Marketing of Great Britain South

[F737MAX]

While I see the marketing on the product page has now been updated, the original marketing for GB South led people to believe that it was more feature rich than it currently is.

 

On the Wayback Machine archive, you can see the list of features to prompt people to buy on that basis, when it in fact did not.

 

• Immersive tours and missions for many churches, castles and historic landmarks.
• Custom animated animals across many fields and farms.
• Helipads across a range of select landmarks.
• Fully compatible with World Update 3 […]

 

These features (some of them novel to an Orbx created product) were likely to encourage greater sales. I find it unacceptable that it was marketed as having these features included, only to remove them from the sales blurb after initial purchases were made.

 

Additionally, given the large geographic spread of the POIs in each GB region, all 3 products really should have an official list and map of the included models available to view. This has been asked for previously and would make your customers happy. Only through the goodwill of one of the product testers has an unofficial map of GB South been created.

 

Orbx may want to rethink how the company deals with its retail customers through the customer journey.

 

[Kjaye]

Yes, not sure what happened with this add on, but it seems the initial project was more ambitious and than just kind of altered at the end. Whilst disappointing, I am satisfied with the overall offering, 700 POIs for under £10 is good value and I am still enjoying the purchase overall despite the rocky start.

 

My biggest issue is with Orbx acting as if other regional solutions don't exist and making no attempt to minimise conflicts with other major add ons like We Love VFR (240,000 downloads), Gaist ships, Mamut Marinas and even some of their own partner's offerings, like Seafront Simulations.

 

The major issue for me is the additional ships. They are atrociously bad. Models from what looks like 20 years ago, all just completely static, many with static wakes. How can the supposed leading add on developer in the whole flight community think they are acceptable? The battleships and the static tanker around Plymouth are so bad they actually made me laugh.  I would love an option to simply remove every ship from the add on as they a net negative and make flying to places like Portsmouth and Plymouth unbearable. I actually finally learned how to use add on linker just I can easily disable the add on when I fly around coastal cities.

 

On the plus side, the castles especially are really nicely done. I live in Devon and all 18 major castles in my county are covered, which I certainly didn't expect and the outlines and shapes are pretty accurate. 'Walking' around Berry Pomeroy especially in VR is strikingly nostalgic for all the times I went there in my youth. Okehampton, Totnes, Castle Drogo, Powderham, Compton as well all like similar enough that I would have been able to recognise what I was walking around in VR in a blind test. Dartmouth is especially well done.

 

I don't want to come across as wholly negative, it's only because I love having these regional packs that I feel so passionate about them,

 

My major complaint is that Orbx seem to act as if the sim isn't 3 and a half years old now, with hundreds of add ons, including very well established free regional packs, like We Love VFR, Mamut and Gaist, that combine for almost a million downloads that duplicate much of what Orbx have added here, and nearly always much better.

 

I would rather have the option to just purchase the castles, historic building and football stadiums, and have the rest disabled as ships, masts, chimneys, communication radomes, lighthouses and even piers have all been done much better elsewhere.

 

If these assets were structed in .bgl files that we could just disable, 99 percent of the duplications would go away, and the few remaining would be much more acceptable.

 

Anyway, I hope this doesn't sound too negative, since John kindly took the time to hand input all the POIs so that we knew where to look I've have enjoyed a nice couple of hours flying around Devon in VR visiting castles, and I'm really looking forward to to visiting all the other counties in the region.

[colorbars]

Agree with Kjaye here.  It would be nice if the add-on could be divided up into separate categorical add-ons so they can easily be disabled and enabled within add-on linker as wanted. In addition to the static ships, the bridges over the River Severn are very terrible quality with a flat image of the roadway on the river that the 3d model doesn't even follow and the cars are doing stunts everywhere. There's also not really any texture to anything, just flat and cartoonish. There are much better free addons out there for those bridges and I wish I could selectively enable them. I'm not here to trash the addon in general though as I'm grateful for the quantity of coverage and the price and the quality of several POIs.

[Anna Cicognani]

The initial product blurb was written up from an initial document, and wrongly published on the product page, then revised.

Unfortunately, that copy still lingered for a few hours after launch when we realised it had not been updated (argh!).

GB South is in scope similar to North and Central - as much as we love animals, there are packs that already do a good job of that (though I personally love puppies and cows a great deal, and would have loved to see them there). 

 

If anyone feels they bought the product and are disappointed not to find the giraffes, please message me directly and I will be happy to give them a refund. 💞🦒

 

[wolfko]

8 hours ago, Anna Cicognani said:

 

If anyone feels they bought the product and are disappointed not to find the giraffes, please message me directly and I will be happy to give them a refund. 💞🦒

 

[Badl4ndz]

10 hours ago, Anna Cicognani said:

 

If anyone feels they bought the product and are disappointed not to find the giraffes, please message me directly and I will be happy to give them a refund. 💞🦒

 

 

I demand Hippos because it's my human right, but really I would much more prefer an answer when I very occasionally ask a reasonable question.

 

See linked thread. Nick kindly at least responded but was unable to answer. Somebody in Orbx would know...

 

https://forum.orbxdirect.com/topic/219719-eglc-london-city-airport-udg-marketplace/

 

Many thanks 

[Kjaye]

13 hours ago, Anna Cicognani said:

The initial product blurb was written up from an initial document, and wrongly published on the product page, then revised.

Unfortunately, that copy still lingered for a few hours after launch when we realised it had not been updated (argh!).

GB South is in scope similar to North and Central - as much as we love animals, there are packs that already do a good job of that (though I personally love puppies and cows a great deal, and would have loved to see them there). 

 

If anyone feels they bought the product and are disappointed not to find the giraffes, please message me directly and I will be happy to give them a refund. 💞🦒

 

 

I don't think the lack of animals will bother most of us, as you say, it's the third in the GB scenery series and intended to complement Central and North, both of which I also have.

 

I certainly don't want a refund, the castles and historic buildings are a really nice addition, however I feel there are more genuine criticisms than missing exotic animal life.

 

An official POI list, like we got with North and Central would be a good start. Can we have something on the Discovery map on the Orbx Central app please?

 

For me, the biggest complaint, with all three of these add ons is the way that they clash with other third party mods, including your own partners.

 

I really don't want the Orbx ships, any of them. Masts, radomes, chimneys etc are also already done by other providers and we end up with duplicates with these.

 

Is there any way you could help us resolves this, structering the objects into different folders or .bgl files for example so that we can turn off what we don't need?

 

This problem is one that is only ever going to get worse, as more and more scenery gets developed for the sim, a way to resolve these ugly duplications should be given some thought imo.

 

[wolfko]

9 hours ago, Badl4ndz said:

 

 

 

See linked thread. Nick kindly at least responded but was unable to answer. Somebody in Orbx would know...

 

Many thanks 

 

Anna is the Orbx boss. I'm sure she would know. 😉

[Anna Cicognani]

8 hours ago, Kjaye said:

 

I don't think the lack of animals will bother most of us, as you say, it's the third in the GB scenery series and intended to complement Central and North, both of which I also have.

 

I certainly don't want a refund, the castles and historic buildings are a really nice addition, however I feel there are more genuine criticisms than missing exotic animal life.

 

An official POI list, like we got with North and Central would be a good start. Can we have something on the Discovery map on the Orbx Central app please?

 

For me, the biggest complaint, with all three of these add ons is the way that they clash with other third party mods, including your own partners.

 

I really don't want the Orbx ships, any of them. Masts, radomes, chimneys etc are also already done by other providers and we end up with duplicates with these.

 

Is there any way you could help us resolves this, structering the objects into different folders or .bgl files for example so that we can turn off what we don't need?

 

This problem is one that is only ever going to get worse, as more and more scenery gets developed for the sim, a way to resolve these ugly duplications should be given some thought imo.

 

 

Fair comments.

 

The dev team is looking into the POI list on a map.

 

[Anna Cicognani]

12 hours ago, Badl4ndz said:

 

I demand Hippos because it's my human right, but really I would much more prefer an answer when I very occasionally ask a reasonable question.

 

See linked thread. Nick kindly at least responded but was unable to answer. Somebody in Orbx would know...

 

https://forum.orbxdirect.com/topic/219719-eglc-london-city-airport-udg-marketplace/

 

Many thanks 

 

Not sure why this EGLC question is linked into a GB regions thread... uhm....

 

So two things:

 

1) the XBox version has been submitted and we are waiting for Microsoft to test / approve / release

2) support questions do not get answered on this forum any more, but through our Discord channels or our ticketing system

 

I occasionally wander here for my own relaxation and entertainment, so it's important (for me) to see there is a loyal and committed group of people who maintain a great sense of humour in all circumstances. Hippos, giraffes or XBox topics can all fit the entertainment list. 😁

 

[Anna Cicognani]

KMZ file has been polished and should appear on the product page soon...

[DigFS]

Is there an update planned for Orbx Central, from which scenery features can be activated/deactivated as needed? Like for example ships.

 

Other vendors manager already have it, like iniBuilds and it's great
In addition to being very useful, it would end almost all compatibility problems for those of us who use addons from different sources and which may be incompatible with each other.

[Kjaye]

It's such a needed feature and would please so many Orbx customers. If I was Seafront Simulations, I'd be really annoyed the way Orbx ships have ruined their Vessels Southeast Pack. I don't want to make out the GB South pack is worse than it is, it's still a net gain for me, I love having the additional castles especially, but the conflicts shouldn't be happening this far into the sim's development. You can't expect to add 700 POIs in a small geographical area and there not to be overlap with other products. Attempts to address that should be prioritised, especially as this is the third in the series now and Orbx has had three years to get this right.

[goffers]

I feel the "moving" ships, (static with wake), look very FSX-ish.  I have the AI shipping addon, with real moving ships.

[Elbert John]

Hello,

 

We always appreciate customer suggestions. Please know that your feedback about GB South has been acknowledged, and the ships will be removed.

You can also create a refund request via ticket on Orbx Support, and we will ensure to take care of it as soon as possible.

On 11/22/2023 at 7:36 AM, colorbars said:

Agree with Kjaye here.  It would be nice if the add-on could be divided up into separate categorical add-ons so they can easily be disabled and enabled within add-on linker as wanted. In addition to the static ships, the bridges over the River Severn are very terrible quality with a flat image of the roadway on the river that the 3d model doesn't even follow and the cars are doing stunts everywhere. There's also not really any texture to anything, just flat and cartoonish. There are much better free addons out there for those bridges and I wish I could selectively enable them. I'm not here to trash the addon in general though as I'm grateful for the quantity of coverage and the price and the quality of several POIs.

 

On 11/29/2023 at 1:57 AM, goffers said:

I feel the "moving" ships, (static with wake), look very FSX-ish.  I have the AI shipping addon, with real moving ships.

 

On 11/28/2023 at 11:43 PM, Kjaye said:

It's such a needed feature and would please so many Orbx customers. If I was Seafront Simulations, I'd be really annoyed the way Orbx ships have ruined their Vessels Southeast Pack. I don't want to make out the GB South pack is worse than it is, it's still a net gain for me, I love having the additional castles especially, but the conflicts shouldn't be happening this far into the sim's development. You can't expect to add 700 POIs in a small geographical area and there not to be overlap with other products. Attempts to address that should be prioritised, especially as this is the third in the series now and Orbx has had three years to get this right.

 

On 11/28/2023 at 11:43 PM, Kjaye said:

It's such a needed feature and would please so many Orbx customers. If I was Seafront Simulations, I'd be really annoyed the way Orbx ships have ruined their Vessels Southeast Pack. I don't want to make out the GB South pack is worse than it is, it's still a net gain for me, I love having the additional castles especially, but the conflicts shouldn't be happening this far into the sim's development. You can't expect to add 700 POIs in a small geographical area and there not to be overlap with other products. Attempts to address that should be prioritised, especially as this is the third in the series now and Orbx has had three years to get this right.

 

[Kjaye]

Thanks for acknowledging this Ebert! For myself, I certainly don't want a refund, I appreciate the value of the POI additions, it was just the duplications and lack of any POI list that really bothered me. The additional ships that interfered with other add ons such as Seafront Simulations and Mamut Marinas were the worst offenders so glad to hear that will be fixed.

 

Thanks for listening to your customer base. There is a lot to like about the add on and I'm looking forward to exploring each countie's castles and historic buildings once we get the POI list especially.

[Airtrooper]

On 11/30/2023 at 12:28 AM, Elbert John said:

We always appreciate customer suggestions. Please know that your feedback about GB South has been acknowledged, and the ships will be removed.

 

Many thanks for committing to the removal of the ships and their wakes.

 

Will you also commit to the removal of any generic objects, such as chimneys, cooling towers, cranes (inc. dock cranes), masts etc. please? The value of this product is the bespoke objects and not the generic ones. Please consider anything which isn't bespoke as unwanted.

 

Please be aware that in many cases the requests for changes to GB South simply repeat calls for changes to GB Central and North as well (which go back a long time). Will you commit to the same changes being made to these regions as to South please?

Edited December 1, 2023 by Airtrooper