AirwaySim v.1.3 news, previews & info

[Sami]

New minor features:

* Alliance press releases are now available, further info and instructions here: https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,34080.msg187122.html#msg187122


* Aircraft leasing has now a mandatory minimum contract term. During this time the player may not terminate the lease.

It equals 10% of the lease period (with 1 month minimum), so if you lease a plane with a 1 year lease period, you may terminate the lease earliest 1.2 months after contract was signed, and if you lease it for 10 year period you are required to keep the aircraft for 12 months before termination is available. During lease termination the standard termination fees still apply. (note that same applies if you lease a plane for a very short term and then extend the lease manually)


* Other minor tweaks to interface has been done based on requests.

[Sami]

* Added FAQ to the manual: https://www.airwaysim.com/game/Manual/General/FAQ/


* Joining a new game world is streamlined a bit. The 'preview' / 'confirmation' page is left out, and now when you click "join game" you are given the confirmation in a smaller pop-up (needs still a bit formatting, but the visuals of that whole page will be updated later anyway).

[Sami]

New minor feature:

* Automatic checking if airline codes are available when airline is created.

* Suggestion function for airline codes (based on airline name and code availability). System tries to figure out a code for the airline based on the name, and then checks if that is available and suggests it to you (when one clicks 'Suggest a code'). If not available it will default with the first available code in alphabetical listing.

[Sami]

* Used aircraft market 'available aircraft' number has been removed. It has been replaced by information of 'new aircraft after calling the market'.

In other words, the system will now show you after each market call / refresh that how many new planes are available at the market compared to the previous situation. The counter is visible only after the page has been reloaded (a call has been made).


You will need to reload (F5) the used market page to get the new script files and in order for this to work. (or clear cache is the other choice)

[Sami]

Minor changes, bugfixes etc made. Some highlights:

* Used aircraft market refresh tuned further, the market "purge" / "cleanup" happens now at random times, not related to market refresh (new planes being added) anymore.

* Airlines in the French overseas departments can now open bases in other deparments or in France.

* Technical stopovers are possible also at the class 1-2 airports with large aircraft.

* Few fixes at scheduling page, a reload of the page (or cache clearing) may be necessary for functions to work.

[Sami]

Some previews of work in progress.

In future there can be several technical stopovers during a flight, not just one. This is a rather major change technically  and requires large updates to the system, but this update allows us to better run early 1950s and 1960s scenarios when aircraft range was limited.

Together with this update (no ETA yet), some aspects of the interface will change. All routes with technical stopovers will be shown simply with "departure - destination" and the "via / stopover at" will be a secondary level information (as we may have up to three refuelling stopovers).

Here is an example of route information screen, with a route from EFHK to LFPG, with a fuelling stop at EGPM only on the outbound flight. Notice that the techstop leg distance and timing information is under the new "Routing" title. This "Routing" line is not visible if the route does not have refuelling stops.

[Sami]

New feature, 'airline timetable view' on Airline Information page:

* Under 'route timetables' tab.

* Shows a timetable-like listing of ALL routes of the airline in question. Ordered alphabetically by destination name, and flights to destination ordered by departure time. Similar in view than airport's "List destinations and airlines" view.

* Includes also direct links to route and aircraft view, if viewed by own airline.

* Just a simple listing page of all routes. A static page with no separate sorting / searching available. (may be done later, but low priority)

* This update will be available after the technical stopovers update, mentioned in previous post, is done.

[Sami]

* Added a year quick selection drop box to 'aircraft production lists' page, for quicker way to change between pages/years.

* Added a new filter to used aircraft search page: Any aircraft type common to my current fleet. By checking this the system shows only the planes matching the fleet groups currently in your operation, ownership or on order. Please note that if you select both this checkbox and a fleet group from the dropdown list, you may not get any results as they do not exclude eachothers (the search parameter is "AND").

Browser cache clearing, or used market's full page reload (CTRL+F5) may be necessary for this function to work, depending on your browser's caching settings.

* Added also a small line letting you know the number of results returned by the used aircraft search, in case some filters were used.

[Sami]

* Charting application updated, and all in-game graphs and charts are now fully HTML5 compatible. Primary method of rendering is still Flash, as it looks nicer and mouseover data is smoother, but the system has automated fallback to HTML5 charts on every chart now (happens in case no Flash player is detected). Chart visual look is also nearly identical now on both Flash and HTML5 based charts so user experience is nearly identical now independent of browser or add-ons.

In other words the charts are now visible and working on all mobile platforms too (including the route demand charts on iProducts). If you encounter any issues please submit a bug report. Browser cache clearing may be necessary for this function to work, depending on your browser's caching settings.

==> Flash is no longer a site requirement for full operation.


* At the same time we're announcing the complete drop of support to IE6 browser. The site will no longer be tested with this browser version and any guarantee of functionality will not be made for users using the outdated browser software.

[Sami]

(this feature is LIVE and available in current games)

* New feature, aircraft purchase pre-payment amount may be set by the player.

The amount ranges between 20% to 100% of aircraft's price to be paid upon order confirmation. Rest is paid upon delivery. Previously this was fixed at 40% on order and 60% on delivery, but can be now chosen.

The higher % you pay upon order the higher discount you will get. Additional discount varies between 0% to 6%.

Downpayment amount may be changed normally after the order is done, according to the normal order editing rules. However a substantial penalty due to refinancing costs is present if you decrease the downpayment (= request money back from manufacturer before delivery).

[Sami]

* New manual page "About airports"

https://www.airwaysim.com/game/Manual/Routes/Airport/

[Sami]

(this feature is NOT YET live - preview only)

* Previews of work in progress.

* Together with the update of multiple technical stopovers (see post from December 31st) also the interface of route opening (airport selection) will be updated.

* Update includes a better usability of the pages, easier selection of technical stopover airports, support for future feature of "A-B-C" routes, faster usage (less page loads), more filters to narrow airport search results (including a free text search field).

* Basically everything is on a single page, opposed to jumping between many pages in current interface. While selecting the airports for the route each destination "module" (or box) expands / collapses according to what info is shown and each box is loaded independently eliminating the need for full page reloads. All search filterings/keywords are also memorized if user presses the "change airport selection" to return to search box.


Preview images below, please note that the technical stopover selection is not yet visible here. The destination #2 selection is also visible in these pictures but this feature will not be available in v.1.3 (at least in several months, if at all), even though the interface will support it (the selector will be hidden).

[Sami]

(these features are LIVE and available in current games)


* Manual updated with information about "Selling your aircraft":
https://www.airwaysim.com/game/Manual/Aircraft/Used/#Sell


* Aircraft listed for sale may be now manually set for A/B/C/D/(extra) checks. While plane is in maintenance it is hidden from the selling lists, and returns there automatically after maint. is complete. Automatic maintenance is not performed on planes for sale.


* Added two new engine options for A310-300.


* Change to Fleet Commonality rules:  commonality costs (admin, training, maint) only run when you have routes scheduled for planes in that fleet group. For example; if you have 5 planes of the same fleet group and none have routes scheduled, there are no costs. But after you schedule a route (or many routes) to one (or more) of the planes, the fleet group is considered to be "in service" and full commonality costs will start being deducted from that point onwards (based on all aircraft in the fleet).   (previously commonality costs ran even if no routes were scheduled)


* Aircraft page main listing shows now days upon completion for C/D checks. ( https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,37446.msg200660.html#msg200660 )


* Added aircraft seat types visible on various seat configuration pages ( https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,37413.msg200672.html#msg200672 )

[Sami]

* New interface for opening routes.

* Large technical changes to route opening / scheduling due to tech-stop update.

* The ability to create seconday techstops is available.

(see previews of the previous messages!)


If you have any issues with the new features please clear the cache of your browser first.

[Sami]

Working on some technical updates to the administrational tools section of the site. Just posting an image of that out of curiosity, not related to AWS v.1.3 (but no other good place for this either) ...

If you happen to be interested in technical specs, the site runs under hybrid core system developed specifically to the sites under our management. The user databases and authentication functions come from the SMF forum software and our own custom built website core deals with all the interface and layout things - and above that is the AirwaySim core loader that manages the game interface (and then there are various heavy background tasks that do all the "magic" and make the planes fly..).

The admin section of the site has various tools for daily management like for posting news, sending out the email newsletters, and tracking on logged errors around the website. The 'game management' section includes also tens of pages used to control & edit the databases.


(and before someone asks, the suspicious 'Track users' link is used to monitor for possible abusers of the 7-day free trial system ... people who try to register again after already having played the trial etc.)

[Sami]

Startup guide part 1 is updated a bit:

https://www.airwaysim.com/game/Manual/General/Startup1/

[Sami]

* "Airport Slot Fees" is a new incomesheet item. Includes just what it says... (slot costs are no longer under Nav. Fees tab)

* Some changes to interface scripts (updates to new versions etc). Please report any problems via the bugs forum.

[Sami]

* As announced in the separate thread the Game Mentors feature is available. (Dashboard-Game Mentors, and My Account page).

* If you are able to participate as a Mentor, please do so!  See instructions from: https://www.airwaysim.com/game/Manual/General/Mentor/

* Also a small update to the system since yesterday's launch:  Active mentors can view from My Account page if there are any pending mentoring requests for any given game world. See the second screen shot. This way one can see still "what is open" even if you have joined as a Mentor later and have not received the PM notification.

[Sami]

https://www.airwaysim.com/Profile/Reserve

* Possibility to extend airline name reservations, available 7 days prior expiration.

* Automatic email notification of expiring reservation, sent 7 days prior expiration.

[Sami]

* Change to rules of the 7 day free trial: If user has been inactive for more than 5 months, his demo counter resets automatically and he can participate in the demo again.