My Ideas

[Eric.B]

Every Airline simulation has it's own level of realism. The problem is, if you get too realistic and take everything on a day by day case, you will cause the game to be unstable when people decide to expand like crazy or have many competitors.

I agree with you on this point. I have played some AWESOME online airline games (airwaysim) but always ran into a problem of schedule micromanagement. This game was played at real time with other players and was very very sloooooow. (Which means expensive since it costs weekly to play.)

On the opposite end of the spectrum there are a number of airline tycoon games which are extremely simple.

I would like to strike a balance with AM. I want the realism of Airwaysim, with zillion airport support, mass ai, every airplane, etc. But with the ease of use of Koei's Aerobiz.

The hard part will be figuring out how to implement airplane scheduling between the two extremes mentioned in the games above. I have some idea on how to do this. But I'll leave it a blank for now to allow for better ideas to bubble up and to prevent any competition using the idea since we're still a year or two away from starting development.

1. Time: I like the month by month time frame such as in Gear City. Ive seen other sims take it quarterly, but I feel that the game goes way too fast.

We certainly won't be doing quarterly. I am personally leaning toward weekly. As Airlines typically are much more nimble in decisions making than vehicle manufacturers. Of course the other option is real time with adjustable speed. In either case the game will be threaded, so I can have the AI working at the same time the player is playing. Unlike GC where the AI goes after the player ends the turn.

Personally I prefer turn base myself.

2. AI: AI should be competitive but not over or under powered. there will also need to be parameters for different types of airlines. Spirit is a ultra-low cost airlines, while southwest is a low cost. there is a difference, and then there is our full service airlines like American or Delta.

I believe I will end up doing it much like GC. My forte is AI. (Even if it doesn't show due to GC having limited amount of processing time resources!) Each company will be based on real companies in life. They will all have personality behaviors which will influence their decisions. Toughness and amount of AI will be customizable.

If the game is threaded, I'll have more of your CPU to work with. The AI will be better all around.

3. Manufactures: I Like the idea in another thread but I think his initial idea is not what this game would be about (though that would be a neat new sim) I think there should be 4 ways to get planes.
1.Direct Purchase: Directly Purchase from the manufactures
2.Lease(both used and new): Shorter Delivery if deliverered new and used can be obtained immediately. (may or may not be canceled, if so, at a premium unless it passes a certain timeframe)
3.Used: Used Planes on the market(varying condition and Mechanical records :O)
4.Loan: Similar to lease, but is meant to pay off the plane so prices can be somewhat higher per month and can be canceled(at a premium)

I also Like the idea of influencing capacities of aircraft as that is what shaped many early airliners. Maybe allow for a base model that allows users to but a sub code for a special order (737-800ER, 737-800EC(extra capacity), 737-800ES(extra speed), 737-80EP (Enhanced Powerplant). Each extra development requested will require a fee for research and dev. or a minimum order.

Agreed with all of this, and it's probably how we're going to handle it. You'll be able to approach aircraft manufacturers, and they'll be able to approach you. You'll be able to suggest to them what you want in a model. Simple slider system, seats, range, etc. It'll print out the estimated aircraft data on the right. You order X amount of planes and they design it, giving you first dibs.

Random Aircraft generation will already be in the game. As I dislike aircraft manufacturers just disappearing in other games. If I order 10,000 Avro RJ's then Avro should not just disappear. In fact they should still be making new types of aircrafts. So expanding it to allow players to influence will probably be do-able.

4. Game Zone: Just want to fly through NA, or only in Europe? there should be an option that allows you to control the playing zone.

In GearCity we will have this, where you can select a specific map and just play there. For example, just playing in Europe.

However for AM, I do not believe we're going to have this option. The current plan is to have the world map as a sphere. Zooming in will increase the level of detail. As you get closer to the world, you'll see the airports. So if you only want to play Europe, you just zoom into Europe and forget the rest of the world.

We will have the option to change the starting airports. If you really wanted you could just remove all the non-european airports at your game start and then everyone will be in Europe!