I really like BMS because ...
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Apologies for the somewhat clickbaity title. Just wanted to voice my appreciation for BMS and call out one thing that I really like about BMS (besides it being an outstanding sim).
BMS values my time, which is something I feel like becomes less and less common with today’s games. I appreciate that even more now as life just gets more and more busy with job, family, etc.
Few things to call out in particular:
- The dev team does not release updates that break the game or any features/weapons/systems in a major way (which is quite an accomplishment, considering the complexity of the software).
- Updates don’t suddenly change game rules or core game mechanics. I’ve had this happen with a few games and often stopped playing them because the game moved too far away from its original path.
- I can run the game offline. Things do not stop working just because I am not online.
- I can chose not to install an update (for whatever reason). Steam games for example just force updates down your throat and if they break something, well, too bad for ya.
Well done BMS dev team and keep up the great work!
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@Munster , besides loving the BMS flight simulator, I love the community, too.
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Amen.
Now to the beer tent.
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Best combat flight sim on the planet!!
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@Flow32 said in I really like BMS because ...:
Amen.
Now to the beer tent.
NOW we are getting somewhere.
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@Munster Good clickbait.
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I find this perspective interesting. While I think the BMS dev team does many things right, this is not one of those areas that I think many praise them on.
- Updates that have detrimental side effects are not unheard of. A recent example would be the memory leak that almost grounded 24/7 servers for a short moment of time. Now does this “break the game?” Perhaps that is a matter of debate, but I can see the case that says that it did. Earlier than that during the 4.35 era, one of the devs was quoted as saying that that U1 was the “worst bms version ever” from the team’s perspective as he referenced U2’s vast improvements in the area of stability.
- Maybe this is a matter of definition of what constitutes a “game rule” or “core game mechanic,” but I think it’s not unreasonable for someone to argue that some changes were dramatic. An example would be the data link change from (I believe) 4.33 to 4.34 and the later change of AMRAAMs having much worse PK when not launched in STT. Even if they are all strictly improvements, some of these changes have confused some veteran pilots making a return to BMS.
- Regarding your last point, I would not be surprised if the installer and updater are made to be more aggressive in telling people to update. It is no secret that the devs have advocated for even large MP events to be run on the latest version even with short notice.
I understand that your main premise is that the user’s time is respected, but I actually can see the other side to that argument. Having to rebind everything every single time a new major update comes out – and sometimes even when a minor update comes out – is a common complaint. (At least the stealth config changes have been addressed.) The lack of theater documentation means that theater devs maintaining their own database have to redo their work every update. There is no way to tell easily what they have to redo, and it can make 3rd party theater development very frustrating.
Lastly (and sorry for the long reply), I don’t want to discourage your enthusiasm for Falcon BMS, nor do I want to discourage complimenting the dev team. I just found your perspective interesting enough to comment on.
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@BibleClinger said in I really like BMS because ...:
Having to rebind everything every single time a new major update comes out – and sometimes even when a minor update comes out – is a common complaint.
Interesting. I’ve never really had to rebind stuff unless moving up to a new version, ie, 4.32 to 4.33. I’ve also very early on created an excel file which makes it easy to move stuff over from my old .key file to a new .key file, making sure I keep the new callbacks in the new .key file but keeping my key bindings from the old .key file. Pair this with Kolbe’s excel file, I can easily see where there are gaps in my keyboard to map in the new callbacks. It still takes me a day or two (only have a few hours or even minutes free some days) to make sure I’ve done things correctly…
If you think this is bad, well, let’s just say other game companies move .lua parameters from one .lua file to another without telling their community, ending up with people like myself scrambling for weeks trying to find it and change it so that we can have our old setup/settings/viewpoints/preferences back.
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@Atlas agreed! If you know how to make the .key get pulled over, even with the new Launcher, it is pretty easy if you know what callbacks changed and try to use DX as.much as possible. And straight up I’ll call them out, ED on DCS updates messing up binds are a nightmare, especially when you own too many modules.
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@Snake122 I used to faff over this when I was NOT using the Launcher and I was using Helios. Moving to a mostly-physical pit setup and I don’t even have to bother; I just map the DX buttons via the Launcher now and only really look at the keybinds for when I go over the 32DXbuttons-per-device limit.
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@Atlas said in I really like BMS because ...:
for when I go over the 32DXbuttons-per-device limit.
you should be good with 128 now … no?
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@airtex2019 I’m using PoKeys and they have a limit of 32. I’ve contacted their tech support to see if they can do anything about increasing it as a single PoKeys board has 55 inputs.
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@Atlas said in I really like BMS because ...:
@airtex2019 I’m using PoKeys and they have a limit of 32. I’ve contacted their tech support to see if they can do anything about increasing it as a single PoKeys board has 55 inputs.
I use a 57U board in a small panel I built a couple years ago for inputs for Autopilot Roll\Pitch switches and two rotaries (HDG\CRS) and at the time simply set them to output some KB presses that BMS wasn’t using. May go back and swap it over to DX #'s for the switches at some point. Has worked flawlessly from Day1 though…
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Because, in my experience, BMS respects fans.
I’ve been flying Falcon 4, Falcon AF and BMS on and off since the 90s. I’ve never had enough time to fully enjoy it, but I keep coming back because I feel at home with this sim.
I hope I can come back here many more times in the future.