Messages

1

Bugs / [Fixed]Cobija CIJ in wrong place?

« on: June 22, 2008, 04:05:57 pm »

Cobija (CIJ) is listed as being (correctly) in Bolivia.

But it's also only apparently c500NM from San Juan - so closer to SJU than a number of Venezuelan airports. Route mapper shows it's in Bolivia, but the location that AM is using seems to be wrong, placing it somewhere in the Carribbean on distance (if you look at route map for airline 5061 in World 8 you'll see what I mean!).

2

General Chat / Where to put focus cities?

« on: June 17, 2008, 11:00:43 pm »

The main advantage of the big airports is that you can fly to the little tiny airports and still make a decent return - and it's possible you might be sharing the route only with 2-3 others. The main disadvantage is the competition and the route adjustments - although that's not so bad in multiworlds.

I'm playing one world where I'm flying out of some of  the biggest airports, and one world where I'm playing just to have fun, so am taking it much more slowly and playing out of a small regional airport, on a continent that I haven't ever played on, and my goals are much lower. It really depends on what you want to do with the game - if you want to dominate, then you have to go the big airport route. If you have different reasons for playing, then the smaller airports provide an entirely different kind of challenge!

3

General Chat / Cheating or just unfair?

« on: June 07, 2008, 09:25:26 pm »

In a previous round, I used to have fun seeing what I could drive a competitor down to by adjusting routes I competed on. With one, I actually managed to get him down to under 99%, before he crept back up over 99%.

It's not just about constant load factor - it's also about the speed with which they respond when you adjust a route they are on. You can play all kind of games to investigate it - vary time of day you adjust, play around with aircraft size and frequencies and watch what their responses are and how quickly they respond, no matter what you do.

Its a game within a game

4

Bugs / can't rent gate when in negative cash!!!

« on: April 07, 2008, 11:01:46 pm »

I'm in world 6, and was able to rent at LHR (my hub) when negative.

5

General Chat / Tell me this is an April Fools joke....

« on: April 01, 2008, 08:27:27 am »

I laughed - a lot!

6

General Chat / Boeing 747-300

« on: March 14, 2008, 01:14:55 am »

Try flying ATL-LHR. No way a 747 would be too big.

I did it last round. It is. The problem is, that everyone wants to fly ATL-LHR so it's one of the most competitive routes out there - it's the long-equivalent of LHR-AMS or LHR-FRA... gets trashed quickly by too much supply, and having 747s on it doesn't really help.

7

General Chat / What Year Will We Reset Too?

« on: March 13, 2008, 07:26:51 pm »

With multiworlds, do we choose the exact year we want, or will there be two worlds or so set at different times? I'd choose the Late 80's or the present day. The 20's/30's would be boring, the biggest plane was like 30 seats..

I agree.  And besides, I have pretty much fallen in love with the 727, 732, 757, 767 etc...

Nothing beats the sound of a 732 roll/rocket down the runway for takeoff!! (And I think I mentioned that before -- well I'm saying it again!!!  732s RULE!)

Not to go too kiddiestalkingaboutplanes.net, Concorde beats the sound of a 732 roll down the runway - hands down  

8

General Chat / What's Your DOP?

« on: March 04, 2008, 12:04:57 am »

A bit more than €20 million

9

General Chat / What is a good plane to buy?

« on: March 03, 2008, 12:39:13 am »

It depends on where you are and who you are competing against. Key things to consider are:
 - speed
 - range
 - number of seats
 - price

Generally maximising the first 3 and minimising the 4th is best. But you usually have to compromise on one of the three - at least early on in your game. If you are in an area with a lot of airports close by, then you can compromise on range and possibly speed and get a plane which carries more pax. If you are in a remote airport, with few close by airports, then you'll want range, speed will be useful (more rotations!), so you may have to compromise on seats...

select all planes in the buy plane option, and you'll get a list you can sort by all of the headings... play a while, sorting by the above 4 factors, and you should be able to find something which kind of suits your situation. I've worked up from Lets to Mohawks to F27-500s to HS Srs 2B/A to BAE 146 and SE Caravelle 10b. Will probably hold it there for a bit since I'm not sure where I'm going yet...

10

General Chat / I have 9 gates with 8 routes; What now?

« on: March 02, 2008, 11:14:37 pm »

What do you want to do?

The normal approach is to check that you are using all your aircraft hours, and then try to buy or lease aircraft to keep on expanding. Watch out for leasing - don't over do it, it can soon mount up in costs...

11

Bugs / Routes losing demand over time?

« on: March 02, 2008, 07:37:29 pm »

Ok, that's a great explanation for one route (and can understand it).

But it seems to be a more widespread explanation than that explanation would well explain. For example, I closed out one plane... and then decided not to upgrade it after all. Every single route that plane served (ex-LHR) lost between 2-5k DOP. Now, we know that swapping out planes, you rarely get the same money back in for the same fare, but for all of those routes, I had to drop the fare by up to 50€ to get 100% load factor.

If I'm the only one noticing then maybe it is as you say, and maybe it's a factor of fewer people playing this round and just not the increasing demand which we are used to. But that doesn't mean demand should be dropping across the board? At the start of the game, I could still increase routes with no competition by up to 50€ per day... now I daren't touch them since I know to maintain LF, I'll have to drop my prices.

All very odd!

12

Bugs / Routes losing demand over time?

« on: March 02, 2008, 12:41:33 pm »

But this is a change as to how it has been before.

13

General Chat / How do I make my Airline profitable?

« on: March 01, 2008, 11:20:10 pm »

You are definitely profitable!  Do you lease aircraft?  If so, don't ever take out another one.  They aren't worth it.  You are also spending alot; probably from trying to grow too fast.  Growing takes time, don't rush it.

I beg to differ. Leasing aircraft can be definitely worth it, in the right circumstances. I have one aircraft i am paying 4 m per month for, and earning 24 m per month...

But you need to be aware of why you are leasing, what you are leasing and how many you are leasing...

14

Bugs / Routes losing demand over time?

« on: March 01, 2008, 12:41:53 pm »

Previously, if you were on a route with no competition, you could go in and increase your fares periodically, as demand grew slowly over time. Recently, whenever I've tried this, I've ended up having to decrease my fares (todays example FCO-SOF was €608 for before I touched it, had to reduce to €589 to get back to 100% once I had tried to adjust it - I'm the only airline on the route, and nothing else changed).

Deliberate change or accident?

15

General Chat / *What* do you Name Your Planes?

« on: February 28, 2008, 05:55:11 pm »

There are more kinds of birds than sheep

But I finally managed to get BAA as my airline code - after trying in every round I've played so far!