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The Future

Discussions about new feature ideas.
To request a new feature please open a ticket

What Do you think about the plans and the pricing?

Poll ended at 26 Jun 2015, 23:10

$24.99 is fine
2
50%
I would pay even more if I get .....-Feature (please name in comment)
1
25%
That's too expensive
1
25%
I am not interested in a pro/plus/extended version
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 4

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c0nnex
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The Future

Post by c0nnex » 27 May 2015, 23:10

Since the time investment in SPAD.neXt is far higher then I ever planned/expected, I thought for a long time about how to move on with the project.
After talking to some people and taking the result of the poll from last year into account (knowing that some/most of the answers where no-brainers) I have decided to go a similar way like fsuipc.

There will be a free Version of SPAD.neXt including:
Switch, Multi, Radio, BIP-Panels as they are (will be) in the Beta 0.5 with all the configuration options you have now.
(So basically everything old SPAD offered + the new features like BIP config)

Then there will be a pro/plus/extended-Version which will include (but not limited to, and not all will be working upon release):

* For BIP ability to create real expressions for the plates ( e.g. red = ( [fuelleft].Percent + [fuelright].Percent + [fuelcenter].Percent) < 10 ) where [fuleleft] can be an offset or a LVAR (Implementation done)
* Full FIP support including a WYSIWYG Editor/Tester, Gauges assignable to fixed FIP-Devices (no more "which FIP turns on first"-lotto) (Proof-Of-Concept done, implementation running)
* Remote-Connect ability (Service panels/FIP on another pc) (Proof-Of-Concept done, implementation running)
* SimConnect support for all panels (Std-Vars and LVARS) (Proof-Of-Concept done, implementation running)
* lua support
* Shared-Cockpit for any plane ( not sure if its really doable for any plane, but first tests with the Aerosoft A318 are very promising) <-- From my very personal wishlist :)
* OBS-Streaming-Support of Multimonitor Cockpits ( you can sit in your cockpit, and still provide a good POV-Stream on e.g. twitch ) <-- From my very personal wishlist :)
* Ability for "Gauge-Creators" to license their Gauges to other pilots ( no payments processing or such, just a "platform" to market/license them ). <-- Just an idea for now
... (any other features that might turn out useful )

As for the pricing I am currently thinking about $24.99 (lifetime license) (Processing via PayPal, some of the revenues will be shared with people like that infamous gfx guy etc..)

SO what are you thinking about this? Please comment.

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dvlourie
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Re: The Future

Post by dvlourie » 28 May 2015, 03:04

cOnnex,

Here is what I love to call the bottom line. What you have done is really remarkable. I don't know your background nor does it matter. I don't know what you do "in the real world" nor does it matter. What does matter is that for past many many months you have labored on what is obviously a labor of love. You have created a program that will be enjoy by many that currently own the panels and those that will buy then in the future. You deserve to make a "profit" on your investment which currently is your time and believe me, putting a price on that is impossible! I was happy and humbled to be picked to be a beta tester and to see this program come to life was a thing of joy for me. I voted to pay $24.99 if that's the price. I would pay whatever the set price will be for two reasons. You have done what I cannot and you deserve to be rewarded for you talent and creativity. If going the way of FSUIPC (which I own) is the way so be it...but to me money is not the issue as long as i can refer to detailed documentation to get the product working for me. Finally, thank you for your efforts and much continued success on your future. I sit back in awe at your talents!

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c0nnex
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Re: The Future

Post by c0nnex » 28 May 2015, 04:42

dvlourie wrote:cOnnex,

Here is what I love to call the bottom line. What you have done is really remarkable. I don't know your background nor does it matter. I don't know what you do "in the real world" nor does it matter. What does matter is that for past many many months you have labored on what is obviously a labor of love. You have created a program that will be enjoy by many that currently own the panels and those that will buy then in the future. You deserve to make a "profit" on your investment which currently is your time and believe me, putting a price on that is impossible! I was happy and humbled to be picked to be a beta tester and to see this program come to life was a thing of joy for me. I voted to pay $24.99 if that's the price. I would pay whatever the set price will be for two reasons. You have done what I cannot and you deserve to be rewarded for you talent and creativity. If going the way of FSUIPC (which I own) is the way so be it...but to me money is not the issue as long as i can refer to detailed documentation to get the product working for me. Finally, thank you for your efforts and much continued success on your future. I sit back in awe at your talents!
Thanks lourie. I really appreciate this.

Maybe I explain a bit of the reasons for this step.
Yes, I am a professional developer (yes, in and outside of gaming industry) for many years, so some things that seem to be complicated are "easy" for me, other things, like all the maths behind the FIPs, is long forgotten knowledge from my studies, which cost me days of researching. But anyhow as you said, this basically does not matter, it is obviously a labor of love.
When I started all this, it was like "hey i like this (original spad), i lack some stuff, owner retired, so do it myself, because i can". Started coding a bit, implemented some stuff I need (basically the switch panel, because that was all i owned by that time), and was kinda happy. Somewhen I made it public, and people jumped on the train doing a great job improving it even more. Some people came, gifted me panels "Hey I like! Now implement this!", and I went ahead. But now after some weeks of 6-8 hours coding (additionally to my daytime job) a day, I somehow realized that the project has grown far bigger than i ever wanted to make it. Some people (apart from myself) invested a lot of time testing that beast, others put a lot of work in fancy look (Thanks to Daren in special! He is so picky about those freaking pixels!! But he did a damn good job, and I bet I even ignored some of his "move this one pixel down"-Mails ).

Now almost all of my spare time is used up by this project, and I am at the point where decisions are to be made:
- Tune the project down to a level where it is "just for fun" - nah i'm not the person for that, and it's too much fun!
- Keep on with this speed - yes sure, but from other projects, i experienced that sooner or later the motivation is gone, and then they more more less die, or I leave them. I already did those kind of hobby-projects where I spent all my time and others prospered from it. It's the curse of the internet .... Free lunch ...

So, if I want to keep it going, the motivation has to stay high, and a way must be found to keep it up. Customers that expect "support" and some extra money is something everyone likes (I do as well!), and that way I can also reimburse some of the people investing their time as well, or donate to the stuff i use.
24.99 is "quite a lot" some might say. But hey, but sum up what you invested into panels and other stuff like sceneries/aircrafts etc I can answer... I wouldn't wonder if quite a few of potential users hit the $5000 mark without any problems, so it's not that lot compared to the benefit you get.
God thanks to modern version controlling, i know that I invested about 1000 hours to get where SPAD.neXt is now (not counting the nameless hours spent researching all that lost knowledge) .
Now everyone can do the maths, assuming that it "sells" about 100 licenses (and i don't expect to sell much more than that, if it ever hits that mark). So "profit" is nothing to gain here, and is not the goal at all.
While I would love to make SPAD.neXt my full time job, I don't see any realistic chances to do that.(hey any SAITEK officials here? hire me :-D) But for now it is what it is, a hobby, which will maybe bring in enough money for an extra vacation and enabling me to kickback some of the supporters not more and not less.

But i'm getting into arguing about the price. It doesn't matter at all. It is like it is, and maybe, it's a bad idea to ask/discuss about it. But there is a chance that someone (maybe you, the reader) will jump up say "hey come on i'll finance you x month, just do that freaking y feature", and all this is history ....

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thedazman
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Re: The Future

Post by thedazman » 28 May 2015, 08:29

Awesome post.

I for one have been glad to help and would still be happy to pay a licence. While I have indeed spent possibly 50 hours testing and doing the graphics I also do it selfishly because I can help mould the application into doing that we need it to do. I in no way need to be compensated, this is as far as I'm concurned all you work and do not expect one single penny in return.

I appreciate you listening to all suggestions and more importantly actually implementing them. This is payment.

I for one know how much work you put into this, and know you deserve some reward. Your support is second to none and match your skills.

I hope people also realise it's a small price to pay for their hardware investment I've personally spent approx £5000 on my setup and I would pay to protect that investment. I would also pay to have it support any new version of the simulator in the future

Keep up the good work, while free lunch is great I find paying for the next lunch also rewarding

Daz "the GFX guy"
"theDAZman" aka "theGFXguy"
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https://fipgauges.com

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Re: The Future

Post by ab-tools » 28 May 2015, 11:24

Hello cOnnex,

although I found this project only few days ago I'm excited how good this early product is already and how much efforts you invested in that. As I'm a .NET developer myself, too, I can imagine how much time it takes to develop this.

Therefore I would be absolutely fine to pay 25 USD for this product, I even would pay anything up to 50 USD without any additional features (this point is missing in your poll by the way ;) ) aside the ones you mentioned already.

So keep up the great work!

Best regards
Andreas

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Re: The Future

Post by Hazza » 08 Jun 2015, 10:02

I too, would be more than happy to pay for this :)
Cheers

Harry

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Re: The Future

Post by pelayogon » 24 Jul 2015, 11:39

I think I would pay the 25 dolars for this in the same way I have my FSUIPC registered version by I would certainly pay a plus for saving time in configurations

I mean the product I would like to have is an specific mode or module for each addon with preconfigured assignments and all working for the first day. I wuold pay, right now, the 25 dolars for having my Saitek panels working with my Majestic Dash 8, with most ususal buttons/fuctions preconfigurated and without knowing if it is done with mouse macros or LUA scripts or any other procedure.

This is my humble suggestion

Regards,

Pelayo
LEMD

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c0nnex
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Re: The Future

Post by c0nnex » 24 Jul 2015, 14:33

Hi Pelayo,

well this is a community after all. If someone does a MD8 profile he/she can share it.
Since I don't own it, i can't do a profile myself.

In one of the next releases there will be an easy way to share profiles and load shared profiles from a profile database.

-Ulrich

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Re: The Future

Post by thedazman » 24 Jul 2015, 15:00

even more value for money, that's cool.

does anyone want my Elite Dangerous Vulture Profile :-)

when's the "registered" keyboard macro's going to be available ?

Daz
"theDAZman" aka "theGFXguy"
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https://fipgauges.com

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Re: The Future

Post by c0nnex » 24 Jul 2015, 15:02

thedazman wrote:
when's the "registered" keyboard macro's going to be available ?
In next internal beta. Currently testing it.

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