The short, direct answer to your question is simply this:
Pay ware developers find military type aircraft products to be perennially popular and thus financially lucrative to produce.
But don’t make the mistake of dismissing that as just the skewed ramblings of a cynic.
Because, cynic though I may be, what I have said is just honesty derived of pragmatism.
Further, it would be misguided to rail against the notion that profits are the raison d’être of such
an apparently burgeoning military aircraft catalogue.
For without profits not only would there be NO aircraft - military OR civilian - but
there would be no simulator to fly them within either.
Here endeth the reality check!
I personally feel that, military OR civilian, if it flies, let it fly!
And though I might draw the line at UFO’s and carpets, choice, by and large, is a good thing.
You have good points, but some things can be even better suited in MSFS for military applications over DCS. You can’t fly refueling tankers, drones, spyplanes on their true flightpaths unless you are in a 1:1 scale world such as MSFS. I think a lot of people are missing this fact and hopefully they can see this as well.
As for Regionals: I’m currently developing multiple Embraer aircraft with my team at Ouroboros Jets. An E120 would be an excellent and quick project for the GA team some day.
I have no interest in any military or big civilian jets whatsoever but rather want the Ju, the DC-3, the Twotter or something other prop driven in the medium size for onAir. But I appreciate that there is so many models out there, eventhough most of them do not interest me. The broader audience that is catered to the better.
And if it is financially viable for the 3rd parties the better. If the feeding grounds are rich enough for many companies eventually they run out of military jets, 105knot single engine pistons and WW2 fighters and have enough money to make me a PBY Catalina. (You hear that 3rd parties? make one, you know you want it too…)
military aircraft sell well for a high-ish price particularly if you choose ones that the punters are familiar with or are fans
military aircraft tend to be occasional casual fly purchases, most people do not fly them for hours every night the way someone might in the DC6 for example. This means as a whole people are more tolerant of inop items, bugs and issues
if the FM and performance is more like something out of Topgun then anything to do with the real plane - many punters are actually HAPPY about the ability to do unrealistic Hollywood style manoeuvres. In a civilian addon any variation from published figures creates a riot
Basically create a dodgy Airbus and you are dragged over the coals whereas create a dodgy fast miljet and people shrug and buy it anyway and you make a fortune.
HOWEVER that said, there are actually some very realistic warbirds out there where the devs have put in a serious effort, the Corsair for example.
If it flies, it belongs in the sim. If you don’t want to fly it, you don’t have to. Even imaginary planes can find a place. Back in the day, Mike Stone made a couple that were an absolute blast to fly. One was realistic, based on a concept that’s still around called the Geobat. It has a circular wing, and is supposed to have very good low speed handling to the point where it’s virtually stall-free. Concept pic:
One of my most memorable experiences with FSX as a kid was flying around the UK with ‘photoreal’ scenery addon in the Avro Vulcan. Now I’m an IRL pilot. Can’t wait for JustFlight to bring it to MSFS in time.
True, many on the marketplace are terrible & are rated that way for a reason. But it’s up to people to choose to get them or not. Some are good though & they’re getting better. Military aircraft had a huge presence in FSX, X-Plane etc. You don’t have to fly them. MSFS isn’t short on commercial aircraft addons & there’s far more coming then military.
It’s called Microsoft Flight Simulator for a reason: it’s about flying. It doesn’t matter whether it’s an F-14, a 747 or a Piper Warrior, they all fly and they’re all equally valid and always will be.
Combat sims are also great, but are about "combat* so they focus more on the that. It isn’t rocket science.
I personally enjoyed the F14 a lot, firstly it’s my first love in fighters since childhood, so the design is epic, secondly the fast flying capability is nice if time is limited, quick turn ability is also welcomed when fooling around scenic spots, where flying the A32NX need to follow the flight plan quite tightly and not easy to do some mess around before approach.
Of course one might feel different and they are not forced to buy in those addons, as I don’t plan to buy anything other than the F14.
Regarding of modelling difficulty, don’t forget for military aircraft, you are much easier to approach study level detail, like DC design F14, yes they admit it isn’t a study level as it make up a battery power for startup, and no weapon firing capability, also they included a auto pilot GPS mode rather than the real thing with only heading and altitude mode. but other system detail and depth of it is very true to life for a feeling.
whereas for airliner you have a ton of systems to model of which is a lot more effort consuming, so generally speaking that makes it way more difficult to do properly.
But then the question becomes, what if the devs making these military planes simply don’t want to make airliners? There are devs making good commercial planes for the Sim, they will come.
Also if you read these forums, all the airliner people have apparently taken their bat and ball and uninstalled MSFS and gone back to XPlane and P3D so if that is true there is probably a minimal market for 15 different variants of Airbus
for airliner I think currently the FBW A32NX is great for casual simmers, Fenix A320 CEO is looking very promising, PMDG DC-6 while old is very good quality, Aerosoft CRJ is study level already so I don’t see the urgent need for more airliners to come that quick, as much as I want the FBW A380 and some semi-study level 777 or A350 I hope they arrive with quality rather than rushing to market.
anyway back to topic I think this is like asking why there’s everybody like ferrair, lamboghini and porshche all rushing out sports cars and most ppl needed some 7-seater or budget SUV for use, different developers focus on different things, that’s it and no conflict whatsoever
Ok so to go back to your original post you seemed to be saying, and I’ll paraphrase you, ‘I wish developers would concentrate on developing civilian aircraft. This is a civilian flight simulator after all.’
I would then point out that firstly there are currently only really two developers making fast jets for the sim. They are DC Designs and Indiafoxecho. I know some others have stuff in development but as of right now they’re really the only two. I’m not counting the A10 and Typhoon because I think everyone is unanimous that these are terrible mods that don’t even really belong on the marketplace.
So with that in mind civilian aircraft massively out number military aircraft in the sim. And that will always be the case. So I don’t think you really need to worry about a military aircraft take over of the simulator.
Finally whether you and a handful of others here like it or not military aircraft will ALWAYS have a place in the simulator. They’re aircraft that many, many people love flying. If people want to argue that this is a civilian flight simulator I would then counter that by saying that there are a surprising amount of fast jets in private hands across the aviation world being flown in a purely civilian role.
Asobo and Microsoft won’t allow weaponry to be displayed on any military aircraft in the sim. Thats their little nod to people wanting to keep the sim away from becoming militaristic. Personally I’m absolutely fine with that.
Where does it say it’s a civil sim? Civil or military are both welcome as far as I’m concerned. All are aircraft designed to fly so surely that qualifies them for inclusion in a flight sim. Sometimes I enjoy puttering about in the SR22, other days I enjoy blasting around in the Corsair or the T45 or F14 for the shear grin factor. I don’t fly in a military aircraft with a desire to shoot someone down or to bomb the **** out of some building, I fly them for exactly the same reason I fly in any civil aircraft.The quality is what concerns me the most and the more variety we have, so long as that quality is up there is fine in my books.
well said, of all the most important factor to me is how the aircraft’s aerodynamics are modelled, like stall property, power handling, landing behavior when flown manually is what I concerned most, the automation systems are less of a concern though as I think that is kind of boring if the plane flies from take off to landing all by itself…
