The development of next AirwaySim game engine (v.1.3) has started during the previous month, with a relatively slow pace for now though. The present v.1.2 source is considered "closed" now after some housekeeping and minor fixing was made, and from now on all the updates and fixes are made to the next version only.
V.1.3 will be again a minor release, and actually (the same with v.1.2) the reason to update to new "official" version is because some changes and features require a new source platform. All of the game worlds of certain version use the same / combined source code at the servers - and some larger updates cannot be made without a new version as it would otherwise disrupt the existing worlds. Such changes are for example changes to passenger flow dynamics and such "core" functions. As you've seen minor features and tweaks can be (and are) added to running worlds constantly. So to sum up the version 1.3 will be introduced since some structural changes are made but it won't contain any breathtaking features. But as before there's a flow of regular tweaks and updates too.
Plans are currently for example (but not limited to...) for the following changes:
- changes to airline founding / creation
- technical possibility for AI airlines
- improved aircraft storage system
- changes to slot systems (?)
- changes to pax distribution algorithm (?)
- updates to price management features
- updates to cabin configuration systems
- a heavy data update with historical aircraft, prototype aircraft and cargo in mind (for future versions)
- time permitting an update to the visuals of the game interface
... etc.
Thread for comments / questions etc. is here https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,26358.0.html
Update log, AirwaySim v.1.3
Listing of updates and changes made so far. This thread will be updated with news and progress reports.
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* "All time PAX transported" statistic added to airline information. And also to "Airline Statistics" page.
* 2-letter IATA airline identification codes added, with the possibility to choose from Settings page which code is displayed in different pages (similar to ICAO/IATA selector).
* Dynamic airline signature banners updated (data positions changed and more data added).
* Possibility for "prototype aircraft models" is added. This means that selected game worlds can have aircraft available that were not produced in reality (like MD-12). Data collection is pending for this feature.
* Aircraft models added (* denotes a prototype model):
- Antonov An-158
- Xian MA600
- Antonov An-10, Antonov An-10A
- Pilatus PC-12, Pilatus PC-12/45, Pilatus PC-12/47, Pilatus PC-12/47E, Pilatus PC-12NG
- Armstrong Whitworth AW.55 Apollo (*)
- Armstrong Whitworth AW.650 Argosy Mk 100, Armstrong Whitworth AW.650 Argosy Mk 200, Armstrong Whitworth AW.650 Argosy Mk 220
- Aviation Traders ATL-90 Accountant Mk I, Aviation Traders ATL-90 Accountant Mk II (*)
- de Havilland DH.106 Comet models 1, 1A, 2, 3, 4, 4A (*), 4B, 4C
- Handley Page Herald Mk.600 (*)
- Hunting Percival P.66 President
- Baade 152 (*)
- Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneer Srs. 1, 2, 3
- Vickers 953C Merchantman (cargo, testing only so far...)
Unfortunately some bad news, my main PC has died, and I'm unable to work anything at the moment (well do have the laptop, but that's for backups and mobile use only). Reinstalling all stuff will take some days = some further delays to development from this. (no data lost though)
Now back in business ...
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* Airport vs. Aircraft size class restrictions added:
- Airline cannot operate a size class 'very large' aircraft into airport that is size class 2 (Small) or below.
- Airline cannot operate a size class 'large' aircraft into airport that is size class 1 (Insignificant).
=> In other words this is a simple solution for those occasional B747 operations into small regional airports (which can happen occasionally in real life, but not all the time).
* Added custom setting to enable certain aircraft models to operate to certain airports, ie. "London City feature".
- A handwritten list of aircraft size classes, aircraft fleet groups, or aircraft models that are only allowed at certain airport.
- Only LCY data is added here so far, please post info if there are other such special-case airports.
* The airport info view shows the allowed models; if not shown all are allowed. Route open/edit menu also shows only those types that are allowed. And respective to the game year etc. of course.
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* Engine variants for each aircraft model have now separate launch dates too. In other words when the model, for example Viscount 700, has been launched it comes only with the basic engine variant (RR Dart Mk.505 in case of Viscount). Then some time ahead (according to real data) the further engine developments (Dart Mk.506) come available.
- There is no separate 'launch period' for the engine variants, they just become available at certain date and are available for ordering from that date onwards. Previous orders can also be edited according to the normal editing rules with the new engines (fees apply).
- Old engine variants do not expire, the whole engine variant selection goes until the model production is stopped.
- Data for this feature is not inserted yet (apart from Viscount and a couple of other early models), so feature may be incomplete with the first v.1.3 games but technically it's done.
* Added the technical capability to handle cargo-only aircraft. = Disabled seat configuration possibilities from such planes and otherwise updated the interface to understand aircraft with pax capacity of zero.
- According to present plans however cargo will NOT be a feature yet, this is just preparation of the things. I am thinking of making the cargo to be the first feature that runs on the 'city based demand' concept, IF it will work out.
- If and when cargo feature won't be available, there's also a game setting that allows to hide all cargo-only planes.
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* Engine variant launch dates are now covered by Dashboard news.
* Some minor bugfixes (ref. bug reports) have been made for v.1.3 source.
* Ability to 'quick close' routes from Manage Routes pages is updated to have two options, one with 'close & release slots' and another 'close routes & keep slots'.
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* Added alliance livery.
* Added alliance description (basic HTML like bold, italic, underline allowed .. no links, images or other external content).
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* Added new game rule (v.1.3) that prevents slot misuse on high demand routes: Each airline is allowed to have a maximum of 40 daily departures to each destination (on average) per each weekday. This is a 'hard limit' on all routes, not depending on the true route demand or anything (would be too complicated). Just a simple rule to prevent endlessly routing 50 seater planes to a route with 10 000 pax demand...
* Added new chart to Routes area front page, giving a general overview on route revenues and costs and their relation.
* Added the same chart to Route Information (route detail) pages.
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Back after Xmas break .. (although still on holiday, but a few new features)
* PNG logos and airline liveries now allowed.
* New major feature, 'online logo creator'.
- Allows users to create their airline logo fully online directly from web browser.
- Allows selection of background color, border color and border width, logo image, and two rows of text.
- All image and logo elements are fully freely draggable and movable; they can be placed anywhere in the logo.
- All text elements are fully customizable, font size, font color and also font type.
- Live preview of the logo is shown and user sees the preview of the logo immediately when making a change.
- Various fonts and logo images directly available from the system.
- Logo saved in PNG format (= can be saved to user's HDD for later uploading too)
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* Direct aircraft comparison selections added to new & used aircraft pages.
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* Left-hand navigation menu can be now minimized/maximized.
- If you minimize it, the setting will be saved and it affects all further page loads under Game Area.
- (contains also nice & smooth animation effects....)
- In the future the airline money, game clock etc. are planned to be placed elsewhere. So users can then benefit of full screen width since the left-hand menu items are already included as dropdowns in main menu, and other left-hand menu content will be placed elsewhere. But with this hide/show feature users can choose to use this oldstyle menu too if they like.
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* New airport statistic, "total transported passengers, this year & previous year", shown at airport info pages.
* Airport slot handling changed a bit; the slot number calculation is not "live" anymore but calculated on background. This means merely that once year changes the airport slot numbers are not updated on Jan 1st but during the following month or so (bit by bit).
* 'Airline statistics' page renamed to 'Statistics'.
* Added a collection of airport related stats to 'Statistics' page. Including:
- Total passengers this year
- Total passengers prev. year
- Number of average hourly departures (during airport opening hrs)
- % of slots used
- Each stat has associated country flag shown, and max 400 top airports of each category is shown. (Screenshot has limited info, I have only 2 routes in the test server game world.....)
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* Game clock on the left-hand submenu now auto-updates itself. In other words the clock is running 'live' now, even if you do not reload the page. And also when the time hits 23:59 the clock system reloads automatically the info for the new day (weekday, day number, airline money..).
* 'Airline settings' page is renamed as 'Settings'.
* Added national flags to 'Airport destinations' list page.
* Added national flags to various places where country can be selected from a dropdown list, and various other places.
* Added aircraft fleet/type/reg to 'Manage Routes -> Delay view' page.
* 'new style tooltips' added also to 'Manage Routes' and 'Marketing' pages .. now included on all pages & no more of those old gray tooltips.
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* Settings page is divided into tabs .. making the page more clear and easier to understand.
* 'Total produced' column (= all planes in use + for sale + in storage + scrapped) added to 'Global aircraft stats' page.
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* Used aircraft buy/lease page has now a direct input for a/c registration #.
* Settings page allows you to preset the 'default turn-around' time also for (new) planes (fleet groups) that are in order, but none delivered yet. (previously this was possible only after first plane was delivered) .. in the pic the AW650 fleet for example is still on order and due in 5 months, but setting is available for route preplanning purposes.
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* New feature: Automated aircraft registration numbers.
- Briefly described; you can set the desired reg# format at Settings page for each fleet group and each base country.
- When you order used planes, or new planes are delivered, the reg# is automatically assigned according to this setting. (System tries to find the first free slot, by creating a running list of registrations that start from the one you have given at settings page.)
- The setting becomes available once even one plane from a particular fleet group is on order or in present operation (or for sale by you).
- A bit more details on usage here: https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,23406.msg142204.html#msg142204
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FYI; Just made some housekeeping to facilitate the installation of v.1.3 systems (much) later on.
Please report if some functions do not work anymore after the update (but prior to that clear the browser cache to be sure).
Another FYI; I'm in the process of upgrading to another software development solution and version control solution and this will take some days to learn etc. So no updates expected in a while.
* The 'online logo designer' app is now finished with the addition of about 200 logo images.
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* The dropdown menu system has now direct links to your base airports on pages where data may be sorted by base (My Aircraft, Manage Routes, Scheduling). This allows users with many bases to view the desired data more quickly.
* Similar sublinks in the dropdowns are added also to other third level links.
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* View airlines page renamed to 'View and search airlines'.
* Airlines on map page renamed to 'Airline Map'.
* Both of these pages have now filter options; map page has area / country dropdowns, and view/search page has also a search box where you can search by airport name, airport icao/iata code, airline name or by player name.
* The search results on 'view airlines' page is browsable and sortable by ajax based system now. In other words no full page reload anymore when you move to page 2 or sort the airline list.
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* 'quick search' / 'autocomplete' also added to airline search page ... Selecting item from the automatically appearing suggestions list will take you directly to the airline's info page.
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* Statistics of each airline are now included in 'Airline Information' page.
* Airline info page will also have a new tabbed format, since it will have much more information than currently. This is the first preview...
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* I'm glad to inform that we've teamed up with a software development & consulting company to provide graphics and interface design to AirwaySim. The search for a designer has been going on since December and we have now finally selected a provider for this task. The project is just starting but I am hoping to preview some results during March already.
* For actual v.1.3 news; here's a preview of an upcoming (completely new) feature (work in progress still). In brief; the user is able to make contracts with fuelling companies at his base airports. There will be a choice of 2-4 companies at each airport and each of them will have different contract terms ..etc.
(do note my special HUB airports at the test server.. :P )
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* Some technical changes to the server settings and other background scripts; making some of the pages load faster and cause less server load in the long run.
(not v.1.3 related, but posting here anyway)
Back again after a break on AWS (other projects, and AWS development management that is still a long time from public release...). v.1.3 updates:
* Livery templates for ATR72 and B737 added (v.1.2 also)
Following new aircraft models:
* de Havilland Canada DHC-4 Caribou & DHC-4A
* Breguet 763 Provence
* Breguet 765 Sahara (cargo)
* Armstrong Whitworth AW.671 Argosy (cargo / combi)
* Nord 2501 Noratlas (cargo / combi)
* Agusta AZ-8L (proto)
* Fokker F27 Mk 300 (cargo / combi)
* Fokker F27 Mk 400 (cargo / combi)
* Ilyushin Il-14M
* Tupolev Tu-104, Tupolev Tu-104A, Tupolev Tu-104B
* Tupolev Tu-110A (proto)
Cargo planes are still hidden, and the cargo vs. combi vs. pax configuration is still totally unbuilt but added these planes for future use. (going thru some old Jane's books here)
My time last month has been allocated to another (non-AWS) project which is now nearing completion. So more focus will be given to AWS development now.
Updates for today:
* Bugfixes to both v.1.2 and v.1.3.
* Some minor updates to aircraft data and aircraft images.
* New aircraft ordering for lease updated so that minimum lease period is 5 years and maximum 15 years. "Long lease" discounts start at 7 years. (this is to reflect the fact that leasing companies do not wish to commit to orders unless they have at least reasonable deal length)
* Used aircraft ordering for lease is also updated; minimum lease is 6 months and max 15 years.
* For player-sold used aircraft the selling player has the opportunity to determine the maximum allowed lease length (0.5 - 15y). This concerns only the first lease deal; players have still the opportunity to extend the lease deal normally (if allowed by the aircraft owning player).
* Players are now allowed to sell aircraft they own and are lease securities. But on the other hand (due to technical issues) a plane currently for sale cannot be used as a loan security (= must remove from sale, take a loan against it, and then put it back to the market). Aircraft as loan securities may only be marked as "for lease" on the used market. Players can also add loan securities for planes currently leased out, or that are in delivery to be leased out.
* Change of rule to lease extensions and lease returns. Players can now extend/terminate leases also when they are mildly at negative cash balance (-$0.5 mil in 2005 money). This is made to help airlines in trouble to be able to restructure a bit if needed.
* Aircraft lease pricing (for planes being sold by players) is updated: The minimum allowed price for aircraft on the market declines according to the age of the sale listing. Normally minimum allowed sale price is 70% of the a/c value (to prevent cheating), but if the plane is for sale longer than 25 days without anyone buying it the minimum allowed sale price will start to decline (allowing player to discount it more to attract more buyers). The final and lowest allowed price is 30% of plane value and it is obtained after ~150 days on the market. Please note that if the plane is taken off the market and put there back again the date of listing resets and so then does the price reduction factor.
* Settings for Scheduling page allow 1 or 7 aircraft per page to be listed (user request).
* Bankruptcy warning adjusted. The system checks the availability of unsecured loans for the airline, and if the amount of unsecured loans is higher than the negative cash balance the b/c warning will not trigger. However if the cash is less than -$20mil (2005 money) the warning will occur still despite loan availability would be higher.
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* Greetings to everyone in Sweden for the nice second place in Ice Hockey World Championships this year. 6-1 guys, 6-1 ... ;D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dll9THt4Vgs
* Used aircraft purchase reservation updated a bit to include more visible information to the player when his 3 minute window has expired. He can still buy/lease the plane but any other player can override it by making a reservation for it. (and like already before the same player cannot re-reserve the same aircraft immediately again). This information update is also available in v.1.2.
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* The previously previewed 'Fuel management' page is now complete. This includes a revised fuel history graph and the possibility to select fuel suppliers to HQ and base airports.
- (extracts from manual page:) Every airport in the simulation world has at least one fuel company, larger airports have several companies to choose from. Each supplier company offers individual contract terms that change and update on certain intervals. The fuel suppliers will grant you a discount on the daily market prices of aircraft fuel but will take a fixed amount as a contract fee if you sign a contract with them. Contracts may only be made for your base airports. Fuelling at other airports ("outstations") is automatic and does not require contracts, and happens always at the market price.
- The supplier contract may be terminated up to three weeks before the contract ends. Termination will cost the player 50% of the remaining fixed monthly fees.
- Player is allowed to re-negotiate the supplier contract with the same supplier up to three weeks in advance before it expires.
- If the player's base airport is relocated (airport closes and new one opens), the contract moves automatically to the same supplier at the new airport.
* Manual page of these functions is also written.
(the same 'supplier' system will be used later for ground handling, training, catering etc.)
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* Added warning to Dashboard if you have some aircraft in fleet which are grounded or A/B/C/D checks expired (does not take into account if plane is flying or not; would be complicated to load on the dashboard).
* Added editing possibility for the a/c seat configuration name (editing configurations itself won't be possible).
* Swiss based players can also base at French airport of Basel; ref. https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,30645.0.html
* Added 'curfew' info to airport listings.
* Possibility to show "unscheduled aircraft" at Scheduling page.
* Added 'sub fleets' to the Scheduling & My Aircraft pages fleet selection dropdown. It displays all subvariants of the fleet group, if you have more than one. (ie. A319/A320/A321 fleet group would have separate selectors for A319, A320, A321 ..etc).
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* Airline News & Events are now shown at the Airline Information page (= "airline view" page). 20 latest news are shown. The news cover foundings and bankruptcies, opening/closing new bases, aircraft orders, (and in future other news like new routes or alliance related items). Data is the same what is shown on Dashboard but only for the selected airline.
* Airline Press Releases are also shown at this same page and same tab (below the computer-generated news). 20 latest press texts are shown. Image attachments are also shown (max width 900px; if wider it is limited to 900px)
* Please note that this news data is cached and in some cases it may take 2-3 minutes to appear on this page (ie. from the time of posting the press release for example).
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* Aircraft fleet list on Airline Information page is updated.
- List is now sorted by fleet groups, with expandable information that contains information on each individual aircraft (such as age, flight hrs, ownership status, MSN number ..etc).
- If you are the owner of the airline the links in aircraft model names take you to My Aircraft page with planes of that model listed.
- The expanded screen ( [ + ] ) is still unfinished and will be previewed later.
* Please note that this data too is cached and in some cases it may take 2-3 minutes for new data to appear on this page (ie. from the time of buying a plane etc.).
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* Expanded aircraft fleet details in Airline Information page is now complete.
- The expandable list shows details on EACH plane the company has in operation, in order, for sale, or leased out.
- If you are the owner of the airline you can see links to the My Aircraft page, and a/c registration numbers. Reg numbers are not shown to other players since they are only for internal identification and may overlap with two companies.
- If plane is for sale, direct link to the used a/c page is shown.
- If plane is on order, the delivery date is shown.
- If plane is leased, the lessor is shown (and if it is a human player, has a link to that airline's info page).
* "Fleets of other airlines" page is removed, as fleets are now browsable fully via 'View Airlines' page, and that includes also a search function.
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* Aircraft History feature is complete.
- When you click on a link on aircraft MSN number (for example at My Aircraft page, or at View Airlines fleet list page) you will be taken to "View Aircraft - Aircraft History" page.
- This page shows a short summary of this particular & individual aircraft; short technical details and the FULL history of ownership changes.
- Please note that aircraft do not appear out of nowhere in the game worlds, nor they disappear. Every aircraft has an unique MSN number and its history can be traced from construction to scrapyard (even after game world has ended). So you can also browse the scrapped aircraft's details via this feature.
- Currently though there is no browsing feature yet, the page is only activated from the MSN number links on various pages. But a "construction list" browsing for each fleet would be perhaps added in the future.
- MSN number formats for various models is still missing, data is added all the time. If no data is available the system revers to #001 -style format.
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* Done some interface development work today based on what I did yesterday on aircraft history feature.
* Here is a preview of "aircraft action interface". In other words the page you will see when you terminate lease, extend lease, buy out lease, make maintenance actions ..etc etc. From now on the aircraft area "subfunction" pages will follow this same format. Visually a bit better than before. Data shown ("Financial Info", "Technical Info" etc) depends on which sub action page is in question!.
* I am also testing a new "cost overview box" which is seen at the bottom of the screen. This is basically an attention-getter that should clearly display the action and cost; together with confirm or cancel options. I would be using this format in the future too as I feel it will make the interface more clear and show the "results" of the action. Feedback is welcome.
(screen capture is from "My Aircraft -> Terminate Lease" page)
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* Lease extension can be done (manually) also for 6 months now.
* Lease extension cost includes now a "long contract discount". Base line is a 1 year contract, and contracts shorter than that are more expensive and longer cheaper (to a certain point).
* Same discounting will be included for leases from the used market later on, as well as other tunings to lease price calculations.
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* Added ER variants of Bombardier CSeries (100 & 300).
* Routes with technical stopovers have now the same default pricing as routes without them; sake of simplicity. (keep in mind that pax still prefer direct flights)
* Route open/edit menu now shows more detailed information about technical stopovers (tech stop departure & arrival times).
* Route map on 'Route Planning' pages now shows the technical stop location on map line.
* A change on how reduced payload works; cuts now first Y class seats and only after that C and F. (ref: https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,26533.msg163732.html#msg163732)
* Airport destination map shows routes that your airline operates in green line instead of yellow.
* World map of airlines shows now also map dots for airline bases, not just HQs.
* Bugfixes.
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* "Top 20" restriction for opening new base airports has been removed. Airlines can now open bases at any airport, regardless of the airport size (country restrictions are still valid as before).
* Fuel price values are now either "USD per 1000 kg" or "USD per 1000 lbs" depending if you use metric or imperial units. (for imp. units the standard value is usually cents / gallon, or $ / barrel, but those are not comparable to aircraft fuel usage units which is lbs / hr, so I chose the nonstandard $ / lbs).
* Added a few new administrational customization options for game worlds:
- Admin can now set a global 'aircraft production rate modifier' for the game world. This allows admin (at game startup) to determine faster/slower new aircraft production rates. Default value is '1' and setting it to '1.5' would mean that production for all new models (planes per month) is 50% faster (= prod. rate 50% higher). ....etc.
- Similar setting is added for airport slot count and price; a global coefficient value affecting all airports allowing the customization of slot amounts globally. However each airport can still have at least a minimum of 3 slots / hr regardless of any other settings.
* Slot system has been updated:
- A system of slot growth similar to what Dawn of the Millennium #2 world has which slight alterations.
- At game world start there are less slots than normally (~45%) but the number of slots goes up weekly/monthly to reach regular (100%) status at approximately 20 months after world has started.
- After that the slot numbers keep on growing to reach a maximum of 150% of the current (or real) capacity (which is reached at some 5 years into the game).
- This is a step away from the realism but according to the experiences in the other game world it adds to playability keeping the larger airports open for competition (slotwise).
- Slot prices has been increased substantially for the largest airports.
- The way the airport capacity (slot count) is stored is changed a bit allowing per-airport level slot numbers (instead of more broad calculation used before). Also, slot number at any individual airport may not decrease anymore (slot count stays always the same or raises over time - this is to avoid issues with players' routes).
- A new data field, date of slot purchase, is also added for each airport slot. It's to be used later on in a possibly coming slot quota feature (read: to prevent a single airline in getting huge amount of slots within unreasonably short time); for now this data will be used by the administration to monitor possible slot abuse.
* 'View airlines' page is now complete. The last tab on airline info pages (general info) was done today.. Nothing really new here, just reformatting a bit. The transported passengers line graph is eliminated at least temporary (possible changes in future).
(disregard the logos etc.. Just used some random logos off current games)
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* Aircraft scrapping page has also the new functional layout like leasing related pages.
* Short term lease extensions are now possible. Options are 1-12 months, and after that in 6 month intervals. (remember the previous update also; lease price is determined by lease contract length)
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* Aircraft lease pricing for a/c leased from the used market now depends on the contract term/length (in a similar way of the previously previwed lease extension). A short lease term is more expensive per month than a long lease.
* Used a/c lease term for aircraft from the market can be anything between 6 months and 15 years, in 6 month intervals. (remember that player owned planes may have a limited lease term; another new feature previewed earlier).
* Airline notepad link is added also to the mobile/lo-fi theme (1.2 also).
* Base ticket prices have been adjusted to give less income on C/F class especially on longhaul routes.
* On aircraft details page (My Aircraft -> View) the 'View Schedule' link now takes you to the schedule view of that particular aircraft, and not the schedule of the whole fleet like before.
* Added a new method for reducing the effect of too many daily frequencies on a route:
- The system calculates a "maximum desirable frequency" for each route depending on the passenger demand (route length/type not affected, it's a simple system).
- Roughly so that on smaller demand routes you can fly the sector 2-5 times a day, and it then grows rather linearily all the way to 80 sectors a day on the largest (>8500pax/day) routes. For example on 30pax/day route 3x daily flights are still OK, any more than that does not give you any benefit. And on 150pax/day route this figure is around 5.
- This new system is not properly tested yet and may not be in the final release version, as it's rather crude and I would wish to make the whole pax distribution system better but time is not permitting it right now.
* Added a new method for calculating / reducing the effect of flight that depart at the same time:
- If you have several flights to the same destination (ie. same route-pair) departing at the very same time, or very near the same time, they are counted almost like a single flight.
- The "minimum departure interval" depends on how large the passenger demand of the route is. But rule of thumb is that on lower-demand sectors (less than ~400pax/day) the route departure times should be always at least 60 minutes apart. If the route is more busy the allowed interval drops linearily all the way to 5 minutes. On a 1000 pax/day route you can have the flights depart approx every 35 minutes, and on 4000pax/day route the min. interval is 15 mins between two flights. The interval is calculated so that players can keep decent frequencies during daylight hours.
- If the flights are too close to each others they are treated basically as a single flight (but with the total amount of seats available of course), so this leads to lower sales for those flights that overlap or nearly overlap on dep. times.
- But from now on, never make two flights depart to the same destination at the exactly same time.
* Added chapter to Manual: 'Routes -> Opening routes'. Mainly information about various factors affecting passenger distribution. (to be enhanced later)
* AI aircraft brokers can now order new aircraft off the production lines.
- At this time the functionality is limited to filling out the orders lines at the game world start up. The brokers will order planes of selected (popular?) manufacturers to fill the initial empty gap in the production line. The brokers will only order planes so that the player deliveries are not delayed (= last possible broker delivery is at the date equalling the minimum construction time of the new aircraft).
- Later it will be expanded to brokers ordering also when game is running.
- The ordered planes will go into normal broker's aircraft rotation cycle and will at some point appear on the used market.
* Added button to view the 'return sector' in Route Planning pages.
* Added two new interface options to Settings page.
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* Loading of airline information pages changed a bit; should load now faster. (route map is only loaded when you click that tab open)
* Some changes made also to other pages where the 'tabs' feature is present. If you have any issues, just reload that particular page (or clear browser cache if that does not help).
* AI aircraft brokers ordering new planes feature has been expanded now. The brokers can now order aircraft when game is running also.
- Orders are only places to slots not available to players; in other words slots that fall inside the "aircraft build time", and to slots within this time frame that are either vacant or cancelled by a player.
- Aircraft are not ordered if there are not enough player orders for that fleet (in order to make the lines close automatically at some time).
- The ordered planes will go into normal broker's aircraft rotation cycle and will at some point appear on the used market.
* Small changes to user account systems (not game related but posting it here anyway).
- As mentioned in Terms of Service, user accounts expire if they have been inactive for more than 270 days (no logins at all). (this has been like this for long)
- Now the users with Credits remaining (2 Cr or more) will receive an email 15 days before the account expires notifying them of this.
- If they login; account expiration does not happen ... If not, account is closed automatically.
* Changes to loan terms; any new unsecured loans have now higher interest margins than before, and compared to secured loans. Max loan period is limited to 6 years instead of 10y; as taking out relatively small loans with very long payment period was rather easy on the airline's finances (the max. repayment time will be possibly tied to loan amount in the future).
* Removed old misfunctioning feature where loan could be taken out part-secured (loan terms did not work properly in this case giving too 'good deals'). Loan options are now unsecured or 100% secured. Any loans still remaining under this part-secured deal are converted to proper terms in running v.1.3 games.
Minor changes:
* Airline fleet listing now shows the total counts of own & leased planes.
* Airline 2-letter IATA code can now be only in proper format, meaning letter-letter, number-letter or letter-number, but not number-number.
* Pricing formula for used aircraft sold by brokers updated a bit.
* Route history data storage extended to 30 days (was 21d).
* Aircraft production list page made more compact.
* Added 'create route like this for the next day' link to route opening page when the flight is only 1x week. (= copies the route but to next weekday, saving you two mouseclicks)
* Scheduling page has better hover balloons for A & B check; links to changing of check time and to remove the check alltogether.
* Scheduling page hover balloons for routes also enhanced a bit.
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* Minor fixes and changes made over previous week.
* One larger change that is noticeable, concerning mainly B737 and A320 production lines: The allocation of prod.slots was not correct when prod.rate was higher than 30. This is changed and the slots have been re-allocated to proper positions. In practise this means that most of the orders at the end of the queue are moved a bit forward (2-3 months maximum, most of them much less), and that there are a bit more vacant slots available. (No orders have been moved backwards, and there is no "loss" for the players on this update/fix.) ..just posting this since someone will surely ask.
Previews of changes to used aircraft pages. (implementation in 1-2 weeks)
Changes will include a new visual look to the pages and overhaul on technical aspects, and better filters including a search (similar to what is on airline listing pages). Will also implement the 'phone call' feature effectively limiting the number of times users can reload the used plane market in a game day.
The interface will have the same look as the new action pages of lease termination etc, and also clear warnings of some key items related to the planes.
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Preview of the upcoming changes to used market page. (aircraft filter box is not yet visible)
Basically such that each airline is allowed to have 7 'phone calls' to the market every game week (counter resets on Sunday evening). With each phone call the user can obtain an updated list of all available aircraft on the market at that particular point. User can use the phone calls at any given time during the week (if the last call has been more than 2 weeks ago the system automatically calls the market at the first page load).
After 'calling' the market the user can browse this results list in any way he likes and as long as he likes. He can sort & search the list and view the planes in there, this does not affect the call counter. Only after the presses the 'reload' (call) button the list is reloaded and he uses the call.
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The used aircraft market update is now complete. It has been delayed from the original target due to other commitments and some ongoing minor flu and other things.
First of all, in addition to previous previews:
* The 'reservation time remaining' counter is now 'live'. It displayes the actual time of reservation remaining without having to reload the page.
* The 'action pages' where you actually buy and/or lease the used aircraft have been also renewed. They are now visually the same style as the other aircraft action pages, and have various usability improvements over current page.
For example when you select a seating config or maintenance you are shown the total sum payable on order confirmation.
Additional information of the 'phone call' feature:
- each airline is given 7 'phone calls' to the market dealers in a week. This in effect means that you are allowed to query the market for aircraft 7 times during a game week. The counter resets on every Sunday evening.
- when you access the used market page, and the last 'phone call' data does not exist, or it is older than 14 game days the system automatically calls the market when the page is first loaded (using one phone call).
- when the market data is accessed you can freely browse it as much as you like. You may search, sort, browse, reload the pages as many times as you like without affecting the 'phone call' count for the week. In other words when you call the market you are given a list of aircraft currently available and you can browse the given list as much as you wish, and when you decide you can refresh the lists again by calling the market to get an updated list of the aircraft. So there is no reload checking or protection anymore as that is not needed anymore.
- to update the market listings simply click on the big orange icon at the top of the page. This calls the market brokers and updates your list of aircraft with everything that is available at that particular point. An advisable strategy for this feature would perhaps use no more than 1-2 phone calls per game day to update the listings.
Notes:
- the used a/c page listing does not currently have any filter options. You are provided with a search (added with an easy autocomplete function) that allows to search for models, manufacturers, engines etc. The filters will be added when time permits - since Jet Age starts in a few days including the filter feature at this point was not possible since the new market feature had to be put live before the new world starts. But consider the filters just temporarily disabled...
Additional rule changes:
- when airline starts, the first TWO aircraft he orders from the market are delivered instantly. vs. one aircraft currently. This allows an easier & faster start and is preparation for additional features for future.
- airlines are allowed to lease/buy up to 2 aircraft every day, but limited to max 3 per game week. (was 2/4)
Quote from: sami on September 28, 2011, 08:52:32 PM
- the used a/c page listing does not currently have any filter options. The filters will be added when time permits - since Jet Age starts in a few days including the filter feature at this point was not possible since the new market feature had to be put live before the new world starts. But consider the filters just temporarily disabled...
Filter system is now added.
Manual page for Used Aircraft is updated.
https://www.airwaysim.com/game/Manual/Aircraft/Used/
Data updates:
* LIMC (Malpensa) opening time updated
* Added Berlin Brandenburg airport (included a "known issue" of wrong ICAO code as two airports cannot have overlapping codes at the moment).
* Added following aircraft models
- Lockheed L-049 Constellation
- Lockheed L-649 Constellation
- Lockheed L-649A Constellation
- Lockheed L-749 Constellation
- Lockheed L-749A Constellation
- Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation
- Lockheed L-1049C Super Constellation
- Lockheed L-1049E Super Constellation
- Lockheed L-1049G Super Constellation
- Lockheed L-1649 Starliner
* Used aircraft filters improved a bit, you can now select the "more than" or "less than" for each filter.
Please refresh the Used aircraft page once (= hit F5 or refresh button in browser) to activate the changes.
New feature:
* Income data is now available for different base airports.
- The breakdown includes most of the data, but not all since all expenses cannot be focused only to certain base. But most of the operating related costs and incomes are visible between bases.
- If you have only 1 base (HQ) you do not see anything new.
- If you have bases, a [ + ] icon appears to income sheet page allowing you to expand the data. (there is not much data available yet on bases, but once time progresses you will see more)
Please note that due to the installation of new system the incomes from previous game week may not be correctly shown (data missing for 1-3 game days), but money to airline account has been properly deposited despite of that (in other words income sheet does not display all data for those days).
As usual you need to reload the incomesheet page once to get the functions working properly.
Minor changes and rulings:
* Rules: (.....) Alliance members are also forbidden to effectively transfer money between their member airlines by for example repeatedly selling and buying aircraft between each others. Normal one-time sales of aircraft is naturally allowed but transferring aircraft with the only intention of at the same time generating profits/money to one airline is considered unacceptable. https://www.airwaysim.com/game/Manual/General/Rules/#Alliances
* Settings/rules/automatic checking: Alliance members may not sell aircraft between two airlines inside the same alliance if the price is higher than approximately "calculated value +10%" (or certain fixed sum). Money shuffling between airlines by making special deals of planes is not part of airline management... (you still can sell planes with lower-than-value prices with the limitations set by the aircraft selling window, but higher-than-value deals are closed between members in same alliance).
* Newly established airline may not immediately sell aircraft he has just purchased. There will be a mandatory period where the airline must own the aircraft before he can sell it to other airlines. This is to prevent newly created airline to buy cheap planes and then agree with an older/well established airline to buy that plane with a large premium in order to gain money. The limits of this setting are not disclosed as it's not necessary to know this since each airline should start by carrying passengers an not selling planes to friends anyway....
Minor changes to interface:
* If you have auto-registration of aircraft set for a base airport, and you move an aircraft from another base to it the aircraft will be assigned with this auto-reg format. This happens ONLY if the bases are in different countries (ie. reg does not stay the same between bases)
* Alliance aircraft selling rule is adjusted, dollar limit is removed and it's only governed by the % limit (approx 10-12%); see previous post for details.
* Range map and payload graph links re-added to used aircraft viewing page.
* Confirmation popup added when repaying loans manually.
* 'Last 4 weeks passengers' statistics removed. Added 'transported passengers year to date' and 'transported passengers previous year' stats for airlines; visible in airline info page as well as stats page. Since alliance score had the 4-week element, it is replaced by the 'passengers YTD' stat.
* On "scheduling -> add route to scheduling" page you have option to 'select all' routes that are visible in that window.
* On route management, possibility to flag multiple routes at once (checkbox to select and dropdown at page bottom)
* On scheduling page a "page selector dropdown" is available on the right corner.
* Route's detailed view page has the expenses/incomes area chart. The values are now changes so that we have income (tickets total), fuel expenses and new: total expenses (= fuel + enroute/landing/pax fees). This allows you to see easier the profit/loss days.
Larger changes:
* Transported passengers graph is visible on airline information page. Graph includes information on sales of all three classes. (note: you can click on the legend text to deactivate the view of certain class)
* Office -> transported passengers page is also updated with the same info.
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.
* 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).
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.
* 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)
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.
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.
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.
* 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.
* 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.
(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).
* New manual page "About airports"
https://www.airwaysim.com/game/Manual/Routes/Airport/
(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).
(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 )
* 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.
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.)
Startup guide part 1 is updated a bit:
https://www.airwaysim.com/game/Manual/General/Startup1/
* "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.
* 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.
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.
* 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.
* Added same filter to New Aircraft listing page what Used Aircraft page has.
https://www.airwaysim.com/game/Aircraft/New/
* Fuel hedging feature added.
https://www.airwaysim.com/game/Manual/Office/Fuel/
https://www.airwaysim.com/game/Office/Fuel
* Ability to cancel C/D maintenance checks that are in progress (money paid is not returned). From My Aircraft -> Maintenance Actions -> Cancel.
* At route opening window, the flight number refreshes automatically if the number is used by another flight. Allows you to work with multiple route open tabs at the same time without unnecessary error message.
* Aircraft on Order -> Used Aircraft page reformatted a bit.
* Added 'aircraft utilization' stats value to each aircraft details page (My Aircraft -> click on aircraft -> scroll down to route/LF list)
* Hourly airport slot view is combined to show whole week in single page.
* Manual chapter "Routes - Traffic rights" added (additional nice to know info).
https://www.airwaysim.com/game/Manual/Routes/Freedoms/
* Some very minor cosmetic changes to scheduling page: new action icons at the right hand side. And also the maintenance icon has a special blinking attention-getter in case maintenance is not scheduled and the plane has routes in schedule, or if maintenance is expired and plane has routes..
* Minor clarification to Game Rules / Airport Slots:
In summary, airline is not allowed to create "placeholder" routes to obtain slots to use them later or to restrict competing airlines. Any routes created (and slots obtained) must be made only for the purpose of actually flying them. Any new routes created (and slots) must be put to use within one month (game time) from the time they were created - keeping the slots allocated and inactive any longer is considered a rule violation, and is subject to a fine at slot restricted airports (where slots are almost or fully used).
https://www.airwaysim.com/game/Manual/General/Rules/#Competition
(in other words, when the aircraft is available in the pre-scheduling state, you may open routes and schedule them, and the slot usage is fine. Opening routes before that in order to anticipate the new arriving planes is not OK, as that means holding the slots too long. This rule clarification is made with the slot restricted airports in mind...)
New feature:
* Private aircraft sale. Gives the ability to post a plane to the used market so that it is visible only to the single selected airline enabling you to trade planes privately. Same rules regarding aircraft pricing, alliance sales etc. are still valid in private sales too as previously to any public trade.
Usage: when posting the plane to the market you will see one additional field, "Listing visibility". Press "Click to change" to get a dialog of all airlines. Simply click on the airline name and confirm the selection to close the dialog. After that post the plane normally to the used market and it is only visible to this airline (and you), but nobody else.
Note that the receiving airline does not get any separate notification of this to this in-game mailbox so you should notify him via forum PM or similar. The receiving player must normally call to the used market to view the new listing.
You may at any time change the target airline of the private listing by editing the used aircraft listing from My Aircraft page. And before it is asked, targeting planes for sale to all members of an alliance is not featured to keep it simple.
Feedback is also appreciated on how the airline selection modal dialog (popup) works on mobile browsers, as it's a new technology compared to previous popups made..
* Used aircraft filters enhanced. Added filters 'Any aircraft with private listing to your airline' and 'Any aircraft sold by me'.
Minor changes:
* Ability to see used aircraft put for sale by yourself without having to call the used market.
* Added hyperlinks to some automated aircraft leasing related messages for better usability.
* Used aircraft market search (word search box) can now also be used to search for weight variants (it's title / name).
* Used aircraft market listings have now color-coding in the aircraft conditon % to mark the status of the heavy C/D maintenance checks. Green condition % means checks are ok. Yellow that they are about to expire in some time, and red that they have expired or will expire in 2 weeks (C) or 4 weeks (D).
* Airport slot view grid's "detailed view" / "hourly view" layout updated.
Minor changes:
* Slot appearance time for airport is changed to a more constant one (= updates more frequently).
* Slots cannot be purchased anymore if you do not have the cash for them.
* Slot prices for editing and new route openings changed a bit. (fine tuning)
* Bugfixes over the last ~week (minor / medium severity bugs). Some of the fixes affect also the passenger demand calculations, so you may see changes in the demand figures (mainly related to C & F class seat availability etc).
* Airport slot update time is now made totally random (similar to used aircraft generation). Keep in mind though that still any reloading of the airport info/slot info pages is not allowed...
* Updates to aircraft runway requirement calculation (ie. how much payload you can carry from runway limited airports). (effective only on any new routes or routes that are re-scheduled)
* Some fixes to demand calculation when airports relocate (ie. old airport closes and new opens). Due to this any pre-scheduling to a newly opening (but not yet opened) airport is not possible anymore, as all demand shift happens on the night the airport actually closes. Be aware that between airport closure (23.59) and next day noon (12.00) you may see demand levels as 0 but this is normal (oversupply warnings do not trigger, and profits are not affected - it's merely done for balancing the calculations).
* Some background changes to admin functions, for example enhanced systems for admin alerting via automated SMS messages in case of server failure, software error etc. And also some new remote control tools installed for admin usage.
* B747-8 data (weights & range) updated. B747-8F data added (for future cargo use).
* IL-96 series data updated and IL-96M and IL-96T (latter cargo only) models added.
* Added one new weight variant for A330-300.
* Rule change: Oversupply warning time before route closure is now 24 hrs instead of 48hrs.
* The automated checker for the oversupply is also adjusted a bit (the limits there were are bit looser than the exact 200%), and fixed also one bug that did not send all of the warnings.
* Added also visible warning on "view routes" (route detail info) page on routes that are under this warning.
* Added also automated message saying when the demand level of a route is correct, and warning no longer exists.
* Also, the passenger distribution calculation is updated a bit. If the airline is oversupplying on the route, his benefits (read: sales) of doing this are lower than before. In other words, the closer you go towards the 200% rule of oversupply the less you will gain from it. (there are no bad effects if you go a bit over the demand figures, this effect comes in only when getting closer to the rule limit - sort of extra protection to discourage players to do this as it is not desired)
Manual / game rules also updated accordingly:
QuoteThe airlines may not oversupply the estimated passenger demand on a route in large numbers. Airline may not supply over 200% of the estimated passenger demand on any route. This rule is in force regardless of the passenger volume or competition on the route. The rule is the same even if the estimated demand is 10pax or for example 1000pax per day, and also valid even if there are no other competing airlines on the route (the large seat oversupply would potentially block other airlines wishing to enter the route).
The seat supply may not exceed the given 200% limit on any single day (each day's demand vs. supply is checked separately).
In practice this means that if estimated passenger demand on a route is 100pax per day (weekly average) the airline may not fly more than 200pax per day on that route segment. Any more seats supplied would be considered dumping the seats and thus trying to limit competition and entrance of other airlines to the route.
Keep in mind that the passenger demands shown in the game are estimates and their accuracy depends on the staff efficiency of each airline but generally the demand numbers are +/-30% accurate - if there are doubts the administration can check the actual value.
In this chapter the term "airlines" apply also to alliances; one alliance can be considered as a single airline. In other words two (or more) airlines of the same alliance are counted as single airline/unit.
* In regards to above, added a way for airlines to keep using a larger equipment than the route requires, but still to keep within the rules. This happens by manually limiting the amount that can be sold on the route.
* This happens from route edit page, where below aircraft selection is a new field for this.
* Simply enter the maximum desirable seat amount to be sold, and system takes care of the rest. The selection is valid for all flights / legs of this route, and valid until you manually edit it back to no restriction (= enter value 0 (zero)). Any changes in aircraft scheduling do NOT affect this selection - it overrides them.
* The system makes the class (C/Y/F) restriction in a similar manner than with a normal runway based payload restriction, by first limiting the Y class and only then premium classes.
(NOTE: Even though this feature is visible in the Dawn of the Millennium #4 game world, it does not actually work there due to the old game engine. The game world ends in a few days so did not see it necessary to make it invisible there.)
* Adjusted the automated oversupply warning a bit - checker runs only 1x week. This is because it was previously generating a warning, then "it's OK" message, then a warning again etc. in some cases where only 1 day of the week was oversupplied. The checker runs now only once a week and checks the schedules of the entire week in one run. This means also that if you receive a warning, and correct it on the same day the message arrives, the oversupply flag is removed only after one full week (and same with the "it's OK now" message).
(following changes affect future game worlds)
* Added 5 small regional airports to Sweden.
* Added 10 Dominican Republic airports.
Not related to v.1.3, but something to show of the background magic .. If you remember I posted last year about changes in the administration area of the simulation, and some work there is still ongoing. With this post I'm giving a peek to part of the "economy management" of the sim - here in other words a tool that allows the modification of inflation, price, interest and global air travel indexes.
The system has been updated so that I have now a better tool available to customize for example the fuel prices of each scenario - this can be done with a simple "drag the point on the chart to change price/value" system (or direct input via Excel for example). This new system allows also more flexibility and faster usability when customizing the fuel prices (or what ever economy value index) for new game worlds - previously it has been a bit slow process.
Fuel prices for each scenario are customized when they start (using this tool) and they are not changed when the game gets going (so any conspiracy theories are not worth it) ;)
In this image you can see a sample of some random old game world's fuel price developments (this world isn't running anymore), and how it looks from admin section. As you see there's the true fuel price and also for reference the real-world historical price (which this game world followed quite closely actually...).
Also below is another picture of the main section of game administration, just for fun.
Two fixes worth posting also here:
* Bug fixes related to airport passenger demand calculation in the event of airports closing and new one opening (etc). Bug caused the demand to fluctuate +/-50% for some game months after the opening of the new airport.
* Fix related to airport slot usage. In some cases the route editor did not remove old slots from the airline when the route departure time/day was changed.
* B737 MAX series (-7, -8, -9) aircraft added.
* A320neo series (319,320,321) aircraft added.
All of these planes are tagged as "prototype" models and they may not be available in all game worlds (MT8 will have them). Data is also preliminary and not accurate until the planes actually fly in real life. (737 and A320 series (present models) price data, and some other data also updated)
Updates to some game functions:
* For new games the pax demand calculation has now a similar steady growth like the airport slots. The demand on all routes begins small (admin adjustable, but usually around 50% of the true demand) and grows to the real and full game demand within ~12 months (and again the amount of "full demand" depends on game settings). (This is to give less advantage, if any, to the early starters.)
* Slot purchasing changed a bit, so that the airline can go a bit (~$100k) into negative cash when getting slots for a new route, similar to many other purchasing functions. (previously it was hard $0)
* Some changes to slot price calculation also, including some specific pricing rules for LHR/EGLL for the start of the game.
* Alliance rating calculation updated a bit to make it more age sensitive, affects also current games (just a small update).
* For new games the amount of initial aircraft generated (and the ratios between aircraft models and sizes) is adjusted, again just a bit. (it follows the real and historical production numbers, but adjusted for the number of players and accounts for the popular models too for easier game play/start)
* Transported passenger statistics are now saved separately for each base of the airline. This change may result in a small jump in the stats for this game week for each running world but will be back to normal next week. Different base stats cannot be yet viewed.
* The new features of long game worlds are being built into the calculation automation. First new item there is the automatic increase of the player count.
Jet Age started in 1955 with 220 players and it will end in 2020 with max 700 players as Modern Times. The max player count will automatically increase with 1 player spot for every game month, and this means that in the start of the Dawn of the Millennium era (1975) it will have 460 spots and when Modern Times era starts (1995) it will reach 700 spots. (And it rises gradually in between those given spots)..
Similar automated settings will be made for the game day length changing and game naming.
Some changes and fixes:
* Dashboard now shows notifications of aircraft (urgent info) too. (<-- if you have ideas on what else the dashboard could notify, post a feature request).
* My aircraft and Scheduling page dialog popups can be closed with Esc or confirmed ("OK") with Enter key press now.
* All "full window pop-ups" (ie. route planning popup etc) can be closed with Esc.
* Scheduling / Move schedule window has now a refresh button, similar to add flights window.
* Can take a loan against an aircraft while it is listed for sale (for lease only).
* Various interface bugfixes.
* Friend referral program has started: https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,48124.0.html
* Change to Manage Routes country dropdown filter. The filter does not affect the route departure airport anymore; so in other words if you are based in Canada and choose country filter as Canada, it only shows your domestic routes - previously showed all routes (as everything departed or arrived from Canada in this example).
* New filter to Route Planning and Route Open airport selectors: ability to filter out airports where you have already routes. This is basically similar to the 'airplane icon' in the airport listing - if you have a single route (or more) to that airport this filter allows you to skip it in search results.
* Mouseover popups enhanced a bit technically.
* Alliance forum is again visible on Dashboard.
* Minor bugfixes.
* New feature, Manage Routes - Destination view.
This view mode groups all routes of the same route pair / destination into one row. In other words all routes from Airport1 to Airport2 are in one row.
The data is roughly similar to financial view where you have the individual seat class LF, total avg LF and other financial metrics. Profit is calculated as profit per flight (= average profit for each flight on this route pair). The View icon takes you to the manage routes listing's standard financial mode where each route is listed individually.
This feature has been added as per requests .. It will be used in the future for price management too.
(this thread is locked to keep it organized, please post all comments to this thread (https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,26358.0.html))
* Changes to maintenance price calculations, in order to make smaller aircraft more usable.
Maintenance cost has always been factored from aircraft size, but the aircraft size class itself is now also a factor there. Generally speaking the all costs for large aircraft are nearly the same as before but the checks for very large planes are a bit more expensive. For medium and small planes all checks are relatively much cheaper now, especially for the small aircraft.
Examples (all quoted as 0y / 100% planes for a 2010 game year):
| Plane | Old A price | New A price | Old C price | New C price |
| A340-500 | 14k | 16k | 830k | 897k |
| B717 | 6.5k | 6.5k | 390k | 390k |
| DHC6-400 | 4.3k | 1.7k | 260k | 108k |
(A340 = very large, B717 = large, DHC-6 = small, sorry didn't have example of medium cat plane)
This change affects all game worlds, and should be farily unnoticable for players running large airlines since the big plane costs are relatively the same as before.
(this thread is locked to keep it organized, please post all comments to this thread (https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,26358.0.html))
* A new technical factor into daily airport calculation, airport's used capacity vs. airport costs.
A function calculates the airport slot usage and determines the true available and used capacity (same metric as shown in statistics). This value in turn is used to calculate an airport cost factor metric. This value will be used in the near future to scale airport's fixed costs (passenger fee, landing fee, handling fee) and in effect will mean that less crowded airports are cheaper to operate into on daily basis (when this change happens it will be announced separately).
The similar calculation already exists on one-time slot prices but this new value can be used more easily and more widely. It can be for example in the future used to better calculate flight delays based on how busy the airport is (naturally this value does not go into hourly details but will give a good enough overall representation; do we have 50% slots used or 90% .. whole different thing).
The standard cost factor is "1" which is between 40-55% slot usage. Above and below this the cost factor goes up/down and can be between 0.45 and 1.8 times the standard cost. What these costs actually are will be displayed later on airport info page (= how much a single pax fee is for example). For initial part of the game world the factor is always 1, and the factor changes slowly over time.
(this is just nice to know information about changes in the background; one aim of this change is to make operations into less crowded airports more appealing)
(this thread is locked to keep it organized, please post all comments to this thread (https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,26358.0.html))
* Changes to ground handling fee calculations, in order to make smaller aircraft more viable option. The handling has been one of the biggest expenses and problems for small airlines (thanks to Sanabas for documenting and experimenting earlier).
Like maintenance costs, ground handing fee has already always been a factor of aircraft size. But now it's tuned to be better and more realistic (not so expensive) towards very small aircraft which do not require almost any outside services for a turnaround. Like with the the maintenance cost change, the handling costs are also pretty much the same for large and very large planes but are now substantially lower for medium and small aircraft size classes. Update is effective immediately.
Another change is that handling costs are lower than before for smaller airports, for large airports costs are unchanged. Country's overall cost level is not yet a factor in these costs (like in salaries they are).
AWS assumes ground handling is done by the airport, but in the future separate handling contracts may be added as a new feature (similar to fuel contracts).
Examples (large airport [5], year 2010):
| Plane | Old cost | New cost |
| B777 (v.large) | $1850 | $2000 |
| A320 (large) | $1200 | $1200 |
| ATR (med) | $790 | $560 |
| DHC6 (small) | $550 | $150 |
Examples (middlesize airport [3], year 2010):
| Plane | Old cost | New cost |
| B777 (v.large) | $1750 | $1850 |
| A320 (large) | $1100 | $1000 |
| ATR (med) | $690 | $420 |
| DHC6 (small) | $450 | $94 |
Examples (tiny airport [1], year 2010):
| Plane | Old cost | New cost |
| ATR (med) | $480 | $300 |
| DHC6 (small) | $240 | $50 |
(aircraft types mentioned above are rough examples and the actual cost varies between each type of plane, so costs above are approximations)
As noted by the previous post, another change is coming later which takes better into account how busy the airport is with these costs.
(this thread is locked to keep it organized, please post all comments to this thread (https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,26358.0.html))
* Some changes to the 'seat blocking' feature (the one where you can change the capacity you offer for a route to less than the seats your plane has).
The blocked amount must be more than 25% of the average seat count for that fleet group and more than 5 (so for example for 757 fleet this figure is 53). Also the amount cannot be higher than the 2x the same mentioned average value. Both are added to avoid large scale errors, and also to reduce possibilities in let's say flying a 757 on a 10 pax / day demand routes. The boundaries for the accepted value aren't shown but in any normal case you will not hit this checker anyway so there's no need for it to be visible.
* Also added some automated checkers in order to prevent slot hogging by "copy pasting" routes. You can now have only a certain amount of unassigned routes/slots at each given time for each base (= route with slots but no plane scheduled). This number depends on how slot limited the airport is (for non-limited airports there are no restrictions), and in any case you are still able to always create 4x 7 days a week routes before you hit the "hogging limiter" which is standard short/medium haul schedule's worth of routes per plane. The rules state players are not allowed to create more routes (get more slots) than their operation requires and this is now partly enforced automatically. If you hit this limit simply schedule the unassigned routes and then you can continue creating rest of the routes.
(this thread is locked to keep it organized, please post all comments to this thread (https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,26358.0.html))
* Airport information page has been renewed a bit and it now includes the data for airport fees. The default view shows the data for globally two most popular aircraft models for handling fee, and for landing fee the calculation formula. You can choose from the dropdown the desired model / MTOW combination to view the true costs. Hover the mouse over the (?) icon to view details.
* Also the feature where fees are now variable according to airport traffic levels is now live (see post from yesterday for details). Please do note that all airports start at the cost level "1" with the launch of the feature (and with the start of a new game world) and the costs will scale up or down slowly depending on the airport traffic from now on. So at the beginning for large airports the costs are the same but will start to differ in some game years.
(this thread is locked to keep it organized, please post all comments to this thread (https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,26358.0.html))
* New feature will be added next week, aircraft upgrades.
This new feature allows you to upgrade your aircraft by installing for example a hushkit to the engines which raises the noise certification level, and in turn allows you to operate the aircraft longer into the future (we shall also introduce noise level limitations soon as a new feature - this means that you cannot fly a B707 in year 2000 for example anymore unless you equip it with the hushkit).
First the upgrades shall only include the hushkits (to enable the noise level feature) but in the future more data can be added and for example winglets retrofit installations can be possible for some mores. Changes of engine types or MTOW will not be modelled, at least yet. Each upgrade may also change the range, fuel consumption or runway requirement.
Upgrades are only retrofit items that can be installed to existing aircraft and not related to new aircraft orders. Each aircraft can have a single upgrade item installed (due technical simplicity).
The interface is simple. You can upgrade multiple planes at once from My Aircraft page (must be of the same model) or one by one from the detailed aircraft view. If there are no upgrades available the buttons / selections for this are hidden. Plane cannot be in maintenance while being upgraded, but can be listed for sale.
New available upgrades are listed on Dashboard news too.
(this thread is locked to keep it organized, please post all comments to this thread (https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,26358.0.html))
The staff systems has had some issues when it comes to multiple bases. The main thing has been the background process that tries to automatically balance staff between bases (when you move planes from base A to base B the staff moves automatically on background too). This has been removed and staff of each base is managed individually now.
At the same time the rather unnecessary sliders have been removed and you can either use the quick management tools or key in the desired values.
For now the salary levels are the same for each base, even if they are in different countries, but this may change in the future.
At the same time all salary update requests have been also reset, so if you just got a message about staff requesting new salaries and do not see it at the staff page, never mind and wait for the next request.
(this thread is locked to keep it organized, please post all comments to this thread (https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,26358.0.html))
Further updates to the Personnel Office.
* More powerful quick management tools for the staff. You can adjust quickly staff numbers and salaries only for selected bases or staff groups or for everyone at once.
* Also new quick buttons for airlines with multiple bases which allows you to set salaries / staff numbers for all of certain staff group.
* Updated interface that is a bit more simple now. It's also a bit different if you have base airports or not.
* New function to balance staff between bases. This is useful when on manual staff settings and you have to move staff between bases. Simply click on the icon and the extra staff from one base is allocated to bases with less than required staff. Relocating staff does have a small morale penalty but no costs or company image penalties. Please remember to press save right after this, since if you manually adjust the staff numbers after using this balancer you will lose the "free relocation" benefit and it will lead the system to think you are simply firing / hiring staff instead of relocating. (for automatic staff management this function is automated; it does the same by moving staff from a base of excess staffing to base with lack of staff but does not fire anybody)
First image shows airline with 4 bases, lower an airline with only HQ (no additional bases).
(this thread is locked to keep it organized, please post all comments to this thread (https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,26358.0.html))
* The aircraft upgrades feature is now online. (see a few posts up for details)
The first release includes only hushkit upgrades that allow you to lower the noise emissions for the planes. Included models are currently BAC 1-11, B707 (later models), B727, B737-100/-200, Fokker 28, DC-8 (later models), DC-9, MD-80. (all from stage 2 to 3, apart MD-80 which is 3 to 4).
(this thread is locked to keep it organized, please post all comments to this thread (https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,26358.0.html))
* New development into pax demand calculation has been added: better country relations (political, historical etc).
The feature of long-term country relationships affecting demand has been part of AWS since first versions but now we finally have a pretty complete dataset on this (thanks to Julien, ARASKA, ReedME and dmoose42 for adding some info). The data takes into account the historical relations between two countries, for example North Korea to South Korea air traffic is non-existant, and this is affects in turn to the passenger demand numbers between airports of those countries. Relations can vary from icy cold (zero) to a high traffic boost. The actual "relationship index" data is not visible to players as such.
Do note that this feature covers only the long term relations and any short term issues like wars are not part of this feature (short term events is a separate module that is technically built already earlier but pending data).
All new game worlds will use this data.
(this thread is locked to keep it organized, please post all comments to this thread (https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,26358.0.html))
* Bugfixes.
* Added dashboard notification in case of route oversupply warning is active.
* Added manage routes page filter "Show only routes with no slots".
* Added a clear warning to route information page in case route does not have slots.
* Manage routes / notification view shows now routes with active oversupply warning.
* New / update feature; better base airport finder.
Choosing your home base when you start an airline is always an important task and now the updated base finder tool includes more information than before. The airport browsing search tool is still the same as before but the airport details page has been renewed. The page includes now more details about the based airlines (number of planes, age of airline/base), the airport slot information is in a more compact format (showing number of available slots for two different time periods) and some unnecessary information for this step has been removed.
The biggest change however is the display of the estimated passenger demand on the base finder. The tool shows the estimated demand together with actual supply by existing airlines for the 20 highest demanded routes (routes with most passenger demand globally from this chosen airport). Also a ratio of supply vs. demand is shown (and appropriately color-coded).
There are also handy tooltips ("?" icon) that describes the data a bit more.
Using this information the new player can now more easily determine the possibilities for opening an airline to this airport.
(this thread is locked to keep it organized, please post all comments to this thread (https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,26358.0.html))
* Not related to v.1.3 but for information:
- many third-party provided background modules and scripts have been just updated
- this is sort of maintenance update where all charting, mapping, scripting etc. applications/scripts were updated to the latest versions (to ensure bugfixes and latest compatibility)
- the upgrade caused some changes to airwaysim's own scripts too, and there may be some issues here and there although things have been tested (as usual). There are some minor visual changes but functionality should remain mostly the same.
* Also added back the 'back button' functionality on pages with background server loading calls (eg. ajax). These pages are currently manage routes, airport info, airport slots and base finder. In other words when you filter, order and browse the data you can now (again) use the back button and it automatically fetches the previous filter / page. There are other pages that should have this functionality (like My aircraft) but it has not been implemented yet, will be added a bit later once it's checked that this new system works (should work for mobile clients now as well, previous didn't).
(works also on pages with 'tabs'; ie. income sheet, settings, airline info ..etc)
* New feature: Base airport wizard.
Finding the base airport is now even more easier thanks to this new airport finder wizard tool. Simply choose your desired continent and type of airline (regional, mediumhaul, longhaul) and the wizard will go through each and every airport picking some suggestions for you to choose from.
The wizard checks the actual demand and supply levels of the most popular routes for each airport filling the criteria and also the overall airport slot availability (note; during whole airport opening period (so for example slots at 06-09 may be all out). Also slots are checked only for the route departure airport.). The route demand is checked according to the type of operation you choose (regional ops is limited to 450 nm, and mediumhaul to 2300 nm) and it is compared to the actual seats offered by existing airlines (system will calculate potential unfilled demand and also potential demand under competitor's supply already; both are considered).
There are various other factors considered too (such as number of available routes, demand per route etc) and the type of airline you choose will set the limiting values and settings on the calculations, so each type of airline chosen for the wizard will yield different results (naturally for longhaul airline for example only longhaul destinations are considered etc). The results list is sorted (loosely) by the airport having most of unfilled demand based on the search criteria; click on the airport to view the details (see details two posts up in this thread).
This feature should be considered as experimental (feedback is appreciated). We hope that this will help players to find new airports and 'spread out' more. (wizard is only available for new airlines, not for airlines choosing to open an another base)
(and also; before you ask. No, similar feature is not coming to the general airline route planning area since this is quite server-heavy and also one of the game play concepts is the 'route research' made by players themselves)
(this thread is locked to keep it organized, please post all comments to this thread (https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,26358.0.html))
* Two new livery templates, B787 and DC-9 added, thanks to our user "Laama".
Can be found under settings page: https://www.airwaysim.com/game/Info/Settings#SettingsAirline (click on the (?) next to livery)
* Flight delay and cancellation calculation is improved a bit. The system now takes into account different pilot groups and also different bases (since all bases and groups can be now managed individually).
In other words if you have full staffing at base #1 but lack staff at base #2, the delays will only hit flights operated from base #2. Or if you have lack of small aircraft pilots but everything else is OK, only those small aircraft routes are affected.
(this thread is locked to keep it organized, please post all comments to this thread (https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,26358.0.html))
* Route image (RI) related effects on passenger demand calculation have been updated / adjusted. The RI effect is now more clearly visible, and works properly in case of multiple flights. (as always you can attract about 20-40% of the potential demand with 0 RI (depending on the demand) if all other variables remain "standard". Lowering ticket prices may attract more demand even with low RI)
* Some adjustments has been made on how airport slots are randomly released.
* Also some adjustments has been made to demand at the start of new game. It is a slow growth globally as usual, but another calculation has been added there making very high demand routes smaller at the beginning of the game.
* Route image growth rate is adjusted to be a bit slower when going up and faster when going down (12 months 0 -> 100, and 8 months 100 -> 0).
* Marketing adjusted so that it's not possible to achieve high (>50) company image values if you have a very small airline (fleet size).
* Dashboard items "alliance forum" and "press releases" moved a bit higher on the page.
(this thread is locked to keep it organized, please post all comments to this thread (https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,26358.0.html))
* Based on user feedback we have decided to add another new feature that will help players joining a game world. This is the 15 minute free preview mode.
When you join a game world it will cost you (usually) the regular 5 Credits. With the new free preview mode you can fully use, view and play the game world but if you decide to leave it within 15 minutes of your joining the 5 Credits are automatically returned to your account. This is useful for checking out the opportunities in that particular game world without having to make a commitment of purchase. Also there are occasions where users have mistakenly selected the wrong game world to join, and here too this is helpful.
(The new base finder tool should still give you the information you need to make the game world joining decision, but you can also create a new airline in this preview mode - if there are a lot of "spam" airlines that disappear within minutes then we will have to reconsider this part)
* Adjustment to game start up money calculation.
The start money and loan have already been inflation adjusted (based on game inflation index), so that new players will always have the same relative amount of money no matter when they join.
However now a change has been made that the start money increases (relatively too) over time. If you join near the end of the game world you will have up to 175% of the original start up money (inflation adjusted too of course) - this helps you to get started in the competitive environment.
Practical example: DotM scenario (1975-2019) start up money is set to $2.2 million, this is what airlines on day 1 get. Inflation runs so that in 10 years (1985) the $2.2 mil equals $3.6 million. However this new feature will increase the money by an additional $0.6 million at this point, so you will have $4.2 mil to start with now.
(this thread is locked to keep it organized, please post all comments to this thread (https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,26358.0.html))
* New feature: Re-train pilots (= convert their rating to a different group).
This feature has been much needed for the longer game worlds and has now finally been introduced after the staff management page was recently completely overhauled. You can now move your pilots between groups by paying a one-time re-training fee for each pilot you convert.
For the sake of simplicity pilots in AirwaySim are grouped by aircraft size class groups, and the re-training feature allows you to move pilots between these four groups. Also for the sake of simplicity the training of pilots in this conversion case is instant - pay the training cost and pilot is ready to fly right away in the new group. Pilots will swap the group under the same base airport (if you have many bases) and if you need to rebase them too please use the separate rebasing option.
(this thread is locked to keep it organized, please post all comments to this thread (https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,26358.0.html))
* One route image related route sales allocation bugfix has been implemented. In some cases the RI was not properly calculated into the sales (was not visible on our test server due to different settings, so was very tricky to find). You may see a slight decrease in seats sold on routes with low RI in some cases due to this fix (but these are the 'correct' figures now).
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* Requested change by our "power users", flight numbers when using the "7 day scheduling" playing method.
You can now assign the same flight number for multiple individual flights. The requirements are that the routes must be to the same destination and on different days (local departure day from base airport); aircraft type or departure time makes no difference so you can have route "AA001" from A to B on mondays with B747 departing at 0700 and same AA001 from A to B flown with B767 departing at 0800 on tuesdays for example.
User interface has not changed at all, since this change is not intended for "regular" users; it's just made to facilitate the playing style some people use where they split every flight of the week as their own. So manage routes page, scheduling page etc. are the same as before and each flight is shown individually.
Route planning view and all other route schedule listing views are updated so that flights on same number are grouped together even if they are individual flights in the player's view. (however if the equipment or departure time differs, each is shown in their own lines)
Please note that this change has no effect on current routes that have _different_ flight numbers. So I'd request all players who use this 7 day method to create flights with the same flight numbers from now on.
(this thread is locked to keep it organized, please post all comments to this thread (https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,26358.0.html))
The following change will go live soon and will have a separate announcement too:
* Demo game world will be removed and the 7 day trial period will take place in the Beginner World instead. Users will be able to continue their "demo" airlines simply by buying credits, instead of having to start fresh like in demo. This means that the trial game is now fully featured.
Also the first turn time of the beginner world is reduced from 24h to 12h.
(this thread is locked to keep it organized, please post all comments to this thread (https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,26358.0.html))
- The following changes will be implemented today to all running game worlds -
Minor interface changes:
* Some route maps have been technically updated (due to changes in the map provider's service). This includes also some minor visual changes.
* Alliance map page now shows all base airport of each airline in that alliance.
* Alliance -> View Alliance page (=alliance info page) is visually updated a bit.
(this thread is locked to keep it organized, please post all comments to this thread (https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,26358.0.html))
Please note; this aircraft upgrades feature is not available at this time due to an error in the database version control .. It will be added back later (also to running game worlds). Hence also the planned noise restrictions feature is postponed for now, so no need to worry of noisy old jets in modern games so far...
Quote from: sami on July 25, 2013, 07:33:48 PM
* The aircraft upgrades feature is now online. (see a few posts up for details)
The first release includes only hushkit upgrades that allow you to lower the noise emissions for the planes. Included models are currently BAC 1-11, B707 (later models), B727, B737-100/-200, Fokker 28, DC-8 (later models), DC-9, MD-80. (all from stage 2 to 3, apart MD-80 which is 3 to 4).
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(changes are marked according to the assumed effect they have on running your airline)
Changes to aircraft selling etc:
* [major, to be implemented after 5 days] Aircraft listing for sale with expired maintenance checks will be disallowed.
- Players can no longer list planes for sale/lease if their heavy checks (C/D) are expired.
- In a similar manner, if the plane is already listed for sale and the checks expire the aircraft will be removed from the market automatically two weeks after the checks have expired (a notification will be sent once expired, and once removed).
- This change is made to help new airlines in finding something useful on the market. Currently in the long game worlds the used a/c market is filled with perfectly usable planes with expired heavy maintenance, making them undesirable/unusable for any new airline.
* [major?, to be implemented after 5 days] Storage fee for idle aircraft introduced.
- All aircraft that are unscheduled (no routes) or for sale are subject to a parking/storage fee. This is calculated automatically daily, and only applies if you have more than 10 planes "idle" (= no routes or for sale) at the same time. Fee represents the costs of airport parking space for long-term parking of aircraft. Fee is not airport relative as we assume planes for long-term parking are not stored in LHR for example, but at some other local small airport.. Insurance costs etc. for these parked aircraft are still valid, this feature is not equal to "mothballing" a plane in the desert.
- Fee is based on aircraft size class and scales according to inflation / game year (like all game costs). Fee will be under 'Ground handling' in income statement.
- Example: For the largest size class plane a 24hr parking fee is $500/day (game year ~2005) and for smallest size class $50/day. (intially, these may be tuned later)
* [minor, implemented immediately] Added used a/c market filter to show only planes with valid C/D checks (valid = C check is valid for 2+ months and D check is valid still for 1+ year).
* [minor, implemented immediately] There has been previously already been the ability to perform C/D checks for aircraft while they are on sale (plane is removed from market while mx check is ongoing and automatically returned when completed). This has been a manual action before but it's possible to automate it now too:
- Settings / Aircraft settings has a new option to automatically perform C/D checks to all your planes listed for sale. (Note that the other two options for automatic checks only apply for planes not listed for sale; so if you check the 'Automatically perform C check maintenance' box it will C check all planes in operation but not those for sale. While the new option performs C/D only for planes for sale.)
- This option is OFF by default, and is a global setting for your airline; you can't choose individually which planes to auto-check and which not.
- The option of sending completed maintenance messages affects also this new setting (so you'll get a msg of the checks for planes for sale if that option is selected).
* [minor, implemented immediately] Aircraft scrapping thresholds changed a bit. They are now: a/c must be owned by you and not for sale and not in maintenance. It must be either older than 10 years with any condition %, or older than 5 years and less than 40% condition.
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(changes are marked according to the assumed effect they have on running your airline)
New feature ([major, implemented immediately]): Aircraft mothballing / desert storage
* This feature allows you to park aircraft into "desert" for later use. Useful if you do not wish to sell the aircraft etc.
* Only owned aircraft that are currently owned&operated by you, not for sale, not in maintenance and not as loan securities can be set to long-term storage.
* This can be done from my aircraft details page (possibly also multi-storage feature to listing page later on).
* Setting plane into storage is free, but there is a daily-billed storage cost; similar to the short-term selling/parking fee mentioned in the previous post but some 30% higher (for example $360/day for large aircraft in year 2005; where as the same "idle" aircraft fee is $300/day). (why higher ..? since there are no insurance costs etc. Long-term storage is hence still much cheaper than keeping them idle on your normal fleet)
* Planes in long-term storage have no staff costs, no commonality costs, no insurance costs, no maintenance costs (& no automatic maintenance checks) etc. Storage fee is the only cost. Planes stored do NOT count towards your company value.
* Parked planes show in "for sale & storage" column in global stats, and in airline view's fleet page there's a new/own column for them.
* Removal from storage happens from the aircraft details page too. This takes a minimum of 5 days and costs at least 1.2x B check cost. However all checks (C & D) must be brought up-to-date when removing from storage, and if C or D check is invalid their cost and time is included in the removal cost too - total cost is shown before you commit to the action of course. This action, and like other maintenance actions, can be also done with slight negative cash (certain credit limit from the bank), to help operations when times are tough.
* Alternatively the plane can be scrapped directly when in storage (no need to bring it out of storage first), if the normal scrapping conditions are met.
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(changes are marked according to the assumed effect they have on running your airline)
Interface updates:
* [minor, implemented immediately] Possibility to move registration together when moving a schedule to other aircraft. (if both planes have a reg#, then the numbers are swapped).
* [minor, implemented immediately] Possibility to adjust staff salaries also by $ instead of just % in the quick management tools.
* [minor, implemented immediately] Manage Routes -> Destination View has now a quick link to route planning.
* [minor, implemented immediately] Manage Routes - Added quick selection of removing (multiple) flights from schedule at the bottom's dropdown selector.
* [minor, implemented immediately] Manage Routes - results are sortable by scheduled local departure time (from base airport)
* [minor, implemented immediately] Manage Routes - clicking list title item 'load factors' is the same as clicking 'Avg LF%' = sorts by overall LF.
* [minor, implemented immediately] Aircraft -> Maintenance page. Possibility to perform A and B checks there manually immediately.
* [minor, implemented immediately] Airport information page default handling fee shown is now based your two most used plane models.
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(changes are marked according to the assumed effect they have on running your airline)
Minor changes:
* Aircraft parking fees (see earlier posts) are implemented now. The used a/c marked heavy mx validity requirement is not yet live, but please prepare for it (but already now planes with invalid maintenance cannot be listed to the market).
* [minor, implemented immediately] Routes with no slots can be now edited without the need to get the slots while editing (previously you could opt not to get the slots only when opening the route, and when you'd edit it you'd always have to get the slots immediately). Useful if you wish to fine tune your schedules and routes a lot before committing to them and to the slots (saves $$).
* [minor, implemented immediately] Income statement has a new line 'Aircraft lease fees'. These are the one-time termination fees of aircraft leases and this has been added due to other upcoming features.
* [minor, implemented immediately] Fuel hedge fees (the % fee added on top of the initial hedged price) are now shown under 'Fuel contract fees' in income statement (together with fuel contract fees) instead of being grouped under 'Fuel' line. Just to give you better overview on what the actual fuel usage costs are and what portion is the investment cost.
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(changes are marked according to the assumed effect they have on running your airline)
* [minor, implemented immediately] Changes related to upcoming financial system updates on following systems: a/c insurance cost calculation and loan security value calculation. (= you may see minor differences to previous values on these)
* [minor, implemented immediately] Changes to passenger ticket sale calculations (bugfix).
* [minor, implemented immediately] Changes to aircraft AI broker functionality when purchasing planes from players (again due to upcoming changes in other systems), and on decisions when to scrap aircraft after player bankruptcy.
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Not related to v.1.3 but posting here anyway, just for information:
- Some configuration changes have been made to the server settings and email/newsletter systems, hopefully increasing the chances that emails coming from our server will end in your inbox and not in spam...
(changes are marked according to the assumed effect they have on running your airline)
The following changes are part of preparation to the accounting system update:
* [minor, implemented immediately] "Aircraft value" metric will be removed on all pages, and it will be replaced by "book value" (more details on this subject later, for now still the book value is exactly the same as the current/removed "value", but will change shortly)
* [minor, implemented immediately] Used aircraft details page does not show the aircraft value anymore, it has been replaced with an advisor text that tells if the plane is normally priced, cheap or expensive (or very cheap/expensive). It compares the aircraft price with aircraft age, condition, maintenance validity etc.
* [minor, implemented immediately] Aircraft selling page does not show the aircraft value anymore. It also has been replaced by a price advisor, that works in a similar way (but slightly differently) than the used aircraft purchase pricing advisor. The selling page now also clearly displays the min/max allowed prices for the sales listing. There are also quick links to set the min/max prices, and also a checker that warns you if you try to enter a bad price (of course checked at server-side too like before but this saves you the unnecessary page load..).
* [minor, implemented immediately] Used aircraft AI broker pricing functions updated a bit - prices older planes more aggressively now.
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(changes are marked according to the assumed effect they have on running your airline)
[major, to be implemented on Dec 31st (tomorrow)] Aircraft value calculation update.
- This update is part of the accounting system update and has already been prepared by other minor updates earlier. More accounting changes will follow later, this is only one step of the larger process (it's done in steps to ensure a smooth transition also in existing games).
- The aircraft value calculation has been changed from the old and 'fictious' system to the proper accounting method. The old 'aircraft value' is replaced by 'book value' (value of the plane in company's book keeping records) on all relevant pages.
- Aircraft book value for your owned aircraft is counted as follows:
* The basic starting-point value in the company's books for each aircraft is the actual purchase price of the aircraft (for new planes that means the sum of pre-delivery + on-delivery payments, and for used planes the purchase price + any re-config/maintenances paid during purchase).
* This book value is then depreciated over time using the standard straight-line method so that when aircraft reaches the age of 25 years the value is 10% of the original book value (="residual value" or "salvage value"). After 25y the value will not decrease anymore (= 10% residual value is kept).
* If you buy an used aircraft older than 25 years, the book keeping value of this plane will be directly 10% of the purchase price - there is no depreciation period anymore since the 'useful' life of aircraft is considered to be 25yrs. Of course aircraft can and may be used longer (there are no changes to that), but then they will simply have the 10% residual value in the books, even though their 'operational' or 'useful' value could be more.
* Example #1: Original purchase price $150 million, bought as new. The yearly depreciation value is then $5,4mil/yr [= (cost-residualvalue)/lifetime ]. This means that after 1 year the book value of the plane is $144.6mil (= $150-$5.4), and after 20 years $42mil. At 25y the value is $15mil and remains at that.
* Example #2: Used aircraft is aged 10yo and purchased at $100 million. It will have 15 years of useful life left (25-10y) and has the same 10% residual value rule. This means that yearly depreciation is $6mil. So value at 10 years is the $100 million (purchase price). And at 15 years the value has decreased to $70mil and at 25y it reaches $10mil.
* The depreciation is counted once a week (= a/c values updated weekly).
- Depreciation will be added to income statement later. For now it is not visible separately and it has no effect on company's taxable result or anything else, but it will be added later together with changes to the income statement. So for now only the calculation method of the aircraft value has been changed. (you will however see the depreciation on my aircraft details page's 'financial overview' already)
- For leased planes there is naturally no value displayed as you are not their owner. If you wish to purchase the leased plane the buying cost is determined by the broker like previously. In case you purcase the plane the 'book value' will be the actual purchase price what you paid for it, and it will depreciate over the same rules as any purchased used aircraft.
- The transition from old valuation system to the new one:
* Any new aircraft you will be delivered after this update is live will have the book value counted from the actual purchase price.
* Any aircraft you owned before this update was live had initial book value assigned from the old aircraft value. So initially aircraft value becomes simply the new book value for any existing aircraft, and then they start to depreciate normally.
* Any existing owned aircraft older than 25yr will be set to 10% residual book value based on separate calculation.
=> This transition method does not offer the exact/correct book value for existing aircraft but ensures that major changes to company value should remain rather small, and any new aircraft delivered after the update will then have correct values (as well as all planes in any new scenarios after this).
- Also, aircraft in long-term storage and aircraft due to delivery soon (available for scheduling) are now counted towards your overall company value again (according to their book value).
- If you sell your owned plane you are displayed the book value of the aircraft and also a suggested selling price (as per previous update). It is important to understand that these two have nothing to do with each others. The book value is merely an accounting value and it is calculated with a standard formula from the original purchase price (as explained above). The selling price of the aircraft can be freely determined by the player (within the given pricing limits displayed on the page). If the player sells the plane at a higher price than the book value, it is considered as a profit for the airline - and the other way around. Note though - the profit/loss calculation on these sales is still incomplete and will be added later, but this will be the principle. (= so please forget anything about the old 'aircraft value' since it has got nothing to do with this new and proper valuation calculation)
- In similar manner the scrap price is not related to the book value of the aircraft, and you can incur profits/losses from scrapping too.
...all-in-all this change has very minor changes to your airline and running the airline, but it's a larger conceptual change. And like mentioned other accounting related changes will be added later.
EDIT: This update is now online.
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The some time ago announced feature of automatic removal of aircraft with expired C/D checks will go live shortly, so please be aware if you have a lot of planes for sale. (there will be the warning period first, so you will have a warning first and then time to react..)
(Why you may ask? For example Jet Age has about 1850 planes listed for sale, and only about 550 has currently valid checks, so most of them are useless for any new or existing player, and it also disturbs the AI broker functionality)
(changes are marked according to the assumed effect they have on running your airline)
[minor, implemented immediately] More filters added to 'My Aircraft' page
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* The previously announced accounting system update is now live. Please see details here: https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,51298.0.html
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(changes are marked according to the assumed effect they have on running your airline; all changes are effective immediately)
[minor] * Change to airport transfer rules: airlines based in Stockholm-Bromma will now relocate to Stockholm-Arlanda when it opens in 1960.
[minor] * Changes to rules on slot transfers between airlines - it is forbidden in large numbers when coordinated between two or more airlines. Slot quota for slot restricted airports introduced in the case of large sudden number of available slots after a player action. When an airline bankrupts (by player action, not by bank's mandatory action), closes a base, or closes a large number of routes at a slot restricted airport (a large airport where there are less than 30% slots available overall) the airport enters a "slot quota" mode for all players. When in this status each airline is only allowed to get 35 new slots on every 5 game days, or 30% of the total available (but no more than 150) which ever of these is higher. After 14 days the restriction is lifted and all unused slots are available again. This automation is made to prevent mass-transfer of slots from one member to another in case of pre-planned bankruptcy for example. Restriction is not in place when airport capacity increases (total slots increase). If restriction is in force it is visible on airport slots (slot listing) page.
[minor] * Rule of valid C/D checks for listings in the used market is now, finally, being enforced. There's a two week warning period before the plane is taken off the market.
[minor] * Testing of new events and news in various game worlds. You may have already seen an economic downturn warning in GW#3's news section. This, and a couple of others in various game worlds, are manually made adjustments to the default global economic model to create some twists in the games, and at the same time this new news posting module is under testing. (such events are still rather slow to create and require much manual work)
[minor] * Various bugfixes.
Also a general request. Please think a bit before posting a new bug report or feature request. A lot of the time goes in managing these forums and reports/requests, since all threads are read (even though not commented always), and especially the feature requests forum have a VERY high percentage of new posts that are duplicates of open existing threads or ideas that otherwise have been discussed in the past or not relevant. For now any new larger feature requests will not be considered but instead our internal development roadmap is being followed.
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(changes are marked according to the assumed effect they have on running your airline)
[minor, effective immediately] * New feature: Income statement has now a breakdown chart of the incomes and costs. Simply click on the pie chart icon to view it ..
It displays two of the most recent weeks/months/quarters/years available (only two due to limited space).
[minor, effective immediately] * Numbers in all financial report pages are now right-justified (per user request).
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(changes are marked according to the assumed effect they have on running your airline)
[medium, effective immediately] * New feature: Financial reports of each airline are visible to everyone on airline information page ("/game/Info/Airline/View/xxxx"), at the bottom part of the first tab (below transported passengers chart).
The page displays now all three financial reports: Income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement. The data is presented only in quarterly format (yearly would have been too static in my mind), showing the last 4 full quarters (= not the current one that is still underway). The detail of the data is more limited (on purpose) compared to what each airline owner himself can view from the actual report pages, and some additional features like the charts/graphs are not available here.
Airline must be >1yr old before any data is shown.
(Why this data is made public? Because in reality too most companies have to publicize their main financial data and reports)
The update on the financial reports / systems is now considered complete (apart from possible changes to Dashboard reports).
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(changes are marked according to the assumed effect they have on running your airline)
[medium, effective immediately] * Starting capital for new airlines is now more dynamic.
It already previously has been tied to the inflation and also to the game progress. Meaning that the starting capital has increased over time and the later you join, the more money you get proportionally.
This calculation has been now changed further to support new players. The effect of game's progress vs. start money is higher than before, and it takes also now into account the size of airport you choose as your HQ airport.
Practical example: in 1952 in Game World #4 the start up money was $1 200 000. In 1972 the player joining would have $1 970 000 due inflation and game progress (old calculation). With this change however the player will get this money if he joins at the smallest possible airport (size class 1). If he picks a larger airport the sum is higher, in this case in class 5 airport it would be $5 000 000. Or if he joins in year 2000 (= 50 years into the game) and picks a class 5 airport the starting money is $31 000 000 (without this change it would have been about $11mil).
This additional calculation is fully active after 180 days into a new game world (rises gradually).
[minor, effective immediately] * Technical changes to all e-mail functions of the system. At the same time the visual look of all e-mail notifications and newsletter is also updated to match the site's visual look.
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(changes are marked according to the assumed effect they have on running your airline)
[medium, effective immediately] * Changes to staff requirements of airlines flying with small or medium size class aircraft. Their staff requirements are now proportionally smaller than before. This change affects the 'office' staff numbers, ie. not flight or cabin crew numbers.
No changes to airlines flying large or very large aircraft. This change affects all airlines, and if you have many small planes in your fleet it's advisable to check your staff page now, you may have some extra staff now after this change (but in any case you won't have too few because of this change so there's no harm for anyone).
Example:
#1: Airline with 7x CRJ had previously the need for 378 staff members, now the number is 314. (-17%) ..and in this example the actual salary costs are ~$315k/month smaller (previously 2.1mil, now about 1.8mil, so the actual expense reduction is about 15% since pilot/cabin crew numbers did not change).
#2: Fleet of 1x Scandia, 1x DH Dove, 1x DH Heron: previously 107, now 82. (-23%)
#3: Fleet of 5x A320, 20x CRJ, 6x J31: previously 1650, now 1493. (-10%)
#4: Fleet of different plane models, all large or very large: no changes.
(these are just random actual examples, the actual staff calculation depends on many more things than just the number of planes!)
[medium, effective immediately] * Changes to slot pricings for new airlines:
- "New airline discount" is greatly adjusted. It was previously available only for airlines less than 100 days old, but now it extends to 1.5 year old airlines. It is a linear effect (like before) but now also takes into account the game's overall progress. New game and new airline will not see this discount but a new airline in existing game will have great benefit of this.
- "New operation discount" (= route to a new airport for the airline / non-home base slots) is not available when game world is less than 180 days old. And the discount gradually increases so it reaches it's maximum level only after 1.5 years into the game world. This is a minor change overall.
All of these aspects have been modelled already before but their effects have been simply changed a bit (the new airline discount is much greater when game is not new).
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(changes are marked according to the assumed effect they have on running your airline)
[minor, effective immediately] * New game specific settings available for game configuration/customization:
- Ability to disable all alliance starting rules. = No more requirement for airline age and fleet for alliance startups.
- Ability to disable all political basing rules. = Airlines can base on any of the available airports (ie. US airline can base in Europe if whole world were to be included). This setting also disables the requirement to close a base when country breaks up, or when "minimum required aircraft" at each base is not met (ie. base is not closed automatically under any circumstance other than airport relocation). So you can have a base with only 5 planes for example. Base amounts (4) or max planes per base (100) are not changed.
Both settings are, as mentioned, available only for selected new games and both will be used in the Euro World. The changes are not meant for wider use in the full / global game worlds but merely to add to the list of available options to make different scenarios.
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(changes are marked according to the assumed effect they have on running your airline)
[medium, effective immediately] * New feature: random world events.
This feature creates random events to airports, countries and continents worldwide. There are about 50 pre-programmed events that each have a detailed background story on how they affect the airline operations. The events can create delays, cancellations or changes to passenger demand, and they can affect only one airport, all airports in country or all airports in whole continent.
The cancellations can affect everything (100%) or only some portion (0-99%) of the flights from the affected airports, based on event settings. Demand changes can be sudden (change overnight due to the event) or change over time.
A news item is posted under World Events for each event. The amount of events per game month depends on the amount of players, amount of airports and game day length. Normally it is between 2-6 events each game month but may vary between 0-8 globally (= not too many to create news spam and to repeat the same events all over again in long games). Faster game worlds have less events than the slower ones. This amount may be on the low side in the global scenarios and feedback is welcome on this; easily adjusted.
Events are only generated to airports to which the players have routes to (and highly trafficked airports are more likely to get the events). The events are divided into several categories and intensities and two events of the same type (ie. two volcano eruptions) do not overlap in different airports/areas, and each event has also a minimum interval when it can happen again (ie. a large event cannot happen often).
The events are not so major that anything is forced to close down due to them. The "heaviest" causes 5 days of 100% cancellations in a whole continent but it's very rare (major volcano eruption). Events affecting passenger demand downwards remove the trigger of oversupply warnings in that area while event is active.
All events are random and have no historical background. The aim of this update is to generate more dynamism to the game worlds and more changing challenges to the players. Adding real historical events based on this technical module is also fully possible (if data is collected).
This feature is initially only live in the Euro World scenario, will expand elsewhere later. Thanks to our user Cur$e for work with the data. Feedback on the intensity and amount of events is welcome.
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There has been numerous minor updates and changes to the background systems lately, mainly to cater the requirements of some educational/corporate customers using AirwaySim. These same changes are also available in regular AWS scenarios, if required sometime later. Just posting this as "for information" to let you know that there's always something going on. ;)
[effective immediately] * Ability to force players to use only manual staff management settings (= auto-hire and auto-salaries not available).
[effective immediately] * Ability to create alliances without forums. (if forums wouldn't be available, this isn't available in the regular games)
[effective immediately] * Ability to set different visual templates for each game world (= different site layout for each game).
[effective immediately] * The number of world events has also been tuned a bit (ie. less in regional scenarios vs. global scenarios).
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[effective immediately] * Random events have been enabled in Game Worlds #1, #2, #3 and #4. They will start to appear within ~2 game months.
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(changes are marked according to the assumed effect they have on running your airline)
[minor, effective immediately] * Changes to events module:
- The display of demand during events has been changed. The temporary event demand is now displayed with a clear warning and a separate demand 'bar' at the route planning view (see image). (When there is no active event, the bar/data is not displayed. Also not visible during short 1 day events that change demand.)
- Fundamental technical change to the events that have an effect to route demand to allow larger (global) events (= the way how events vs. demand changes is calculated is changed).
- The length of some major events has been reduced, there events are max. 2 months long now.
- The frequency of some major events has been tuned and they are a bit rarer now.
- Other minor technical changes to the system to make it better, the events are very flexible now; a single event can combine elements of delays, cancellations and demand changes all in one - and this in airport/country/continent/global level.
[minor, effective immediately] * Various bug fixes, minor issues. Some worth mentioning are (= include noticeable changes or new features):
- The "not allowed for tech stop" list is expanded by ~5 airports due to airport relocations in the future (= cannot techstop at an airport that will relocate to another larger airport in the future, to avoid future issues with the route)
- When aircraft is listed for sale privately to certain airline and that airline bankrupts the aircraft is now returned back to your fleet (= removed from the used market). Previously it went visible to everyone on the market. The player selling gets a message of this too.
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Update: The new Dashboard is now LIVE.
Please note that the 'new' flags on news items will start to appear on any news items published after this update.
And do also note that this is the first version of the new dashboard so the content itself remains the same as before but it's in plans to expand it in the future.
--
* Dashboard page has been re-styled completely. This is a large update where the aim is to clarify the news feed and avoid large long scrollable pages. So we are moving back to the tabbed format here with the new and greatly improved dashboard news feed. [pictured below]
In the current development revision all the data is still the same as now but it is presented differently. In the future there will be more news data available on these pages. There are also plans to make the dashboard news feed "live" by automatic updates and also the ability to filter the feeds with important/interesting data (= data relevant to your airline) and possibly also a search feature etc. But for now the basic update will cover only the visual update in order to boost the usability. There are also various background technical changes to the system / news display.
The tabs and news feeds in each tab are (each tab has two news feeds):
- Airline overview: Economy info, urgent notifications, billing info
- Airline news: Airline news feed (new airlines, closed airlines, new/closed bases etc), Airline press releases
- World news: World events (random events), Airport and country news (new/closed airports, country changes, airport changes etc).
- Aircraft news: Aircraft production news (prod.line openings/closures), Aircraft order news (new a/c orders).
- AirwaySim news
* Game status bar has now a balloon for count of unread messages in the alliance forum. The Dashboard alliance forum view will be removed (to save space and due some formatting issues). [pictured below]
* Route planning page has the option to show only your flights, vs. all flights on this route pair.
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(picture from test server, any airline details visible have no relation to actual game worlds..)
(changes are marked according to the assumed effect they have on running your airline)
[major, effective immediately, only in Game World #3] * Airport bases feature has been renewed completely.
- This update is effective in the new GW#3 and any subsequent new games. It may be expanded to existing games if there's demand for it, technically possible.
Rule changes
- Each airline can now base at 10 different airports (HQ + 9 bases).
- Airline must be at least 12 months old and operate (own/lease) at least 10 planes before bases are "unlocked". Once bases are "unlocked" you can do anything with the bases (open/close/etc) even if the total num. of planes falls below 10 (for simplicity).
- There are no aircraft limits other than a companywide limit on aircraft scheduled outside your HQ (in bases). So no more limits on minimum number of planes in HQ or in bases.
- The max. number of aircraft outside HQ is relative to game year. In 1950 it's 100, in 1990 it's 350 and in 2015 it's 600. The growth is linear between these three 'step points' - so in year 2000 for example it's 450. After year 2015 the limit stays at 600. The limit number increases on 1st Jan every year and it's rounded to nearest 5 so it may not change every year. As before only scheduled aircraft count towards this limit, there are no limits on aircraft on order / aircraft unscheduled / aircraft for sale etc. Nor there are any limits for the count of aircraft in your HQ naturally.
- There is a major new component to the bases feature, which is the base level. This determines the operation size and cost level of the base. There are 4 base levels corresponding to the aircraft size classes (small, medium, large, very large); 4 levels of bases. The base size equals the largest allowed aircraft size class for your operation in that base (= medium class base can support small/medium planes, and very large base can support all planes etc).
- The base levels can be up/downgraded, with the limitation that if the airport is small the base level cannot exceed the airport's allowed aircraft size class. So if the airport only allows 'small & medium' planes your maximum base level is 'medium' there. The cost of upgrades is in relation to the base opening cost, and it's recommended to open the proper sized base right away since upgrading costs a bit more. Downgrading costs also, but not very much. Note that when you downgrade a base the system will automatically unschedule any planes not suitable for that base level any more. The up/downgrade does not make any changes to your staffing, you must do the changes yourself - both actions will create changes to both HQ and base staff levels.
- Up/downgrade happens one step at a time to each direction. Downgrade and base closure can be done while money is negative (no limit).
- Base closure cost is the same as before consisting of contract ending costs (fuel contracts etc) and aircraft/staff relocation fees.
- The costs of opening the base depend on both base level and airport size class. There is no longer the possibility to transfer aircraft immediately to the new base, please do that from the aircraft pages afterwards. The base opening window shows the additional staff cost to the HQ as well as the base staff/office cost for the new base (but this cost is with the 'empty' base with no planes/routes).
- Costs are not linear between base levels. 1 & 2 are close to each others and so are 3 & 4. There is a considerable jump from 2->3. For example in game year 2000 opening your first base to ATL (class 5 airport) will cost $33.8mil if it's 'large' but only $6.0mil if it's base level 'medium' (very large would be $37.6mil and 'small' $2.2mil). This is because the operation is clearly divided into small and large planes in these four groups..
- There is a waiting period of 1 year between each base opening, like before. (base level or up/downgrades do not change this)
- No changes to traffic rights, so no basing in foreign countries (apart from EU etc.).
Interface
- The whole Office -> Base airports page has been completely renewed.
- This includes a new general overview of all base restrictions, a 'tabbed' listing of all bases with details, stats and important links, and a section to open a new base. Added are also the menus for up/downgrading each base.
- The menu structure has been updated to work with multiple bases. If you have more than 4 bases (3+HQ) the menu structure changes to a compact format. The dropdown menus no longer list all of the base airports (since the list would be too long), but there is instead a link to expand the base listing at the dropdown menu. In similar fashion the airline status bar (where you have game clock, money etc) no longer displays the base list for over 4 bases - it's replaced by a "hover balloon" list that can be activated by hovering the mouse over the Bases text. The fuel management page's base selector is updated in a similar fashion with a dropdown selector if you have very many bases.
Manual
- Manual has been updated to reflect the changes: https://www.airwaysim.com/game/Manual/Office/Bases/
ps. "Game World #3 (new)" will be renamed to "Game World #3" once the previous ends.
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(changes are marked according to the assumed effect they have on running your airline)
[medium, effective immediately] * Route Management page has now the possibility for direct price management, on single routes, multiple (freely selectable) routes or destination-grouped routes.
If you choose a single route, you have all price options available (see and edit prices per class and per leg, one by one). If you choose multiple routes you can adjust the prices +/- certain %. If you choose by destination you can also reset the prices manually for all routes in that city pair.
Route planning links also added to the same page.
[minor, effective immediately] * Aircraft page (the section main page) lists now more aircraft in the "most profitable" / "most losses" sections. Upcoming lease expiration notifications have been also extended to 45 days (was 30), and their display format has been adjusted a bit.
[minor, effective immediately] * All listing pages have now a "jump to page" selector at the top & bottom of the page for quick access to different pages.
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(changes are marked according to the assumed effect they have on running your airline)
[medium, effective immediately] * Fuel management page includes now future fuel price predictions made by your staff (economics & finance department).
This is basically a prediction of the future and it is based on your staff's efficiency and it's their opinion about the future development of the prices. The future prediction has two lines: "low" and "high" and the future price will most likely be somewhere between these two. However do note that while the prediction shows up to one year ahead, it is the most accurate only in the upcoming next months.
You can use this information to spot any radical trends and changes in the near future and plan your hedges accordingly. This feature has been made since there are plans to add other economic predictions available to the airline managers which will help in their future decisions. This is partly tied to the updates of the demand system where we'll have country-specific economics and will need to have the possibility to spot the trends in traffic growth/decline too; hence a similar feature for fuel price predictions already to make sure it works and to get some experience on this.
If the staff efficiency is poor, check that there are enough of them employed (HQ) and their morale+salary is good. Max. accuracy is around 85%-90%.
Manual chapter has been updated to reflect these changes: https://www.airwaysim.com/game/Manual/Office/Fuel/
How to read the prediction information
Example image picture 1 below (test server) shows current price being $305 and the green 'low' line goes down in a high rate, while the red 'high' line grows only with a small rate. Since the staff is in good shape and accuracy is good, we can be rather certain that the price will go down for at least next 6 months. But don't be fooled by short-term changes - the price may still temporarily go up too, your staff is looking for long-term trends only!
Then picture 2, from actual GW#2. The trend lines are rather meaningless here, as the variation is rather strong both ways. We can conclude that there are no imminent economic changes ahead that would create large sudden changes.
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(changes are marked according to the assumed effect they have on running your airline)
[minor, effective immediately] * Automatic registration functions improved:
- Automatic registration is applied automatically when aircraft is returned from lease (manually or due bankruptcy), provided naturally that the appropriate reg.format setting has been set for this fleet group by the receiving player.
- When rebasing the aircraft between airports the automatic registration is now active too, if you have the reg. format set for the 'receiving' base airport. So if you move a plane from Spain to France for example, and you have from Settings page selected the desired reg.format for France's base for that fleet, rebasing the plane will automatically assign a new reg for the place (since old one is not available anymore since it's a different country).
- Bugfix: When certain area is governed by the same country and has the same reg. format, the system works now properly (e.g. USA & Guam). Two planes in mainland and on the island cannot have same reg anymore, and rebasing the planes between these areas will keep the registration.
[minor, effective immediately] * Fees (handling, landing etc.) for airports tuned a bit, very crowded airports are now a bit more expensive to operate into and small airports a bit more cheaper.
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#1) COMAC C919 aircraft added to game worlds #1, #3 and #4. Available ca. 2010 and flies in 2018, similar to A320neo. More new a/c models will be added bit by bit. (n/a in GW #2 since the introduction date went past already)
#2) The aircraft upgrades feature is now back online and available in all game worlds. It was unavailable due to data errors.
The upgrades still consist only of huskit upgrades to the engines and nothing more yet. The actual noise regulation features will be added in the future, so at this point the upgrades are not mandatory for anyone.
Details of the feature here: https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,26356.msg268545.html#msg268545
The list of upgrades available currently:
BAC One-Eleven 200 Hushkit Chapter 3
BAC One-Eleven 300 Hushkit Chapter 3
BAC One-Eleven 400 Hushkit Chapter 3
BAC One-Eleven 475 Hushkit Chapter 3
BAC One-Eleven 500 Hushkit Chapter 3
Boeing 707-120B Hushkit Chapter 3
Boeing 707-220 Hushkit Chapter 3
Boeing 707-320 Hushkit Chapter 3
Boeing 707-320B Hushkit Chapter 3
Boeing 707-320B Adv. Hushkit Chapter 3
Boeing 707-320C Hushkit Chapter 3
Boeing 707-420 Hushkit Chapter 3
Boeing 720B Hushkit Chapter 3
Boeing 727-100 Hushkit Chapter 3
Boeing 727-200 Hushkit Chapter 3
Boeing 727-200Adv Hushkit Chapter 3
Boeing 737-100 Hushkit Chapter 3
Boeing 737-200 Hushkit Chapter 3
Boeing 737-200Adv Hushkit Chapter 3
Dassault Mercure Hushkit Chapter 3
Douglas DC-8-20 Hushkit Chapter 3
Douglas DC-8-31 Hushkit Chapter 3
Douglas DC-8-32 Hushkit Chapter 3
Douglas DC-8-33 Hushkit Chapter 3
Douglas DC-8-41 Hushkit Chapter 3
Douglas DC-8-42 Hushkit Chapter 3
Douglas DC-8-43 Hushkit Chapter 3
Douglas DC-8-51 Hushkit Chapter 3
Douglas DC-8-52 Hushkit Chapter 3
Douglas DC-8-53 Hushkit Chapter 3
Douglas DC-8-55 Hushkit Chapter 3
Douglas DC-8-61 Hushkit Chapter 3
Douglas DC-8-62 Hushkit Chapter 3
Douglas DC-8-63 Hushkit Chapter 3
Fokker F.28 Mk 1000 Fellowship Hushkit Chapter 3
Fokker F.28 Mk 2000 Fellowship Hushkit Chapter 3
Fokker F.28 Mk 3000 Fellowship Hushkit Chapter 3
Fokker F.28 Mk 4000 Fellowship Hushkit Chapter 3
McDonnell Douglas DC-9-10 Hushkit Chapter 3
McDonnell Douglas DC-9-10 Hushkit Chapter 3
McDonnell Douglas DC-9-15 Hushkit Chapter 3
McDonnell Douglas DC-9-20 Hushkit Chapter 3
McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30 Hushkit Chapter 3
McDonnell Douglas DC-9-40 Hushkit Chapter 3
McDonnell Douglas DC-9-50 Hushkit Chapter 3
McDonnell Douglas MD-81 Hushkit Chapter 4
McDonnell Douglas MD-82 Hushkit Chapter 4
McDonnell Douglas MD-83 Hushkit Chapter 4
McDonnell Douglas MD-87 Hushkit Chapter 4
McDonnell Douglas MD-88 Hushkit Chapter 4
Sud Aviation SE-210 Caravelle 10B Hushkit Chapter 3
Sud Aviation SE-210 Caravelle 10R Hushkit Chapter 3
Sud Aviation SE-210 Caravelle 12 Hushkit Chapter 3
(note that all of these models may have not had the upgrade possibility in real life, but the grouping is made on engine type bases. ie. if some JT8D engine had the hushkit, it's added also to the other aircraft with same/similar engine)
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Fokker 120 NG aircraft added to game worlds #1, #3 and #4. Available ca. 2009-2010 and flies in 2017-2018. Same fleet as in F70/F100, same engine as MRJ70/90. Prototype model.
More new a/c models will be added bit by bit.
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(changes are marked according to the assumed effect they have on running your airline)
[minor, effective immediately] * Improvements to background processes to keep the databases smaller & cleaner:
- AI Brokers will scrap all aircraft in their hands which are over 30 years old. Previously it was possible in some cases that some old a/c were not scrapped by them and they've been filling up the database (ie. had some planes >50 y old) .. (In any case already before the brokers never put such old planes for sale, so just a matter of keeping things tidy)
- Cleanup processes enhanced so that the system now purges old aircraft models, aircraft seat configs, aircraft history data etc. for any models that are a) out of production for a long time and b) not in use (/for sale /in storage) at all by any operator anymore and c) last example scrapped >10 years ago (= ALL aircraft of this model out of use and out of production for a long time -> removes then all data of this model). These planes are usually no longer visible in any stats either, so there's no need to store that data either. (there is also a special case, since some users would like to spend a single example of their old a/c in storage, and in these cases the system at this time does not remove any data, but keeps the entire model's data stored)
- In-game messages that are a) unread and b) older than 4 years are automatically removed.
- ..there are a lot of other similar clean up processes (and have been before too) but these changes have minor effects to game play, so posting it here.
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(changes are marked according to the assumed effect they have on running your airline)
[minor, effective immediately] * A new feature: AI controlled airlines created by the system!
Sounds great but actually this feature will be mostly used only in the custom scenarios we provide for educational customers for example. And I'm posting this mainly "for information" so that you see what's going on in the background.
In practise this feature means that when a game world starts we can now automatically generate a number of new airlines to the system who will then create automated competition for the new players entering the game world (= these AI airlines are already present in the world and flying routes when players join in). At the present version it's a single airline for every airport we define separately/manually, and each airline will have about 3-40 aircraft, and it's meant to create no more than about 20 airlines (this is the rough first version) to keep enough planes & slots available for human players (since these settings haven't been touched).
The system will generate realistic airlines with proper flight schedules, and is in other ways attempting to mimic a human-created airline too. They will base their aircraft selection to what's available in the storage (in large numbers) and use also smart fleet planning (1 fleet group per route group type), and their routes/schedules on how the demand figures look like (they keep their seat supply reasonable compared to demand to leave some space for new human airlines, and they do supply only in ~5-20 highest demanded routes).
The user interface has been also modified already earlier to work with this feature, and instead of player name these airlines display as "AI Player"-controlled; otherwise all data pages are identical to them (= you can see the same details as of any normal airline). Exception is that AI airlines are not visible anywhere in the stats, but are visible normally in the route planning section and so forth.
When the game starts the AI airlines will not actively compete with players. They will maintain their planes and do everything according to the normal automated settings (like staff) but will not change prices or schedules, nor will it get new planes. So they are intended only for short games (or for the initial part of long games) and to act as the initial competition for human players (or to replace human players in small custom scenarios where there are only a handful of users). The AI airlines have for this reason considerably more money, higher CI / RI (etc). than any starting human airline. In other words the intention is to simulate players entering into an existing market instead of having an empty world.
Only the first early development version of this feature has been recently activated and there are still many items that need work. (And won't be posting any technical details here at this time for that very reason ...)
This feature will not yet be used anywhere in these public scenarios (apart from minor testing perhaps), but there are plans for it for the future. (most likely this feature itself won't be used like this at all in public scenarios, hence the "minor feature" tag, but there's a spin-off development based on this going on which will create some nice new features for everyone's benefit) ..and if you come across any potential ideas based on this, please feel free to share.
Below are two pics of an example airline. This airline is fully system-generated with a click of a button..
#1: Airline fleet
#2: Typical schedule it creates
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(changes are marked according to the assumed effect they have on running your airline)
Minor changes to economy calculations to make them more dynamic:
[minor, effective immediately] * The dynamism in aircraft pricing has been increased. The prices of new aircraft are calculated based on the number of outstanding orders in the queue; more orders -> price goes up and so on (and models about to go out of production are also receiving extra price drops). The range of this manufacturer's pricing area has been increased a bit to make more popular models a tad more expensive and less popular more cheaper (~5-10% change in both ends; for very small planes the price reduction is even higher if there are very few orders). The price changes are never immediate but they change gradually, bit by bit.
Also made a fix to the pricing dynamism, it did not trigger for some models already launched but not yet started to deliver. As mostly some very popular models are ordered in their hundreds already before first flight, and now the price dynamism also applies to them.
[minor, effective immediately] * Minor tweaks to airport cost calculations. As you may know the airport costs (landing fee, pax fee ..) are dynamic and are based on how busy the airport is. The cost factor at very busy airports has been increased a bit, and lowered at airports with plenty of space (just minor changes to previous figures). These cost level changes happen over a long period of time (like before; no changes).
[minor, effective immediately] * A/C in the used market, listed for sale by AI, will now get even cheaper than before over time if they are not sold.
[minor, effective immediately] * Very minor changes to a/c lease price calculations.
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* BAe 146 and AVRO RJ fleet groups have been combined.
* The whole dataset of all these models (6 aircraft) have been also checked and updated, leading to changes in passenger numbers, runway requirements, prices and ranges.
* Added the RJ115 model which was marketed but never sold in real life (same specs as RJ100 but higher capacity).
* Added RJX70 / RJX85 / RJX100 models which were basically re-engined RJ models, never entered service.
* Changes are effective in any new games, and implemented also to current GW2.
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Minor updates to manual (formatting and checked/corrected/added a bit of info):
Loans: https://www.airwaysim.com/game/Manual/Office/Loans/
Slots: https://www.airwaysim.com/game/Manual/Routes/Slots/
Also the Accounting chapter is cleaned up a bit, the 'transition from old system' info is removed since updated was made already in Jan-2014.
* MD-90 and B717 fleet groups have been combined (since B717 was basically MD-95). (Pros: Fleet commonality etc. Cons: B717 turnaround is now 40 mins (fleet group wide setting).)
* Data for these models is also checked, changes in rwy requirements.
* Added McDonnell Douglas MD-90-50 (even longer range variant from the -90-30ER) and MD-90-55 (-50 with extra exits for more capacity), these are both prototype models. (note: MD-95 prototype variants to be added later, as well as more DC-9 range options)
* Changes are effective in any new games, and implemented also to current GW2 and GW4.
Please note; I've also looked in combining the whole DC-9/MD-80/MD-90 family into one, but that's not feasible with the current system/settings. Although they use the same cruising speed which is the basic requirement, there are other settings (like maintenance price settings and such) that would create problems. So these changes are pending other updates to the fleet system. (for B737 old-gen vs. new-gen there's then already the problem of different cruising speeds making it impossible to begin with)
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(changes are marked according to the assumed effect they have on running your airline)
[medium, effective immediately] * Staff salaries are now paid daily instead of once a week (to avoid big sudden payments - helps you to keep track on the weekly costs better). Note; in the long run the staff costs will be slightly different from what they used to be in the old system, since the weekly calculation was not so accurate. However these differences should be within the range of 1-2% (in most cases lower costs).
[medium, effective immediately] * Base airport rules changed a bit; the bases are now "unlocked" after airline is >180 days old and has 5 or more planes (previously 365 / 10). (Changed mainly for the benefit of tiny airlines.)
[minor, effective immediately] * The game listing screen (game area main page) is reformatted a bit to avoid clutter. Only the very essential is shown for each game world, and you can expand to view the detailed data / status.
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(changes are marked according to the assumed effect they have on running your airline)
[medium, effective immediately] * B checks are now performed every four weeks instead of only on the last week of each month. The check is performed on the weekday scheduled when the previous check is over 28 days (= 4 wk) old (and a/c is not in C/D maintenance or not for sale).
This change is made to simplify things, and it eliminates unnecessary B check warnings, helps in schedule transitions and drops the large spikes in the pax transportation.
Any B check warnings in the interface triggers only after B check hasn't been performed for over 36 days, and any FAA fines need a few days more to trigger to avoid any false fines etc. (these are unchanged)
At the same time also a few fixes related to a/c conditon percentage changes. Previously it stayed too high all the time (one overlapping part of code).
[minor, effective immediately] * "My Aircraft / View aircraft" page's (= the one with all detailed a/c info) "Financial estimate" box is adjusted in relation to the B check costs. The cost is now distributed evenly throughout the whole month giving a more accurate estimate.
[minor, effective immediately] * "My Aircraft / Maintenance view" page has now information on number of days till next A/B/C/D check, and the info on C/D checks is color-coded (green if it's more than 60 days until C check and 180 for D; red if it's expired).
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Four new pages added to the manual:
Selling aircraft https://www.airwaysim.com/game/Manual/Aircraft/Sell/
Storing aircraft https://www.airwaysim.com/game/Manual/Aircraft/Store/
Scrapping aircraft https://www.airwaysim.com/game/Manual/Aircraft/Scrap/
Upgrading aircraft https://www.airwaysim.com/game/Manual/Aircraft/Upgrade/
(changes are marked according to the assumed effect they have on running your airline)
[minor, effective immediately; only in any new games] * The dissolution of Netherlands Antilles is now modelled.
NL Antilles becomes three countries in 2010; Curaçao, Sint Maarten & Caribbean Netherlands (Aruba separated already earlier, this has been modelled already). The history includes also the proper flags and such for these countries (like for every other country).
And here's a video explaining it all: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eE_IUPInEuc ;)
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Data updates:
* B787-10 aircraft model added (* prototype model; incomplete data available)
* Whole B787 series data checked. Changes to seating capacity, ranges, weights, runway requirements etc.
This update is rolled in differently to running game worlds, as follows:
- all updates: GW2, GW4
- only B787-10 data: GW3 (other 787 data unchanged)
- no changes in GW1 or Beginner scenarios
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(changes are marked according to the assumed effect they have on running your airline)
[minor, effective immediately] * Statistics improved technically:
* Stats update now once a month
* Trend indicator / comparison added, this month vs. previous month (see image 1). (note; this will take 1 month to be fully active)
* If many airlines have the same value, their stat ranking is also shared now (see image 2).
* Added two new stats; average aircraft condition and average fuel burn per passenger (= weekly fuel burn / weekly passengers).
* Icons of individual stats have been changed.
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(changes are marked according to the assumed effect they have on running your airline)
[minor, effective immediately] * Alliance variable score calculation updated
* Calculation is based on the stats that are updated monthly. The variable score itself is updated daily taking into account any airlines that have closed down in between.
* Score calculation includes now also the RPK statistic. (= variable score is higher than before since 1 more stat is added)
* For the top 10% scoring airlines for each stat only airlines with alliance membership are now counted. So if for example top three airlines are not in alliance but fourth one is, then he gets the top points (previously he would have gotten points equalling 4th place). So now the variable score is better only a comparison between alliances themselves.
* If many airlines share the same rank in the stats their variable score contribution is shared. If 10 alliance member airlines have all company image of 100 pts (#1 in stats), each of them gets the maximum score for that. This means that the variable scores are now higher than before.
* The actual score contribution for each airline (per each statistic) is now stored separately for variable score. This info is not yet visible in the interface but will be added later when similar info is stored for cumulative score also (later on).
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(changes are marked according to the assumed effect they have on running your airline)
[medium, effective immediately] * Airline Score introduced.
- A completely new feature based on the statistics, updated monthly (or when ever the main stats update).
- Purpose of this value is to create a single and simple value to compare airlines where simply being biggest is not automatically the best. (This said, it's clear that no single value is perfect and cannot represent the different operation types of each airlines but this one is still better than simply using the value only.)
- The score is calculated based on the basic statistics, and it includes the following values: Pre-tax profit, Operating revenue, Profit margin, Airline image, Transported pax (since start), Airline age, Credit rating, Fleet size, Fleet utilization, Fleet age, Fleet condition, Fuel burn per passenger, Route ASK, Route RPK, Route LF, Punctuality, Number of weekly flights, Number of airports served. These stats have been chosen since they represent a broad selection of all the possible stats, but leaving out some stats that are duplicates (like pax YTD / pax all-time) or could be easily manipulated in the short term (number of staff for example).
- The calculation method is simple. For each of the stats the maximum number of points achievable is the number of airlines. The airlines in position #1 get this amount of points, and the last airline(s) in that stats category will get 1 point. In case of shared rankings (e.g. 3 airlines in rank #1) the shared ranks receive the same points (e.g. first three max points, and fourth will have points equalling the fourth ranking).
- The system also calculates a maximum achievable score value which is simply all the scores of rank #1 combined factored by *0.95 (to make it a bit smaller).
- In the interface the changes are minor, the biggest is that the Score replaces the old/inaccurate Airline Value metric on the airline listing pages (view all airlines / view airlines in alliance). The airline details page displays also the score. The displayed score value is colour coded according to how high it is compared to the maximum achievable score (5 steps from green to red).
- Please note that the score calculation may not be final yet at this point, minor changes may occur. Feedback is welcome; though as mentioned this is not meant to be a single definitive comparison tool but a quick general overview on the airline's statistical performance compared to others.
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(changes are marked according to the assumed effect they have on running your airline)
[minor, effective immediately] * New feature: "Vacation mode". Found under Settings -> Airline settings.
- Allows you to leave your airline unattended without the fear of being closed by inactivity.
- A very simple system, and does nothing more than that so far. It's made simply to assist if you are going away and may not be able to access the account. It does NOT take into account at all if the user is active or inactive, so you could even keep this setting on at all times and this way the airline may not be closed ever by the inactivity checker (only automated bankruptcy or if Credits run out). But keep then in mind that the inactivity checker is made purely for the user's protection so that they do not lose too much Credits for a game they are not playing, so it's of course recommended to use that only when really needed ...
[minor, effective immediately] * New feature: "Disable ALL e-mail notifications for this airline", Settings -> Airline Settings
- Disables all bankruptcy and strike (etc.) notification emails for this airline. Just a simple feature just in case someone doesn't like to get ANY emails at all.
- The credits notifications etc. are still sent regardless of this setting as they are not tied to the airline itself but are account status emails.
[minor, effective immediately] * Email format selection (text/HTML) removed from Settings page. Mails are sent in both formats and modern email clients should be all smart enough to show the proper content based on their abilities.
[minor, effective immediately] * Minor formatting changes at Settings page.
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(changes are marked according to the assumed effect they have on running your airline)
[minor, effective immediately] * New setting possibility ("new rule") for base airports; allowing airlines to base freely anywhere in the same continent as their HQ.
This is an admin-level game setting and can be used in special game worlds (like the upcoming SA/AF game) - so does not change anything in any current game worlds. Another option, already previously available is completely free basing anywhere in the world.
[minor, effective immediately] * Several minor bug fixes (nothing relevant to mention separately).
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Data updates:
* B777-8X and B777-9X models added. (* prototype models; current available data is VERY limited; needs updates in the future!)
* Runway requirements of all B777 models also checked.
* Some fleet groups also renamed: B757-200/-300 => B757, B767-200/-300/-400 => B767, B777-200/-300 => B777.
The B777X series data is available in Game Worlds #2, #3 and #4. All other changes effective in any future games.
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(changes are marked according to the assumed effect they have on running your airline)
[minor, effective immediately] * Change to game rules: Two airlines of the same alliance may not base at the same airport. This goes for both HQ airports and for additional bases. The rule is currently enforced manually so please report if violations are seen. The rule applies to any new game worlds only, and to all existing long game worlds from 1.1.2015 onwards. [this rule will be re-visited again after the new demand systems are brought online]
[minor, effective immediately] * Minor bugfixes.
[minor, effective immediately] * Fixed all typos that had been reported.
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edit / typo
(changes are marked according to the assumed effect they have on running your airline)
[minor, effective immediately] * Rules for extra base airports for the Caribbean Netherlands area clarified.
Airlines in any of the islands can open a base airport in any of the other islands or in the mainland Netherlands, and vice versa. These areas include Aruba, Curacao, Sint Maarten and Caribbean Netherlands. = Similar system than in French overseas department.
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Data updates:
* DC-9 series is fully checked and updated. Main changes are the new weight variants (with added range) and splitting the -30 series into separate models. Runway requirements have been updated, together with other small changes.
Full list of changes:
- DC-9-10; max pax capacity (86->90), cabin crew (3->2), rwy requirement (higher)
- DC-9-15; cabin crew (3->2), rwy requirement (higher), added 'Extra fuel tanks' weight variant (+range, -cargo space)
- DC-9-15F; new model (cargo)
- DC-9-20; renamed as -21, cabin crew (3->2), rwy requirement (lower)
- DC-9-30; renamed as -31, launch/certification dates, rwy requirement (higher), max pax capacity (119->115), weight data adjusted
- DC-9-32; added new model, same as -31 but with different weights and engine options (with hushkit options)
- DC-9-33F; added new model, same as -31 but with different weights and engine options (with hushkit options), cargo only
- DC-9-34; added new model, same as -31 but with different weights and engine options (with hushkit options)
- DC-9-40; renamed as -41, launch/certification dates, max pax capacity (128->125), rwy requirement (higher), added 'Extra fuel tanks' weight variant (+range, -cargo space), changed engines so that JT8D-11 and -15 variants are not introduced right at the launch
- DC-9-50; renamed as -51, rwy requirement (higher), added 'Extra fuel tanks' weight variant (+range, -cargo space), changed engines so that JT8D-17 variant is not introduced right at the launch
This data update is available in the current Game World #1, and in any future games.
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Data updates:
* Sukhoi Superjet series data is checked and updated. Minor changes to introduction dates, and ranges.
- Superjet 100-75: Renamed as Superjet 100/75B ("basic"), marked as 'prototype' model due to lack of reliable specs (model is likely to be dropped from real life development), launch/certification dates, max capacity (83->88), weights (dropped the +3tn variant), ranges
- Superjet 100-95: Renamed as Superjet 100/95B ("basic"), launch/certification dates, max capacity (103->108), runway requirement (higher), weights (dropped the +3tn variant), ranges
- Added Superjet 100/75LR: Long range version (similar to previous +3tn variant)
- Added Superjet 100/95LR: Long range version (similar to previous +3tn variant)
- Images updated
Changes are minor, so they are only available in any new game worlds.
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* Minor bug fixes.
* Inactivity in game worlds - minor adjustments:
- Rules for airline closure in individual game worlds have been slightly adjusted. New rules are:
- Players with active airlines receive a warning if they have been inactive (no logins to the site) for more than 14 days. Their airline will be closed after 20 days of inactivity (and they will leave that game world at the same time).
- Players with no active airlines receive a warning after 6 days, and account is removed from that game world after 8 days of inactivity.
- Players in the 7-day free trial period are removed after 4 days (with airlines) or after 2 days (no airlines).
- Players who mark their account for deletion are removed from the games after 4 days (grace period if they change their minds).
- A single warning e-mail is sent for regular players at the point of the initial warning, none for players in free trial period. No e-mails are sent if the player has forbidden the game notification e-mails from game settings. When the inactivity closure happens, another e-mail is sent to advise of the situation but only if the player has had active airlines (that another mail is not sent to players with no airlines, don't wish to spam unnecessarily).
- E-mail notifications have been updated to use the new emailer systems, and have a new look/content.
- The "vacation mode" setting ignores this whole check (like it has already done so far, but just to remind).
(the inactivity functions protect players from paying the game fee while they are not playing; and also keep enough space for other users)
* Handling of the 7-day free trial period is improved a bit:
- Dashboard shows the time remaining in the trial period.
- Handling of the end of trial period is updated so that the airline is closed immediately when 7-day period ends. Previously there was a maximum of ~23 hour grace period as the closure was handled by the billing module (run once a day only), but now it's instant if the user does not have any Credits on his account when the trial period is used.
- E-mail notification of the free trial is updated to use the new emailer systems, and has a new look. Notification is sent only once during the trial period, at about 1.5 days before the 7 day period is full. Notification is not sent if the user has already Credits on the account. Nor it is sent if player's account is pending deletion or he has forbidden the emails from game settings.
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Data updates:
* CASA C-212 series data is checked and updated. Minor changes here and there, with addition of three new models taking this small 20-30 seater plane all the way from 1970s to present day.
CASA C-212C: Renamed as CASA C-212-100, runway requirement (lowered), introduction date, payload/range data updated
CASA C-212-200: New model. Stretched version of -100.
CASA C-212-300: Runway requirement (lowered), introduction date, payload/range data updated
CASA C-212-400: New model. Modernized version of -300, higher weights for improved range.
CASA NC212i: New model. Modernized version of -400.
Changes are minor, so they are only available in any new game worlds.
See our Facebook page for a brief history about this aircraft: https://www.facebook.com/AirwaySim/photos/a.191054129605.160853.190642264605/10153537821014606/
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* "Free preview" period of game worlds extended from 15 minutes to 30 minutes. When you join a full / paid game world you have now 30 minutes time to decide if you wish to play in that game, during which time you can leave that game world and get the joining fee (5 Cr) back.
* Aircraft -> Production lists page renamed to Production slots due to possible future features.
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(changes are marked according to the assumed effect they have on running your airline)
[minor, effective immediately] * Dashboard news feed shows now all base airports of airlines that have been closed.
[minor, effective immediately] * Minor interface update at the 'Personnel Office' page. The staff overview at the top of the page has direct links to the 'detailed management' section of each staff group.
[minor, effective immediately] * Minor interface changes to 'Declare bankruptcy' page.
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(changes are marked according to the assumed effect they have on running your airline)
[minor, effective immediately] * The airline creation interface is updated a bit, in preparation of future features.
- Changes include better handling of the input fields with clear color-coding and direct input validation, and other such minor visual changes (and many changes in the technical side too).
- Airline name has also now the basic availability validation directly when typed (but only for directly same names as any existing airlines, and not for any reserved names).
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(Preview only)Aircraft noise regulation rules will be active soonThe new feature of aircraft noise limit rules will be activated in the near future in all game worlds. This means that airlines are not able to fly very old equipment (not having at least "Chapter 3" noise certification) for example in Europe or US during the modern era.
Most of the older aircraft models that can be operated in the modern times already have the "hushkit" upgrade available (installed using the "Upgrade Aircraft" function), and this allows players to extend the useful life of these old models (such as the DC-9) into the noise restricted era.
The coding of this feature is still in progress, and this is a preliminary notice of the feature to allow players to prepare their fleets.
Main points of the feature are:
- Dashboard news posts well ahead of the regulation's start for each country (several news items: at -8 years, -5 years, -3 years, -1 year, -6 months and at the date the regulation starts). Possibly also direct notifications to user's in-game message box at the -1y, -6m and 0day marks.
- Checker that any noise restricted planes cannot be scheduled when restriction is in force.
- Checker that any too noisy planes in operation are taken off the routes when regulation starts.
- Information to the user interface in country & airport pages about the restrictions.
- Supersonic planes (Concorde and Tu-144) will be exempt from all regulations.
Regulation rules are based on real world information. However this information is a bit limited possibly currently, but can be extended easily in the future.
Currently coded limitations (that will affect AWS game worlds) will be:
- Chapter 1 planes banned in USA in 1985, and in 1988 in EU area.
- Chapter 2 (incl. chapter 1) planes banned in USA in 2000, and on 2002-04-01 in the following: EU, Canada, Japan, Australia, NZ, Singapore, and during 2003 in Peru, Colombia, Ecuador. In 2005 in Mexico. In 2007 in Philippines. In 2008 in Chile, 2009 for South Africa and 2011 in Brazil.
- Any countries not listed here allow operations with any non-noise certified plane.
- If the regulation is active, it forbids ALL traffic to/from/in the airports within regulated countries. Individual airport noise limitations won't be built, it's always a countrywide regulation.
(as mentioned this list is probably incomplete, please feel free to give feedback with links to proper references to complete it)In summary. Flying a "Chapter 3" or "Chapter 4" noise certified aircraft does not give you any restrictions anywhere in the world ever. Chapter 2 planes (such as DC-9 and B737-200) can be flown safely globally until year 2000, which after regulations start to kick in slowly - but most of these can be hushkitted to Chapter 3.
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(changes are marked according to the assumed effect they have on running your airline)
[minor, effective immediately] * Behaviour of route oversupply warning checker changed.
- The warning messages are reformatted a bit to give the players more information.
- And in case of violation is not corrected, the routes in question are not closed & deleted completely anymore but instead only their slots are detached (& removed) from the actual route. So it's now much easier to correct the situation since the schedules stay intact too.
[minor, effective immediately] * Minor changes to aircraft production line dynamics based on aircraft size class.
- The smaller aircraft models require now less orders to keep the production line open. And in case of pending closure, the "grace period" to order more aircraft is also longer than before. All other limits related to the production line closures are also made size class specific now.
- Included also one bugfix where a news of line's closure was not always posted. (you may see news posted now once of some lines that have already closed because of this fix; system just updates itself to correct status)
[minor, effective immediately] * Aircraft pages ("New Aircraft" and "Compare Aircraft") now show the status of the new aircraft production line in a color-coded format, together with the information of time to go until the production line closes (if it's pending closure).
[minor, effective immediately] * Aircraft "Production Slots" page shows also when the production line is about to be closed. The slots will become gray-colored ("unavailable slot") after that date.
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Aircraft information & fleet listing page
* A new feature has been added to all game worlds: combined aircraft information and data overview page.
* This page replaces the 'Global Statistics' page, and can be found under Aircraft -> 'Aircraft Information'.
* Many other subpages also link to this page (whenever you click on individual aircraft model name, aircraft fleet group name, or aircraft ICAO code in timetables you will end up to this page).
* The Aircraft Information page collects together all the basic information of an aircraft model. These include the basic technical details and basic production details (in a similar format already seen elsewhere, but not always available if the aircraft was not in production anymore).
* Completely new features at this page are the "Largest operators" listing and the "Fleet listing" table.
* "Largest operators" contains top-5 airlines using this aircraft. List includes also the planes stored and listed for sale by each airline (but not scrapped planes). AI lessors are not included.
* "Fleet listing" is a complete list of all aircraft ever produced of this particular model. List includes direct links to the history of each aircraft, current status ("in use", "scrapped" etc.), technical details and information about the owner and operator. Aircraft on order or due delivery are not included.
* Another new feature is the "Area of production" information shown at this page (and also at "New aircraft") page. This is added due to future features (regional achievements) and is a fleet group wide setting. (Note: Technically the system allows only a single country to be selected for each fleet group, so co-operative projects like the Concorde (France and UK) show currently only a single country, but this may be updated in the future.)
* The current stats (fleet list and largest operators) are available only on single model pages at this time, and not fleet-wide, but this may be also expanded in the future.
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Engine updates:
* Rolls-Royce Dart engine naming checked for all aircraft models to use the same formatting. Name is now in format "2x Rolls-Royce Dart RDa.7 Mk.536-7R"; where RDa.(x) tells the rating and Mk.(xxx) is the model. All Darts are counted as the same model commonalitywise.
* Hushkits to Chapter 3 added to following RR Dart powered planes: Fokker F.27 Mk 200, Fokker F.27 Mk 400, Handley Page Herald Mk.600, NAMC YS-11-100, NAMC YS-11-200, NAMC YS-11-500, Vickers Viscount 840. (Older models using the Dart engines do not seem to have this option - no data was found - so they don't have the upgrade)
Hushkit data is available in all game worlds, all other data only in any new games.
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[minor, effective immediately] *Aircraft Information page improved:
- Fleet listing has a pagination feature; 100 planes per page.
- 'Largest Operators' and 'Fleet Listing' info is now also available on the main page of this section, if you choose a manufacturer or a fleet. (example: choose any fleet group from the 'Filters' menu, and you can see the stats, operators and prod.list for the entire fleet (not just single model).
(...with these minor changes this a/c info page is considered complete now.)
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[minor, effective immediately] * Country pages have now the information if the country belongs to some group or is not a sovereign state. Makes it easier to tell for example which countries are EU members; for route planning and for understanding the noise regulation rules. [pictures #1 and #2]
[minor, effective immediately] * Airport pages show the current noise regulation status of each airport. [picture #3]
[PREVIEW ONLY, not implemented yet] * The noise regulation features are nearing completion, and will be ready for implementation soon. Please see the message posted on 24th Feb for details. Attached is a preview of a notification message sent to ALL airlines who operate in the areas where a regulation becomes active (regardless of the status of his aircraft noise levels). Another message will be then sent in case player is not complying with the regulations, also 6 months prior the regulation becomes active. [picture #4]
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Data updates:
* New aircraft model series, the Fairchild Dornier 528 / 728 / 928 series is added.
This includes four different models in the approximately 55 - 110 seat regional jet class. The aircraft is very similar in specs to Embraer 170/190 series. The aircraft never flew in real life so the specs are based on the preliminary figures. Thanks to our user CRV10R for the data.
This data update is available in the current Game World #1 and Game World #2, and in any future games.
Full list of planes in AirwaySim: https://www.airwaysim.com/Information/Aircraft
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[PREVIEW ONLY, not implemented yet]
Noise regulation: A few more images on how the noise regulation systems work, and how warnings are given to players.
* The regulation status is visible at the page of each airport.
* Players will see the upcoming regulation at the Dashboard news, and will also receive messages to their inboxes.
* First news item is posted 8 years before regulation activates.
* News items are also posted in the case where a country joins a group (like EU) which already enforces noise limitations by previous decision.
* When regulation becomes active, the system will automatically unschedule all routes that are in violation of the rules (player is notified).
* A warning is posted to Used Aircraft and New Aircraft pages if the aircraft does not meet the noise levels at some of your base airports. In case of used a/c, the system will also advise if an upgrade is available. (picture #1)
* Scheduling new routes against the limits will naturally fail and show a warning. (picture #2)
* Opening new routes that can potentially cause problems will show a warning too. Please note that this is a fleet group wide warning so it takes into account the "worst case scenario" (= lowest certification, and highest restriction) and you must always then check the individual aircraft you are about to use on this route (naturally the scheduling page will inform with details if there's a problem). (picture #3)
* Concorde and Tu-144 are not regulated at all.
* Note that there will be no relation on this feature to for example new aircraft manufacturing dynamics. Players can order any planes they wish are then required to operate them according to the limits set by each country/airport. (The regulations are not worldwide)
All-in-all, the system is made so that a) nobody can really miss when the restrictions come in force and b) should not accidentially get planes that cannot be flown due to the restrictions.
A separate manual page will be written on this subject. The system will go live hopefully this weekend (some minor components are still unfinished).
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Noise regulation features now implemented
The previously previewed airport noise regulation rules are being implemented in all game worlds.
The feature is now fully live, but is not enforced yet. This means that all relevant updates to news and airport data is made, but players do not receive any warnings if they are in violation with the rules. Please note that the news posted during this initial implementation may not be fully accurate (some countries may be omitted), but most of the info should be visible.
The full implementation will happen next week, and then the routes in violation of the noise rules will be unscheduled by the system.
The feature is not added to the current Game World #3 (ending in less than two weeks), but is added to all other games.
A manual page with the highlights is also added: https://www.airwaysim.com/game/Manual/Routes/Noise/
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[minor, effective immediately] * Data update, all game worlds: Hawker Siddeley HS121 Trident 2E and Hawker Siddeley HS121 Trident 3B engines are now in noise chapter 2 instead of 1. Trident 1 remains in class 1.
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The noise regulation features are now being enforced in all game worlds.
Routes in violation of the regulation will be unscheduled automatically and players notified.
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[minor, effective immediately] * Data update: 22 new Saudi Arabian airports added. Thanks to our user 'faisal66' for the data.
Airports in question are: OEAB, OEHL, OETF, OEAH, OEBA, OESK, OERR, OEBH, OEDM, OEGT, OEKK, OENG, OEPA, OERF, OESH, OETR, OEWD, OEWJ, OEYN, OERY, OEJD, OEDR.
Full list: https://www.airwaysim.com/Information/Airports/198/
Update is effective only in all game worlds started after this update.
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[minor, effective immediately, beta-level feature]
New experimental feature: Live news feeds of game worlds.
The system generates data for a separate news feed database that can be shared to different medias. The data consists of some of the news posted to each game's Dashboard news (not all of them).
The status updates are posted to AirwaySim's own Twitter account ( https://twitter.com/AirwaySim ) and will contain the hashtags #AWS #gameStatus and a game world specific hashtag (Game World #2 is identified by #GW2 for example).
Another subscription method is RSS feed. The list of feeds is available at the following location: https://www.airwaysim.com/game/feeds/ (not currently anywhere in the game interface itself).
Currently only the new aircraft model launch news are included in the feeds, nothing else yet (at the time of writing all feeds are empty still). More data will be added later based on the feedback!
The feeds are the same for all players, so any airline specific news or events are not possible in these feeds.
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[minor, effective immediately]
The Live news feeds of game worlds include now the following events too:
- New engine variant launches for aircraft
- Major global events that affect country or continent (like a countrywide strike)
- New airports that have been opened (news posted on the day it opens)
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[minor, effective immediately]
Interface changes:
- The Routes section main page shows now longer history data than previously. The history charts span up to 30 days to the past now. There is some doubt if this page is already too heavy for some mobile browsers to display, feedback is welcome.
Technical changes:
- We're slowly approaching the limits of our current server, and in preparation of this the core game engine has been updated for better scalability. We can now migrate individual game worlds easier to other servers and this way spread the load from our main server.
- Various minor and bit larger technical optimizations have been done with the databases and the game engine's source codes to improve system's speed.
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[minor, effective immediately]
Interface changes:
- Scheduling page's "Add flights" and "Move schedule" dialogs have now a pagination feature, splitting the data of possible flights and planes into multiple pages. (doesn't freeze your browser if there's a whole heap of choices)
- Minor bug fixes.
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[medium, effective immediately]
New Airline Boosts
- A set of features has been created to help new airlines to get their operations started in existing/established game worlds. These 'new airline boosts' consist of operational discounts and small boosts to airline image values.
- These small 'helpers' are done in a way that are related to real-life, as well as adding a small gaming element from other MMO games. All the boosts are available to all players, regardless how experienced the player itself is or how old his user account it - only the age of the airline itself matters.
- There are four different modifiers:
* Route Image boost: The first four destinations of a new airline will receive a boost to their initial route image. Normally the RI starts at 0 pts but with this system the first destination receives an RI of 50 pts, second 35 pts, third 20 pts and fourth 10 pts. All destinations opened after these start at the normal 0 pts.
* Airport operation fee discounts: The first four destinations of a new airline will receive 12 month discounts on the airport fees (passenger fee, landing fee, handling fee, navigation fee). The amount of discount is shown at the route opening page (airport listing), and can be also browsed from the Office -> Route Image page. The discount applies to all routes to that destination (discounts are not available in base airports, only at outstations).
* Company image boost: There is a mild boost for the initial company image of a new airline. The initial image can be about 2.5x of the normal initial image, depending on the game settings (but not more than 30 pts).
* Starting cash boost: This has been implemented already previously. The starting cash increases if you join a game world later on.
- All of the boosts are relative to game age. When a game world is less than 180 game days old there are no boosts, and the boosts will slowly grow from there to reach their full potential around 1.5 years of game time. (for example; opening the first new destination when a game is 200 days old will set the initial RI to only about 10 pts, instead of 50 pts - so the growth of all these boosts is gradual and linear)
- All boosts to destinations are checked from route image data. So opening a route to new destination will count as one action, regardless if it's flown or not. So for example opening a new route, then closing it, and opening another to different destination will not give the same discount again. Airline must be also less than 730 days (2 years) old for any discounts to apply.
- The feature of airport operation fee discounts for all players will be soon introduced in all games. This feature will bring in discounts for opening routes to airports that are under-served (closely following similar discounts seen in real life too).
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[minor, effective immediately]
Aircraft manufacturers (small technical update)
- The structure of the aircraft databases has been updated to include own database for aircraft manufacturers. Previously the manufacturer information has been only a text field included in each aircraft model's data, causing some problems when wishing to create manufacturer-level data filters etc (since originally it was not thought to be useful to make a completely own dataset of them, but times and features change...).
- This is mainly only a technical change and not visible to users (apart from the change of a few new filters here and there and a couple of changed urls), but will in the future allow easier creation of features that relate to aircraft manufacturers (like commonality system's changes).
- A new dropdown filter has been added to 'Aircraft Information' page too.
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The v.1.3 changelog thread will not be updated anymore, since for a longer time we haven't been making the updates as new game engine versions anymore, but instead rolled in the updates into existing game worlds .. making the version numbering rather obsolete.
The new changelog thread can be found here: https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,58865.0.html
Also a new 'previews' thread has been set up: https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,58864.0.html