AirwaySim v.1.3 news, previews & info

[Sami]

* The dropdown menu system has now direct links to your base airports on pages where data may be sorted by base (My Aircraft, Manage Routes, Scheduling). This allows users with many bases to view the desired data more quickly.

* Similar sublinks in the dropdowns are added also to other third level links.

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[Sami]

* View airlines page renamed to 'View and search airlines'.

* Airlines on map page renamed to 'Airline Map'.


* Both of these pages have now filter options; map page has area / country dropdowns, and view/search page has also a search box where you can search by airport name, airport icao/iata code, airline name or by player name.

* The search results on 'view airlines' page is browsable and sortable by ajax based system now. In other words no full page reload anymore when you move to page 2 or sort the airline list.



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[Sami]

* 'quick search' / 'autocomplete' also added to airline search page ...   Selecting item from the automatically appearing suggestions list will take you directly to the airline's info page.



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[Sami]

* Statistics of each airline are now included in 'Airline Information' page.

* Airline info page will also have a new tabbed format, since it will have much more information than currently. This is the first preview...

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[Sami]

* I'm glad to inform that we've teamed up with a software development & consulting company to provide graphics and interface design to AirwaySim. The search for a designer has been going on since December and we have now finally selected a provider for this task. The project is just starting but I am hoping to preview some results during March already.


* For actual v.1.3 news; here's a preview of an upcoming (completely new) feature (work in progress still). In brief; the user is able to make contracts with fuelling companies at his base airports. There will be a choice of 2-4 companies at each airport and each of them will have different contract terms ..etc.

(do note my special HUB airports at the test server.. )


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[Sami]

* Some technical changes to the server settings and other background scripts; making some of the pages load faster and cause less server load in the long run.

(not v.1.3 related, but posting here anyway)

[Sami]

Back again after a break on AWS (other projects, and AWS development management that is still a long time from public release...). v.1.3 updates:

* Livery templates for ATR72 and B737 added (v.1.2 also)


Following new aircraft models:

* de Havilland Canada DHC-4 Caribou & DHC-4A

* Breguet 763 Provence

* Breguet 765 Sahara (cargo)

* Armstrong Whitworth AW.671 Argosy (cargo / combi)

* Nord 2501 Noratlas (cargo / combi)

* Agusta AZ-8L (proto)

* Fokker F27 Mk 300 (cargo / combi)

* Fokker F27 Mk 400 (cargo / combi)

* Ilyushin Il-14M

* Tupolev Tu-104, Tupolev Tu-104A, Tupolev Tu-104B

* Tupolev Tu-110A (proto)


Cargo planes are still hidden, and the cargo vs. combi vs. pax configuration is still totally unbuilt but added these planes for future use. (going thru some old Jane's books here)

[Sami]

My time last month has been allocated to another (non-AWS) project which is now nearing completion. So more focus will be given to AWS development now.


Updates for today:

* Bugfixes to both v.1.2 and v.1.3.

* Some minor updates to aircraft data and aircraft images.

* New aircraft ordering for lease updated so that minimum lease period is 5 years and maximum 15 years. "Long lease" discounts start at 7 years. (this is to reflect the fact that leasing companies do not wish to commit to orders unless they have at least reasonable deal length)

* Used aircraft ordering for lease is also updated; minimum lease is 6 months and max 15 years.

* For player-sold used aircraft the selling player has the opportunity to determine the maximum allowed lease length (0.5 - 15y). This concerns only the first lease deal; players have still the opportunity to extend the lease deal normally (if allowed by the aircraft owning player).

* Players are now allowed to sell aircraft they own and are lease securities. But on the other hand (due to technical issues) a plane currently for sale cannot be used as a loan security (= must remove from sale, take a loan against it, and then put it back to the market). Aircraft as loan securities may only be marked as "for lease" on the used market. Players can also add loan securities for planes currently leased out, or that are in delivery to be leased out.

* Change of rule to lease extensions and lease returns. Players can now extend/terminate leases also when they are mildly at negative cash balance (-$0.5 mil in 2005 money). This is made to help airlines in trouble to be able to restructure a bit if needed.

* Aircraft lease pricing (for planes being sold by players) is updated: The minimum allowed price for aircraft on the market declines according to the age of the sale listing. Normally minimum allowed sale price is 70% of the a/c value (to prevent cheating), but if the plane is for sale longer than 25 days without anyone buying it the minimum allowed sale price will start to decline (allowing player to discount it more to attract more buyers). The final and lowest allowed price is 30% of plane value and it is obtained after ~150 days on the market. Please note that if the plane is taken off the market and put there back again the date of listing resets and so then does the price reduction factor.

* Settings for Scheduling page allow 1 or 7 aircraft per page to be listed (user request).

* Bankruptcy warning adjusted. The system checks the availability of unsecured loans for the airline, and if the amount of unsecured loans is higher than the negative cash balance the b/c warning will not trigger. However if the cash is less than -$20mil (2005 money) the warning will occur still despite loan availability would be higher.



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[Sami]

* Greetings to everyone in Sweden for the nice second place in Ice Hockey World Championships this year. 6-1 guys, 6-1 ...  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dll9THt4Vgs


* Used aircraft purchase reservation updated a bit to include more visible information to the player when his 3 minute window has expired. He can still buy/lease the plane but any other player can override it by making a reservation for it. (and like already before the same player cannot re-reserve the same aircraft immediately again). This information update is also available in v.1.2.


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[Sami]

* The previously previewed 'Fuel management' page is now complete. This includes a revised fuel history graph and the possibility to select fuel suppliers to HQ and base airports.

  - (extracts from manual page:) Every airport in the simulation world has at least one fuel company, larger airports have several companies to choose from. Each supplier company offers individual contract terms that change and update on certain intervals. The fuel suppliers will grant you a discount on the daily market prices of aircraft fuel but will take a fixed amount as a contract fee if you sign a contract with them. Contracts may only be made for your base airports. Fuelling at other airports ("outstations") is automatic and does not require contracts, and happens always at the market price.

  - The supplier contract may be terminated up to three weeks before the contract ends. Termination will cost the player 50% of the remaining fixed monthly fees.

  - Player is allowed to re-negotiate the supplier contract with the same supplier up to three weeks in advance before it expires.

  - If the player's base airport is relocated (airport closes and new one opens), the contract moves automatically to the same supplier at the new airport.

* Manual page of these functions is also written.


(the same 'supplier' system will be used later for ground handling, training, catering etc.)

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[Sami]

* Added warning to Dashboard if you have some aircraft in fleet which are grounded or A/B/C/D checks expired (does not take into account if plane is flying or not; would be complicated to load on the dashboard).


* Added editing possibility for the a/c seat configuration name (editing configurations itself won't be possible).


* Swiss based players can also base at French airport of Basel; ref. https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,30645.0.html


* Added 'curfew' info to airport listings.


* Possibility to show "unscheduled aircraft" at Scheduling page.


* Added 'sub fleets' to the Scheduling & My Aircraft pages fleet selection dropdown. It displays all subvariants of the fleet group, if you have more than one. (ie. A319/A320/A321 fleet group would have separate selectors for A319, A320, A321 ..etc).



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[Sami]

* Airline News & Events are now shown at the Airline Information page (= "airline view" page). 20 latest news are shown. The news cover foundings and bankruptcies, opening/closing new bases, aircraft orders, (and in future other news like new routes or alliance related items). Data is the same what is shown on Dashboard but only for the selected airline.

* Airline Press Releases are also shown at this same page and same tab (below the computer-generated news). 20 latest press texts are shown. Image attachments are also shown (max width 900px; if wider it is limited to 900px)

* Please note that this news data is cached and in some cases it may take 2-3 minutes to appear on this page (ie. from the time of posting the press release for example).



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[Sami]

* Aircraft fleet list on Airline Information page is updated.

  - List is now sorted by fleet groups, with expandable information that contains information on each individual aircraft (such as age, flight hrs, ownership status, MSN number ..etc).

  - If you are the owner of the airline the links in aircraft model names take you to My Aircraft page with planes of that model listed.

  - The expanded screen ( [ + ] ) is still unfinished and will be previewed later.


* Please note that this data too is cached and in some cases it may take 2-3 minutes for new data to appear on this page (ie. from the time of buying a plane etc.).



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[Sami]

* Expanded aircraft fleet details in Airline Information page is now complete.

  - The expandable list shows details on EACH plane the company has in operation, in order, for sale, or leased out.

  - If you are the owner of the airline you can see links to the My Aircraft page, and a/c registration numbers. Reg numbers are not shown to other players since they are only for internal identification and may overlap with two companies.

  - If plane is for sale, direct link to the used a/c page is shown.

  - If plane is on order, the delivery date is shown.

  - If plane is leased, the lessor is shown (and if it is a human player, has a link to that airline's info page).


* "Fleets of other airlines" page is removed, as fleets are now browsable fully via 'View Airlines' page, and that includes also a search function.



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[Sami]

* Aircraft History feature is complete.

  - When you click on a link on aircraft MSN number (for example at My Aircraft page, or at View Airlines fleet list page) you will be taken to "View Aircraft - Aircraft History" page.

  - This page shows a short summary of this particular & individual aircraft; short technical details and the FULL history of ownership changes.

  - Please note that aircraft do not appear out of nowhere in the game worlds, nor they disappear. Every aircraft has an unique MSN number and its history can be traced from construction to scrapyard (even after game world has ended). So you can also browse the scrapped aircraft's details via this feature.

  - Currently though there is no browsing feature yet, the page is only activated from the MSN number links on various pages. But a "construction list" browsing for each fleet would be perhaps added in the future.

  - MSN number formats for various models is still missing, data is added all the time. If no data is available the system revers to #001 -style format.


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[Sami]

* Done some interface development work today based on what I did yesterday on aircraft history feature.

* Here is a preview of "aircraft action interface". In other words the page you will see when you terminate lease, extend lease, buy out lease, make maintenance actions ..etc etc. From now on the aircraft area "subfunction" pages will follow this same format. Visually a bit better than before. Data shown ("Financial Info", "Technical Info" etc) depends on which sub action page is in question!.

* I am also testing a new "cost overview box" which is seen at the bottom of the screen. This is basically an attention-getter that should clearly display the action and cost; together with confirm or cancel options. I would be using this format in the future too as I feel it will make the interface more clear and show the "results" of the action. Feedback is welcome.

(screen capture is from "My Aircraft -> Terminate Lease" page)


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[Sami]

* Lease extension can be done (manually) also for 6 months now.

* Lease extension cost includes now a "long contract discount". Base line is a 1 year contract, and contracts shorter than that are more expensive and longer cheaper (to a certain point).

* Same discounting will be included for leases from the used market later on, as well as other tunings to lease price calculations.



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[Sami]

* Added ER variants of Bombardier CSeries (100 & 300).

* Routes with technical stopovers have now the same default pricing as routes without them; sake of simplicity. (keep in mind that pax still prefer direct flights)

* Route open/edit menu now shows more detailed information about technical stopovers (tech stop departure & arrival times).

* Route map on 'Route Planning' pages now shows the technical stop location on map line.

* A change on how reduced payload works; cuts now first Y class seats and only after that C and F. (ref: https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,26533.msg163732.html#msg163732)

* Airport destination map shows routes that your airline operates in green line instead of yellow.

* World map of airlines shows now also map dots for airline bases, not just HQs.

* Bugfixes.

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[Sami]

* "Top 20" restriction for opening new base airports has been removed. Airlines can now open bases at any airport, regardless of the airport size (country restrictions are still valid as before).


* Fuel price values are now either "USD per 1000 kg" or "USD per 1000 lbs" depending if you use metric or imperial units. (for imp. units the standard value is usually cents / gallon, or $ / barrel, but those are not comparable to aircraft fuel usage units which is lbs / hr, so I chose the nonstandard $ / lbs).


* Added a few new administrational customization options for game worlds:

  - Admin can now set a global 'aircraft production rate modifier' for the game world. This allows admin (at game startup) to determine faster/slower new aircraft production rates. Default value is '1' and setting it to '1.5' would mean that production for all new models (planes per month) is 50% faster (= prod. rate 50% higher). ....etc.

  - Similar setting is added for airport slot count and price; a global coefficient value affecting all airports allowing the customization of slot amounts globally. However each airport can still have at least a minimum of 3 slots / hr regardless of any other settings.



* Slot system has been updated:

  - A system of slot growth similar to what Dawn of the Millennium #2 world has which slight alterations.

  - At game world start there are less slots than normally (~45%) but the number of slots goes up weekly/monthly to reach regular (100%) status at approximately 20 months after world has started.

  - After that the slot numbers keep on growing to reach a maximum of 150% of the current (or real) capacity (which is reached at some 5 years into the game).

  - This is a step away from the realism but according to the experiences in the other game world it adds to playability keeping the larger airports open for competition (slotwise).

  - Slot prices has been increased substantially for the largest airports.

  - The way the airport capacity (slot count) is stored is changed a bit allowing per-airport level slot numbers (instead of more broad calculation used before). Also, slot number at any individual airport may not decrease anymore (slot count stays always the same or raises over time - this is to avoid issues with players' routes).

  - A new data field, date of slot purchase, is also added for each airport slot. It's to be used later on in a possibly coming slot quota feature (read: to prevent a single airline in getting huge amount of slots within unreasonably short time); for now this data will be used by the administration to monitor possible slot abuse.

[Sami]

* 'View airlines' page is now complete. The last tab on airline info pages (general info) was done today.. Nothing really new here, just reformatting a bit. The transported passengers line graph is eliminated at least temporary (possible changes in future).


(disregard the logos etc.. Just used some random logos off current games)

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