3 new gameplay elements are proposed! It does not mean we will implement all of that in V2, but they will likely come to fruition at some point
New Loyalty/Loyalist systemIn V1, Loyalty is a magical number that increases slowly over time based on flight volume/quality/cancellation/city pop etc. Though it works fine, but it suffers 2 problems:
1. It's a magical number, with a magical ceiling. It rises over time but it's not that dynamic
2. Many airlines can have high loyalty in the same airport - there's no sense of direct competition or progress
To add this we are going to introduce the "Loyalist system":
1. Each airport starts with no loyalist
2. Each airport citizen will have a "favorite" airline. If he/she travels with your airline on any leg of the flight and have a good/bad experience, it might flip to/from your airline
3. Loyalty in airport is basically determined by % of loyalist your airline has within that airport
This should create a more "reasonable" loyalty number that we can clearly explain in the UI (we will show loyalist composition or even trend etc).
This new system should also give a better sense of "progression" and "competition" for airlines to gain loyalist under their brand
This will give advantage to airline that has been around in the airport longer - it might even act as a stronghold. There are concerns that it will be hard for new airline to break it - but I think IRL, this IS the case. Virtual pax still considers many factor - budget traveler does not really care about loyalty and in fact all virtual pax type cares about pricing more or less and also the actual quality. Therefore new airlines can break into a market by offering cheaper priced ticket, supreme quality or very frequency speedy flight! And this also leads to our next point advertisement
AdvertisementSince we have the delegate system in place, we are going to add more usage of delegates (we experimenting and adjusting delegate count - to strike the right balance)
Delegates will be able to assign to certain airport to handle advertisement with several different "radius" options. Advertisement will increase awareness and loyalty. The effect is based on:
1. The population the radius covers, the higher the pop, the less effective it will be
2. The amount of delegates
3. The duration on the job (similar to country delegates, it levels up over-time)
Take notes that the loyalty boost is similar the country airline/Olympics boost type, once the delegates are pulled out, the bonus will disappear immediately
Better simulation on flight duration and supersonic flightCurrent simulation takes into consideration of frequency and transit, however flight speed is not really accounted for - it still has some effect that higher speed leads to higher frequency - but it does not make much diff currently. This sim weakness has prevented us from introducing supersonic jet - as either it will be so fuel inefficient that noone would use, or if we just adjust it to make it profitable, then it will simply be just like any other airplane models.
However, if we improve the simulation model to consider the real duration of flight with all the transit (which is already available since we implemented the "search" option that shows total duration), then we can simulate how supersonic jet can catch the niche market for elite or speedy pax that care about speed more.
We can then introduce several concorde models perhaps
I am going to prototype on the first 2 points, I have some rough ideas of what need to be changed. Will keep you all lovely people updated!
And as always, inputs are welcome