Black Cat Simulations Swag

.9 July 2016

-The trip to Ukraine is firm, in early July. I'm also going to Moscow on the same trip to have a look around at Monino. We should have a cool story to tell after the trip.

- We now have a paypal link at http://www.blackcatsimulations.com. The purchase amount is up to you. I want to reiterate that we do not have a Third Party license (yet). Per the EULA, we cannot take commercial advantage of DCS, so officially, we are not offering future Tu-22M3 Backfire modules in exchange for your purchase. No promises. A purchase does not equal a future DCS module!

Purchases of $50 or more entitle the purchaser to some swag. We've got some really nice thermoses (thermi?), some interesting wood mousepads, and shirts. I tried to avoid stuff that you would find useless, and I own a prototyping business, so these were easy things for us to put together. Some of the precise details on the mousepad and thermos may change (fonts, positioning), but you get the idea from the pictures:

- We are a long way from a final product. A purchase now is essentially an investment in the future of Black Cat Simulations, and we really appreciate that. Many efforts like this die off for any number of reasons, and neither you or we want it to be due to a lack of funding. We think you deserve to know how your money is spent, that we have a realistic plan to get to the final product, and we want to tell you a little more about what the simulation will be like. We want a solid case that a purchase of swag now is worthy of your hard earned $$.

Finally, many thanks to those who have already given moral support, and offers of support already. I'm excited.

Brian

Black Cat Simulations

As someone that is very excited to see this project succeed I want to help these guys out. I want to make sure we conform to the rules so everyone starts out on the right foot. Any purchase made here are for their company swag only, no DCS product will be awarded or promised at this time, any purchase should be assumed that you will only receive the swag items they list in this thread. Any questions, feel free to PM me.

SiThSpAwN

Nice :)

The best news of the week! Nice hear about you again!

Finally figured out how to get Paypal to let people enter their own donation amount. First post updated accordingly.

Thanks,

Brian

I donated. Hey as long as you guys are transparent and treat your customers accordingly I'll be happy. Good luck on the dev status and good luck with the trip. Would love to see a large debriefing after. Do you have a Facebook page?

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I donated. Hey as long as you guys are transparent and treat your customers accordingly I'll be happy. Good luck on the dev status and good luck with the trip. Would love to see a large debriefing after. Do you have a Facebook page?

 

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No Facebook page, it's not a priority at the moment. Personally, I'm on Facebook every eighteen months or so when my wife gets mad that I'm not commenting on our kids' photos. :(

For now the main Tu-22M3 thread on this forum is the heart of communication for this project. Feel free to chat it up there.

Brian

No Facebook page, it's not a priority at the moment. Personally, I'm on Facebook every eighteen months or so when my wife gets mad that I'm not commenting on our kids' photos. :(

 

For now the main Tu-22M3 thread on this forum is the heart of communication for this project. Feel free to chat it up there.

 

Brian

Thanks Brian. I'll keep an eye out here.

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First time Ive ever donated! Not too much since Im a poor student but I hope it helps :)

First time Ive ever donated! Not too much since Im a poor student but I hope it helps :)

Thanks, mate!

I'd like to know if you keep us in the loop wrt donations and such. I've donated and some kind of acknowledgement would be appreciated.

We have received $140 in donations so far from 5 people, and my sincere gratitude to them.

I've been through ups and downs about that amount, whether it indicates a lack of interest, etc. I was expecting more. I think the inability to tie donations to future modules is part of it, that the notice can't go on the main thread is part of it, that we don't have anything to show is part of it. I've been repeatedly told by many, many people, that our focus needs to be on getting the work done that ED wants to see to grant Third Party status, and they're right. Our problem is, we won't have what they want to see until after Ukraine, plus some time after while we get the models and design document polished up. In the mean time we have the trip expenses and scanner expenses on day one.

I'm unsure how popular and hence how profitable this project is going to be. It will appeal powerfully to a subset of the DCS community, but no matter how much I try to offer simplifications to the experience, it's going to be a steep learning curve to get bombs on target, or missiles away at a carrier, etc. It will always be a procedural sim. Combat flight simmers are a small part of the larger flight sim community, and I think the Tu-22M3 will be a further subset of the combat sim community.

That leaves several things to think about all the way through the development process. Do I proceed because I think it will make money? Do I proceed because I'm too proud to quit? Do I proceed because I love the idea so much that I'm willing to go ahead, knowing that I will always be taking a loss, relative to what my time is worth doing other things?

I don't think the answers to any of those will get clearer until we submit our package to ED. My plan right now is to proceed, but to proceed 'at risk', as we say at GE, going ahead with the Ukraine trip, and doing a lot of work, but leaving an exit open after talking to ED.

Brian

Personally, I am excited at the possibility to get a DCS Tu-22M-3 as are several others I fly with. I like the direction you are going to get there too. The only hang up I have right now that prevents me from donating is the fact that ED has not signed off on the development yet. Until that happens I cannot justify throwing funds at a project that has a very real possibility of being stillborn from the get go. If I were wealthy this would not be a problem but alas, I am not. I am heartened you have decided to stay the course for now and I wish you luck on the trip to Ukraine and Russia.

In retrospect, the swag idea was not a good one, certainly not for my morale. Pressing ahead, but please do not donate any further until I can take the Paypal link down; I'm on vacation. It's not worth the time overhead on the project. Funds will be returned to the donators.

Brian

I will buy every plane that comes for DCS, and the TU-22 and SU-24 are some of the most desired modules for me.. If everything goes well I will be the first one to buy your preorder of the plane.

My only concern about the module, apart of the difficulty of get enough info of the systems, is how are you going to deal with the multi seat.. are you going to develop an AI system like the one that Leatherneck is doing for the Tomcat ?

I think that this community will buy everything that you throw on it, but first you need to show your work and ensure that the project have future, remember that there were projects canceled before, like the F-35, the WW2 project.. and two launched modules with long developing times and far to be finished.

The reason is simple.

They have already been a donation campaign a couple of weeks ago. That campaign was about a texture mod, which was completed at the time the guy asked for money. It racked above 3000$ for something already finished. It's already nice that some gave money in the beginning of your project.

They've been already a lot of issue with investment. F35 kickstarter failed. WW2 one succeded but then project crashed midflight (hopefully salvaged by ED). Several 3rd party have trouble finishing their current projects.

It is not surprising everyone is cold about giving money ahead :music_whistling:

While this plane is the one that i'm the most interrested in, I would recommend to seriously review your motivation. This project will seriously take your time. It will likely sell correctly, as it'll be the very first "heavy". Even people with minor interrest in heavy will likely get it, out of curiosity. You can also value the project in "experience/showcase" for your future. Even if it doesn't sell well, this may also be a showcase of what you can achieve. This may impact positively other project, even non flightsim related. But.... People will likely not pay ahead of the project. They will rush their credit card when you'll have something flying. :pilotfly:

Best Regards,

Pierre.

In retrospect, the swag idea was not a good one, certainly not for my morale. Pressing ahead, but please do not donate any further until I can take the Paypal link down; I'm on vacation. It's not worth the time overhead on the project. Funds will be returned to the donators.

 

Brian

For what it's worth, IF you continue your trip to the Ukraine, then keep my money, have a nice dinner on me or a some Stoli..

In the meantime, think about a business plan before investing money and time.. Too many projects die because there is a lack of common sense, and too much enthusiasm.. I'd like to see this (or any other ) project come to completion. But not if the cost is too high.

And last, Swag... that's not what I want to do with my money. If I invest in a project swag is the last thing I want my money to buy.. It's the last thing I'd want to see the people I'm supporting spend their time on.

I am VERY interested in prospect of Tu-22M in DCS. But, at this stage, I would be wary about pledging to it or buying stuff related to it. Please don't get this wrong, but this is how it is, and I am fairly sure it is so for many too.

Crowd funding and DCS does not have a very good history together. It's just that.

Now, I can't know if developing the Tu-22M for DCS will be feasible without monetary influx during the development or not. But, I would say there would be very signficant interest if it can eventually get released.

Like I've said, it is just, donation, crowd funding and buying merchandise for something that does not yet exist is not something majority of the community is too eager on. At least that is why I personaly stay away from donating to something that may or may not eventually exist. But if there would be DCS : Tu-22M one day, I'd prepurpchase it on day one.

Don't worry folks, i get it, Im a little wiser now

Would definitely pre purchase if the there is some warm fuzzy feeling that the module could be released somewhat functional to public within 1 year, not more. Waiting more is not really realistic for many as seen in past cases.

I donated anyway, I would love to see this project go on!

Changed my mind again. Please keep the donations coming, no matter how small. And lets forget the swag; 100% goes toward expenses. Every little bit helps at this point. As stated previously, I'll give an acciunting after the trip on where the money goes. I just ask that you balance out concerns with the past history of crowdfunding against what this could become, and even if it's 5 dollars it helps. If you even want to earmark funds to go only to the museum, just PM me. I'll also try to post some more detail to feed the discussion mill on the main thread

I am extremly interested in this and so are many others that i know but it is a huge risk albeit for a small amount of money. We've seen so many other crowdfundings go very badly in this sim. The day when you have a official third party license and something substantial to show is the day i'll gladly pay 60 $ for your product. The game needs more USSR aircraft, and this would be a great addition.

Seeing the nice photos from your trip I got super excited. As such, I donated some of my superexcitement to you guys via the PayPal link. Not much, but something I can give.

I wish you and your team perseverance and guts on this project. That aircraft is gorgeous

Seeing the nice photos from your trip I got super excited. As such, I donated some of my superexcitement to you guys via the PayPal link. Not much, but something I can give.

 

I wish you and your team perseverance and guts on this project. That aircraft is gorgeous

Thanks DirtyFret!

Great now I have to buy a yoke and throttle