Hey guys! I was just wondering, but do any of you know if there will be Air Traffic Control or PA audio in the game? My idea of how to implement this would be to have the different types of audio clips play depending on where your screen is looking. For instance, if you were looking at the busyness of your terminals then you would only hear PA audio calling for gate information and boarding calls etc. But if you were looking at your tarmac and runways/taxiways then you would hear the air traffic controllers and planes talking back and forth. Any suggestions or information on this?
Im pretty sure that announcements are going to be added. Im not sure exactly what sounds they are doing where though.
2 Likes
I would love to hear such sounds in the game and I like @AirDawgâs idea of implementing it. Would love listening to ATC and watching their conversation taking effect in plane movement. But I know it probably would not be an easy thing to add to the game.
3 Likes
PA would be relatively straightforward - all you need is a set of basic announcements (XXX Airways flight YYY to ZZZ is now boarding at gate number 4) where the game can fill in the blanks with the required information. Since most airports donât have lots of announcements nowadays, it shouldnât be too hard to simulate this (although if and when different terminals come into play, itâll be more complex - each will have their own PA).
ATC would be brilliant, but Iâm not sure itâll be that easy to do. Beyond âStripe 123 clear for takeoffâ and âCLM 456 clear to landâ Iâm not sure if it would be possible or even desirable to simulate the full conversation.
Ultimately, I donât want these sound effects to be too intrusive into the gameplay (even if they are intrusive at many airports!). As a background, some PA announcements would be brilliant, and having it sync with actual flights would be awesome (and, as Iâve said already, very easily doable). But if thereâs a constant announcement about unattended baggage cycling every five minutes Iâll just end up turning the sound off!
2 Likes
I like the idea of announcements!
They could be a whole range of ones, like âWould the parents of XXX come to Securityâ or " Please donât leave bags unattended" or stuff like that.
If they could do ATC ones, that would be neat, but as @me123 said, other than liftoffs and landing, they would be hard.
2 Likes
the âplease donât leave baggage unattendedâ would get annoying after a while
7 Likes
Itâs already like that in real life. So why not do it? 
In all seriousness, it would get annoying after the 5â000th time.
5 Likes
if there is going to be the annoying announcements, there should be a GUI where you can choose what ATC and announcements you can actually hear
4 Likes
That would be cool. It might even allow custom ones to be added through modding/file editing if done correctly.
2 Likes
If we could just get the AviaVox text-to-speech engine build into ACEO 
2 Likes
I agree, Iâd turn them off.
2 Likes
Would be really good to see these; pretty much every airport Iâve been to recently seems to use these. Would sound really professional. However, Iâm not sure if theyâd be easy/possible/affordable to use in a game.
2 Likes
Iâd love it if the fasten seatbelt sound with a PA announcement announcing a flight arriving and/or departing
3 Likes
Announcements would be cool, but i think it would be kinda hard to hit that sweet spot where it would
- Not get intrusive
- Be somewhat related to your airport (departure from gate 4 when you only have 1 gate⌠breaks immersion for me
) - Be at least somewhat amusing
2 Likes
Great idea however it feels like something that could be added in a later stage.
2 Likes
There are only a set number of conversations ATC has with an aircraft so it shouldnât be too hard to implement.
In order from departing a stand to arriving at a stand itâs: Route clearance, pushback (if required) and engine start clearance, taxi clearance, takeoff clearance, hand-off, landing clearance, taxi clearance.
Technologies to reduce controller workload could also be included such as following the greens during LVPs to improve efficiency at the airport, supported by the visual effect of the green lights doing the pathfinding. Follow the Greens - YouTube
However I donât think it should be a heavily worked on feature given that as an office worker (Which is what the manager essentially is) you may (but probably wouldnât) hear the airport announcements, you almost certainly wouldnât hear the ATC chatter, though you may hear jet/prop/vehicle engines and such.
I think it would be much more immersive to have the airport sounds being done really well, proper engine sounds on take-off run and such, rather than the normal woosh with slight whistle you get in most games involving aircraft which sounds really pathetic.
However inside the terminal I definitely think that the announcements should be there as background noise to the game.
3 Likes
Prison Architect does something similar, where when you zoom into certain areas, you hear different things. I would love to see something similar to that in this game! Almost as if each item has its own sound kind ofâŚ
3 Likes
Shouldnât there also be ground handling? Use of taxiways, holding short etc.
But you could have the ATC as a sort of backgroun murmer, or only the actual take offs / landings and shine with the PAs (I fondly remember the PAs of theme hospital [Patients are reminded not to throw up in the corridors])
2 Likes
I like the discussion. What I can say is that some kind of ATC-chatter will be added. Maybe it will play when selecting an aircraft or the ATC tower. The level of complexity is a trickier question. For us complexity = time. More complex features requires more development time. So every suggestion must be weighed against development time and demand/gameplay enhancement. The same applies for PA-announcements. We know that SFX is vital to getting the right feel and âimmerseabilityâ so we are really thinking hard here. In this area, not much is decided yet so we are open for suggestions.
9 Likes
Ground handling isnât ATC but yes that is also a vital part of the turnaround process. Usually once the loading is done a member of ground staff will bring the loadsheet to the pilot with all the weights and their offset from centre of gravity and stuff. I donât see what this will add to gameplay but communication with the pushback crew is always a good idea.
In terms of use of taxiways and holding short that would come under âtaxi clearanceâ. For example at EGSS Stansted an aircraft pulling off the second high speed from rwy 22 would be told to âtaxi L, left J and contact ground on 121.725â. After contacting ground they may be given further taxi such as âTaxi stand 52R via J and apron Câ. Both of these are taxi clearances. Can also do things like âRYR24TH taxi holding point S1 via D, H and Sâ if you want them to hold at a holding point or just âTaxi to and hold short of Z via Jâ
3 Likes