The MSFS - House of Cards

Discussion Hub General Discussion
1

I see so little point in bombarding Asobo with Demands and disrespectful complaints.
Have faith and give them a chance to get their act together, and move on in a positive & profitable way, to both themselves, the consumer & Microsoft.

SO, rather than adding to the redundant list of complains & demands, time to Ponder a little —

I am thinking that MSFS 2020 is very much like a House of Cards.

A Card House is something most can relate to. Obviously a complex Software Development project is something that most clearly do not have a clue about. (and why do they need to )

So here we have it.. as many seem to see it.

Fix it, its easy .. just replace that Bottom card with an ACE .. I want an ACE !!!

################################################

But this is maybe how Asobo sees it

What Bottom Card ???

################################################

This is how the Asobo devs see it

How did that break, I wasn’t even touching that part !!

#################################################

How Microsoft (and their Shareholders see it)

###############################################

How so many in the Forum seems to see it

####################################################
####################################################

THE REALITY OF IT ALL

28 Likes
2

Nice apart from I personally don’t think I am part of a lynch mob - just a customer who a) wants what they paid for and b) try to be a more constructive participant on the forums and spread a bit of levity whilst still holding out hope that Asobo will get to where they need to be. I see no pictorial representation of this. Might want to consider an edit before the trolls seize on this thread?

1 Like
3

The simplest approach for MS-Asobo to manage expectations is to start telling a Narrative. At the moment, they are providing data. Data, as everyone knows, is not actionable. It’s not the same as Information, which enables action and decisions.

That is the biggest non-technical problem haunting these forums. No cohesive narrative. That would not silence critics, but it would give everyone a baseline to understand what happens next. And from there, more informed individual decisions can be made - stay, go, push what you want to see.

5 Likes
4

I think you make a very good point.

Without a clearer idea of what they really are doing, people will imagine & fear the worst.

Then again, they really are under no real obligation to explain anything, knowing if the do, anything they say will probably be used against them.

There are no easy answers, and very few easy questions. A lot of money, and a lot of reputation and futures are tied up in this version of MSFS. You could not pay me enough to do Jorg’s or Sebastian’s jobs, even if there was any way I could.

Dealing with the Government, FAA and NWS is one thing .. dealing with a mass of angry Gamers and Simmers is way more than I would want to handle.

While I appreciate both MS and Asobo want to appear to be attentive to the needs of their customers, one has to assume that they have developed a plan going forward, that is far more complex and involved than any Forum Group could imagine.

The BIG Picture is not how they are going address individual issues that arise, but more how they are going to navigate a master plan to deliver whatever MS and Asobo decided to create, many years ago.

Bugs and regression are to be expected. – but if you don’t try and fail, and then work to overcome those failures, you will never succeed with much in life.

Judge Asobo, not on how they stumble, but how they pick themselves up and move forward.

Might help if there a little fewer getting in the way, and tripping them up, and waving walking sticks in their faces.

GO Asobo !!! . . . . . . . . . ( and GO BOEING)

5 Likes
5

Go here and will see the same in this new section of X-plane

http://feedback.x-plane.com/

People likes complain

3 Likes
6

How you described a programming project as a house of cards is probably representative of how programming was done several decades ago. Much more a Wild West scene of programming practices, APIs, ABIs, etc. That and/or legacy systems that have been turned into Frankenstein over the years tend to be ugly to work on.

But it’s really not that case these days. Or it’s not really excusable.

With advancements in object-oriented programming, smarter IDE’s and source control systems, and things like unit testing development is more robust than ever. Even if you do make a change that might break something, you can basically have dozens, hundreds, or however many sets of “automated eyes” that will test every nook and cranny of your code to make sure that nothing unintentional has happened. You do your last change of the day, let it do its thing overnight, and if you come back the next morning to all green lights - you know that you’re set.

So ultimately, these days if your software project is really that delicate where plugging one hole opens another somewhere else that you can’t catch before it goes out the door - that’s sloppy development work.

Source: Professional simulation engineer / programmer.

8 Likes
7

OMG .. LOL .. Now you have me feeling sorry for Austin Meyer.

I want Collidable trees !!!

8

I think you have nailed it !!!

An Agile & Scrum Cluster ####

1 Like
9

You missed one important aspect…

https://cdn.trendhunterstatic.com/thumbs/fast-food-ads-vs-reality.jpeg

6 Likes
10

I would even accept the Whopper, as shown, if only, over time, it was not doing this …

Bugs are BAD !!! So are flies ..

1 Like
11

I just want to be able to fly more than 2 airplanes having paid for the deluxe version. Most options are grey out. I reinstalled it 3 times.

1 Like
12

Nothing wrong with asking for bug fixes and features as that’s what Asobo have been asking us to do as long as it’s not done in a demanding way.

It’s better to have more input than you need rather than less and I’m sure Asobo are quite capable of prioritizing what needs to be done.

2 Likes
13

Eventually, we may get around to addressing the “Elephant” in the room.

What Asobo is doing to Test MSFS during development and before releases.

I literally have NO IDEA … and it would seem that this is something, like “Volvemort”, this is not mentioned.

Not that us users have any right to know any of this information, but one has to wonder if this is the dirty laundry in the hamper.

Based on what is apparent, over the past year, – lets just say, it may not be all it should be.

Then again, whats the point of having Outside Testers that are able to concisely report issues, if they just “seem” to get ignored ?

But now I am guilty of ASSUMING far to much, without any knowledge or true facts, so time to go back to the thing I can control, and hope that others can “Take care of their own Business”

1 Like
14

Speaking personally, I don’t feel I’m sitting in judgement over Asobo, just want what I thought I was paying for and will continue to broadcast this until it that happens.

I’ll be the first one jumping up to defend them at that point. I’ll even drive down the A10 and hand deliver them a bouquet of flowers. Hell I might even stop off for a nice steak at L’Entrecote while I’m there..

1 Like
15

nice post, i really like it :pray:

16

If only you could “hand deliver” them a
“Microsoft Sidewinder 2, Force Feedback Joystick” !!!

2 Likes
17

Programmer here. At first I also thought they probably aren’t doing any unit tests, TDD or whatever, given the number of bugs that seem to pop up randomly. But after watching the Q&A (sep 30th) I realised that it must be an enormous task to write unit tests for the countless flight data parameters, nav data, procedures, weather data etc. There are so many moving parts. In hindsight you could argue that FS was not properly tested before release, but then again, given the enormous scope of this project, even with let’s say a test team of 40, FS would still haven’t been released today. I think a huge userbase is the only way get rid of all the bugs. I don’t mind having bought “beta” software and I hope many users will keep supporting the dev team. The game is just too beautiful for failure.

2 Likes
18

It’s an enormous task for sure, but that’s why ya gotta do incrementally as you go. From the first modules. Manageable then; trying to do it all in retrospect is tough.

Even things like the autopilot being squirrely and rocking side to side seems like something where you’d setup a DOE on the controller gains, run a test sequence, and find the optimal solution. Or be able to re-run that physics-only flight test to make sure it works as expected.

Is what it is. Debating or speculating what should have been done before release doesn’t achieve anything now. Still just odd to me. It’s not like we’re running into edge case bugs. It’s stuff that’s all pretty glaring within your first minutes with it.

2 Likes
19

:slight_smile: very easy to tell the Programmers and large company Project Managers, , the moment they start typing.

20

Nice to hear a qualified opinion on this and how rolling the sim out live but buggy may have been the only efficient way to launch. Their handling of communications to the masses, if this is the case, left a lot to be desired.

1 Like