For all wannabe-shuttle-pilots
 

An update on the Space Shuttle Simulator 2007.

http://www.space-shuttle-mission.com/

It seems the creators of this sim finally, after long time, have learned somehing from their customer-hostile PR-policy, and have eased restrictions on access to their forums. Where before you had to be a registered customer of the already bought product without having the chance to learn more about their product first (by skimming their forums), this now is possible. With a niche-simulation like this, it is highly recommendable to do so before separating from your money.

Why they have changed their former restrictions, I do not know. Maybe sales-numbers were not like they hoped they would be. :DL

I can't say that my experience with my long-ago attempt to contact their support via email was a pleasant one (got repeatedly ignored, I assume for asking too uncomfortable questions on their installation limits), but in their defence I must also admit that they have offered constant updates and missions since they released the title. The latest update has just been released.

Me personally, they have lost me - it simply was too long a time before they fixed their behavior. But I remember that some other people voiced potential interest in the title longer time ago, so I just post this.

I wonder if they are still as rabid as I heard they use to be towards Orbiter.

I expect the answer is still yes.

I was one of the many people who beta tested that sim (and I still have it). It's a REALLY detailed sim, a lot more detailed than ANYTHING I've ever seen anyone do in Orbiter.
The only problem is that when they stopped the beta test model and moved to the actual Space Shuttle Simulator 2007, my computer couldn't handle it. This is unfortunate because I REALLY enjoyed the beta which was a lot more primitive than their newest sim. I guess I'm stuck with Orbiter for the time being.

I was VERY active in their forums back then. I didn't find them "hostile" to Orbiter, but we did get a LOT of Orbiter trolls popping in and posting with "attitude" there all the time trying to incite flame wars. Which is really funny because I've never, ever seen an Orbiter fan on any other boards posting like that.

I was also on the old "Exoflight" forums when it was still being developed (It's FINALLY been released in beta after like 9 years. Apparently when it was being developed back then, the dev's discovered that most computers of the day couldn't handle what they wanted to do with it so they shelved it until computers caught up and it's still being worked on albeit, slowly.)
Anyway. In those forums, we also had a LOT of Orbiter trolls grief posting at every opportunity it seemed.

That Orbiter trolling may be true or not, but it was a decision that costed them many potentially interest customers and sympathies that they kept the forums locked for everybody who had not already bought the sim. That their replying to potentially interested people who took the effort to ask them in emails about specific - and valid! - questions they wanted to see answered before they spend money on it, left much to be desired, did not make them any more customers, I'm sure.

I remember that there was a quite hostile thread at simHQ about it one year ago or even longer, and there were people agreeing with me when I pointed out this PR policy of theirs damaging their business interests, in neutral tone. One guy popped up and almost tried to shout me and us down in defence of how great the sim was, in his opinion, and that we all were just whining and the SSM crew is always right.

So I am wondering if it really was just the Orbiter fans trolling in the forum of theirs, or if maybe the SSM crowd has contributed it's share as well that the forum of theirs was described to be such a snake pit.

On a slightly different trajectory, has anyone played "A-OK" the Mercury simulator?

As someone who was a regular in their old forum from the beginning, and who helped contribute ideas for some of the stuff they implemented, I can definitely say that there were quite a few Orbiter trolls who popped up and then got themselves outright banned by being idiots. These idiots would then go to other forums and complain about how the Space Shuttle Simulator (That's what it was called back then) forum was full of jerks and the mods were *expletive*'s.

In reality, these people would time and time again show up. These people would bash the idea of someone making a sim when there was Orbiter already, and then they would blatantly argue with everyone there when anyone tried to explain the differences between the two programs. They would always disrupt threads with their "Stop wasting your time with this sim !! Go to Orbiter !!" crap. Then, they'd get all huffy when they would get banned for being disruptive.

We went through the same thing on the "Fasterlight" forum for Exoflight when that was being worked on too, but not quite as much as we did on the Shuttle Sim forum.

I will agree that they shouldn't have closed their forum to everyone who wasn't a customer, but I can say that they had a LOT of problems with Orbiter trolls. I know because I was there from the beginning and I witnessed the whole thing.

That said, there were several people who enjoyed Orbiter there such as myself who didn't cause any problems. It was just that there was a tidal wave of idiots to the point where there were bannings almost every day. It was the trolls causing the issues. The mods were just reacting to it. I agree that closing the forum to the non customers was extreme. But I think that's why they did it.


Man. I wish my computer could run Space Shuttle Mission 2007. :wah:

I've only tried the demo. You can't do anything in it. It just shoots you up and you have no control of the craft. Everything is automatic. It just launches you. You do a sub-orbital flight, and land in the ocean. I'm sure it was just a limitation in the demo, but Mercury in Orbiter was more satisfying and it's free.

Why can't I ever find cool stuff like that in web searches?? :rotfl2:

On Space Shuttle Mission '07 (again, another space sim I wouldn't have found without a forum)... Looks pretty kewl but damned if my system ain't capable of running it. If I had the money to dump into a new machine every couple of years... well then, I'd be happy as a hog at a slop trough. Goshdarn game companies follow the specs a *bit* too closely and a bit too soon, I say. :D