Prealpha release 10.7

[Gevans]

I successfully downloaded the game.....thankyou.

But, the game crashed after I was nearly finished setting up a new game......when I was hiring pilots.
Which means I have to start over.

Are there automatic settings for things like hiring pilots ?

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So, a couple issues.
First.....when you take a loan out you make payments and pay interest.......but you don't receive the money, which kinda discourages you from borrowing.

Also, does hiring pilots server any useful purpose now.
There not trained for any particular aircraft, there's no flight school and the planes seem to fly just fine without pilots.......lol.

[Gevans]

I started with Korean Air in Seoul in 1990 and I guess there are travel restrictions going to Japan......I was able to fly there after about a 4 month wait.
But then I was not able to buy more than the original 2 slots in Seoul so that ended my game right there.

I can see this game has tremendous potential but maybe I should wait a couple patches before I try it again.

[pjank42]

Hi

The pilots hiring haven't been implemented yet and I have fixed the issue with not being able to take loan.

Regarding the issues with slots I guess it is because the airports are in slot group Coordinated, which means that you reserve slots. At season deadline (check calendar) it is decided if you are able to rent slots or not, and then at season start you can use the slots. That is most likely the reason why you couldn't get your route to Japan. I tested it myself without any issues.

I hope this makes sense :-)

[Gevans]

It does, I didn't know about that before so I'll have to try it again.

Having said that I want to say that the 24 hour flight scheduling system is the best I have seen, very easy to use.......well done !

I noticed when I saved over an already saved game it crashed the game, I know now not to do that but maybe prevent someone from overwriting the save game file.
Do you know why I couldn't buy more slots in Seoul ? It seems to work fine in other cities....... in North America for instance.

One more thing and this is important for a single player game, the ai airlines need to be much better at making routes and expanding........it is very easy to dominate the airline business right now.
I'll try custom setting a couple ai opponents so that they start in the best cities and see if that helps.

Overall I am excited about what's being done here pjank42

[Tjoeker]

The scheduling system was for me the thing that struck me as well. Truly amazing idea. Kudos to Pjank!

Thanks for reporting the saving bug. Pjank will take a look at it when he has the time.


What do you mean by not being able to buy more slots at Seoul?
Is it possible that the AI reserved all slots?
Or did you reserve a slot and were unable to use it?
=>Coordinated slots means you have to wait until the slots are confirmed until you can use them.
I will create a tutorial on this for the next release. (I'm waiting for the next release, because there are a couple of things changing)


And AI needs some attention indeed.
We're currently still trying to get the core of the game running.

[Gevans]

This was at the start of the game so there lots of empty slots in Seoul, not sure why I couldn't get more slots.

The way the AI airlines are set up needs work too.
I just tried starting a North American game in 1990 with me in Minneapolis and 3 ai airlines .......United, Air Canada and Delta.
Air Canada and United started with no planes or routes while Delta started with 21 planes and over 140 routes........it did the same thing 2 games in a row.

And the problem with taking out a loan is still there, ...........oh, I have to re download the game to see that fix don't I......lol.
Maybe a couple other issues can be addressed in the next couple days so I'll wait a bit before I download it again.

[pjank42]

The loan thing is first fixed for the next release :-) And the reason Delta started with routes etc. is because it has predefined startdata.

And please give some further input when you have it :-)

[Gevans]

Would it be better to have some automatic setting for AI airlines that gives all of them a consistent number of starting aircraft and routes .......maybe a handful instead of 25 to 40 aircraft and routes.

Of course I would prefer if the AI airlines would out of the gate start leasing aircraft and set up routes at varying degrees of aggressiveness depending on a difficulty setting....and do this consistently.
Right now this behavior from AI airlines is very basic and inconsistent, I have even noticed them eliminating aircraft they had acquired for no logical reason.

About the only consistency I have noticed from AI airlines is losing money.

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I'll sum up my observations of The Airline at this point in time, because I am not involved in this project I could be off base here.

First, I think this is getting closer to a finished, popular and sell-able product.

The AI needs to be competitive.
The save game feature needs to be reliable without crashing the game.
There needs to be a more automatic downloading system for lots of people to download the game.

These 3 things I think will make this a complete game that the masses will enjoy

Sounds like the pilot issue is already being taken care of and I'm sure there's other things as well like......
Simplify the game setup, in the country selection have a button at the top of each continent that selects all countries in that continent and another that just selects all countries in the world.
Allow Airlines to setup additional hubs, make it expensive but available.
Some streamlining of different player tasks would help like when you have to buy more slots when your scheduling routes and I'm sure there's several other minor improvements as well.

There are other single player Airline games out there but they are either too simplistic and cartoonish or they are needlessly over complicated.
I think what is really needed is a game that is sophisticated and realistic without being overly complex and time consuming to play.
And that seems to be what The Airline Project is trying to achieve.

But my 3 main things to do will dramatically enlarge the number of people who download and play this game that has so much potential.

[Gevans]

I got a little farther in my latest game and some of the AI airlines seem to be doing ok........expanding and making money.

But then I saved the game ......it crashed and that ended that game.

Saving the game needs to work reliably.

[Tjoeker]

Do you have a log file? (it's in the TAP main directory)