This is a dedicated thread for previews about future developments of AirwaySim.
The features and changes displayed here are not yet available in the game worlds - the implementations are announced separately in the changelog thread.
All game related implemented updates are posted to this thread: https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,58865.0.html
Updates to the website core and non-game systems are announced in this thread: https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,54937.0.html
This thread is locked and is reserved for announcements only. Please make all comments to the General forums: https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/board,1.0.html
New website & backend (part 1)
The entire website, core and backend systems of AirwaySim environment are planned to have a major technical and visual upgrade. The project is internally dubbed as "AirwaySim v2".
The current site and systems run on a custom-build website engine which has its origins way back in the history, and it has served its purpose well but was a bit difficult to upgrade. During the pandemic years our company received contract work for aviation software development, and this made also possible to start the development of a totally new version of our custom website engine from the ground up.
This new system is being implemented into AirwaySim too, allowing a new and modern backend system to be taken into use with a much needed refresh to the overall interface and compatibility of the website. Codewise the new version is also much cleaner and better structured, and takes better use of modern systems and ready-made software components, easing up the maintenance and development. As a very important step, the new system will bring in for example a fully mobile-compatible layout.
The current AirwaySim game interface and layout will be merged into the new system, and for some time we will use a "hybrid" solution where the main layout of the site and game will use the new backend (v2) with mobile-compatible menus and layout, while the game interface itself will still use the current (non-mobile) layout (v.1.4/1.5), but the pages and features of the game will be gradually replaced with the new (v2) code and layout.
I will be posting some previews of the new layouts to this thread.
Open testing will be made available before the launch (later on). Schedule for testing and actual implementation is not yet determined since "marrying" the old code into the new system needs work page-by-page, but is progressing.
Here are two screenshots of the Game Area main page, desktop and mobile.
This thread is locked and is reserved for announcements only. Please make all comments to the General forums: https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,60273.0.html
New website & backend (part 2, messaging)
The messaging system will be fully upgraded with the introduction of the new system core with a centralized notification area.
At the first stage this will include notifications of incoming personal messages in the forum and overview of in-game message inbox.
You can see the amount of new/unread messages in the notifications for all games you are currently playing at all times, regardless if you are actually "logged in" to that particular game or not, allowing you to easily spot if there's something new in any game you are playing.
Another big change also is that the user account data and management is no longer tied to the forum software (SMF) at the very heart of the system core, but the forum and private messages are treated as a separate and replaceable module. This means we can then later on independently change the forums and discussion systems to a more modern solution, if needed (but that's a story for another time).
This thread is locked and is reserved for announcements only. Please make all comments to the General forums: https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,60273.0.html
New website & backend (part 3, game changing)
One nifty new feature to be added is the quick-changing of game worlds, and also the ability to use multiple game worlds at the same time from different browser tabs.
1) The main navigation will show quick links to all game worlds you have joined, with the ability to change to that game with a single click, without having to go through the Game Area main page.
2) Additionally, the technical way how you are "logged in" to a particular game world will change. This means that you can have multiple tabs open in the same browser, and each of them will work independently. This allows you to keep for example game 1 open in one tab, and game 2 open in second tab, and they do not interfere with each others.
Since this is a fundamental change on the logic, the old users are requested to keep an eye on which game world they are working to avoid mistakes after this change is implemented ;)
Desktop and mobile views pictured below:
This thread is locked and is reserved for announcements only. Please make all comments to the General forums: https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,60273.0.html
New manuals
The manuals and documentation of the simulation, and related features, will be moving to a new platform.
The updated documentation has a modern and mobile-compatible layout, search capability and is also very easy to maintain from admin's point-of-view.
Work on transferring the existing data into the new documentation platform is still under way for a week or two. (links to the new manual will be replaced once all is done)
This thread is locked and is reserved for announcements only. Please make all comments to the General forums: https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,60273.0.html
New website & backend (part 4, Credits store)The process of purchasing AirwaySim Credits will be totally renewed with the new website since we'll introduce a brand new online shop component.
As with other parts, the layout is fully mobile-compatible, and follows a more traditional online store flow with a product listing, and shopping cart and checkout pages. The handling of multiple products, discount codes, taxes, and currencies is also much better than before for the user.
With the update the following new payment methods will be offered:
- Apple Pay (works with iOS or Safari devices only).
- SEPA payments within EU area ( = transfer funds manually to our account).
The current payment methods of Credit Cards, PayPal and Google Pay remain available of course.
Pictured below is the Shopping Cart page on a mobile phone, and the Apple Pay confirmation view on an iPad.
This thread is locked and is reserved for announcements only. Please make all comments to the General forums: https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,60273.0.html
New website & backend (part 4)
Just a quick preview, that work is in progress with the transformation to the new website backend system.
As posted previously, this requires rather large technical changes to the game itself, but at first the plan is to use the current (partly very old) code of the game and put it on top of the new system without any major modifications, apart from some minor tuning of the visuals, to get the new backend running quickly (a hybrid of old and new).
This thread is locked and is reserved for announcements only. Please make all comments to the General forums: https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,60273.0.html
New website & backend (part 5)
A bit of work with updated tech on the filtering and searching.
The new site allows direct text search from the search selectors so you don't have to scroll so much... Allows also better options for range/pax/age (etc.) filtering for aircraft pages.
This thread is locked and is reserved for announcements only. Please make all comments to the General forums: https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,60273.0.html
Forum update
The forum software will be soon updated with a new version.
The SMF 2.1 is a small evolution of the current SMF 2.0 forum, but the basis remains the same. The new version will offer an updated layout which is mobile-compatible, and also some additional features such as better message posting tools. Most important are the changes under the hood - the new version supports latest server backend software versions and it receives security updates from the developers.
If all goes well the upgrade is done during this weekend, which will require a small 15-45 minute shutdown of our services while the upgrade is being done.
The same forum will also be used in the "new AirwaySim" website which is under development and has been previewed here, but the future systems will move away from the forum-centric user management allowing us to possibly change the forum software to a properly modern solution in the future (let's see in 2024...).
This thread is locked and is reserved for announcements only. Please make all comments to the General forums: https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,60273.0.html
Forum update
The latest forum update is now also integrated into our new developed website, the "AirwaySim 2.0", which is under way and hopefully in public testing soon.
This thread is locked and is reserved for announcements only. Please make all comments to the General forums: https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,60273.0.html
New website & backend (part 6, toolbars)
The game status bar will be revamped with the next interface update.
For mobile users the issue is always on how to show all the data in the small screen, and for this our designer decided to use a scrolling game status bar system where we can have multiple "tabs" of information. Each of these tabs can be clicked for an additional dropdown with further info and useful links. [note; the current game time will be directly visible below the game name in the first 'tab'; but missing still from these screen shots]
For desktop users the game status bar 'tabs' will be visible without the need for such scrolling, in a similar way we have currently.
This thread is locked and is reserved for announcements only. Please make all comments to the General forums: https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,60273.0.html
New website & backend (part 7, game subscriptions)
The management of your Credits billing through different game worlds will become a bit easier with the new website since the new "Game Subscriptions" page will give you a quick overview of all the games you have joined, and the possibility to view the billing details with one glance. You can also leave a game from this page if needed (the "cancel membership" button has a double-confirmation and clear information on a pop-up to avoid any mistakes!).
This thread is locked and is reserved for announcements only. Please make all comments to the General forums: https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,60273.0.html
New website & backend (part 8, statistics)
I have been focused on finishing this project, and have forgotten to post the previews, but here are a few pics.
The test server has been running for quite a while now and I think most of the issues have been ironed out, and thanks for everyone who have tested the new site and especially to those who've left some feedback and issue reports to me.
I have just finished the final sub-page of the game to be compatible with the new backend, and we should be ready to launch the new site rather soon now, finally!
Like mentioned earlier, only a handful of the game's pages will be 100% mobile compatible and will have truly the new layout and "AirwaySim 2.0" code, while majority of the pages are still a hybrid between the old and new. But the plan is to convert the old pages to the fully new code bit by bit, time permitting since the target is to provide a layout fully suitable to mobile devices too.
Anyway, here are a couple of screencaps from the renewed Statistics page. :)
This thread is locked and is reserved for announcements only. Please make all comments to the General forums: https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,60273.0.html
New Scheduling
We're happy to preview the new Scheduling page of AirwaySim!
This is a fully new development and one of the new pages of our "AirwaySim v.2.0" master plan.
- The most notable update is the mobile-compatible layout, allowing you to see the scheduling data properly even from smaller screens.
- The page is 100% new technically and using the new framework, making the page much more lightweight and thus much faster to use.
- Searching and filtering of the routes has been improved with new options and with a more powerful search.
The plan is also to offer a new way to schedule flights for the "7-day system" which many of our more experienced airline managers like to use, but the current/old Scheduling page hasn't fully supported this. More details on this later ;)
You can already access and test this new page, by simply selecting "Beta Scheduling" page from the Routes main menu. Currently viewing, searching and filtering of the scheduled work, but you can not yet perform any scheduling actions to the aircraft from this new page.
This thread is locked and is reserved for announcements only. Please make all comments to the General forums: https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,60273.0.html
New Scheduling (part 2)
Work in progress, and we're now adding functionality to the BETA Scheduling page.
- Mouseover tooltips are now finalized and display the data. This has been improved with the display of route payload limitations and techstop airports compared to the old page.
- "Close Route", "Remove Maintenance Schedule", "Clear Schedule", "Remove Flight from Schedule", and "Set Registration" buttons are now functional the beta scheduling page.
New features:
- Clear Schedule view has now the ability to choose not to clear the A/B checks when clearing the aircraft schedule.
- Set Registration menu shows the aircraft registration format, as well as your custom format for that base/fleet group.
- A new automation "Set next available registration" appears at the Registration menu if a custom aircraft reg.format is saved, and it allows you to fetch the next free registration number for this plane.
- Aircraft Nickname can now contain special characters, even smileys, and this works for the keyword search too.
This thread is locked and is reserved for announcements only. Please make all comments to the General forums: https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,60273.0.html
New Scheduling (part 3)
Work in progress still, but now the A/B Maintenance menu in BETA Scheduling is available.
- This is again a fully new AirwaySim v.2.0 code and interface with a mobile-compatible layout.
- Some additional new features added, such as ability to make the B check end at the same time as A check.
This thread is locked and is reserved for announcements only. Please make all comments to the General forums: https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,60273.0.html
Preview: Fleet Commonality Calculator
Final part of the fleet commonality updates is the calculator, allowing you to estimate the costs related to the fixed admin/training/maintenance costs.
You firstly have the overview of the current costs, and then the ability to add a new fleet type, or retire (entire) existing fleet from your airline, and the system will then show the new estimated commonality costs based on this.
The engine selection is not yet part of this. But should be also added at some point. Main idea is to keep this simple, and just as a quick tool to give you cost estimates for future fleet planning.
Expect this feature to be available soon.
This thread is locked and is reserved for announcements only. Please make all comments to the General forums: https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,60273.0.html