World Update 14: Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia + more

[LostPilot]

Well, all of this said and done: The Ae-45 has GREAT sounds. The external sounds are too quiet, but I love the internal sounds. Just did my first quick flight and I have no complaints. Going to try the 145 next. Edit: All good other than a bug that cripples your FPS if you taxi on grass. Reported it to Microsoft since they handle support for this. If you experience this, be sure to vote on the bug in the official forums.

 

[Cazzie]

Well, needless to say, not only for MSFS, but one reason I still have FSX on my system is AH! I love building models of aircraft and most are military. AH has given me so many great WW II fighters for repaints to pass the time of day. That means a lot to an old man slowly becoming an old cripple. Baz, stick around and please keep giving us those wonderful aircraft for MSFS 2020 and 2024.

BTW, not to get off subject, but I finally downloaded the latest World Update XIV after two BSODs. I guess Xbox's servers were working overtime.

Cazzie

 

[DennyA]

And to bring things full circle, the engine sounds on the Ae-45/145 are quite nice.

Can't hear flap/gear extension, but that could be realistic. It's definitely overblown on a lot of sim aircraft; can't hear gear and barely hear flaps it on my recordings of my T-34B flight, for instance.

 

[LostPilot]

I could listen to the 45's startup sound all day. Beautiful, and nicely attenuated from the doors/windows opening and closing. I agree that the other sounds are usually way overblown. Adjusting gear or flaps in some aircraft and it's twice as loud as the engines right in my ear. I don't mind that these are quiet!

 

[SeanTK]

An appeal to restrict critical feedback in the name of “fairness” to the developer. God forbid potential customers know about issues and even perceptions.

An appeal to the “it’s art” argument that beautifully handwaves all concerns. I’ve seen it before, usually by devs who then go under because they build to past standards and not present standards. We will see it again.

An appeal in favor of FB fan pages rather than support forums for reasons beyond me.

An appeal to the casual gamers who may not know any better. Gosh, I know Captain Sim did well with their exterior only C-130. All devs should do more of that. Easier and makes probably just as much $$$.

And finally and most importantly…an observation…that a lot of developers don’t have a pragmatic, methodical testing regimen. A little different than the overall quality/polish concern. They send their models to friends and family, tell them to fly it around and say how great it is, and then play catch up with bugs later (if at all). Not very good software engineering if you ask me.

If AH advertised their products as artistic reinterpretations of aircraft subjects, with liberties taken, fine. I don’t see that though. More concerning is that I don’t see them (or others) learning or wanting to learn from the same type of bug reports that are received after consecutive product releases, as well as the same “fit and finish” concerns regarding textures and build quality. If their (or anyone’s) skill set isn’t up to snuff and they would prefer to cater to the cheap and cheerful market in terms of fit and finish, that’s one thing, but repeatedly making errors of accuracy and issuing out aircraft with bugs discovered by users after 5 minutes of use is another. Of course, one can say that it’s art from a well respected developer, and invalidate all concerns.

From a proud user of aircraft from across the “realism” spectrum, from Carenado’s aircraft, to inibuilds, to BigRadials, Bluemesh, PMDG, JustFlight, and Milviz/Blackbird, among others. By the way, all of these named devs have been lovely about bug reports, critical reviews, and even shot in the dark suggestions. Yet another developer that I will not name but whose products I enjoy even admitted that they are a one person show and they have decided to sacrifice capability, realism, and some polish on their aircraft in order to push to market because they can safely lower their standards and effort while making more money.

Hey, an admission of tactics goes a long way…

Update: more users on the official forums expressing distaste with the textures. Who cares though right? It’ll still sell to the masses who don’t use the forums.

 

[Tom Clayton]

I just came close to closing this thread due to all the negativity. Thankfully, there are still a few civil voices that have kept the thread from flushing itself down the toilet. Consider this the wet asbestos blanket. If the balance tips any more negative, I'll just pull the handle for the hangar-filling foam generators...

 

[LostPilot]

You know, I used to be extremely unforgiving with textures. It was Black Box that changed my mind and made me realize that an addon can be amazing even if the textures are lacking. I do my best to consider the addon as a whole. I can fall victim to being annoyed with one specific thing or another. The only thing that I think I'm still always going to be a stickler about is flight modeling, and even then I'm not so much going to nitpick every little inconsistency with the POH, I'm more worried about whether or not it feels like I'm flying a plane at all. But there are even a couple addons that I'll forgive a middling flight model on if everything else is on point.

With the Ae-45/145, I feel like I can look right past the lower res textures because unless I've got my forehead up against the panel, I really don't need Carenado-level details on everything. Would I take it? Sure. Is it worth discussing and pointing out texture quality on public forums? Yes, I think so. But I think for sanity's sake, the healthiest way to approach addons is to use the oft-abused term in corporate spheres, holistically. This addon makes me happy. There are things about it I might wish were different or a bit better, but overall I cannot complain with what I just paid for. I'm not everyone obviously. I have been known to speak ill of AH, even. I'm trying to change that by just saying what I do and don't like without the sharp edge, and while still calling out what I like.

I shared some screenshots on the forums of what I thought was a pretty darn nice looking plane, despite not being up to the Carenado level of visual fidelity. I realize now that there were people already primed and ready to tear it apart. Despite having many times been one of those people, I am finding myself today suddenly tired of it all, and wanting to just go back to enjoying the hobby and taking a little disappointment with the jubilation sometimes. I've been a simmer for around 30 years which makes me practically young around some parts, but I think most of those 3 decades were spent just being happy to partake. Something changed a few years back that made a lot of us pick up pitchforks a bit too easily. I hope to be the first of many to throw them away.

 

[dvj]

I bet your trimotor that AH got a sweet contract with Microsoft to provide exclusive aircraft. Gripes are just par for the course with these offerings, AH or others. In particular was the recent Pilots flying boat sold in a pre-release without telling us it was pre-release. Pilots turned pretty quickly to make improvements. AH also corrected the nose on the Trimotor and audio set. How many users of MSFS now? 10 million at last count? That's a lot of sales opportunity for any developer. I'd do everything possible to grab my share. -d

 

[DennyA]

I'm going to bow out of this because I now see that *I* am the old man shouting at the wind as far as the self-appointed defenders of quality are concerned. Totally missed every point I made, and hey, if other people also want to focus on finding the 3 things wrong in the pile of 1,037 things that are right, it must be justified, right?

Sigh.

Back to enjoying Czechia...

 

[IanHenry]

I just came close to closing this thread due to all the negativity. Thankfully, there are still a few civil voices that have kept the thread from flushing itself down the toilet. Consider this the wet asbestos blanket. If the balance tips any more negative, I'll just pull the handle for the hangar-filling foam generators...

I wouldn't normally be as blunt as I maybe came across and I apologise if I've offended anyone, that certainly wasn't my intension, I jut felt that lately some criticism of developers products have been a little harsh.
I wish everyone well and will now bow out of this discussion.

 

[blanston12]

The negativity has gotten to me also, especially toward AH. There was a comment about the new JF F-28 where someone commented.

Trying not offend anyone, but is this Justflight itself and I hope not Aeroplane heaven?

To which I was offended, but I kept my mouth shut. Now that person has not been involved in this thread, but it was just uncalled for. Personally I have been a great fan of AH and there products, and over the last decade+ I have purchased most of them. I don't have much to add which is not repeating what I said earlier, which I stand by. So I will not comment on this topic more.

 

[William Njurmi]

The negativity has gotten to me also, especially toward AH. There was a comment about the new JF F-28 where someone commented.



To which I was offended, but I kept my mouth shut. Now that person has not been involved in this thread, but it was just uncalled for. Personally I have been a great fan of AH and there products, and over the last decade+ I have purchased most of them. I don't have much to add which is not repeating what I said earlier, which I stand by. So I will not comment on this topic more.

I want to believe that we are changing opinions which sometimes are worth some money. So closing discussions just because there are differing opinions is a bit undemocratic don´t you think. I dare to say that I have invested quite a sum to flightsim addons and yes, I´m a demanding customer and I don´t want to spend money in certain products/addon makers. Through above mentioned question I could have saved 70 euro if answer would have been "yes" to which I would have been most thankful to this community.

 

[dvj]

I'm going to bow out of this because I now see that *I* am the old man shouting at the wind as far as the self-appointed defenders of quality are concerned. Totally missed every point I made, and hey, if other people also want to focus on finding the 3 things wrong in the pile of 1,037 things that are right, it must be justified, right?Sigh.Back to enjoying Czechia...View attachment 91450

I'm finding the AE-45 a challenge to land and take off. Even with tail wheel lock, it slips and slides all over the runway. Are you finding the same thing?

 

[blanston12]

William what I gathered of your opinion from your post is that you think AH sucks, which I would not consider a constructive criticism. I have purchased a number of products from JF and JF + AH and I have enjoyed those where AH is involved more than those where they were not. I am not sure if everyone saw it, but Baz posted this on facebook.

A word on sounds, I wish people wouldn't keep beating us up over sounds in the Microsoft releases. A) WE DON"T DO THEM and B) Microsoft have extremely strict regulations on sound performance and decibel levels which ALL contributing devs have to abide by.

Our first project, the DC-3 had sounds produced by Mike Maarse at Sim Acoustics who is the best in the business. We "broke some rules" with the sound pack for the DC-3 which were a little frowned upon.

We have not been able to acquire Mike's services on later projects because he is just too busy which is not surprising. So we use another excellent supplier but they are, to a certain extent, hamstrung also by the rules. We have no control over that.

For our upcoming Lancaster we have been able to acquire Mike's services again so we can promise a real Merlin treat for you. And because this ia our release, there are no rules.

Finally, we have read some pretty depressing comments from people who we thought were our friends on sites like Sim-Outhouse and others. As you can imagine, being accused of "not caring any more" and "having dual standards" for us is just disappointing and is the reason why you won't see us around these sites anymore.

You will get news of updates like the forthcoming and significant Spitfire upgrade and news of new releases like the Lancaster, here on our Facebook pages. But no, not the sites, not anymore.

I feel we have driven him away by not treating him as a friend, and it makes me quite sad and frustrated.

 

[William Njurmi]

William what I gathered of your opinion from your post is that you think AH sucks, which I would not consider a constructive criticism. I have purchased a number of products from JF and JF + AH and I have enjoyed those where AH is involved more than those where they were not. I am not sure if everyone saw it, but Baz posted this on facebook.



I feel we have driven him away by not treating him as a friend, and it makes me quite sad and frustrated.

Again different point of view, I see business not friendship.

 

[JohnC]

I downloaded the WU14 last night, and had an overall pleasant experience. After watching the WU preview, and the preview/background on the AE-45, decided to purchase the aircraft as well. I will admit it was an easy sell for me; an aircraft designed by a group of engineers without their company's knowledge is almost always a good story. Usually it means there is a new idea or concept, and they don't have the confidence or top-down support to make it happen. Expectations are set by the price ($10), which should be painless and enjoyable to fly. The following is my own personal experience, I am not claiming that my own perspective is definitive.

- I have a fairly complex setup at home, and route most control inputs through Spad.neXt. I have come to expect there is a 50% chance that levers associated with power settings will need to be remapped with every new add-on. However; throttle, mixture, and prop were all working with my default profile and I am free to fly (good start).

- I love how the AE-45 flies, it's a spot-on 'plausible' flight model. "Plausible" meaning that I know quite a lot about flight mechanics, but ****** all about this aircraft. Long wings with twin engines means static yaw stability should be lacking, and expect significant control coupling at low speeds. True! You must coordinate inputs to fly smooth. However, the aircraft tightens up neatly at cruising speeds. Loving it and the new scenery with WU14.


....uh, the end. It cost less than when my wife and son go to Starbucks for a couple of drinks, and I am pretty sure I got more enjoyment out of it even if I never fly it again. Which isn't fair, because I definitely will fly it again.

 

[ak416]

Adhering to loudness standards is a good thing and I don't really understand how that could possibly contribute to the quality of the sound package but regardless, putting the blame on Microsoft and third parties seems like it's just sort of passing the buck. If you are hiring developers to contribute to your product and putting your name on it, you can't just throw your partners under the bus and absolve yourself of all criticism and responsibility. You hired them, you take responsibility for the quality of their work.

It's a shame that some people got personal but AH also seems to take some criticisms of their products as personal attacks when that's really not the case and people shouldn't feel discouraged to post negative feedback or criticism or be ridiculed when they do so. As the old saying goes, never mix business with pleasure. You can't be friends with your customers. But as customers it's important for us to remember to criticize the product, not the person. Implying people don't care about the quality of their work or that they are lazy or doing something the wrong way just isn't helpful. Keep it to yourself, stop buying their products and move on if that's really how you feel. We all have our favourites, but nobody likes that annoying guy who always shows up to say how they don't like something in the most passive aggressive way.

 

[DennyA]

I see at least one person here who's been super-negative on anything AH posting the same criticisms over on the official forum under a different name. (I've been an editor for decades, I can recognize writing styles. ) Sigh. What looks like a stream of negativity is mostly a few guys, some of whom don't even have the plane, posting back and forth between each other.

Not saying there shouldn't be valid pointing out of issues. But this is a $9.99 plane (if you own Deluxe), it's a rare plane that if anyone else but Jorg was running the MSFS show would never have even been made ("Do another Cessna! Those sell best!)), and, amusingly, it has a wonderful sound package recorded from the real plane's engines. But people complain about textures and completely unrelated planes. (The texture mafia kills me. I sit in the pilot seat and fly the plane, I don't stick my nose up to the panel to determine the detail in the on the vynil covering the top.)

I'm finding the AE-45 a challenge to land and take off. Even with tail wheel lock, it slips and slides all over the runway. Are you finding the same thing?

I haven't had that issue in my few flights. Do you have a crosswind going? Crosswind modeling in MSFS is still wackily overdone with taildraggers.

 

[blanston12]

The criticism about sound kill me the most, as as far as I am concerned, its the really far down on the list of my priorates. If after the model, textures, systems, flight dynamics your biggest complaint is the sounds, I would say that is a pretty good model. Its also the most subjective, someone may have recorded the actual sound with a microphone right next to a real engine. But to the pilot in the cockpit with their headphones on, its going to sound different.

Give me a choice between the same product, one with high quality sound recorded of an actual aircraft and one where they just patched in sounds from a default aircraft that is plausibly close in configuration and is $5 cheaper, I will choose the later.

There is an attitude amongst some that if we are not getting a super detailed study level aircraft with super accurate systems, hyper detailed sounds and the correct count of rivets in the textures its ok to flame it with criticism and do everything possible to make sure it does not succeed in the market, and it bugs me.

 

[jmig]

There is an attitude amongst some that if we are not getting a super detailed study level aircraft with super accurate systems, hyper detailed sounds and the correct count of rivets in the textures its ok to flame it with criticism and do everything possible to make sure it does not succeed in the market, and it bugs me.

I agree with Joe's statement. However, when the cost of a single airplane approaches and in some cases surpasses $50.00, I as a consumer feel that I have a right to expect more from the developer.

I can’t help comparing a DCS aircraft model to the same model in MSFS. I believe I get more for my money with most DCS models than MSFS models. Full transparency forces me to admit that I rarely pay full price for a DCS model. I either buy it at the early discount phase or wait for one of the sales. However, the comparison of model quality between the two sims, I feel is accurate.

I also agree with you on the sound. Most of us would be hard pressed to tell the difference between the sound of two different engines of similar size and make up in a blind real life test. Yet, we claim to know the difference between the sounds of two simulated engines. I hardly think so. Just like flight models, which will never be the same as a real airplane, engine sounds, to me, merely need to sound reasonably correct.