Hello all,
On December 31st there will be our first One-Year Anniversary, and what a year it was!
We've grown SSM2007 with new and cool features, more notable being full native support for the most popular and cool devices around: TrackIR:Pro, TripleHead2Go and iWear 920.
We've added functionality, more systems, more GPC modes, better interface and more subtle improvements in the graphics and Special FX department, but more than anything else, this was a year dedicated to new missions.
We do hope that you like the ride and that satisfaction replaces frustration after a difficult grapple, dock or a complex assembly mission, after tens of EVAs, with and without the MMU. We hope you enjoy building the ISS, servicing the Hubble, capturing and deploying satellites and performing cool, one-of-a-kind missions like the SRTM STS-99. We also hope that by "playing" with SSM2007 you are more and more drawn into Space Exploration and understand what the STS program is all about.
We can promise you that the coming year will also be exciting for all of us, especially as we are getting closer to starting work on the next version of SSM planned for release on Christmas 2010 - with the official closure of the STS program.
After that, SSM with all its upcoming versions will be the only way to remember and fully experience this unique Space platform. At this end we promise to make this experience an unforgettable and continuously exciting one.
During this year, the community forum accepted more than 1,000 registered customers and saw more than 1,700 topics and exceeded 14,000 posts - all very relevant to SSM2007. We are sure that the community is an indispensable tool for any newcomer and eventually we'd like to welcome and encourage all of our current customers to register and actively participate in the forum.
This is a good time for thanks:
1. Thanks go to all of you - our valued customers - who have put your trust in us and our product, although you had virtually no indication about how committed we were to our promised goals! It is your moral encouragement and financial support that keep us going! Special thanks go to all those first buyers on the first weeks after launch - your trust in us was an inspiration and encouragement!
2. Thank you to those special users who guide us with suggestions, nags, moans, requests, demands and selfless donations to the community. Three notable persons in this category are Cthulhus (AKA Xavier), Mike and Uri. Cthulhus started the "Dummy Guide to Grappling", which allowed many RMS-challenged noobs make their first grapple, and the "Users' Hall of Fame" - by far, the most-read thread on the forum. Mike Swannick has been providing, maintaining and developing the very useful checklists without which nobody would have been able to complete any mission in the highest difficulty mode. Uri started modestly with his training videos (which were the base of today's Ground School). These videos opened may eyes and for many users, grappling, rendezvous, docking and landing procedures suddenly made sense. Later, Uri got completely out of control and added the SSM2007 TeamSpeak and the Wiki, thus complementing the array of useful material for the budding SSM2007 Astronauts. As this was not enough, Cthulhus and Uri are constantly on the watch in the forum for those Astronauts who are "lost in space", holding their hands and helping them move on with the missions. Hats off to these Gentlemen!
3. The forum moderators: without you, my work would have been almost unbearable. You've also significantly exceeded your mandate by proactively helping, translating in your mother tongue and encouraging desperate Astronaut Cadets who were ready to cut off the Oxygen and EVA into infinity after pulling serious hair during a challenging grapple or missing a rendezvous or a deorb window, or slamming the Shuttle into ground during the 10th botched landing attempt. THANK YOU ALL!
4. The forum gurus: Christra, Marvx, Uri, Cthulhus, who seem to be online all the time, ready to help the uninitiated get through any mission or imaginary bugs
. They do it not only by telling what and how to perform mission steps, but also by explaining technical and scientific concepts, thus contributing to the general education about Space Exploration and the STS program.
5. To ALL OF YOU, our forum members for behaving, being mature, being proactive and patient. You make a wonderful bunch and make the forum what it is today. It is a pleasure reading your posts and learning of your experiences, frustration and successes and seeing how seriously you treat Space Shuttle missions in general and SSM2007 in particular. We KNOW that all your loud critique and more subtle sarcasm is a result of your honest desire to enjoy the sim to its fullest. We know that, and we love each of you for your candor, patience, perseverance and understanding.
6. To our Beta Testing and Advisory team - you know who you are! Your attention to detail, suggestions, nags and perseverance is truly appreciated and although sometimes you may get the impression that your words are not getting through, we want to assure you that we are listening carefully, trying to meet your suggestions to the best of our resources, abilities and talent.
7. To our NASA friends - you too know who you are and how important is your feedback and material to us and to our "Astronauts". We are happy that you all regard SSM2007 as the ultimate tool for promoting and educating about the NASA in general and STS program in particular. We are working hard not to disappoint.
8. To our friends and reviewers at AVSIM, Flightsim.com, Simflight.com, Avionic-Online, BBC Sky at Night, Computer Pilot, PC Pilot, NASA Spaceflight, FlightsimX, IGN, Game Spot, Matrox, NaturalPoint, Vuzix, Terrametrics, etc. for believing in us and giving us a fair chance in a market which at times, is saturated by chaff and flares.
9. To the real NASA men and women, Astronauts and Ground Crews, Engineers, Scientists and technicians (about 100,000 of them!) who are an inspiration to us all and without whose sacrifices, courage and achievements, SSM2007 wouldn't have been born.
10. Last to our families who although are convinced that we are hopelessly crazy, still agree to sit us at their tables and share food, bed and warmth with us
We are forever in your debt!
I am sure that I forgot many people to whom we owe at least part of our success and for that I apologise! Please feel free to contact me on PM or directly via email and remind me to correct and add credits where credit is due.
Now I got to put a stop to this rant before I get too emotional - Oxygen is priceless in Space and we still have a long way to go! The Space Conquest Continues!
MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR to all of you!
/The SSM Crew/
