Dev Blog 144: Soon releasing Alpha 34, beginning work on Alpha 35 and the Airport CEO soundtrack now available!

Airport CEO Development blog
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I agree with @orb and even more so with @Tornadic_Outlaw.
Right now, my biggest concern is how to get as many planes as possible to the gates without 4+ runways.
Because it looks ridiculous and is unrealistic.

Let me paint a colourful picture of what I hoped ACEO to be in comparison to “the other game” in the genre:
A game, where your terminal design requires you at a certain point to have seperation between arrival and depature zones, from the gate to the baggage claim area, maybe even gates where you can decide which floor you want arrivals and depatures to be routed through.

Passengers arriving walk through the specific arrival walkwas, seperated from depature by walls or on different floors, making their way through immigration (intl. flights), picking up their luggage and leaving through a customs gate. From thereon, they rent a car, take a taxi or public transport or walk to their car/get picked up.

Depature works in a similar fashion. Passangers arrive by any means of transport and walk towards check-in. They then pass through security and immigration (intl. flights) to walk through the terminal area where shops, pharmacies, bathrooms and restaurants are located. By lifts, stairs or escalators they can reach airline lounges a floor above, where one may find a few offices too.

The thing that really makes a seperate terminal or area of such necessary, is immigration.
Even though centralized security is rare, it is not really a problem.

Most airport services, offices and other things like firefighters, airport hospital vet. etc. would be located on ground level, including walkways for maintenance. with staircases to the public area and doors that require security clearance (i.e. staff only area).
Different levels of streets would allow for seperate traffic flow for depature drop-off and arrival pick-up as well as self-made car parks.

I explain it in such detail to give you an idea what got me hoping for this game back in the days when EA was released and I got it right away. I already left out cargo terminals or airline services (repair, maintenance).

In comparison to SimAirport (I think many of us own both games), I always saw AirportCEO as the more complex version and SimAirport as the PrisonArchitect.
Many reviews have had a similar impression, if you go back and search for it.

What I am trying to say is, that an airport is complex and if you want to mimic anything remotely close to an airport (and most of it is planning, not operating one), it gets complex, it is a challenge and that is exactly what I love about it.
Otherwise, I can go back to PrisonArchitect. And even that went forward with becoming more complex over time.

Complexity should not scare the devs, because I doubt that it scares away any players, it actually lures us and makes the experience rewarding.
Simplicity feels more limiting than liberating.

P.S. I feel like this sounds quite harsh - it should not. I do enjoy the game, especially early and mid-game. Moreover, the development over the last years was nothing short of amazing!
It should be a productive criticism :slight_smile:

7 Likes
43

This is how I’d like immigration/passport check to be in a still simple and accessible way:

Version 1:
Have a setting in stand details for “only domestic”, “only international”, “both” which is preset to “both” and let the player decide independently.
This solves problems in small countries because it’s preset to “both”; new players won’t struggle with it right from the beginning.
Once immigration is researched and you have an international area, you might change “both” to the right setting automatically when connecting a boarding gate; whether this is a good idea should be open for discussion (after successful research a dialog might even offer to adjust all existing gates automatically).

International zone just like you planned should be possible to set once immigration is researched. Transfer between international and non-international area requires immigration/passport check.

In security ratings there should be a category “immigration security”. As long as international flights get to stands in non-international area, this rating will be low (every international passenger entering non-international area without check will reduce it). So of course before researching immigration this rating might be 0 but also not relevant (no fees).

Once the tutorial has requested researching immigration (or, when playing without tutorial, just after some time playing) an e-mail should be received: “Your government is slightly concerned about the security level of your airport, allowing international passengers to enter the country without any passport check. It might be time to consider adding an international zone with immigration facilities and only schedule international arrivals to gates connected to that zone.”

After immigration is researched, besides a lower security rating there should also be fines if international passengers are still arriving in non-international area (allow for some time in between because it has to be built and flights are already scheduled). On the other hand, if domestic flights arrive at international area, the passenger satisfaction should be lowered (unnecessary passport check).

Automatic flight scheduler will strictly follow the stand setting.
In manual assignment you might still assign flights to the wrong stands (but might get a warning).

Version 2:
Don’t have the setting in stand details. Instead stands should automatically detect whether they are connected to international or non-international zone (depending on where the boarding gate is located, just like your current plan).
As long as immigration is not researched, this has no effect (all flights just get to any gate). This way you also don’t get problems in small countries.
Once immigration is researched, automatic flight scheduler will strictly follow the detected stand category (maybe this could be a checkbox: follow domestic/international separation or don’t care).
The rest would be identical to version 1.

My opinion:
Personally, I would prefer Version 1. Game logic would be plain and simple; at the same time it would allow for flexible changes if people still want to schedule flights to the “wrong” area.

In a later version, you might even introduce “EU-like” special events when politicians decide that some neighboring countries don’t need immigration anymore; from that moment those countries would be considered domestic (might be an option so players can decide whether they want this to happen or not).

4 Likes
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Could not agree more, I was hoping for that kind of complexity, Setting these requirements written by Fredrik only to satisfy new players is very frustrating to hear. It feels like Cities Skylines whre you will need mods to bring the game to the level I wish to play in!

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I agree

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An alternative could be basic immigration and advanced immigration? I’ve flown many international flights on medium sized planes. Think Aus to NZ and vice versa.

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I like the idea of basic and advanced Immigration. You could aquire the Basic one very early in the game (say for small and Medium stands) and the advanced one later on.
The Problem that i see with the originally concipated international destinations ( them being possible only on large stands) is that for most airport locations the player will be forced to construct mainly large stands whereas the other stands become more or less pointless (Based on the locations, as i said). This restrains the game in so many ways and takes the possibility for the player to create the sort of airport he/she would like.

None the less, i am really loving the game. Can‘t wait to Start the r&d update tommorow.

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This was my concern, as well.

If you segregate international zones and make large stands single-use, you sort of pigeon-hole the airport designer into a certain archetype. Not all airports have distinct international terminals. Some simply blend all their gates together in one large terminal that’s relatively open. It may be the case the individual gates are designated for specific airlines. That’s something you recently added, of course.

I think an alternative option is to expand on the current contract system. Perhaps, once our airport reaches a certain relationship level with an airline, they begin to offer international flights. However, in order to get those contracts, you need customs and immigration facilities on-site.

Given your desires to have all locales open for airport construction, I expect this would be an option available to users and not something activated by default. I’m not too picky about either direction. I like what is planned and look forward to more diverse and realistic airports.

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for EU - so i would recommend a simllar to domestic which does not require passport controi - example i went to norway (that is outside EU but airport has separate Non EU areas and EU areas so very simple design

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I like this and could be combined. Basic immigration for one to three star flights, four and five star flight require advanced immigration etc.

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I think the best solution to this is a two part system. The first is active by default on lower difficulty settings, where international flights only require passport control after it is researched (or whatever other easy approach you want). Then on higher difficulty settings, (or as a tick box when starting a new game) have the ability for strict regulatory enforcement. This requires all international flights to operate through gates set up with passport control (and customs if/when that is added) from the start.

While this would certainly take more development time, I think it would be worth it in the long run. Scalable difficulty options are by far the best way to handle this delima, and any other feature that should be simplified for new players.

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I still don’t get what problem the restriction passport control only on large stands should solve.

Anyway, I don’t see why a world where 12 days are a year and no object can have a north-east/south-west orientation must look like earth. How about have a environment with idealized countries where you can only choose airports that do have national and international flights, and international flights are only available after unlocking passport control? Playing on Earth then is only for advanced players.

I’m not sure if I understand that right. “At least one foreign country must be ok with no passport control”?

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I’m not sure if I understand that right. “At least one foreign country must be ok with no passport control”?

There cannot be domestic small flights if country has 1 airport only. It can affect gameplay for newbie players.

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There is the Malta example, I don’t think they have two airports and @Fredrik uses it as an example for international flights without passport control.
(I remember when I arrived there from Germany, there WAS customs control, but it was some decades ago… maybe pre-Schengen?)

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When I went to GamesCon last year I had to go through Passport control.

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Since Malta is in the Schengen zone they don’t need passport control for a lot of their flights.

I feel like coming up with a solution to this problem will always require some kind of weird exception. What if passport control was one of the R&D projects available relatively early on and warn the player if they are unable to accept domestic flights? In the end there will only be a limited amount of 1-airport countries in which players play with the same IATA code, and if they do they are probably aware of it being a 1-airport country. As long as the game warns the player that his geographical choice will impact his gameplay, which I actually think is a positive thing.

3 Likes
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What if you instituted a regional exemption? Somebody talked about adding a geographic indicator for each airport code “EU” “North America” “Africa” “East Asia”

With what was said before it’s a “fake world” built on a real world geography so make some fake international rules that these 8 or 9 or more subregions have “no passport needed” agreements to move freely,

or a more simplified and “level 1” passport check that is essentially the security exit doors,

Maybe international flights are checked right at the gate with a “deboardinf immigration desk” but can only handle small planes effectively and can do so in a regular security Zone. You can do this for medium and large stands but it would significantly delay deboarding and cause delays. It’s like customs for private planes.

This would create a progression in international routes, larger airlines would require medium or large passport control and so on. I don’t know if it would be easy to create a post deboarding requirement before baggage pickup. Baggage would be another problem or we can just ignore customs baggage inspection.

You can then toggle between regional and intercontinental flights on each stand satisfying the large planes in domestic routes fashion too.

Just some ideas.

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I am still scratching my head as to why there cannot be a switch on each stand to “Allow International” or a three way switch, “Intl Only” “Domestic Only” or “Both”

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I think using a zone is easier or more visible for new players. Otherwise they set a gate to domestic but it’s within a passport secured area or vice versa.

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I totally agree. We should have it be able to select if we want this stand to operate international or regional flights. If it was to be domestic and thorough the flight planner wanted to schedule an international flight from an airline then the game will not allow it, or you will have a penalty.

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An example of a narrow (at least small) plane going a long way is BA001, who operates an A318 trans Atlantic. 10 Reasons BA1 Is Unlike Any Other Flight to the US