I wish I could say the same thing here. I will evaluate the cost vs the new features before deciding if I will purchase the new version or stick with SSMS. I'm hoping there are enough new features/enhancements for me to justify upgrading.
Same here. I have been stuck on the 3rd mission and just got fed up with it after a while. Trying to get the satellite to stop rotating took me absolutely ages of messing around - days in fact. But then when I just couldn't get the shuttle arm connected to it after that I just gave up. I dont know why I couldnt get it connected but then the game doesnt tell you which is a short fall I think - lack of feedback. I sometimes think if a mission is messed up beyond what the game AI is meant to be experiencing - for example here I had rotated the shuttle to see the satellite connector better - there is absolutely no way to continue if the game AI doesnt allow for it. I've played games like that before that have some limitation due to the AI resulting in artificial problems beyond what would be experienced in real life like that, and they become really frustrating real quick.
Anyway it just stopped being fun. Havent been back to the sim since.
So I cant see me getting another game to be honest. All I want to do it have a reasonably enjoyable shuttle simulator to do some interesting stuff with, see earth from high up, construct the ISS and all that. But I think this sim is a bit too serious for its own good, makes things more difficult than they would be in real life.
A good example of this 'making things more difficult than real life' is not using plane labels in a dogfight simulator. Many purists frown on using labels. But in real life your appreciation and 3d definition of your surroundings is far better than anything that could be portrayed on a computer. So using labels actually is a 'cheat' that actually compensates for the limitations of a computer screen and using a joystick hat to turn your pilots head etc.
I definitely think this game would benefit from some 'aids' (I wont say cheats again) like this. But I am sure the developer will frown at this judging from previous posts which is a shame. Anything that expands these kinds of games to a wider community than the die hard space fanatics is a good thing as far as I see it.
Me, I don't expect to have to mess around with these kinds of problems like spending all night trying to connect an arm to a satellite. That isnt a very pleasant occupation for me in my spare time.
Perhaps the new sim will blow me away and I have to get it, but I cant see it from the release images and I cant really think of anything major that could be added to the present sim that isnt there already, other than the above.
I suppose you might ask why not just try another mission if you are stuck? But being the way I am I wanted to go through all the missions in order or not at all. I may perhaps try another mission at some point when the interest kicks in again to press some buttons or try the impossible!
In terms of a new game, though, I would have been far, far more interested in an Apollo sim or even better a new well done space game like Frontier Elite.