Hello everyone,
We're almost there! We've almost reached the goal. That is amazing.

I think the backing pace slowed down a bit because everyone feels that the base goal is pretty much there, but the very next stretch goal is so far it's virtually unreachable.

We need smaller stretch goals, and we need to make them good. I've asked about this in the comments yesterday and received overwhelming support.

The thing is, after the base 100K we are hitting the no-internal-funding zone. Features begin to cost what they really cost. We need to raise a lot more money for individual line items. 150K seems like a very reasonable stretch goal to add, but we can hardly do anything for the extra 50K. Definitely not a map and definitely not a whole new plane. The only thing we can try to squeeze in for the 50K is a cockpit for the 262, and that's only because we are already doing the AI version.

So, the new stretch goals will be as follows:

100K: Base

150K: Flyable Me.262A-1 jet fighter

275K: Normandy map extended North to include Southern England (up to but without London)

425K: Flyable B-17

Moving the 262 up allows us to create an attractive stretch goal at the lowest cost possible of all. This pushes back the flyable B-17 by the same 50K, but I think it's worth it.

Please help us get there! If you've already backed the project, please consider increasing your pledge. If we all put together, everyone who pledged $40 or higher gets the Me.262 for free in the initial release!

And if you have not yet backed, please consider doing so. Even backing at the $1 level helps. That still gets us a little closer to our goals, and most importantly shows the overall level of support. This project is not just about the dollar amount, but about community support. The number of backers shown next to the project is extremely important! We're currently at 1,378 backers and $97,293. If we can get to 2,000 backers by the project's end, even if that means only adding a single dollar from these new backers, that is still going to be an amazing showing.

Please remember that backing at even the $1 level allows you access to backer-only updates, polls, and discussions. We will be interacting with the community a lot in the months between the end of the KS campaign and the initial release. We are currently discussing our 3rd party content development options internally. A decision will be reached next week as to the exact extents, but some level of involvement is virtually guaranteed. We will almost certainly do a backer-only something, perhaps an SDK, perhaps some other tools. So backing at even the $1 level will allow you to either get directly involved in modding and expanding the game, or just to access the internal updates on the progress.

Thank you everyone for your support and for your enthusiasm. Let's keep pushing forward!

PS Some of you noticed that the P-51s in the previous update had no weight with the gear struts fully extended. Everyone responsible has been dealt with. Struts have been compressed. Apologies extended.

Their kickstarter was very disorganized. If they had done a little bit of research on the process and had everything ironed out at the get go, it would have gone much smoother. It probably would have brought in more donations as well. They could have informed the community of their intent for a kickstarter a month before they actually launched it.

Let's just hope that this will get the ball rolling for further flight sim goodness.

I am a backer. But not happy at all with the rewards as they are.

All I want is to back the whole thing with Alpha and Beta access without any T-Shirts, Manuals or the likes. Once you go over $40 they start including manuals and other stuff. I don't want that. When I donate I want my money to go to the sim development. I figure $100 with complete access and DCS codes for all planes should be a cool reward.

Even though I think stretch goals are a good idea as it keeps the incentive going once the main project is started, I must admit I don't understand the relative cost of some of them, i.e. 100k base map Normandy then 275k for some of Southern England.

Forgive me, but 125k to add Some of England seems a little odd if Normandy is already included in the base.
Ok I know map making can be labourious but to be honest the airbases in Southern England played such a major part of the Normandy campaign that they should be included in the base otherwise all flights will have to be air-starts which isn't really realistic.

One suggestion to get round this would be to have Southern England up to Sailsbury included in the base, but only have detail in and around the enclosed air bases.
For the stretch goal then simply add in more detail up to what the budget allows.

I am a backer. But not happy at all with the rewards as they are.

All I want is to back the whole thing with Alpha and Beta access without any T-Shirts, Manuals or the likes. Once you go over $40 they start including manuals and other stuff. I don't want that. When I donate I want my money to go to the sim development. I figure $100 with complete access and DCS codes for all planes should be a cool reward.

Even though I think stretch goals are a good idea as it keeps the incentive going once the main project is started, I must admit I don't understand the relative cost of some of them, i.e. 100k base map Normandy then 275k for some of Southern England.

Forgive me, but 125k to add Some of England seems a little odd if Normandy is already included in the base.