Author Topic: Major changes - maybe I will call it 1.1 (no game world reset)  (Read 8573 times)

patson

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Hi all!

While V2 is taking form, I have prioritized items that I can apply to current version w/o a reset.

One thing that is kinda big on the list is the whole airplane assignment system. It currently has 2 major issues:

1. Confusing to new users : I observed that quite a few new users assign more airplanes than it needs to fulfill the frequency.
2. Can only be assigned to one route : In real world, a single a/c can possibly assign to multiple routes


Therefore, I am thinking to implement changes as below to address those 2 issues:

1. Airplanes will now have a concept of "home base". An route can only fulfill by airplanes based in the "from airport" (I know it might make sense to allow airplane based in "to airport", but for ease of logic and coding, I am keeping it to "from airport" only)
2. Airplane will now have a number of flight time per week (it is set as 3.5 * 24 * 60 (minutes)- same as current calculation - so only 3.5 days "flyable" - time is taken off for maintenance and stuff)
3. After selecting the airplane model, the screen will now show a list of airplane instances with free flight time that can at least fulfill 1 round trip
4. Upon selecting the airplane instance, it will now show a new table with the left column as the airplane instance, and the right column a frequency list kinda like the existing one, but instead of a frequency of all the airplanes, it will show the frequency allowed for this particular airplane. At the very bottom of the table, it will show the total frequency


And i am thinking to implement this into the current V1.

The impact I could think of is:
1. Much more welcoming for new and smaller airlines, as they can probably flight to more smaller cities with less airplanes. As for bigger airlines, the benefit is less, as airport slot usually is the limitation. For V2, I believe the limit will more likely be the # of routes allowed in a country
2. Hopefully less confusing to new players for the frequency?

Any thoughts please?  :D

seventysevenair

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It's a very good concept to improve playability.  Implementation sounds challenging.   Could you share some mock-ups?

trans nations

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I think it's definitely a great change!!
Used to be a decent airlines

Stoich

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You should increase the utilization time to 4/7 from 3.5/7 to compensate for the possible lower efficiency on cross routes assignments and as planes will be base assigned you might end up having some not used at times because of restructuring that you could previously just move to other routes elsewhere, as well not all planes are good for all routes and slots are still limited not only from the base airport but also the receiving airport. Also 50% utilization is too low and unrealistic to be honest. In RL you're looking at 80% + unless there is a serious issue with a plane.

There could be a possible problem with closing bases and opening new ones, what happens to the planes assigned to the old base? How will the moving of planes from one base to another work if possible at all?


patson

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You should increase the utilization time to 4/7 from 3.5/7 to compensate for the possible lower efficiency on cross routes assignments and as planes will be base assigned you might end up having some not used at times because of restructuring that you could previously just move to other routes elsewhere, as well not all planes are good for all routes and slots are still limited not only from the base airport but also the receiving airport. Also 50% utilization is too low and unrealistic to be honest. In RL you're looking at 80% + unless there is a serious issue with a plane.

There could be a possible problem with closing bases and opening new ones, what happens to the planes assigned to the old base? How will the moving of planes from one base to another work if possible at all?

Thanks for thinking through the problem

The 3.5 is probably not realistic, but that's how the game runs on right now, changing that would throw existing game off balance. It's probably also makes sense to change the factor based on how many route it flies, but then again, it's a bit hard to implement plus it probably creates a bit more confusion so i would rather go with the simple approach for now (at least for 1.1)

And for ease of development, closing base will shut all routes down (from airport) and send all the airplanes based in that airport to the HQ

players will be allow to reassign airplanes to different base if it's not assigned an route

Stoich

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Oh things will go up in smoke as soon as you roll this out make no mistake about it. It's better to adjust the utilization % now then later.

The reason for that is that you'll end up having dozens upon dozens of routes being opened from all bases where only a single flight per week is there. However that will create direct routes to many places that previously did not exist and all the transfer pax dynamics that exist right now will disintegrate, so everyone will need to make huge restructuring. This will aslo add a lot of computation as the number of routes will increase dramatically.

I'm not saying it's a bad thing, on the contrary, it ia a good improvement overall, but it will have very impactful consequences. So you're better off lumping in any utilization adjustment now rather then leaving it for later when it would have a similar impact again.

patson

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Oh things will go up in smoke as soon as you roll this out make no mistake about it. It's better to adjust the utilization % now then later.

The reason for that is that you'll end up having dozens upon dozens of routes being opened from all bases where only a single flight per week is there. However that will create direct routes to many places that previously did not exist and all the transfer pax dynamics that exist right now will disintegrate, so everyone will need to make huge restructuring. This will aslo add a lot of computation as the number of routes will increase dramatically.

I'm not saying it's a bad thing, on the contrary, it ia a good improvement overall, but it will have very impactful consequences. So you're better off lumping in any utilization adjustment now rather then leaving it for later when it would have a similar impact again.

That's true. But i might bring back something u hated so much : Route limits - that at given base level, it will only allow X amount of routes (more on the generous side just to prevent big airline operates to every single airport in the world) . But this brings more of a game balance issue and it impacts most of the existing airline (i do think it will mostly affect big airlines which operates hundreds of routes)

Stoich

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It will affect everyone as it will fundamentally change the pax flows around. Again not necessarily bad, just the change will be very big and everyone without exception will need to readjust their networks, be it frequency or prices or both in addition to increasing destinations. To be honest this helps the smaller airlines as it opens more destinations to them at a lower level of base as the big ones are already maxing out the utility of their slots as is right now, but this might stimulate the building of an extra base level for them.

Not so much a concern, I don't mind it personally I think it actually adds to the game and allows for a more genuine base strategy then before as bases can now be planed not solely on the basis of IC route potential but also "efficient" region coverage which will increase the amount of viable base candidate airports a lot and create much bigger competition for IC routes. I was just trying to highlight it as something that will be a result of the change and so you keep it in mind, also the reason why I was proposing the increase in plane utilization as a basic mechanic.

vani56

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Oh things will go up in smoke as soon as you roll this out make no mistake about it. It's better to adjust the utilization % now then later.

The reason for that is that you'll end up having dozens upon dozens of routes being opened from all bases where only a single flight per week is there. However that will create direct routes to many places that previously did not exist and all the transfer pax dynamics that exist right now will disintegrate, so everyone will need to make huge restructuring. This will aslo add a lot of computation as the number of routes will increase dramatically.

I'm not saying it's a bad thing, on the contrary, it ia a good improvement overall, but it will have very impactful consequences. So you're better off lumping in any utilization adjustment now rather then leaving it for later when it would have a similar impact again.

That's true. But i might bring back something u hated so much : Route limits - that at given base level, it will only allow X amount of routes (more on the generous side just to prevent big airline operates to every single airport in the world) . But this brings more of a game balance issue and it impacts most of the existing airline (i do think it will mostly affect big airlines which operates hundreds of routes)

Please don't. Such limitation doesn't belong in an airline sim game.

patson

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But then u will just spread ur network to every single city :| which makes it hard on new players. Bulair also suggested increased maintenance/administration fee for bigger network which im also considering

It might be a combination of both. Like an airline office base at level 5 can operate 15 routes at no extra cost (within capacity), but once beyond that point extra $ will be needed to maintain a route (overworking, not enough administration resource). And it gets more and more per extra route as a penalty?

HanoiAirlines

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Wait ... is the update taking place now?

patson

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not yet. It takes time to code...and that's a big change...still need to consider all the impact before doing it :)

vani56

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Check your PMs, Patson  :)

neez

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Something to think of here: the seat layouts in planes (Y/J/F). This change should mean that you cannot set that individually for every route, as a certain plane may fly on several routes.

In fact it could mean - and I think that would be realistic - that you have to define the seat layout for the whole fleet of a certain aircraft. As a consequence you then have to manage prices individually on routes according to the different demands in Y/J/F.

patson

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Something to think of here: the seat layouts in planes (Y/J/F). This change should mean that you cannot set that individually for every route, as a certain plane may fly on several routes.

In fact it could mean - and I think that would be realistic - that you have to define the seat layout for the whole fleet of a certain aircraft. As a consequence you then have to manage prices individually on routes according to the different demands in Y/J/F.

Ah ya...that makes sense! Hmmm...that would mean even more code changes tho kekeke