Precisions about the catchment radius / squares / etc.

[Tha_Ape]

Hi,

I have some questions here. As I understood, catchment areas are round but apply to squares (the world being divided in squares with population etc.).

So let's take the graphic example below:
- the red airport catchment radius goes until the green airport square (ok, rectangle), so it can suck the demand from that whole area even if it barely touches it.
- the red airport's catchment radius doesn't go until the blue airport's square, so it doesn't get its demand, even though it's much closer than the green airport.
- the blue airport however get the demand from the red airport's square.

So flying to blue airport is way more interesting as I'll be able to get the demand from the whole red airport's surroundings while with the red one I couldn't, even though they have the same catchment radius?

Is this right?

Because if so, it will be very difficult to know what we're doing and if we're not pulling the string from both ends or, on the contrary, pulling a string with nothing at the other end.
So far the only way of doing so is through experience, but as demand takes time to shift the experiment can become very costly if we're wrong.

JS assumes there will be some more info about that and I'll be really looking forward to it.

Thanks a lot.

Edit: I overly simplified it (no "urban areas" or such), but it doesn't really matter, I think, as the main part of the blue airport's urban area is still uncovered by the red airport.

[Sami]

This information is not really relevant as players are not shown (and wll not be shown) such level of background data.

Yes, there will be more city-based-demand info shown later on, but the info on how the background squares and those work are not relevant.

[Tha_Ape]

This information is not really relevant as players are not shown (and wll not be shown) such level of background data.

Yes, there will be more city-based-demand info shown later on, but the info on how the background squares and those work are not relevant.

Not completely, but still a little bit. If we fly to 2 airports distant more than 200km (max catchment radius) but that at least one of them gets the demand from the other one's square, basically we're playing against ourselves without knowing it.

-> not asking for the detailed data itself, rather for some info that could avoid us this kind of situation.

[JumboShrimp]

I am not sure how much the system takes these into account, but couple of potential variables
- distance of the square from the airport
- percentage of square being in catchment area

Those 2 variables would make the green dot city only very partially included.

Also, regarding the blue dot, the cities are typically not dots, they have suburbs etc, so the blue city could also be partially included.

[yearofthecactus]

Not completely, but still a little bit. If we fly to 2 airports distant more than 200km (max catchment radius) but that at least one of them gets the demand from the other one's square, basically we're playing against ourselves without knowing it.

-> not asking for the detailed data itself, rather for some info that could avoid us this kind of situation.

Whilst that might be true, the manual points out such cargo will favour locality first and foremost, and the extensive testing I've been doing shows this to be true. Moreover, it's very very difficult to get current demand to full actual! Not impossible there are examples. You should avoid flying to multiple close by airports perhaps (specifically same city actually, as a 100km airport has advantages), but when we're getting to the edges of circles, and peripheries where venn diagrams occur really shouldn't be a concern.

On that note, I would warn heavily about over complicating. At the end of the day, with the 200km radius circles for full developed 10/10 airports in the late game, it is hypothetically possible that a small subset of demand will be shared by airports 400km away. Is that something to worry about (either personally, or against alliance partners - or simply other fliers). Not in the slightest is the clear answer.

[Tha_Ape]

@Shrimp

Well, if we want to go into that much detail, we can say the the city of the blue airport is "north" of the dot, thus mostly excluded from the red catchment area.

But anyway, the idea was to show some extreme example, even though given the n° of airports there are probably some airports in this case.
My point was to know how they are dealt with, and be sure we're not fishing in a fishless lake or that kind of stuff, as I said in my previous post. Or if I don't have 2 fishing rods for only one fish, but thinking I'd catch 2.

-> not asking for the recipe, just to what extent we can know what we're doing.

But if some details are coming...

[Tha_Ape]

Whilst that might be true, the manual points out such cargo will favour locality first and foremost, and the extensive testing I've been doing shows this to be true. Moreover, it's very very difficult to get current demand to full actual! Not impossible there are examples.

But I would warn heavily about over complicating. At the end of the day, with the 200km radius circles for full developed 10/10 airports in the late game, it is hypothetically possible that a small subset of demand will be shared by airports 400km away. Is that something to worry about (either personally, or against alliance partners - or simply other fliers). Not in the slightest is the clear answer.

Ok, thanks for the experience testimony. It's just the kind of info I'm looking for (at least for now).