Problems with wind direction

[Nutster]

Something has been nagging me since I started playing Airport City a couple of weeks ago, but I only put my finger on it this evening. There is a design/animation flaw (among a few) when comparing the airplanes in Airport City to real aeronautics. A real airplane almost always lands and takes off into the wind, as much as possible, to reduce the amount of runway needed. Strong cross-winds, that is winds blowing across the runway instead of along it, make near-ground operations particularly tricky (time to go to your alternate destination). This is one of the reasons why many airports build runways in different directions, so that they can always have a runway pointing mostly (or even better directly) into the wind.

The airplanes in Airport City appear to land into the wind, but take off with the wind. Looking at the wind mills of various design that I have scattered around my city and airport, the wind is pretty consistently blowing from the lower-left to the upper-right, which would blow along the runways. I know I could turn my wind mills, but that would indicate a strong cross-wind; this is not good, as stated above.

I would propose the following changes to the design.
1) If the runways will not be allowed to rotate (as is now the case), neither should the wind mills. The wind mills should show the wind direction as always going along the runways, from bottom-left to upper-right.
2) Planes should always land from upper-right to bottom-left. This is what is presently happening. (Provided for contrast)
3) Planes should always take-off from upper-right to bottom-left. This is the opposite of what is presently happening.
4) When a guest plane lands, the player clicks the captain's hat to get the plane to unload the coins, either fuel or passengers and occasionally something special. Then the player clicks the oil barrel or suitcase, depending on what was dropped off to start loading the plane. At this point, the plane quickly taxis (teleport?) to the other end (upper-right) end of the runway and starts the loading phase. When the plane is loaded, the airplane icon appears; the user clicks it and the plane takes off into the wind, from upper-right to lower-left.
5) When landing your own plane, it lands, as it currently does, into the wind from upper-left to lower-right. The player clicks the captain's hat icon to unload the stuff and move the vehicle into the plane's assigned hanger. When the player clicks on the plane's icon to return to the runway, the plane appears at the upper-right of the appropriate runway, ready to be loaded. When the plane take off, it does so by heading into the wind, down to the left.

I am enjoying the game so far, but IMHO, changing the animation in this way would improve the experience for people actually familiar with airplane operations, like myself.

 

[Cosmic Blue]

You have some good ideas but maybe impractical when writing the code to make these actions.

Airport city has enough game issues with it current design, by making the game more graph intensive by following players suggestions increases the potential for greater issues to the game which causes the game to become unplayable.

 

[Nutster]

As a programmer myself, I know the following adage:

Debugging is the act of removing errors from a computer program.
Programming is the act of putting them in.​

The way I laid it out, I was hoping for minimal disruption of the existing code base, but the potential for introducing bugs is always there when you are updating a program.

 

[Gt city]

As a programmer myself, I know the following adage:

Debugging is the act of removing errors from a computer program.
Programming is the act of putting them in.​

The way I laid it out, I was hoping for minimal disruption of the existing code base, but the potential for introducing bugs is always there when you are updating a program.

One of the best posts in those days....

 

[Jon Allen]

The whole premise of airport city is flawed. Airlines don't wait until they have enough passengers before the flight leaves. They run a regular schedule and hope that the yield based on the number of seats filled and the price they paid is enough to stay in business.
(I'm a programmer too and I world in writing yield management software for BA 20 years ago).
But that does not stop me getting a huge amount of enjoyment out of this game.

 

[Agent_L]

I think that general idea of having tall structures like windmills anywhere near runways is preposterous. But I don't lose sleep over it.

 

[Bali Hi]

I think that general idea of having tall structures like windmills anywhere near runways is preposterous. But I don't lose sleep over it.

That's true.
I have always felt uneasy about putting those Powerful Wind Turbine near the runway.
Chop! Chop! Chop! It's an accident waiting to happen.

Although I don't lose sleep over it, but Airport City makes me lose sleep in other ways .

 

[Nutster]

I think that general idea of having tall structures like windmills anywhere near runways is preposterous. But I don't lose sleep over it.

Yeah, I get that. I have put my control tower at the end of my Level 1 runway. Overrunning that runway could lead to all sorts of issues. I am not concerned with the game over-simplifying what I know about airport operations (hmm, where are the taxiways to and from the terminal? Loading and unloading of passengers and cargo should happen at the terminal, not the middle of the runway. I can move buildings for free? A runway that can handle a 747 can be built faster than a house and pool? Somebody is skimping on their engineering. etc.), I just thought I would point out something that would not affect game balance, would not need new images and should be relatively simple to program.

 

[Nutster]

The whole premise of airport city is flawed. Airlines don't wait until they have enough passengers before the flight leaves. They run a regular schedule and hope that the yield based on the number of seats filled and the price they paid is enough to stay in business.

Oh, I know! They are all charter flights! Then they would wait until they have enough passengers for a flight, then book the plane. Hmm, how do we know that all those people want to actually go to Goa? Yeah, there are several over-simplifications in the game, but it is still fun.

 

[Gt city]

Oh, I know! They are all charter flights! Then they would wait until they have enough passengers for a flight, then book the plane. Hmm, how do we know that all those people want to actually go to Goa? Yeah, there are several over-simplifications in the game, but it is still fun.

I like your thougts. Very real
And yes, it is still fun

 

[Wired Parrott]

I think that general idea of having tall structures like windmills anywhere near runways is preposterous. But I don't lose sleep over it.

In my games that I just gift from I make a point to put both wind turbines and powerful wind turbines
in front of the landing/takeoff side of the runway.

 

[Gt city]

In my games that I just gift from I make a point to put both wind turbines and powerful wind turbines
in front of the landing/takeoff side of the runway.

Good idea, you might get 10x more electricity then usual

 

[Deleted member 5399]

Very interesting conversation this is.
I've noticed several flaws as well, like landing to Giants side by side and having the right wing of one overlap the left of the other, while the taxi strip I created from hangars to runways, along side one runway, the right wing actually goes under the asphalt instead of over it. I wonder if anyone has hangars butted right next to runways, does the right wing slice the corners of the hangars?
And today an odd glitch. Only 3 planes out, and was removing some sleepers from neighbor list, that have been gone a while. When I closed the neighbor list, all my hangars were empty, but radar showed the 3 planes to be only ones out still. I quick close and reopen of game fixed the problem.
And I can certainly agree with and elaborate on @Agent_L comment.
There seems to be way to many buildings, some extremely flammable that are only allowed on Airport side of game. From electric transformers, tesla coils, refineries; man want to talk mass explosions if a real life situation occurred!!
I think even the largest of a player's cities would be left a crater.

 

[Uncle Mans]

As a programmer myself, I know the following adage:

Debugging is the act of removing errors from a computer program.
Programming is the act of putting them in.​

The way I laid it out, I was hoping for minimal disruption of the existing code base, but the potential for introducing bugs is always there when you are updating a program.

I've always thought that there are no bugs just "software features".

 

[Captain WH Rollins]

Good Morning Flyers (03.45am GMT London)

This has been a very interesting thread to read through and some really smart observations have been made with regards to Airport City.

I've noticed a few oddities myself during my first game play. When a long winged plane landed and worked its way down the runway, part of the planes long wing would cut through and disappear underneath the hangars. This happened when the hangars were adjacent to each other and butted up against the full length of the runway.

I also find the larger planes main bodies are far too narrow, certainly not wide enough inside for a centre ailse and three seats either side. The wings are also oversized in proportion to the main bodies of the planes. However, these things are easy to overlook and do not detract from the game.

Regards
Captain WH Rollins

 

[Agent_L]

I just thought I would point out something that would not affect game balance, would not need new images and should be relatively simple to program.

No matter how simple, it's still a time better spent elsewhere : )
BTW it's a mirroring, not rotation, that's why we have only 2 options instead of 4.

 

[Scott Blood]

As a programmer myself, I know the following adage:

Debugging is the act of removing errors from a computer program.
Programming is the act of putting them in.​

The way I laid it out, I was hoping for minimal disruption of the existing code base, but the potential for introducing bugs is always there when you are updating a program.

As a seasoned games developer myself, that quote is now rightfully stolen and will be appearing on the next bug report

 

[Blue Aero]

Something has been nagging me since I started playing Airport City a couple of weeks ago, but I only put my finger on it this evening. There is a design/animation flaw (among a few) when comparing the airplanes in Airport City to real aeronautics. A real airplane almost always lands and takes off into the wind, as much as possible, to reduce the amount of runway needed. Strong cross-winds, that is winds blowing across the runway instead of along it, make near-ground operations particularly tricky (time to go to your alternate destination). This is one of the reasons why many airports build runways in different directions, so that they can always have a runway pointing mostly (or even better directly) into the wind.

The airplanes in Airport City appear to land into the wind, but take off with the wind. Looking at the wind mills of various design that I have scattered around my city and airport, the wind is pretty consistently blowing from the lower-left to the upper-right, which would blow along the runways. I know I could turn my wind mills, but that would indicate a strong cross-wind; this is not good, as stated above.

I would propose the following changes to the design.
1) If the runways will not be allowed to rotate (as is now the case), neither should the wind mills. The wind mills should show the wind direction as always going along the runways, from bottom-left to upper-right.
2) Planes should always land from upper-right to bottom-left. This is what is presently happening. (Provided for contrast)
3) Planes should always take-off from upper-right to bottom-left. This is the opposite of what is presently happening.
4) When a guest plane lands, the player clicks the captain's hat to get the plane to unload the coins, either fuel or passengers and occasionally something special. Then the player clicks the oil barrel or suitcase, depending on what was dropped off to start loading the plane. At this point, the plane quickly taxis (teleport?) to the other end (upper-right) end of the runway and starts the loading phase. When the plane is loaded, the airplane icon appears; the user clicks it and the plane takes off into the wind, from upper-right to lower-left.
5) When landing your own plane, it lands, as it currently does, into the wind from upper-left to lower-right. The player clicks the captain's hat icon to unload the stuff and move the vehicle into the plane's assigned hanger. When the player clicks on the plane's icon to return to the runway, the plane appears at the upper-right of the appropriate runway, ready to be loaded. When the plane take off, it does so by heading into the wind, down to the left.

I am enjoying the game so far, but IMHO, changing the animation in this way would improve the experience for people actually familiar with airplane operations, like myself.

THIS IS A GAME - NOT REAL LIFE so GET OVER IT