Using Logic in Gameplay

## Introduction

The beautiful part of realistic simulation games like this one is because we are able to use our logical reasoning and deduction to help us make in-game decisions. This means that there is no need to remember a completely new set of logic flow just for the sake of the game. And it also means that Google is another best friend, and if you have been to an airport and seen how an airport works functionally, most of that knowledge can help you understand why certain decisions in game should be made as such!

For this article, we will look at some common mistakes and questions where an application of some logic will definitely make things easier to understand.

## Why is having too many General Aviation bad?

So what is General Aviation? A quick Google search reveals the definition by the ICAO and the FAA, as well some examples for General Aviation. They all have 2 common characteristics - one, they are non-scheduled flights, and two, they are done usually on smaller planes designed for such purposes.

What does this mean for our game context?

* They are **non-scheduled flights**. Meaning, you cannot schedule when they land or when they depart, and they basically come in odd intervals. You have no control over them.
* They are done on **smaller planes**. Meaning, these planes would likely be smaller and take a longer time to taxi off the runway or taxi on the taxiway.

So now you look at this. Fourteen fresh General Aviation slots. Is there a problem? Looks beautiful, am I right? Apparently you maximize profits because you allow more planes to come in?

And then you realize that these small little planes frequently get stuck and clog up the runway. Or the taxiway. And now you are thinking, "well this must be a game bug, because these planes have been stuck there for ages!"

But is it really a game bug?

Going back to what we had established earlier about what General Aviation is for, remember how we mentioned that we have no control over these planes? Well this is basically what happened with these set of planes. Because we have no control over their arrival or departure, their movements may be at the wrong times, resulting in the congestion issue you have seen in the second image.

And then some people may ask, "Look I build the Air Traffic Control Tower, it says it helps to reduce traffic and prioritize scheduled flights, so this should work, but why am I still facing issues?"

But if you have so many General Aviation slots open on the ground, your General Aviation would still fight to come in, yes? And what are you going to do with those waves of General Aviation? Same issue as before - you cannot control them. Look at all the major busy hubs out there. If they have any General Aviation, they probably have a dedicated runway to deal with them. Else, they would likely have many strict restrictions about General Aviation being controlled. But in this game, we go for the generic case - you cannot control General Aviation. As such, what can you do about them? Don't have so many open slots!

Everything in Help Fixing Delays and Dealing With Flight Cancellations hopefully makes sense to you now.

## Why do I need to stagger my flights?

This is a beautiful question - there are 2 perspectives you can use to understand this situation, and both perspectives make sense, whether if you read them independently, or read them together.

### From the Perspective of Congestion

You told all the flights to land and depart at the same time. But you only have a single runway and a single taxiway. If each plane uses around 5-8 minutes to land on the runway and leave the runway before the next plane can land, are you not going to get delays?

So one day we had a player come into our community support Discord, asked why he was having schedule delays. Of course, we would link them Help Fixing Delays since that support article solves exactly this issue. Then he showed us his scheduling. "I wanted to fill up all the gaps because we cannot get PM flights over to EAM." Well, that PM over to EAM is something about design that the developers will never fix, but it is basically similar to airports trying to wind down late at night so as to do some clean-up and reset before the next day. But would sacrificing one slot just to stagger make much difference? Put this alongside a lot of General Aviation ramps. Or imagine if you do this with a few more ramps. If one plane needs 5-8 mins to use the runway, six planes need 30-50 mins to use the runway? And then we still have not taken into account the planes that have to leave at that time period as well (the ones before you next batch of flights). Put all these congestion issues together, and ask yourself again - Why am I facing delays?

And after understanding the above, ask yourself the question again - "So why do I have to stagger my flights?"

### From the Perspective of Resources and Costs

A series of planes bunching up and landing at such short intervals between each other exists in real life. It is called **"banked hubs"**. They usually exist for big real life carriers at their "hub" airports, for example, Emirates in Dubai, Delta in Atlanta, or China Southern in Guangzhou.

A quick Google Search on this term banked hubs shows a forum thread discussing what is the benefits of a banked hub (versus one where flights are staggered throughout the day, known as a **"rolling hub"**). And reading through the forum thread, you would soon realise there are some problems with a banked hub - ground congestion, requiring lots of staff to be prepared at one go, and lots of space required to land the flights.

Now look at your terminal and your taxiway. You only have 1 runway, 1 taxiway. How are you going to bank the flights? Then look inside your terminal. Can your shops cater to 400-500 pax coming in at one go? Can your check-in services deal with that? What about your services? Enough fuel stations and catering buildings?

Simply put, you don't have such resources. Even if you do, your airport will be so congested that when people fight for access to the same shop, they will be turned away from the queue and become unhappy. If you have to open way more shops than normal just for you to be able to do this - then ask yourself, is the costs worth it? Are you getting less profits because of this?

### Conclusion

If you are not convinced by one of the perspectives above, read the other one. If you still think some minor delays would not be too bad, and it is unavoidable, than think about why we have to stress the importance of staggering. Imagine if your bus gets delayed by 1-2 minutes because of traffic congestion. Or imagine if your flight lands 15 minutes late. If you were in that situation, will you be angry and frustrated? The same applies in game, and while the airlines try to land their planes on time, the thing you have to do is to make sure you are not the issue holding up the airlines' punctuality. If you do, then you are not going to get that perfect grade for your contract, and collect those sweet Airline Tokens necessary to unlock other airlines.

So really, avoid those delays by staggering your flights. Help Fixing Delays and Dealing With Flight Cancellations will have explained the exact details to you as well.

## Why does my pax not want XXX shop?

Imagine you are a tourist taking a budget airline to an island resort. For Americans, its taking Southwest to the Caribbean. For Europeans, its taking Ryanair or Easyjet to the Tenerife Islands. For Asians, imagine taking VietJet Air or AirAsia to Bali or Phuket. If you intend to spend little on your travel expenses, would you go to the airport to buy luxury goods?

Now consider the other extreme. You are a business traveler, flying First Class to get to London for a conference. What would you be looking for first? Probably your business lounge. As for food options outside of the lounge? You probably don't want the cheap bread and coffee. You probably want some high-end restaurant so that you can treat your secretary to a luxurious meal before you board the plane for a long journey to London.

Just like in real life, the various airlines in game represents different class of airlines. For simplicity sake, the game decided to group passengers and their demands at the airport by the airline they are taking. There are some airlines which is for the masses - they want very little things. There are others which is for the adventurers (Worldwide Airlines is one) - they would want some Camping Gear. Since passengers of different airlines have different needs, therefore they do not want shops which they have no need for. And this is why we request everyone to read Pax Needs - its basically a survey report of the pax's satisfaction of your airport, presented to you in a nice format for you to understand and improve your airport.

## Alpha: What are Ceramic Thrones?

The entire purpose of this article is to tell you to use real life logic. So...why not you Google and let me know what you see?

## Can I order more fuel than necessary?

Fuel trucks are a business - they bring in fuel from somewhere outside, and then load into your Fuel Depot. If your Fuel Depot is full, where are they going to put in fuel?

So the truck will just leave after filling your depots to the brim. The rest of the fuel? Wasted, and not refunded.

## How many airlines should I run at one time?

First of all, have you read Pax Needs? Do you know what needs your airline(s) require?

And then you look at your terminal space. Before you decide to be lazy and complain about the developers not producing a second terminal (they are, as of writing, but FCO was not built in a day, and neither will your second terminal be ready soon), think about the existing restrictions that you have regarding space - you have limited.

And then take a look at the "specialized" shops which your airlines told you to run. Those shops which you unlock in the Airline Pass, and is the favorite of that airline's passengers. See how many of those shops can you operate.

With all those restrictions in mind, have you figured out why we don't like running just 1 airline in the airport? Because all those specialised shops cannot handle the entire airport's worth of passengers!

Meanwhile, if you have so little terminal space, can you cater to a lot of airlines and their various specialised shops? Are you trying to make your airport as congested as a packed sardine, or make it spacious so pax know where to walk from and where to walk to and how to walk there?

With these concerns in mind, a suggestion we tend to have is to run 2-3 airlines at one go. Pair up the airlines based on when they tend to arrive. Each airline prefers a certain set of timings for their contracts, and combined with understanding each airline and their needs, you would be able to come up with the perfect combination that allows you to complete the airlines in a fast and easy manner.