• Which the release of FS2020 we see an explosition of activity on the forun and of course we are very happy to see this. But having all questions about FS2020 in one forum becomes a bit messy. So therefore we would like to ask you all to use the following guidelines when posting your questions:

    • Tag FS2020 specific questions with the MSFS2020 tag.
    • Questions about making 3D assets can be posted in the 3D asset design forum. Either post them in the subforum of the modelling tool you use or in the general forum if they are general.
    • Questions about aircraft design can be posted in the Aircraft design forum
    • Questions about airport design can be posted in the FS2020 airport design forum. Once airport development tools have been updated for FS2020 you can post tool speciifc questions in the subforums of those tools as well of course.
    • Questions about terrain design can be posted in the FS2020 terrain design forum.
    • Questions about SimConnect can be posted in the SimConnect forum.

    Any other question that is not specific to an aspect of development or tool can be posted in the General chat forum.

    By following these guidelines we make sure that the forums remain easy to read for everybody and also that the right people can find your post to answer it.

Thank you ACES

rhumbaflappy

rhumbaflappy

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Thank you past and present members of the ACES team.

You have made my life much more enjoyable with your flightsim series. I have spent countless hours playing in your incredible 'sandbox'. Well done!

I've learned much about GIS, modeling, software programming, computer hardware, Windows operating systems ( and human nature ).

As with others, I had hoped to see a long continuation of this software series. I understand this series is at it's end. I'll continue to enjoy FSX and CFS2 for many years yet.

I wish you and your families well, and hope the future will find you full of health and prosperous.

Dick Ludowise
 
I fully agree. Thank you all so much, truely the end of an era. I hope you are all able to find work soon!
 
Community.

Rather than quietly bemoaning what amounts to the destruction of a so called "community", I will be informing Microsoft that I will be boycotting their products in the future. A community bands together when it is threatened and this is a big community. It's time to cast your vote. Just my humble opinion. The guys on this particular forum are the one group who could probably organize a large scale protest if they wanted to. You have been leaders in the community so LEAD. Of course you could just meekly say "thanks" to the ACES team and forget the efforts you have all put into this hobby. Rally behind them like they deserve, or it's all over. It's not like big corporations have never backtracked in the face of public protest!
 
Hi,

I just wanted to say that I'm shocked that MS have done this, and hope you guys find other work quickly. If you'd asked me if I thought MS would ever scrap FS, I'd have said no. Shows that absolutely nothing is safe from the corporate axe. :(

Thanks for all your hard work over the years - you've certainly given me lots of pleasure (and late nights!) flying the virtual skies. I will certainly continue to do so, regardless of the future.

I'm not being too optimistic over what the PR bods at MS are saying abut the FS franchise - it's a name, not a product. I suspect anything they produce now won't be to the same standards as the past. $$$ are talking now. Their talk of LIVE = XBox in my book, with ports to PC. I'm sure you can guess what that means.

Best regards,
Robin.
 
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I can't agree more Dick, we should certainly thank the people on the ACES team who gave us all those versions of FS that we enjoyed so much. How hard we may feel about this news, for them it is much harder as it was their work.

I am also a bit sceptical about the future, if something doesn't happen soon, I doubt the product can be revived in its current form. Without the team of people, that they just closed down, I don't think the source code and what remains behind has the same value. If the product should continue I guess selling the whole studio, including the people, would make more sense. But that seems no longer possible.

I guess the future will tell and hopefully we as a community can contribute in some way.
 
As Arno points out, it's the loss of the team that is the problem. With the continuity of the ACES crew broken, the crucial understanding of the underlying code is lost.

These good people will quickly move on to secure new employment... and as thay are highly skilled, it won't take them long.

Should Microsoft revive the series in a year or so, it will most likely need to be re-coded from scratch, as a new team won't be able to reconstruct the code. If it is perceived as a 'flying game', that future FS11 would be terrible.

The current ACES alumni are further hampered by the nondisclosure agreements. Microsoft not only fires them, but prevents them from any further community contributions. They can't even clarify our common SDK misunderstandings, or risk the wrath of Microsoft's lawyers. So they can't even continue their work as hobbyists in a community of hobbyists.

There will be a very vocal outcry to reinstate the crew and the franchise. That may or may not help... but who are we helping? The ACES crew? or ourselves?

I can't do much for these good people that helped our hobby along, but I can thank them.

Dick
 
Microsoft not only fires them, but prevents them from any further community contributions.
Click to expand...
Is that true? Under UK law that would be a restriction of trade and illegal. Is there not something similar in the US? So long as they were using only publically available tools and documentation I can't see why they'd be prevented from exercising their skills.

Si
 
I'm just a FSdeveloper newbe, but my e-mail has been sent. I asked for Microsoft to communicate to the FS community where thier head is on this, Slow down? or kill the project. If the answer is kill the project, then pass the "torch" to others by allowing former developers/programmers to freelance with the flight sim community. Most real world pilots (including myself) use this to help stay in practice. I even use it for practicing serch & rescue missions (I'm a veteran CAP aircrew member).

Flight Simulator helps make real world aviation that much safer!!!!!!!!!!!

Carl
 
You know, we can paypal them. I'll bet $10 from each simmer would go a long way to ease the transition for these guys. It is sort of a "pass the hat" for a marvelous performance.
 
Do you know a way of contacting the people from ACES that were fired?
I have Susan's email at Microsoft, but I guess she doesn't have the ability to read this address any more...

Eric
 
Tim Gregson is one of the 6 left there to tidy up. He's still active in the official ESP forum. So if you PM'd him (Beatle on this site) he could probably pass along any messages.

Si
 
rhumbaflappy said:
As Arno points out, it's the loss of the team that is the problem. With the continuity of the ACES crew broken, the crucial understanding of the underlying code is lost.

These good people will quickly move on to secure new employment... and as thay are highly skilled, it won't take them long.

Should Microsoft revive the series in a year or so, it will most likely need to be re-coded from scratch, as a new team won't be able to reconstruct the code. If it is perceived as a 'flying game', that future FS11 would be terrible.

The current ACES alumni are further hampered by the nondisclosure agreements. Microsoft not only fires them, but prevents them from any further community contributions. They can't even clarify our common SDK misunderstandings, or risk the wrath of Microsoft's lawyers. So they can't even continue their work as hobbyists in a community of hobbyists.

There will be a very vocal outcry to reinstate the crew and the franchise. That may or may not help... but who are we helping? The ACES crew? or ourselves?

I can't do much for these good people that helped our hobby along, but I can thank them.

Dick
Click to expand...

Hi Dick, If this is true..Who said you live in a free Country???......Hummmm:eek::eek::eek:
 
Simtech said:
Rather than quietly bemoaning what amounts to the destruction of a so called "community", I will be informing Microsoft that I will be boycotting their products in the future. A community bands together when it is threatened and this is a big community. It's time to cast your vote. Just my humble opinion. The guys on this particular forum are the one group who could probably organize a large scale protest if they wanted to. You have been leaders in the community so LEAD. Of course you could just meekly say "thanks" to the ACES team and forget the efforts you have all put into this hobby. Rally behind them like they deserve, or it's all over. It's not like big corporations have never backtracked in the face of public protest!
Click to expand...

I agree 100%.
 
I agree, and I think this is something we can fight against.
Some people emailed a guy at Microsoft to have the team re-hired. I Think this is useless because they will not change their mind on this decision. But they may change their mind regarding the NDA of the team. If FS does not interest Microsoft any more, let us know more about it !!

This is just my opinion...

Eric
 
eric_marciano said:
I agree, and I think this is something we can fight against.
Some people emailed a guy at Microsoft to have the team re-hired. I Think this is useless because they will not change their mind on this decision. But they may change their mind regarding the NDA of the team. If FS does not interest Microsoft any more, let us know more about it !!

This is just my opinion...

Eric
Click to expand...

Interesting idea -- Lift the NDA.

If MS is retaining MFSF, but choosing not to do any further development (at least for the time being), one could think they would want:-

(1) Nobody else to develop a rival product
(2) Interest to remain with MSFS in case they decide to pick it up again.

One way to do that is to "support" those that do have an interest and incentive to keep the product alive -- the 3rd party developers. Allowing the former team to more openly talk about MFSF would help to achieve this.

Quite apart from the career and financial side of being "let go", the team has also lost something else that is little mentioned. For years (almost decades in some cases), the team members have been highly dedicated (and in some case obsessed), with MFSF. Every day, (and some nights), it has been their life, and the majority of their working time has been spend, working and talking about MSFS, something that they have put their heat & soul into.

Now Microsoft is telling them to just walk away from it all, and not talk about this major part of their life anymore. ?

Geoff_D
 
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