Hi all.

[Spike2454]

Note: If this goes somewhere else then please move it and let me know. Unsure where this goes. I am in Beginner World #1 if it goes there.

I was playing Airline Tycoon Deluxe earlier today as a nostalgia trip. I used to love playing the game when I was younger and played it often. It is now too easy for me something which it wasn't when I first started with it years ago. I decided to google airline ownership games and came across this one. I decided to give it a try before deciding whether to pay for it or not.

I have started at the Gold Coast since I live close to that airport. My hometown airport wasn't listed so Gold Coast was it. I am flying 6 trips a week to Canberra in the morning then Townsville after in the afternoon. My trip to Canberra is making double my trip to Townsville early on. I just hope I can stay in the + column for 6 days until I figure out what I will do.

A couple of questions.

What is the benefit of Alliances and the drawbacks? Surely alliances have drawbacks?

Any tips on what I can do right now to keep in the black for the next couple of days? I ask as it will be 24 hours when I log off to when I can log in again.

If I do decide to play, are there any differences in the game worlds that I can choose from?

Hoping to hear from someone who knows about this stuff soon.

[Cardinal]

Hi Spike! Welcome to the sandbox 

Canberra is a bigger airport with more demand, hence your higher profits on that route. Not that Gold Coast to Townsville is a slouch, but depending on what size aircraft you're flying you may not be filling it up. A 757, for example, would not be a good fit on that route but any 100-seater (717, E195) should do well. Also routes with higher unserved demand usually do well out of the gate, because so many people want to fly the route that they'll gladly throw money at you and board any rust-bucket to get where they're going. Lower unserved demand, you'll have to build Route Image before the masses warm up to you.

Alliances: Double-edged sword. I've been in a few. Most have a mix of really helpful players and those who will double-cross you on an airplane deal. You learn quickly which members are really on the team, and which are not.

Short-term tips: In a perfect world, you would start out flying 100-150 seaters (737, A320, MD80/90) on short, high demand routes so you can get in 3-4 round-trips per day per plane. Once you find that unicorn, you'll have a good starting base to begin building your empire 

In a not-so-perfect world, simply don't expand too quickly. Keep a cash reserve. Otherwise you will find yourself in trouble. And while searching out routes with no competition is best, don't be afraid of a little competition. A huge route (demand in the thousands) that is already fully-served or even slightly over-served can still get you a decent load factor on a 100-seater. Just don't dive right in to a route with 2000 demand and 7000 supply, with 8 mega-airlines all trying to bash each other's brains in for every passenger. That'll get you a quick visit with the bankruptcy judge 

Game worlds: The long worlds (#1-#4) range from 30-70 years game time. The longest last over a year (real-time) and are a big commitment if you want to play the whole thing although not everybody does. Other than starting year, the numbered game worlds are the same. They all end up in roughly the same place, 10-20 years in the future. My favorite is starting in the piston prop era (DC-3, DC-6, Constellation) and then having to transition to jets in the 1960s.

From time to time, to spread out the starting dates of the long worlds, a short (2-3 months real time) theme game with special rules will pop up. Such as the current long-haul challenge, which has zero short or medium haul demand. We've had other themed short games that focus on specific geographic regions or have other geopolitical restrictions (or lack thereof) differing from the real world. Those are a good distraction from the seeming monotony of a long game where you're just waiting for your fleet of shiny new 737s to deliver and in the meantime you have a couple of weeks with not much to do.

Glad to see another former Airline Tycoon player. That was kind of fun for a little while, wasn't it? 

[Sami]

Glad to see another former Airline Tycoon player. That was kind of fun for a little while, wasn't it? 

I guess we all have played that back then ...

greetings from Mario Zucchero (Honey Airlines) 


p.s. for all new users I strongly recommend NOT to start at your "home" airport but use the easy start tool instead as it searches for the best airports and routes for you and increases the chances of understanding things from the start much more..

[gazzz0x2z]

(.../...)p.s. for all new users I strongly recommend NOT to start at your "home" airport but use the easy start tool instead as it searches for the best airports and routes for you and increases the chances of understanding things from the start much more..

Seconded. I've seen enough mentees projecting their knowledge of the real world to their home, and making mistakes because of that. When you play in a place you do not know, you're far better - because you don't have any prejudice.

[Cardinal]

Confession: My first AWS game, I started at my home airport 

Everybody does it. You get your nose bloodied at home and then you leave the nest and learn to [ahem] fly 

[tyteen4a03]

Confession: My first AWS game, I started at my home airport 

Everybody does it. You get your nose bloodied at home and then you leave the nest and learn to [ahem] fly 

Except if you live in cities like Hong Kong. Boy that was easy. 

[JumboShrimp]

Does anybody remember Air Bucks?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Bucks

[gazzz0x2z]

Does anybody remember Air Bucks?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Bucks

Good game, but it was too easy to grow the airports. Cozumel ended up at max size within 10/12 years.

[JumboShrimp]

Good game, but it was too easy to grow the airports. Cozumel ended up at max size within 10/12 years.

It has been such a long time since I played it, I don't remember the details.  But that was one of the games that definitely could have used version 2.0.