NOTE: THIS FEATURE IS CURRENTLY ONLY AVAILABLE IN THE NEW AGE OF FLIGHT SCENARIO.
The whole code for calculating the commonality costs has been fully rewritten (AirwaySim v.2.0).
The biggest change is that once you add a new fleet, the costs of the other fleets stay as they are already - there are no sudden and hidden jumps and the whole system is more predictable. However, there is a new "Fleet Count Bloat Factor" that starts to increase all commonality costs company-wide mildly and logically from the third fleet type onwards. In other words we still have the disadvantage-factor of operating too many fleets, but it now behaves and scales totally differently than before for better realism.
The overall commonality related training and maintenance costs are thus lower than in the past version.
The costs are calculated on a "base cost per fleet type" + "per-aircraft cost in fleet" manner, so operating one single aircraft is relatively more expensive than operating for example 10 aircraft of the same fleet.
Another notable change for realism is that all your aircraft in operational state ( = even the ones with no routes) count towards the commonality costs (since the costs for having the ability to operate the aircraft naturally start when the aircraft is in your possession). Aircraft in long-term storage are still free of all commonality related costs.
The training costs are now calculated in a more realistic manner based on the actual crew numbers needed by the fleet. (This includes also a rather significant bugfix where flight crew numbers were not correctly taken into account by the old commonality model, and thus you will see lower training costs in v.2.0 fleet commonality.)
Aircraft size scales now the costs properly, and is based on the fleet's Size Class (1-4) and the fleet's average size (MTOW).
Training and Maintenance costs have a new internal "Efficiency Factor" that gives you benefits of scale, i.e. large fleet brings the overall costs per aircraft down, in a similar way the Admin costs have already been in the old version.
Aircraft's fleet-specific "Maintenance Cost Factor" is also taken into account, basically giving cost advantages to more modern fleet types.
There is a new "Base Bloat Factor" that increases costs if your fleet is spread to different base airports since they each need their separate support facilities. Naturally if you operate a single fleet at a single base only, no such bloat exists for that fleet's costs.
Costs for small airlines are made a bit lower overall (up to airlines with a fleet of 10 planes or less) to help with the start-up phase.
A new "partial commonality bonus" will be introduced in the next update round of this feature.
The User Interface is also new and v.2.0 mobile-compatible. This will be fine-tuned with more improvements soon, with for example a "commonality calculator" feature.
Other New features
Website's main news system is upgraded to a new publishing system (no visual changes to user interface at this stage).
Improvements
Adjusted a bit the cargo-conversion rates by AI Used Aircraft Brokers (less frequent now).
Minor usability improvements to text editor in airline/alliance description & notepad.
Improved the in-game single-page loader (SPA) where the backend notifications won't load if the page is left open/idle for a long time.
Core website now includes a better detection of temporary and disposable e-mail addresses, also additional anti-spam services added to registration and forum posting.
System now purges unused user accounts more effectively and earlier.
Made some re-organization to some backend files and assets for better management.
Updated Credits store's backend libraries due to security policy changes.
Alliance invitation menu now makes sure the airline is not listed as a possible invitee if it shares HQ/base with any other existing alliance member. (n.b. this does not apply to alliance application from the applying airlines' side since this still within the old UI)
Fixes
Low Credits balance e-mails were being sent out too often.
Notifications of in-game messages did not always pop to the main navigation's notification balloon.
Scheduling page's search data became sometimes corrupted preventing the page load.
Alliance icon of an alliance still in founding state ( = not yet offically formed) showed up in route planning's airline schedule listing.
If an aircraft was in long-term storage and a model conversion (e.g. to freighter) was performed, and the plane was taken out of the long-term storage while the conversion maintenance was still ongoing, the D check included in the conversion was not being performed. Fixed by disabling the long-term storage removal while conversion maintenance is ongoing.
Airline Description, Alliance Description and Airline Notepad have a new text editor, allowing you to style the text with basic styling such as bolding, underlining, centering and lists.
Improvements
Improved a few error messages in the core website.
Technical improvements to the handling of modal dialog windows in the new UI.
Updated again some backend libraries.
Fixes
Oversupply warning did not reset if route was "cargo only".
Route Editor did not show correct payload limitation in the very rare case of route having an additional technical stopover airport where route payload limitation was caused by runway performance at the second leg departure airport and where the aircraft in question had an internal engine/weight fuel usage performance multiplier other than "1.0".
Game Time to Real Time tooltip info conversion was not correct at New Aircraft ordering page.
This round of updates is again mainly focused on backend updates and migrating certain key components to the AirwaySim 2.0 system.
New features
Added a new "Delete Alliance" functionality to the Alliance Control Panel. This function is visible / available if you are the last remaining member in an alliance. (n.b. the alliance is still automatically closed if the last managing member closes his airline - each alliance must have at least one managing member at all times!)
Alliance closure related features upgraded to v.2.0 standard (completely new code). No visible changes to users.
Added real-world alliance name list to the blocked airline/alliance names database.
The game subscription billing module is upgraded to v.2.0 with a new code and new look for the e-mail notifications. The billing happens now every day at 12.00 UTC.
Improvements
Some technical streamlining to the new alliance features. No visible changes to users.
More technical tuning to the new backend processes. No visible changes to users.
Technical upgrade to the database structure of the airports infrastructure expansion system. No visible changes to users.
Fully migrated all remaining parts of handling logos, liveries and icons of airlines and alliances to the new system also in the old UI pages. No visible changes to users.
Fixes
Tooltip popups were too eager to open if there were many on the same page and mouse was moved rapidly over many of them.
Tooltip popup at scheduling page on mobile did not respect display boundaries.
Further updates to backend backup processes, migrating this system fully to the new backend also for the game databases.
Updated the real-world airline name list (i.e. blocked airline names) from current IATA airline members list.
Route minumum length limitations removed from route editor.
Fixes
Used aircraft generation was called too often.
Alliance creation did not assign private forum permissions if the third founding member joined after the alliance was already formed.
Fixed a server configuration issue that rarely could cause error 500 at some of the site's pages.
Achievement icons were not displaying at game's final results page.
Daily airline status e-mails were not moving out.
Time converter for pop-ups (e.g. aircraft delivery time estimate) did not take into account the user's time zone (after switch to the new website).
News of new alliance foundation did not always post to Dashboard.
Fixed a couple of incorrect page redirects after accepting/declining an alliance invitation (depending on the status of the alliance).
Alliance Control Panel's application decline reason textbox changed to normal text input (without rows) to prevent submitting the form when pressing 'enter'.
A new backend calculation system of AirwaySim v.2.0 has been taken into use.
This is a complete technical refresh of the server-side calculation system of the simulation, and is using the same & latest technology that is used in our new website and new game pages, also allowing more flexible management and monitoring of the server-side calculations, and enabling us to build new features with more ease.
At first the new backend calculation will handle:
- The AI brokers' used aircraft market refreshes (posting of the planes to the market, managing their listing prices, and removing them if they are not selling).
- Some other AI brokers' stored aircraft management (making cargo conversions, and scrapping very old planes).
- The airport slot generation (random slot increases at the starting phase of the game, and later the slot changes after airport infrastructure expansions).
There are no visible changes to the users / simulation with this update since the basic functionality remains the same with some small improvements / tweaks.
Improvements
Removed Google Analytics.
Improvements to the site's backend maintenance / cleanup processes.
Improvements to error reporting / alerting systems at the site backend.
Fixes
Removing aircraft from sale on used market did not work on Apple's devices.
French airlines could not open bases in some of the French territories (French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Wallis and Futuna).
The entire process of creating a new Alliance and all related functions have been fully renewed.
The user interface and code is 100%, with mobile-compatible layout of AirwaySim v.2.0.
The Create Alliance page is divided into three sub "control panels", based on the step you are in the process. First is the actual alliance creation, second is managing the invitations, and third step is the listing the alliance in public (which actually creates the alliance forums).
The alliance can now be formed with only two founder airlines, with the option to invite a third one too.
There is a possibility to cancel the sent founder invitations.
Also a new possibility to cancel the entire alliance creation process.
The invited members have the chance to give a reason why they decline the alliance application.
There are no longer any fees or costs or other rules/limits (such as airline age or fleet size) related to alliance creation, they can always be set up directly when the game starts without a setup fee.
Compared to previous, the new third step in alliance creation is that the alliance creation must be confirmed by one of the founding members from the "control panel" of the Create Alliance page. The alliance founders can track on the status of the invitations they send out for founding members, and when at least two founding members have accepted the invite (the original creator + one other), the alliance is eligible for founding.
The alliance creation process now sends better invitation messages, and also in-game news, appropriate for each step of the process.
Improvements
The airline status bar "slider" icons in mobile view are made a bit larger (the airline status bar can be scrolled with slide gesture, or by clicking either of the three dots below it).
Technical improvements on some shared game functions of v.2.0 game core.
Fixes
Aircraft "ramp check" feature incorrectly took into account routes without slots, when determining if the plane was actually flying or not.
The Alliance Control Panel and all related functions have been fully renewed.
The user interface and code is 100%, with mobile-compatible layout of AirwaySim v.2.0. The Control Panel is divided into three sub-sections, Alliance Applications, Alliance Settings and Member Management.
You can now promote members to Alliance Managers directly (and to demote them as regular members).
Alliance applications and invitations, as well as the application rejections, can now have a short text describing the response's reasons.
In-game news are now posted every time a member leaves or joins an alliance.
Alliance Settings now support the new and bigger alliance logo and livery, similar to airline logo/livery.
Member Management section includes an expandable overview of all member airlines, as well as the total alliance membership counts.
Alliance joining / forming limits permanently removed (previously was a game-specific setting, and default required an airline age of 6 months or older, with fleet of 10 planes or more - these limits no longer apply).
Alliance max member count is now always fixed at 40 members, instead of dynamic based on the game capacity.
PLEASE NOTE: All pending alliance invitations / applications have been reset due to the system change, and you should submit them again.
Improvements
Activated some additional security filters in core website systems.
Added the Matomo user analytics, for testing purposes, as a proposed alternative for Google Analytics.
Internal improvements to form data handling.
The mobile sub-menu icon is now dynamic, and better represents the menu status of being a search/filters menu, or a 2nd level navigation menu.
Fixes
AI's pax-to-cargo conversion of aircraft in storage was too fast for game starts. The functionality is disabled at the game start, until the game has run for 4 years.
Rebrand Airline did not post the in-game news correctly in all cases, causing an error 500 to the user.
Fixed a minor issue with search engine XML sitemap.
User profile's viewing page gave out a database error if user had joined a game but had no existing airlines.
Fixed minor display issues with alliance icons and former airline names on Statistics page.
Airline Status Bar dropdown menu showed behind the main content on some tablet devices.
Enter keypress to save route editor did not always work.
AI brokers did not always order new aircraft.
Airline Information page's "Route timetables" section did not display techstop airports correctly.
