rec.autos.simulators

Elrikk

<snip>

Since Chris or was it Tony (I can't tell them apart) told me that RL was
nowhere near the beta stage I think you should take Neil's comment with a
huge pinch of salt.

Phil
---
Race Sim Central Administrator
http://www.racesimcentral.com

do ya think?

:)

You dont HAVE to buy those.

Read the ***y website for gods sake - it says as much...

"We will have available a wide range of binders for you to choose from
ranging from economy plastic, through stylish modern composite materials to
high quality, embossed leather binders. "

But then again - you wont be buying it anyway - so why would you care?

Doug

I don't doubt their integrity or their intentions, but I am quite skeptical
that they can even come close to what they have promoted on their web site
in any sort of timely fashion ...and some of the features that people are
dreaming about sound like pipe dreams to me. This thing *is* intended to run
on PCs, correct?

People on both sides of the issue are jumping way ahead of the starting gun
here. It seems to me, that if they are that far away from a beta, then I
wouldn't doubt that the "Core" could be a full year or more away. Not to
mention all of the free upgrades to include all of the standard features
included in most games. I wouldn't be surprised if we are still waiting
after 3 or more years for the "Standard Features" to be finalized (bug
free), much less any of the Premium add-ons. Now, this isn't intended as a
slam on the West's abilities or anything, rather just the way that I am
approaching this whole thing. As you can tell, I'm not getting overly
e***d just yet, heheh. I don't doubt that they will eventually release
*something*, but when and exactly what it entails is another story all
together...

Although I don't really know anything about the Wests. What previous games
did they code? Might I have heard of any of their previous projects? What
company were they with before their Empire deal? I wasn't around sim racing
when the WSC whirlwind landed and evaporated, so maybe someone out there can
fill me in.

I keep hearing about the X-Plane comparison. I don't know much about it. But
just on the surface, it appears to me that an advanced auto sim is somewhat
more complicated than a flight sim. I mean, you have the physics,
aerodynamics, weather, etc., same as a flight sim, but then you also have
complex suspensions and most importantly, the tire model. Then add in
multiple surfaces and everything else mentioned on their site and I'm
thinking it's going to be one ambitions project. Correct me if I'm wrong,
but hasn't X-Plane been in development for years? Racing Legends may
eventually end up being the "End All, Be All" of racing sims, but I won't be
surprised if doesn't take a while to get there with some misfires along the
way.

The thing that concerns me is the way that they are starting out. They seem
to be trying to raise Venture Capital from their customers on the front end
with all the Fliers, Info Packs, selling the beta and proposing full price
for a "Core" product with free upgrades available at some point in the
future. I think that they are going to limit their market share
significantly with this approach. They seem to be applying the full-blown
Schmooze Deal like it's some sort of corporate sales pitch, but then are
developing it on a shoestring. I think a lot of people are seeing the
inconsistencies and it isn't garnering a lot of confidence with the "Hopeful
Skeptics." I think it would have been much better if they would have come
clean with the community and said, "Look people, the deal with Empire went
bad and WSC is no more. What we have now is the same modular, open-ended,
high-realism Racing Sim Concept, but we are going to have to start this
thing off small. I hope everyone who is interested will gather and support
this effort as we really believe this could end up being something really
special." The way they are doing it now appears to be nothing but Smoke and
Mirrors to many.

If they then said, "We are very short of funds at the moment, so what we are
going to do is sell a "preview" version to those who want to support the
development of this project. The fee will be counted towards the price of
the full sim when it is released," I think it would have gained a lot more
support throughout community. Not that it doesn't have a lot already, but it
could be better.

Personally, I'm not much interested in paying any significant amount for a
beta unless it is a true beta (full featured with only bug squishing to be
done), and even then, I wouldn't take the hard-core professional
exterminator approach, I'd just mostly be playing around like everyone else,
heheh. What I would like to see would be an installment payment method to
match the "Evolution" of the game. I mean, charge maybe $20 for the "beta"
and then charge $10-$20 for each upgrade all the way through v1.00. I'd
probably be willing to spend $200 or so over a couple to three years with
this method, whereas I'm rather unlikely to pony up $150 or so for only a
"Core" with free upgrades to come at some "future date". Maybe they could
employ both methods. Have an upfront fee of $150 (or whatever) that the
"Faithful" could buy and get all the standard upgrades for free while those
on the installment plan would have to spend a total of $200 over the entire
development period. (The overall price of the installments would have to be
set beforehand so people would know what to expect.) The people paying
installments would have the confidence that they will only be paying for
what they know they want and can get out at any time, while those who pay
upfront get a break for essentially loaning the West's a little Venture
Capital.

But, I'm sure they've already though of these things...

Dave Boyle

The point is, why are they even wasting time thinking about this stuff? I
wouldn't have spent Minute Zero on this stuff at this stage in the
development.

Cook the meat and potatoes before you start adding the parsley...

Dave

BK

--
Olav Malmin
remove .spam when replying

Andre

Andre

For the record, I probably fall into the bracket of zealot myself and will
pay for the beta when it arrives. I blame society for my actions.

Regards

[snip]