[LIST] Got Friends: Development Hangar

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The Beginning of a New Era…
Got Friends and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024!

Our small team has been eagerly waiting to share some exciting news about what we’ve been working on over the past year. But first, we want to extend our heartfelt thanks to the entire community for your unwavering patience and support throughout our interior journey. After launching the F4F-4 Wildcat, we never anticipated going “Cold and Dark” for most of the year. However, as you’ll see, we’ve had an incredible year behind the scenes. We’re beyond humbled to announce that we’ve been collaborating directly with Microsoft on the upcoming Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. What began as a simple conversation with Jorg to remaster the AeroElvira Optica for the next-gen sim has blossomed into something much bigger—five remarkable aircraft in total!

This partnership with Microsoft has helped our team grow in ways we never imagined. We want to reassure our community that while these five aircraft are Microsoft products, they truly represent some of the best work our team has ever done. The dedication and passion each team member has poured into this project has been inspiring, and I want to take a moment to personally thank the entire Got Friends team and our partners for making it all possible. Today, you’ll hear a lot about Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, but on November 19th, you’ll finally get to explore everything this new simulator has to offer! It’s a true sequel to MSFS 2020, featuring groundbreaking technology and incredible aircraft complexity. We’re proud and grateful to have played a small part in this journey alongside Microsoft. There is no doubt in our minds that you will enjoy MSFS 2024 for years to come, setting the new standard for Flight Simulation.

Keep your eye on a swivel today and throughout this week, there will be loads of information coming out and we will do our best to talk about all the exciting announcements in this server! So without further ado, we are thrilled to officially reveal the Got Friends line-up for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024!

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This whole post… so beautiful!

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Quick Update: Updated Original Post for latest news/links:

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Cant wait to fly all your planes in 2024!
Love all your work!
Most of all the mini 500, hopefully you have more choppers in the future!

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We’ve been playing around with Helos in 2024 messing with the new SDK improvements. However, our focus is gliders and bush right now, so we haven’t been able to fully explore everything new.

But what we can see, Helicopters have an exciting future. I think you’ll see more from many developers this flight sim.

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Not a glider guy, but super-excited for the Norden and Draco. Your Wilga is soooo excellent I hope you folks do some more bush plane development after 2024 ships.

Also psyched to hear if 2024 updates will bring more to the Wilga!

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When will you fix the Wilga, that it is usable as a towplane again…? Thanks!

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That is part of the plan, we have been exploring the new glider options in MSFS 2024 and believe it will be fixable in that next version.

As far as 2020, we have tried multiple options and may have a workaround, but it’s not using the proper engine data from the Wilga, making its towing experience unrealistic.

This will take a little more time, but we are aware of the feedback. Thanks for your patience.

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Hi,
Would love to see more classic gliders like Ka-6E, Ka-8, SF-26, SF-27 or Bergfalke and Spatz. :wink:
Or a Foka 4 together with the Wilga.

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Thanks for your reply. But what is the reason, that the Wilga is no longer usable as a towplane? When the Wilga was released, the towplane function was possible… :thinking::man_shrugging:t4:

At the moment the Wilga takes off too early and too steeply and the glider has too little speed and then there is a lack of lift and there is a stall with a crash :face_with_diagonal_mouth:

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Or a classic Scheibe SF 25 C Falke motorglider or a Grob G 109 motorglider :heart_eyes:

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Wow, those are exactly the ones I dream of too. Started to learn gliding in a Bergfalke, first solos in the K8 and later the Astir and Cirrus :blush:

PS: more gliders are definitely needed in the marketplace. Don’t know why there are so many excellent freeware gliders available and so few of them in the marketplace. This is a huge problem for me being on XBox. :thinking:

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I had that too but I tried another airport/glider field an then it worked. Didn’t try it lately however.

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With your, superb, Wildcat, one thing that does look a little unrealistic is the G trails created at high G. They look like blobs at the end of the wing and, in my opinion, just hold the package back from being near perfect. It has been the same since launch, is there any plans to revisit this and improve or be able to remove them?

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We think Asobo updated the Glider launch mechanics to be focused around the towplane more than the glider towed. So, in return the STOL performance of the Wilga now doesn’t allow the glider to be pulled airborne prior to the Wilga taking off.

In the old system, the “Towplane” wouldn’t take-off until after verification that the Glider reached Stall Speed… Resulting in every towplane feeling the same and doing the same climb-out. Now, the towplane is fully dependent on their own performance data without regard to the glider being towed. I believe this update occurred to give variation to towplanes, especially the C-47 Towplane (which is a good thing) … but it killed our Wilga since it’s designed for short take-off.

Not to mention, in MSFS 2020, there still isn’t proper drag on the towplane, accounting for the additional weight. So, the Wilga technically doesn’t know it’s pulling a glider and just takes off as it normally would.

These are unfixable from our team at the moment in MSFS 2020. The only solution is dialing back the Wilga’s engine performance, which we don’t think is a viable solution. Hopefully Asobo will address this issue later in another 2020 update giving glider developers more control over the towplane. However, this is another hard subject because where does that area fall? Glider Developers, Towplane Developers, the Ai Pilot controlling the Towplane, or the Launch Method of the Core Game? So, it’s a balance between all parties to find the right solution.

We’ve thought about creating a whole new variant for the Wilga, just for towing, which adds proper weight and “dumbed-down” engine performance, but it’s a hacky solution that may confuse users flying the Wilga (not using it as a towplane) and we haven’t made the final decision to work on that yet internally. We have also had the discussion to remove the Wilga Towplane variant from the Wilga package and just upload a whole new “Wilga Towplane” as a freeware add-on (Standalone from the Wilga) for all gliders to enjoy regardless of owning the Wilga. That way updates are easier and faster when Asobo makes core changes to towing… and we don’t have to focus on the entirety of the Wilga outside of towing. But then, what about Xbox users? They don’t have freeware access.

So yeah, it’s not as straight forward as we hoped. It’s muliple layers of decisions and parties involved (outside of our control). There is also glider parameters that aren’t working fully, like tow distance, tow speed, turn speed, and more… they just seem incomplete in MSFS 2020 at the moment. So glider launching is not really “universally” stable yet. Not to mention the spawn states of gliders are also not working as they should in MSFS 2020. But for most users (not using the Wilga) the experience has been greatly improved. Unfortunately, it affected our airframe.

After the busy work calms down with MSFS 2024 Gliders, we will be able to refocus on this issue. For now, I don’t think we have an update planned for the remainder of this year. Sorry for being the bearer of bad news, but just know we are aware and working on solutions on our spare time… Trying to find viability in a system not fully designed for the Wilga.

Rest assured, we are 1PP with Microsoft and we are in discussion with them regarding these issues. So they are on the backlog, however focus is sparse in comparison to other MSFS 2020 areas being worked on… but all parties are aware of these inconsistencies in MSFS 2020.

Hopefully this long explanation answered your question… I could talk all day on the subject if we are being honest, mainly because I’ve spent countless hours trying to find the best solution! haha so we aren’t just ignoring it… :smiley:

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This is actually the first time I’m hearing this feedback (or at least personally seeing it). I will look into the Wildcat and see what’s possible. Thanks for your report! :slight_smile:

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Thank you very much, for your detailed explanation…! :ok_hand:t4:

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They dont look too bad to be fair

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It’s a Warbird not a Jetfighter, even at full pelt I doubt there would be enough leading edge compression to cause long vapour vortex.

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The Wildcat can be maneuver pretty violently if need be with a number of pilots during WW2 reporting pulling 8-9G during the dive and slash attacks that were the favoured tactic of the US Naval pilots in order to avoid a tight turning fight with lighter Japanese aircraft.

The Wildcat’s wing is rigid so while you won’t get condensation across the whole of the wing area as you tend to do in more modern aircraft with flexible wings, you might, under very certain conditions obtain a very, very fine line of thin vapour from the leading edge of the wings.

It is worth noting that this would be dependent on atmospheric conditions with high moisture levels and of course, how heavily the aircraft is manoeuvring - among other things too. (In a lot of cases I think it’s overdone in the sim, even Flying Iron’s warbirds which have a more accurate visual affect, in my opinion, is seriously heavy. I have only ever noticed a very, very faint wisp, if anything, even with a far more powerful and faster warbird such as the Grumman Bearcat)

However I have never, nor can ever see a situation where a bloop or a tear drop of vapour would ever be produced as it is from the Got Friends Wildcat. I’ve had the pleasure of watching the Fighter Collection’s FM2 Wildcat for over thirty and I’ve never seen anything like the effects that the Got Friends aircraft produces.

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Its nothing to do with G. The change of inertia has nothing to do with atmospheric compression causing pressure differences great enough to cause the formation of condensation. G is just the measure of inertia to a bodies change in direction once in motion. In this case the vortexs’ are most likely caused by AoA as the wing produces slight (yes slightly as it will most likely under 350kts) increase in leading edge compression causing differential between front and rear edge. But yet again weather conditions (alt,temp,baro) dependent. So very rarly would you see long trails from wing tips or roots.
If it was G related you would see them created on fairground rides, childrens play areas and your washing machine

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