zipperfly

this is a question aimed at SIM 2 as well as SIM 3. and maybe the SIM 2 beta.

Is there a good good reason to pick


Airbus A321-100 $54,500,000 199 454 2,745 35 $2,775
OR
Boeing 757-300 $86,000,000 265 460 3,906 55 $3,025

OVER a
Tupolev Tu-204 $35,000,000 210 515 2,672 45 $2,600

The Tupolev seems very popular, it is my understanding that it is a gas guzzler and a maintence headache in Real life.. I could be wrong though and does it have an affect in the SIMS at all?

Thanks!

First let me say that this is pretty awesome! :cool: Great Work!
I have been in and out for about 6 months and have enjoyed your game(is that an appropriate word?) I am a tycoon/management sim junky and I must say though that this can be punishing for a noob.

With that out of the way on to my Title post: The hubs seem to have taken a back seat in the game. If I might make a suggestion on a way to strengthen it and in my opinion make the game stronger and more challenging.

It's very odd to see an airline operating what looks like a "hub" out of ORD and for it to have multiple flights that are unrelated say DEN-DFW, ATL-MCO...etc with no connections to the main hub of ORD. And since a Point to Point system looks like it is "illegal" in the game that only leaves the hub and spoke( i could be mistaken.) Basically, the Pilots and Flight attendants have to live somewhere and that's usually the HUB.
My ideas on strengthening the Hub:
Make it go in levels and require every plane to touch a hub.
Since every plane has to touch a hub(in my scenario) that means you have to start with a hub. Lets call the level 1 hub a Focus city.
"Focus City": 2 gates required to start and $25,000 extra per gate over a normal city. Home base is automatically a "Focus City" nominal start up fee as well
Level 2, "Satellite" 6 gates required, better connections, $35000 extra per gate, fee to start
Level 3 "Domicile" 12 gates required, even better connections, a 10% boost in O/D due to the locals learning your name. $60,000 extra per gate. fee to declare it a domicile
Level 4 "base" 20 gates, mega connection boost. 20% O/D boost, 85000 extra per gate. fee.....
Level 5 "HUB" 30 gates, connection heaven, 25% o/d boost. 100,000 per gate. fee....

SO thats basically the idea, I honestly do not know anything about programming so I do not know what kind of a headache that would cause. Also the numbers I used are just random and I know the Level "names" basically mean the same thing in real life.

Adding to that as well, perhaps the ability to build maintenance stations in places to reduce the cost of operating aircraft. Could even be made to be specific to a type of aircraft to encourage airlines to streamline.