Planning for 1.6

In our last status report we already mentioned that the aircraft and performance system will probably be at the center of the next major update. But while we are at it we’d like to take the opportunity of using this considerable change to the system to improve and polish AirlineSim in as many aspects as possible. To do so we have started a thorough definition process to find – as the first step – all the things positive, negative and otherwise noteworthy about AirlineSim which make it the game it is today. Given this catalogue we will take a close look at all these features and rate them according to an overall concept we are working out for 1.6. The goal of this procedure is to identify and eliminate the many conceptual shortcomings the game is suffering from due to its long and rich history.

The overall process is in its starting phase right now. We aim to finish it within 2 to 3 months and we will most definitely involve the community at some point in time as well. We will keep you posted!

New payment methods

We’ve spent a  lot of our development time last month to extend our payment system. The primary goal of this effort was to allow for more international payment methods and local currencies. As a first result, players from Argentina as well as Mexico have been able to use paysafecard in their local currencies for a few weeks now and we are happy to announce that we will introduce a new payment method within the coming weeks: Mobile payments! Users from an initial set of about 20 countries will be able to use their cell phone to pay for credits. As soon as this feature is implemented, additional information will follow.

The “stuck aircraft bug”

Some of you have been affected by this issue, while some of you might just have have read about it on the forums. Either way: Due to a bug, aircraft get stuck sproradically. Subsequent flights are consequently cancelled, and can generate considerable costs for the affected operator. Unfortunately we have not been able to identify the exact cause of this issue. Maybe this can illustrate why it is so hard to find: In an average game world about 1 million flights are operated every week. Since we estimate that the bug occurs about a dozen times a day – spanning all game worlds – the result is an error ratio of 0.008%. Judging from the error reports we got so far no particular connection to any in-game action (like scheduling flights, doing transfers or similar) exists, which leaves us with no clue at all about the origin of the bug. And as long as we are unable to reproduce the bug there is almost no way of fixing it.

To get rid of the problem we are working on a workaround – namely, bypassing the affected part of the program altogether, which should effectively fix the issue for the players. Until this is implemented we ask all affected players to send in an email to our support containing the registration of any stuck aircraft along with the game world you are playing in; given that, we can get it moving again. Please excuse the fact that we are not able to refund the costs incured in-game.

Upcoming updates

As soon as the problem described above has been taken care of we will apply a maintenance patch. As usual this patch will include various smaller fixes and changes. We are also working on a new costing feature which is still in an experimental stage and will be covered in detail in a dedicated blog post.

Beyond that we have another data patch in the pipeline which has not been tagged with a specific date yet. If you come across data bugs or missing airports please let us know by dropping an email to our support and we will include the respective fixes in the patch.

Other projects

Of course we do not want to withold another major reason for the relative silence around AirlineSim: In parallel to AirlineSim we are also working on prototypes for potential new game projects to launch later this year. After asking for your opinions concerning this last year we are now in the phase of working out various concepts in detail. Basically the top candidates right now are another browser-game and a single-player desktop game – both business simulations of course – while other concepts have not been ruled out completely. This thorough preparatory work requires a lot of time and effort but we are confident that it will pay off later in terms of quality.

We will keep you informed about the development in this area as well, so stay tuned!

Data Patch D3 and Aircraft Data

There’s some good news and bad news to report on these fronts. First the good news: the D3 data patch will be released in December, and will bring with it a large number of new airports, including more than 30 in China alone. The patch also contains a lot of updated airport traffic information, a number of revisions to airport ground connection links and similar changes.

The bad news is that the aircraft data, which we were hoping to release alongside D3, has been a major headache. The patch will see the introduction of two new aircraft models – namely, the Airbus A330-200F and the Bombardier CRJ-1000NG – but our work in preparing for the introduction of these two aircraft has highlighted some significant ‘legacy’ issues with the way AirlineSim handles performance data. As a result of this, the performance of these new aircraft may in some ways be a little odd – their fuel consumption, for example, may not match their less-advanced predecessors, as a consequence of the (unfortunately well-known) shortcomings in the way fuel consumption is handled internally.

As a consequence of this, we’re intending to spend some time conducting a general overhaul of aircraft performance data and the way it’s handled, rather than focusing on new or otherwise neglected models. How this may end up looking is not currently clear, but there’s a chance the work may lead up to – and develop into – the next major update (i.e AirlineSim 1.6), in which case it’d bring with it a number of new features and major changes. Final decisions on this process aren’t being taken until 2011, however, so we’ll keep you posted!

Updates to the Payment System

We spent most of the past week working on our payment system. Our aim was to prepare the system for the introduction of new, more internationally-compatible payment methods, including support for foreign currencies. This should make AirlineSim available in a number of countries which have so far been mostly locked out of the game, for want of a suitable payment method for the majority of the prospective playerbase. This has taken – and is still taking – longer than we’d like, but the update will be going live over the next week, and the revised payment system should be entirely online by the end of the year. The German servers will continue to have their payments handled through 4players, so no change there.

The Next Patch: 1.5.5

Last but not least, some informaton on the next game system update. Our original intention was to make 1.5.5 a ‘hotfix’ for any problems introduced by 1.5.4 and the associated changes to the stock exchange system. However, this hasn’t really proved necessary; most of the changes are not very high on our priority list, while preventing stock price surges after IPOs is not really practical right now given the amount of work that would be involved. Therefore, those changes already implemented will make their way into the revised v1.5.5, which we’re planning to release in the last week before Christmas. Besides the usual bug fixes, 1.5.5 will probably contain some new and very useful analysis tools, which should help you optimise your existing routes. There’s a small preview of them here: Click!

That about wraps things up for the time being! We’re also organising our usual Christmas meetup this weekend in Nuremberg – you can find information on the forums, as always.

• Both the problems affecting IPOs and later share trading need to be addressed.
• The stock market is not in itself a key game feature. As such, the strategic element takes precedence over the speculative one.

The discussion resulted in the following measures being decided upon, to be implemented in the upcoming version 1.5.4:

1. IPOs can only be subscribed to a maximum of 200% of the shares offered.
2. The stock rate follows a given base rate, tied closely to the company value, and gives a rough prognosis on the company’s development.
3. Stock rate changes through trade will only be possible within +/- 10% of the base rate.

As a result, players who are active on the stock market should be aware that, when the patch is implemented, stock listings may change significantly. The magnitude of this can be approximated based on the company value of any publicly traded company.

Important: The formula for the calculations of the base rate is not yet final and will most likely need optimizing after the patch is implemented. If you’re seeing significant losses on the stock market, it is recommended that you sit out and wait for future changes to the calculation methods.

We expect to apply this patch towards the end of next week, depending on the results of further internal testing.

Fixing the bug was simple, but fixing it also presented an opportunity to add a new feature, which AirlineSim has so far been missing. In real life, some airlines operate ‘mini hubs’ at airports abroad; examples include operations by South American airlines in Spain, European airlines in Florida or American airlines in Asia. The airlines have the ability – assuming no additional agreements exist between the second and third countries – to carry passengers from Country A to Country C with a change of flight in Country B without picking up additional passengers in B, effectively enabling them to create connection-based networks at airports outside their own countries. This ability will now be available in AirlineSim, too – hence the ‘feature’ part of today’s title.

Operating a ‘mini hub’ is not for the faint-hearted; airlines still won’t have the ability to carry local traffic on the second leg of the flight, so the advantages – and costs – of operating these extra flights will have to be considered very carefully, and in many cases it will be more efficient to make use of a local partner to carry any connecting traffic, but the option will be available for those situations where such partners are unavailable or unattractive.

It’s worth noting, in addition, that the via flight function only needs to be used in situations where 5th Freedom rights are available for onward flights; for example, between countries which are parties to the Yamoussoukro Decision. If 5th Freedom traffic isn’t a concern, regular flights that aren’t explicitly via the intermediate point will also work fine. Of course, you may want to use the feature anyway – using it saves a flight number, and will probably offer the possibility of a dedicated technical stop in the future.

As usual, we recommend to watch the video directly over at Vimeo for better quality and larger screen size.

Some words on the content for the impatient: The new interface was redesigned with three key goals in mind. Firstly we wanted to slim down the header and the navigation to require less space. AS is a highly complex airline simulation and as such we need as much space for actual content like large tables or charts as possible. Secondly we wanted to improve usability and generall accessibility of the main features and places within the game. The icon-based navigation now looks a lot less cluttered and the sorting by topic makes it easier to find the feature you are looking for quickly. Last but not least we wanted to bring the visual design up to current standards worthy of a modern, web-based management game.

We sincerely hope you enjoy the changes and we look forward to your feedback! In the meantime we are hard at work to open AirlineSim 1.5 for a public Beta some time around next week. So stay tuned!

The change sounds quite simple at first: Holdings were eliminated. In fact, it was a severe intervention which took more or less 5 days to complete and will almost certainly cause bug or the other for a significant time, but the benefits almost certainly make it worth it.

So, how will AirlineSim look like without holdings? In the future, holdings will just be enterprises, being able to do everything your airlines can use today: buy planes, plan flights, construct buildings and so on. The difference is that, at the same time, they retain the ability to hold subsidiary enterprises and deal in shares. I will explain how this can be used practically using an example below.

Of course, holdings won’t disappear after this step. If you register your first enterprise, it will get a “holding flag”. This means that this holding-enterprise will always be under control of your account and can never be listed on the stock-market. Therefore, it will take over the original holding’s role and is consequently crucial for the subsidiary’s traffic rights. Also, the old anti-cheat rules concerning transactions between several holdings in one account will persist.

The considerably faster access to the game is the important advantage of this model. On a revised registration page you can register an enterprise and start playing within just a few minutes. A manual screening will only be necessary in exceptional cases, such if our automatic checking system has found high similarities to real or in-game enterprises.

But as announced above, let me give a brief example:

1. Start playing: You register an enterprise and give it the name “Dodo Airlines”. You lease 2 or 3 airplanes and start your flight business. After playing as usual, your enterprise has gained some respectable size.
2. After some successful days/weeks you decide that your airline requires a feeder-network. Because you don’t want to have the maintenance categories within your mainline and also prefer a clean corporate structure, you found “Dodo Regional” as a subsidiary of “Dodo Airlines”.
3. [not yet realized, but possible feature] The mainline further grows and you plan to go public soon. Hence you found another subsidiary, let’s call it “Dodo International”. You transfer aircraft and flights from “Dodo Airlines” into the new enterprise, which will from now on operate the business.
4. As planned “Dodo International” is going public and you are gaining new capital. The dividend goes to the new shareholders and “Dodo Airlines”.
5. With the dividend “Dodo Airlines” buys the cargo-airline “Emu Cargo” but soon gives up the business due to unsatisfying profitability.
6. Meanwhile, “Dodo International” has to face rising competition on some sectors and therefore decides to found the low-cost spin-off “Kiwi”. Hence, “Kiwi” is an enterprise on third level. “Kiwi” belongs to “Dodo International”, which belongs to “Dodo Airlines”.
7. [not yet realized, but possible feature] “Dodo International” has become a member of “The Birds” alliance. The members decide to found a handling company which is directly responsible to the alliance. From the alliance’s liquid funds, “The Bird’s Ground Services” is founded, which constructs and runs its own terminals at 5 of the alliance’s hubs. [Remark: This example was only chosen to illustrate that alliances can technically hold shares while they can't be sold themselves. How this feature could be implemented in the future is still completely open.]
8. “Dodo Regional’s” results are unsatisfying. After an initial public offer, “Dodo Airlines” sells all shares except for 10%.
9. After intense restructuring, “Dodo Regional”, which in the meantime has founded a local airline for niche markets named “DuckAir”, achieves a better performance. Consistent with the new business structure, “Dodo International” buys 30% of the mother’s former regional subsidiary and becomes the enterprises biggest shareholder [Remark: Hence, "DuckAir" became an enterprise on level 4].
10. Unfortunately, the Dodo-group now only holds 40% of “Dodo Regional”. Given that all other shareholder are domiciled abroad, traffic rights were lost on some routes. Therefore, you decide on a gentleman-agreement with a fellow player and CEO of “Cat Airways”, which is located in the same country as the Dodo-enterprises, that he gets involved in “Dodo Regional” with 11%. The traffic rights have been secured.

You could go on like this forever. Theoretically, there are no limits to the shareholder-tree… it would be possible to have enterprises on level 10 or below. The technical precautions against circular relations have been made but still have to be tested intensively. The same applies for the unfortunately necessary anti-cheat mechanisms.

That’s the report for now. I hope it has caught your attention for 1.5. Assuming that this post has produced more questions than answers, I’m looking forward to discussions on our forums or the chat!

Have a happy weekend!

First glimpse at AirlineSim 1.5 (flight planning system) from AirlineSim on Vimeo.

I recommend you to watch the video directly on Vimeo or to download the file from there in order to get a bigger view size.

Obviously nobody wants his staff to be on strike form one day to the other. So with the upcoming patch the first thing to be integrated will be some sort of “mood index” for your staff. This index will be without effect for the moment, so no strikes, no influence on your product whatsoever. It’s merely intended to show you where you stand at the moment and you will have plenty of time to adjust your settings before additional features like strikes are implemented in some future patch. For your viewing pleasure (if that term is appropriate in this case), please find a small glimpse at the new feature in the screenshot below.

So what’s new here? First of all, the way you set the salaries has been changed. At least in respect to the interface: Although your salary settings have always been applied at the end of the week and never had an effect during the week, now you officially set the new salaries for the next week. The setting of last week remains visible and is used for calculating country-wide averages. Next and best visible is the “mood indicator”. It ranges from -5 to 5 and gives you a rough estimate about the mood of your workforce. Note that the upper limits are a cut-off: If the mood rises or falls below these limits it won’t be displayed. On the right of the indicator you see a slope icon whic tells you whether the mood improved last week, went worse or remained unchanged.

Similar to the salaries, the mood of your staff “changes” just once a week (on payday, to be exact). These changes accumulate over time. If you treat your staff badly over several consecutive weeks, the mood will fall continuously even without a decrease in salaries. Of course, this works in the opposite direction, too. The consequence of this is that you cannot undo the mismanagement of serveral weeks by paying an above-average salary once (unless maybe it is extremely high!). When the new feature will be integrated it will be interesting to see how all the airlines will adjust their salary-levels. The mood is greatly based on the average wages of the country the enterprise operates from. So we might see some real-world application of game theory . I’m looking forward to it and I hope you do so too! Let me know what you think.

The changes mentioned above will be integrated with the upcoming patch to version 1.3.21b which is still scheduled for the 29th of September.

Let me take yesterday as an example. I didn’t write a single line of code but dealt with something that’s somewhat new to the project: Marketing. For years AirlineSim has been a hobby project. There was no definite goal for finishing the game or reaching other milestones. Everything was more or less done for our own and the fan’s amusement. High player-numbers were a nice-to-have but not something we would put a lot of energy into achieving. Now that the game needs to pay our bills, things look slightly different. Player-numbers translate to revenue, revenue (hopefully) translates to profit, profit translates to food on the table and a roof overhead.

So far, most to all of our players found us via web forums or other forms of word-to-mouth advertising. Every now and then we posted some news on major German browsergame portals and the size of our publisher in Germany came in handy, too. It was no different with Nicosia and the server just filled up to a decent level without us doing much. With the upcoming second game world, I expect things to be different. We need to actively spread the news about AirlineSim or otherwise the project will remain where it is today in terms of size. Keeping in mind that the primary goal right now is a steady revenue stream able to support life’s expenses of two persons, avoiding such a stand-still is a must.

So what I did yesterday was a first step to a somewhat structured way of doing marketing. I don’t see us spending big bucks on advertisements any time soon, so the easiest and cheapest thing to do is expanding the PR. This means, building up a list of contacts within game portals and other news sites that might publish news from and about AirlineSim. The difficult thing for me was that the international market is completely new to me. I had no clue about what websites are relevant to the browsergame-scene internationally. Consequently it took me almost the whole day to gather a few dozen email addresses of editors. Whether they will report about us when we first publish a press release (like the launch of the next game world) remains to be seen. Also, the focus is placed on English-speaking aviation and flight simulator portals right now while I know from our statistics that there are many players who found us via Greek, Dutch or other sites. If you happen to know sites that might be interested in our press releases, please let me know in the comments. And in case you operate one yourself don’t hesitate to email me!

After this tedious work I will try to connect the marketing-efforts and my desire to do programming in that I will implement some features into Aquila that allow you to mail a recommendation to play AirlineSim to a friend (or preferably, many of them). For you this means free credits whenever a new member is admitted this way and buys a minimum amount of credits. At least that’s what my plans look like right now. Let me know what you think!

Why all the fuss?

Well, we unearthed a pretty major error in the part of the program that handles passenger distribution; specifically, it turns out that the smaller airports, which shouldn’t have been handling passenger transfers, were doing so. This was exacerbated by the the 1-leg travel bug; somehow the combination of the two created a situation where passengers could switch between flights in as little as five minutes, the end result of which being that transfer time restrictions were rendered effectively meaningless.

That this has been going on for so long without being noticed much is obviously something of a shock; the cause was buried in an apparently unrelated piece of code, and so managed to escape detection for a while. However, the primary objective of this next patch is to fix it, so we should have a much more realistic passenger environment once we’re done.

What’ll you see out of the next patch?

There are likely to be a few immediately obvious effects; passenger connections at very small airports – that is, those which don’t currently have an indicated minimum transfer time – will no longer take place. Since the connections in question have been essentially invisible so far this may be more of an issue than seems immediately obvious, particularly for airlines with a large number of interlining partners; at the same time, passenger connections at hubs will be following the stated transfer rules much more closely, so ensuring that there is enough time between flights for transfers to occur in these places will be more critical than ever.

How do we test these changes?

A duplicate of the German ‘Kai Tak’ server has been uploaded to our internal test server, Woomera. This server is integrated with the German Aquila account administration system, so you’ll need to have an account on that system if you wish to access it. If you do, you can find the server on your Aquila account administration page. Please take into account the following points regarding the test server:

· Using an existing Kai Tak account on the test server is free; no credit charge will be applied.

· New holdings and airlines will not be activated.

· Please bear in mind that odd behaviour, performance bottlenecks, bugs and server resets may be encountered at any time!

The ultimate goal of this whole process is to test the fixes to the bugs mentioned above in a busy but reproducible and relatively static environment; with this in mind, please refrain from making major changes to your airlines on the test server for the time being. This will be an ongoing process, and the end result of it should, ideally, be the production of effective fixes to these bugs that do not result in disruption to the active servers. Please bear in mind, however, that such disruption may still occur, as the German servers in particular have been working without these restrictions for quite some time.

Comments or questions regarding this information are welcome either on the game forums or through the live chat system.