It was fun to read the little pow-wow between all the admins in there, and I wish I could have participated, but back to the thread topic:
I remember reading the suggestions thread started by Aytchman (
http://www.stephenm.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5796) and it seems a lot of people (including myself) would like more diversity of strategy. Perhaps expanding the brokerage system to all players and making it a viable strategy (i.e. making it much more profitable) would be a simple and code-lite way of adding diversity to the game.
Right now, to be the top player, you essentially have to start in Europe or NA (maybe Asia), open hubs at all the biggest airports, and then fly to every pipsqueak airline in the continent, and then edit your routes constantly all day. There seems to be no other way to become #1 in airline value.
Perhaps if all players were allowed to make a profit when brokering (so getting planes at discounts like official brokers when brokering for others), we would see the emergence of another viable strategy to get to the top.
Also, I must point out that I don't understand why we need human players in the brokerage system. We could easily just set up an automated 'bank' that brokers all planes for people, thereby creating two ways for an airline to order planes (direct from manufacturer, which requires all the money up front, or through a broker, which requires less money up front but may take a little bit longer if you include the order acceptance times). I think it's unfair that brokering becomes a chore for all the official brokers, and like people said in this thread, it doesn't really benefit their airline anyways. So it begs the question - why do we even have the brokerage system in the first place, if not to make another viable strategy for a company to succeed in Airline Mogul.
So in closing, I propose scrapping the 'official' system and allow everyone to get discounts when brokering. Thus, players will have a lot more choice in how they use their money for the highest return. And why isn't Airline Mogul also Broker Mogul? I think it'll be more fun that Airline Mogul also includes Broker Mogul. I have yet to hear a convincing argument to the contrary.