Game play

[timecurve]

I wanted clarify some details regarding the game play. It was mentioned that a user will play against as many as 100 other ailines. Are those 100 airlines other actual players or are they simulated by the game engine? Essentially each player plays in its own world, with its own competitor airlines, its own events, etc.? Basically even though it is a web based game, it is essentially a single user game?
Are there any time limitations? Can I play couple of hours per day, and when I log off, the game time stops and the game is saved till next time I log in?
If however, the game played against other users in real time, then what happens if I log off and don't log in for a day or two?
Finally, are there a user manual available or will be available? I have always been a fan of airline sims, but I'm not familiar with many concepts mentioned on this forum. Will there be some sort of a detailed game manual explaining those concepts, abbreviations etc.?

Thanks in advance!

[Sami]

Against as many as 500 other airlines actually, at maximum.. Other players are human as this is a "massive multiplayer online game". So there is one world, 500 airlines, you are one of them, and you compete against other real world wannabe-RichardBransons.

Just FYI - The game engine allows many games ("worlds") to be run parallel and you can be part in many games at once if you like. Each has the max of 500 players per game.

Thus the game time naturally runs all the time at the background. It is not necessary to attend every day to manage your firm but it's always better. The critical functions have optional automated features which you can enable if you are away for couple of days so your firm does not go bust because of you not being around for a few days.

There's no manual yet. There's already the pages and space for that on the site but just lacks the actual content.

[JVassie]

From what i've gathered so far:

1) All the airlines will be player-controlled and there will be no CPU-controlled ones. People will be able to join different scenarios (each of which will be different areas, aircraft, start date etc), and then players can play in a particular scenario.
2) The timing of the simulation i think is that one game month passes roughly ever day of real life, and there are automated systems implemented to help with maintenance etc. Game time won't be stopped, and i doubt you can or need to save it because the server retains all this information. Hence its online 
3.) I am pretty much 100% sure that there will (eventually) be a form of manual explaining the concepts of the game. A quick-start guide is likely too.

Hope that helps.

Edit; Darn sami beat me to the first reply 

[timecurve]

But if I miss a few days, I could potentially not being able for example to reserve a landing right at some airoport as it may be all purchased/leased by other players. Essentially it means that players that spend more time online have a pretty big advantage?
What about the scenarious? Are the games open ended? Any particular game can last indefinately or there is a time limit or a specific goal to achieve, i.e. earning a certain amount of money or transport specific number of passengers?
Another question I had is about pricing structure. I read that you need to purchase credits to play. How many do you need to play? Is it per game (sertain number of credits) or time based perhaps i.e. 10 credits to play for 1 month for example?

[ollik]

I'm not a developer, just a tester but I'll try to clarify these points.

1) All the airlines will be player-controlled and there will be no CPU-controlled ones. People will be able to join different scenarios (each of which will be different areas, aircraft, start date etc), and then players can play in a particular scenario.

Yes it's player vs. player only. Reasons for this I believe is that actually creating an AI is extremely hard if not impossible within a browser game. And yeah like Sami said it's a massive multiplayer game, it's supposed to be played with other people!

2) The timing of the simulation i think is that one game month passes roughly ever day of real life, and there are automated systems implemented to help with maintenance etc. Game time won't be stopped, and i doubt you can or need to save it because the server retains all this information. Hence its online 

One game day usually takes 20-25 minutes real time (this is adjustable when a game is created). With 24 minutes (one minute per game hour), one game month is obviously about 30 hours real time.

3.) I am pretty much 100% sure that there will (eventually) be a form of manual explaining the concepts of the game. A quick-start guide is likely too.

Sami pretty much covered this already. Most of the manual hasn't been written yet and probably won't be for the beta but I'd expect the manual will be ready for the actual game release.

[ollik]

But if I miss a few days, I could potentially not being able for example to reserve a landing right at some airoport as it may be all purchased/leased by other players. Essentially it means that players that spend more time online have a pretty big advantage?
What about the scenarious? Are the games open ended? Any particular game can last indefinately or there is a time limit or a specific goal to achieve, i.e. earning a certain amount of money or transport specific number of passengers?
Another question I had is about pricing structure. I read that you need to purchase credits to play. How many do you need to play? Is it per game (sertain number of credits) or time based perhaps i.e. 10 credits to play for 1 month for example?

There are quite a few slots at each airport. If you make a route to a busy airport late in the game you might not be able to get the best hours, like morning 6-8 and afternoon 16-18 or something.

Most of the test games so far have been time limited, ie. 1970-2010 or so. I don't know what kind of options there are actually since I don't have access to creating new games. The winner or winners of a game will most likely be determined by various stats like most passengers flown per year or most valuable company or most profit per year, things like that.

The pricing will be some credits needed to join a game, and then you can play until the end or until your airline goes bankrupt in which case I think you will get a partial refund of the credits you used.

[Sami]

Players that join first naturally have the advantage but the airport slots shouldn't run out totally. Perhaps the peak hours are gone if you join halfway thru the game but I think no airport is totally out of slots. That can be adjusted anyway once the games get going and we see how that works out.

All games have certain start and end date. Intention is that they'd usually last 1-3 months of real time. And credits work so that you need 10 credits to join a game... If your airline is bust before the game ends you get certain amount of them back as you didn't complete the game (proportional to the time left in game).

[yourefired]

Please tell me there won't be any time zones involved in the game....that would make it close to impossible.

[Sami]

What do you mean exactly by that? Not sure if I got the point.

[yourefired]

What do you mean exactly by that? Not sure if I got the point.

As in when I do flight scheduling do I have to account for time zones? i.e. when I fly from San Francisco (GMT-8) to New York (GMT-5) do I have to block out 5 hours or 8 hours?

[Sami]

umm..? The aircraft is enroute the same time even if it travels thru different time zones ... as it does not make the plane go slower or faster.

[yourefired]

Yes, I know the flight time's the same, but I'm wondering if I'm flying SFO to JFK, if I can schedule a departure at 11PM and arrival at 4AM or if I have to schedule an arrival at JFK at 7AM. In some cases, time zones make a difference (ie if flying in one direction only)

I'm guessing it's not in the game.

[JVassie]

Well you cant set the arrival time, it is based entirely on other factors:

Starting Time
Distance
Flight Speed
Weather? (Might be a factor, not 100% here)
Curfews

I did a quick search for flights from SFO to JFK.

The average travel time was 6 hours in the air.

There is a 3 hour time difference btween SFO and JFK.

Therefore if a flight left at 11PM from SFO at SFO local time, it would arrive in JFK at 8AM JFK local time.

Hope that helps, unless i'm missing the point 

[CLR2LND7L]

I understand that the game is designed to be a multi player type game.   I wonder about what a game involving 500 competitor airlines will be like.   Any provisions for a game with less competitors or limited to a specific region, i.e North America?  and limited to say 50 competitors?

[Sami]

The game can be set up for specified region, like North America, or for only specified countries, like just France, Spain and UK. Whatever the restricted area is, all airlines have to based there and fly only routes inside this region. Also the max number of players can be limited below 500 (pretty much everything is customizable for each individual game).

[yourefired]

Well you cant set the arrival time, it is based entirely on other factors:

Starting Time
Distance
Flight Speed
Weather? (Might be a factor, not 100% here)
Curfews

I did a quick search for flights from SFO to JFK.

The average travel time was 6 hours in the air.

There is a 3 hour time difference btween SFO and JFK.

Therefore if a flight left at 11PM from SFO at SFO local time, it would arrive in JFK at 8AM JFK local time.

Hope that helps, unless i'm missing the point 

Well that's exactly what I mean. On another game I'm playing (not developing!) there are no time zones so if I leave SFO at midnight and flight time is 5h 30, then the flight arrives at 5:30 in the morning JFK time.

[JVassie]

Well that's exactly what I mean. On another game I'm playing (not developing!) there are no time zones so if I leave SFO at midnight and flight time is 5h 30, then the flight arrives at 5:30 in the morning JFK time.

Ah right, i understand now. No this game will take into account timezones, which I believe is far more realistic.

Thinking about it, what they may be using is Zulu Time (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zulu_time#Time_zones)

[Sami]

You'll see it when you play, it's not complicated.