I have created this user guide to give assistance to those of you who are new to the game of Airport City, have recently signed up to the members forum, and are designing your signature page for the first time. The user guide exists in two parts, the first section deals with How To Design Your Members Forum Signature Page, and the second section deals with How To Post To The Members Forum.
I can not emphasis enough how extremely important your signature page is to your game, it is in your interest to set one up, as soon as you join the members forum. Without a signature page your neighbours will not know what your gift needs are, with regards to upgrading the main buildings in your game e.g. Repair Base (levels 1-7), Control Tower (levels 1-13), Town Hall (levels 1-11), Terminal (levels 1-12), Reserve Hangar (levels 1-5) and Operative Hangar (levels 1-10). Also, gift items you will need during game play e.g. fuel, fuel catalyst and the broad spectrum of flight items needed for your fleet of planes. It will also be important your neighbours know the type of gift items you are able to gift to them in-return.
Do not be put off by the amount of time it may take you to set up your signature page, in the long run it will be well worth it to your game. Once your signature page is set-up, it will then be important to keep it up to-date, which should not take too much of your time to do so.
Although it is your signature page, you are designing it for forum members to read, so what may work for you may not necessarily work for other forum members. You should therefore design your signature page to be as accessible as possible, for as many forum members as possible, since you will need their help with your long term game development e.g. building upgrade gift items, plane and helicopter repair items, fuel, passengers and flight items.
I would suggest you begin by spending sometime looking at forum members signatures. This is a good place to start, since it affords you the opportunity to see how members have designed their signatures. There are many excellent signature page design examples with differing styles, which you could look at, ideas which you could include and/or adapt for use in your own signature page.
After having looked at forum members signatures, if you have still not found one that you like, you can design your own from scratch, although most new members to the forum copy and adapt existing signatures. This decision will take much longer to undertake, than to just copy and adapt an existing signature page, but this may better suit you.
01. HOW TO SET UP YOUR MEMBERS SIGNATURE PAGE
The following is a step by step guide to creating your signature page, for the first time, and keeping it up to date. As has already been mentioned, your signature page is extremely important to your long term game. Without it your neighbours will not know what your gift needs are for upgrading the main buildings in your game and the space program buildings. Your neighbours will also not know what gifts you are able to gift to them in return:
When it comes to the inputting of text 'left justification' is always best. Do not be tempted to indent and/or centre your text, this makes reading the information, from left to right, difficult as you move your eyes across your signature page. It is very easy to miss the next line when your text is not 'left justified'.
03. SELECTING THE FONT AND FONT SIZE
When selecting your font and font size, select one which is clean and crisp e.g. Ariel, Times Roman or Verdana. As for the font size I would suggest 3 or 4 (less than 3 your text will be small to read and more than 4 your text will be large to read). It will also effect your signature page size, which may be a problem for those forum members who use smaller screen size gaming devices.
04. USING BOLD, UNDERLINE, ITALIC
Using these basic formatting features can help enhance your signature page, but I would suggest you use them sparingly.
05. SIGNATURE PAGE LAYOUT
Good spacing in your signature page is important, it helps forum members read the information far more easily, but do be careful, it can also increase your signature page size, which may be a problem for members using smaller screen devices.
06. SELECTING YOUR TEXT COLOURS
When it comes to using colours the saying, 'less is more' is very true. Try and resist the temptation to use too many colours. I would suggest using three to four colours, of your choice, colours which will compliment each other. It is also important to remember the background colour, of your signature page, will be white, so dark colours work best, your text will stand out better and will be far easier to read.
07. UPDATING YOUR SIGNATURE PAGE
It is important you keep your signature page up to date, so it accurately reflects your needs, gifts you are able to send to your neighbours, gifts you want from your neighbours, unique gifts you need to upgrade your buildings, device information, operating system information, your game level status, your star skills status and your hearts level status. I would suggest you also add the date of when you last updated your signature page.
08. ADDITIONAL SIGNATURE PAGE INFORMATION
Some forum members also include details of buildings they have in their game or if they are a member of an alliance group. This type of information is optional and very much up to you.
09. USER CLICK BLUE BUTTONS
Some forum members have a number of blue click buttons, located towards the bottom of their signature page, each displaying information when opened e.g. gift items needed from neighbours, items giftable to neighbours, support account information and future building needs (these buttons close when clicked on a second time). They are a good way of helping to keep your signature page small and you may wish to consider using them.
10. HOW TO CREATE A USER CLICK BLUE BUTTON
To create a click button you will need to have your signature page open, then select the 10th button labelled Insert (this is located along the top row, above where you normally type in your post). Once selected, you will then be presented with a small drop down menu, with six options, you will need to select the third option labelled Spoiler. You will then be asked to type in a Spoiler Title (this is optional, however the title will be an indicator of the button's content). Once you have made you decision, you will then need to type in your text (make sure your text sits between both the created Spoiler Tags). Once you have finished typing in your text, you will need to click on the Save Changes button. To edit a user blue button, you will need to go to your signature page, make the necessary changes, and then click on the save changes button.
11. UPGRADING YOUR MAIN BUILDINGS
You will need to list your requirements, not just your current gaming needs, but also your future needs with regards to upgrading your Repair Base (levels 1-7), Control Tower (levels 1-13), Town Hall (levels 1-11), Terminal (levels 1-12), Reserve Hangar (levels 1-5) and Operative Hangar (levels 1-10). These are the main buildings, in your game, and the level you are on will determine the maximum placements for each building e.g. number of passengers, number of residents, number of repair planes and number of hangars and planes.
I would suggest you list at least three levels for each building and the gift items needed to complete and make solid each structure. In this way, you will begin to collect the items needed and have them ready by the time you have the financial resources to begin the upgrading process. This way, you will find the transition, from one building level to the next building level, far more fluid a process. A great deal of game time can be saved in this way by planning ahead several moves.
12. UPGRADING OTHER BUILDINGS
It will not be possible, or even practical, to list every upgradable building which will be available to you as you progress through the levels, since your game play style and how you intend to grow and develop your game site will determine what type of buildings you will need.
13. KEEPING YOUR SIGNATURE PAGE BRIEF
The more information you have in your signature page the longer it will become and the more scrolling will be needed, which may be off-putting for some forum members. It is important to remember, not all forum members use computers and laptops with large screens. Some members use gaming devices with much smaller screen sizes and will therefore have much further to scroll.
14. USING YOUR NAME TAB (URGENT GIFT ITEMS NEEDED)
You could use your name tab to let your neighbours know what your urgent gift needs are. This will be in addition to creating your signature page, which is more about your long term gift needs, with regards to your buildings and flights.
15. SIGNATURE PAGE IN SECTIONS
Using single and/or double lines to divide your signature page into sections, helps to make it more readable, especially if a forum member has more than one game account. By all means use single and/or double lines but I would suggest you use them sparingly.
16. GAME NAME AND USER NAME
It will make life easier all round if your game name and your user name are the same. It means forum members will be able to find your signature page, and gift items that you need to help you progress your game. If you are difficult to find, it may well have an effect on the number of gifts that you receive, which is something you want to avoid from happening.
17. YOUR NEIGHBOURS CODES
It is a good idea to keep a tight control over who types in your friends code. I would suggest you do not display your friends code in your signature page. Instead, request a PM to be sent to you, if a flyer wishes to become a neighbour. This way you can search for them and make sure they are a member of the forum, before excepting them. This is a common practice among many forum members and I would suggest you do the same.
18. MULTIPLE GAME ACCOUNTS
There are many forum members who have at least one support account (some members have two or more) which they use for gifting additional fuel, gifting passengers, gifting unique building items and for space launches. If you are planning on creating a support account, you will need to keep this in mind when designing your signature page.
SECTION TWO: HOW TO POST TO THE MEMBERS FORUM
The members forum is divided into ten sections, Airport City Chat, Airport City Wiki (4 sub-headings), Airport City Forum (4 sub-headings), Airport City Announcements (1 subheading), Airport City (4 sub-headings), Airport City Groups (2 sub-headings), Airport City Trading (2 sub-headings), Airport City Space Launches (2 sub-headings), Airport City Alliance (2 sub-headings), Airport Lounge (2 sub-headings). Each of the ten sections will have a number of sub-headings, displayed in the brackets. Across the top row of the members forum you will find a series of themed options, Forums, What's New, Members, Groups, Guides, Wiki, Ad-Free, Chat, each with sub-headings, with drop down menus.
Posting your message on the members forum is relatively straight forward, but you do need to be careful and post in the right place. You can achieve this by familiarise yourself with the members forum, with it's eight main section's and multiple sub-headings. Posting in the wrong place may not get you the help, guidance, advice or answer you are looking for (or it may take much longer for you to receive a reply). The following are things for you to think about as you compose and prepare to post.
01. EDITING YOUR WORK BEFORE POSTING
Make sure you get into the habit of checking your work before posting to the members forum. This way you will avoid possible mistakes in spelling, punctuation and grammar which never looks good. Also, give yourself time to think about what you want to say and how you want to say it. This only applies with large bodies of text. If your posting a brief message, a single line of text, these rules will not apply.
02. USING PARAGRAPHS
A very large block of text will make reading difficult and may be off-putting to your readers. I would suggest you devide your text into two or more paragraphs, far easier to read when in sections. Since your posting on the members forum you obviously want members to read you post's and respond to them. If it's difficult to read and make sense of, members may well just scroll past.
03. USING ABBREVIATIONS
Try to avoid using mobile phone text speak, where you shorten a word to just one letter, when posting on the members forum. While it may reduce your key strokes and speed up communication with likeminded text speak users, it may not work so well for those forum members who are not familiar with this form of shorten communication.
04. USING AVATAR PICTURES
I would suggest you add a picture to your avatar rather than leave your picture box blank. It will make your avatar unique to you and help you stand apart from other forum members. It will also make it easier to find your post's, using your picture as a point of reference, rather than trying to find you by your game name, especially when scrolling through multiple pages of post's belonging to many forum members.
05. USING FACE CHARACTERS
While it may be fun to use these face characters in your post's, as a way of expressing yourself, try and keep them to a minimum. Too many of them will interrupt your readers flow and, if your post is peppered with multiple faces throughout the body text, it will make it difficult to read. I would suggest a good place to use them is at the beginning and/or at the end.
06. SCROLLING THROUGH MEMBER'S POST'S
It is very easy to miss information when using a mouse wheel to scroll through pages of members post's, more so if your signature font is on the small size. You can help prevent this by using a good size font, allowing your readers to read quickly and easily.
07. PUBLISHING ON THE MEMBER'S FORUM
Whether you are designing your signature page or posting to the members forum, the way your work looks and reads is important, it will say something about you. Over a period of time forum members will form an opinion, as to the type of person you are, based on your post's, your writing style and your signature page. So, make a good job of it, take pride in your written work, because it will be stored on the server for a long time to come.
ADDITIONAL READING MATERIAL
There is a great wealth of user guide information located in the Airport City Guides section, of the members forum. I have written them to help you with your game, those of you who are new to the game and those of you who are further along with your game. The user guides will provide you with all the information you need, to help make a success of your game.
Last Updated: Thursday 1st February 2024 at 10.55am London UK Time
I can not emphasis enough how extremely important your signature page is to your game, it is in your interest to set one up, as soon as you join the members forum. Without a signature page your neighbours will not know what your gift needs are, with regards to upgrading the main buildings in your game e.g. Repair Base (levels 1-7), Control Tower (levels 1-13), Town Hall (levels 1-11), Terminal (levels 1-12), Reserve Hangar (levels 1-5) and Operative Hangar (levels 1-10). Also, gift items you will need during game play e.g. fuel, fuel catalyst and the broad spectrum of flight items needed for your fleet of planes. It will also be important your neighbours know the type of gift items you are able to gift to them in-return.
Do not be put off by the amount of time it may take you to set up your signature page, in the long run it will be well worth it to your game. Once your signature page is set-up, it will then be important to keep it up to-date, which should not take too much of your time to do so.
| SECTION ONE - HOW TO DESIGN YOUR MEMBERS SIGNATURE PAGE |
01. How To Set Up Your Members Signature Page 02. Signature Page Text Format 03. Selecting The Font and Font Size 04. Using Bold, Underline, Italic 05. Signature Page Layout 06. Selecting Your Text Colours 07. Updating Your Signature Page 08. Additional Signature Page Information 09. User Click Blue Buttons | 10. How To Create A User Click Blue Button 11. Upgrading Your Standard Buildings 12. Upgrading Other Buildings 13. Keeping Your Signature Page Brief 14. Using Your Name Tab (Urgent Gift Items Needed) 15. Signature Page In Sections 16. Game Name and User Name 17. Your Neighbours Codes 18. Multiple Game Accounts |
| SECTION TWO - HOW TO POST TO THE MEMBERS FORUM |
01. Editing Your Work Before Posting 02. Using Paragraphs 03. Using Abbreviations 04. Using Avatar Pictures | 05. Using Face Characters 06. Posting In The Right Place 07. Scrolling Through Member's Post's 08. Publishing On The Member's Forum |
SECTION ONE: HOW TO DESIGN YOUR MEMBERS SIGNATURE PAGEAlthough it is your signature page, you are designing it for forum members to read, so what may work for you may not necessarily work for other forum members. You should therefore design your signature page to be as accessible as possible, for as many forum members as possible, since you will need their help with your long term game development e.g. building upgrade gift items, plane and helicopter repair items, fuel, passengers and flight items.
I would suggest you begin by spending sometime looking at forum members signatures. This is a good place to start, since it affords you the opportunity to see how members have designed their signatures. There are many excellent signature page design examples with differing styles, which you could look at, ideas which you could include and/or adapt for use in your own signature page.
After having looked at forum members signatures, if you have still not found one that you like, you can design your own from scratch, although most new members to the forum copy and adapt existing signatures. This decision will take much longer to undertake, than to just copy and adapt an existing signature page, but this may better suit you.
01. HOW TO SET UP YOUR MEMBERS SIGNATURE PAGE
The following is a step by step guide to creating your signature page, for the first time, and keeping it up to date. As has already been mentioned, your signature page is extremely important to your long term game. Without it your neighbours will not know what your gift needs are for upgrading the main buildings in your game and the space program buildings. Your neighbours will also not know what gifts you are able to gift to them in return:
Step 1 - once you have registered with the Airport City members forum, you will need to log in, using your name or email address and password.
Step 2 - you will then need to access your account, by clicking on your game name, you will find this along the top row of the members forum, on the right hand side of the screen. Inside the account you will find information and 13 options. Next to your account you will find the following Conversations, Alerts, Dark Theme and Search options. The conversations section is where you will be able to speak with forum members privately. The alerts section will list your neighbours responses to your posts. The dark theme will allow you to switch your page dark. The search section will allow you to perform a search throughout the forum (there is also an Advance Search facility available).
Step 3 - from the drop down accounts menu, you will need to select the Signature option.
Step 4 - on the right hand side you will find your work area, with the following format options e.g. Bold, Italics, Underline, Strike Through, Text Colour, Font, Font Size, Insert Link, Insert Image, Insert, Alignment, List, Insert Table and Undo available to you. This is where you will create your signature page by typing in your text.
Step 5 - once you have finished creating your signature page, you will need to click on the blue save button.
Step 6 - to edit your signature page, and keep it up to date, you will need to repeat Step 2 through to Step 5.
02. SIGNATURE PAGE TEXT FORMATWhen it comes to the inputting of text 'left justification' is always best. Do not be tempted to indent and/or centre your text, this makes reading the information, from left to right, difficult as you move your eyes across your signature page. It is very easy to miss the next line when your text is not 'left justified'.
03. SELECTING THE FONT AND FONT SIZE
When selecting your font and font size, select one which is clean and crisp e.g. Ariel, Times Roman or Verdana. As for the font size I would suggest 3 or 4 (less than 3 your text will be small to read and more than 4 your text will be large to read). It will also effect your signature page size, which may be a problem for those forum members who use smaller screen size gaming devices.
04. USING BOLD, UNDERLINE, ITALIC
Using these basic formatting features can help enhance your signature page, but I would suggest you use them sparingly.
05. SIGNATURE PAGE LAYOUT
Good spacing in your signature page is important, it helps forum members read the information far more easily, but do be careful, it can also increase your signature page size, which may be a problem for members using smaller screen devices.
06. SELECTING YOUR TEXT COLOURS
When it comes to using colours the saying, 'less is more' is very true. Try and resist the temptation to use too many colours. I would suggest using three to four colours, of your choice, colours which will compliment each other. It is also important to remember the background colour, of your signature page, will be white, so dark colours work best, your text will stand out better and will be far easier to read.
07. UPDATING YOUR SIGNATURE PAGE
It is important you keep your signature page up to date, so it accurately reflects your needs, gifts you are able to send to your neighbours, gifts you want from your neighbours, unique gifts you need to upgrade your buildings, device information, operating system information, your game level status, your star skills status and your hearts level status. I would suggest you also add the date of when you last updated your signature page.
08. ADDITIONAL SIGNATURE PAGE INFORMATION
Some forum members also include details of buildings they have in their game or if they are a member of an alliance group. This type of information is optional and very much up to you.
09. USER CLICK BLUE BUTTONS
Some forum members have a number of blue click buttons, located towards the bottom of their signature page, each displaying information when opened e.g. gift items needed from neighbours, items giftable to neighbours, support account information and future building needs (these buttons close when clicked on a second time). They are a good way of helping to keep your signature page small and you may wish to consider using them.
10. HOW TO CREATE A USER CLICK BLUE BUTTON
To create a click button you will need to have your signature page open, then select the 10th button labelled Insert (this is located along the top row, above where you normally type in your post). Once selected, you will then be presented with a small drop down menu, with six options, you will need to select the third option labelled Spoiler. You will then be asked to type in a Spoiler Title (this is optional, however the title will be an indicator of the button's content). Once you have made you decision, you will then need to type in your text (make sure your text sits between both the created Spoiler Tags). Once you have finished typing in your text, you will need to click on the Save Changes button. To edit a user blue button, you will need to go to your signature page, make the necessary changes, and then click on the save changes button.
11. UPGRADING YOUR MAIN BUILDINGS
You will need to list your requirements, not just your current gaming needs, but also your future needs with regards to upgrading your Repair Base (levels 1-7), Control Tower (levels 1-13), Town Hall (levels 1-11), Terminal (levels 1-12), Reserve Hangar (levels 1-5) and Operative Hangar (levels 1-10). These are the main buildings, in your game, and the level you are on will determine the maximum placements for each building e.g. number of passengers, number of residents, number of repair planes and number of hangars and planes.
I would suggest you list at least three levels for each building and the gift items needed to complete and make solid each structure. In this way, you will begin to collect the items needed and have them ready by the time you have the financial resources to begin the upgrading process. This way, you will find the transition, from one building level to the next building level, far more fluid a process. A great deal of game time can be saved in this way by planning ahead several moves.
12. UPGRADING OTHER BUILDINGS
It will not be possible, or even practical, to list every upgradable building which will be available to you as you progress through the levels, since your game play style and how you intend to grow and develop your game site will determine what type of buildings you will need.
13. KEEPING YOUR SIGNATURE PAGE BRIEF
The more information you have in your signature page the longer it will become and the more scrolling will be needed, which may be off-putting for some forum members. It is important to remember, not all forum members use computers and laptops with large screens. Some members use gaming devices with much smaller screen sizes and will therefore have much further to scroll.
14. USING YOUR NAME TAB (URGENT GIFT ITEMS NEEDED)
You could use your name tab to let your neighbours know what your urgent gift needs are. This will be in addition to creating your signature page, which is more about your long term gift needs, with regards to your buildings and flights.
15. SIGNATURE PAGE IN SECTIONS
Using single and/or double lines to divide your signature page into sections, helps to make it more readable, especially if a forum member has more than one game account. By all means use single and/or double lines but I would suggest you use them sparingly.
16. GAME NAME AND USER NAME
It will make life easier all round if your game name and your user name are the same. It means forum members will be able to find your signature page, and gift items that you need to help you progress your game. If you are difficult to find, it may well have an effect on the number of gifts that you receive, which is something you want to avoid from happening.
17. YOUR NEIGHBOURS CODES
It is a good idea to keep a tight control over who types in your friends code. I would suggest you do not display your friends code in your signature page. Instead, request a PM to be sent to you, if a flyer wishes to become a neighbour. This way you can search for them and make sure they are a member of the forum, before excepting them. This is a common practice among many forum members and I would suggest you do the same.
18. MULTIPLE GAME ACCOUNTS
There are many forum members who have at least one support account (some members have two or more) which they use for gifting additional fuel, gifting passengers, gifting unique building items and for space launches. If you are planning on creating a support account, you will need to keep this in mind when designing your signature page.
SECTION TWO: HOW TO POST TO THE MEMBERS FORUM
The members forum is divided into ten sections, Airport City Chat, Airport City Wiki (4 sub-headings), Airport City Forum (4 sub-headings), Airport City Announcements (1 subheading), Airport City (4 sub-headings), Airport City Groups (2 sub-headings), Airport City Trading (2 sub-headings), Airport City Space Launches (2 sub-headings), Airport City Alliance (2 sub-headings), Airport Lounge (2 sub-headings). Each of the ten sections will have a number of sub-headings, displayed in the brackets. Across the top row of the members forum you will find a series of themed options, Forums, What's New, Members, Groups, Guides, Wiki, Ad-Free, Chat, each with sub-headings, with drop down menus.
Posting your message on the members forum is relatively straight forward, but you do need to be careful and post in the right place. You can achieve this by familiarise yourself with the members forum, with it's eight main section's and multiple sub-headings. Posting in the wrong place may not get you the help, guidance, advice or answer you are looking for (or it may take much longer for you to receive a reply). The following are things for you to think about as you compose and prepare to post.
01. EDITING YOUR WORK BEFORE POSTING
Make sure you get into the habit of checking your work before posting to the members forum. This way you will avoid possible mistakes in spelling, punctuation and grammar which never looks good. Also, give yourself time to think about what you want to say and how you want to say it. This only applies with large bodies of text. If your posting a brief message, a single line of text, these rules will not apply.
02. USING PARAGRAPHS
A very large block of text will make reading difficult and may be off-putting to your readers. I would suggest you devide your text into two or more paragraphs, far easier to read when in sections. Since your posting on the members forum you obviously want members to read you post's and respond to them. If it's difficult to read and make sense of, members may well just scroll past.
03. USING ABBREVIATIONS
Try to avoid using mobile phone text speak, where you shorten a word to just one letter, when posting on the members forum. While it may reduce your key strokes and speed up communication with likeminded text speak users, it may not work so well for those forum members who are not familiar with this form of shorten communication.
04. USING AVATAR PICTURES
I would suggest you add a picture to your avatar rather than leave your picture box blank. It will make your avatar unique to you and help you stand apart from other forum members. It will also make it easier to find your post's, using your picture as a point of reference, rather than trying to find you by your game name, especially when scrolling through multiple pages of post's belonging to many forum members.
05. USING FACE CHARACTERS
While it may be fun to use these face characters in your post's, as a way of expressing yourself, try and keep them to a minimum. Too many of them will interrupt your readers flow and, if your post is peppered with multiple faces throughout the body text, it will make it difficult to read. I would suggest a good place to use them is at the beginning and/or at the end.
06. SCROLLING THROUGH MEMBER'S POST'S
It is very easy to miss information when using a mouse wheel to scroll through pages of members post's, more so if your signature font is on the small size. You can help prevent this by using a good size font, allowing your readers to read quickly and easily.
07. PUBLISHING ON THE MEMBER'S FORUM
Whether you are designing your signature page or posting to the members forum, the way your work looks and reads is important, it will say something about you. Over a period of time forum members will form an opinion, as to the type of person you are, based on your post's, your writing style and your signature page. So, make a good job of it, take pride in your written work, because it will be stored on the server for a long time to come.
ADDITIONAL READING MATERIAL
There is a great wealth of user guide information located in the Airport City Guides section, of the members forum. I have written them to help you with your game, those of you who are new to the game and those of you who are further along with your game. The user guides will provide you with all the information you need, to help make a success of your game.
Last Updated: Thursday 1st February 2024 at 10.55am London UK Time
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