return of gates too too fast

Scandalian Airlines · **on:** October 30, 2007, 07:45:25 pm

Ok, I posted this in the suggestions forum as there was a thread about this there, but I guess I'll have to post it here to get some proper attention:

Ok, so it has happened again. I had no gates flagged when I went to sleep, and this morning I have 2 messages, one gate warning, and one gate returned, and it was returned at FRA. I have a terminal there and have no intention of returning gates,rented or built, if I don't have to. And one will be returned when I reach 10 built gates which is fine.
You really have to fix that issue as I have posted about it several times, and it's annoying as hell! I at least want a chance to put routes on a gate before it's returned. If I get a warning on april 1st the gates can be returned on the 1st of may, NP, but getting the warning and a gate returned within a few hours is totally unacceptable. Either I want the gate back, or 2+ million to my account as that is what I had to pay to get a new gate...

Messages
Warning ID: 45160
Gates returned ID: 45876

Scandalian Airlines
ID 1960

Air Elbonia · **Reply #1 on:** October 30, 2007, 08:23:02 pm

hmm. i can loosely verify the excessive speed... not easily, loosely... of gate returns. at present, i'm debating what action is both sane and feasible to take at the moment regarding this overly quick return problem.

(I'll get back to you in a few hours).

IonWorks · **Reply #2 on:** October 31, 2007, 10:05:47 pm

chiming in with my 2 euros...

the game needs to be taught anew how to recognize that a gate is unused, and to warn the gate renter accordingly, and to return the unused gate. But of course, it must be done in reasonable time frames. My suggestion:

On the 1st of each month, the system should scan for unutilized, rented gates.
It should immediately message the renting airline that the gate is unutilized, and will be returned if not used by the end of the month.
On the 1st of the next month, the game (having flagged the gate for re-investigation), should return the gate if it is found to still be unutilized.

This ameliorates the current situation where flagging/messaging/returning can sometimes happen in a single game day.

Hope that helps (and apologies if that was blitheringly obvious).

dktc · **Reply #3 on:** October 31, 2007, 10:15:56 pm

Quote from: "IonWorks"

chiming in with my 2 euros...

the game needs to be taught anew how to recognize that a gate is unused, and to warn the gate renter accordingly, and to return the unused gate. But of course, it must be done in reasonable time frames. My suggestion:

On the 1st of each month, the system should scan for unutilized, rented gates.
It should immediately message the renting airline that the gate is unutilized, and will be returned if not used by the end of the month.
On the 1st of the next month, the game (having flagged the gate for re-investigation), should return the gate if it is found to still be unutilized.

This ameliorates the current situation where flagging/messaging/returning can sometimes happen in a single game day.

Hope that helps (and apologies if that was blitheringly obvious).

This is the exact concept when Will coded it. The only difference is that the currect system does not look at individual gate, but the airport instead. (So, it is not obvious, but already in place... or at least should have been in place :? ).

IonWorks · **Reply #4 on:** October 31, 2007, 10:46:15 pm

Ok, cool, except that it's not working as intended, then. It's flagging for disuse on the 24th of the month, and returning on the same day, so it's instantaneous. (At least, in some cases. I've had this happen to me 3 or 4 times so far.)

Air Elbonia · **Reply #5 on:** October 31, 2007, 11:10:05 pm

Quote from: "dktc"

This is the exact concept when Will coded it. The only difference is that the currect system does not look at individual gate, but the airport instead. (So, it is not obvious, but already in place... or at least should have been in place :? ).

This is the system as it is in concept, and as it should be (as dex said). the problem at present was the flagging system was looping around on itself and flagging then marking for return in the same get-go. it should now be fixed as of the 1st of aug, so that it does not loop back on itself. we'll find out in the coming days if that holds true, if not... i'll definitely have another look at it. until it's tested out, i don't believe i can add much to fixing it at the moment.

the system stores gate information on a by airport-user pair system, so, each gate is not stored individually. but the principle is the same.

Scandalian Airlines · **Reply #6 on:** November 03, 2007, 08:09:11 am

Ok, so it has happened again, no warnings when I went to bed, 1 gate at Lisbon Portela, Helsinki and Gothenburg Landvetter returned this morning!
I am getting really mad now as I did not want them returned, and it has been less than a month, as usual.

Air Elbonia · **Reply #7 on:** November 03, 2007, 05:34:16 pm

Quote from: "Scandalian Airlines"

Ok, so it has happened again, no warnings when I went to bed, 1 gate at Lisbon Portela, Helsinki and Gothenburg Landvetter returned this morning!
I am getting really mad now as I did not want them returned, and it has been less than a month, as usual.

terribly sorry -_-. i hate when bugs aren't cooperative in being fixed. i'll try something else -_-. we'll see how this goes. hopefully it's the last of this bug. terribly sorry again.

by the way, the flagged for return i think is now a typo, something misaligned. i'll try to sort that out as well. likely the flag that it is a terminal is being displayed instead of the actual number of flagged gates. this has nothing to do with the return script looping back on itself.

Scandalian Airlines · **Reply #8 on:** November 03, 2007, 10:40:35 pm

Still no good, gate warning and gates returned at MMX Malmo STurup, max 1 hour between the messages as far as i can tell...

Message ID's:

59464 Gate warning
60301 Gates returned

Air Elbonia · **Reply #9 on:** November 03, 2007, 10:55:46 pm

-_-.

i don't fully understand why it's happening. i'm definitely looking into it as best i can. i hope i can have it resolved... again. permanently. by the next month change -_-. so terribly sorry. i hate bugs that are this resilient.

edit: ahHA. i found it out.

you were warned of it.

you also were warned of it again after the gate was returned.

i see you got a warning on Oct 1 for malmo; then a warning on Nov. 1 followed by a return notice on Nov 1.

i'll see if a little reordering will fix this. once i mentally ensure that it should work out the same without bugs.

edit2: Ok. so. i reordered things, it now removes gates before going through and flagging inactive gates again. (whereas before it flagged for return, flagged for flagging, then returned gates)

Scandalian Airlines · **Reply #10 on:** November 04, 2007, 09:53:58 am

So, if I get a warning, and then use the gate during the month, and at the end of the month I delete a route and a gate is free again, it will be like the gate was not used during the month? And thus it gets returned even though it shouldn't have?

Case 2: I get a warning of unused gates (like the FRA case), I fill up with routes and then need more gates, so I build some at my terminal. Then again a gate is flagged as unused and is removed at the beginning of the month, even though it's a different gate and there has been 100% usage inbetween.

I'd say it's within how flagged gates are treated, and that there is no check whether there actually has been usage of all gates within the month.
Could it be like that?

Air Elbonia · **Reply #11 on:** November 04, 2007, 04:40:32 pm

Quote from: "Scandalian Airlines"

So, if I get a warning, and then use the gate during the month, and at the end of the month I delete a route and a gate is free again, it will be like the gate was not used during the month? And thus it gets returned even though it shouldn't have?

Case 2: I get a warning of unused gates (like the FRA case), I fill up with routes and then need more gates, so I build some at my terminal. Then again a gate is flagged as unused and is removed at the beginning of the month, even though it's a different gate and there has been 100% usage inbetween.

I'd say it's within how flagged gates are treated, and that there is no check whether there actually has been usage of all gates within the month.
Could it be like that?

Yes, the game only cares about if you're using it on the 1st of the month. and that day alone.

I'm leery to make it where if at any point during the month the gate is used causing the flag to be immediately removed because then it makes it far easier to hog gates. i could use one plane to unflag gates at airports simply by picking short hop routes, making a high frequency route between the two, removing the route and moving the plane to the next city. this sounds far too easy of a work-around of the system to me for the added value of seasonal gates or mis-timed additions to terminals. Maybe i'm wrong, maybe there's a simple way to make the system smarter then this that i'm not seeing or thinking of at the moment, but for now it only cares about the 1st of the month.

Scandalian Airlines · **Reply #12 on:** November 07, 2007, 02:13:07 pm

I think it still checks for flagged gates and sends a warning message, and then remove the gate.
But this time I know it sent one last month so I wont argue about the removal