Okay, so this is a combination of other ideas that I’ve seen on the forums and that I’ve had myself. I don’t want to take anyone’s idea, just wanted to expand on some of them.
First off the game is great, has some issues with lag, rendering and AI being dumb, but its addictive and fun.
Second, here are some ideas for additions to the game:
Janitors:
Janitors don’t really do much as of now. Just kind of sit around until they need to go clean something. A couple realistic things that you could add is a janitors closet to store cleaning supplies and machines, and adding a menu to purchase more supplies and machines. Janitors would also be able to empty trash cans and maybe recycle cans (if added) and throw the waste in a dumpster, which would be regularly picked up by a trash collecting company.
Deliveries
The current delivery system is weird and buggy on pretty much all of my saves. Having a different variant of a delivery area would be helpful. Grocery stores have ramps in which trucks can back in and make deliveries that way, and I think that it would be great to have something like that in the game. This delivery area could be placed on the ground floor or 1 story below to help with the management of the airport, runways etc… Types of deliveries that could be made are: janitorial supplies, building materials, etc… Having a pick up area that could be used to allow garbage to be pickup from the dumpsters could also be added to aid the janitorial additions.
Storage
A storage room that holds certain items depending on the room. I have 2 main ideas for storage rooms, one for the janitor equipment and one for the builders equipment and leftover items. Janitorial storage can be designated by a room and accessed only by janitors or other staff. The builders storage holds all past items removed from the airport so you don’t have to buy something that you just sold off. Instead the item would be disassembled and the same builder that took that item apart would transport it to the storage. If you need a reference, Prison Architect has a system I’m referencing.
Path ways
Moving sidewalks to move passengers long distances with more efficiency. The biggest delay in flights leaving my terminals seems to either be service not happening or boarding waiting on passengers. To help with one of these issues have moving sidewalks that act like conveyor belts. The following is from a previous forum post
- MS would move pax at same speed as High Speed Conveyors
- Build tool would be same as High Speed Conveyors, so dev’s can use same code with some tweaks
- Unlike High Speed Conveyors, MS cannot turn corners
- Pax can enter MS at only the entrance point. Pax can exit MS at only the exit point.
- 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.
- 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.
- Temporarily use High Speed Conveyor graphic assets and animations, as a place holder, until a nicer version is created with side rails.
- 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.
- 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.
Airplane Stands
If you look at a airport there are stands overlapping and right next to each other, which is something that the current game does not have. The idea for this is having 1 stand be able to support multiple boarding points. So you could have a boarding desk on the ground floor connected to the same stand as a boarding desk on the first floor. The stand could be allowed to hold multiple aircraft at the same time to maximize efficiency and be more realistic, as it seems that in airports you cant go more than 10 feet without passing 2 stands on one side of the terminal.
Another addition to the stands could be the ability to set it up for overflow or emergency planes. Any time a terminal is going past its departure time, instead of delaying the next flight the prompt would simply ask if you would want to move it to the overflow stand. These stands could also be remote.
Additional option could be the ability to assign airlines to certain stands.
Employee fixes
The most frustrating part of my airport is that my employees do absolutely nothing on time. I get at least 20 messages saying flights are running behind because the service round is not done yet while there are 4 ramp agents at that stand looking at each other like they have never seen a airplane before.
First fix would be an AI improvement to the staff, making them more realistic.
Second fix would be an overhaul to our options with our staff. As of now I feel like our options with them are limited. I don’t know if I just haven’t looked hard enough, but the HR Directors description said that he could change the salaries of the employees but I haven’t found anywhere where it allows us to do that.
The following are the changes to the staff and our options:
- More applicants than just five.
- The ability to see hired employees efficiency ratings like the security checkpoints have. Give the user more of an idea how well the employee is actually working.
- Menu to change salaries and stuff like that
- Ability to assign staff to stations. For example, hired two new airport staff and assigned them to a specific boarding desk. This would eliminate the need for staff to run back and forth between locations and take additional time from aircraft efficiency. This could be changed from the employee screen, just an added tab that states what locations and how long they work for. These features are already in the game for the security personal. This would not just be applicable for the airport staff, but also the ramp agents as well.
- Staff needs. Like places to rest, food, etc. I’m getting this idea again from Prison Architect.
Contracts
A few additional contract that could be added to the game
- When you sign a restaurant or shop contract you could set it so that they are in one store location and as long as they meet their quota of sales, they would apply to renew the contract which could be handled by one of the executive staff members
- Garbage contracts: to pick up garbage from dumpsters
- Supply contracts: to drop off janitorial and other supplies at a new deliveries area (see above)
- Entertainment contracts: much like a shop or restaurant but entertains the guests. Think of Dave and Busters or Chucky Cheese for ideas.
- When you sign a shop or other contract like that, you provide the room requirements, they come in and build the interior of the shop to meet their own needs. This would reduce the amount of work on the user, while also adding more variation to the shops and restaurants.
- Airline contracts: would say what stand size they would be using, what/how many stands they would want, and if they want to buy a terminal. Having a terminal bought/leased by an airline would allow them to set up the terminal to their color scheme and have the staff working in that terminal wear their uniforms. This would also give the ability for the airlines to request an area to have a lounge for their pilots, staff, and premier guests relax in between flights. The change to the auto scheduler would be that the stands in a leased terminal would only support flights of that airline. This would also increase the likely hood that they would provide more that a max of 50 flights to the airport.
Security
The ability to have a customs and inspections in the airport. This would also add international flights. Would also need a foreign exchange station to allow international guests to get the correct currency.
I found a great forum post already about this but its huge so simply follow the link at the bottom of this post to find it 
Flights
Flights would allow for layovers and when passengers de-board they would simply shop or go to the terminal of the next flight that they have. Pilots and flight attendants would also disembark and be changed by a new crew. Could also have the ability to have a flight crew lounge for the pilots and attendants that disembark from an airplane.
New addition to the stands could be helicopters and private flights and hangers (link below, it explains it better than I can)
Lag fix
The game renders all of the baggage and passengers (or at least seem to) a lag fix I think would massively help with the games lag is the only render things on the level you are on. For example, if you are underground where all of your conveyor belts are, it would not render any of the passengers, and only render the people and baggage on that level. Whether or not this would work I don’t have the answer to. I just hope that this helps if its a issue the devs are aware of
Links to the posts I got some of these ideas from
Janitor Suggestions
Moving Sidewalk
Stand-By Plane Stands
Auto Scheduler Re-Work
Staff Hiring Optimisation
Border Service
New Shop Type
Security System Overhaul
Fixed Based Operators / Helos and Private Flights
Comments are always welcome, and I would love to hear your additions to this list that I could add!