EDIT August 28
Confirming that there is a performance bonus paid out each time you send off a plane on-time. Because it isn’t presented in the economy window, I didn’t notice it nor factor it into my calculations. New calculations on the way
EDIT August 29
The game-play theory the below analysis is based off of is that “The game economy allows slow progress through the small stand phase, then, upon reaching mediums, allows for an almost unlimited expansion rate.” Calculations were made. It seemed that the game’s ballance really was tipped strongly in favor of medium stands, and that this could be proven empirically.
Airport CEO, it turns out, is really bad at giving accurate and holistic financial data in the various places one might look for it. The calculations were very wrong, due to the omission of a “performance bonus” that the player receives for every on-time turnaround. (this bonus is not shown on hourly reports, even though it can constitute more than half the income of a small stand).
I’m frankly rather demoralized: I thought I’d done a good job relating the numbers to the experiences, and that having done so would enable me to have useful feedback and perspective on the game’s ballance. That is certainly not true of the work that has been done and here presented.
I’m continuing to try to model enough of the game to generate useful numbers, but I’m very uncertain about my odds. I really, really, want to contribute something, especially in light of the work and occasional frustration I’ve now accumulated on the task.
What I’ve got right now is this:
- There are several places in game where presented economic data is wrong or vital data is missing. This should really be addressed. Three specifics are the omission of performance bonuses from hourly reports, the inconsistent purported upkeep costs of the runway (when selecting it to build, and when clicking on a built one — both are unique and wrong.), and the upkeep cost of grass taxiway. Given the number of errors, I would at minimum do a double check pass over whatever file these values are defined in, and probably develop a function that auto-populates the cost and upkeep fields directly from the definition the game uses internally.
- The ballance of the game is… weird… inconsistent. For example, a 10x10 pad of taxiway costs more to operate than a medium stand with jetway…
- The economy works even more simply than I’d postulated. A couple stands pay for infrastructure. Your 3rd or 4th small stand is profitable. Once you’re profitable, you gain capital exponentially. The reason small to medium feels slow is because you’re low on the exponential curve, and you’re squirreling away money for the 1-1.5M investment required for your first medium, as opposed to immediately investing that money in expansion. This sounds like economics 101, and it’ll be an intresting and fun task to ballance.
I’m working on making stand ballance more sensible. I still think that some of the changes I suggested, along with the introduction of sub-medium stands, would smooth the game considerably. As I try to hone in on ballance however, I’m confronted by more and more systems that are not stands that need to be better balanced too. Its complicated. That’s what we love about the genre eh?
End of Edits
I grew up playing tycoon games and loving aviation. This game is very special to me and I really want to see it go great places.
I’ve played through the game a few times now, up to the point of having a medium airport. I lose interest once the money is coming in faster than I can spend it. In my first airports, I started with small stands, and basically maxed out on offered flights with these stands before building my first medium. That was the form I most enjoyed the game in. More recently, I’ve figured out that with a loan, I can get a two-medium-stand operation off the ground and profitable pretty easily. I’ve kindof gotten tired of that though, becasue as soon as the nail-biting of “will I build all the things and get my airport open before I’m in the red” is over, my income grows to humongous and there is no more challenge. I could go back to harder difficulty setting that force small stands first, but those early times are long and slow, and the thing I’m striving to be able to afford: the medium stand and all it requires, will basically end my fun once I’ve obtained it.
The progression through the game needs some love.
I’ve put a lot of thought into the problem, ultimately creating a spreadsheet to pull figures from. The solution to a balance problem is an adjustment of numbers, so a conversion between qualitative “this feels wrong” and quantitative methods is essential.
I calculated three figures of merit for a stand:
- Profit per Day
- Days to Repay
- Profit per Day per Million
Profit per Day sums landing fees, parking fees, and passenger handling fees for an average flight, then multiplies by the number of flights in a day given 30 minute spacing: decimals are allowed. The difference between this sum and the daily operating cost is the profit per day. Support infrastructure is deliberately ignored.
Days to Repay divides the stand’s construction cost by its daily profit. My airport building typically happens in waves: build stands, wait to have money for more stands, repeat. In a crude check, a given save game of mine had gone through 4 waves of medium stand construction over 31 game days, so about 8 days between waves. The calculated days to repay for medium stands is 6. Crude, but gets you to the right ballpark. (It will pretty much always miss low, seeing as no account is made of support infrastructure) This figure has been a pretty good predictor of the reality of most of my playthroughs. It becomes most meaningful in the context of comparing different stand types though.
Profit per Day per Million is simply Profit per Day multiplied by the number of stands you could build with 1 mil. The gameplay implication is that if you have 1 million to invest in plopping down stands, you’ll earn Profit per Day per Million by investing it in the given stand type. If one type of stand has a much higher Profit per Day per Million than the others, then you would always choose that stand over a competing stand.
So. Where are we currently?
Base Cost | Profit per Day | Days to Repay | Profit per Day per Million | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Small Stand (Grass) | 20,000 | 5,329 | 3.8 | 266,429 |
Small Stand | 60,000 | 5,329 | 11.3 | 88,810 |
Medium Stand | 150,000 | 24,067 | 6.2 | 160,444 |
This confirms pretty much all of our suspicions. Grass stands, with no disadvantages and coming in at 1/3 the cost of their alternatives, are pretty great. People like me who can’t stand grass have a longgg early game, with the concrete under a small stand struggling to pay itself off. Then we hit medium stands, and even before considering the operational perks, find ourselves with a stand almost twice as cost effective as small stands. This means that growth explodes when we hit mediums, and that once we get there, there is absolutely no reason to continue to have small stands at all. Not Ideal.
The nice thing is that now all of our gripes are expressed numerically, which means we can set targets and try to achieve them with the glory of instant calculations in a spreadsheet. In this experiment, I wanted to find a balance point game-pace wise somewhere between the small concrete and medium stand. I also wanted all stand types to be relevant at all points in the game, with no one type being inherently superior to the others. I set a target of 9 days to repay and 110,000 profit per day per million.
I took the liberty of aspirationally road-mapping stats for five stand sizes, if nothing else for added context. These sizes are small, submedium, medium, large, and extra large. I also mapped jetway and non-jetway variants of each. Small stands don’t have a jetway variant and large and extra large can be largely disregarded in their non-jetway form. I first mapped for medium quality, and then used those values to create low (grass) and high quality variants with different ballance goals.
A quick peek at the results for the core of the progression:
Base Cost | Profit per Day | Days to Repay | Profit per Day per Million | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Small - Ground | 52,500 | 6,148 | 8.5 | 117,102 |
Sub Medium - Ground | 110,000 | 12,910 | 8.5 | 117,364 |
Medium - Ground | 145,000 | 16,696 | 8.7 | 115,145 |
Medium - Jetway | 175,000 | 19,863 | 8.8 | 113,505 |
Large- Jetway | 350,000 | 37,506 | 9.3 | 107,159 |
Extra Large- Jetway | 600,000 | 62,573 | 9.6 | 104,288 |
I’m very happy with this. The game starts with somewhat more manageable small stands, and progresses smoothly into the sub medium size I want so dearly. From there, one can push a little further to medium ground based stands, or push hard for the jetways, or viably combine the approaches. Medium to large is significant but not monumental, and the extra-larges are no joke. The progression slowly yields slightly longer sober-ups between building sprees, and big aircraft are operationally easier with less flights in total, but have a slightly lower theoretical profitability ceiling.
This is one of many ways to set up the progression, and its play testing that would determine if its a good way. The obvious counter point to this progression is one where each tier is significantly harder to reach than the last. I’m not saying that this is the end all way to ballance a game, just that this seems like one good thing to try.
This is the conclusion of the post. The remainder is a deeper dive into the numbers.
Figures for the game in its current state
Base Cost | Upkeep/Day | Turnaround Time | Parking Fee | Landing Fee | Average PAX | PAX Fee | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Small - Grass | 20,000 | 500 | 3 hours | 100 | 400 | 5 | 15 |
Small | 60,000 | 500 | 3 hours | 100 | 400 | 5 | 15 |
Medium | 150,000 | 1000 | 4 hours | 200 | 1500 | 80 | 15 |
Proposed Figures
SMALL | Base Cost | Upkeep/Day | Turnaround Time | Parking Fee | Landing Fee | Average PAX | PAX Fee |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
LQ, Ground | 15,750 | 1200 | 4 hours | 60 | 500 | 5 | 10 |
MQ, Ground | 52,500 | 435 | 3 hours | 120 | 500 | 5 | 10 |
HQ, Ground | 67,500 | 365 | 3 hours | 120 | 500 | 5 | 10 |
SUB-MEDIUM | Base Cost | Upkeep/Day | Turnaround Time | Parking Fee | Landing Fee | Average PAX | PAX Fee |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
LQ, Ground | 35,000 | 2250 | 4 hours 15 minutes | 80 | 1000 | 25 | 10 |
MQ, Ground | 110,000 | 650 | 3 hours 30 minutes | 160 | 1000 | 35 | 10 |
HQ, Ground | 145,000 | 525 | 3 hours 30 minutes | 160 | 1000 | 35 | 10 |
MQ, Jetway | 135,000 | 800 | 3 hours | 160 | 1000 | 40 | 10 |
HQ, Jetway | 170,000 | 700 | 3 hours | 160 | 1000 | 40 | 10 |
MEDIUM | Base Cost | Upkeep/Day | Turnaround Time | Parking Fee | Landing Fee | Average PAX | PAX Fee |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
LQ, Ground | 60,000 | 3250 | 5 hours 30 minutes | 105 | 1500 | 50 | 10 |
MQ, Ground | 145,000 | 800 | 4 hours 30 minutes | 210 | 1500 | 60 | 10 |
HQ, Ground | 185,000 | 725 | 4 hours 30 minutes | 210 | 1500 | 60 | 10 |
MQ, Jetway | 175,000 | 1150 | 4 hours | 210 | 1500 | 80 | 10 |
HQ, Jetway | 220,000 | 945 | 4 hours | 210 | 1500 | 80 | 10 |
LARGE | Base Cost | Upkeep/Day | Turnaround Time | Parking Fee | Landing Fee | Average PAX | PAX Fee |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
MQ, Jetway | 350,000 | 2700 | 4 hours 45 minutes | 420 | 3500 | 165 | 10 |
HQ, Jetway | 435,000 | 2100 | 4 hours 45 minutes | 420 | 3500 | 165 | 10 |
EXTRA-LARGE | Base Cost | Upkeep/Day | Turnaround Time | Parking Fee | Landing Fee | Average PAX | PAX Fee |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
MQ, Jetway | 600,000 | 5500 | 5 hours | 600 | 5000 | 380 | 10 |
HQ, Jetway | 750,000 | 4500 | 5 hours | 600 | 5000 | 380 | 10 |
Extended Results of Proposal
SMALL | Base Cost | Profit/Day | Days to Repay | Profit per Day per Million |
---|---|---|---|---|
LQ, Ground | 15,750 | 3,280 | 4.8 | 208,254 |
MQ, Ground | 52,500 | 6,148 | 8.5 | 117,102 |
HQ, Ground | 67,500 | 6,218 | 10.9 | 92,116 |
SUB-MEDIUM | Base Cost | Profit/Day | Days to Repay | Profit per Day per Million |
---|---|---|---|---|
LQ, Ground | 35,000 | 7,047 | 5.0 | 201,338 |
MQ, Ground | 110,000 | 12,910 | 8.5 | 117,364 |
HQ, Ground | 145,000 | 13,035 | 11.1 | 89,897 |
MQ, Jetway | 135,000 | 14,834 | 9.1 | 109,884 |
HQ, Jetway | 170,000 | 14,934 | 11.4 | 87,849 |
MEDIUM | Base Cost | Profit/Day | Days to Repay | Profit per Day per Million |
---|---|---|---|---|
LQ, Ground | 60,000 | 9,060 | 6.6 | 151,000 |
MQ, Ground | 145,000 | 16,696 | 8.7 | 115,145 |
HQ, Ground | 185,000 | 16,771 | 11.0 | 90,654 |
MQ, Jetway | 175,000 | 19,863 | 8.8 | 113,505 |
HQ, Jetway | 220,000 | 20,068 | 11.0 | 91,220 |
LARGE | Base Cost | Profit/Day | Days to Repay | Profit per Day per Million |
---|---|---|---|---|
MQ, Jetway | 350,000 | 37,506 | 9.3 | 107,159 |
HQ, Jetway | 435,000 | 38,106 | 11.4 | 87,599 |
EXTRA-LARGE | Base Cost | Profit/Day | Days to Repay | Profit per Day per Million |
---|---|---|---|---|
MQ, Jetway | 600,000 | 62,573 | 9.6 | 104,288 |
HQ, Jetway | 750,000 | 63,573 | 11.8 | 84,764 |
Extended Discussion
I took a lot of liberties designing this quiver of stand types. I also assumed some functionality that doesn’t explicitly exist yet.
I reduced the passenger handling fee to $10 and increased small plane landing and parking fees to help smooth the early game when you have some planes landing with 4 PAX and others with 90+.
I tried to give each quality tier a niche. Grass stands are dirt cheap (heh) and can multiply themselves quickly, but perform strikingly poorly compared to tarmac: costs a lot to maintain and you can’t charge much to park there. Medium quality is optimal for an airport seeking to build a stable income for expansion-funding. High quality is a serious investment with a slow enough return that using it isn’t just a given. A flaw: an under-utilized grass stand is going to suck the life out of an airport. realistically it wouldn’t cost so much to maintain the grass if there weren’t so darn many airplanes rolling all over it. A system that adjusts operating costs based on utilization would really help keep players who intuit their way through from getting wrecked by maintenance costs that don’t make sense when they don’t have flights yet.
I made turnaround times stand-type dependent: a 737 on the grass turns slower than one with a jetway. Helped me balance the numbers a little better. This is itself a feature not yet implemented. Could be a 30-minute project or a 30-hour project for all I know, so theres a call to be made there.
You’ll notice that within a stand size I have variable “average pax” values. A flight offer can already veto a certain stand, but currently they only veto wrong-sized ones. In my perfect world, airline and aircraft influence the requirement for tarmac and jetway. A prestigious airline won’t park their 757 in the mud, but you can probably send the budget 737 flight there. Hopefully other systems are refined such that I can’t just build a sprawling empire of 50 remote grass 737 stands and fill them all… supply and demand something something.
Resting thoughts
I could have done some napkin math and simply suggested some tweaks to the default fees and upkeeps. I was comprehensive because I’ve designed a game before, and napkin math only really works the first time. As soon as you add or modify anything you mess your napkin math up, but you’ve long tossed that napkin, so you put a band-aid on the imbalance and move on and after 50 repetitions you can’t even remember how the game was supposed to play in the first place. Context, big picture, matters a lot. Will we even have these 5 stand tiers one day? I have no idea! but I can’t design anything with any meaning without some sort of context.
This is obviously a first draft set of numbers. If there’s real interest I’ll happily polish the thing up a bit, taking feedback of course.