I was a bit surprised at the comment made by Mr. Neumann and team regarding the Replay Tool.
At the last Q&A
Martial Bossard:
“To be honest I don’t know really what people are thinking of this tool. Which is used or not. People don’t spend too much time on that in the forums.”
Followed by Jorg Nuemann saying (with a snicker):
“We haven’t heard much”
It’s the latter comment about not hearing much on the topic (with the laugh) that tells me dev for the replay may suffer due to the Asobo’s PERCEPTION that the forums are not active about replays.
Dear Asobo: Forum chatter is not a qualitative measure for interpreting the need for a good replay.
Substantially, they are numerous threads about what is needed on replays, and often times topics are merged (no doubt this will be too), or closed…
Yet what is needed for replays is well documented, and VERY straightforward (not seen in beta):
The reason the forums are not active with replay beta version is that
It was not adequate in features or function, even as a rudimentary beta
It over complicated the utility.
It was nothing like what was expected (FSX and XP are good reference points, like the wheel, it is not needing much re-invention).
others:
it should be remade to be user friendly or at the very least a user guide. I don’t have any idea as to what i’m doing with the replay and what i have used…well it leaves much to be desired. Portalearth420
The interface is not understandable. All I want is review my landing with a single mouse click like in fsx . That doesn’t seem possible Dawu777
When i tested this beta replay i was abit frustrated after recording. I fly in VR and the record does not record the head movements, nor does it record what you do in the cockpit.
Just to see it from different outside angles is not enough for me
@ GaryX1001
Summary: Take a qualitative assessment of where the tool fails or does not meet expectations, not simply snicker (you did) that not much chatter on the forums exist, therefore interest is low.
I too at the time found their response to the Replay Tool a bit off, I mean it’s not like it’s not been talked about at all.
I get the feeling from other things they have said in this Q&A and the past ones, is that they rely too much on Jayne (and community team) forwarding on from the Forums to them, simply put I don’t think they read the forum that much (if at all). It wouldn’t harm Jorg or Martial to just take a few minutes each week out of their actual work to keep abreast of the biggest threads, or threads of their interest here on the Forums so they know what is going on outside their development bubble - this Replay Tool response being a perfect example of their lack of community knowledge.
I would actually prefer they/other Asobo devs took the time to respond here themselves, it feels like talking to a brick wall half the time (especially the VR Section). As above I’m sure Jayne & Co may well forward on bits of threads but we don’t know how much, or which threads get put into Jorgs e-mail tray, it’s all very much a “type and hope” scenario.
With other Sims/Games I’ve found Dev interaction via Forums/Discord to be very good, very open and you get a sense of what the Devs are actually about. With MSFS they just feel partially blocked and hidden away from us, with the only way to interact with them is through the short lived Q&As which are good in some ways but not ideal in others.
I think that would be quite impossible to fit in their already overcrowded work schedules. Did you see how tired they were during the Q&A, or was I the only one who noticed that.
It’s not a matter of giving an answer but many people will respond and will demand answers to their opinions.
No, better for them to leave this forum to the cm’s and mods who serve as a most necessary buffer.
I dislike the cynic in me, but this is precisely what I believe it to be.
Jörg’s utter surprise and disbelief regarding broken achievements (this isn’t a commentary on whether or not achievements are or are not important to you or me, but is a comment to a well regarded issue with multiple threads being a complete surprise to the head of the project) pretty much reinforces my belief. That and neither of the gentlemen from Asobo chimed in with a statement regarding the issue.
How do you know they have overcrowded work schedules? and how is that any different from other Sim/Game Devs who do take part in community interaction via Forums/Discord?
You don’t need to make excuses for them
Nobody would be so upset about the lack of so many basic features if this whole sim didn’t have Microsoft’s name behind it giving the illusion it’s an upgrade of FSX. It shares NOTHING with the FS franchise and that’s what we were led to believe.
I, too, was concerned with the response. I would think the Community Managers would speak up or call attention to things like this where there is a disconnect.
Replay is so basic/established a feature in every major Flight Sim in the last 20 years, that by FSX it was well established. Other Sims did it better, and my focus is not to say XP or FSX are to be compared, but all you need to know about what is needed is both documented and previously established core.
What was given in Replay Beta was rudimentary, lacking straightforward utility and frankly… a lame effort.
How much more forum discussion is needed to say that?
Well said, as are the other comments in this thread. I am in full support of what is being said here. I get the impression from what I’ve read on this forum over the last year+ is that Asobo listens to folks who like to fly airliners, with real weather, real ATC, VR, etc. Not being “simmers” themselves they have consistently underestimated/misunderstood how and why MSFS is being used. For content creators like myself, who are not interested in being an airline pilot, our needs seem to end up at the bottom of the list of priorities. Unfortunately we can’t “vote” on General Discussion threads to let Asobo know the interest in a subject. I guess our best recourse is to keep creating wish-list posts, and voting on them.
While I’m sympathetic to people who would like things for their specific purpose, I don’t think that’s the reason it should be in FS2020. It should be there because it was in the previous version of MS’s Flight Sim. Every feature of the previous version should be in the newest version, even if it’s not been enhanced at all.
Not sure why they aren’t implementing it into things like landing challenges at least. Just have an option to watch a replay on the score screen. Set up a few static & tracking camera’s around the airports, a selection of a few external & cockpit one’s = people spending more time on your game wanting to see cool replays & perfecting the landings even more.
Though they would have to sort out the ghost landing gear & animations on replays that also extends to AI & multiplayer aircraft.
.