The planner is a must and one thing that has not been mentioned here. Simple and THEY WORK!! Unfortunately, they didn't bring back the whole program. Sorry to hear about the developer but very glad he's back. I just found FStramp and almost had heart failure. I too liked FSN better than every other add-on of it's type by far! It's simplicity and accuracy is amazing! It really makes FS for me. I agree with pretty much all that's been said here. It was just a warm and fuzzy app, which is a damned hard thing to put in a features list. I suspect that, even if it did everything the FS9 version did, it would have little appeal for folks who didn't know and love it in FS9 - it's not in the same league as FSC and Plan-G in terms of features. I recognize that there may be an element of nostalgia in my view of FSN, but if it appeared as an exact FSX clone of the FS9 version and did nothing more than it did before, I'd be very tempted to buy it. If there's any problem in my mind, it's that they almost make FSX seem subordinate to them instead of the other way around. I have both and have no beef with either. To be fair - Plan-G and FSC do much more and do most things very well.
I won't buy it as it is but haven't given up hope that it's a work in progress and that it may yet become what it's predecessor was for FS9. I hope I'm wrong but I think it's possible he's there in name only. I was hopeful when I saw FST mentioned here, but after looking at it, I get the feel that Herege's hand is not in it.
I've squirreled away a copy of the download on CD along with a copy of the purchase e-mail with the unlock code, which still works - I installed it on a new PC earlier in the year. I speak of it in the past tense but I still have FS9 and FSN loaded, though admittedly don't use it much any more. The map was on the rudimentary side but very fast - in fact, everything it did was very fast. Occasionally it would say that there were too many entries to display following entry of a search term, but the desired one was always right there at the top of the list. Navaid lookups were a piece of cake and I still use it for that sometimes. It allowed VORs, DMEs, NDBs, airports, and intersections to be set as waypoints as well as easily defined user waypoints.
It could create, load, save and edit FS9 flight plans and did that with ease - in my use of it, that was the centerpiece function. As I recall there was one unfinished thing that had some promise, incorporating SIDs and STARs into flight plans. There were no frills, it just did three things really well - flight planning, a moving map disply and an autopilot function for AC that didn't have one. I considered FSN to be one of the few examples of that programmers touchstone - elegant. I never used the older version mentioned nor do I fly in multiplayer. This was all mentioned already and my intention is not to put down something that I'm not sure of, just need some more information on why I would need this program. It looks cool, nice map and such, but what is it that I do not see here? I agree that the name was a poor choice but wouldn't want to hold that against them. Not sure what "Autopilot frontend" means or "Automatically flies flight planned routes and holdings." Isn't that what my AP already does. Except for being able to readily move about the sandbox while still in freeflight, a few extra clicks and FSX does the same thing. I can understand why folks would want it and is convenient looking to have in a small window(Integrated Module) while flying but without an included flight planner, from what I see on their site, it is useless to me for that price. I only use a moving map(PlanG) once in a while and rely on my flight plan(PlanG) and navaids to fly. It actually looks like something that used to be freeware at some point. I looked this over and can't see a reason to spend that much money on it.