question about passenger demand method of game engine

[klamerus]

Hi.  I am new and like many, waiting for a game to join.  Just missed the last.

As I open routes, is the passenger demand for the route based on current demand for the specific leg of the trip, or based on ultimate origin and destination of travelers?  For example, If I base out of Huntville and fly routes to, say JFK and LAX, is the engine going to base my load on people trying to get from LA to/from NYC, or just current real world flow to/from those cities out of HSV?

HSV is well located to compete well with ATL as a hub.  Though there is less local population, the airport is capable and has wide open slots.  So I should be able to compete well... if the engine is built that way.  If, however, it is based only on current load (Where ATL is busy as a result of already being a hub, not the real demand out of ATL) then a hub at HSV will fail.  Before I launch in a game and watch my little airline crash and burn, I need to know which way the engine calculates demand.

Thank you.  BTW, HSV was used as an example, could easily also have been Grand Rapids vs ORD.

[mideg]

I believe, right now the demand is modeled rather simple: Each route has a demand associated with it. Pax are not modeled "individually" by having an origin and a destination and using different planes to get there.

It has probably been said like a hundred times, but is that a (long-term) goal or is that ruled out as a feature?

[Sami]

(It has to be said that it's practically impossible to count individual travellers globally here, if we wish to keep the 20-40min game days..)

[klamerus]

It wouldn't have to be individual pax based.  If there are 15,000 daily travelers going from DC to Miami, then the sim could route them direct, or through a mid-point (hub).  Factoring convenience such as length of delays, size of airport and so on could also be done, though it might overwhelm the program. 

But to be clear - are you sure the simulation demand is current, real world, direct-leg-based?   So current hubs like ATL and DTW have a grossly inflated demand based on current use compared to the comparably sized cities of Boston or Ontario.  If that is the case, then I just need to build and game with that in mind.

Thanks for the input.

[Sami]

Yes, in other words you cannot create a hub of your own to reroute the pax... However there are plans to change that later on (but out of the scope of this game world)

[highways1]

It wouldn't have to be individual pax based.  If there are 15,000 daily travelers going from DC to Miami, then the sim could route them direct, or through a mid-point (hub).  Factoring convenience such as length of delays, size of airport and so on could also be done, though it might overwhelm the program. 

But to be clear - are you sure the simulation demand is current, real world, direct-leg-based?   So current hubs like ATL and DTW have a grossly inflated demand based on current use compared to the comparably sized cities of Boston or Ontario.  If that is the case, then I just need to build and game with that in mind.

Thanks for the input.

Atlanta is the busiest airport in the world and Detroit is in the top 25-30 so these values are correct. In the US at least, city size and airport size are not always a linear relationship.

[samomuransky]

I prefer setting connecting flights manually.

Connections should be available (later) but we would set them manually (flights, price, marketing, etc.)

[klamerus]

Thank you all.  I got it.