Well, after a long of work, the new FS2Crew website is now functioning. We brought in a brand new e-cart system that does a lot of neat tricks.
We’ve got major changes in store for 2009 and beyond, and updating our website to the latest and the greatest is part of that strategy.
We’re also offering a 25 percent off coupon code to help usher in the new website.
The coupon code is:
XMP96R5610
Please take a look at the new website and let me know what you think!
Big, big news… Microsoft just axed their ACES gaming studio… that’s the studio responsible for, among other things, Microsoft Flightsim.
This is big.
While it’s probably a pretty tough pill to swallow for the ACES staffers (being unemployed in a down economy with a kids and mortgage = Not Fun), Flightsim is as old as Microsoft it self, so it’s a bit of a shocker.
So what’s this mean for the FS2Crew faithful?
Not a heck of a lot actually.
We’ll still be developing for FS9 and FSX.
But we’ll be developing for FSX a lot longer than expected by the looks of things.
In a way that’s a good thing, but in a way it’s also a bad thing.
Having a new version of Flightsim to play with helps keep things ‘fresh’ and ‘alive’, and it helps bring new people into the hobby.
Even though Flightsim for me is mainly just a development tool, I still always look forward to future versions of Flightsim to make the day a little more interesting.
We live in interesting times.
So the NORKs didn’t try to rain on Obama’s inauguration. The Raptors at Gunsan must have scared them straight, hahaha.
Still, the locals recently appointed some hard-liner to take on the North Koreans (No more Sunshine Policy), and the North Koreans are in an unstable state given that Dear Leader appears to be on his last legs.
Nothing will likely happen except for a lot of silly bluster and maybe the odd skirmish. The South Koreans have historically exercised a huge degree of restraint with the North, and it would take something extremely major for the South to get drawn into a fight.
It’ll be interesting how things go in 2009. United States Forces Korea is in the process of re-defining its role in the ROK to assume more of a support role, with the South Koreans basically taking the lead role. I support this. The Koreans have historically been a colonized people, and it would be good for their national psyche and sense of confidence not to have to take a subordinate role to a foreign power in the defense of their own country. It’s their country, they have a very advanced and competent military that is more than capable of keeping the impoverished North at bay, and they should defend it themselves.
Besides, if the NORKs ever invaded (which they can’t because they don’t have any gas and their equipment is broken down), they’d never even make it past the McDonalds in Itaewon before supporting US forces arrived on scene from Japan and elsewhere… whooo-raahhh!!!!
In flightsim news, the Brit voice set for the MD-11 is 99.9 percent done. Eurozone is almost done.
Really 
I think I figured out why the Raptors are here…
We’re holding a bet that the North will try something on Obama’s inaguration day to steal the press..
That would be consistent with their history… They pulled the same kinda stunt during the 2002 World Cup.
You heard it here first, folks…
Here’s a cool video of some F-22 raptors arriving at Kunsan Airbase.
http://www.pacaf.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-090110-001.wmv
The guys up North are in a rather unstable state it seems with Dear Leader’s health problems.
So what better way to make sure they don’t try any funny business than to send in the Raptors. “Force projection” is the cute term for it.
If it ever did come to a shooting war with the North, it’ll just be another Turkey Shoot like Iraq probably (at least to the extent the war is fought conventionally).
ROK and USFK forces would wipe them out pretty quick… Woo-Rah!!!
Man, I think I’ve got to stop listening to AFN Radio…. Serving America’s Best… Wooh-Rah!
Today I released the FS9 version of FS2Crew for the mighty PMDG MD-11.
It was a lot of work getting it to work properly in FS9. And of course I couldn’t just do a simple straight conversion, I had to tweak things along the way to make things better.
Some people have asked about a discount for FSX owners. Well, since I have no way of knowing who owns the FSX version (since we sell on multiple sites and I have no unified database), we decided the simplest method would be to offer a 5 EUR discount to everyone.
That’s valid till Friday 16 January 2009.
The Brit and Euro voice set are nearing completion… REALLY!!! I know you probably don’t believe me, but it’s almost here!
Some notable things: Now that the MD-11 is done, we’re going to do some MAJOR revamping of FS2Crew for our next series of products.
We have a brand new and powerful audio engine in development, and we’re also going to be upgrading our e-commerce system to a much newer and better and more powerful system.
The MD-11 also marks the end of the Start Centers. We’re doing away with them as they’re just becoming too complex and onerous. So each future of FS2Crew will have its own config utility.
I hope you enjoy FS2Crew for the MD11!
Get your crayons out, FS2Crew is holding a Corporate Logo contest!
We’re making sweeping changes for 2009, and we need a new corporate logo to match.
First place is $150 worth of FS2Crew product.
2nd place is $100 worth of FS2Crew product.
The contest ends Jan 31st 2009 at 12:00 GMT.
To submit an entry, please email your graphic to FS2Crew at www.fs2crew.com
Good luck!
Attention FS2Crew MD-11 Drivers:
Service Update 2 is now available for the FSX FS2Crew PMDG MD-11 Edition of FS2Crew.
Everyone should install this update.
Click to download:
FS2Crew MD-11 Service Update 2
This is a cumulative update that includes some bug fixes and make some improvements based on user feedback.
Cumulative Change Log:
-Red Button handling associated with Joystick button improved.
-Double Cabin Prepare for Landing PA fixed.
-Go Around logic improved.
-Code tightened to help prevent possible user error.
-City PAs improved.
-Heading Pull call added.
-Starter Disengaged call added.
-General improvements and bug fixes.
-Thru Flights Modeled.
-TA, TL and Autopilot range of availability more flexible.
What’s coming up for the MD-11 version of FS2Crew?
-British and Eurozone Voice Set: It’s currently behind schedule a bit, but we hope to have it out before Christmas. This will be a FREE update for existing FS2Crew MD-11 owners.
-FS9 version of FS2Crew MD-11: Under development.
-FO’s 45 percent N2 Call during Engine Start: We’re still working on making this call more precise. It’s currently based on crude timing, but we’re working with the PMDG Dev team to develop a way to calculate a more accurate trigger for the 45 % N2 call. That will probably require a change on PMDG’s end, and we may see that after PMDG releases the FS9 version of the MD-11.
Good news for FS2Crew MD11 owners in the Old Blighty and the Eurozone…
The Brit and Euro voice set should be out very soon… hopefully within a week or two.
Other news is that I’m totally re-vamping FS2Crew internal code in prep for FS11 (which is still two years away, probably).
It’s looks as though our current sound system will be deprecated is the not-too-distant future (that means in plain English it goes bye-bye basically), so I’m re-coding the next-gen FS2Crew software with the latest and greatest in audio… and that happens to be called XACT (for more info install the Direct X SDK and you can read all about XACT… it’s pretty powerful stuff).
I’m particularly looking forward to being able to implement 3D sound and a bunch of other neat, rather geeky stuff in the simulation.
We’re still trying to put together a full Brit and Euro voice set for FS2Crew MD-11.
If you’re a Brit or if you’re from the continent, please email FS2Crew.
We’ve hired a dedicated International Voice Set manager whose sole job will be to creat the voice sets.
It’s such a massive and complex job creating a voice set, that we had to create a single position just to handle the task!
We hope to release the Brit and Euro voice set before Christmas 2008.
To record, all you need is a microphone that you can plug into your computer.
Please contact FS2Crew for more info.
