..just another open letter to Luthier, Oleg and 1C
 

Dear Luthier, Oleg and co.

first of all allow me to express my admiration for what you have achieved so far, I unfortunately haven't had a chance to play with the new sim yet, but apparently once again you set up a new benchmark, so hats off to that, you guys rock.

Having said this, I would like to use one of my grandad's favourite sayings "one constructive critique is more productive than a thousand compliments" and talk about something that has really got me thinking since the early release of Cliffs of Dover.

I'll get to the point: what exactly is the problem with your PR guys? I mean, you're not working on the next water engine here, or sending rockets to Mars, and no offence but there are way bigger game developing houses working on bigger games than yours, so what is it with all the secrecy?

Our hobby (and your job) is a niche one as we all know, so if anything there should be a more open exchange with the community, or at least caring to share what's going on in an ordinate manner (like your colleagues at RoF did and keep on doing for example).

Don't you really see all the people regularly asking for updates? Or more simply you're deciding to ignore it? Let's not forget that it's even thanks to those people if you guys receive money, so if anything showing a bit of respect would make a lot of people a lot happier.

The last post by Luthier with the Kremlin screenshot and the allusive message was a typical example of your technique of "let's drop a nugget there so they are busy speculating on this", but it's an old one, and frankly among us there are a lot of mature, competent or more simply intelligent people that don't really appreciate your patronising attitude anymore.

Luthier seemed to be the man of change, with his better knowledge of English and is more upfront image, but now it all seems to have gone back to the old days..

I will conclude this letter with a hint from someone who worked in the world of media for years and has a lot of experience in PR: make an effort and show regular updates on what's going on, spend some time with the fanbase, because it's only thanks to these folks if you are where you are, if you don't show some respect you will lose all your credibility.

I know you won't bother answering as you haven't done in the past, but this is yet another little post..

Your sincerely

A Huge Fan

+1 In my working life I have always said I can manage good news, or bad news, it's just no news I can't manage. Communication is key, with the team, with the stakeholders, and yes with the customers.
Here we the community is both part of the team (unpaid beta testers) and the customer - and given that we can influence our friends and colleagues opinions, we are key influencers as well. I know parts of the community has a tendency to jump on anything you say and some twist it to their own needs - but some news good or bad will stop some of the wild speculation and allow the level headed amongst us to make informed judgements.
I hope we get some form of update on the next patch eta and roadmap soon, but I won’t hold my breath, though it would be nice to be pleasantly surprised.

Well written open letter but...
...I don't have the game yet so I hang here in the forum.
If I had the game I'd be flying while waiting for patches!

Nice +1

Customers are included in the stakeholders. I know you tried to be redundant here... After all, this forum is aviation related. :-P
Cheers.

Communication can be better, but it's a double edged sword in a way.

I agree that it would not hurt one bit for Luthier to quickly pop on here and say: "Sorry, no patch this weekend...very busy right now...got to run."

But on the other hand, do we expect him to lay out a roadmap for the next two or three months? That can get messy.
If he commits himself to saying that (for example) engine sounds will be implemented in the next two months, people are going to consider that written in stone and hold him to that.
Then some problem crops up, maybe something nothing related to sound, but it puts the schedule behind by a few weeks.
Then people start compaining that they were lied to, that this game will never be finished etc.
You know how it goes.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

+1.
Also +1 to the point Sternjaeger II brings up. We would appreciate (us people, who actually bought the game and beta test it.) to have an update on what is going on.

hum... I'm wondering if they haven't come back from that holiday, made a quick and dirty beta (apparently knocking out multiplayer....) then leave back to their vacations !! :D !! Cause, FRANKLY... voila...

That kind of caught my eye too... People who have supported the game financially get called trolls for speaking out their frustration, but praising the devs whether owning the game or not seems allways be +100.

This is a strange, strange forum...

Yeah you right. But he used to come here on fridays and drop a message: We might be posting up a beta patch in a couple hours, or if not ready by tonight it will appear on monday.

People can't possibly be saying this is written in stone at all... And it makes us more patient (or not, but it certainly gives us some understanding of what's being done and what to expect shortly), unlike being left in total blackout.

Especially since the last (3rd) betapatch which we have yet to know if he is going to implement it, or not implement it, is he going to make a beta patch (BetaPatch episode IV: A new hope) or jump straight to an official release...

etc... etc...

I thought Maddox games has been letting us know where they stand. I know they have been working almost 24/7 to improve performance, fix bugs, and canceled their May holidays. They hoped to have another patch this week, but I figure its quite obvious that they've run into some technical difficulties, and doesn't require an immediate update.

"don't really appreciate your patronizing attitude anymore" doesn't sound that constructive either.