Free aircraft selection rework

Features
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Free aircraft in Infinite Flight are quite an interesting topic. I’ve seen quite a lot of complaints regarding the free aircraft selection over the years, and the answer has always been the same: something along the lines of “it’s that way to give you a taste of what Pro is like”. And that’s a great answer… in 2017.

As it turns out, the list of free aircraft has barely changed since then, a list which itself likely carries over from even older Infinite Flight versions. Initially, if a free aircraft was reworked, it was kept free, as shown by the CRJ-200, Super Decathlon (replaced by the XCub), Cessna 172 and even the F/A-18, while new additions were, for the most part, Pro-only. However, it appears this is no longer the case. The first evidence of such is that people who bought the Citation X back in the day would not get the Challenger 350 for free. More recently, the A380 and C208 Caravan were taken out of the free selection following its rework, with nothing being added to “compensate” for it.

What this means is that Infinite Flight isn’t really giving F2P people a taste of what the newest aircraft feel like, basically invalidating the common answer seen above. And, if we take a look at what the free aircraft offering are today, perspectives for the future don’t look good, as many of them are old models due to be reworked soon (and, therefore, taken off the free list unless Infinite Flight changes their mind yet again), or basically irrelevant models, such as the P-38 and Spitfire.

My final argument as to why the free aircraft selection should be reworked is because Infinite Flight already did that not too long ago! Just not with aircraft, but regions:

The old free regions were mostly confined to the US, with one region in Europe and one region in Australia. Clearly the new regions are a step up from the old ones.

So, what could it look like?

My idea is to make a list that focuses on quality rather than quantity, but that would still feature a decent amount of aircraft. As it stands, there are 14 (soon to be 13) free aircraft, many of which are outdated, irrelevant or even both of them. Instead, a smaller list of, say 7 or 8 high-quality aircraft could be much better for the F2P user to get a taste of what Infinite Flight really is like currently. Here is an idea of what an updated list could look like, with an explanation behind the thought process:

A319 or A321
A330-300 or A330-900
737-700
767-300*
777-200LR*
E190
C172
F/A-18

*Note: In the best case scenario, the 767 would remain free once it’s eventually reworked (assuming this ends up being the list of choice and that it’s done before the 767 is reworked) and the 777-200LR wouldn’t be added to the free aircraft list at any point. In case the reworked 767 ends up being Pro-only, the 767 would remain as a Pro-only aircraft even prior to the rework, with the 777-200LR assuming its place as the Boeing widebody.

You may notice that, other than the 767, all of the aircraft in the list were added or reworked fairly recently, with the oldest of these being the A320 family member, last updated in August 2019. Why? Because this list is built to last for a very long time, and none of these aircraft will be touched anytime soon (besides livery additions), therefore being at no risk of becoming Pro-only in a very long time (other than the 767, however, ideally, it’d be granted an exemption).

This list was also thought based on the regions currently available, as well as aiming to cover most of what an avgeek could ask for: one narrowbody and one widebody from Airbus and Boeing, one regional jet, one general aviation aircraft and one military aircraft, as well as liveries of many big airlines worldwide, while requiring a Pro subscription for more iconic or proeminent aircraft, such as the A320 and 747.

One last thing I’d like to see is the livery restriction on some aircraft (such as the C172, XCub and F/A-18) be removed. It just doesn’t make any sense, they’re just liveries after all (besides, other aircraft (including all of the airliners) have all of their liveries available for free).

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I like the thought process.

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When we get the Max they should make the 800NG version free along with the A320-200 when we eventually get the Neo

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What new feature does this bring to the app? I don’t see how this is different from a feature request for “Give Me A Free Subscription.” Some thoughts:

Why would any company give away most of what their user base could ask for… for free?

Why do you want them? It just doesn’t make any sense, they’re just liveries after all.

Maybe you should go to your local pizza restaurant and tell them they should make their pizza free since that’s what most people want, and only charge for calzones. No topping restrictions either.

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Think what was done with the regions, but with aircraft. The regions were in dire need for an update, and they got it. What’s preventing the aircraft list from being overhauled as well?

Because that’s basically how the list looks like now, except that with a bigger number of aircraft, many of them irrelevant and/or outdated (tell me you fly the SR22 and 717 frequently without lying). These superfluous aircraft would be removed, and, as they’ll eventually be reworked, there’s no way they’ll become free - after all, the list I thought of already covers the demand for those aircraft.

Of course, if the free aircraft list was to be changed at some point, the developers will most likely know what represents the quality of Infinite Flight whenever the new list is released, giving the playerbase a decent amount of options, but not giving away too much.

Exactly because they’re just liveries. Why impose a restriction on something that barely costs anything? Besides, the airliners, where liveries arguably matter the most, have all of their liveries available, provided the aircraft itself is free. Why not get rid of such an annoying inconsistency?

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iirc, Jason mentioned that the ultimate goal was to have 1-2 high quality free A/C for each category. This could be a stop-gap solution, but giving people access to new aircraft and then taking that away could lead to problems.

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Okay now this list is too extreme IMHO, A330, 777, E-190, F-18 and other aircraft is just way too much for the non-pro community. Lets just say that (for me atleast) 3 poor/mediocre quality aircraft equal to one high quality aircraft. And the current list which mostly consists of aircraft before the “rework era” is what i like to call it. (basically aircraft that were introduced since the A350, could also sneak in the TBM,Xcub and C172)

A better list would rather look like:

A319
737-700
787-8
Challenger 350(Few liveries)
C-172(Few liveries)
A-10
C-130(One variant)

On the high quality scale you have a 737-700(Semi), C-172, Challenger 350 and the A-10, An airliner, GA, Bussiness jet and a military jet. On the “Good” quality, you have the A319, 787-8 and the C-130, another narrow body, a wide body and a military cargo jet.

Its better to choose variants that are less/least popular to try and hook the customer to the pro subscription (I am no marketing expert though)

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By the way, I think they are limiting planes for non pros because it is very expensive to produce them

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How much does it cost to pay 7 pounds per month for a game?

7 pounds! 😂

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Pretty bad argument IMO since IF already did a variation of this. You should remember that years ago the IF app itself used to cost money, then was discounted, and is now free. Its not exactly “Giving a free sub”, but pretty close. And it was done only because the devs finally realised what people like @AvioesEJogos have been saying for years - they could (and marketing experts would say should) give something good for free (or a trial) in order to attract more users to the app. Even one modern reworked aircraft could make the difference, compared to planes such as the CR22, Spitfire, P38, B744, 717, C17 which will (lets be frank) all be removed from the app entirely in a few years time (with the exception of the 744 and maybe the C17).
Quality over quantity as the devs love to say

For IF the best thing would likely be something like a 1 week free trial of Pro, or a “Mini Pro” one week trial with Global, all planes but without multiplayer for example

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Most would just cancel their sub after the trial, so really not helping.

Atleast that’s how I see it.

Though this is something Jason would enjoy chatting about.

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You’re overrepresenting the amount of conscious non-pro users. I’d say that out of the non-pro community, users that actually care and strongly want other planes are outnumbered 4:1 by people (may I say kids under 12) that just want to hop directly onto a runway and takeoff with any plane, no preference whatsoever.

It would be illogical to say that everyone who downloads the game is an expert pilot that wants to fly every plane. The game could reduce the non-pro airplanes to just a Cessna 172 and the vast majority of non-pro users wouldn’t care.

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I mean… theres a reason why the F-18 is the most used plane in IF (non-pro), instead of aircraft like the 747, A321 and 737. Usually those planes are the most popular since they are airliners. But the F-18 is the highest quality aircraft out of all non pro aircrafts, and im sure thats the reason why.

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And where did you get that data from?

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F-18 being the most used aircraft? Jason said it on discord… unfortunately my subscription ended so I no longer have access to the discord server. So I can’t show a screenshot.

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I do like the thougts here, I may be a pro user but I was stuck on free for at least 2 years