Steam Sales

[Charl]

Steamers will have seen the notifications, but for unbelievers there are true bargains:
FSX - $5.99
I had thought Goat Simulator: Payday at $1.47 was the cheapest on offer, but no!
You can have
Sinking Simulator - $1.29

And of course Microsoft Flight Simulator 40th Anniversary Edition - $65.97
Perhaps wait for the run-out sale... FS2024 surely must arrive in, ah, 2024.

[cowpatz]

Yes Ive been spending up large........
What are the must haves for MSFS?
I'm having a lot of fun tooling around in the Longitude. A few what the.... moments from time to time but coming right. It's a lot of bang for a default machine.

[Charl]

I find it easiest to look for things from within the sim's Marketplace, you can watch your credit card go from Good to Indifferent in minutes.
But NZA Simulations stuff is available and recommended from their website.
Also Flightbeam NZAA and NZWN and others from their website.
I don't think PMDG ever goes on sale

[jpreou]

I really only focus on NZ and have no 'other part of planet' scenery installed.
Here's what I have (so far!)...

Products
--------

Microsoft Flight Simulator
--------------------------
Top Gun Maverisk addon
World Update 12 - New Zealand


Other
-----
Plan-G v4.x - installed
TrackIR (new version, updated) - installed
SPAD.Next (annual subscription) - installed
Dee Jing RV7 freeware download) - installed
Terrainy Studios RV-8 - installed
TL Ultralight Stream (Flightsim.to) - installed
Ardmore aerodrome (freeware download) - installed
I Love VFR vol3 (freeware download) - installed
Powerlines & Chimneys (freeware download) - installed
REX Weather Force v6 - *** NOT installed
Simworks Studios RV-10 - *** NOT installed
Simworks Studios RV-14 - *** NOT installed


IniBuilds XWind (IniManager)
----------------------------
NZPM - Palmerston North - installed
NZDN - Dunedin - installed



ORBX Central
------------
ORBX Central - installed
NZA - NZNS Nelson - installed
Parallel 42 - FreedomFox - installed
NZ Mesh - *** NOT installed
Landmarks - Auckland City - *** NOT installed


NZA Simulations
---------------
Motueka (freeware) - installed
Napier (freeware) - installed
Oamaru (freeware) - installed
Raglan (freeware) - installed
Rotorua (freeware) - installed
Westport (freeware) - installed
NZMC - Mount Cook - installed
NZCH - Christchurch - installed
NZMF - Milford Sound (+extension) - installed


Flightbeam (Contrail app)
-------------------------
Contrail v1.21 (content manager) - installed
NZAA - Auckland - installed
NZWN - Wellington - installed
Simworks RV-14 (detected, not purchased) - *** NOT installed
Simworks RV-10 (detected, not purchased) - *** NOT installed


Godzone
-------
Taieri - installed

--- END FILE


...and a whole bunch of NZ scenery airplane from Flightsim.to.
I've also played a bit with Vatsim and a couple of moving map apps for my Android tablet (neither of which have 'ticked the boxes' for me).


Cheers
Jeff

[cowpatz]

My that is a nice selection.
After discovering Flightsim.to I sort of let rip, but then back tracked as a lot of stuff is already covered in the World updates.
I too am focusing on NZ with Australia thrown in for the Tasman crossings.
Thus far:

Tools
Orbix Central (still there from P3D which I will still use).
Contrail
FSUIPC7
Navigraph sub

Scenery

Orbix
Brisbane
Cairns
Launceston
Melbourne
Sydney
Adelaide
Norfolk Island
Hamilton Island (not on sale and too expensive for how often I would use it)

Flightbeam
Auckland
Wellington

NZA
All except Mt Cook. (Some are in the NZ update.)

X wind
Dunedin
Palmerston North to come.

Free/donation ware
Ardmore
Timaru
Great Barrier Islands
Kerikeri
Hamilton
Glenorchy

Aircraft
ATR
DC3 enhancement
Cessna Longitude liveries

I’m trying to get to grips with the Longitude. Quite an amazing piece of work, especially with full Simbrief and Navigraph Chart integration.

I’ve been “lucky” in that I got a bad dose of cellulitis in my foot that has kept me home for a while, so it’s been full on simming. I think it’s wearing a bit thin with my partner as I’m getting the looks and a few terse comments.
They just don’t understand how important this stuff is.

[deeknow]

I've been holding off on MSFS add-ons .. it's been difficult I can tell you ...

Due to not having enough SSD space partly, but also coz my danged P3Dv5 install is so damn stable at prez I just can't bear to drop it, so I ended up having a black friday spend-up on a few airports for that instead, not Steam I know, but had to share somewhere I'm gonna do one last hurrah over the next 6 months or so, will be a long hurrah.. and have pledged to fly in/out of every airport I have on the system before the rig get's a MSFS rebuild

[jpreou]

I gotta say, even on my aging rig I get reasonable performance in NZ except in the worst of IMC and the sim has been pretty darn stable ... a couple of months ago I had an issue where it wouldn't start up, but I don't fly that often these days, left it for a day or two and then it was good as gold again. Dunno why, didn't care!

[Charl]

Jeff is that list generated from within the sim , or do you just file like a machine?

[jpreou]

I keep a manual list of everything! It's easy when you start at the beginning and don't have to try to remember what you've done!
It also helps when doing a re-install... you have a list to work from and can decide what's in and what's out - hence why some things are now listed as 'Not Installed' - didn't bother when I added another SSD just for MSFS and did a full re-install of everything. Also helps when checking something on sale and whether I already have it ... just check the text file saved to my desktop.

[Q400]

I'm a bit of a newbe at flight sims. I only have 150 addon payware airports installed. And no I'm not listing them all.
The last one was NZPM Palmerston North. A bit of a shame that the terminal building will be completely torn down
and rebuilt from the ground up from next year.

[jpreou]

I guess that's one of the nice things about focusing solely on NZ ... the limited number of airport addons! Also one of the frustrating things. Double-edged sword!