Hi there. It's quite tiring to buy slots one at a time when doing 7-day scheduling. If there's an option to select multiple routes and to close slots, isn't there one to do same for buying slots? Otherwise it's a bit tiring and takes long time do that.
Surely this feature should be here already?
How are you guys handling it?
Thanks
Swadeep
I've asked for this and other slot buying improvements many times as an enhancement. Sadly QoL (quality of Life) enhancements hardly ever get implemented. Playing AWS is a bit like driving a 1950s trabant. Power steering? it has steeriung! Radio? It has an 8 track player! Indicators? Put your hands out the window! Electric windows? What's wrong with wind-up windows!
I don't think it would be hard in the "routes not being flown" screen to have "buy slots" added to the list at the bottom. Buy what slots can be bought, and leave the route as it is when it's slot cannot be bought for whatever reason. But again it's QoL so won't get to the top of a long backlog of developer things in AWS..
How I get around it now. I generally get the plane up in scheduling, hover over the route in yellow, click edit route, go to bottom, save,click Chrome back button which takes me to the scheduling. Repeat 49 times (7 routes 7 planes) and voila!
Simon
Haha yes, that's what I am doing too that's why I am tired. The game could be faster and I would love to schedule more routes if could it it. Honestly it doesn't seem complicated to have this feature when option to close routes are already there. It's ridiculous and makes me not want to schedule short routes sometimes. We are paying for this but also a lot of manual labour is involved. Sigh.... It's so stupid really honestly. Some things are just basic and obvious. (no offences intended).
Developer, please add this asap. It may seem basic but definitely most handy. We all would appreciate it. No offense but surely probably easier than other features.
Thanks
Swadeep
Feature requests in the general forum don't work so well...
Anyhow, this task is a lot easier with a little keyboard use.
1. Control+click opens the set of routes in new tabs that you want (use the modify link)
2. Select a tab and press enter without scrolling to the bottom. (This should save the "change" of buying a slot).
3. Press Control+W or Control+F4 to close that tab.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3.
5. ...
6. Profit.
Quote from: swadeepc on March 29, 2020, 09:39:57 AM
Hi there. It's quite tiring to buy slots one at a time when doing 7-day scheduling. If there's an option to select multiple routes and to close slots, isn't there one to do same for buying slots? Otherwise it's a bit tiring and takes long time do that.
Surely this feature should be here already?
How are you guys handling it?
There is. I create the route for all 7 days at once, and simply check the box under the days which says 'create each day as a separate route'. Do that for 5 different routes, and now I have 35 individual routes to assign to 7 planes.
Quote from: sanabas on March 29, 2020, 03:35:20 PM
There is. I create the route for all 7 days at once, and simply check the box under the days which says 'create each day as a separate route'. Do that for 5 different routes, and now I have 35 individual routes to assign to 7 planes.
But by the time 7 aircraft have arrived you'll have to rebuy the last slots
Quote from: schro on March 29, 2020, 01:18:55 PM
Feature requests in the general forum don't work so well...
Anyhow, this task is a lot easier with a little keyboard use.
1. Control+click opens the set of routes in new tabs that you want (use the modify link)
2. Select a tab and press enter without scrolling to the bottom. (This should save the "change" of buying a slot).
3. Press Control+W or Control+F4 to close that tab.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3.
5. ...
6. Profit.
Would add as a 0. Start from manage routes page with the filters applied to select the aircraft you are buying slots for, not the scheduling page
The way I deal with this, is i just never create routes without slots. I cannot be bothered to click edit routes so many times on so many routes. Instead, when i am a small company, I just make a single day of a seven day, and copy the other 6 days when I get the planes.
When I get larger, I wait till i have 7 planes before making new routes at all, and I just create all routes with slots and add them right away.
Anyways, the amount on money your planes will loose my sitting for the 6-8 IRL hours it takes to get 7 planes will not loose you much money but save loads of hastle by the time you have hundred of seven day schedules. And ofcouse it would be nearly impossible to click all the routes for short hual seven day sheduling.
Like tungstennedge, bar one detail : I don't do 7-7 early in the game. It's less efficient like that, but I a successful anyways doing strong starts. Later I'm doing things better. When all 7 planes are there.
It appears we've all developed clever workarounds to get around the real problem- it's damn hard to bulk buy slots even though there are scenarios where it makes sense to. The solution is simple with next to no development effort and next to no UI change.
Simon
Quote from: schro on March 29, 2020, 01:18:55 PM
Feature requests in the general forum don't work so well...
Anyhow, this task is a lot easier with a little keyboard use.
1. Control+click opens the set of routes in new tabs that you want (use the modify link)
2. Select a tab and press enter without scrolling to the bottom. (This should save the "change" of buying a slot).
3. Press Control+W or Control+F4 to close that tab.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3.
5. ...
6. Profit.
Much better and faster!
Thank You!
Still I wish developer wake up soon and sort this out.
Quote from: groundbum2 on March 30, 2020, 12:43:10 AM
It appears we've all developed clever workarounds to get around the real problem- it's damn hard to bulk buy slots even though there are scenarios where it makes sense to. The solution is simple with next to no development effort and next to no UI change.
Simon
Yes a joke really. Hopefully they wake up soon!
I have a background in software engineering and I have to stand up for Sami here (the only dev for AWS). What you guys are asking for is actually very complicated with lots of exceptions to consider. How do I know? Because I've done it--my step by step instructions/workaround are below to do what you're asking. There are many gotchas with buying slots in bulk--the slots may not be available and/or you may not have the cash to complete the action--then what? Does the system allow you to buy partial slots? Does it go ahead and buy all slots even though some might not be available, completely ruining your 7 day schedule? As a result of this and other considerations, slots MUST be bought one route at a time--there is no other way.
Without further ado, this is how you schedule like a boss. I currently have 20+ pages of routes available at a single base--I use 7 day scheduling for everything, every time, no matter what.
(https://i.ibb.co/3scZ3vX/1.png) (https://ibb.co/W3fJh09)
7 day scheduling is tedious and thankfully, repetitive, which is where you can get some help with client side scripts in your browser. Step one is building your base flight plan on your first aircraft. I personally use a "reverse route" pattern where I create routes from 1 to 7, but add them to the aircraft schedule from 7 to 1. Why? Because when you add routes on page 1, it shifts routes from page 2 to page 1 when you reopen the modal. If you start on page 2 first and add your routes, the items on page 1 don't change and you don't ever have to visit page 2 ever again. This alone will save you many clicks.
Once you have your base flight plan, get your second aircraft and schedule maintenance (or don't and do it after you add routes--I typically do it first to prevent false positives). It will look like this:
(https://i.ibb.co/MhdwP2y/2.png) (https://ibb.co/X4H0F2f)
Create a new bookmark--any bookmark will do. Right click that bookmark and click edit and copy/paste the following minified javascript into the enter the following as the URL. Note that when you have a bookmark starting with
http:// this is the protocol that tells the web browser that it is a webpage. When the prefix is
javascript: it tells your browser to run javascript on the current page.
Quotejavascript:$('[id^=currReg]').each(function(el){$(this).parent().append('<br/> <div style="display: block; cursor: pointer; line-height: 50%;" onClick="add7dFlights(\''+this.id+'\'); return false;">add 7d</div>')});function add7dFlights(planeId){const[nonsense,fleetID,id,baseID]=document.getElementById(planeId).parentNode.parentNode.querySelector('.routeScheduleIconAdd').onclick.toString().match(/addFlights\((\d+), (\d+), (\d+)/i);const dataObj={action:'addflight',id,fleetID,baseID,flights:[]};const flightElementIds=[]; document.getElementById(planeId).parentNode.parentNode.previousElementSibling.previousElementSibling.previousElementSibling.querySelectorAll('[id^=row] .scheduleFlight[id^=flt]').forEach(el=>flightElementIds.push(el.id)); const flightIds=flightElementIds.map(i=>i.replace(/flt/,''));flightIds.map(i=>{const[flight,day]=i.split('_');if((parseInt(day)==0||parseInt(day)==1)&&(flightIds.indexOf(flight+'_5')>-1||flightIds.indexOf(flight+'_6')>-1)){return};let addFlight;if(day==6){addFlight=parseInt(flight)-6}else{addFlight=parseInt(flight)+1} dataObj.flights.push(addFlight)});$.ajax({type:"POST",url:'https://www.airwaysim.com/game/Routes/Schedules/X/',data:dataObj,contentType:"application/x-www-form-urlencoded",traditional:!1}).done(function(data){updActionResult(data.replace(/##.*/,''))})}
(https://i.ibb.co/6FTDmQw/bookmark.png) (https://imgbb.com/)
After you've added your bookmark, click it to open it like any other bookmark when you have the scheduling page open. A new link will be added to the DOM (document object model--the structure of the webpage elements) that says
add 7d under the registration number.
(https://i.ibb.co/Bnjwf99/3.png) (https://ibb.co/HhYXKjj)
You can probably figure out the next step--you click
add 7d :) Here is what actually happens when you click it. The browser takes that link that you clicked and makes it the point of reference. Then it navigates to the previous aircraft scheduling row and sources all the unique flight numbers of the routes you have scheduled. It assumes you created the route using the "create each day as separate route" box so you have 7 flights with consecutive unique ids--i.e. Monday is id=1000, Tuesday is id=1001, Wednesday is id=1002, etc. AWS does this automatically for you so it shouldn't be a big deal. Once it sources those unique flight numbers, it does a +1 to add the next flight to the schedule. Note that flight number in this context is not the flight number that you assigned the route, but the unique flight number in the AWS database--i.e. https://www.airwaysim.com/game/Routes/View/78027/ is flight number 78027. There are multiple gotchas here which I have tested extensively and have resolved--i.e. a flight leaving on Saturday that is 48 hours will also show up on the schedule on Monday, but the Sunday flight number needs to be used. Likewise with Sunday flights needing to be -5 instead of +1 to find the next flight in the sequence.
Once you click the button, ALL flights will be sent to the server in a single request--no need to navigate 5 pages of flights to do 5 different additions to the schedule. With this script, I never even open the add flights modal so whether I have 2 pages or 20 pages of flights it doesn't slow me down. This also goes back to "reverse scheduling" where creating these new base 7 day schedules are easy--I just go to the last page of flights and work backwards. At this point I have filled the entire aircraft's schedule with 24 flights with just 2 clicks: the bookmark followed by clicking add 7d.
(https://i.ibb.co/yVB5dvc/4.png) (https://ibb.co/x38GX9t)
Note that when you add a schedule, the server responds with an updated version of the webpage--all your
add 7d links are now gone and you'll have to click the bookmark again to do it again.
Assuming you created all the flights without buying slots, you will see orange routes indicating you have no slots. Now it's time to buy slots like a boss. Create another new bookmark like before using the following code:
Quotejavascript:document.querySelectorAll('.scheduleFlightTxt1,.scheduleFlightTxt2,.scheduleFlightTxt3').forEach(function(el){const href='/game/Routes/Edit/'+el.getAttribute('id').replace(/(^flttxt|_\d$)/gi,'');el.innerHTML=`<a href='${href}'>${el.innerHTML}</a>`;if($(el).prev().hasClass('scheduleFlightNoSlot')){window.open(href)}})
As you can imagine, next step is click that bookmark :) Two things should happen here. The first is you should see an explosion of new tabs/windows open up to "edit route" where you can buy the slots. The second is that you should see the routes become links you click on in the scheduling page. If you do not see new tabs open up, check your browser's address bar as it is likely blocking popups (click allow).
The way this script works is that it navigates the DOM to find those orange routes with no slots and opens the associated edit route link in a new window. If you run this script and there are no routes on the schedule without slots, no windows will open. If you schedule 7 aircraft at a time and use it, you will get hit with 7 aircraft worth of routes. I recommend not running this for more than one aircraft a time. You should see a bunch of windows and the routes are now linked:
(https://i.ibb.co/b6rT4Yw/5.png) (https://ibb.co/rQZYBq8)
Now that we have all our edit route windows open, you can buy slots with two keystrokes (technically 3). I only use Google Chrome and this is untested in other browsers, but the magic keys are Ctrl+Tab and Enter. Hit Ctrl+Tab and you will hot switch to the next tab with an edit route page open. The edit route page is actually a giant web form to submit data to the server. In Chrome, hitting enter will automatically submit this form. So if you hit Enter it will submit the form to buy your slots, hit Ctrl+Tab to go to the next tab, then hit enter again, and keep repeating until you're done. I bought slots for all 24 routes with 1 click (bookmark) and 48 keystrokes.
Now that you've reached the end and bought all your slots, you should have a bunch of useless tabs open. You can center click these all individually to close them or simply right click your scheduling tab and click close all tabs to the right to close them all with 2 clicks.
(https://i.ibb.co/6NsTCt6/6.png) (https://imgbb.com/)
Click refresh on scheduling and you should be "done"--note that this updates the DOM with a fresh page from the server, so your previously linked routes are no longer linked.
(https://i.ibb.co/ykXXbMf/7.png) (https://ibb.co/fN22PK1)
The end result is that you should be able to assign a 7 day schedule with 24 flights (as in this example) and buy slots for all of them in less than 30 seconds. You're welcome :)
Quote from: LemonButt on March 30, 2020, 03:56:12 AM
I have a background in software engineering and I have to stand up for Sami here (the only dev for AWS). What you guys are asking for is actually very complicated with lots of exceptions to consider.
And I've been a Database Administrator for TB size databases and love watching developers throw their toys out their pram when they have to work on fixing old code and not spewing out new shiny code. The best part of being a DBA is when a developer sees third normal form for the first time and they're like whaaaaaaattt??! Form <> Function etc.
And mega kudos to LB for the tutorial which I suspect is whizz bang but went right over my simple turnip head -)
;-) Simon
Quote from: LemonButt on March 30, 2020, 03:56:12 AMWithout further ado, this is how you schedule like a boss. I currently have 20+ pages of routes available at a single base--I use 7 day scheduling for everything, every time, no matter what.
Without further ado and no offence, but this is how you violate the TOS (Terms of Service).
QuoteThe use of any third-party programs/software to access the game interface or functions is forbidden, excluding regular web browser softwares. AirwaySim may only be used with a standard web browser and using any additional software, browser extension, script or similar solution to access the game interface or analyze or store any data presented in it is forbidden.
Source: https://www.airwaysim.com/Terms/Profile#Cheat
I have mad respect for this kinda stuff tho. Id vouch for him if he used a script to overcome an annoying/ tedious issue like slot acquisition for planned routes. As long as script are not used to exploit the UM or scout for demand, I think this is fair use.
Quote from: tungstennedge on March 30, 2020, 12:04:11 PM
I have mad respect for this kinda stuff tho. Id vouch for him if he used a script to overcome an annoying/ tedious issue like slot acquisition for planned routes. As long as script are not used to exploit the UM or scout for demand, I think this is fair use.
Problem is this is nowhere close to fair use. I am a computer scientist myself, so the problem is not that I don't understand what is done here. The problem is that most people will not be able to fiddle around with JavaScript and as this is no official game feature it's like using an exploit only few people are aware of or able to use. So simply said ... it's a violation of the TOS, but of course we can suggest game features to Sami.
A perfectly fine simplification of doing 7d schedules would be e.g. a copy function for schedules where you can specify the shift between the schedules. E.g. copy a schedule with 24H shift would create your schedule for the 2nd plane in a 7d. This is basically what the JavaScript here does, but Sami has to implement it for everyone to be a considered "fair use". Just my 2c ... :-[
You are 100% right this violates the letter of the Terms of Use. Any person under 13 that has used Google to run a search has also violated Google's TOS. If you use an ad blocker you are violating the TOS of most websites. These scripts do absolutely nothing that a human doesn't already do with extra clicks and still requires human inputs throughout the process. These extra features also do nothing for a player that is at another player's detriment--players have been banned before for their F5 refresh scripts to poach used aircraft.
I have opened multiple feature requests to achieve some of this functionality with progressive enhancement:
https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,83952.0.html
https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,83844.0.html
https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,83843.0.html
Part of the problem is that every player uses the interface and plays the game a bit differently (the bane of a UX/UI engineer's existence). To have this type of setup for ALL players would be making a lot of assumptions that everyone plays the game like I do in terms of strategy/click pattern/etc. This is part 2 why many of these things are nearly impossible to implement. As a result, I've made these custom enhancements for my own play style, which I assume is different than most, but likely helpful for many.
There is no unfair advantage here where one player's actions are at the detriment of others (slot hogging, poaching used aircraft, etc.) or anything that otherwise couldn't be done manually by a human with several extra clicks (as proven by this thread--everyone is doing the same thing, it's just a matter of how many clicks it takes). I have been using these scripts for a few months and felt everyone else should be able to use it if they wanted to because it make the game more playable, more enjoyable, and less tedious (assuming it fits your play style). The less time you spend disambiguating 7 day flights and buying slots, the more time you can spend doing more strategic things. The "edit route" tabs started as a script to put edit links on the page because Chrome was bouncing the page when I tried to hover>tooltip>edit making it impossible to click. It then evolved to just opening the windows automatically since I was middle clicking all the links to buy the slots, so now it just cuts to the chase. Likewise with 7 day scheduling--I know which routes I want to add to a schedule, I just can't find them in the modal efficiently.
I have reported many bugs/exploits to Sami, both publicly in the bug forum and privately. Speedy Recovery has a 25% global tax rate because I reported a perfectly legal "exploit" that would give players an "unfair" advantage over other players (referencing this: https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,83969.0.html):
(https://i.ibb.co/TKVxX7S/speedy.png) (https://ibb.co/4s6nyXG)
I say this because I am one of the biggest advocates of making AWS fair for all players, especially features where the "large airlines" can benefit to the detriment of the small ones (often to the dismay of the big guys). None of this changes the fact that this violates the "letter" of TOS, but does not violate the "spirit" which is ensuring players aren't benefiting at another player's detriment. If anything, being able to 7 day schedule small aircraft in a sane way actually levels the playing field and removes a huge advantage large airlines have over small ones in terms of fleet utilization--it's far easier to 7 day schedule a wide body with 5 flights/week than it is for a regional jet with 25 flights/week, the irony of which being fleet utilization is far more important for smaller aircraft, but far more difficult to do. I can report I'm flying ERJ135s profitably with 32 flights/week in the year 2017 in Speedy Recovery thanks to all of the above which would otherwise be near impossible and make these planes existence completely pointless: https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,84330.msg498229.html#msg498229
(https://i.ibb.co/1R55xSP/erj.png) (https://ibb.co/CVZZFrY)
I'm with Chris Spiegel here. There is a reason why I'm not using my professional skills(i.e. automating test of websites, something very similar to automate actions on websites) on AWS. It would be cheating because AWS is not about automation skills, but about airline management. I have to defeat my opponents on the management side, not on the automation side.
Hence my less-than-optimal behaviour. I don't have a script that purchases me used planes at 3 in the morning. I don't have a script that scans all demand and tells me what is the best demand. I don't have a script that micromanages my wages to keep morale just above the danger line. I don't have a script that does the 7-7 schedule all for me(and I am therefore delaying by a few weeks each new 7-7 schedule). I don't have a script that permanently scans the game to dynamically adapt my ticket prices. I don't have a script that increases my CEO salary every 1st of the month, even when I'm sleeping.
I could easily do such scripts. It's my dayjob. I don't. I want to face my opposition with equal weapons. And defeat them because I'm a better manager. Not because I've got some special skills that allow me to play dirty. I'm defeating most of my opponents. Very few do resist me - but they do exist. And I don't want to use cheating in defeating them. Both deserve respect and a fair game.
Quote from: gazzz0x2z on March 30, 2020, 03:32:36 PM
Hence my less-than-optimal behaviour. I don't have a script that purchases me used planes at 3 in the morning. I don't have a script that scans all demand and tells me what is the best demand. I don't have a script that micromanages my wages to keep morale just above the danger line. I don't have a script that does the 7-7 schedule all for me(and I am therefore delaying by a few weeks each new 7-7 schedule). I don't have a script that permanently scans the game to dynamically adapt my ticket prices. I don't have a script that increases my CEO salary every 1st of the month, even when I'm sleeping.
Much of what you are describing isn't against the TOS--it's actually illegal. I am the Founder of a search engine that is currently being acquired (hence my return to AWS after many years off) and I have literally met with members of Congress (I'm in the US) and EU antitrust regulators about this (we weren't/aren't doing anything illegal but competitors are/were). There is a huge difference between opening a browser window for a human to manually buy slots and running a headless browser like Puppeteer with a cron job.
I'm not going to beat a dead horse, but if Sami wants to implement this as a game feature I'm happy to provide the unminified, pretty version of the code. Obviously there is a learning curve, so I'm not sure how practical that is. If he wants to ban me for fixing my own UI issues that likely don't have a practical implementation globally, he can do that too--it's his prerogative. The current UI is unusable in several places in Chrome due to the tooltip bouncing the page, making it impossible to click edit route and buy slots and obviously the add flight modal leaves much to be desired. I didn't start this thread and others were expressing their frustration, which is why I shared my own human technology aided solution to assign routes and open browser tabs quicker, if they so choose. All of this was borne out of neccessity to turn a 10 step process into a 2 step one. You can call it cheating or whatever you want, but it's ultimately digging a hole with an excavator instead of a spoon--it requires the same human inputs and gets you to the same end result, just faster.
Quote from: Randallator on March 29, 2020, 04:17:20 PM
But by the time 7 aircraft have arrived you'll have to rebuy the last slots
Don't start a complicated 7-day schedule with one or two aircraft? You can surely wait until you have 5 or 6 or even better... 7 aircrafts before doing it. If you don't want your planes grounded while you wait for the rest to arrive, fly them a few days a week to your potential destinations to build up RI a little bit before you reschedule them into an efficient 7-day schedule. But in general, just wait until you have 5, 6, or even 7 aircraft before doing 7-day scheduling. Problem solved.
I quite often start 7 day rotations when I don't have enough aircraft available.
1) VL planes only arrive once a month, so 7 months 120 hours 5 days
2) I want to build RI on a route so lets make heavy losses on 1 plane rather than 7
3) I want to tell the opposition I'm marking my spot (think dog weeing on a lamppost)
4) The slots are hard to get so I want to grab em while they're there and not let another player nick a neat line of 7 slots
5) I'm impatient ;-)
Simon