Hello, I though about difficulty level and accessibility of the game, and I come up with an idea.
What about making the game as realistic as possible, but the complexity of each feature depend on the difficulty level !
First of all, some peoples think that realism isn’t good in video games, and this is simply not true, it all depend on how this is implemented, and often, realistic feature are implemented in a unrealistic manner which actually make them more annoying than anything else, I’ll quote an example I commented on a video :
A game with basic needs like eating, drinking, car that consume fuel and other can be nice, the only issue is that in most game you stave to death in 10 minutes and your car can only run 15 minutes on a fuel tank, if those mechanics used more realistic time scale it would be more enjoyable.
Having the possibility to become fat or strong in GTA was actually fun and since you aren’t forced to eat, you can’t complain about being fat and loosing ability.
Same for hangover, if the game forced you to get drunk I could understand how annoying it would be, but when drinking is YOUR choice, why would you complain…
So in an aeroport game, actually I am sure most peoples do want realism, but most probably don’t want too much of it as it become hard, restrictive for some things and you need to know what you are doing.
First, what about a realistic time scale ? Real time hours, minutes, seconds, but also realistic walking/taxiing speed, checklist/startup time, realistic construction time etc.
With real calendar (365/366 days a year)
The game engine won’t need more decisions per ingame minutes so we can easily switch between real time to 1 ingame minute = 1 real life second (approximately how it is right now) so performance wise it won’t change anything and it will still allow fast forward speed to be the same as IG minutes per IRL seconds as actually.
Regarding my My idea list (long post) many idea can be used with several difficulty level to make the game accessible to everyone without sacrificing those who want realism (as this is often the case when about aviation).
One example could be the required workers, in more difficult/realistic options vehicles require workers, same for fueling, deicing etc who require workers and not just a vehicle.
Also runway, taxiway (if this is implemented one day) and stand repair could be instantaneous in easy mode and the maintenance time grow depending on the difficulty option to reach a realistic time in realistic difficulty option.
Some simplifications can also be done, like the runway who require multiple equipment and type of maintenance, for example a paved runway require :
Inspection, rubber buildup removal, FOD removal, marking maintenance, regular pavement/grass maintenance.
For easier difficulty, all those could be done at the same time, regardless the vehicle we use (all consider as Runway maintenance vehicle) but in higher difficulty, all those are different and require separate actions and equipment, and at the most realistic level, each FOD removal vehicle only remove a certain type of objects.
All this make the game more difficult as there is more vehicles to buy (more cost), maintain (more regular spending) and more complexity as there is more thing to manage.
We can also alter things like speed of vehicle, in easy mode, there is no need for heavier pushback truck for heavier aircraft for example, but the bigger/more expensive one will be faster, require less maintenance and cost less to maintain for example.
Easier level can have higher acceptation of missing feature for their satisfaction, less higher fees disapproval, higher GA flight density and aircraft being less/no affected by weather conditions.
Stuff like takeoff/landing direction could be dictated by wind direction in higher difficulty, but also runway length requirement and crosswind limit per aircraft, while on easier level runway are one way only and wind don’t affect flights or landing length and aircraft have no crosswind speed limit.
On realistic mode, price, GA attendance, fees price and expectations, maintenance cost and time and frequency and multiples regulations and limitations (runway distances, obstacle clearance etc) could be done.
Most of the things implemented on realistic mode will be used in easier mode too, just with different values or simplified functionality/requirement, making the game enjoyable by casual users who don’t know much about airport and want an accessible game, hardcore simulation fan and those in between.