Constructive Criticism on Ikarus products - Sims particularly

[dongle]

Having been flamed by the webmaster for criticising an ikarus product, without any constructive comments, I have decided to post this in the vain hope that they might improve their range!! If you wish to comment, PLEASE ensure your criticisms contain constructive remarks.


Dear Ikarus,

As we are no longer allowed to mention a certain simulator which would enable your customers to improve their skills, I would like to offer the following points on your own brand of simulator.

Key requirements of a simulator are that the physics engine recreates in as realistic a manner as possible the flying traits of the chosen model, in such a way to allow the trainee to become accustomed to, and be able to accurately predict, the resulting change of direction, speed and altitude from a set of inputs to the transmitter.

Your Simulator does not do this in a particularly effective manner (polite understatement). In my view it's best area is as a simple game to play while your model is out of action, to provide knowledge of stick orientation of a transmitter. The physics engine used will even allow maneuvers that are impossible with the model in real life.

A good simulator will allow you to intricately change parameters of the model, and it's environment, to serve as a method of even closer matching the simulated model to the real one.

As an aside note, though this is of little relevance to the training abilities of a simulator, quality of graphics can form a helpful tool in the learning process, as it gives, again, a feeling of REALISM to allow the user to better transpose in their mind the actions they take in a simultor into real life. The better the physics engine, the better the sim, the better the graphics, the better the overal package.

So, in summary, Your sim does not accurately recreate the flying styles of a model, it does not accurately respond to stick input, and it doesn't display it very well. I dont know how you go about improving it, I'm not known as a "programmer". If I was, I'd have done it myself and be selling a superior product - just like several others...

There ya go, some constructive criticism. Not easy to provide constructive criticism on a product that only really has one goal, and it can either achieve it or it cant. I can do more if you want, but how about addressing the above issues first Ikarus? You bring out a product of use, I will buy it, and recommend it.

And there Mr Webmaster - in a nutshell - from someone I respect - are the other reasons why I didn't buy yours [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[Malcolm]

As I've already mentioned, this message board is often the first port of call for newbies who have just purchased their entry level fun Piccolo or Eco 8. They often ask the question "I want to buy a simulator to help me fly my new helicopter, which one should I get". With these rules none of us could provide positive feedback because in our view your current products don't perform as well as your competitors. If we recommended the leading simulator (I won't state the product here as it could get this thread deleted) to this newbie the thread could be deleted, so in practical terms we can not answer his post in the public forum.

I personally don't feel that the mention of the competitors simulator here would affect sales so much that it would cause Ikarus to go out of business. Whilst I agree that even 1 sale lost to the competition is bad news, but then if your simulator addressed the points rasied in the first post in this thread and gave your competition a run for their money then you would have nothing to worry about.

[quantum2plus2]

I was unfortunate enough to buy Ikarus Aerofly just before aerofly pro came out.
As soon as I upgraded my PC to anything more than a snail aerofly wont run properly and is totally useless.
It wasn't much better before anyway lol.
I then bought a **UN-NAMED** sim and its great.