Messages

1

Suggestions / Re: Advertise

« on: August 25, 2011, 01:34:41 am »

Perhaps those who buy a certain number of tokens get a little logo beside their airline name on the ranking pages or something. It wouldn't disadvantage people, just recognise those who are supporting the game.

2

Implemented Suggestions / Re: View sent messages in game

« on: June 16, 2011, 11:37:01 am »

I think there were plans to overhaul the in-game messaging system, but outboxes, and perhaps even conversation view (like Gmail) would definitely be good.

3

[+] Suggestions / Purchase price on leasing page

« on: June 10, 2011, 05:26:42 am »

Fairly simple suggestion here. Could we add the normal purchase price of a plane to the information on the "Aircraft for Lease" page - i.e. the amount it costs to purchase that plane/engine variant outright. This could be in conjunction with, or replacing, the value column currently there.

I tend to think this is more useful that the plane's actual value - which is affected by depreciation over time - and gives a better idea to the person leasing the plane as to how useful an aircraft will be. It would also allow those browsing the market to tell the difference between different engine variants more easily.

4

Flight Simulators & Online Flying / Re: Flight in Tahiti - Screenshots

« on: May 13, 2011, 04:57:09 am »

I'm pretty sure the livery on the plane was just a "what if" livery for an A321 - I just wanted to fly something which vaguely looked like it came from the area.
You can't see it here, but Bora Bora is actually an big island surrounded by a bunch of smaller ones (which you can see in the pictures) - the island the airport is on actually takes up most of it.

5

[=] Suggestions / Re: Raise fuel consumption or fuel costs

« on: May 06, 2011, 06:32:18 am »

Are the historical prices adjusted for inflation? You earn ticket revenue at modern day rates - so costs should be at it too.

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Flight Simulators & Online Flying / Re: Flight in Tahiti - Screenshots

« on: May 01, 2011, 09:24:57 am »

Looks fun. I did a nice flight around Tahiti a few years ago in FSX... might even be on the forums somewhere...

7

General Chat / Re: Favorite Large Aircraft

« on: April 26, 2011, 03:10:55 am »

I think the 787 is probably selling a bit better than the A350. If you look at the orders, there tends to be a fairly big spike after the plane is put up for orders (or airlines start getting hard data about its specs), and then a levelling off - during which there are minimal additional orders. Both the 787 and A350 have gone through the spike stage, and I wouldn't expect either to get that many more orders until (or indeed for a while after) they start flying.

8

[=] Suggestions / Re: Lounges

« on: April 20, 2011, 07:23:37 am »

I don't know that it would necessarily favour airlines in bigger airports. The way I was thinking of it was having a setup cost and a continual cost (proportional to passenger numbers). The setup would be based on airport size - so cheaper for those at smaller airports. The continual costs would be smaller for those airlines which don't transport as many people - so it wouldn't be as expensive.

9

[=] Suggestions / Re: Lounges

« on: April 19, 2011, 04:17:31 pm »

It's an interesting idea. As it would be more cost effective to have larger lounges (i.e. less per person cost with larger lounges), I think the benefit would be that you are able to afford more lounges around the place. This would allow alliances to have larger networks of lounges, making their member airlines more popular to fly on (i.e. higher fares) - just as in real life.

Instead of one player paying for a lounge completely (which raises issues of feeding), maybe lounges could have a certain cost to establish them (probably proportional to the airport size - like a base construction fee) and then take an additional fee per passenger transported through (probably fixed - similar to general airport fees). In terms of alliances, the construction fee would be paid by a single airline, but the per passenger fee by the airline running the flight. It would make people think more about how they utilise airports - in terms of maximising usage of airports with lounges to maximise ROI on the lounge construction.

10

Flight Simulators & Online Flying / Re: Illegal things you have done in Flight Sim

« on: April 18, 2011, 02:02:35 pm »

I think there's already a topic pretty much on this: http://stephenm.org/smfforum/index.php?topic=8008.0

11

[++] Suggestions / Re: state in advance that creating a hub cost $12,000,000

« on: April 11, 2011, 06:05:41 am »

Just because it's in the manual doesn't mean it shouldn't be written in-game too. As it is, the Create Focus City page only says you need 4 gates to create make a hub - no mention of the extra fee - which could be misleading for some people who then think that it is the only cost involved. I don't imagine it would be too difficult to add in that there is also a one off fee of 60x the gate value.

12

Game Strategy / Re: FAQ

« on: April 10, 2011, 03:01:04 am »

As the person leasing in the plane, or leasing it out?
It's fairly easy to work out for the person leasing in. Simply multiply the daily profit by 24 - giving you the monthly profit - and compare it to the leasing fee (which is always monthly). Maintenance is paid by the owner, so you need not worry about that. The only other cost is gate fees - which are fairly minimal, and can be estimated based on which airports you fly to. If you're calculating them, consider that firstly they are monthly, and secondly the fees can be "shared" between aircraft if multiple ones are using a single gate.

In terms of leasing out a plane, you can't really calculate anything because the individual maintenance fees for aircraft aren't given (due to the way maintenance is calculated). You need to consider two things: the duration of the lease and the amount you're charging.
I tend to go for 10% of aircraft value and generally not much more than 5 years (i.e. ensure it is off lease at around 5 years - so if its 3 years old already, only offering it on 2-3 year leases).
You may also wish to try the higher turnover option - leasing aircraft for more like 2-3 years, and selling them second hand as soon as they are returned. You will often be able to get a decent amount of their value back (esp. in larger public worlds). As a rule, I assume that people will keep the lease until it expires - not that they will return it early - and plan accordingly.

Leasing in planes is a fairly risk free venture - as you have minimal investment required (less than buying planes) and you can get rid of the planes whenever you want. By contrast, leasing out planes is fairly risky - with considerable upfront and continuing costs - and no way to stop those costs other than waiting out the duration of the lease. It is quite easy for planes to become a burden (i.e. cost) for you if you don't choose the right conditions early on. That said, it can be a easy way of making money (no continual editing of routes!), if you get things right, and can provide some more interaction with other players in the game.

13

General Chat / Re: Private Worlds

« on: April 05, 2011, 12:23:31 am »

In terms of extra starting cash for no starting AC - both increasing the cash and increasing the value/quantity of aircraft increase the cost in tokens. If you have no aircraft, you save tokens - which can then be spent on extra cash.

In terms of inactive airlines, perhaps that could be an option for the world creator. I think different players and world creators could want different set ups. Some creators may want control over the world they paid for, where as others may not want the effort or "bad guy" feeling of having to check up on everyone and throw people out. Likewise with players, some might want a world where they can go away for a while and still have an airline, others might want to ensure the world stays healthily busy through the game.

14

[-] Suggestions / Re: Cargo?

« on: March 28, 2011, 02:18:51 pm »

I think renovating planes to new would be a bit too much. It would effectively be allowing airlines to get free planes in exchange for a worthless scrap. In real life, old planes are only attractive to cargo operators because they are near-worthless for passenger service. I think lower maintenance costs (or making them less age-dependent) on cargo aircraft would be more appropriate - so that they are economical to run in their old age.

That said, it is a bit false to make maintenance costs cheaper - in real life it's not so much the lower running costs (indeed, the older planes may be more costly to run) as the fact that they are costly to overhaul/modernise (for passengers) and that they provide a more likely return on investment (i.e. minimal investment, making them easier to profit on).
Those sort of factors are less of an issue in AM, in the former because plane age has no effect on passenger revenue, and in the latter because you are basically guaranteed revenue on anything other than the busiest routes.

15

[-] Suggestions / Re: Cargo?

« on: March 27, 2011, 09:21:01 pm »

I suspect that the regular game economics would still apply, in that it would be preferable to have younger planes to avoid high maintenance - so there wouldn't be as much demand for older planes. Though some sort of change to the maintenance formula for cargo planes could be a solution to the huge number of 2nd hand planes on the market.

That said, starting out, it would be preferable to have some kind of system rather than none - it can't be entirely realistic from the start.