F-14 Release Date Discussion Thread

Says the computer geek playing airplanes on the computer. :lol::thumbup:

 

 

Edit: To be fair, I'm doing the same thing. :joystick:

He flew Tomcats in the Navy..... the real thing.

Which is impossible in a computer simulation unless you have a FFB stick and even that's just rudimentary. The last good one was taken off the shelves in 2003, even before the Tomcat has been taken off the boats.

I use a Gametrix Jetseat. To give "seat-of-your-pants-flying" a new meaning. There is also the new Realtus Forcefeel Seat... far better than just a stickrattler.

FFB Sticks are cool for helicopter, but not for the feedback.

The last open beta update before the end of winter is March 13. Personally would love to see it sometime in February but whenever HB release it is fine with me. At least it will be in better shape than the hornet is or has been since it’s release

How a sim plane handles can be interpreted no less by what's going on the screen than what an FFB stick will do for you.

Yes, thats true but it's just much easier with a FFB stick. That is if FFB support has been properly implemented.

Knowing you're riding right on the edge of the envelope just from the feel of the stick without looking at the HUD or a single gauge in the cockpit is one of the reasons I keep flying in DCS. While I do enjoy the FBW jets, the modules I keep coming back to are the ones that give me that ability.

One of HB's developers actually stated that they now have a MSSFB2 joystick in house, so I believe FFB support is coming, probably not at EA but at some point. Im quite stoked for that. :joystick:

Yes, thats true but it's just much easier with a FFB stick. That is if FFB support has been properly implemented.

 

Knowing you're riding right on the edge of the envelope just from the feel of the stick without looking at the HUD or a single gauge in the cockpit is one of the reasons I keep flying in DCS. While I do enjoy the FBW jets, the modules I keep coming back to are the ones that give me that ability.

 

One of HB's developers actually stated that they now have a MSSFB2 joystick in house, so I believe FFB support is coming, probably not at EA but at some point. Im quite stoked for that. :joystick:

Yeah that will be cool for the guys that have that ability.

.. This thread turned out to be decidedly less fun than I had hoped. : D

1. Raising everyones expectations for imminent release by saying it will come (quote) "very, very soon™" on Livestream in November 2018

2. People go crazy

3. Keeping release date vague

4. Wonder that people have different definitions of soon™ and are unhappy when they find out the release date is not close to what they thought

4. ????

5. PROFIT!!!

Jokes aside. Honest question what did you hope it would become? This thread was doomed to be a shitfest. People throwing made up release dates at each other, getting first hyped and then dissapointed. It's not your fault, but the logical consequence of such threads.

So with the January window rapidly closing, what do you guys place your bets on now?

Feb or end of winter?

Hopefully there will be some new videos as the youtubers should soon be somewhat familiar with the basics and ready to punch out those tutorials :D

Why don't we just change "Winter is in the sign of the Cat" to "Spring is in the sign of the Cat" and be done with it? :thumbup:

I mean, yeah, 21 of march is the start of spring, but if we get it a few days before that, it will be spring by the time we fly her anyways. We just need more patience, that's all.

He flew Tomcats in the Navy..... the real thing.

Fair enough as far as his experiences in real life. In relation to the simulator though (which that's what this is), it's a game and is literally geeks playing airplane in a game. I found the comment funny about button pushing computer geeks being "solely" for the Hornet.

1. Raising everyones expectations for imminent release by saying it will come (quote) "very, very soon™" on Livestream in November 2018

2. People go crazy

3. Keeping release date vague

4. Wonder that people have different definitions of soon™ and are unhappy when they find out the release date is not close to what they thought

4. ????

5. PROFIT!!!

 

Jokes aside. Honest question what did you hope it would become? This thread was doomed to be a shitfest. People throwing made up release dates at each other, getting first hyped and then dissapointed. It's not your fault, but the logical consequence of such threads.

1. "very, very soon" can have different meanings to different people, as you yourself point out. If anyone wanted to know what that meant here, once again, the specified release window was "Winter". Big difference between 'I thought' and 'you said'.

2. People "go crazy" in what sense? You mean people get excited because the F-14 has entered pre-purchase?

3. Vague is "TBA". If anyone was unsure of the date range of Winter, all they had to do was google.

4. People built expectations outside of the terms of sale. That's not unusual, and it's not Heatblur's fault. In fact, when Cobra said they were aiming for Xmas, he prefaced it once again with the guarantee of "Winter", the only guarantee he has ever given.

4. I have no idea what your line of question marks means. If you elaborate I'll do my best to answer.

5. Cobra has offered to refund anyone who felt misled. It's tough to see how he might profit from unrealistic expectations that way.

I'm fairly sure I remember release date discussion threads for the Hornet and the AV-8B, and people did speculate on when the module would come out. Yeah, there was some disappointment when one would pass without a release date, but people had the perspective to chuckle and move along to the next one, as many of us are doing. It's a shame that this has been repeatedly dragged off-topic to become the 'Release Date Trolling Thread'.

 

4. I have no idea what your line of question marks means. If you elaborate I'll do my best to answer.

 

I am guessing you never watched Southpark or know the meme.

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/profit

I am guessing you never watched Southpark or know the meme.

 

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/profit

Don't know the meme. I did watch South Park but I don't recognize that... then again, those years were a bit blurry for me :smilewink: Thanks for enlightening me.

So with the January window rapidly closing, what do you guys place your bets on now?

Feb or end of winter?

 

Hopefully there will be some new videos as the youtubers should soon be somewhat familiar with the basics and ready to punch out those tutorials :D

I will repeat my prediction from last year:

I would expect March 20th as the open beta release date

March 20th

Heatblur can release this whenever they feel it's ready within the timeline they've laid out, of course. But I'm sure they understand if some people are disappointed when Heatblur said they really hoped to have it ready by the end of 2018, and were still repeating that hope as close as a month beforehand. And I understood that was a hope and not a promise and I understood when that date slipped. But it certainly made me think they were at least very close. And they released copies to Youtubers a few weeks ago. So I guess I'm saying, they've given every indication they're very close to release and it is very imminent. If they decide to push it back to March, while totally within their declared window, I'd be pretty surprised and disappointed. If it was close enough in December for them to think release was imminent, what's up with an additional 3 months of time?

You’ll likely understand about three minutes into your first flight.

You’ll likely understand about three minutes into your first flight.

Out of pure curiosity, were you one of the Pilot resource that HB worked with?

Heatblur can release this whenever they feel it's ready within the timeline they've laid out, of course. But I'm sure they understand if some people are disappointed when Heatblur said they really hoped to have it ready by the end of 2018, and were still repeating that hope as close as a month beforehand. And I understood that was a hope and not a promise and I understood when that date slipped. But it certainly made me think they were at least very close. And they released copies to Youtubers a few weeks ago. So I guess I'm saying, they've given every indication they're very close to release and it is very imminent. If they decide to push it back to March, while totally within their declared window, I'd be pretty surprised and disappointed. If it was close enough in December for them to think release was imminent, what's up with an additional 3 months of time?

Because we're committed to quality (as clichéd as that now sounds) and making release decisions based on non-date factors.

Our thinking is dynamic. If we have an allowance until March 20th, and we feel that we can do thing X that will have a more positive impact versus releasing earlier, we do that - despite it costing us goodwill and revenue (and development costs!)

As long as, of course, that doesn't put us beyond Mar 20th.

Hope that sort of makes sense, it's a little hard to explain.

Beyond that, there's of course been bumps in the road - things that need revision. Rust needing removal (!) :)

It’s dripping with obvious attention to detail and general awesomeness.

Why do so many want it now? Every day it gets better. I hope they take their time.

Rust needing removal (!) :)

Ah I see you had to replace some old screws ;)

Because we're committed to quality (as clichéd as that now sounds) and making release decisions based on non-date factors.

 

Our thinking is dynamic. If we have an allowance until March 20th, and we feel that we can do thing X that will have a more positive impact versus releasing earlier, we do that - despite it costing us goodwill and revenue (and development costs!)

As long as, of course, that doesn't put us beyond Mar 20th.

 

Hope that sort of makes sense, it's a little hard to explain.

 

Beyond that, there's of course been bumps in the road - things that need revision. Rust needing removal (!) :)

Thank you for the response Cobra. It sounds like March is where I should set expectations, then. I'm sure it will be worth it.

While Cobra's comments are appreciated and understood, my take, said differently, they still have a lot of work to do, and are not close. Still doesn't clearly answer Kengou's question. If HB maintained the hope of a 2018 release until late December 2018 (by not communicating otherwise until the week prior to Christmas), what gives with the additional 3 months? Back to my earlier point (prior post) and only complaint in the process. Poor communication. They would have had to of known how far off they were much earlier to late December as reinforced by their now requiring the additional 3 months to finish the module and workout bugs serious enough to prevent release, scarcity of content by folks who have the module, and virtually no updates since the late December bombshell. I know there are plenty that gush all over HB and will say they stated Winter 2019 as definite, but they also said "hoping" for 2018 at the same time, and in my opinion strung us along far too long before coming clean in late December. Would have been much more tolerable if they were ready to release say end of Jan 2019. One could then say, well they were close, but this is simply not the case. 3 months past not being close and are most likely facing a crunch to even meet the Mar 20, 2019 deadline. Given Cobra's statement about commitment to quality- I expect this module to be virtually bug free upon release then. Otherwise, the additional 3 months was a crunch to finish a lot of work remaining to be completed that they should have been upfront about much earlier than late December.

Ok, I am done ranting and have given all the HB "fanboys" enough ammunition to feed off of supporting their beloved HB. It is what it is, and I have always been fine with the wait. Just not pleased with the communication.

I agree SandMan23. I expect you to receive abuse shortly!

While Cobra's comments are appreciated and understood, my take, said differently, they still have a lot of work to do, and are not close. Still doesn't clearly answer Kengou's question. If HB maintained the hope of a 2018 release until late December 2018 (by not communicating otherwise until the week prior to Christmas), what gives with the additional 3 months? Back to my earlier point (prior post) and only complaint in the process. Poor communication. They would have had to of known how far off they were much earlier to late December as reinforced by their now requiring the additional 3 months to finish the module and workout bugs serious enough to prevent release, scarcity of content by folks who have the module, and virtually no updates since the late December bombshell. I know there are plenty that gush all over HB and will say they stated Winter 2019 as definite, but they also said "hoping" for 2018 at the same time, and in my opinion strung us along far too long before coming clean in late December. Would have been much more tolerable if they were ready to release say end of Jan 2019. One could then say, well they were close, but this is simply not the case. 3 months past not being close and are most likely facing a crunch to even meet the Mar 20, 2019 deadline. Given Cobra's statement about commitment to quality- I expect this module to be virtually bug free upon release then. Otherwise, the additional 3 months was a crunch to finish a lot of work remaining to be completed that they should have been upfront about much earlier than late December.

 

 

Ok, I am done ranting and have given all the HB "fanboys" enough ammunition to feed off of supporting their beloved HB. It is what it is, and I have always been fine with the wait. Just not pleased with the communication.

I understand your disappointment, but it's directly at odds with how development works (at least for us). It's not a zero sum game. :)

what gives with the additional 3 months?

Well, e.g.:

• LANTIRN went from being planned as barebones at EA to basically complete.
  
• JESTER might be able to operate LANTIRN (not sure on this one yet)
  
• New JESTER stuff (G incapacitation, injuries, more variation, more polish, bugfixing)
  
• De-weathering some stuff that was too extreme
  
• More custom foley soundwork
  
• ..etc
  

The point is, we're using the additional time to add more stuff, fix more bugs, polish more things.

That doesn't mean it will be perfect (far from it!), it simply means that we can squeeze more things in that we wouldn't have managed if we launched on Dec 21st, or whatever date. It's still EA - just shades of EA.

I expect this module to be virtually bug free upon release then

You really really shouldn't expect that. Sorry. It's early access- there will be bugs. If we had marketed the F-14 as a non-EA release, then that would be reasonable.

I'm not a fan of hiding behind the EA title - and I think we approach EA a little differently than the market does these days, but please keep your expectations in check considering it is EA.

most likely facing a crunch to even meet the Mar 20, 2019 deadline

If we launch Mar 20th and will be crunching every day until then, it's only driven by our desire to make it as good as we can until launch day. The harder we work, the better it is.

I'm not sure how to describe the sheer panic of launching something that is judged by thousands of people. It's not a nice feeling.

Ok, I am done ranting and have given all the HB "fanboys" enough ammunition to feed off of supporting their beloved HB. It is what it is, and I have always been fine with the wait. Just not pleased with the communication.

HB has always been honest with us and communicated to the best of their ability. When they gave release estimations that they missed later, they gave them because they believed in them themselves. The alternative would have been, that they would have communicated even less to avoid giving wrong information. I wouldn't want that, so I'm glad they told us what they believed in even if it sometimes turned out to be wron in the end. I want honest communications, even if it turns out to be wrong information in the end.

So, please HB, keep doing what you're doing. Not everyone is raging at it, far from it :thumbup: