I’ve been adding country codes to the json of mod airlines I’ve downloaded. For some it’s worked perfectly but for others it doesn’t seem to save and when I reopen the json after loading the game the country code is gone. Anyone have any ideas why this is happening?
Be aware that the Steam Workshop folder gety synchronized. For example if any update comes in, it gets overwritten.
You can copy the mods to your native mod directory. For Windows: %appdata%\Apoapsis Studios\Airport CEO\Mods
There you can do your adjustments. Afterwards you can unsubscribe the original.
But please never re-upload any copies of those mods (changed or unchanged) to the Workshop without permission by the original mod author.
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UMod Framework itself has updated and the previous version will no longer load.
If the auto-update built into UMF does not work for whatever reason, you may redownload and reinstall manually.
Because UMod Framework is downloaded in low volumes, injects code into a running program, and is now on a new version, some antivirus extensions/programs may prompt you to prevent you installing it. If you are not comfortable bypassing/accepting these prompts, you may have to wait some time until the current version of UMF has been downloaded enough that it is no longer “suspicious”. Do note that some programs/settings will consider any program from the internet suspicious, in which case you would have to eventually accept the prompt (or not have access to ACEO tweaks).
Happy New Year!
Link in the main post now redirects to 2.2.0 Release.
Change from Beta 5
- Fix for duplicated shadows
Remaining unfixed bugs:
- PAX multiplier being ignored: Will fix as part of the next update to turnarounds in general.
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Hey Zekew, great mod so far. I enjoy that as a Canadian, i’m now seeing the standard high value routes (ie toronto to vancouver, toronto to calgary) over the previous… 787 full load to Baker Lake/multiple gravel runways in northern canada. I on occasion get… some hipcups with this (every airline wants 30-50 flights from Toronto to London Ontario… 2 hour drive time) but it is miles above the former system and makes the game feel much more realistic.
If you do need any help figuring out some high value routes for coding as this mod develops (aka general research for routing; not coding), let me know.
However noting a few problems with the new routing issues.
- Airport is now prompting me with international flights, even without designated international gates (all sizes). This would be fine (Pearson is 40% domestic, 60% international/ and YUL is 30-70) at the extreme end, however it’s hard to sort through airlines and find domestic routes; sometimes i won’t get any.
a. For larger planes, its very difficult to find routes that are domestic (ie toronto to vancouver). They show up on occasion, but its pretty rare even though these are gravy routes.
b. This leads to endless “searching” for wide bodies, while having to sort through airlines that will offer 10 large international flights, but maybe 1 large domestic every 7 days (ie needle in the haystack).
c. FYI: I haven’t put auto planning on, as i’ve gotten used to the renewal process. I also note that… it struggles with this new system.
- When the airport gets “ash”, it tends to do wild things with the routing (ie bunch all flights together). This leads to airlines freaking out and cancelling… for the flight to then show up 5-8 days later; or in a different spot… or not at all.
Few things….
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Are you able to either add a toggle for international flights (ie like the base game, in which these routes wouldn’t be offered) OR adjust some of the airlines domestic codes (ie Maple… doesn’t like flying in Canada very much for some reason). In addition, a “reject flight” would work too or a “sort by domestic/international” toggle.
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Probably can’t fix this, but the flight planner always resets to the top airline alphabetical if i back up from another one (ie sky; check for widebodies, none, game lurches me back to air canada and scroll down again).
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Can you add some sort of check or visual feedback for when a flight is renewed automatically? I enjoy this system, but sometimes the airport will rebook it 3-7 days later and i can’t fill the slot since it may be too far out for me to see/requires endless flipping. Some visual feedback would be appreciated.
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The minimum booking time in vanilla was great as it helped for delays when passengers… didn’t feel like following path generation. The game doesn’t follow that, are you able to put something like that back in?
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Hi! I am not Zekew, and I will only comment on this request. Are you suggesting a system where how far down you are on the airline selection panel is saved and then reverted to when it is re-opened (from both the specific flight drag-n-drop panel and the re-opening of the flight planner)? That shouldn’t be too hard to do, just need a new variable and a way to set the panels to scroll to that variable.
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I am not sure, whether this would be possible, but IF the flight planner HAD a filter function that shows flights of a certain size (small, medium, large) AND takes the rating and international YES/NO into account AND would toggle quick/normal/extended turnaround and then show ALL flights from all contracted airlines, most would be happy. However, I feel, this is not possible without redesigning the UI.
I really appreciate the detailed feedback on how game-play with the new systems feels.
I’ve been kicking around several thoughts for improving the flight planner experience. I am currently leaning towards a system where by default you see all available flights (any airline). Then you have a selection of filters you can apply, including airline, domestic/international, aircraft size, ect…
This does turn from UI tweaks to a full UI redesign at some point. This is why it has so far been on the back burner: I want to keep growing my confidence with tweaking the UI (in other places) before I tackle this large task. It will also give time to see how changes to airline behavior/uniqueness (still WIP) impact game-play, which in turn will impact priorities in the UI.
In the more immediate term, a reject flight button/input is planned, and this can happen before the full UI implementation.
Thats correct. Probably the most frustrating thing i’ve encountered. @zekew11 a redesign is probably needed. I find the UI to be… frustrating, overly detailed, but not detailed enough.
In any way, shape, or form you do it; it will a substantial improvement. Besides the memory leak issues/performance issues after long run times and… questionable path finding, the UI is at the top of my frustrations. A global view system for UI could be great; but i would think programming that is a bit ambitious (even though the game has something like that for the map screen).
I think the new system proposed would be good, however i think a toggle for “accepts international” to “no international” would be good. The base game had this feature (it didn’t toggle until you switched one gate to international, and then it would give you both flights), and since switching over to the mod, it defaults to “you have international” even though you don’t. Interim measure could be to restore this functionality (if possible), followed by a “reject” button and “request new offers” button.
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The eternal problem to solve. We want options, but also a simple UI.
Well, if I had to decide whethe I want a simple UI or working features then I know, what I would choose, if they exclude each other. I can learn handle a more complex UI - if you can handle a microsoft office product, then this should be easy. OTOH, a feature not working stays a feature not working.
Lol, about that…
about that
I grew up with computers. I can write code, edit photos, make vector graphics, make 3d models for games, use cad to design parts, program a CNC, use the command line, edit the registry… I basically operate on the assumption that if you can do it on a computer then I can learn to do it…
… But what I dread more than anything else? Having to spend any real time in modern Microsoft office. There is no program more frustrating to me than Microsoft word with a one-drive connection. It is the type words program by the company that built the operating system on which Microsoft office took computers into every office … and the frequency with which broken features impede my ability to type words feels like a comedy sketch.
I make a lot of .txt files.
All right…I correct myself: If you can handle a program as difficult as Office XP or 2013 - these were good. The current versions with all that online-crap are a disaster indeed.
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Flight Types Rework Blurb
I want to simplify the flight types system by discarding most of it.
In its place, I want simple rules that output what services get requested. I’ve determined that the following are services that are in ACEO and may or may not be expected based on the type of flight/airline.
- Baggage Loading
- Jetbridge*
- Catering
- Cleaning
Each service can have one of three request levels:
- Refused - service will not be provided
- Accepted - service will be provided if available
- Demanded - service will be provided if available, and a penalty will apply if it is not provided
Asterisks Digression
Small stands can’t provide jet-bridge, catering, or cleaning. These therefore won’t be demanded here, even if they would be normally
I probably will have the jet-bridge on an attached stand attach to aircraft even if the service is “rejected”; you just won’t be paid for the service. This prevents having to figure out a way to player-control the jet-bridge on a per-flight basis, which seems messy.
I also want a coarse way to reflect that the needs of a 2 hour A220 hop are different from a 9 hour 777 flight.
Affecting Baggage loading and jet-bridge requirements: Aircraft Size
- Small - less than 100 PAX capacity
- Medium - not sm or lg
- Large - twin-isle (7 or more seats abreast)
Just use the built in aircraft sizes!
The issue is two-fold: 1) I want a way to separate the bottom and top ends of what the game calls medium: an ATR-42 is not a 767. The small/medium cutoff point needs to be larger. 2) [secret]
Affecting Catering and Cleaning: Flight Duration
- Short - less than 3 hours
- Medium - less than 8 hours
- Long - more than 8 hours
Finally, for each service, the flight will take into account both its [size or duration] and its [operating class].
Operating classes (as stolen from @andyc):
- ★ - LCC/ULCC ((ultra)-low-cost-carrier)
- ★★ - Simple Airline/Charter Service
- ★★★ - Professional Airline
- ★★★★ - Premium Service
- ★★★★★ - Ultra-Premium
By default, every flight operates at the operating class corresponding to its airline’s star rank. Mod airlines will get the opportunity to add overrides to the behavior of individual aircraft types (eg a 4-star airline operating concord runs a 5-star service on concord).
All of these small, simple rules / ideas come together in the following table:
n-cells represent refused services, Y cells are demanded.
In terms of realism… Airlines want baggage service more than this reflects. I sacrifice a little realism here because 1) you can still build baggage early if you want and 2) I want to let the player get into medium stands before building baggage service.
This is all posted here before its ready to test because I want to start getting feedback early. Most interesting to me is knowing if this spread of requests/demands is decently representative of how airlines run elsewhere in the world: I am pretty limited in what I see day-to-day to the western US.
I am a bit torn about the small ones. I have flown with an island-hopper on a Cessna with FLN. The flight duration was 10 minutes only so this was more of a taxi-service but still such things exist. Now, catering on such a kind of plane would be a bit silly - where could one eat anyways? You need a kitchen facility on-board to store and/or heat meals. A small Cessna does not have that so ANY star-rating would not demand catering. A Learjet, however could have such a thing and is a bit bigger.
I would connect it to two factors:
first, size of the plane and what it can have aboard - which will need a bit of research. Second: duration of flight. If the trip is only 1 or two hours, then catering is moot anyways. A trip taking 3+ hours could require snacks, drinks and meals on a plane. Even 1-Stars could have that as these things will cost the PAX extra. Expect cans of drinks and bags or crisps or peanuts.
Cleaning could be solved a bit easier:
Every small flight with extended turnaround could be cleaned. Since the animation for this is a bit strange, why not have the plane leave the stand and go to a hangar to get cleaned and return to stand when finished? Then: if it offers catering, it needs to be cleaned anyways. Also, cleaning means emptying the toilets as bare minimum. Well - no toilet, moot point, right? For the mediums and large this seems fine - I would add 1-star to accept cleaning during extended turnaround.
Jet-Bridge for small ones? Nope. The planes of that category I know all have extendable ladders/stairs and are not towering over the tarmac. Not accepted by any small flight.
Now baggage is a thing. In said Cessna I flew with, we took our luggage ourselves to the plane which was waiting virtually in front of the airport’s door. The pilot helped us haul the stuff into the cargo space behind the seats. This for a flight for about 5 PAX. When we are looking at planes like the Learjet, DC6 or similar, then things will be different. There might be a dedicated luggage section and handling the baggage might require assistance from the ramp agents for that number of PAX the flight takes with it. So…service required by plane type again. Also, it depends on flight time. Explanation: 1-2 hour trips look like small shopping trips or business ones. In neither case one will have much luggage with oneself so this will be mostly hand-luggage which is taken into the plane by the PAX. Vacation flights, however, look different. Also, we reach PAX numbers, where the luggage has to be handled professionally, no matter the star rating.
Jet bridge: well…I wonder, why this kind of service is required at all? Either you have a remote stand and need a bus and stair wagon anyways or you have none of these. This is totally dependent on the airport layout.
One thing not covered here, however: 5-star airlines might require you to have a dedicated lounge to work. Luxury might mean not waiting with John and Jane Doe but having a nice buffet in a secluded area. 4-stars could appreciate this and below this it is not accepted.
Even refuelling could be questioned. Fast turnaround could really mean, this is only a short flight and the fuel tanks are not empty and suffice for the next trip. Otherwise, it could be considered standard ops.
My 5 cents
I’m playing with the latest version and I have a bug which I don’t know is due to the mod or from the base game. From time to time my baggage trucks get stuck on the stand after baggage loading is complete, the next truck is sat there waiting for it to move to do baggage loading. Exiting and reloading the game fixes it. There’s no problem with my baggage set-up and it works perfectly for 99% of the time. Is it possible it’s a mod bug?
As far as I know, vanilla did the same. I encountered this even before playing with tweaks. Same for PAX not finding their way although everything is fine.
Been a while, on a new computer and I need to re-install Umod, but the link seems to be not working for me, and the site looks to be down? Im not sure. Can anyone else see if Umod is working?
The link is working and a new version as well, just tested