This isn't that bad an article, it sums up the apathy within the general flight sim community to news of 'the next best thing'.. it's the same within combat flight sims, having personally invested my emotional energy upon hearing news of 'the next best B17 sim'... if I was to graph a spread of response it'd go from 'hard nosed' to 'down right hostile'
Creating a flight sim and combat flight sim requires lot of 'ducks' to be lined up but the reality is that there's always more work to be done, more ducks out of line... more ammunition that is supplied to disenchanted flight sim 'enthusiasts' with a web site to fire back at you.
I agree with most of what Next Gen write, heck 6+ years ago over at Targetware (vapourware) I was writing the same stuff that big business weren't interested as it's a no win situation as the flight sim community is so negative to new releases, requiring a 'complete fully featured' sim right out of the box, and heaven help us if it's got a the odd bug or two.
I want OT to step up into the BIG LEAGUES of flight simming, but those ducks are all over the place and need aligning, but where do you start ?.. If you look at flight along it's history there's very few ducks that need aligning for the early days of flight, but as technology advances into the jet age with advanced avionics of a commercial airliner and fighter the requirements are huge... If you dip your toe into the early days you run the risk of OT being labeled a 'low and slow' flight sim and that's a very niche market, if you start in the jet age you run the risk of being accused of doing only half a job.
My gut lets me to stay away from the commercial airliners, as it so relaxed in the cockpit it just allows people to look around and take a note of all that is missing and then come onto a forum and post about it...
Instead keep em really active in the cockpit, flying and dodging incoming stuff, whilst looking at the scenery. But not just in a single era of flight but instead over multiple era's, and remember we're talking about an initial 'showcase' release... A release to fire the imagination of OT's potential and drown out any criticism of missing features by 'enthusiasts'.
This is my suggestion…. (think of the terrain as a series of rings)
We create a terrain with a single grass airfield in the centre, a typical airfield in 1917 France and a single bi-plane. It’s early in the morning, there’s a bit of ground mist, you take off and fly above it and there revealed in front of you is the flat French countryside with little hamlets and villages spread around. As you fly further from the centre in the distance you notice a dark smudge and you fly towards it. The smudge becomes the front line trenches you fly over, taking steady incoming fire from small arms and the odd AAA burst, you drop a few bombs on them, that’ll keep them busy. The ground becomes more rolling hills.. Suddenly a AAA burst explodes right in front of you and you come out the other side….. it’s mid morning but in a Beaufighter and it’s now 1943, the small arms fire has increased as well as the AAA and there are now tanks and half tracks and is that a train ?.... you look at your ordnance, rockets, bombs and 20mm cannon ‘Rhubarb and Custard’ time so you line up the train and fire… You continue to fly outwards towards the growing mountain range and again a large AAA burst explodes infront of you, you come through it in a fast jet at mid day… was that a ground to air missile that just flashed past the cockpit ?, ground fire and AAA is coming from below and the sides. It’s a proper mountain range and there’s a railway bridge that you fly under, the mountain sides close in to become a canyon and this is hairy flying with rock bridges above you and the wall whizzing past on either side. You continue to fly through the canyon the stars come out and the walls become more angular and are those lights ? was that an ion cannon tracer ? and then it dawns on you, you’re flying a death star run and you’d better use the force.
I like the above because it doesn’t favour one era or one section of our fledgling community above the other .
