12 replies to this topic

[Elchie]

Hey folks,

as you all realized: The stock market was/is a desaster. Thats true, in the beginning something was wrong with the stock price calculation, so some company got a market capitalization of trillions of billions, and if you try to sell some shares, the broker charged you with trillions of $ of fees.

Now the prices are stable, but some of us lost money (me too). Some of the top players stopped playin within this round, I can understand this (although I regret this). Some players called for a reset. I can understand this too and under normal circumstances I would proceed with a reset.

With a reset in the current situation I have some problems. Currently I'm working on some changes on the core (no not on the LF-script), which requires a reset soon. So the connected flight system, a new delivery system, a changed flight cost calculation and ads-free accounts will take place soon.

Having this in mind, a reset now and again in lets say 2 weeks are bad - and it doesn't make sense to enjoy a now restarted round if there is another reset soon. Now the question is: Why do we require the new features soon/why is a reset required for some of the new features? Well, I will explain the features (or better: changes) here in place and why a reset is required.

First the connected flight system, which is a change that was requested over and over again, and I prefer this change. At this time you can set up strange route networks with an aircraft, so for example you can start multiple one-way flights with the same aircraft out of the same airport, which is not possible without a warp-technology (the aircraft is only once a day at this specific airport and can't start more than one flight from there...). Now there is also another problem: You can only create flights starting at a airport there the selected aircraft is flying through - but you can create such a network and delete later single flights, the aircraft will still fly the other routes, but there is no connection between two airports. This will changed with the new system: You can only create one-way-flights where it makes sense and all flights have to be connected together to a network, so if you delete a flight of an aircraft and it can't get from a destination of route A to the departure of route B the aircraft will be grounded and won't fly any route. This will decrease strange cheating effects used by some players, and it will also limit the expansive growth. In short: You have to plan better, and the game will be more interesting. Here comes the problem: A check of all existing flights/aircraft flights would be very complicated and would cost many time - so a reset is required.

New delivery system: As you know, every player gets 2 aircrafts per manufacturer and month right know. In the future you have to bargain with the manufacturer about the delivery date of your orders, which will be more interesting, you have to schedule better. With the new system we will use a manufacturer-capacity-based system instead of a user-based system. You can safe money if you can wait longer for new aircrafts - if you require them within a short time, you have to pay more for your aircrafts. Also here: To prevent a in-game switch (which means that some players that ordered based on the old 2-per-month-system won't get their ordered aircrafts as planned) a reset is strictly required.

Flight cost calculation: Right know the only costs for a flight are the fuel costs, and the calculation of them is just wrong. At the moment the fuel for the whole flight is calculated based on a full throttle over the whole flight, in the future it will be based on a more realistic fuel calculation. So the system will calculate taxi fuel, trip fuel, contigency fuel, alternate fuel and a fuel reserve to get the required fuel amount. In addition to this there will be some additional fees to pay for (air traffic control fees, landing and take-off fees). A recalculation of all flights would take some time and would lead into massive rechecks of all routes for some players. A reset is also the better way here.

Ad-free accounts: As I mentioned some weeks (months?) ago, there will be some features you can pay for. The first thing that will come up is the removl of all ads within your account. To come up with facts: For 1,75 $ all ads will be removed, this will come soon. Later there will be other features addable to a payed-account. For clarification: There will be absolutly no features you can pay for that will affect the game in a agressive way, so for example you will not be able to buy money or get cheaper aircrafts or gates. There will be just come up some useful tools, but you can life without these additions too and can continue playing Airline Empires for free if you want - so one of the tools for example is the "Show suggested routes" feature also for aircrafts with more than 5 hours available. At every time AE will be kept free. For all players spend money in the last weeks (thanks for this again): Don't be worry, you will get some coupons for an ad-free account.

Now I will come to an end - yeah it was a quite long post, but I hope it's understandable why I won't reset the game now. I'm just preventing a very short round.

One thing: Expect a restart in about let's say two to three weeks - I have to finish another web project and my newest book (which is delayed also now by two months - this delay is partly related to the AE engagement) - so give me some time. I know this is not easy at every time, and there are bugs within the game (some of them are very annoying), the work is in progress but there are some other "jobs" beside AE for the developers [thats true for David and me]. Unless this: Continue with reporting bugs and suggest new features - both of them are the source for a better game.

Bye,

Tobias

[travelhouse]

Tobias, you will find a lot of Addicted AE players will wait and thoe I see lot of issues, you have covered a lot of it in the above.

Thanks for that.

Others will feel they cant play Sim2 as gates, cash and other issues.

I will be here when you reset, I know you mean well and are progressing the game for the better, just give us a game right now we can all play.

If you do not reset, then roll it back to rid the latest issues.

Pre-stockmarket would be good, but then again this may not be possible.

just my thoughts.

[BritAbroad]

Thanks for your hard work. Its appreciated.
I enjoy this game, I'm still fairly new to it, but I'm prepared to hold out for a while for a proper reset, if it'll resolve all the nasty bugs!

[Chaostah]

Can you just open up Sim3 in the mean time?

[Yuxi]

Can you just open up Sim3 in the mean time?

Wow someone's eager I'll see if we can get it up sometime this week.

[Spenser]

Can you just open up Sim3 in the mean time?

Sim3??? what is that?

[Yuxi]

Sim3??? what is that?

http://forums.airlin...read.php?t=9675

Basically a stable, "lite" version of sim2 with the old LF script, without the new features, faster aircraft delivery, and without gate restrictions.

[Spenser]

http://forums.airlin...read.php?t=9675

Basically a stable, "lite" version of sim2 with the old LF script, without the new features, faster aircraft delivery, and without gate restrictions.

How often will resets be though? Can you have an airline in both sim2 and 3?

[Yuxi]

How often will resets be though? Can you have an airline in both sim2 and 3?

Because of the fast pace and explosive growth, we'll probably limit each game's duration to 5 years or so.

Yes, you can play both sim2 and sim3 at the same time.

[Elchie]

I will open a up 2 more sims this week:

- Sim 2 - Future: This is the game as it is right know, it will be under constant development and get new features
- Sim 3 - Classical: This is version David mentioned, a code frozen to a revision few weeks ago. This code is stable, but this game version will not profit from new features. In this game there is an explosive growth, if you want such a gameplay, join this version
- Sim 4 - Adventure: The same as the future-version (features will be got introduced), but with quite harder start conditions, less money, less start gates, smaller aircrafts at the beginning, higher gate fees.

You can (and you should if you want) join all three variants of the game - feel free to play in three different ways.

On the login page you can choose the game version you want to play/join, so you have to remember only one login-page

[Maestro69]

Well, looking forward to those features in the next update to the game, though lets make sure they work first before the wreck the game like the stockmarket

[flightsimer]

is there any way you could make a new sim1? just keep it the same, but make a new one so it can be updated not just by miller? i really would love to be able to play that again... starting in 46, and working up was really fun!

[Yuxi]

is there any way you could make a new sim1? just keep it the same, but make a new one so it can be updated not just by miller? i really would love to be able to play that again... starting in 46, and working up was really fun!

We don't have access to the sim1 code, so right now the answer is no. But I will ask Miller and see how far we get