[RELEASED] Astro ONE | Got Friends

We will save that for another rainy day!

OIP

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DJ, ahead of the game!

Looks awesome

Hah that does look quite awesome. Hope to see it in the sim one day.

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If there is enough hype around the Astro One and our team sees another racing EVTOL as an advantageous endeavor, I donā€™t see why not :slight_smile:

Is there more to EVTOL Racing then the broad flight simmer expects? Quite possibly and we are inclined to take it to the next levelā€¦ but only when everyone is ready. This is very new territory and we want to ensure the overall public doesnā€™t think Got Friendsā€™ just makes gimmicks (even though we donā€™t think EVTOLs are gimmicks at all and we definitely put love into everything we develop).

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Astro ONE Release Sale | Closing

Friendly Reminder: The initial release price of $9.99 will be closing in 8 Hours!
Get it while you can! After that the price will increase to $12.99

Regarding In-Game Marketplace: We are unable to do an introductory sale do the nature of our 3rd Party Partership with Microsoft until after 60 Days. We will ensure there is a sale price reduction to $9.99 during our next sales event.

Cheers!

Purchase Now:

  • Maximum speed: 360 km/h (225 mph)

Noice, but more beans in Astro would be nice too.

Thereā€™s two valid use cases for more Astro speed, real world mimicry aside.

Itā€™s not all about racing, cruising along at 3K 65kts is a nice height for sightseeing but a tad slow for covering ground.

Racing wise, I love the lower speed classes in simracing but even the slowest classes start ~160kph extending into the low 200ā€™s. Then you have another band in the low to mid 200ā€™s, mid to upper 200ā€™s then 300+.

Going from ultra slow to ultra fast wouldnā€™t be recommended I think, you need a pathway of classes to climb the speed curve for racing. Different classes of Astro could cover that lower range to begin with, with less product development risk.

Same car body with different engine classes is also common in racing, eg: Porsche 911ā€™s, Ginettaā€™s, Caterhamā€™s etc etc so no reason why Astro canā€™t climb the same progression curve with some different models.

Of course, if itā€™s an officially licensed Jetson sim product I can understand why you want/need to stick to whatā€™s in the real world.

Well, apart from you not wanting to, which is valid too!:+1:

my 1.23 (recurring) yen.

I think we just bought the product expecting something which devs didnā€™t intended. I would never bought it if it was just for racing. I bought it to replace or have some alternative to optica for sightseeing, expecting excellent visibility, ability to just stop mid air and terrain tracking at reasonable altitude at 70 ktas hands free which I assumed it have from the reviews and description. Some features it indeed have, but some were not described well.
Pushing the dev to bend the product according our wishes is probably not the right thing to do. It was 10$ and Iā€™m happy I supported devs but I think this plane will collect dust.
Opticaā€™s place for best sightseeing plane still holds. This new teased drone/aircraft donā€™t interest me at all, as I doubt it will have same level of visibility as Astro and Optica.

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Iā€™m currently using the Astro for sightseeing.
I fly into the Okavango Delta in a bush plane, hop into the Astro to cruise around and hover in search of the ā€˜heffalumpsā€™ and other critters.
Do enjoy the low level speed as well, ie canyon tun.

You build that, Iā€™ll buy it!

Iā€™ve been thinking that lots of racetrack videos on YouTube would be just the ticket for promoting GotFriendsā€™ latest venture in the way they were clearly hoping for.

But Iā€™m not sure this contribution from Flights of Icarus is exactly what I had in mindā€¦

Edit: Maybe I should have waited for the An 225 one.

I havenā€™t bought it yet as Iā€™m waiting for it to appear in the marketplace but what is the problem with sightseeing?
Iā€™m not interested in racing or stunts AT ALL.
Is it good for general sightseeing and A to B flying?

I think Iā€™ve summed my problems with it somewhere above. Basically if donā€™t mind keeping you stick down whole flight, you will be going quite slow. Dev added trim, but max range is not even close enough for max power. With max power and pushing stick down you will still be doing 70 ktas at best. If you want to use terrain tracking, you will be bumping into little taller buildings, and barely fly above trees so itā€™s only usable outside of most cities (if even anywhere IMHO). Visibility is perfect, you can stop and hover anywhere, land anywhere. I didnā€™t say you cannot use it for sightseeing at all. If you donā€™t mind what Iā€™ve just wrote, go for it.

The thing flies at like 70 knots with a 45 minute range. I wouldnā€™t say itā€™s ideal for sightseeing, and youā€™ll be at a height where ground details donā€™t really hold up compared to 1000-3000 ft up. I would buy this more for zipping around and doing stunts, if thatā€™s not what you want, maybe itā€™s not for you.

Iā€™d definitely say that if you want to sight-see, get a helicopter like the Mini 500. Better range, power, etc. The ONE is fairly purpose-designed and I hope it stays that way.

tbh, not everyone does sightseeing the same way. If you just want to go look at a certain area, and donā€™t care about range and speed, you can do that perfectly fine in the Astro. itā€™s a lot easier to keep hovering and checking out a POI in very high detail.

So in the end (as usual) it very much depends on what you want to do.

great for stuff like this, and you can easily get even closer for the finer details. Didnā€™t take another screenshot, but the detail in that POI was amazing to see up close.

INTRODUCING RACE FRIENDS!
Iā€™m very proud to announce a new Global Race Series, RACE FRIENDS. Semi-officially in collaboration with Got Friends and featuring all their fun aircraft. Letā€™s get racing these wonderful machines!

New website launched featuring the full year plus Calendar of Events: http://www.racecraftgames.net

Join my Discord for more info and to get notifications of upcoming events: Baracus250's MSFS

LAUNCH EVENT:
Letā€™s kick this off with the first ever race, held at Silverstone Motor Racing Circuit, England. This is a relatively easy track with the Lake Skipper, but nicely flowing with amazing detail in the scenery (with the required mods). Itā€™s guaranteed to be a close race!

  • DATE & TIME: Sunday 7th May 2023 at 4:00pm UTC
  • AIRCRAFT: Lake Skipper
  • LOCATION: Silverstone (ICAO = EGBV)
  • SERVER: East USA
  • MODS REQUIRED: 3 mods required, see Calendar or Discord

See the actual Race Thread here:

1 Like

Sorry, Conflict with Expedition Earth group flight.

Have fun.

Ah. Thanks for mentioning. What time does that usually finish? What time would be better for you?

Looks like I need to change it! :slight_smile:

Nice series idea, though you will need to run multiple races to cater for timezone incompatibilites if you truly want to be ā€œglobalā€. eg: 4pm utc is 2am in Oz. I know BushDivers runs two sessions of their bush trips to try and cater for a global base. Something to think about?

Unless you mean by global as global locations, in which case, never mind!

Hey thanks!
I did originally mean global as in ā€œevent locationsā€ but that is a good idea that I will definitely consider. Thanks for the suggestion!