Abriael , thanks for your interview. But something disturbs me about your line of questioning about live traffic. You see, I have also āstudiedā live traffic, and like others are part of a community devoted to it, and I caught something amiss with his explanation.
He claims he increased live traffic after last update, which is true. But he seems to not realize that on black Wednesday(June 16), day of infamy, server went down, and 24 hours it went back online and traffic has been reduced since then.
This is a confirmed fact, one that many of us have discussed. I find it hard, that you, have not noticed it, and that ASOBO hasnāt noticed it. The fact that for 2-3 weeks we had alot of traffic, shows they indeed can deliver the data, and for a short period of time, did do so, but stopped doing so. That means he might have been less than honest.
He also didnt explain why world globe map displays loads of traffic that donāt show up when loading into airports or why VFR map might show loads of planes when loading in but 60 seconds later they vanish. This has all happened since June 16th. I find it odd, to say the least, you have not notice.
But good job, I could never hold my tongue doing what you did . There were questions not asked, that should have been, and answers that didnāt make sense of reality.
Where has this ādataā gone since June 16th? Where did the planes go?
Iām confused about the Replay System, in a recent Q&A they mentioned they just have to work on the UI but in this interview it comes across as though they havenāt even started the fundamental base work and itās just an ideaā¦
He is saying that they are at a point where they can show 6 different models close to you. That seems to be their current target. I guess the day where traffic was going nuts was just a test in order to see how much the system can handle.
The green dots on the world map are probably just a mirror of the FlightAware traffic tracker you can see on their website. The MSFS server still needs to ātranslateā that data for ingame traffic. I agree that itās kind of misleading.
The question he completely ignored was the AI behaviour on the runway. Not a single word about that.
actual on my tests it seems even more then 6 are currently working without major problems.
They are aware of it, but there are specific reasons why it is this way and chagning it will have a direct imapct on other parts of the Sim. So it is a balance thing, and I am sure after SU5/XBOX they will start focusing on it as well.
Cause with more AI they will have to rework this or they end up in go aroundsā¦
Great interview. I would like to know however the direction of the sim for the Hardcore. The people who buy planes like the inbuilds A300/A310 etcā¦ I wonder how Fenix sim is going to pull off the A320? is it going to be an outside exe like the bell helicopter, if so when will MSFS be able to support all this without āgoing outsideā the sim?
As I have said a lot, I dont care about the XBOX and I think its a bad idea at this time, this is my opinion thatās it, I am not dogging them for it. I just want for me a hardcore sim or the bits that allow that to be finished, and I cant tell if it is or going to be.
I think Xbox is an excellent idea for āhardcore playersā. Itāll add a huge player-base, probably outnumbering the current PC base. That means a significant financial boost for MS/Asobo and 3rd party marketplace developers. More money means more development, more investment and a greater ability to fund the boundaries of the sim.
incidentally, I think it is perfectly possible to be a āhardcoreā player on Xbox. Itās just a different device.
Iāve actually observed it quite carefully. The issue I believe is on Flightawareās side.
A lot of the traffic on flightaware has been marked as position only recently. I donāt know if it has anything to do with the outage or the cause is different. That causes it not to appear on MSFS because the sim doesnāt know what to do with it.
On top of that, flightaware has serious issues like this one that make its data unreliable. It also fluctuates not only in general, but also by region.
Which is why I think looking for additional sources of data is exactly what they need to do, as Jorg said.
Whatever your source of data is, if itās only one, youāre basically stuck with it whatever their situation is. Having multiple sources of data and integrating them (which should be easy given that every flight has a unique number, so they can be interpolated) would likely fix pretty much all the issues.
I dont think a hardcore player cant use an xbox, i did not say thatā¦ I dont agree it will bring in more money as it will be on game passā¦so lets seeā¦
The reason why I think its a bad idea is because neither a hardcore PC or Xbox user can use MSFS in a hardcore fashion while it still has major issues such as the USR/USER waypoints, the DIR To RWY bug that plagues the A32NX until THEY BUILD THEIR OWN. IMHO That should all be fixed first. Maybe the update will fix this stuff, lets see.
Remember I maybe in the minority, but I am shouting from the Hardcore Simmer side.
Iām a hardcore simmer (itās a bit of a funny definition, but letās go with that), have been for over thirty years, and I can definitely say your position does not represent my side.
The sim can definitely be used in a āhardcore fashionā and has progressed faster than any previous sim in history, so the Xbox version didnāt negatively influence that progress.
Other than that, opening the hobby to millions of people who did not have access to it is unequivocally a good thing.
Flight simulation has been a closed, exclusive club for too long, and the results of that have all been negative. (collapsing userbase, ludicrous pricing, companies going out of business due to lack of sales, super-slow tech evolution, stifling elitism). Itās about time we get some new blood.
I know it may be scary to some to have their exclusive little club open the doors, but there are zero doubts that itāll be for the better.
That being said, this horse has been beat into a pulp already, so Iāll keep it at this.
Itās not really a matter requiring āagreementā as the facts speak for themselves. Game Pass increases games sales, sometimes many times over.
Iām not across the issues you mention regarding waypoints and so on, but more money for the developers is going to help the sim being improved, not hindering it, I would have thought.
I dont see this as an exclusive clubā¦I dont care who plays it, What I care about is does it cater to what I want, and at the moment it does not, but it could do with a few minor fixes.
You may not see it as an exclusive club, but I guarantee many do.
Of course it could do with fixes. Every simulator can, especially in their early years. Thatās the natural evolutive process of such complex software. The Xbox version does not influence that.
As a matter of fact, the more users we have, the more Microsoft will keep seeing this as a priority and allocating resources to the sim, which means faster evolution, including fixes.
I do too. I respect those simmers who take things to the ātop levelā and hope that catering to a wider audience does not distract MS/Asobo from the ātop endā of the sim. I too intend to push my enjoyment of the sim to the extent that my device allows.
I could see the huge Xbox playerbase bringing a downward pressure on pricing as itās pretty expensive compared to other Xbox skins/add-ons. 3rd party developers may prefer to sell 10x the things at half the price.
Agree! I have watched him through all this sim adventure and he seems to be a person that you really would like to have as your boss at work! This sim and what they have achieved as a team is amazing!!
IRL I barely use flightaware anymore to track my flights.
We use a professionnal tracker, but I always loved to xcheck with other free trackers to be sure my infos are accurate.
Flightradar24 is way more accurate than flightaware IMO.
Sometimes my plane is still on the ground and with Flightaware its shown airborn for a couple of minutesā¦
