Hello folks,
due to my visit in Beginner's World (#18) I noticed several reoccuring things that might (or might not) work out for you or others in Beginner's World but will (most likely) not work in real gameworlds where profit is much lower.
This is and should be in no way some kind of rule book, maybe you find something useful in here, maybe not. At the end of the day you decide and all consequences - positive and negative - come simply and fully back to you.
While my FAQ in the general forums give you more vague ideas and explains basics and other things, this thread here gives you some numbers to work with as well as some strategies to survive the real gameworlds after candytime Beginner's World has ended.
This thread here aims only to Beginners. I'm fully aware of the fact that each point has several good and strategically clever exceptions.
Glossary:
Fleetgroup = The sum of individual aircraft of a specific and connected group of aircraft. For example: Boeing 737-300 and Boeing 737-400 are in the same fleetgroup. The sum of all of your 737-300 and 737-400 builds your 737classic fleetgroup.
1) Don't fly too many fleetgroups. There are exceptions (especially when you have played for a while and know what you're doing), but to give you an idea:
1940-1970 = max. 8 fleetgroups
1971-1990 = max. 6 fleetgroups
1991-2005 = max. 4 fleetgroups
2006-2040 = max. 3 fleetgroups
Each additional fleetgroup will not only increase the costs of your new fleetgroup, it also increases the costs of your old fleetgroups significantly.
2) Fill up your fleetgroups.Each fleetgroup needs a number of aircraft to pay for itself. In most cases this will be 2-3 aircraft, more when you have lots of fleetgroups (i.e. more than 2 fleetgroups).
This means: Each additional aircraft you put in your fleetgroup lowers the cost of this fleetgroup for each individual aircraft and adds more to your profit.
There is no sense in having a fleetgroup with only 3-4 aircraft. Personally I don't suggest to open a fleetgroup if you plan to have less than 20 individual aircraft in this fleetgroup.
3) Put useful aircraft in your fleet. There is no sense in ordering 747-300SR if you are based 1985 in Copenhagen. If you want to try it's nice and fun of course. In real gameworlds such experiments will most likely kill your airline.
Problem in this case is not only the extremely limited amount of routes you can use the 747-300SR on, you are also extremely limited with the other aircraft from the fleetgroup. While 747SP and a pair of 747-100/200 could make sense, you will soon notice they consume a huge amount of fuel that can only be covered by a good part of business and first class passengers your (smaller) airport simply doesn't offer.
4) Choose your airport carefully.If you start late, there is no sense in choosing a big airport that already has 2-4 airlines. If you have competitors, you are limited. Tests and experiments could kill your airline.
Choose a smaller airport that is open 24h, have no airline based there and offer lots of slots - some random expamples are Minneapolis, Miami or Charlotte.
5) Don't try every feature as soon as it is possible.You must not be the first guy who opens a base. Bases are always (much) more expensive than your headquarter is - additional staff and additional fleet commonality costs are only two big expenses you have to deal with.
Try to max out your home airport as good as possible and when you find yourself slot or route restricted (= expansion restricted), it's the perfect moment to open up a base.
6) Real gameworlds are different from Beginner's World.Fuel is much more expensive - Jet Age has seen fuel prices over $350, Dawn of the Millennium over $700 and Modern Times over $1500. Fuel in Beginner's World is practically free.
Fuel massively increases or decreases - if you don't prepare your fleet for high fuel prices, you will run into problems. In Beginner's World fuel price doesn't increase or decrease this drastically.
More players - 400 to 700 players are typical numbers for real gameworlds. Those numbers are usually maxed out for a good amount of the time. 600 players will cover more routes than 40-100 players in Beginner's World do.
Better competitors - most guys in Beginner's World are Beginner, too. They experiment, they don't know all the tricks and there's a good chance they are the same skill level you are. In real gameworlds you face only very few people who don't know what they do. Lots of experienced players know all tricks and have good strategies not only to survive the gameworld, but also to give their competitors a hard time.
So what's the conclusion?
Just because the things I suggested in the first points are ignored by you and your airline made it through Beginner's World, don't expect it will work in the real gameworlds, too.
On the other hand - don't be scared. Everybody was a beginner once and if you stick to all the tricks in the forums and learn from your mistakes, you can and will have lots of fun with this wonderful game.
7) Ask for help.If you run into something you don't understand or something that needs a decision ("737-400 or A320?"), don't hesitate to ask. Easiest way is here in the forum. Nobody will laugh at you.
Many experienced and very successful players at least reflect the decisions they made with others. Those people are connected via skype or alliance forum - the fact you don't see them asking that often doesn't mean they know everytime for sure what they are doing.
So don't be stupid and ignore help offered by other players and the forum.