All the money everyone has been given should be enough to last until the reset I would think
Why are we resetting?
Also my money appears to be growing now
Unmanageably large airlines at the top (thus the loss of a skilled player base) and the ridiculously low gate availability making it hard for new players to break into the game (and thus loss of player base in the newbie sector as well).
Nope. Player frustration is an issue, yes, but it wasn't a strong decision on this. There's one critical step in the chain of things we need to do to get multiworlds rolled out... and it's, unfortunately, a very big one which shakes the game down to its core. We have to revamp how we store an airlines information [cash, name, code, this sort of thing] as well as how we store the users information [email, login, password, this sort of thing]. Stephen and I are very eager to get it out, and get it bugtested in full. we will be doing our best along the way to bugtest it, with the help of some of the moderators and brokers but time has told us inevitably we'll miss some. Looking at the stage the game is at, and the massive amount of very delicate information we'd need to balance to implement this mid-age on a live game... we knew we weren't going to get it right the first time [and likely were going to lose data, frustrate players, break the age... basically. everything we best hope to avoid]. With a fresh age, the operation becomes a little simpler, as we need to juggle less information [as the cash, value become uniform], which we hope will reduce bugs.
We'd hate to hurt any individual player by simply completely ruining their account at such a well developed point in the game. We'd hate to ruin an age for everyone, even worse, by inadvertently, and generally otherwise without warning, destroying it with a bug or botched modification on such an important and delicate part of the game.
It was a hard decision, but Stephen and I decided it was best we get this new batch of back end updates out as soon as feasible so they can be tested out and we can move on with multiworlds sooner. The fact that the game is over saturated, the large players are having issues with managing their massive airlines, and my personal flub giving everyone 1.5 billion accidentally as well as being unable to rectify it properly, helped tip the balance as to the timing of when we announced this and what we had planned, however were not the main cause in any way as to why we decided to end this age prematurely.
We know our timing is terrible. The holidays is a busy time for everyone, and everyone is focused on family, friends, and [at times] rampant commercialized spending sprees. There's little we can do to help this, at the moment, as (as I said earlier), we need to get this bug-tested out while we hit the next big step in multiworlds completed.
Stephen, Balint, and myself love this game as much as any player, and wish to our best to preserve its fun and interest for every player throughout an age. We know we're human, we know what we can do, what we probably can do, and what we can't... in the end, unfortunately, this upgrade was just too important to wait for and the array of upgrades to slow the economy is more or less in position that we felt comfortable enough to start the next age on this upgrade.
My deepest apologies to anyone who feels ripped off by our premature ending of the age. We hope for a smooth transition between the new and old code in this area, and hope everyone has enjoyed the 50s as both a learning experience as well as simply as a fun time. To the new players who are worried that all their hard work will be destroyed, unfortunately yes. when the age changes over your existing airline will be reset, but take comfort in the fact that the #1 airline will also be reset to the same level footing. Also, try not to feel it was in vein to start late, hopefully you've picked up the game enough that with a fresh start on an open new world you can pass this age's best and take number 1 for your own.
