Topics

1

Game Updates / [Debug] New Table Structure

« on: February 24, 2012, 12:02:12 pm »

Ladies and gentlemen,

Today I would like to announce the bug testing phase for a new kind of table structure we implemented, and we would like your opinion on it. Currently, we've only launched it on "View Routes", but if you like it, we might just put it in almost everywhere. The main features for this kind of table structure thingy are the following:

• Automatic Pagination, choose the number of items you want to see and no loading time for page change.
• Easy sorting, just click the column header and the table will sort all the data instantly without page load. Also: use Shift+Click to sort by two colums.
• Instant Filtering, just type the text you want to see in the field above the table and the table will instantly show what you need.

Just go to the regular View Routes page, and then click the button on the top for New View Routes.

After you've seen and used the page, please don't hesitate to come here and let us know what you think!

Thanks for your help,

Rens den Uijl
Airline Mogul - R&D

2

Airline Reports / The Legacy Of OrangeAir - The Dutch Airline of AM

« on: February 16, 2012, 05:20:59 pm »

Ladies and gentlemen, online airline managers of Airline Mogul,

Thank you for taking the time to read this message. We're hoping that you read it because OrangeAir means something to you. Maybe you have been competing with us in one of the many AM games we played, maybe you have only heard of International Aircraft Financing as one of the premium brokers of AM, maybe you haven't heard anything about the OrangeAir legacy before. Either way, it is time to say goodbye.

OrangeAir has been around since the 25th of December 2006. (Apparently, someone found it necessary to start a new online airline on the 1st day of Christmas...) Since then, a lot has changed. In fact, almost everything about OrangeAir has changed at some point, except for its name. And the biggest change is yet to come. Part of playing an online game is that your interest in it comes and goes, meaning your airline thrives and sinks. Especially with airlines as old as OrangeAir, every logo, every livery, every single game of AM tells a story. Some stories are good, some are bad. Some memories you want to stay, some you want to go. Sometimes you want your airline to stop existing, sometimes you want to revive it, dust it off and continue as before. Sometimes you find that such a revival is possible, sometimes you find it isn't. OrangeAir has been lying around without function, gathering dust for quite some time, and it is time to stop that from happening.

We hereby announce the immediate end of OrangeAir, and the start of HVM - the Hollandse Vliegtuig Maatschappij (Dutch Aircraft Company). With the end of OrangeAir (and IAF, but more on that later) comes the start of a new, equally Dutch but completely different company. We are still building the brand to make it as great as OrangeAir used to be, so more information on HVM will follow later. The most important thing now, at least in our humble opinion, is to sit back and enjoy the good memories OrangeAir has brought you.

To honor the past and celebrate the future, we have created a special OrangeAir History Tour, 5 Years of Orange. This special history tour will guide you through the different looks and feels OrangeAir has had since its beginning on a cold Christmas Day in 2006, up to its final moment in February of 2012. Click the link below to start the tour.

Thanks for reading this uncommon Airline Report, and thanks for having been part of the OrangeAir experience.

 - MrOrange

3

Suggestions / View Aircraft Page

« on: July 22, 2011, 04:18:20 pm »

I know it has been suggested before, but I don't know where I moved that suggestion to. So here goes again:

We need a view aircraft page. The Aircraft Market listings could be linked to the respective aircraft page, as well as some other places that list aircraft names. The page itself would show the possible engine variants, also stating (if any specific aircraft is selected) which engine type the chosen aircraft has, it would show a (sort of) list of these types available on the aircraft market, and would have buttons for buying it off the manufacturer.

Any thoughts?

4

Game News / New Message Center - Launched!

« on: July 21, 2011, 07:36:06 pm »

Yes, it is finally here. Not the big feature that, for a few years now, you've all been waiting for, we know that. But still, it is quite something: our brand new Message Center.

A redesign of the old mail centre had been in the pipeline for over 2,5 years, so it was time to create something new that lived up to your expectations on what a good message center would bring. The new centre allows filtering in categories, a properly working outbox and, overall, a new, fresh look that will help to keep Airline Mogul up-to-date with current web standards. Also, as a bonus you may already have noticed, we have implemented Rich Text Editing in Airline Mogul, meaning that from now on, you can send messages and create forum posts with images, hyperlinks, formatted text and even smilies !

With the new Message Center, you can filter your incoming messages in 5 categories for 'normal' airlines, and 7 categories for brokers. These categories include Alliance, Aircraft Sale and Lease and Player-to-Player messages. It allows you to view all messages in a category, in a clear and organized system that allows you to make most of all these incoming messages. No need to switch from the inbox to another screen to read a message. This system has it all, in one screen, for easy navigation and better oversight. Obviously, basic functions you all knew and loved, like the delete checkboxes, have been retained.

With this being an entirely new function, coded from scratch, there is always the possibility that some bugs are present. If so, please let us know so we can fix it! Just send an email to to let us know about the issue. The main known issue is listed below, in the Frequently Asked (or to-be-asked) Questions.

Have fun using this new feature, and don't hesitate to post in this thread to let you know what you think of it. Please note that all the functionality currently present in the Message Center is only there for the coming three weeks, while I am on vacation in (hopefully sunny) France. After three, maybe four weeks, when all users have had the time to familiarize themselves with all the functions the new Message Center has to offer, we will make it a Premium Feature. With the Premium Feature enabled, it will be possible to filter messages by folder, and more! The full list of Premium Features will be announced shortly.


Frequently Asked Questions

1. Why this, when we all want hotswap? Don't you have other things to do?
Actually, yes, we have other things to do. A feature like this takes me just over a week to properly build, being at home all day. A feature like hotswap takes a lot of time to create, if you want it to actually do what it should do. Besides, the mail centre was hopelessly outdated, so we did that first.

2. When I click Player Messages, it doesn't return all Player-to-Player messages!
True. That's because it only works for messages sent with the new Message Centre. In a while, it will work better, because people are, from now, using the new Message Centre instead of the old mail centre. For it to work on messages sent with the old mail centre, we would have to go through all of the worlds, changing folders for all Player-to-Player messages, which basically took us too long.

3. When I click on Sent messages, I see garbage bins behind some messages.
That's because the user you sent the message to, deleted this message from his own inbox. We have kept it in your outbox, mainly because we figured you'd like that. Later on, we'll allow users to delete files from their inbox without deleting the message in the recipient's inbox.

4. I've spotted a bug!
Sorry 'bout that! Please let us know via .

5. I found the Send new Message / Reply page, but I don't know how to actually send the message I entered.
You'll notice that the Send new Message button has turned into the Send this Message button. Just click it, and the message will be sent. It's really that easy!

6. I like the new error and confirmation messages, but I can't get them off my screen!
That's why they have a Close button (The X ). Click that button, and the message will close.

5

Game Strategy / MOVED: Best airbus on AM

« on: July 20, 2011, 07:29:02 pm »

This topic has been moved to General Chat.

http://stephenm.org/smfforum/index.php?topic=12449.0

6

Airline Reports / [POLL] OrangeAir and International Aircraft Financing

« on: January 06, 2010, 07:41:14 pm »

OrangeAir Board of Directors proposes new House Style - Shareholders invited to voice their opinion
Issued 08/13/2011 11:50 GMT by OAR External Relations Office. For more information, please contact our ERO.
====================================

AMSTERDAM SCHIPHOL - Yesterday, the OrangeAir Board of Directors, on OrangeAir's yearly shareholders meeting, has made a proposition for a new house style to replace the current 'Heart for the World' style. The new style had been designed in secret, with only several employees of OrangeAir aware of the process. The OrangeAir Board has asked all shareholders to comment on the new design proposal.

The new design, which is labelled as the 'Circular World' House Style, has been designed by a big Dutch design company which specializes in modern-looking but professional house styles. As expressed by OrangeAir Chairman Mr. Orange, "the new house style expresses our wish to connect people all around the world. No matter how far away they are from our main hubs in The Netherlands, they are always connected to every other part of the world via OrangeAir itself and our future partner airlines."

The house style for International Aircraft Financing, the brokerage branch of OrangeAir, has not been adapted, as the board felt it did not need much updating to stay in touch with the feel of the company. "We felt the old IAF logo did a good job in expressing what we think our brokerage branch is all about: high-quality service by professionals who know what the airline industry is all about, and all that for a reasonable price," said Mr. Orange.

In a surprise move, the board also mentioned their wish to re-instate the old Regent Alliance, originally founded with Imperial Airways. "The Regent Alliance had a reputation for gathering the best airlines around the world, making for a great alliance that offered quality, a huge route network, great member cooperation and, if I may say so, possibly the best group feeling we've ever seen compared to other alliances. If we ever get the chance, we will definitely bring it back," said the OrangeAir Operations Director when asked if any specific alliances were being considered as future partners.

====================================
END OF PRESS RELEASE
====================================

Editors Note: Enclosed you will find the new design prospects available for publication.

New logo proposal:


Old logo for comparison:


Proposed livery on Boeing 747-400 (PH-OLE):

7

Suggestions / READ FIRST: Common Suggestions, To-Do List

« on: July 10, 2009, 02:54:42 pm »

To-Do list

Always first and foremost, always... always any bug fix of material impact.

Key:
High Priority: Additions which will significantly change the gameplay and the easeness/hardness of running a airline.
Medium Priority: Additions which won't really be important, but will help in the easeness of running a airline.
Low Priority: Additions which will not be seen in the near future due to no major significance to gameplay.

Big Five: (Unfortunately, the reason most big suggestions are being pushed back, even if we love them)

#1. Hotswapping aircraft - Hotswapping aircraft (changing the aircraft, without having to close and reopen the route). This will bring a welcome addition which will dramatically reduce the time which you take to change an aircraft on an route.

#2. Order books - We need some way, production side, to slow the game down a bit.  Trust me, we will not be going to the extreme of a few of our competitors, however the days of receiving 100 aircraft in the same day from the same manufacturer are likely numbered.

#3. Edit Route Update - A method to update multiple routes at once, in a simple clean interface.

#4. Multi-class seating - I have portions of this sorted out in my head, in fact most all of it except for the direct ways it affects the loadfactor scripts.

#5. Further measures to correct the excessive speed which the game's economy has hit.  in 2 months we hit €11.7 billion Daily Operating Profit world-wide.

(As per Air Elbonia 9/10/08): Status Update: #3, Mass Edit Routes is in late beta testing, with luck it's close to being ready to be released. we'll find out. #5 is being worked on in small, incremental steps.


Common suggestions, not numbered but likely to be seen barring better ideas or some other small thermonuclear device taking out simultaneously all the code and all three of us developers (which are, as i recall, in three different countries even).

- Leasing modifications, most common: auto relisting of leases, negotiating lease extensions on existing leases/autorenewal option on leases, lease-to-own [or, installment purchases, however you wish to put it]

- Hubs / hub effect : I had eureka moment about this, i think i can whip out a relatively workable test of this soon.

- A way to relatively easily sell back terminal gates / demolish terminals

- Expansion of the page default system : somewhere, sometime, more page defaults will be added.  who knows when, or where. just know they're coming... sometime.

- Runway Length / Airplane / Minimum Route Length Restrictions : Runway length data is already being implemented, the feature will come. Some day. It will.


Common suggestions NOT likely to be seen: (there may be reconsiderations on some of these, especially with compelling or innovative thoughts on the subject)

Code: [Select]

- resale [to players, public market] of built or rented gates - To be quite honest, this is likely to horde gates and/or flood the market with far too many gates at an airport.

- Mergers and Acquisitions - Between active players this seems fairly impractical, purchasing an inactive player either involves taking on a lot of idle planes or potentially a lot of near defunct routes which may exceed or violate the continent restriction and base limits.

- Stock Market - Though compelling and innovative methods have been thought up, it still does not seem to offer sufficient added value, while remaining relatively easily watched for abuse, to overcome the extensiveness of the suggestion

- Subsidiaries - Multiworlds will allow a player to play in two or more worlds at the same time, provided there are two worlds available to join.  This is, in our opinion, sufficient enough reason to say adding a second airline for a player in a world is unnecessary.

- Automatic pricing - Automatic adjustments are likely, at the moment, to just drive prices immediately to 1 euro or have other faltering points in their logic.  The price to achieve 100% loadfactor will never be given to you directly.  There may be, in the future, some manner of aide to help you find the high loadfactors more easily/quicker, however, this is still a relatively important aspect of the game.

- Bank System / Loans - The potential for abuse of a loan function is too high for it to be of any use to the game.



This is all i can think of at the moment.  Please don't take this as a reason not to make suggestions.  In fact, we love suggestions.  at the moment we're a little backlogged, but we may be able to squeeze in some small updates along the way.  And, no, just because it seems small or big, doesn't necessarily mean that it's a small or big project.  Some small changes require bigger things then we have the time for, some big changes require surprisingly little.  

We will do our best to diligently take your suggestions, preferably within a day or two of their posting.  Thank you for your time.

8

Suggestions / Tags

« on: July 10, 2009, 01:03:16 pm »

For ease of use, mostly for myself but possibly for other admins as well, I've slightly re-organized the Suggestions thread. Suggestions that have been implemented, will be having their threads deleted for obvious reasons. Also, new suggestions will be tagged:

Code: [Select]

[-]: Not gonna happen or already suggested, reason as stated in the thread
[=]: Good suggestion, not on our to-do-list as prioritized under other projects
[+]: Good suggestion, and on our to-do-list yet prioritized under other projects
[++]: Good suggestion, and at or near the top of our to-do-list.
Should be straight-forward enough. Please note that your suggestion having a [++] rating doesn't mean it will be created within a day, a week, maybe even a month. It all depends on what we think will be better for the game to have first, and what we have time for. Also, your suggestion getting a [-] doesn't automatically make it a bad suggestion. Suggestions won't be rated [-] without an explanation why we did that.

9

Game Updates / Server Clock Added

« on: July 09, 2009, 02:03:27 pm »

A live, ticking server clock has been added to the site. You can see the clock in the header, when logged in, at the right top of each page. Note that it might take a few seconds to load, but it should not impact the loading time of the webpages themselves. If you notice a change in loading times (for the worse, mostly) since we added the clock, please post here.

10

Game Data / Aircraft Data - Guidelines, Explanations, PENDING CORRECTIONS

« on: May 25, 2009, 03:33:19 pm »

Hello all,

First of all, for those that don't know yet, I am responsible for the process of updating and adding aircraft data into the Airline Mogul database. Lately, there has been a lot of confusion, discussion and personal attacking because of the updates on our Boeing 737 data. This upgrading was done in order to improve the accuracy of our database. Especially in the case of the 737 series, this data correction had been on the shelf for several months before we had the time to actually do something about it. With multiworlds having arrived, and the number of private worlds being extremely high, there would be no good time to implement the changes, at least not with the systems that were in place at the time of the editing. Therefore, some players may have experienced issues with aircraft they had bought and had created routes for. Though I don't want to sound too inconsiderate, at that time it was the only option we had and the fact that some players had these issues didn't weigh up to the fact we had inaccurate data. If you don't understand that, I highly recommend you to read it over and over again until you do. Especially when considering that the 737NG (Next Generation) aircraft haven't even been updated yet. That said, there is a system in place now that should prevent issues as described above.

Second, let's take a look at our current aircraft database. Mostly due to the fact we have been using many different sources and have had many different people working on aircraft data, there are several known places where data is plain inaccurate. Mostly, this is because previously, data officers haven't been using the exact same kind of data for all of our aircraft. Take, for instance, the number 1 issue in most of our data debates: seats. Some aircraft have been using the 1-class seating, others have the FAA exit limit while others have the maximum seating or even the typical 2/3-class seating. The same argumentation applies to range. Also, engine names haven't been entered using a proper naming system. I've seen PW, P&W, P W, PrattWhitney, Pratt&Whitney and Pratt & Whitney for the exact same engine. Needless to say, finding these inaccuracies and then correcting them to something that does check out is a process that takes a lot of time and effort, and simply cannot be completed by AM Staff only. Therefore, I'd like to thank all the users that started these debates, or added anything to them. It is important though to know what data we would be using, and from which sources it is coming. For seating, for instance, we use the 1-class seating, while for range and speed we use the loaded range/speed. Our sources are rarely the manufacturer's website, simply because data coming from there is rarely accurate enough. If possible, we crosscheck data from multiple sources, including JAWA's, and use that.

Third, I appreciate it when users show us inaccuracies in our aircraft database. What I don't appreciate is other users attacking the topic starter simply because he/she was kind enough to assist us in updating our database. Do note that there is no good time to update aircraft data when there are over 200 worlds running at the same time. If you don't understand that, try, as one forum member put it, shooting a pea through a ceiling fan. Chances are the pea's gonna get hit. So try to look ahead and especially, try to understand the other party's point of view. We don't just put on a blindfold and update our data based on what a user tells us, we do crosscheck their and our sources and then, when we have properly researched the data, update it. If you want to discuss this, feel free to do. I'd be more than happy to see what you have to say. Just don't cross the line.

Regards,

MrOrange / Rens den Uijl
Game Data & Development

The following aircraft have been reported to have incorrect data in our database:
Airbus
- A330-200
- A340-x00
ATR
- 72-500
Boeing
- 707-120B
- (717)
- 727-100,-200
- 737-x00
- 747-400,-400ER
- 757-200,-300
- B720, B720B
Convair
- 880, 990
Douglas
- DC-8
- DC-10
McDonnell-Douglas
- MD-8x
- MD-9x
Ilyushin
- IL-18

11

General Chat / New Forum Theme

« on: May 16, 2009, 11:23:03 pm »

Hello everyone,

We have added a new Airline Mogul forum theme, as you hopefully may have noticed (that is, if everything worked out correctly). The new theme is a bit brighter compared to the old one, and may be more to your taste as far as design is concerned. You have the option to switch back to the old theme by going into your profile, selecting Look and Layout Preferences and changing the theme to whichever theme you prefer.

On behalf of the AM Staff,

Rens / MrOrange

12

Private World Discussion & Invitation / African Adventure World (#541)

« on: April 07, 2009, 10:49:15 am »

I'm thinking of starting a private world for about 20/25 airlines, playing in Africa. The world data would be about as follows. If you're interested, reply here.

World Specifications
Starting Cash: €3.500.000
Starting Plane: None
Players would have to buy a plane, or several planes, from their starting cash. The first day, therefore, would be quite uneventful, but after that, you won't have any chance to whine about your starting aircraft choice, as you yourself have been responsible for that
Starting Year: 1969
Game length: 31
Game Map: Africa, all airports
Number of bases: 5, no foreign.
Max. Players: 25

Which choices will you make? Will you start a bush-flying airline, or will you be dealing with competition in Johannesburg International Airport? Whatever you choose, this should be an entertaining and at least remotely challenging scenario for both the experienced and the new AM players. As we can set income multipliers, I have started an income tax based on airline value (which is not added to anyone's account, it just evaporates. Call it community service) which is removed from everyone's account on a yearly basis, to stop the game from getting too easy after a couple of years. Also, I don't care if you create a 10-frequency, a 20-frequency or a 65.5-frequency route, as long as it is within game limitations and following the game rules. Maybe 65.5-frequency routes don't exist in real life, but I'm pretty sure that limiting it to 1- or 2-frequency routes is not realistic.

World Rules
1. Thou shalt not create airline names that are offensive, against AM Rules, similar to existing airline names or in use by real-world airlines. The world creator decides if your name is allowed. This same rule applies to alliance names as well.
2. Thou shalt pay thy taxes at the end of every year. Taxes are calculated based on a fixed formula, and not added to anyone's account, just deducted from yours.
3. Thou shalt not whine about your starting aircraft, competing airlines with more-than-1-frequency flights and other things that are not dealt with by the AM Rules.
4. Thou shalt request support from the World Owner if you need it, and you will be helped ASAP.
5. Thou shalt not give out the password to anyone, or thou shalt risk a ban.
6. Thou shalt, first and foremost, have fun while playing in this world.

When you join this world, you agree with these rules and play accordingly to them.

If you want to join the African Adventure World, please request the password by sending me a pm or using the in-game Request to Join function on the World Info page.

13

Game Data / PAX Updates AMS,EIN,RTM,AUA,BNE and some more

« on: April 06, 2009, 09:46:01 pm »

Source: Yearly Report 2008 Schiphol Airport Group (http://www.schipholgroup.com/InvestorRelations/Financin/FinancileResultaten/Jaarverslag2008.htm)
Note: Haven't bothered to cross-check the non-Schiphol Airport data.

Amsterdam Schiphol: 47.391.711 (cargo: 1.567.711)
Rotterdam: 1.013.671 (cargo: 15, yes, 15)
Eindhoven: 1.629.893
Brisbane: 18.779.855
Aruba Queen Beatrix: 1.919.374

And with data probably not 100% correct, since the numbers for December are estimated, listed for a top-10 comparison:
London LHR: 66.909.932 (cargo: 1.400.569)
Paris CDG: 60.677.555 (cargo: 2.039.460)
Frankfurt: 53.233.889 (cargo: 2.021.344)
Madrid: 50.846.104 (cargo: 328.985)
Rome FCO: 35.132.882 (cargo: not listed)
Munchen: 34.447.433 (cargo: not listed)
London LGW: 34.178.580 (cargo: not listed)
Barcelona: 30.208.134 (cargo: not listed)
Paris ORY: 26.206.283 (cargo: not listed)

14

Game Updates / Home Page Updates

« on: April 01, 2009, 11:17:19 pm »

OK, after the big pink square we had on the homepage, it's time for a fresh look. Enter the shiny, crisp, overall-better-looking index page. We'll quickly walk you through the features.

• At A Glance
It's nice, it's kinda dynamic, and it's gonna be useful. When not logged in, the box displays some information about Airline Mogul. It will be expanded, this is kind of temporary. When logged in and in a world, the box displays some of your airline statistics, but at a glance. It's not everything, but it's something, and if you have suggestions about what else to put in, feel free to post right here.

• Headlines
Below the At a Glance, we have the headlines. Again, when not logged in, it will show you the last three news items on Airline Mogul. Just click the link, and you'll see that news item and all the news items we have in our database. When logged in, you'll see the last three posts made in your world's info forum. So if you want to see your username on the AM homepage, this is your chance! (It's just in your world, but hey, it's a start ) Don't want to see the forum posts? Click the link for news items, and you see news items. It's simple, but brilliant, if I may say so.

That's about it. Again, suggestions are welcome, after all, we rely on your input to make AM better and the best.

Oh, and for those who missed the pink thing:

15

Flight Simulators & Online Flying / Screenshot time again

« on: February 15, 2009, 04:39:50 pm »

Stop talking about illegal things you've done, or St.Mary's takeoffs, start posting screenshots Here's a few to get you going (EGKK - EGPH).






PS: I did one illegal thing, although I'd swear the ATC guy gave me permission to land