(comments) AirwaySim v.1.3 news, previews & info

[alexgv1]

Sami, I must ask are these new UI updates effecting the game/site at the moment? Because these last few days AWS (all aspects) has taken ages to load for me, especially the graphics. This is on desktop and mobile browsers, and other sites have generally worked fine.

[Sami]

Nope, they will be updated in a one big crunch when it is ready (~30-60 min downtime).

see http://uptime.airwaysim.com for uptime/response time data from various 3rd party servers.. (http://uptime.airwaysim.com/371400 shows that last 7 day response time is pretty normal, no big spikes - and here's the whole month: http://uptime.airwaysim.com/371400/2013/02 )

[alexgv1]

Yes the server has always been up for me (and I know you are very proud of the statistics ), it has just been slow in loading or timing out. I guess the problem is my end as my Internet at the moment is pretty slow. I wonder is AWS quite a large site to load when compared to others such as Facebook or other typical sites?

Thanks

[TFC1]

Will the 737MAX-series and the A320NEO be separate fleet groups from respectively the 737NG and A319/320/321-families?

[Sami]

No

[TFC1]

No

Thanks 

[swiftus27]

No

Yes?

[JumboShrimp]

Re:

* Alliance rating calculation updated a bit to make it more age sensitive, affects also current games (just a small update).

I was hoping something more along the line of this feature request:

https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,43363.0.html

where the alliance rating would have more to do with alliance performance (advertising budget etc).

Unlike the current system where just about every alliance ended with 100 rating in MT7.

[Andre]

Yes?

Boeing has stated that the MAX will maintain commonality with the NG. I don't know about the Buses.

[Aerlingus1916]

Oh wowww soooo cool

[Tiberius]

Like the continued progress with the UI especially with attention to mobile users, although I usually run things at home on a computer.

Regarding the following:

"Rebrand/Rebase functionality will be removed. Airline renaming will be possible via Settings page in the future, rebasing feature will be removed as it's rather useless."

As this is something I've used a couple times I can say occasionally I'd rather eat the 500,000 to rebase than purchase the aircraft again or bankrupt...in fact I wish this feature was available for a longer period of time...and therefore wish you would leave it.  Sometimes I don't necessarily play to win...I play to experiment with different ideas.

Why remove something that merely adds functionality overall?

And there is also the consideration that I purchase credits to establish an airline in a game and have occasionally used all my bankruptcies failing airlines over 20 years...only to want to keep going.

I also wish there was UI functionallity in the form of a check box to create 7 separate routes for monday - friday on a new route.

That is all for now, keep it up!

Thanks

[b757capt]

How will the new UI work on the ipad?

[Sami]

The rebasing feature may be added back, with a different style and rules, at some point, but for now it is removed.

iPad is my main device for mobile usage testing, so it will work (perhaps not everything fully right from the top but full tablet-size device compatibility will be built. For phones not so much focus as they are getting too small for displaying this kind of "spreadsheet" data what we have here).


(just using ipad to test this but cannot figure how I could attach a screencap to this forum post directly, the apple's ui is rather poor partly....)

[LemonButt]

Sami--when I look at the new UI for route creation, there is a lot of duplicated info: https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=46221.0;attach=8921;image

Look at all the labels that are listed twice.  I think a cleaner way to do it would be listing the info in columns going down instead of rows across, so instead of working left-right you would be working top-down, which in my opinion makes more sense and saves a lot of real estate eliminating duplicate labels.  It would look something like this:

EGNM to LEPA*****************	Labels*****************	LEPA to EGNM
<Flight#>	Flight Number	<Flight#>
<Depart/Arrive>	Turnaround<select>	<Depart/Arrive>
<Slot Table>	Slots<don't buy>	<Slot Table>
-10% -5% <Price> +5% +10%	Y Prices<reset>	-10% -5% <Price> +5% +10%
-10% -5% <Price> +5% +10%	C Prices<reset>	-10% -5% <Price> +5% +10%
-10% -5% <Price> +5% +10%	F Prices<reset>	-10% -5% <Price> +5% +10%
-10% -5% <reset> +5% +10%	All Prices<price mgmt>	-10% -5% <reset> +5% +10%

Also, a feature I'd REALLY like to see is the slot tables/prices loaded via ajax and just updating the slot table divs versus the entire screen.  If you are creating a route and click Monday, it refreshes, then click Tuesday, it refreshes, etc.  It can be annoying waiting for the whole page to reload and it uses up a lot more resources versus just reloading the table divs.  The same thing goes for turnaround/departure times.  Actually, I think I'd prefer to set departure time versus turnaround times.  So instead of selecting 40min for turnaround, I'd select departure time of 2:20 on the return flight and the turnaround time and probability of delay auto-updates.  Of course, the preset defaults in settings by fleet type would still be there, but it makes sense to calculate when you want to take off versus turnaround time since the only times you really play with turnaround times is when looking for slots or taking off when an airport is open.

The only caveat to the columns is dealing with tech stops and triangle routes, but I would think just adding another column should work without getting too crowded...

[Sami]

Can't be like that as the editor has to support multi-leg routes too. (I did change the groping of the price data a bit though)

Also just updating the flight time fields or slot fields when user makes an update does not make difference to resource usage on server-side really, the data in editor updates via ajax already now.

[mhardebeck]

Sami,
I have been away from the game for a couple of months due to work, but I have to say that all the new changes look great.  I am especially encouraged by all the changes you made to the 'Open a New Route' screen(s), in particular, the icon to indicate which airports you are currently serving.  I don't know if anyone has asked about this, but any thought into adding something where we could 'check' routes we were interested in but not ready to schedule because of money, available aircraft, etc?  Or...is the 'schedule with no slots' the solution to that? And, if it is, will those show up with the same icon as those you currently have scheduled service to?  If so, would it be possible to make that icon a different color (or maybe something different) to help differentiate schedules with slots versus schedules without slots?  Regardless, the game looks great and I hope to join again soon to enjoy all of the hard work you have put in.  Cheers!!

[hmellouli]

(just using ipad to test this but cannot figure how I could attach a screencap to this forum post directly, the apple's ui is rather poor partly....)

pressing Home button + power button will create the screenshot. when you click on attach in the forum page, it will ask you whether you want to take video/phote or use existing. click on existing, camera roll, and the screen cap will be the first one.

[Sami]

when you click on attach in the forum page, it will ask you whether you want to take video/phote or use existing. click on existing, camera roll, and the screen cap will be the first one.

Nope, doesn't work. iPad's browser is buggy and does not allow file attachments - does not allow the file choosing button to be pressed. (googled it earlier; ipad2 ios5)

[hmellouli]

Nope, doesn't work. iPad's browser is buggy and does not allow file attachments - does not allow the file choosing button to be pressed. (googled it earlier; ipad2 ios5)

strange it has always worked for me. i just tested that in iOS 6. maybe its an ios 5 limitation.

[Zombie Slayer]

The new route screens look good! Along the lines of easier route pricing, any chance we can get a global route pricing screen as requested here:

https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,44416.0.html

And also the ability to reset prices to default while keeping manually adjusted prices at the same percentage of default (ie. a route discounted 20% will remain 20% below the newly reset default price).

Don