Inflated Spamlining by Artificial Demand [ISAD] | Declaration of Rights and Grievances

A spectre is haunting AE... the spectre of unity.

In these recent weeks, with my return to Airline-Empires from NationStates (a political simulator game), I have noticed an annoying, reprehensible, and undeserving recipient of a corroded stash of tarnished, worthless trophies, who has shamelessly paraded his "records" of success to the forum community, not at all considering the consequences this would have on his already-sodden reputation and has raised many angered at his wholly destructive, egocentric, and narcissistic manner. He is known by a rather unpleasant and ill-memorable display name, and a tyrannical nickname that is absolutely undeserved by this player, who has done nothing but only recently stirred up anger, frustration, and ill-will from other players.

Unfortunately, his style of gameplay is entirely unlike what AE was designed to be played as. Airline-Empires, at its core, is designed for players to create airlines who compete for demand by Daily Demand, or a game-determined number of passengers who demand a certain route. The majority of gameplay, if not all, is oriented about airlines competing to take daily demand and have the highest possible profit doing so. Daily Demand can be manipulated, though the only way I've seen it been manipulated is by lowering the price dramatically. However, what many AE players may not realize is that the game has a second type of demand built into the system: connecting passengers. Connecting passengers, unlike Daily Demand, are not shown in any graph in AE, nor is there a set built-in price that Connecting passengers are supposed to pay. Instead, Connecting passengers are exclusive to the player's airline and the alliance that the airline is within, and as a result of what are likely faulty equations and a lack of development from the AE Development Team, has led to certain airlines seeking to find the best possible profit-making strategies to turn towards serving only connecting passengers. Inflated Spamliners by Artificial Demand, which references how these subset of spamliners artificially raise demand that is unseen by competitor airlines, and their distinguishing feature of drastically inflating rather than deflating their prices, take advantage of connecting passengers in the following ways:

• Airline Hubs
• Alliances
• (Likely) Spam IFS
• Inflated Prices with Regional Airports
• Spam Prices with Close Major Airports

The information that I've gathered upon this practice specifically was by personal experimentation with one of my own airlines, Aero Xizang. Aero Xizang, a Chinese, Tibetan-based airline in R3, just recently joined the world, though I had expanded it rapidly with spare time on my hands. In noticing the aforementioned player and his antics, I was determined to create a model of his operations, at least at a small scale, so that we can all play this version of the game as it lasts.

 ISAD1.png   175.74KB   6 downloads

As it can be seen above, there is virtually zero Daily Demand. However, both the Origin and the Destination are hubs, increasing the number of connecting passengers between them. The two airports also have no competition from other airlines (though this is likely a small factor), have extremely low Annual Passenger numbers, but are supporting a $134,443 profit by entirely connecting passengers! It must also be noted that JSJ is a regional hub to other smaller airports, but has no connections to any large, major Chinese airports. Furthermore, the price is unusually inflated to $425, which is illogical for a route between these two regional airports. How could this happen? The secret is on the next tab.

 ISAD2.png   84.17KB   3 downloads

What is important on this tab is that with Spam IFS, it makes up a disproportionate amount of the Revenue Distribution, especially concerning the inflated flight price for this route. Furthermore, what is even more important is that fuel is not a majority cost in the Cost Distribution. With it being a minority, the efficiency of the plane does not matter, and this is what enables ISADs to nearly continuously buy planes of all kinds, as when employing such a technique, efficiency does not matter. Rather, frequency does, and the connection that the hub airport has - by alliance. Additionally, as connecting passengers grow (which will be explained further on), the player is able to increase the prices, and may not even require the use of Spam IFS, thus maintaining an unusually high reputation in relying on connecting passengers as their sole customer base. Lastly, the ticket prices that the connecting passengers will pay for is not defaulted - rather, you must look for it, and this is wherein my analysis becomes speculation. There is increased Daily Demand as one approaches $1 in certain regional routes, but increased connecting passenger demand as one approaches a certain price, often in the hundreds if not thousands, in certain regional routes. I feel that as a result of Yuxi having the reconcile the two differing demands of Daily Demand and Connecting Pax, he had made the decision to create a separate bell curve for each with certain limitations, which has resulted in an overall bimodal distribution where players are expected to be between the two bell curves but be more in line with the Daily Demand curve. The definition of an ISAD, in my opinion, is an airline who establishes routes from a small, <100,000 regional airport as a hub for smaller regional airports, who relies on airline & alliance hubs to cater primarily to the Connecting Pax bell curve of the overall bimodal total passenger demand. Though the most well-known ISAD does employ other, conventional spamlining techniques to create a profit, they primarily rely on the massive, overbalanced stream of income they receive from their reliance on the Connecting Pax bell curve.

I had attempted to establish a route from JSJ, the model regional hub in this game, to the nearby major airport, Harbin. However, this did not work, and it thoroughly explains why the most well-known ISADs have to "set-up" before they truly take root - they require alliances to facilitate ISAD regional hubs not supported for a single ISAD. I had to have another ISAD in my same alliance to operate a regional hub in another region, from which there could be a possibility of having the two establish a hub for use by the alliance of ISADs to bypass what I believe is the Singleplayer Major Hub ISAD Restriction - no single player can create a massive, successful ISAD without the use of an alliance bypass so as to reestablish the bimodal distribution of passengers not created for singleplayer ISADs in large hub airports. This hypothesis has not been tested yet, although I aim making strides towards doing so with my second airline in R3, Aero Xinjiang.

I'd like to thank you for your time, and I will also be continually updating this post. Please post any feedback you have. Thank you.

Reserved.

How about you just delete this and praise the emperour? Please, thanks. 

how about you just delete this and praise the emperour please thanks 

That's not fun, and it's also too boring. It's nice to bring science to AE, and a light to one's annoyances.

It's not fun, but it's mandatory. So, how about you praise the emperour?

it's not fun, but it's mandatory so how about you praise the emperour

You can keep following him, but I'd rather not. If you can overcome him, why follow him?

But why would you overcome him? That would be extremely disrespectful.

But why would you overcome him? That would be extremely disrespectful.

Perhaps the fact that he disregards any who don't follow him may convince you. It even hints of narcissism.

I agree to what og EKPO has said. This is not fair by any means, and takes the fun and joy out of running airlines. It's also causing Yuxi to slow down said world, to upgrade the servers to handle the additional load, which is complete bull****. The majority of people on AE who run airlines actually enjoy doing so. But taking advantage of flaws in the game mechanics to benefit only the owner is utter bull****. Exploiting the game mechanics is bad enough, but Yuxi having to upgrade his server equipment just to handle the massive amounts of data by this is completely uncalled for. I wouldn't be surprised if the general idea of this is actually illegal in some jurisdictions. It's also technically against the rules and something you can get banned for. I don't have all the details, but I do know having multiple airlines operating the same route is against the game regulations. Some of you might argue that people who do this can avoid it, but having witnessed multiple times members with a large amount of airlines in one game world, it leaves little if no margin for error.

I agree to what og EKPO has said. This is not fair by any means, and takes the fun and joy out of running airlines. It's also causing Yuxi to slow down said world, to upgrade the servers to handle the additional load, which is complete bull****. The majority of people on AE who run airlines actually enjoy doing so. But taking advantage of flaws in the game mechanics to benefit only the owner is utter bull****. Exploiting the game mechanics is bad enough, but Yuxi having to upgrade his server equipment just to handle the massive amounts of data by this is completely uncalled for. I wouldn't be surprised if the general idea of this is actually illegal in some jurisdictions. It's also technically against the rules and something you can get banned for. I don't have all the details, but I do know having multiple airlines operating the same route is against the game regulations. Some of you might argue that people who do this can avoid it, but having witnessed multiple times members with a large amount of airlines in one game world, it leaves little if no margin for error.

I feel that ISADs by themselves supporting each other are legal, as long as they don't share the same routes, but when players establish 2+ airlines with the ISAD model, that's where the concern is. However, ISADs apparently become more efficient with the more ISAD alliance members they have, which gives players an incentive to use ISADs in worlds where the player's number of airlines is unlimited.

ISADs are definitely a manner in which the game can be played, but one of their defining features is the unfair competition they create - you can't compete against what is essentially a megairline comprised of an alliance of several ISADs. It's less like an airline, and really just the computerized, solely logic-based solution to gaining the maximum profit. If you can create your own demand which your competitors can't touch, why not exploit it?

What Yuxi would need to do is make it so that the best possible solution to creating the most profitable airline would be nearly the same to the airlines we have today.

I feel that ISADs by themselves supporting each other are legal, as long as they don't share the same routes, but when players establish 2+ airlines with the ISAD model, that's where the concern is. However, ISADs apparently become more efficient with the more ISAD alliance members they have, which gives players an incentive to use ISADs in worlds where the player's number of airlines is unlimited.

 

ISADs are definitely a manner in which the game can be played, but one of their defining features is the unfair competition they create - you can't compete against what is essentially a megairline comprised of an alliance of several ISADs. It's less like an airline, and really just the computerized, solely logic-based solution to gaining the maximum profit. If you can create your own demand which your competitors can't touch, why not exploit it?

 

What Yuxi would need to do is make it so that the best possible solution to creating the most profitable airline would be nearly the same to the airlines we have today.

1 up

While not exactly as scientific, this is how I managed to successfully do it...until the game bugged out and stopped letting me create short routes.

The startup phase is very intensive. This is the way I know how to do it.

 

1. Do not select a 1 hub limit server.

2. Best place to start is USA, EU or China where you have access to many airports. (Or do no political restrictions if you want to go absolutely crazy)

3. Use Scam IFS, put all prices to max. Install one overhead TV and run ads every minute (or whatever is the most frequent).

4. Aircraft should be highest density economy class only.

5. Pay mininum wages to all staff ($7) with no reserves.

6. Start flights in a 500-mile radius around all major airports to get the cash flow going to build terminals.

7. Once you've got all viable aircraft delivery schedules full (greater than 120 seats, fuel flow doesn't matter) and cash flow to start building terminals, hub a major airport and start $1 flights from said hub to every airport within a 200 mile radius. Hub your destination airports as well.

8. Gradually wind down the initial 500-mile radius flights as they would be high-maintenance by now, with plenty of competition. Re-deploy aircraft to more $1 routes.

9. Experiment with raising prices on $1 routes to see how much "blue traffic" you get. Once you've generated enough junk traffic with $1 routes, you can raise the price and start the virtuous cycle of profit! Even minor airport to minor airport will get loads of "blue traffic" if your daily pax carried is high enough (over 1 million).

10. Rince and repeat, expand, hub other airports! My strategy was to start in the USA's eastern seaboard (high airport density) and work westwards.

I'm feeling very bimodal today....

You can keep following him, but I'd rather not. If you can overcome him, why follow him?

We accept your challenge. Overcome us.

You seem to believe that you have unlocked our secrets and imagine yourself capable of the glories of The Empire. 

Prove yourself to be more than a dreaming slave.

But why would you overcome him? That would be extremely disrespectful.

A consulship for you, loyal subject.

You know if we shut down AE completely this spam would no longer be a problem

We accept your challenge. Overcome us.

 

You seem to believe that you have unlocked our secrets and imagine yourself capable of the glories of The Empire. 

 

Prove yourself to be more than a dreaming slave.

The ability to overcome ISADs by knowing their mechanisms is more powerful & revolutionary than trying to see who can dedicate the most time to AE. However, if all you're going to do is spend your life trying to always come out first by ISADs, go on and do such. You do you.

Calling me a "dreaming slave" is both derogatory and false, especially concerning that you're essentially a slave of the game rather than an emperor of anything, if at all. You have been possessed by the game, not the other way around, and if you're going to do Roleplay, there's an actual Roleplay forum for that.

You know if we shut down AE completely this spam would no longer be a problem

We accept your challenge. Overcome us.

 

You seem to believe that you have unlocked our secrets and imagine yourself capable of the glories of The Empire. 

 

Prove yourself to be more than a dreaming slave.

Is that the best you can come up with? The medieval times wants their lousy comebacks back, you ****ing t***.

 

Calling me a "dreaming slave" is both derogatory and false, especially concerning that you're essentially a slave of the game rather than an emperor of anything, if at all. You have been possessed by the game, not the other way around, and if you're going to do Roleplay, there's an actual Roleplay forum for that.

We see no proof of your free status, construe your comments as a petition for manumission, which petition is hereby denied. 

Were you smart enough, you'd know that it takes far less time to run The Empire than would appear. A couple clicker browser extensions are needed but once obtained one can route 10,000 aircraft in an hour.