Agree on that, obviously Ilya has gotten tired of spending 5 minutes to update this forum once a week as there has been so much whining here whatever he says. I think ditching the Friday updates in a situation like this is a bad business move even though I can understand he's tired of the bunch here. There are just a couple of hundred flight sim nerds here that already bought the game so I guess he has made a decision that weekly updates is not worth it. What they need to survive is the customers that don't know what a forum is - and/or don't care...

The original series game engine had the luxury of being finished and fine tuned before release. The new series is far more complicated in every way and has taken considerably longer to finish than first imagined. I'm sure there is alot of blame to go around, but when your dealing with something this complicated its very easy to have huge delays with even the most efficient developers.

Well, the past record of meeting "tentative dates" is not spectacular, contrary to the flak Maddox Games got for not meeting those dates. I can understand why Ilya doesn't bother with much setting new dates when it all seems to come down to Murphy's Law every single time.

Yes, but working as a manager in the software development business myself I can tell you that very few companies would accept the constant problems with delivery dates that they have. I guess they really should work on their development methodology, focus on core functionality in iterations where done is done and stop gold plating silly details ;) Easy to say "from the other side of the fence" ;)

Ill never understand people that really act like "forum people" can impact their real life. If you are thinking about what people say on this forum other then when your not on it.. something is wrong

How about a "Friday update " thread that is locked. Show some work in progress a paragragh explaining it and off you go.
No exposure to the goofs on the forum with the untreated or undermedicated personality disorders.

Something to counter balance the prevailing negative aura.

Blackdog, can you extend on what you deem manners? For example, a customer who is unsatisfied with the product, or the patch, may use such a thread as this to express their disapointment. Perhaps they appear rude? Will these posts be removed? And, similarly, are posts from users saying they are unhappy with the 3-D development, in this case,(when there are apparently more tangible issues which need improvement) deemed un-tasteful?

I can't stand the arguments which seem to underpin, and then take-over, every update topic, but then again, one can't help but think it's all part of the natural process of game-development. Some will be satisfied with spit-girl, for example, others may not be.

I think you're doing a great job moderating this board (I don't envy you at all) but I can hold my hands up and say that sometimes, before hitting the submit button, I worry whether I am wasting my time. There will always be a group of people who will react vehemetly to certain peoples' postings, whether it's needlessly destructive, or positively critical.

Sorry, I'm thinking aloud! :-P

I completly understand, thanks for the folow up explanation.

My answer is simply that I'll tell the truth as i see it.
I wont swear and if i have im sorry but i will speak my mind.
I'm Sorry if you dont like it, I'm not saying this to be confrontational of course or to upset the momentum of the thread. I will try to maybe not sound as forceful as i maybe did in my last post.