01-10-2020, 08:04 PM
Hey there.
Found this game a few days ago and decided to give it a go - I like many kinds of simulation games, but I almost entirely play them offline, which is exactly why this one had me interested. I've been playing for quite a few hours, and thought I'd chime in and maybe start a discussion/get some feedback for the developers. So, here goes.
First off, this game reminds me a lot of Football Manager in the way the UI and menu system is built up - thats actually quite nice, and is a layout that will be familiar to many people since a lot of websites are also built similarly. The major difference between TAP and everything else is, that everything else is much easier to use. In short, it boils down to (imo) a severe lack of quality-of-life features. The absolutely most lacking is the ability to go "back" to the last screen you looked at. This will make airport browsing, checking runway length requirements and building facilities much easier, not to say it'll save countless hours in the long run. This, in turn, will allow us to actually PLAY more, resulting in more testing and helping squash more bugs. I can't really understand how this isn't in, and if it is, it is so hard to find that I haven't managed it - and I have thousands and thousands of hours with all sorts of games and IT-related stuff. If I can't do it, I doubt the average user can. A few other things I'd like to see, which shouldn't be hard to do, would be things like:
- On Airport screen (also on aiport demand screen), have a column show the longest available runway for the airports (this will ALSO alleviate a lot of the back-and-forth). Should fit even on 1080p-displays, and for users with 1440p or wider, there's more than enough room. For lower resolution, make the list scroll sideways as well.
- Make it possible to keep sub-tabs open. For instance, I'd like to keep a tab open for my home base airport at all times, and I'd like to be able to click demand immediately, rather than having to press "home --> my airport --> demand" all the time. Same for the "home" tab, and any other tab.
- Add ability to copy onboard services/facilities between multiple different timespans that AREN'T general. It's time consuming to create the same onboard service for all flights over 5-9 hrs and creating seperate ones for shorter flights/using general.
On the technical side of things (yes, this might be more difficult to do a quick-fix for, I'd like for all systems, even low-end, to allow the game to read more data to memory. There is a lot of lag/slowdown from the game having to load stuff that could easily be loaded to memory, for instance airlines, route data for your own airline, aircraft purchases, airports and much more. My game, where I am admittedly only 8 years in or so, takes up between 150-300 megabytes of memory. By general standards, I run a relatively high-end system with 16GB of RAM, but most normal people today run at least 8GB, so using a little more memory shouldn't be an issue.
One of the more pressing things I've seen mentioned on these forums is the AI. I can see that the AI is already on the to-do list, but I actually believe the more pressing issue is, that the financial side of the game doesn't exist at all. I'd be absolutely fine with not having a decent AI, because making one can take a LOT of effort, if I'd just at least be competing with myself. However, right now the basic "autopilot" formula is: Start game --> Lease 747 --> Fly highest-density route and overcharge massively --> Buy 747 ---> Repeat ---> ??? --> PROFIT $$$. In a year or two, you'll be making so much money that there's no way for you to spend it all. I've read that demand is also being looked at, and that's nice. The more pressing issue is, that maintenance, upkeep on terminal/facilities and so on is non-existent. If only that was actually a thing, then there'd be just a little bit of a challenge for the first few years. Even lease prices could be 10 times higher, and you'd still be making money on the larger routes. In early 1980', I can easily make 20 million dollars a month PER ROUTE I fly with a 747, making the lease on a 747 seem ridiculous. And paying the full purchase price for a new one (about $50million) also just takes 2½ months, meaning if I have two 747's, I can fund the purchase of 747's faster than the aircraft supplier manages to churn them out.
The last thing I'd like to touch on has nothing to do with the game, and all to do with how it is "marketed" if you will. As a relatively new player wanting to try out something new, I was happy to find that the game was free at first. I've tried it out, I quite liked it, and even though there are a lot of issues that need to be ironed out, I am also aware that this is in Alpha, and therefore I am absolutely okay with that. However, my question now is: How do I support this project if I decide later on that I'd like to? Also, what do I get for my support? What I mean is not that I want a reward or something, but there is no way for me to really see how much time is spent on development, how many people are developing, what is next in the pipeline other than a very small teaser, and what the time horizon is for getting some of those features out there. I obviously realise that we are all humans that have a TON of other stuff we need to attend to, but I think it's hard to be a supporter of something if you have no idea when you will get a return on your investment/support. For me persoanlly, that is some of the stuff I'd want to see elaborated on before I'd seriously consider supporting the game financially. It's just not clear enough to me, especially because the website isn't really up-to-date, and while I realise it's not a priority when there's so much stuff to update with the game, I feel it might be a deal-breaker for a lot of people that take a look at this game but then decide to skip it.
Anyway, those are some of my points. I usually don't post on forums for any games, but I really feel like this one has a ton of potential, so I decided to go ahead. I'd also like to end by saying, like I mentioned just before, that I know the developers, like the rest of us, have so many other things to do in life than develop. This post is in no way, shape or form criticism, but simply what I'd really like to see if the game were to REALLY be a big hit with me, and while admittedly it's frustrating that some of them are not in at this point in time, I am absolutely fine with that since this is still an alpha. Thanks for reading, and continue the good work - I can't wait to see this game become more and more fleshed out and get better and better every update
Found this game a few days ago and decided to give it a go - I like many kinds of simulation games, but I almost entirely play them offline, which is exactly why this one had me interested. I've been playing for quite a few hours, and thought I'd chime in and maybe start a discussion/get some feedback for the developers. So, here goes.
First off, this game reminds me a lot of Football Manager in the way the UI and menu system is built up - thats actually quite nice, and is a layout that will be familiar to many people since a lot of websites are also built similarly. The major difference between TAP and everything else is, that everything else is much easier to use. In short, it boils down to (imo) a severe lack of quality-of-life features. The absolutely most lacking is the ability to go "back" to the last screen you looked at. This will make airport browsing, checking runway length requirements and building facilities much easier, not to say it'll save countless hours in the long run. This, in turn, will allow us to actually PLAY more, resulting in more testing and helping squash more bugs. I can't really understand how this isn't in, and if it is, it is so hard to find that I haven't managed it - and I have thousands and thousands of hours with all sorts of games and IT-related stuff. If I can't do it, I doubt the average user can. A few other things I'd like to see, which shouldn't be hard to do, would be things like:
- On Airport screen (also on aiport demand screen), have a column show the longest available runway for the airports (this will ALSO alleviate a lot of the back-and-forth). Should fit even on 1080p-displays, and for users with 1440p or wider, there's more than enough room. For lower resolution, make the list scroll sideways as well.
- Make it possible to keep sub-tabs open. For instance, I'd like to keep a tab open for my home base airport at all times, and I'd like to be able to click demand immediately, rather than having to press "home --> my airport --> demand" all the time. Same for the "home" tab, and any other tab.
- Add ability to copy onboard services/facilities between multiple different timespans that AREN'T general. It's time consuming to create the same onboard service for all flights over 5-9 hrs and creating seperate ones for shorter flights/using general.
On the technical side of things (yes, this might be more difficult to do a quick-fix for, I'd like for all systems, even low-end, to allow the game to read more data to memory. There is a lot of lag/slowdown from the game having to load stuff that could easily be loaded to memory, for instance airlines, route data for your own airline, aircraft purchases, airports and much more. My game, where I am admittedly only 8 years in or so, takes up between 150-300 megabytes of memory. By general standards, I run a relatively high-end system with 16GB of RAM, but most normal people today run at least 8GB, so using a little more memory shouldn't be an issue.
One of the more pressing things I've seen mentioned on these forums is the AI. I can see that the AI is already on the to-do list, but I actually believe the more pressing issue is, that the financial side of the game doesn't exist at all. I'd be absolutely fine with not having a decent AI, because making one can take a LOT of effort, if I'd just at least be competing with myself. However, right now the basic "autopilot" formula is: Start game --> Lease 747 --> Fly highest-density route and overcharge massively --> Buy 747 ---> Repeat ---> ??? --> PROFIT $$$. In a year or two, you'll be making so much money that there's no way for you to spend it all. I've read that demand is also being looked at, and that's nice. The more pressing issue is, that maintenance, upkeep on terminal/facilities and so on is non-existent. If only that was actually a thing, then there'd be just a little bit of a challenge for the first few years. Even lease prices could be 10 times higher, and you'd still be making money on the larger routes. In early 1980', I can easily make 20 million dollars a month PER ROUTE I fly with a 747, making the lease on a 747 seem ridiculous. And paying the full purchase price for a new one (about $50million) also just takes 2½ months, meaning if I have two 747's, I can fund the purchase of 747's faster than the aircraft supplier manages to churn them out.
The last thing I'd like to touch on has nothing to do with the game, and all to do with how it is "marketed" if you will. As a relatively new player wanting to try out something new, I was happy to find that the game was free at first. I've tried it out, I quite liked it, and even though there are a lot of issues that need to be ironed out, I am also aware that this is in Alpha, and therefore I am absolutely okay with that. However, my question now is: How do I support this project if I decide later on that I'd like to? Also, what do I get for my support? What I mean is not that I want a reward or something, but there is no way for me to really see how much time is spent on development, how many people are developing, what is next in the pipeline other than a very small teaser, and what the time horizon is for getting some of those features out there. I obviously realise that we are all humans that have a TON of other stuff we need to attend to, but I think it's hard to be a supporter of something if you have no idea when you will get a return on your investment/support. For me persoanlly, that is some of the stuff I'd want to see elaborated on before I'd seriously consider supporting the game financially. It's just not clear enough to me, especially because the website isn't really up-to-date, and while I realise it's not a priority when there's so much stuff to update with the game, I feel it might be a deal-breaker for a lot of people that take a look at this game but then decide to skip it.
Anyway, those are some of my points. I usually don't post on forums for any games, but I really feel like this one has a ton of potential, so I decided to go ahead. I'd also like to end by saying, like I mentioned just before, that I know the developers, like the rest of us, have so many other things to do in life than develop. This post is in no way, shape or form criticism, but simply what I'd really like to see if the game were to REALLY be a big hit with me, and while admittedly it's frustrating that some of them are not in at this point in time, I am absolutely fine with that since this is still an alpha. Thanks for reading, and continue the good work - I can't wait to see this game become more and more fleshed out and get better and better every update