757man From United Kingdom, joined Feb 2001, 370 posts, RR: 1 Posted (11 years 4 months 5 days 2 hours ago) and read 2801 times:
Just wondering if anyone knows if Microsoft plan to release an official add-on for FS2002? Or do they still leave this kind of thing in the hands of 3rd party developers?
It would be good if they made an add-on which enabled you to fly new aircraft, complete with proper panels and virtual cockpits - I'd love to fly something like a 757 or DC-10. Then perhaps they could make some scenery enhancements, such as making the New York airports look better, and perhaps introducing some new AI planes such as the 757 and A320.
I know you can download aircraft from places such as Flightsim.com, but I'm surprised Microsoft have never jumped on the bandwagon - I'm sure add-ons like this would sell well, especially with the Microsoft name on the box.
757man From United Kingdom, joined Feb 2001, 370 posts, RR: 1 Reply 3, posted (11 years 4 months 5 days 2 hours ago) and read 2773 times:
I know some of the 3rd party aircraft outstrip the default FS2002 aircraft, but I thought the quality of the default planes in FS2002 was far superior than compared to FS2000.
I still think they should release some enhanced scenery - While some airports like LHR, ATL and SFO look good, others such as JFK have been neglected.
Jwenting From Netherlands, joined Apr 2001, 10213 posts, RR: 21 Reply 4, posted (11 years 4 months 4 days 13 hours ago) and read 2750 times:
Microsoft SHOULD do nothing.
They COULD do it, IF there were a large enough market.
But consider the numbers. FS sells maybe a million copies (optimistic).
If the addon were to sell 1% of that, that makes 10000 copies worldwide. Say the addon takes 1000 man-hours to create for $150 an hour (including overhead, that's a low estimate).That makes for a total cost of $15 a copy for development. Add packaging, shipping, marketting, profits, etc. and you have a cost of $50 per copy Microsoft would have to charge the retailer. He adds another $10 to cover his cost and profit margin and you're paying $60 for a few airports.
Some companies can work cheaper, because they are smaller (less overhead). Electronic delivery also reduces the cost (no resellers and almost no packaging cost), but Microsoft is not in that market.
With the competition putting out quality addons (a market in which Microsoft has no experience since FS95) for much lower prices I don't see them creating an addon as a commercially viable option.
Senatorto From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 5, posted (11 years 4 months 4 days 13 hours ago) and read 2748 times:
I rather wait for a patch for FS2002. The Autopilot and ILS functions are so bad, which i hardly fly on them anymore. (may be that's a good reason to fly manual). I remember Microsoft did release a patch to adjust the Navigation and Landing in FS98 verison.
Also, since FS98, Microsoft has never released any good add-on product for FS. It is probably because the good programmers were sent to make Ace of Empire and left a handful of people to stay on FS team.
Jwenting From Netherlands, joined Apr 2001, 10213 posts, RR: 21 Reply 6, posted (11 years 4 months 4 days 9 hours ago) and read 2744 times:
The FS2002 ILS and autopilot work very well. The only landings I mess up are the ones I do not let the autopilot fly in big jets
In FS2000 I had to take over a few miles out, CAT III was out of the question.
The only thing 'wrong' is that the entire coordinate system for the world seems to have been shifted a kilometer or so in one direction which makes addon mesh cause some airports to be located inside mountains or lakes. That's a minor thing as I could have chosen not to use a non-MS addon and I would never have noticed.
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