Why is everybody bugging out from SF series?

[+daddyairplanes 8,670]

so i dont get to compare the TW crew to Dr Evils again? the dutch F-5 is just screamin for a Goldmember pic post......

[Wrench 9,461]

I really don't want to know about your goldmember...

 

this IS a family site!!!

[+daddyairplanes 8,670]

EXP3 vill be delayed due to an unfortuneate schmelting accident..............

[Wrench 9,461]

[MKSheppard 4]

TK's big mistakes over the years in my humble opinion:

 

1.) Pedestrian DLC.

 

I...really am not rushing out to buy the following:

 

A-7H Corsair II (Greek)

F-4N Phantom (USN/USMC)

F-4K Phantom FG.1 Royal Navy

 

etc because they're all reskins of existing aircraft with maybe some minor 3D model work done if necessary to make them more accurate (maybe an antenna deleted or what).

 

If he had however done some unusual aircraft, such as the AJ Savage or F2H Banshee; I'd be screaming "TAKE MY MONEY NOW!".

 

Additionally, I kind of haven't played SF in a long time, because I'd just rather buy officially supported stuff, rather than go "hey, a new patch just came out; time to spend several hours correcting things in mods the new patch broke."

 

HINT: Red Fighter Packs containing about three models (MiG-15/17/19) per pack would sell like hotcakes.

 

YES, TAKE MY MONEY TK, SO I CAN PLAY OFFICIAL MiGs!

 

Wait, you're not doing that? Bah.

 

2.) Lack of Continued Innovation.

 

There's a reason I didn't buy SF:NA.

 

Sure, it had the F-14 and a bunch of 'modern' USN ships in it; but there wasn't any extension of the game engine into areas people had been screaming for since 2003, such as:

 

No radar bombing mode that could be used to simulate optical bombsights or stuff like the A-6's DIANE or the F-105's bombing system.

 

Air to Air missiles, strafing, and guided bombs kind of get boring after a while.

 

No actual terrain following radar, making it impossible to simulate a F-111 strike in North Vietnam.

 

Now, we don't need 100% accuracy, because we just need a 'generic' model for them that can be applied across different aircraft across different eras.

 

A simplified design would also be cheaper to code.

 

3.) Leaving Money On the Table.

 

This is a subset of 1; but TK kept on saying "no WW2", "no WW2", when WW2 is the biggest selling era for flight sims, ever.

 

WW2 is also big enough to support several games alone, meaning even more monetization, but he left all that on the table.

[+FLOGGER23 2,793]

Do you really think, guys, he even bothers to read here from time to time to take into consideration our opinions as the, to my knowledge, biggest community that supports TW???

[+Stary 2,426]

hypothetical WW2 title would require building the assets from scratch (sans P-51D and late Griffon Spitfires, I think it could be late period a'la WW2 Fighters Ardennes) while Korea would not -if for example TK would decide to go fictional later 50s scenario; if optimized and enhanced the new terrain engine would suit the Korea theatre better... but I've been saing this over and over again so pardon me gents, I go back to my cave

 

Do you really think, guys, he even bothers to read here from time to time to take into consideration our opinions as the, to my knowledge, biggest community that supports TW???

short answer: nope

long answer: DanW lurks here from time to time to hear vox populi

[Z09SS 21]

I'm not buggung out, where can I go?

 

I just want that stutter fixed.

 

I bought the pedestrian DLC in hope that the cash infusions would pay for the stuff that took real time to code.

 

Alas...

[SFP1Ace 33]

 

I bought the pedestrian DLC in hope that the cash infusions would pay for the stuff that took real time to code.

 

Alas...

 

Instead that cash went towards recuperating losses incurred from EXP2 & SF2:NA development...Well, at least ThirdWire is still afloat, so maybe in the future will get to see more under-the-hood improvements, I sure hope so...

[Gr.Viper 131]

Might as well improve the hood itself...

[+Stary 2,426]

what Gr.Viper said

[SFP1Ace 33]

well said

[MigBuster 2,861]

Oh dear - guess the new SFA update didnt go down too well with the ignorant masses reading the reviews

 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ThirdWire.StrikeFightersAndroid&feature=more_from_developer#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEwMiwiY29tLlRoaXJkV2lyZS5TdHJpa2VGaWdodGVyc0FuZHJvaWQiXQ..

 

I'm afraid the new hood will have to wait

 

 

There is plenty to be gotten out of the PC games as they are for now -personally Im not bothered if I dont see an update for 2 years or so.

 

 

If anyones thinking of looking for a perfect combat flight sim - good luck with that

[+Stary 2,426]

today I'm going to but Vector Thrust from Desura... will have something else budget to compare

[MigBuster 2,861]

this http://www.moddb.com/games/vector-thrust

 

do a review for CA :)

[+Stary 2,426]

SFA got F-5A... boooo!

[MigBuster 2,861]

It also got a much requested rudder control - and still they moan - even though why you need that for an arcade game is beyond me

[+Stary 2,426]

(more or less) complex controls works pretty well in Air Navy Fighter / F-18 Carrier Landing, even on my small screen phone

 

edit:

to be fair ANF/F-18 are much less arcadey in feel and operations than SFA

Edited March 2, 2013 by Stary

[+Coupi 4,279]

Hello guys,

 

Just for curiosity!

 

Is this possible to have this on Blackberry?

 

Best regards,

 

Coupi.

[MigBuster 2,861]

What SFA?

 

For Android only including the kindle at the moment

 

iOS version is due soon (its with Apple)

 

Win 8 version due after that - no plans seen for Blackberry unless they decide to ditch their OS and use Android

Edited March 2, 2013 by MigBuster

[+Stary 2,426]

What SFA?

SFA=Strike Fighters Android

[Canadair 16]

The potential of the 3w series was enormous and has been mostly wasted.

I agree 100% with Skatezilla's considerations.

It should be added though, that the commnunity, including the most important modders, has huge responsability as well. Huge as a matter of fact.

I can still remember clearly the most prominent members of the modders community, climbing on smooth glass, to cover for TK most debatable "design choices", of "features" .

When the modders' leaders themeselves were covering for him, on this boards and others, covering desperately TK's bad choices, (when not the BUGS, or the open lies from TK himself), then what could we expect? Serious problems were diminished of importance, or put in a corner, or ignored.

Now he thinks he can easily go without the modders themeselves and catering to some joe 6packs customers, or android players.

He has been badly "educated" and directed by the community, again, let me underline, led by the most prominent modders. Now that he feels better he dropped them as well and locked everything. We, (you) deserved it. It is a bitter consideration, and I am really not happy to make it. We have all been fooled by TK, some to more extent than others

 

EDIT: I have about 100 gb, maybe more, of SF1/SF2 installs, and they are not leaving HD for now. The variety of 3w series is immense, we all agree with that. Still the frustation for what could have been is equally immense.

Edited March 8, 2013 by Canadair

[Z09SS 21]

To quote the TK...

 

Guys, we appreciate all your input, but please stop making it so personal. Its not about what I want, its about what we can afford. If we don't finish EXP3, its not because I don't want to, or I somehow hate you, or I'm hurt, or anything else personal like that, its simply because we don't have the money do so.

 

Threads like this remind us why we don't post here anymore. I know you guys have short selective memory, but there was a time not too long ago when we used to post here often and even in other forums, but every time we do, threads like this come up and remind us how terrible idea that is.

 

When we talk about future plans, its about what we would like to do if we have the money. Its never a promise of anything. We never promised EXP3, only that we'd love to do EXP3, if EXP2 and SF2NA did well.

 

Even though SF2NA is our best seller so far, and EXP2 is selling better than EXP1, SF2NA and EXP2 haven't recovered their investment yet - they sold about 25% more than their predecessors, but they also cost about 200% more. All those features everyone was requesting here added significantly to the cost but didn't result in matching increase in sales. So the money from PC sales are still going toward paying back all the debts we've incurred during their development. We had to take out loans, max out credit cards, sell our cars, empty our retirement accounts, and we are still falling behind in rents and payments. If it wasn't for the mobile games, we would've been out of business last year and be homeless by now.

 

Cost of developing games are constantly going up. SF2 aircraft, for example, cost more than 4x the SF1 aircraft. And our market size is not expanding at a similar rate. It's not rocket science to figure out that at some point, the cost to develop gets higher than they sell. Looking back, EXP1 was about where it crossed that line for us. So not only we don't have the money to finish EXP3, but we already know for sure that EXP3 will lose money. It has to be paid for by something else.

 

Luckily, mobile games are doing very well so far - we are just getting started there and we already have over 1.2 million downloads combined. A single one day download of one mobile game often exceed the total, life-long downloads of all our PC games combined. And the cost to develop there still very low. So we are still planning to finish EXP3, but it'll be done if and when our mobile games make enough money to pay for it (well, after paying back all our debts first).

 

To answer to the original topic, of course we're still working on PC development, especially with Windows 8. But keep in mind that the direction we're going may not be what many of you want. We're working to make our game more accessible and easier to play to appeal to a bigger market, and rely more on in-app purchases for monetizing, which means less realistic features and less support for mods in the future. Again, it's nothing personal, its just what we can afford. And like you said, 13 years is a long time to be working on one thing, and it may be time we do something else, there are plenty of other genres of games that we'd love to work on (ones that doesn't cost so much to develop).

[Wrench 9,461]

yes, we ALL read the 3W Forums ... no need to keep repeating it.

[+EricJ 3,937]

Believe it or not I don't, this is enough for me so it was actually somewhat informative... (sorry had to say it). But I do think that it should tie up the topic though.