2021 A Falcon BMS Year to remember!

[MaxWaldorf]

#anchor

Hi Folks!

In a couple hours, we’re going to enter 2022 and leave 2021 behind!

Time for a (more personal and a bit general) retrospective and word of the future! (Not too much tough before I’m drunk…)

A step into BMS Team

My official Journey at BMS started back in January 2021…

From Falcon Lounge community to Falcon BMS was a really milestone for me personally! In so many ways, I was involved in Falcon BMS but being part of the story of the team was a game changer…

In so many ways, you always have good intentions but you need to make sure that you can keep up with your goals (set reasonable goals or you’ll end up caught in the task forever and get burned out).

So you start by getting into the wealth of knowledge that the team has and dif your own hole so you can start contributing to the story!

2021 Wind of change

Some might have noticed but there has been quite some changes around here!

The Hard

As in a lot of stories, there needs to be change to initiate a new momentum.
Some people left the team, some came back and some joined!

A in every team, that creates a bit of lag where people need to find their mark and reshape a bit the goals. Falcon BMS 4.35 U1 was definitely a difficult release as a lot shifted during that period of time.

The constant rant, social pressure on BMS team (through other channels than this forum) and the constant compare with another well know F-16 product definitely can’t be ignored…

Obviously, I am not even going to speak about the global pandemic!

The Ambition

For those who have a bit of corporate experience, you know that restructuring and setting new goals is essential to steer people to the road of success!
Except that… We’re not a company but a bunch of passionate people that deeply care about Falcon BMS.

As part of the ambition, we try to communicate a bit more but will remain quite careful on what we share (we can’t share everything in terms of roadmap since we’re not the kind to disclose everything and we do have rules internally…)

We also are restructuring our internal tools and try to modernize our assets! (Yes I know that’s always hard for some to accept that )

The team is no always looking for more talents but we will always make sure we keep people that match team spirit (team spirit before individuals)…
If you’re interested, there is an official form HERE but we will always be very selective on profiles.

The Best

In every story, there is passion BUT there is mostly friendship!
We’re not many very active within the team but I can tell you I really had a great time spending evenings joking and developing with a couple guys in the team! I have to give a special shout to the boys (and they are not the only ones!):
@Mav-jp , @Bad-Boy , @Radium (you’re not BMS but anyway ) , @spooky , @I-Hawk , @Tumbler31 , @Manos1981 , @Seifer , @Dee-Jay

You guys really helped me getting through 2021 and this is where BMS Team shines: There are always people to help the other without conditions!

BMS is strong because of its people and this is why I see our future is bright!

2022 and Beyond

Well obviously, you heard the focus is Falcon BMS 4.36 and gave a couple hints through our Xmas gift .

Now, we are fully committed to busting bugs and optimizing our next release!

What about the next step?
Well… 4.36 is being prepared but we are already deep into 4.37 development…

4.37 will definitely be a big change compared to 4.36 that will be the last of the current era…

As we change our development tools and release cycles, we sure want to avoid working on 3 versions in // because it is way too much to maintain for the small team we are!

Some keywords of our Future in 4.37:
#new-terrain
#VR (sooner if we can…)
#Better-3D-models (this is true for 4.36 as well…)
and even more surprises…

Here it is… 2021 is wrapped up and 2022 opens!
Thank you for the awesome First BMS year and looking forward for the next!

Enjoy!

[Zeus_]

Wonderful update!
I’ve definitely noticed the uptick in the communication the past few months. Can’t say enough how I appreciate what you and everyone on the BMS team do.

Here’s to an exciting 2022!

[Mylonite470]

Many, many thanks to you, Max, and to all of the BMS development team. Thanks for continuing to make the sim even better, and for the way you’re communicating like this on the forum. All of the hard work you and the rest of the BMS team do is greatly appreciated.

[Seifer]

Well said, Max! To this great community, a great new year!

[SOBO-87]

@maxwaldorf

Great update Max!
I’m really liking where BMS is going, not just the sim itself but also the community and the way the dev team are communicating with us. It’s all feeling really good to me. Really looking forward to future.

Thanks for your and the rest of the teams hard work, it’s truly appreciated.

Have a good new year and stay safe.
Here’s to some fun BMS flying in 2022.

S

[Chunk]

Great post @MaxWaldorf!

Happy new year to the team and to this community. Long live BMS!

[Airbuster]

Happy New Year everyone, may all your wishes come true and stay safe!

[Geraki]

Happy new year with health love and extreme siming .
Le’ts the 2022 bring us more and more Realistic and enjoyable BMS F-16 Fighting Falcon flying!!!

[Jackal]

@maxwaldorf
My best wishes for all, as first.

Second, I am awaiting to get some good news by you all… as soon as you can, of course.

Happy New Falcon Year!

With best regards.

[NIL]

Happy new year everyone. Looking forward to an exiting BMS future. It’s gonna be interesting to see what you Devs are bringing us. I firmly believe you will amaze us all as you have done in previous releases. Best wishes to everyone in the Dev team and everyone that is working on tools, theaters and programs that can be used with this amazing sim.

[gwes25]

Great post Max! Thank you to all the team members and may all have a Happy and Prosperous New Year!!!

[Migbuster]

Cheers Max and have a happy new year.

[Sandman]

Well said Max! Great things to come for BMS and the Community! Looking forward to a great 2022 and beyond!

[jayb]

Thank you Max and the entire BMS team for some wonderful experiences throughout 2021. For me personally, BMS has given me the final nudge to get into app development, so besides the flying BMS has taught me something new and different compared to my coding day job.

So BMS can bring a lot of enjoyment on many fronts. One thing I particularly have always been impressed about regarding BMS has been the manuals and documentation. I do hope that they will receive some TLC in 2022.

Happy new year to all and all the best,

JayB

[Zed8]

Happy New Year and much much appreciated thank you to the Devs. Awesome work guys.

[Snake122]

@jayb said in 2021 A Falcon BMS Year to remember!:

So BMS can bring a lot of enjoyment on many fronts. One thing I particularly has always been impressed about regarding BMS has been the manuals and documentation. I do hope that they will receive some TLC in 2022.

Yeah, @Red-Dog did an amazing job with them to a truly professional level. Now that he seems to have moved on to other projects, I know there is a plan to revamp them. I hope they keep the realism that Red Dog instilled while maybe doing more of new school EFB format that much of aviation has transitioned.

[jayb]

@snake122 said in 2021 A Falcon BMS Year to remember!:

@jayb said in 2021 A Falcon BMS Year to remember!:

So BMS can bring a lot of enjoyment on many fronts. One thing I particularly has always been impressed about regarding BMS has been the manuals and documentation. I do hope that they will receive some TLC in 2022.

Yeah, @Red-Dog did an amazing job with them to a truly professional level. Now that he seems to have moved on to other projects, I know there is a plan to revamp them. I hope they keep the realism that Red Dog instilled while maybe doing more of new school EFB format that much of aviation has transitioned.

They should definitely keep the level of professionalism.

Sometimes you read some section of the manual and wish for even better text or a MFD screenshot or something else. I personally edited the pdfs for my own use where I thought the text could be more elaborating, or where a screenshot could be beneficial.

I would suggest to maybe Github them so that people can “push” improvements, more screenshots for clarification etc. So the manual(s) become a live document.

[Snake122]

@jayb said in 2021 A Falcon BMS Year to remember!:

@snake122 said in 2021 A Falcon BMS Year to remember!:

@jayb said in 2021 A Falcon BMS Year to remember!:

So BMS can bring a lot of enjoyment on many fronts. One thing I particularly has always been impressed about regarding BMS has been the manuals and documentation. I do hope that they will receive some TLC in 2022.

Yeah, @Red-Dog did an amazing job with them to a truly professional level. Now that he seems to have moved on to other projects, I know there is a plan to revamp them. I hope they keep the realism that Red Dog instilled while maybe doing more of new school EFB format that much of aviation has transitioned.

They should definitely keep the level of professionalism.

Sometimes you read some section of the manual and wish for even better text or a MFD screenshot or something else. I personally edited the pdfs for my own use where I thought the text could be more elaborating, or where a screenshot could be beneficial.

I would suggest to maybe Github them so that people can “push” improvements, more screenshots for clarification etc. So the manual(s) become a live document.

If you are in the -1 or -34, that is how it should be written honestly. Red Dog matched Standard Technical English (STE) style for the most part, which is how those real manuals are written. It ismore the other manuals not trying to model that like the Training and Comms that is written in more narrative style and often have the verbose details for which you are looking. The practical problem is the manuals are in several .pdfs so you forget which one has the details for which you are looking. Currently, a .pdf merge does solve most of these problems.

As also @Aragorn can tell you, Falcon documentation isn’t an easy job. He did a lot of of the work with those earlier documents and was more in a narrative tone. However, I cannot understate @Red-Dog 's efforts as well. There is a good reason manuals are written in that style. It delivers maximum clarity for minimum word count.

Crowd sourcing it may make it an easier job for something that is pretty massive job. How I see it though, you would need an “editor(s)” familiar with STE, manual formating, usability, publishing software, and if still wanted by the community, document realism in mind. There are some manual nerd things I would love to see, like List of Effective Pages, but is a huge pain from a work aspect.

[Aragorn]

@snake122 said : As @Aragorn can tell you, Falcon documentation isn’t an easy job. He did a lot of of the work with those earlier documents and was more in a narrative tone.

Hee hee…!!
Thanks for remembering, dude. Indeed, I put together almost 1600 pages.

Many of those tech articles contributed by current BMS devs…!
I-Hawk did an article on optimising for AMD Radeon cards.

And - the largest “sub-section” within the book was the Nav. section, which was contributed by… RED DOG…!

I did go the narrative style to keep my own sanity. 18 hours a freakin’ day.
I think I enjoyed the Pete Bonanni Vs Chuck Norris bit the best.

In fact… I do believe that I wrote the first ever BMS manual…
v.1.43 or summin’.
It was back with Jammer and Charles (CobraCab).
At Frug’s. How’s THAT for trivia…?

Bet not many remember that massive 10 page tome…

AraBeenThereDoneThatPr0n

Edit: Actually… maybe it was BMS v.0.98. Summin’…! Too long ago.

[APOLLO 11]

@apollo-11 said in 2021 A Falcon BMS Year to remember!:

Best wishes for 2022! Its going to be hell of a ride with all these future improvements!!
AIM HIGH BMS DEV TEAM!!