IRL, many airports have Moving Sidewalks (MS) to move passengers long distances quickly and efficiently. Now that ACEO can have underground (Level -1) tunnels to distant terminals, such a feature would be very useful. This would be especially useful if/when we can open up five adjacent land areas (as we did in earlier versions) versus just the three we have now.
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MS would move pax at twice speed as High Speed Conveyors
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Build tool would be same as High Speed Conveyors, so devs can use same code with some tweaks
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Unlike High Speed Conveyors, MS cannot turn corners
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Pax can enter MS at only the entrance point. Pax can exit MS at only the exit point.
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When building, when the entry point of one MS is place in-line and adjacent to another MS, they are joined as a longer MS.
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Pax riding the MS will not walk. This is similar to escalators where pax do not walk. Therefore, walking animations are required to begin only as pax step off MS at end.
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Temporarily use High Speed Conveyor graphic assets and animations, as a place holder, until a nicer version is created with side rails.
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MS endpoints would not need movement. Rather, a metal plate would be used to mark those points upon which the pax would begin walking animation. Or, perhaps half metal, half the same color (no animation) of the moving part.
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Pathfinding: When determining the best path for a pax, the algorithm could consider the length of the MS as a path equal to one-half its length. The algorithm would then choose the best path. If the pax would need to exit the MS before its end–for instance,to turn and go in another direction-- the algorithm would prevent the pax for using the MS.
Moving Sidewalks
