Freeware development - what do you reckon?

[Strategic Retreat]

[quote]maybe even worse ,a unique WWW Forum from M$ Insider

[Fr. Bill]

GAHH!

So much negativity...

No wonder I rarely bother to visit more than once every other month or so...  :-/

[Strategic Retreat]

So much negativity...

Give us ONE good reason to be positive about it. We ALL know of WHOM we're talking about. We ALL know THEIR philosophy...

...we all know we're most likely DOOMED. :-/

[Steve M]

The positive bits you could extrude from all this is that nothing has happened yet. It's all speculation at this point with each persons ideas and viewpoints being posted on this board. As said in most of the above posts, MS can choose to release a game, or they can choose to release a long lasting hobby.

[Strategic Retreat]

The positive bits you could extrude from all this is that nothing has happened yet. It's all speculation at this point with each persons ideas and viewpoints being posted on this board. As said in most of the above posts, MS can choose to release a game, or they can choose to release a long lasting hobby.

I still remember how high were the expectations about FSX, how positive were the speculations...

There has to be a reason everything is polar inverted, about this ominous NOT-simulator! Even from some of those that still use FSX, even.

Once burned...

[pete]

Incidentally I have always thought FSX is brilliant and with a huge potential -- so huge I don't think even M$ appreciate what they seem to have sold off to Lockheed Martin (the original FS platform). Aces have to be credited for creating such a huge platform there. (I still can't believe they quit it at this stage of development and with such a history)

But WE still have it

[Strategic Retreat]

Pete, I could answer you back word for word, point for point, telling you mine on it, and even bring you proof of what I would write, but then I would end up opening so many cans of worms that no one would be pleased with me for at the end, so better not to start even contemplating it.

Remain yours, as in you and the others on your "side", a point of view. A point of view I respect and that in the end MAY be correct. Like a point of view is mine, and some others as well on my "side"...

Let me be clear that by "side" I mean side of a debate and nothing more.

...and ours too is a point of view that in the end MAY be correct.

The difference is that we on this "side" desperately hope we're wrong, while you on your "side" desperately hope you're right, so in the end we push towards the same goal, because we both will rejoice if our communal hopes will become truth...

BUT... and here's that the difference between us enlarges to a chasm... I know that should thing go awry and our fears become reality instead, we on my "side" will simply shook our head and go on, remaining with our actual FS version and/or looking towards new non-M$-cluttered horizons, after having grumbled a bit about how we were right all along...

...what would you on your "side" will you do instead in such a dreary scenario? I can already see it... from those who will convert to the new toy on the spot declaring it the new messiah, to those who will commit virtual suicide and leave the hobby altogether, to those who will remain to the actual sim, like I did with the arrival of FSX, loathing the new toy... your "side" would fall to shambles.

It is, after all, what happened to my "side" when I was an optimist. Yes, FSX was a great disappointment for me (and not only for me) at the time, and in fact I recently dusted its disks off and gave them to my kids to be finally used as the game it wanted to be, and that is what happened back in the 2006~2007. But let us not dwell on the past.

Pessimism is a way to remain ALWAYS pleased if everything goes the way it should and to minimize damage if everything goes like some other people want, and I embrace it, because in the past I've been optimistic, and the chemical burns of the disappointments still ache to this day (I'm speaking in a broader sense of the word, not only of FS, let this be clear).

You may like or hate my point of view, but it remains this. And if you're free to expose yours, so I am to expose mine, inside the borders of politeness and respect.

And with this cleared, I don't see any reason to keep answering to this thread anymore. See you elsewhere.


Edit: fixed some grammatical errors

[BrandonF]

[quote]GAHH!

So much negativity...

No wonder I rarely bother to visit more than once every other month or so...

[Steve M]

Strategic.

[Daube]

So much negativity...

Give us ONE good reason to be positive about it. We ALL know of WHOM we're talking about. We ALL know THEIR philosophy...

...we all know we're most likely DOOMED. :-/

Yes indeed. Also, I heard rumors that they will include a special feature in the game installer that will automatically delete all of your files. And then, it will transform your computer into some sort of zombie robot that will kill all your family.
Curse you, Microsoft ! You will never get me alive, hahahahahhahahahahaha !!!!!

[alrot]

Yes indeed. Also, I heard rumors that they will include a special feature in the game installer that will automatically delete all of your files. And then, it will transform your computer into some sort of zombie robot that will kill all your family.
Curse you, Microsoft ! You will never get me alive, hahahahahhahahahahaha !!!!!

I knew it ,Microsoft its Skynet

[Daube]

Wait...  :-?

[Travis]

I was going to post something else, but I can't get over how weird the newbie sounded.  I have this feeling that he never got hold of FS9, since he constantly referred to FSX, and I know for a fact that FS9 was a stable and good platform to work with.  In fact, when I found out how much of the system resources FSX consumed, I just stuck with FS9 and paid for a few quality payware products.

So it is true: there is no reason to think that Flight will be bad from the get-go.  Thinking that way is useless pessimism and only hurts the long-term goal of getting MS to listen to us.  If we want their attention, long-winded rants about how bad they have done in the past is only going to steer them away from this community to look where they are getting actual feedback.

That being said, I'm not sure about the way MS goes about dealing with freeware.  I have a feeling that they aren't going to simply do away with the creation of it.  It has been what has saved the last few installments.  Being able to mod your sim to exactly the way YOU want it has always been the biggest draw of FS, for me.  So I believe they will continue with this.

My main worry is the programs that are going to be necessary for creating addons.  In the past, we had Gmax.  It was the easy alternative for those of us who wanted to create addons, but didn't have access to high-dollar programs to do so with.  With Flight being a new beast from the ground up, I'm certain they are looking to utilize all the newest modeling techniques and gimmicks available.  So will they restrict modeling to Max or Maya, and the rest can sit and spin?  Or will they have some way to convert from, say, Blender or another free program?

[Strategic Retreat]

[quote]I was going to post something else, but I can't get over how weird the newbie sounded.

[Boikat]

Travis wrote:

That being said, I'm not sure about the way MS goes about dealing with freeware.  I have a feeling that they aren't going to simply do away with the creation of it.  It has been what has saved the last few installments.  Being able to mod your sim to exactly the way YOU want it has always been the biggest draw of FS, for me.  So I believe they will continue with this.

I agree with you 100 %!  Is there any way they can stop freeware development, short of actively spying on your compuer, and screaming "Ah-HAH!" if (for instance) you create your own add-on, and decide to "zip it" and e-mail it to a friend?  Imagine the backlash.

My main worry is the programs that are going to be necessary for creating addons.  In the past, we had Gmax.  It was the easy alternative for those of us who wanted to create addons, but didn't have access to high-dollar programs to do so with.  With Flight being a new beast from the ground up, I'm certain they are looking to utilize all the newest modeling techniques and gimmicks available.  So will they restrict modeling to Max or Maya, and the rest can sit and spin?  Or will they have some way to convert from, say, Blender or another free program?

I though someone had said Maya was somewhat compatrible with GMax, or at the least, was working on a way to export Maya to FSX.  At any rate, baring any catastrophic financial emergencies, I'm going to register at the local community college for a Maya class, and probably spend the bucks for the software (It appears there was a "sunny side" to my house being totled by a fire, after all!   ), and if I do well in that, they offer a course in Lightwave ( who's models can be converted for FSX; The "Type Nine Star Trek Shuttle" and the "Arkship Odyssey Shuttle" are Lightwave models), and probably spring for that software too.  After those two, I should be able to figure out what I'm doing wrong with GMAX.  Hopefully, by the time Flight comes out, I'll know the difference between a "vertex" and a "thingy in Gmax", and in *any* case, know how to do the modeling part of add-ons for both.

Make a note:  If I go insane while in school, it's because I went insane... or something to that effect.