Godzone update..

[toprob]

I plan to make a couple of very minor changes to the Godzone website over the weekend, which may mean that the site will be shut down for a short time -- hopefully no more than half an hour. I am aware that it is a bit pointless to aim for a particular time at the moment, things need to be a bit more flexible post-quake, but I'll try and update here when I'm closer to the time.

As I said, nothing major, just a bit of clearing up of some confusing features. I also hope to be able to offer real-time confirmation of credit card payments so downloads should be instantly available.

Everything is up and running Godzone-wise following the quake, post has returned to normal and electricity and internet are stable here. That's not to say that everything has returned to normal, there is still plenty to do to tidy up after the quake, and it'll be a while before I can return to 'normal' work hours. However I'm pretty much used to this, what with illness/quakes etc, it's been a long time since things were 'normal' here:)

Despite the rather crazy times recently, I'm very happy with the way that New Zealand is shaping up in FSX. I'm currently working on the first new payware project for a very long time, so in some respects things are back to normal at last.

The Godzone site now features a short video of various flights using Vector Land Class and a few freeware and payware additions, to demonstrate how it is all starting to fit together. Just click on the banner below to watch the video on the site entry page.

[connor]

Any hints on the next payware product?

[toprob]

QUOTE (connor @ Mar 25 2011,12:12 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Any hints on the next payware product?

No. Further details within a month, though. It'll be VLC-friendly, which means that it'll work without VLC but you'd be crazy not to have VLC. The goal is a smooth transition from airport->city->VLC. I'm pretty excited about how it is shaping up.

[toprob]

I did plan to tidy up the product choice a bit -- mainly the upgrades, and FS2004 scenery, but in the end I decided to leave things as they are for the time being. I've made 'support' a bit easier to find, and tried to cover some of the issues which happen when some pages are circumvented -- it is one thing to expect people to follow a certain path through the site, but that's not really the way the web works. Hopefully there'll be less confusion over some features, if not then at least it'll be easier to ask for help....

At some stage during 2011 I might remove the FS2004 products, maybe just leave the FS2004 Collection. Sales are few and far between for FS2004 stuff. Upgrades also need some rethink, because the upgrade process needs to cater to all previous orders, no matter where they were made, it can't be a simple automatic system. Moving to instant credit card processing compounded the problem, but in the end I've decided to keep it as it was. However there will still be no instant qualification check, whereas there might be an instant credit card payment -- so I need to decide whether charging for something and then checking for qualifying products seems a little ham-fisted. Still, at least I can still continue to offer upgrades until I make up my mind whether this will work long-term.

Speaking of instant credit card processing, this is not yet up and running, just waiting for a few technical issues, but shouldn't be long now.

[toprob]

Ok, I've now switched the Store over to automatic credit card processing, via Paymex. There's a sticky post with more details in the Godzone support forum.

In the end I didn't need to shut the store down, Saturday's normally give a nice quiet patch so I can have a play with the code without disturbing anyone.

This is part of a tidy-up of the Store and website based on user feedback. Generally changes to the store require a bit of thought and planning, which is why I've tried for one big tidy-up now, rather than lots of little fiddly changes. Thanks to those who pointed out issues with the Store, although it might have taken a while to get them taken care of, I hope that it helps a bit.

My main goal is to have a store which doesn't add to the confusion of buying on the web, but the very nature of ecommerce, security etc makes the process a bit complex by nature. If you do have trouble navigating the store, please let me know, even if you just send a grumpy email. (Grumpy emails are a very effective way to do this.)