About the APU, it DOES turn off. You just gotta right click and the switch will go to the off position. I turned it off on the first try.
I did a quick flight and the engines didn’t die on me like some people have claimed.
The sounds aren’t great but they’re not terrible either.
Some switches like the parking brake are reversed, flight controls feel wonky and very sensitive, when you select reverse thrust the reverser animation on the engines goes straight to reverse instantly, only when stowing them it behaves like in real life (this was a problem in their FSX/P3D version too).
Other than that, I don’t think it’s the hideous monster some people are making it to be, and the developer said there’s updates coming so it’s only going to get better. I also think people should read the manual first before blaming the developer for problems that just don’t exist.
It ain’t Fenix or PMDG, so just go in with that in mind. I personally think the price is a little steep for what it is, but if you want an OK plane and have the money I think it’s a fun one.
Didn’t JF realized they’ve made availability of the package on the market through only one bundle for half the price vs SimMkt, being out of sync with SkySim position, as of my previous question and wondering through the link below ?
If yes, I guess they will come back with bringing availability for two separate downloads with €59.99 each …
I’m glad SkySimulations are at least considering updating this product. Let’s see if they’re true to their word…
As for YouTubers trying to be first in order to garner views, this is the state of things now, unfortunately. It matters not that a small business might be left in tatters through no fault of its own. It’s shameful, frankly — they’re doing to community no favours in the long run — exactly the reason we should always wait for someone with real-world experience to comment.
We had the same with the ATR and the majority of ‘bugs’ turned out to be over-zealous people who just couldn’t wait for official confirnation. This kind of stigma doesn’t go away in a hurry.
Glad I am not buying a single thing until I see my add-ons back in MSFS 2024. I love the DC9 but I have promised myself I will not be buying a single add-on until I have at least
PMDG
iFly
and a few other things back and working in MSFS 2024. I know it sounds stupid but it is my personal protest towards Asobo for releasing a sim where the Add-on devs are left out in the cold SDK wise. The longer I have to wait paid or free for updates the less I will buy. I just think this is such a destructive way to develop a sim.
I hope this plane gets fixed up, I watched a few streams and it does look like it could turn out great with a few fixes. It feels like the Mad Dog again, one of the most underrated Add-ons, that got slammed because people felt it was lacking visually.
Which is supposedly getting a free (for existing owners) port to FS2024 and a potential small fee paid for expansion pack to move all the textures up to modern standards, although to be fair the cockpit in the original was largely fine as it was. Just the peripheral stuff and external textures were lower res. The maddog is great and well supported though, hence the reason I will likely not get this one for now.
One more round of light fixing and I think this will be worth buying.
It’s always better to offer constructive criticism the dev can work around, rather than the all-too-common community response of trashing a new plane just because you can (or because someone else doesn’t like it).
These people really are a hindrance to both users and developers. As I said previously, it only takes one over-zealous streamer, desperate for views, to unnecessarily but completely destroy a dev’s reputation.
It is a very curious thing.
This DC-9 is expensive yes, but if the dev manages to fix things it is quite a nice aircraft.
The patch we all saw had the magic chocks bug and the AP is not working as it should yet, two very glaring problems but they fixed the APU interface problem, the reversed switches and a few extra bits.
The product is far from good and is way too expensive but it has some hopes, yet streamers bashed as if it were complete trash.
This is perhaps for another debate but I think the issue with many content creators is psychological — they cannot be seen to be wrong or to lack understanding of the product so it’s easier just to trash it and save face. It’s not an objective or useful approach, at all.
Given what I’ve seen of the product and its developer so far, I’m quite optimistic it will become a fairly decent airliner. But we shall see…
Has anyone an idea why my APU might not start at all. I hold the switch down with the mouse button, but the rpm does not start to increase. And yes, battery is on and has voltage.
I tried it first in SU1 Beta, then left the Beta, but still no success. Also tried classic and locked interaction setting.
Also the AUX HYD pumps don´t provide hydraulic pressure for me.
Wait, so you’re giving us this staunch defence against anyone telling you this is a bad addon and you don’t even own it.
And look, maybe one day it will be better. That’s why I bought it and try to fly it occasionally - in the faint glimmer that maybe there’s something there. The reality is that it’s going to take a massive effort and not in any way “light patching”.
Because it’s not just about bugs - that’s not exactly why there’s such backlash against it. You have to take a step back and look at the whole picture.
There’s just a real lack of any sort of passion and quality control, that gives it a pungent whiff of a cash grab:
The manual are just scanned pages from the DC-9 manual, with a bunch of stuff that’s not even simulated.
Some bugs on release are fine, even PMDG has them. But like misspelling the POS switch that’s right in your face as “BOTHN” instead of “BOTH” is so miniscule, so tiny that it’s baffling the dev didn’t pick it up before release. You’re charging that much money for it, and you can’t even do a basic level check?
Even the bugs that are there - surely you’d delay release if you cared about it. Engines unable to hold EPR, floating wheels, the basic cockpit switch issues. Just strikes me as not caring about the end product.
Giving a streamer an unfinished patch that not only doesn’t fix the thing it’s supposed to, but somehow makes the plane even buggier? Oof.
MD-11 was atrocious, overpriced, and saw little in the way of fixes. This one has two of the three so far.
A reputable store pulls it from sale, allegedly not just for bugs but the way it’s been built. Doesn’t happen very often.
And thing is, if this was $25-30 - fine. All would be forgiven. It would sit amongst the Captain Sims, and the MKStudios as that kind of light, niche, buy-at-your-own-risk product. But man alive is the overall package not worth $50.
What I’m saying let’s not pretend the people criticising this plane have agendas or bias or anything of the sort. I hope I’m proven wrong, I’d love a decent DC-9 but it’s going to take a lot more care and work from the dev to get it there.
There’s one heck of a difference between not owning a plane and totally slating it… and not owning that plane and genuinely seeking objective advice about it. We literally had streamers complaining about engine shutdowns when it was THEIR failure to properly set the fuel valves.
If you’re going to tell me this is a bad add-on, it’s far more constructive to elaborate rather than just saying “it’s a piece of junk”. Is it a piece of junk because you don’t know how to use it? Is it a piece of junk with potential? Can the bugs be easily addressed?
I’m not against anyone telling me this is a bad add-on — but I am against people rushing to get their opinions out without properly testing the product.
I’m not pretending anything, and I never suggested any bias from streamers. But bias is a thing in the simming community so it’s always unwise, in my opinion, to trust just one source. What I’m suggesting is that those we rely on for objective reviews at least spend some time familiarising themselves with a complex product before they start calling it trash. That’s not an unreasonable request.
Let’s at least give the dev the chance to fix things before we start applying labels or criticising his commitment. I dare say reading such negativity in threads like this isn’t exactly encouraging, especially if he’s a one-man-band.
I think people tend to misconstrue streamers as reviewers.
Some are reviewers - like Into The Blue. Many are just that - entertainment. My advice is treat it like that.
But even then I thought all the streams I watched gave a good overview of the quality of the product. Did people make mistakes, sure! Pointing out one mistake when the myriad of issues are evident - that’s not seeing the forest for the trees here. That’s my point.
V1 was perfectly right to label it as do not buy and he proved it on the stream. Not because the engine shut down. But because it’s an overpriced addon without the quality to match and a massive list of obvious, sloppy bugs.
Let’s also not act like this is a hopeful new release from a brand new dev - they pushed out an MD-11 with an equally eye-watering price tag and same lack of quality to boot. That’s what gave them enough of a reputation to earn criticism right off the bat.
When you price an addon at the level of PMDG, Just Flight, Fenix etc, you set yourself up to be compared to those standards as well. It’s not just about visual or audio quality, both of which the Leonardo Maddog MD80 falls short on, but it’s also about completeness, amount of bugs, system depth and flight model, all of which the Maddog scores very high on. This DC9 falls short on most, and even if it beats the Leonardo Maddog on some of the visuals and maybe even on audio, it falls short on everything else. At this quality level, it’s worth 20 bucks. It is currently way overpriced and it has a long way to go to reach the quality level that the price is suggesting.
I mean, whats the FIRST switch you touch after loading in? The Master Battery switch, and they didn’t even give that switch a sound, that kinda sets the bar on how much attention to detail the dev had…
