This plane is worth the $80.
Leonardo/Stefano is one of the most talented coders for flight sim.
It will keep me happy as I wait for the -800.
Day 1 purchase for both.
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Day one buy 
š«”š„¹
Was looking forward to this but the price is very stiff. Just like with JF, devs need to start owering to reflect the bigger market, this is not a small niche market anymore.
Is it worth it? Dunno, weāll see after watching a good bunch of videos, while the modeling looks fantastic, the sound i heard before was very poor and i am a sucker for accurate climbrates so weāll see how those compare.
And why o why the exclusivity. A lot working against it for me atm. Will wait for the 146 and 737 to release and make up my mind then.
Edit: Forgot to mention that i in hindsight am absolutely digging how they didnāt get a hypetrain going for a long time. I am kind of tired of these marketing hypetrains that go on forever, si i am nearly done watching at a plane before it even releases.
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Anyone seen any pre-release reviews or anything for this yet? Can see a few videos on youtube, but nothing with an actual review
I agree, the price is very high for the Maddog. A lot of people are going to sit out for the Maddog, while the lower price of the Just Flight BAe 146 will entice these same people to purchase the BAe 146.
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Agree with everything you said.
Price is not in line with the market size in MSFS compared to P3D e.gā¦ Not that that is something the devs need to take into account, but I think it will limit their sales. At least for me it will be the reason to not purchase it.
Also the availability through simmarket only seems an odd choice. Any justification for that seen?
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Same thought here. Not to say it isnāt the best simulates plane yet, but the price makes more casual gamers sit back for something else. After all there are quite some other great/similar quality airliners coming by with a lower price point. Yes itās not the MD80 but it isnāt that special as a must have for a lot of ppl. But after all I am not the developer and by no means I can know whether the price is making them more money or less
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yesā¦ I was just about to get the Rotate MD80 on xplane after becoming a MD fan through the MD11, so this is great news.
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This will be THE reference MD80 to have for sure. And yes, this isnāt for everyone. Not in terms of price as well as complexity.
What a lot of people forget is that not every plane caters to the general audience. Some are niche products with niche pricing, intended to appeal to the section of people who want the best of the best in terms of add-on fidelity for that specific type.
One example would be something like say, a Piper Tomahawk. Letās say Carenado brings theirs over. Looks pretty, flies decent, costs 25 USD. Now, raise your hands if you would pay a 100 euros for a Piper Tomahawk. Most folks here wouldnāt. But for a study level aircraft with complex failure simulations, in-depth engine management, etc. etcā¦ the right people will. The MD80 is priced to appeal to people who are in love with the type but want more than just a pretty AA skin on a so-so model with little depth.
Casual fliers are not the target market for this aircraft. They can whine about price all day long, but Leonardo priced it because of the huge amount of work involved to make it this complex. Selling it cheaply also means inviting buyers who are simply incapable of flying this as intended - and complaining about things that are covered in the manualā¦
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True. Many casual simmers enjoy aircraft that they see at their local airport and wish to fly in the simulator. Thatās not the case with an MD80 anymore, or an MD11 for that matter. Tfdi is pricing that around 120 dollars for the full package.
I will buy them instantly, just because I love the type(s) that much and want a deeply simulated version of it. I get how many people donāt enjoy them (yet) as they donāt know these aircraft and I donāt mind picking up their share that got lost in the market.
We all have our preferences. As for me I have zzzero interest in flying military fighter jets and I wouldnāt fly them in the sim if youād thrown them at me for free. Each to their own hea.
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Donāt really agree on the pricing strategy is perfect stance, I mean this is not for those who just do arcade flying and do some crazy driving.
But for newer gen summers who want to try on study level plane I do think it could go lower and make Leonardo make more money. Not so good a comparison is the DC design concorde, itās no where near study level but see how big a hit all over the place, when they cost like 40% and outsell the md80 but 3-4 times, you know which way reward the hard work of Leonardo team more.
I am all open for developers to make more money, but have to see how pmdg release their 737 with pricing etc. when pmdg can say sell much cheaper, no way the MD80 canāt.
Thing is ppl like myself is eager to eventually fly one true study level airliner, but when as you said md80 is no longer a plane in every major airport, the interest in it inherently be lower, and if the sale figure become a flop due to competition, itās not good to Leonardo nor the md80 fans. Just my personal opinion.
Just saying in real life a Ferrari or Porsche is worth every cent spent, but if somehow Lamborghini decide to drastically drop its price due to market, it might not be a great idea for them to cling on the old strategy
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Iām a bit worried to buy the āsameā aircraft twiceā¦ see why below comparing P3D vs MSFS. You can clearly see they re-used same textures on most of the elementsā¦ 
MSFS
P3D
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So the price should be lower, because they already have a lot of experience from the previous releases. For them it is a port to the new platform with a much bigger audience. See what others have released and where they have started (for example boeing 247).
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I agree and don;t think the cockpit textures are going to be at the level of JF BAE 146, PMDG 737 and Fenix A320. Re-used from P3D. The spring for the side window is not round but squared off. Looks absolutely horrible. All this for EUR75 ??? I will be curious on the comparison with the 146 and 737 cockpit textures when they all release.
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I agree with you. If itās only a remaster for MSFS, it should be a bit lower than the price of a full remake 
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I wanted to love that plane (no experience with MD 80 / Leonardo at all).
But for that kind of money iād expect a newly developed aircraft up to the standards of its environment.
It looks like a port. On the outside and on the inside.
Also i canāt see or read what they (or just āheā?) are having on their roadmap.
I canāt see variants and in the past those seemed to cost extra (if there would be a cargo variant i would want to buy it but there is none and probably wonāt be).
I think iāll continue using the FBW until PMDG and Fenix are around.
Top notch products up to standard is the only case iāll gladly pay the premium price.
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Upon closer look, I do have to agree that the modelling and texturing inside and out are not exactly on par with what the 146 and especially the 737 are coming up with. You can tell the 737 has been rebuild from the ground up or almost, and it shows. Obviously the vast majority of the P3D MD80 model have been ported as is, you can tell right away with comparison screenshots. Fortunately, their previous VC model was already very good, so in addition with MSFS Global Illumination engine, it does the trick. However, one could expect more of the highest priced (as of yet) payware.
This makes sense. I still suspect though that thereās more to it than just being a simple port in terms of workload needed. But I agree that all the research/coding principles behind simulating the aircraft is already well mastered by the dev team. Itās not like theyāre doing a whole new aircraft. Apparently, it was also already that good that thereās not much new they can add to the aircraft that P3D couldnāt already do, save for the visuals.
This is the āproblemā for devs with the new MSFS platform. You can push the visual boundaries to the next-gen levels whereas it has been limited for a long time untill then. Meaning some team have found ways to up their game in terms of modelling and texturing. Just flight but especially PMDG certainly did and now for a lower price, and it will rightly set a new level of expectancy from prospective buyers for both system fidelity AND EQUALLY for higher visual fidelity as well for high priced project (and even mid priced). Bluebird with its upcoming 757, although not striving for study-level kind of fidelity which will mean lower pricing, also comes with a gorgeous looking VC certainly up to the highest standard yet seen. Thatās a lot of people who upped their game, especially considering that texturing is more and more a difficult job to master, one that requires very refined skills since next-gen capabilities.
Iām not saying the productās gonna be subpar of course, its reputation seems to speak for itself and seeing how I love the MD80, Iāll probably get it fast. But I agree that now, if you want to charge 70+ for a product, you canāt get away with not having both system fidelity AND visual fidelity have to be no less than gorgeous inside and out, because MSFS has certainly raised the limits in the later and some devs have fully invested in it and for lower prices than this.
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JT8D-200s series on MSFS?. Iām In!!!
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Up until a couple years ago I saw the Maddog at nearly every medium to large airport here in the US. They were also very popular in Spain and Italy through at least the 2000ās, and I also think Turkish Airlines and Aerolineas Argentina flew them. The 146 on the other hand I have never seen in the wild.