Number of focus cities.

Danny · **on:** December 30, 2006, 07:36:51 am

Is there a limitation? There should be imo.

StephenM · **Reply #1 on:** December 30, 2006, 11:52:51 am

Not yet, it will be limited to 10 or under along with a minimum of 5-10 gates per airport. Not sure yet!

EXTspotter · **Reply #2 on:** December 30, 2006, 12:33:29 pm

I think it should be unlimited. If you limit it to 10, by the end of the game, people will be serving every airport in the world from the 10 hubs. AE has it right when it says unlimited hubs.

YuniJet · **Reply #3 on:** December 30, 2006, 01:14:17 pm

I agree with EXTspotter. OK, I don't know any Airline in this World, serving more than 10 HUBs yet, but AM is a Game in which you can live your own Way of Dealing with Money and Economy. In Reality no Airline is limited in its Number of HUBs. Every Airline sets its own Limit in the Question of the HUB Quantity. I think Players of AM should be this free, too.

Limiting the possible Number of HUBs would limit the Alternatives for Competition.

StephenM · **Reply #4 on:** December 30, 2006, 05:08:17 pm

Quote from: "EXTspotter"

I think it should be unlimited. If you limit it to 10, by the end of the game, people will be serving every airport in the world from the 10 hubs. AE has it right when it says unlimited hubs.

Problem with AE is it barely has any airports and they refuse to add them to the current game. In AM we do things differently where we actively add airports and try and expand the database of airports.

MrOrange · **Reply #5 on:** December 30, 2006, 05:17:52 pm

The problem here (for me, at least) is realism. It would be realistic to limit the number of hubs, since no airline in the world would ever have more than 10 hubs. It's just not useful, and probably too expensive for any airline in the world. On the other hand, as Yuni said, airlines aren't limited to a maximum number of hubs IRL.
I wouldn't limit it at all, just let the player decide. What you can do, is make it less attractive to have a lot of hubs, by making the focus cities more expensive when there are (for example) 8 or more hubs already. This would in some way act like administration costs or something. Haven't really thought it out yet.

EXTspotter · **Reply #6 on:** December 30, 2006, 06:05:39 pm

I am trying to make as many hubs as I can in small airports with 50 gates, because you can buy 6 of these for the same price as 1 at a very large airport. That would mean that I would already have ruined my game by making my home base Exeter and planning a hub at ISC for smaller jets like 737 - 300s when they are replaced. In real life, airlines working in a similar system to this, like Ryanair and Easyjet and FlyBe they operate point to point services which don't go through a hub or have huge numbers of hubs. Therefore you can either limit numbers of hubs but have an alternative for lower cost called focs city where you can serve it as much as you like but you do not get bonus LF as you would through a hub.

StephenM · **Reply #7 on:** December 30, 2006, 07:40:37 pm

How many hubs do Ryanair have at this stage? About 15 or so? FlyBe also are large enough in terms of bases.

Danny · **Reply #8 on:** December 30, 2006, 07:56:10 pm

I am all for realism and I do not know airline with more than 3-4 hubs and maybe 2-3 additional focus cities. 10 should be absolute maximum.

Remember that AM unlike AE goes through time, so there are other things to do than expanding network such us upgrding fleet for example.

EXTspotter · **Reply #9 on:** December 31, 2006, 10:45:06 pm

This isn't realistic. In real life there is nothing stopping you from creating 100,000 hubs, apart from maybe the number of airports in the world. I predict that within a few years, FR will have like 50 hubs. I only started playing a few weeks ago and I am #2, I have 40 planes with more than 100 seats. I have 5 Hubs already, if you get money this fast, it is not realistic. Therefore saying that limiting number of hubs is realistic is completely wide of the mark. As I said before, Ryanair has something like 15 hubs. 15! Is 15 more than 10?

deltafan · **Reply #10 on:** December 31, 2006, 11:53:20 pm

You should limit the focus cities, and the number of airlines that can have a certain focus city. For airlines with no focus city, a gate limit of 5-10 should be imposed, for airlines with a focus city, a much larger limit (or no limit) should be in effect.

ColinB · **Reply #11 on:** January 01, 2007, 01:25:34 am

ah sure what ever lads well decide when someone reaches the limit for now ye should sit back and chillax

EXTspotter · **Reply #12 on:** January 01, 2007, 09:59:55 am

I have! I have 9 737 - 300s delivered today and a few 767 - 200ERs and nowhere to put them.

Danny · **Reply #13 on:** January 01, 2007, 11:14:15 am

What a nonsense. I had over 150 aircraft in previous edition flying out of Euro region. Only Europe has olmost 200 airports and you already have nowhere to fly???

EXTspotter · **Reply #14 on:** January 01, 2007, 11:36:11 am

Yes I can fly pointlessly around europe, but whats the point? Total market domination over newer smaller airlines by destroying all their routes?