AirwaySim v.1.3 news, previews & info

[Sami]

(Preview only)

Aircraft noise regulation rules will be active soon

The new feature of aircraft noise limit rules will be activated in the near future in all game worlds. This means that airlines are not able to fly very old equipment (not having at least "Chapter 3" noise certification) for example in Europe or US during the modern era.

Most of the older aircraft models that can be operated in the modern times already have the "hushkit" upgrade available (installed using the "Upgrade Aircraft" function), and this allows players to extend the useful life of these old models (such as the DC-9) into the noise restricted era.

The coding of this feature is still in progress, and this is a preliminary notice of the feature to allow players to prepare their fleets.


Main points of the feature are:

 - Dashboard news posts well ahead of the regulation's start for each country (several news items: at -8 years, -5 years, -3 years, -1 year, -6 months and at the date the regulation starts). Possibly also direct notifications to user's in-game message box at the -1y, -6m and 0day marks.

 - Checker that any noise restricted planes cannot be scheduled when restriction is in force.

 - Checker that any too noisy planes in operation are taken off the routes when regulation starts.

 - Information to the user interface in country & airport pages about the restrictions.

 - Supersonic planes (Concorde and Tu-144) will be exempt from all regulations.


Regulation rules are based on real world information. However this information is a bit limited possibly currently, but can be extended easily in the future.


Currently coded limitations (that will affect AWS game worlds) will be:

• Chapter 1 planes banned in USA in 1985, and in 1988 in EU area.
  
  
• Chapter 2 (incl. chapter 1) planes banned in USA in 2000, and on 2002-04-01 in the following: EU, Canada, Japan, Australia, NZ, Singapore, and during 2003 in Peru, Colombia, Ecuador. In 2005 in Mexico. In 2007 in Philippines. In 2008 in Chile, 2009 for South Africa and 2011 in Brazil.
  
  
• Any countries not listed here allow operations with any non-noise certified plane.
  
  
• If the regulation is active, it forbids ALL traffic to/from/in the airports within regulated countries. Individual airport noise limitations won't be built, it's always a countrywide regulation.

(as mentioned this list is probably incomplete, please feel free to give feedback with links to proper references to complete it)


In summary. Flying a "Chapter 3" or "Chapter 4" noise certified aircraft does not give you any restrictions anywhere in the world ever. Chapter 2 planes (such as DC-9 and B737-200) can be flown safely globally until year 2000, which after regulations start to kick in slowly - but most of these can be hushkitted to Chapter 3.


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[Sami]

(changes are marked according to the assumed effect they have on running your airline)


[minor, effective immediately] * Behaviour of route oversupply warning checker changed.

  - The warning messages are reformatted a bit to give the players more information.

  - And in case of violation is not corrected, the routes in question are not closed & deleted completely anymore but instead only their slots are detached (& removed) from the actual route. So it's now much easier to correct the situation since the schedules stay intact too.



[minor, effective immediately] * Minor changes to aircraft production line dynamics based on aircraft size class.

  - The smaller aircraft models require now less orders to keep the production line open. And in case of pending closure, the "grace period" to order more aircraft is also longer than before. All other limits related to the production line closures are also made size class specific now.

  - Included also one bugfix where a news of line's closure was not always posted. (you may see news posted now once of some lines that have already closed because of this fix; system just updates itself to correct status)


[minor, effective immediately] * Aircraft pages ("New Aircraft" and "Compare Aircraft") now show the status of the new aircraft production line in a color-coded format, together with the information of time to go until the production line closes (if it's pending closure).


[minor, effective immediately] * Aircraft "Production Slots" page shows also when the production line is about to be closed. The slots will become gray-colored ("unavailable slot") after that date.


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[Sami]

Aircraft information & fleet listing page

* A new feature has been added to all game worlds: combined aircraft information and data overview page.

* This page replaces the 'Global Statistics' page, and can be found under Aircraft -> 'Aircraft Information'.

* Many other subpages also link to this page (whenever you click on individual aircraft model name, aircraft fleet group name, or aircraft ICAO code in timetables you will end up to this page).

* The Aircraft Information page collects together all the basic information of an aircraft model. These include the basic technical details and basic production details (in a similar format already seen elsewhere, but not always available if the aircraft was not in production anymore).

* Completely new features at this page are the "Largest operators" listing and the "Fleet listing" table.

* "Largest operators" contains top-5 airlines using this aircraft. List includes also the planes stored and listed for sale by each airline (but not scrapped planes). AI lessors are not included.

* "Fleet listing" is a complete list of all aircraft ever produced of this particular model. List includes direct links to the history of each aircraft, current status ("in use", "scrapped" etc.), technical details and information about the owner and operator. Aircraft on order or due delivery are not included.

* Another new feature is the "Area of production" information shown at this page (and also at "New aircraft") page. This is added due to future features (regional achievements) and is a fleet group wide setting. (Note: Technically the system allows only a single country to be selected for each fleet group, so co-operative projects like the Concorde (France and UK) show currently only a single country, but this may be updated in the future.)

* The current stats (fleet list and largest operators) are available only on single model pages at this time, and not fleet-wide, but this may be also expanded in the future.


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[Sami]

Engine updates:

* Rolls-Royce Dart engine naming checked for all aircraft models to use the same formatting. Name is now in format "2x Rolls-Royce Dart RDa.7 Mk.536-7R"; where RDa.(x) tells the rating and Mk.(xxx) is the model. All Darts are counted as the same model commonalitywise.

* Hushkits to Chapter 3 added to following RR Dart powered planes: Fokker F.27 Mk 200, Fokker F.27 Mk 400, Handley Page Herald Mk.600, NAMC YS-11-100, NAMC YS-11-200, NAMC YS-11-500, Vickers Viscount 840. (Older models using the Dart engines do not seem to have this option - no data was found - so they don't have the upgrade)


Hushkit data is available in all game worlds, all other data only in any new games.


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[Sami]

[minor, effective immediately] *Aircraft Information page improved:

 - Fleet listing has a pagination feature; 100 planes per page.

 - 'Largest Operators' and 'Fleet Listing' info is now also available on the main page of this section, if you choose a manufacturer or a fleet. (example: choose any fleet group from the 'Filters' menu, and you can see the stats, operators and prod.list for the entire fleet (not just single model).

(...with these minor changes this a/c info page is considered complete now.)


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[Sami]

[minor, effective immediately] * Country pages have now the information if the country belongs to some group or is not a sovereign state. Makes it easier to tell for example which countries are EU members; for route planning and for understanding the noise regulation rules. [pictures #1 and #2]


[minor, effective immediately] * Airport pages show the current noise regulation status of each airport. [picture #3]


[PREVIEW ONLY, not implemented yet] * The noise regulation features are nearing completion, and will be ready for implementation soon. Please see the message posted on 24th Feb for details. Attached is a preview of a notification message sent to ALL airlines who operate in the areas where a regulation becomes active (regardless of the status of his aircraft noise levels). Another message will be then sent in case player is not complying with the regulations, also 6 months prior the regulation becomes active. [picture #4]


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[Sami]

Data updates:

* New aircraft model series, the Fairchild Dornier 528 / 728 / 928 series is added.

This includes four different models in the approximately 55 - 110 seat regional jet class. The aircraft is very similar in specs to Embraer 170/190 series. The aircraft never flew in real life so the specs are based on the preliminary figures. Thanks to our user CRV10R for the data.


This data update is available in the current Game World #1 and Game World #2, and in any future games.

Full list of planes in AirwaySim: https://www.airwaysim.com/Information/Aircraft



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[Sami]

[PREVIEW ONLY, not implemented yet]

Noise regulation: A few more images on how the noise regulation systems work, and how warnings are given to players.

* The regulation status is visible at the page of each airport.

* Players will see the upcoming regulation at the Dashboard news, and will also receive messages to their inboxes.

* First news item is posted 8 years before regulation activates.

* News items are also posted in the case where a country joins a group (like EU) which already enforces noise limitations by previous decision.

* When regulation becomes active, the system will automatically unschedule all routes that are in violation of the rules (player is notified).

* A warning is posted to Used Aircraft and New Aircraft pages if the aircraft does not meet the noise levels at some of your base airports. In case of used a/c, the system will also advise if an upgrade is available. (picture #1)

* Scheduling new routes against the limits will naturally fail and show a warning. (picture #2)

* Opening new routes that can potentially cause problems will show a warning too. Please note that this is a fleet group wide warning so it takes into account the "worst case scenario" (= lowest certification, and highest restriction) and you must always then check the individual aircraft you are about to use on this route (naturally the scheduling page will inform with details if there's a problem).  (picture #3)

* Concorde and Tu-144 are not regulated at all.

* Note that there will be no relation on this feature to for example new aircraft manufacturing dynamics. Players can order any planes they wish are then required to operate them according to the limits set by each country/airport. (The regulations are not worldwide)


All-in-all, the system is made so that a) nobody can really miss when the restrictions come in force and b) should not accidentially get planes that cannot be flown due to the restrictions.

A separate manual page will be written on this subject. The system will go live hopefully this weekend (some minor components are still unfinished).


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[Sami]

Noise regulation features now implemented

The previously previewed airport noise regulation rules are being implemented in all game worlds.

The feature is now fully live, but is not enforced yet. This means that all relevant updates to news and airport data is made, but players do not receive any warnings if they are in violation with the rules. Please note that the news posted during this initial implementation may not be fully accurate (some countries may be omitted), but most of the info should be visible.

The full implementation will happen next week, and then the routes in violation of the noise rules will be unscheduled by the system.

The feature is not added to the current Game World #3 (ending in less than two weeks), but is added to all other games.

A manual page with the highlights is also added: https://www.airwaysim.com/game/Manual/Routes/Noise/

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[Sami]

[minor, effective immediately] * Data update, all game worlds: Hawker Siddeley HS121 Trident 2E and Hawker Siddeley HS121 Trident 3B engines are now in noise chapter 2 instead of 1. Trident 1 remains in class 1.


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[Sami]

The noise regulation features are now being enforced in all game worlds.

Routes in violation of the regulation will be unscheduled automatically and players notified.


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[Sami]

[minor, effective immediately] * Data update: 22 new Saudi Arabian airports added. Thanks to our user 'faisal66' for the data.

Airports in question are: OEAB, OEHL, OETF, OEAH, OEBA, OESK, OERR, OEBH, OEDM, OEGT, OEKK, OENG, OEPA, OERF, OESH, OETR, OEWD, OEWJ, OEYN, OERY, OEJD, OEDR.

Full list: https://www.airwaysim.com/Information/Airports/198/

Update is effective only in all game worlds started after this update.


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[Sami]

[minor, effective immediately, beta-level feature]

New experimental feature: Live news feeds of game worlds.

The system generates data for a separate news feed database that can be shared to different medias. The data consists of some of the news posted to each game's Dashboard news (not all of them).

The status updates are posted to AirwaySim's own Twitter account ( https://twitter.com/AirwaySim ) and will contain the hashtags #AWS #gameStatus and a game world specific hashtag (Game World #2 is identified by #GW2 for example).

Another subscription method is RSS feed. The list of feeds is available at the following location: https://www.airwaysim.com/game/feeds/  (not currently anywhere in the game interface itself).


Currently only the new aircraft model launch news are included in the feeds, nothing else yet (at the time of writing all feeds are empty still). More data will be added later based on the feedback!

The feeds are the same for all players, so any airline specific news or events are not possible in these feeds.


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[Sami]

[minor, effective immediately]

The Live news feeds of game worlds include now the following events too:

- New engine variant launches for aircraft

- Major global events that affect country or continent (like a countrywide strike)

- New airports that have been opened (news posted on the day it opens)



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[Sami]

[minor, effective immediately]

Interface changes:

- The Routes section main page shows now longer history data than previously. The history charts span up to 30 days to the past now. There is some doubt if this page is already too heavy for some mobile browsers to display, feedback is welcome.


Technical changes:

- We're slowly approaching the limits of our current server, and in preparation of this the core game engine has been updated for better scalability. We can now migrate individual game worlds easier to other servers and this way spread the load from our main server.

- Various minor and bit larger technical optimizations have been done with the databases and the game engine's source codes to improve system's speed.


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[Sami]

[minor, effective immediately]


Interface changes:

- Scheduling page's "Add flights" and "Move schedule" dialogs have now a pagination feature, splitting the data of possible flights and planes into multiple pages. (doesn't freeze your browser if there's a whole heap of choices)

- Minor bug fixes.


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[Sami]

[medium, effective immediately]

New Airline Boosts

- A set of features has been created to help new airlines to get their operations started in existing/established game worlds. These 'new airline boosts' consist of operational discounts and small boosts to airline image values.

- These small 'helpers' are done in a way that are related to real-life, as well as adding a small gaming element from other MMO games. All the boosts are available to all players, regardless how experienced the player itself is or how old his user account it - only the age of the airline itself matters.


- There are four different modifiers:

  * Route Image boost: The first four destinations of a new airline will receive a boost to their initial route image. Normally the RI starts at 0 pts but with this system the first destination receives an RI of 50 pts, second 35 pts, third 20 pts and fourth 10 pts. All destinations opened after these start at the normal 0 pts.

  * Airport operation fee discounts: The first four destinations of a new airline will receive 12 month discounts on the airport fees (passenger fee, landing fee, handling fee, navigation fee). The amount of discount is shown at the route opening page (airport listing), and can be also browsed from the Office -> Route Image page. The discount applies to all routes to that destination (discounts are not available in base airports, only at outstations).

  * Company image boost: There is a mild boost for the initial company image of a new airline. The initial image can be about 2.5x of the normal initial image, depending on the game settings (but not more than 30 pts).

  * Starting cash boost: This has been implemented already previously. The starting cash increases if you join a game world later on.

- All of the boosts are relative to game age. When a game world is less than 180 game days old there are no boosts, and the boosts will slowly grow from there to reach their full potential around 1.5 years of game time. (for example; opening the first new destination when a game is 200 days old will set the initial RI to only about 10 pts, instead of 50 pts - so the growth of all these boosts is gradual and linear)

- All boosts to destinations are checked from route image data. So opening a route to new destination will count as one action, regardless if it's flown or not. So for example opening a new route, then closing it, and opening another to different destination will not give the same discount again. Airline must be also less than 730 days (2 years) old for any discounts to apply.



- The feature of airport operation fee discounts for all players will be soon introduced in all games. This feature will bring in discounts for opening routes to airports that are under-served (closely following similar discounts seen in real life too).


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[Sami]

[minor, effective immediately]

Aircraft manufacturers (small technical update)

- The structure of the aircraft databases has been updated to include own database for aircraft manufacturers. Previously the manufacturer information has been only a text field included in each aircraft model's data, causing some problems when wishing to create manufacturer-level data filters etc (since originally it was not thought to be useful to make a completely own dataset of them, but times and features change...).

- This is mainly only a technical change and not visible to users (apart from the change of a few new filters here and there and a couple of changed urls), but will in the future allow easier creation of features that relate to aircraft manufacturers (like commonality system's changes).

- A new dropdown filter has been added to 'Aircraft Information' page too.


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[Sami]

The v.1.3 changelog thread will not be updated anymore, since for a longer time we haven't been making the updates as new game engine versions anymore, but instead rolled in the updates into existing game worlds .. making the version numbering rather obsolete.

The new changelog thread can be found here: https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,58865.0.html

Also a new 'previews' thread has been set up: https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,58864.0.html