This looks exactly what is needed in the flight sims market

[Rex Bellator]

I'm an old school flight simmer from the mid-late 90s. Give me LHX Attack Chopper or Stormovik or Chuck Yeager's Air Combat or Falcon 3.0.

But then after Falcon 4.0 everything changed. Flight sims decided to cranky all realism up to 11. Everything needed to be simmed, from cockpit buttons to procedures to hardcore simulation of flight mechanics. It was too much.

The hardware limitations of 90s-era PCs made sims of that era fun and accessible for a larger audience not just for a hardcore audience.

Can't wait to try this out!

[Why485]

This is exactly how I feel.

Maybe by accident, the technical limitations and less well understood details of the day created some really compelling games that ended up being great compromises between realism and gameplay. A few games have tried to do this post-90s, but there's not many of them. I hope more people than just me attempt to make similar games to fill this niche.

[Simicro]

Originally posted by Why485:

This is exactly how I feel.

I hope more people than just me attempt to make similar games to fill this niche.

https://www.aerosoft.com/en/flight-simulation/simulators/2761/world-of-aircraft-glider-simulator

[S-Array 03]

There's a giant hole in the market for easily accessible yet realistic vehicle sims. I'm so glad to see it's finally getting filled by actual product instead of free to play games made by scummy companies. (I won't name it here but we all know what game this is about)

It's about time they get some concurency and get forced out of their comfort zone !

[HidingCat]

Exactly. I think the die-hards killed off their own genre when they demanded so much realism and attacked devs that so much as missed rivets in the cockpits.

[Rex Bellator]

Originally posted by HidingCat:

Exactly. I think the die-hards killed off their own genre when they demanded so much realism and attacked devs that so much as missed rivets in the cockpits.

It's nice to see like-minded individuals in the comments (including the developer). It's amazing how flight sims went from being one of the biggest genres in the mid-late 90s to a niche market in the 00s. Such a shame.

Hopefully we can start bringing it back for the rest of us!

[Why485]

Originally posted by Rex Bellator:

It's nice to see like-minded individuals in the comments (including the developer). It's amazing how flight sims went from being one of the biggest genres in the mid-late 90s to a niche market in the 00s. Such a shame.

Hopefully we can start bringing it back for the rest of us! :lunar2019grinningpig:

I think flight sims would have definitely shrunk in the late 00s and onwards even without the loss of more approachable and casual sims. PC gaming was expanding greatly in its audience and other genres were rapidly outpacing the growth in the flight sim audience. For example, the FPS was taking over as the graphics showcase game, a niche that was previously occupied by flight (and driving) simulators which helped them appeal to people who wouldn't otherwise be interested.

Culturally as well, "fighter jets are cool" stopped being a thing in popular culture. Increased distance from the cultural phenomenon of Top Gun, and the end of the Cold War, dampened the mainstream appeal of a flight simulator. Post-9/11, military jingoism shifted from "cool planes" to "tier 1 high speed operators." In the video game space, consoles became the dominant gaming platform in a way that pushed publishers away from the PC, and PC gaming underwent a sort of dark age. As a genre that is difficult (though not impossible) to translate to the console space, it effectively sealed the fate of the flight simulator for the near future of the time.

While I do think that chasing after higher and higher fidelity in the flight simulation genre is a factor in its decline, it's hardly the only the one. Unfortunately, even without the cultural context of today, it's created a situation where the only major (non-F2P) flying games available are on opposite extremes of the realism spectrum. You have your Ace Combats and Project Wingmans for fun action flying, opposite of Falcon BMS and DCS for your ultra-high fidelity simulation fix. Aside from War Thunder, there's almost no contemporary games in that space in the middle. That said, I think the rabid success of War Thunder shows that there might actually be an audience for such a game.

[Johnny D]

Originally posted by Why485:

This is exactly how I feel.

Maybe by accident, the technical limitations and less well understood details of the day created some really compelling games that ended up being great compromises between realism and gameplay. A few games have tried to do this post-90s, but there's not many of them. I hope more people than just me attempt to make similar games to fill this niche.

Thank god, make the gameplay and UI work first worthwhile first then the graphics and other eye candy can come later. We need more games like Pre-falcon 4.0 and F-19 , chuck yeager etc...

BTW real world MIG 21 flight ability if you're keen on a bit of modelling aspect...
(@ 19 min in)
https://youtu.be/XeBNyPsysiI?t=1142

[eeperman]

I totally share the sentiment s expressed here - I was raised on Digital Integration's Tornado and EF2000. What set these games apart was the feeling of being a small cog in a developing war - you were often just given a mission to take out an airbase and it was up to you how you did it. The games came with proper manuals that explained the mechanics of the game along with tutorial missions - they didn't just rely on enthusiasts making YouTube videos to explain what was going on.
I definitely welcome the return of a simpler flight sim, but a part of me wonders whether this also just part of ageing - all these classic sims came out when I was a kid/student with all the time in the world to learn and enjoy them. I wonder whether the 45 year old me would have the time to devote to Tornado?

[Mandellorian]

As a long time Microprose fan this is fantastic. All i need to make this complete is a seriously 80`s cheesy intro animation with a completely overblown storyboard.

[[SF]H3llR4iser]

Originally posted by Why485:

While I do think that chasing after higher and higher fidelity in the flight simulation genre is a factor in its decline, it's hardly the only the one. Unfortunately, even without the cultural context of today, it's created a situation where the only major (non-F2P) flying games available are on opposite extremes of the realism spectrum. You have your Ace Combats and Project Wingmans for fun action flying, opposite of Falcon BMS and DCS for your ultra-high fidelity simulation fix.

The "extreme realism" with its impossibly steep learning curve has been an issue for me; I was an avid flight simmer until a few years ago - like many, grew up playing the likes of Tornado, Mig-29 Fulcrum and EF2000, then moved over to civilian sims with FS98 onwards.

And yet the advent of the "microsimulation" approach where every subsystem, switch and knob in any aircraft - from a P51 to an Airbus A350 - needs to be "reproduced perfectly" has pushed me pretty much out of the hobby. The learning curve is so steep that it requires hours upon hours of learning each aircraft before you can get anywhere remotely near enjoyment - as someone in his 40s with a full time job, limited free time and other hobbies/interests to pursue, I'm simply not willing to invest so much time in one single thing.

And it doesn't end at the learning phase - many "complex" products introduce limitations that further deadens their usefulness as leisure tools (e.g. many complex aircraft for FSX didn't play well with the time acceleration, even during cruise); The new FS 2020 seems to have a similar issue even on "stock" airplanes. It limits the spectrum of what a player can enjoy - unless you got 6 hours to dedicate to it, a London-New York flight is out of the question, so you better take that 747 on a 45 minutes hop to Dublin, for example.

I've also tried multiple times to get into DCS, stunning piece of software but again, same issue - I can't really go much further than taking off, flying around a little bit and back to base, unless I am willing to sink a significant amount of time learning radar operations, weapons systems and so on.

One interesting thing is that this attitude of obsession about realism and minor details at all costs is not limited to the flight simulation landscape; As I said, I got many other hobbies and interests and one of them are model railways. The same exact thing happens there - the whole hobby is slowly dying off because people keep pushing for more realistic models, bringing up the prices into insane territory - putting off any people who'd be curious about getting started.

Originally posted by Why485:

Aside from War Thunder, there's almost no contemporary games in that space in the middle. That said, I think the rabid success of War Thunder shows that there might actually be an audience for such a game.

Problem is, War Thunder is an hateful grindy mess like all modern "MMP" games, so it is automatically disqualified.

[Repteel]

I played lots of LHX chopper attack on my first computer. Good memories. Think I enjoyed lots of the single floppy flight games more than the newer ones.

[JQB]

I think what a lot of game developers miss is the opportunities that a focus on IMMERSION brings. Microprose was always good at making you feel like you are in the world portrayed, not just playing a game loosely based on it. Realism, in my opinion, should never be more important than immersion. This includes the intro, design of the menus, etc.
One fantastic example of immersive UI used to be in "Plane Mechanic" (they have since, stupidly, made it less authentic feeling). To order spare parts and finish a stage you had to sign off forms with authentic looking 1940s fonts (your signature could be anything, a squiggle with the mouse sufficed). Ideas like this can really add to the immersion and are usually not difficult to implement, they just need a bit of lateral thinking on how to design the game.

[Stake From JateFarm]

As an Over-G Fighters fan, I am excited for this.

[Ashley]

My first sim I really got into was tfx tactical fighter experiment, this game is already on my wishlist, can't wait

[ANGST]

As a F-15 Strike Eagle on a C64 fan , I am SO stoked to see the Microprose name and this sim coming out . I very much agree on the "no time in my late 40s with kids and other hobbies" steep learning curve for DCS . I managed to learn the A-10C and Mig-21 well . Plus all the Flaming CLiffs airplanes ( since I just upgraded from Lock On ) , but so much less time these days.