178 replies to this topic

[Yuxi]

Should we teach them to be crushed ?

Crush or be crushed

It's not a binary choice...I run large airlines and don't feel the need to "crush" anyone or take over entire routes for the sake of it

[Pineair]

When an airline gets larger it takes longer to keep a track on competition. Rather than try and crush a competitor nibble away at 15% of the demand and they probably will not even notice.

[Conor]

I just play the game as realistic as possible and after a few weeks get bored stop playing and my airline becomes as financially viable as Ireland.

[Mr Tree]

Significantly higher costs. It would cost twice as much to maintain a twenty year old aircraft than a 3 year old model. You are right though. The older aircraft is a better buy, at least short term.

[pseudoswede]

Significantly higher costs. It would cost twice as much to maintain a twenty year old aircraft than a 3 year old model.

3-year-old maintenance costs are insignificant, though. 17 years later, they are still extremely low.

[Gevans]

Mobeer's post is the most informative one.

If you want to have a top 10 airline by year 2 then you have to expand early and often and that means leasing more than 1 or 2 aircraft models after the first month or two.
By the 4th quarter of the first year you should be leasing at least 6 or 7 different models if you want to be in the big boys club.
I waited till the 1st quarter of the second year before I was leasing everything Airbus and Boeing made which was a couple months too late because my 2 biggest competitors where already doing it.
There #1 and #2 now in R6.
I wish this game was set up so that it rewarded players who ran an efficient airline with 3 or 4 models of aircraft and ordered LOTS of them.
But all that garauntees is that you will have an efficient SMALL airline.

I also started buying instead of leasing a lot of my aircraft (starting with the smaller ones) by the 4th quarter.
By then my airline was very profitable and I could afford it but I'm still not sure how much of an advantage that gives you beyond the obvious one of not paying for that lease.
Is leasing so costly that you are much better off buying when you can afford it ?

[52N13E]

Is leasing so costly that you are much better off buying when you can afford it ?

Buying drives up your airline's valuation which in turn influences your ranking position (and maybe even your "financial health" score).
An airline with 200 leased aircraft isn't as valuable as an airline with 50 owned ones.




Generally, players are to run and actively manage their airline instead of stupidly relying on batch mode tools to build up fleets with 500+ aircraft.

Those idiots in R2 are frustrating me to no end with their stupid "lease 3423088238230990214912 aircraft and put them somewhere" playing style.

[pseudoswede]

Generally, players are to run and actively manage their airline instead of stupidly relying on batch mode tools to build up fleets with 500+ aircraft.

Can you please share these batch mode tools?

[52N13E]

Can you please share these batch mode tools?

"Match lowest", "Close", route suggestions and whatever else there is to facilitate blindly spamming aircraft everywhere.

[Yuxi]

I've never found Matching lowest cost to be effective, and have only ever used it to lower losses - afterwards manually lowering the price to see the route turn an actual profit.

Funny you should say that...I used it on 20 routes today and it brought 19 of them back into the green LF range. I thought about implementing a "Beat lowest price by 10%" function, but that would make things too easy and likely build up a perpetual queue of routes to be recalculated.

The root problem is not the batch tools but rather the game mechanics promoting a robotic playing style - going down the list in the airport browser and opening routes to match the clearly stated demand.

In any case, let's keep long discussions to a minimum (or separate threads) and keep this one on topic for tips only.

[52N13E]

Well, then here's a tip for new players:

Go for empty routes ONLY.
If you can't find some, then don't expand.

If you *do* want to expand, do it carefully and nicely towards others.
They've been there first, after all, and they might as well be bigger and financially better off than you are.

[ar157]

Make sure of the user running a competing airline because you might just run into a select few who might just SUD you

[pseudoswede]

Go for empty routes ONLY.
If you can't find some, then don't expand.

Yes. Please follow this strategy.

[adityapratama]

Build your airline nice and steady,don't rush in the first few months. You may success expanding your airline with the rush strategy (by taking out lots of bonds) but if a competitor shows up and started to enter your routes, you're ruined. Maintain the positive balance, make sure you have enough cash at the end of the month.

[bigbadcrusher]

my biggest tip is no matter how late into the game the world is, don't rule out any route. I almost ruled out MSP to PHX in Rdelta, but when I actually checked it, it was completely empty! A route with almost 2000 Y demand was untouched, and it's now a $1+ million DOP route for me

[Nexus8]

In a new world operate 5 or 6 types from diferent manufactures. After you get 200 or so aircraft phase less important plane with your biggest nubered aircraft.

[QK Flight Industries]

In a new world operate 5 or 6 types from diferent manufactures. After you get 200 or so aircraft phase less important plane with your biggest nubered aircraft.

Bad idea. More aircraft types/families, higher maintenance costs, more likely to fail. Stick to the used market and try to get similar families.

[andytyork]

I found that if there isn't a huge amount of demand, fuel use really does make a difference.

[Boeing Fan]

I recommend Boeing because the 737 family runs for almost the entire game length and has lots of aircraft to choose from. The 767 or 747 family are good long range family's that once they start you can use them for the rest of the game.