Airport CEO Beta 8 released

Olof · February 13, 2021, 1:58am

Hello there, airport CEO!

We’re less than one week away from the 1.0 release of Airport CEO and in anticipation of this event we are now rolling out the last default beta version, beta 8! This is another update with extended focus on balancing, performance improvements and some additional bug fixes but also a few new minor features that we’ve deemed crucial to be part of the 1.0 release.

On Thursday at 19:00 CET, Airport CEO will transition out of early access together with the previously announced minor 1.0 celebration surprise. We’ll also include a short 1.0 release letter reflecting on the journey that has been and what’s next for ACEO and the studio moving forward.

We’ve seen a significant decrease in bug reports over the few last week and especially bugs of critical nature such as stalling persons or pathfinding, graphical glitches or crash events - if you are still experiencing any of these issues on a regular basis we ask that you do not only bug report them but reach out with us directly on [email protected] so that we can assist you in expediting the issues.

Release notes - Beta 8.1-2

Bug

[ACEO-38756] - Q300 and Q400 aircraft belt loader position incorrect
[ACEO-39323] - UI text not rendering for MacBooks running the Apple M1 chip
[ACEO-41090] - Small check-in desks will not be booked by booking system despite abolished baggage handling requirement
[ACEO-41259] - Rare deserialization issue can cause gaps in queues
[ACEO-41270] - Animals cannot pathfind across planned structures
[ACEO-41279] - Contractor dismissal can due to serialization number mismatch cause contractor arrival departure loop
[ACEO-41353] - Passengers has a disproportionate interest in seating types other than gate seating when resting at gate
[ACEO-41356] - Missing clamps for index variables can cause loading issues when deserializing vehicles and setting sprites
[ACEO-41360] - Business logotypes isn't always fetching the correct business at reload
[ACEO-41363] - Large weather station unlock text not correctly displayed
[ACEO-41364] - Conveyor belt system statistics can be fed incorrect metrics
[ACEO-41370] - Certain aircraft emergencies can in rare instance not spawn or resolve fully
[ACEO-41371] - Airport logotypes not visible under asphalt or concrete taxiway nodes if playing with "exterior object edge smoothing" disabled
[ACEO-41372] - Secure area exit not always properly recognized by area manager
[ACEO-41374] - Vehicles failing to roam multiple times in succession are not teleported to point of guaranteed access
[ACEO-41375] - Certain buildings not correctly rendered in planning mode
[ACEO-41376] - Stands still allow commercial flights after switching to GA setting
[ACEO-41377] - Missing localization key in emergency response unity R&D project
[ACEO-41384] - Airside shuttle buses do not verify if passengers are in correct secure area when waiting during extended boarding process
[ACEO-41392] - Baggage bay connection check in tutorial can in rare instances fail due to legacy verification method
[ACEO-41397] - Stands not connected to a baggage bay with a baggage claim area connection do not display warning in stand display
[ACEO-41406] - Business logotypes are not spawned correctly from the objects panel
[ACEO-41413] - System does not highlight to player that departure transit output is too low causing passengers to appear arriving and then immediately leaving due to delays and closed check-in
[ACEO-41421] - Catering and waste trucks ignore terminal assignments when interacting with depots
[ACEO-41423] - Wind direction of windsock is not consistent with weather panel and runway headings
[ACEO-41432] - Asphalt or concrete tiles cannot be placed beneath runway ramps
[ACEO-41433] - Staff can have a maximum GPA score of 2.0 out of 4.0
[ACEO-41435] - Part of runway approach light renders below decoration tile
[ACEO-41437] - Tutorial indicates baggage bays can be placed outside secure zone
[ACEO-41438] - Stuck and then teleported service vehicles with an active job task cannot always return to service vehicle area stalling the job task
[ACEO-41451] - Service trucks can in extremely rare instance not complete a job task due to displaced baggage bay entry point
[ACEO-41464] - Conveyor belts error message says it is outside when it is actually inside
[ACEO-41467] - Label in management overview panel missing "small" prefix when instructing on lack of weather station to read weather data
[ACEO-41469] - Runway ramps can in rare instances fail to render correctly
[ACEO-41471] - Wrong keyboard shortcut displayed in baggage tutorial
[ACEO-41485] - Contractors cannot build terminal immediately above them even if no transition item is available
[ACEO-41494] - Tiles planned for demolishing cannot be cancelled and restored
[ACEO-41498] - Passengers can in rare instances ignore stair trucks when deboarding aircraft requiring elevated assistance
[ACEO-41510] - Demolishing airside shuttle bus stops does not remove zones
[ACEO-41513] - Building doors on very large map causes notable performance degradation
[ACEO-41522] - Missing list assignment cast in catering depot sorting can cause sort to not be correctly executed and catering trucks fetching wrong depots
[ACEO-41529] - Copy and pasting bathrooms can in rare instances not include all copied items
[ACEO-41544] - Certain transit structures cannot be planned
[ACEO-41550] - Deserialized vehicles can in extremely rare instances end up outside of world bounds
[ACEO-41561] - Baggage offloaded from arriving flights can in extremely rare cargo bay setup fetch incorrect nearest conveyor belt node
[ACEO-41565] - Free pavement exploit when upgrading roads in planning mode
[ACEO-41573] - Contractor deployment amounts can in rare instances be deserialized as negative
[ACEO-41586] - Pathfinding penalty too low on automated boarding desks
[ACEO-41587] - Medium check in desk is missing in the medium aircraft step in tutorial
[ACEO-41589] - Structure upgrades now working for multiple-selected objects
[ACEO-41590] - Minor typo in global economy emergency description text
[ACEO-41591] - Aircraft not requiring de-icing when performing taxi request to runway can invoke a "not de-iced" emergency at point of takeoff
[ACEO-41601] - Airside shuttlbe buses can in extremely rare instances get stuck at stop if related flight is dismissed or cancelled during boarding procedure
[ACEO-41615] - Missing description on catering depot production slider
[ACEO-41621] - Missing null reference validation can cause delivery vehicles to get stuck if delivering to a removed transit structure
[ACEO-41623] - Vehicle position world boundary verification can cause vehicles to not spawn
[ACEO-41633] - UI scaling causes manual flight planning to not be able to plan on certain time slots
[ACEO-41635] - Contractors attempting to access construction orders in sealed off area can stall building process
[ACEO-41639] - Texture compression causes template creation routine to fail
[ACEO-41652] - Upgrading to jetway while looking on upper floor doesn't toggle jetway until a floor change is performed
[ACEO-41664] - Foundation planned for construction deserialized in weird patterns on load
[ACEO-41665] - Placed logos can in rare instances be rendered with clipped edges
[ACEO-41685] - Service vehicles assigned to stands can in extremely rare instances loose their job task connection causing a flight job task completion deadlock
[ACEO-41696] - New Schengen mode can cause all flights generate as international flights
[ACEO-41704] - Transportation vehicles can wait too long before entering a transit structure parking
[ACEO-41711] - Vehicles can briefly drive on the left side of the road when approaching certain stands
[ACEO-41713] - Conveyor belt direction can be automatically set as incorrect in very specific scenarios when placing
[ACEO-41722] - De-icing pads do not invoke job task creation status correctly as a result of new connection manager mismatch
[ACEO-41726] - Items cannot be selected if a vehicle is parked below on a different floor
[ACEO-41728] - International zone does not get removed when demolishing terminal
[ACEO-41731] - In-flight emergencies are not always progressed correctly when emergency vehicle interacts with them
[ACEO-41736] - Reversed yes and no option when setting international status on stand
[ACEO-41737] - Cancelling a contractor contract while contractors are enroute causes them to be stuck at the airport after deboarding
[ACEO-41738] - E-mail deletion not reliable
[ACEO-41742] - Added terminal assignment container on service vehicle parking object to highlight relation to or lack of terminal coverage
[ACEO-41748] - Uncaught null reference exception in aircraft node check can cause aircraft to stall or be abruptly despawned
[ACEO-41752] - Heatmap taxiway congestion not rendering full map
[ACEO-41765] - Transition item max number reached block triggered too early
[ACEO-41768] - Medium radar not animated after construction
[ACEO-41775] - Approaching aircraft do not always distribute evenly across available runways
[ACEO-41776] - Ambulance aircraft can in rare instances randomly despawn or stop working if multiple ambulance flights are planned
[ACEO-41779] - Removing planned stands do not update taxiway tiles
[ACEO-41790] - Buses are not guaranteed to visit certain bus stops
[ACEO-41799] - Despawned emergency flights can in rare instances not correctly clear
[ACEO-41802] - Wrong tooltip on baggage bay icon in terminal view
[ACEO-41806] - Embraer E195 aircraft beacon light position is wrong
[ACEO-41808] - Extremely rare out of range exception can cause right click ability to break
[ACEO-41813] - Crosswalk can in rare instances render below aircraft stand
[ACEO-41814] - Stand doesn't always connect properly with nearby roads
[ACEO-41820] - Elevators can be extended to planned floors
[ACEO-41826] - Some statistics labels are not localized
[ACEO-41844] - If game is not paused, runway ramp upgrades in upgrade panel disappears after a short while
[ACEO-41857] - Lack of check-in desks flight warning notification does not always clear after check-in completion
[ACEO-41860] - Aircraft can in rare instances get stuck or override each-other as a result of a faulty double pathfinding request
[ACEO-41867] - Fixed large pushback truck parking is partly located on the road
[ACEO-41885] - Person cars can permanently park and remain at staff parking lots without deboarding employees
[ACEO-41887] - Underground roads can be populated with road node restriction X symbol
[ACEO-41897] - Vehicles can in extremely rare instances target zero vector when deserializing into performing job tasks
[ACEO-41898] - Flights with ongoing catering deliverance can in rare instances when boarding is completed deadlock
[ACEO-41907] - Persons can clip through floors when passing passport checkpoints
[ACEO-41911] - Significant performance degradation when using heatmaps
[ACEO-41919] - Fire trucks extinguishing GA emergency flights wait at stand for inspection while flight continues immediately to hangar
[ACEO-41940] - Deactivated light on specific aircraft can cause flight spawning to break

New feature

[ACEO-33365] - Verified MDKs for all implemented default aircraft
[ACEO-41689] - Added support for Schengen visa rules via gameplay setting toggle
[ACEO-41708] - Roads can now restrict allowed vehicle type via right click panel (similar to taxiway node setting)
[ACEO-41878] - Currently loaded save name and airport overview now visible in save and load panels
[ACEO-41902] - Load and save panels now show a thumbnail of the selected airport to be loaded or overwritten

Improvement

[ACEO-40515] - Added notification to highlight first arrival of GA and commercial flight
[ACEO-41412] - Logos are now placeable directly on grass
[ACEO-41415] - Slightly improved pathfinding calculation speed for terminal layouts with excessive amounts of floor transition items
[ACEO-41520] - Added better compression for mod textures to decrease RAM and VRAM footprint
[ACEO-41531] - Added top limit on number of transition items an area can have in order to reduce pathfinding load on terminals with extreme amounts of transition items
[ACEO-41540] - Restricted small check-in desks to only handle check-in of small flights (due to now allowing check-in despite baggage handling being enabled)
[ACEO-41559] - Mod texture compression now user toggleable via graphics setting
[ACEO-41604] - Truncated texts now show immediately on mouse pointer hover
[ACEO-41707] - Added short section in terminal tutorial part regarding the highly beneficial usage of path analysis and heat maps when there are persons who cannot move about the terminal
[ACEO-41747] - Baggage bay now verifies that vehicle path to and from aircraft stand is executable
[ACEO-41796] - Updated airport database
[ACEO-41866] - Slightly increased passenger vending machine snack desire
[ACEO-41899] - Added gameplay toggle setting to override max transition items per area
[ACEO-41922] - Enabled threaded pathfinding for aircraft to reduce performance load on very large airports
[ACEO-41927] - Fences now automatically removed when placing structures on top

Update notes

Road node restrictions

Roads can now be restricted to certain vehicle types through a right click option, similar to how you set specific rules for taxiways. Public roads can be restricted for its most common vehicles such as person cars, taxis and buses while service roads can be restricted by its service vehicle types. For example, you can now by right clicking on public roads restrict access to that road by defining taxis as the only allowed vehicle types, while via service roads you can now seal off areas to only cater for service trucks.

Schengen rules

By default, Schengen rules ow apply for flight generation across Europe. This is in response to bug reports concering a lack of flights in certain airport size cases for countries across Europe. Going forawrd with the default Schengen setting, flight generation across airports that are placed in Europe should be significantly imrpvoed.

And yes… as usual… loads of bug fixes and balancing!

This update too, like its previous predecessors contains a good amount of fixes, balancing and most notably performance improvements. We’ve made multiple changes to system that in specific cases have had a significant performance impact of airport layouts that diff compared to the norm and will continue to keep these types of reports under close consideration.

See you all on Thursday!

// Alexander, Fredrik & Olof - Apoapsis Studios

Olof · February 13, 2021, 1:59am

Attention! As part of this release we’ve as you can see finalized all remaining MDKs and uploaded them to the folder. Read more about airline modding with MDKs here: Airport CEO | Modding

Scottie · February 13, 2021, 6:40am

Great work Apoapsis! Looking forward to 1.0 release. You have made a great and enjoyable game to play!

Jinxed_K · February 13, 2021, 7:14am

Not sure if it’s related to ‘[ACEO-41520] - Added better compression for mod textures to decrease RAM and VRAM footprint’ but modded airlines that worked in Beta 7 are now rendering with invisible fuselages in Beta 8.
Apologies for opening bug report but the number disappeared when I alt tabbed out.

Scottie · February 13, 2021, 8:20am

Oh my god! Now that’s BUGGED.

andyc · February 13, 2021, 8:47am

For some reason it’s called Experimental

EG0611 · February 13, 2021, 9:34am

There is a massive bug: Night construction illumination is causing a lot lag. There is no lag during day and during night when I don’t construct things.

There are 2 general bugs that I can’t report via Bug Report system:

Realistic International Stands explanation is not fitting into the screen:

Staff information card is confusing. I don’t know if full Bladder bar is a good thing or empty Bladder bar is a good thing. Same for energy and performance. I think on these 3 bars; red means something bad and green means something good no matter filled or not.

OKChris · February 13, 2021, 10:53am

Not sure what you mean in the second picture. If the bar is filled, it means the need is satisfied or that the skill/productivity is high. If you find the bars confusing, just look at the colours.

EG0611 · February 13, 2021, 11:13am

Yeah and that needs to be more certain for new players. Like bladder is “if bladder bar is full, staff needs to go to bathroom” or “if bladder bar is full, staff went to bathroom and satisfied himself”

looksgoodfp · February 13, 2021, 12:40pm

As the Beta phase is coming to an end, can i still expect longer runways at all? Someone in another post said this would probably happen after map size was increased, so i kept expecting… But i’m losing hope already

OKChris · February 13, 2021, 4:35pm

Sorry, but I disagree. I think the colours make it easy to understand for new players, and I haven’t seen any complaints besides yours.

andyc · February 13, 2021, 5:58pm

ACEO-41559 Modded aircraft look terrible in Beta 8. All graphics settings are the same. Tried it with and without the VRAM setting as well.

Screenshot 1: Beta 8 Experimental
Screenshot 2: Beta 7 Default

Rubble · February 13, 2021, 6:00pm

Yes, I thought so too the was a distinct lowering of the quality. Logos too.

Hap0vecXD · February 13, 2021, 6:39pm

I agree, logos look terrible in Beta 8.

davixolp · February 13, 2021, 6:41pm

great job

twocflyer · February 13, 2021, 7:22pm

I went to adjust the Graphics Level and now its jumping between fast, simple, good, and hight and giving me the spinning ball of death between each and I cannot get out of it or save it. The slider keeps moving up and down. it doesn’t stay on one option.

Update…
Trying to adjust it in game main menu before I load the airport and its doing the same thing. jumping around. I cannot get it to sick on one option let alone the option I want

VOID · February 13, 2021, 10:59pm

Hope it gets fixed soon

twocflyer · February 14, 2021, 2:22am

Just noticed this. I did Planning build of foundation for the terminal on the right then saved and exited the game and then loaded back in and did planning tool of foundation for the terminal on the left. but now its brighter than the rest? is this suppose to be?

Shrubadubdub · February 14, 2021, 6:43pm

[ACEO-41540 2] - Restricted small check-in desks to only handle check-in of small flights (due to now allowing check-in despite baggage handling being enabled)

This causes an issue with the tutorial. Right now, it asks you to build a medium stand in Step 1 of the International Airport Tutorial, but passengers can’t board any flights on that stand until you get to Step 3 where you research baggage handling, which unlocks medium check-in desks.

Olof · February 15, 2021, 9:43am

We’ll add a graphics setting for the texture compression!

Did you bug report this?