Security requirements/terrorism and government inspectors

Please note that as per forum rules this topic does not intend to reference politics etc. Any perceived references are purely coincidental

The security system in the game is nice, but seems a bit pointless, as there is no consequence for not scanning baggage, or even making sure that the secure zone is actually secure.I think that the local government should email (the local government is very informal) the CEO informing them of basic security requirements, and again once the first medium stand has been placed. They will say that due to the increased volume of passengers and the larger aircraft present, the airport is becoming a target for smugglers and terrorists, and therefore the government may, in the future, conduct random inspections without the CEO’s knowledge. However, as it would be unreasonable for a small airfield to have the same security requirements as a large international airport, I think that security should be divided into two categories (and possibly a third if large aircraft are implemented)

Small aircraft

  • Requirements: Small security station. Baggage must go through a generic baggage scanner
  • How the government assess it: The government send inspectors with ‘conspicuous’ contraband on the person or in baggage. By ‘conspicuous’, I mean anything that will show up on a generic baggage scanner and can be found at a small security station.
  • Terrorism/crime: Most common would be smuggling of ‘conspicuous’ drugs either on the person or in baggage. less common would be things like money or organics. Guns and explosives won’t appear on small flights. People may try to breach the secure zone in the airport, but won’t leave the terminal building in doing so (no people running out onto the runway or trying to illegally board aircraft)

Medium aircraft

  • Requirements: Specific baggage scanners, Medium security station
  • How the government assess it: The government send inspectors with less obvious contraband. They focus on hiding (fake) contraband in baggage, although they will still send inspectors with contraband on their person. Government inspectors will also actively try to breach the secure zone inside the terminal.
  • Terrorism/crime: Guns and explosives will now be found in baggage, as well as all other forms of contraband. Although some, less serious forms of contraband will still show up in the generic baggage scanner, most will be well hidden and require specific baggage scanners to detect. More people will try to breach the secure zone and once in the secure zone, they may attempt to illegally board a flight. Terrorists may attempt to harm passengers (but this will be extremely rare)

Consequences for lack of security

If an inspector breaches security or if their baggage is allowed on a flight, then an email should be sent to the player telling them that they have failed an inspection. Airlines will then schedule fewer flights for a short period of time and satisfaction will slightly drop as a result.

If a smuggler is able to smuggle anything other than guns and explosives out of the airport (either by sending it on a flight or by picking it up in the reclaim area, then the player should get an email from the police telling them that a smuggling ring is operating in their airport. This should prompt the player to improve security. If they don’t, then smuggling will become more and more frequent. As stated above, airline satisfaction will drop and they will not schedule as many flights for a period of time, however satisfaction will drop more than stated above.

If a terrorist is able to breach the secure zone, illegally board a flight, smuggle explosives or guns in/out of the airport or harm passengers, then the consequences are far more serious. Airlines will temporarily suspend all flights, and satisfaction will drop significantly. If more than 5 terrorist incidents occur within 5 days, then the airport has to pay compensation to victims of said terrorism due to negligence.

Security guards
Currently they are basically the same as airport staff except that they man different stations. The player should be able to designate ‘guard’ zones that will be patrolled by guards. If an incident were to occur in the airport, (eg, person breaching security) then guards may leave this zone to respond.

Detention/arrest
In small airfields, captured detainees will be taken to a staff room until the police arrive, who will then arrest them and take them away. In larger airports, holding cells will need to be constructed, and police may interview detainees in these holding cells before arresting or releasing them, so depending on the size of the airport, the player may have to build more holding cells.

Notes

Scanners should be made much cheaper, as right now they can be prohibitively expensive

Possible other features

-Armed security guards. Can shoot terrorists before they board flights or harm passengers.
-Police deployment on site in the event of a terror attack
-Separate holding cells and interview rooms

7 Likes

Love your idea and would implement it all up to the terrorism point.

Maybe it would be good to have no terroism in the game as it’s now such a part of life would it not be nice if Airport CEO was free of such concerns.

Love the snuggling ideas tho.

I think if we put terrorism into an airport game, terrorism has won.

But I really like the idea of security incidents, maybe even serious ones. Drunk passengers, dangerous items in baggage found, smugglers (customs would be nice, too). And yes, there should be consequences for the player.

You should not only have to build certain things just because they are there at a normal airport. They need to have a function for the game.

2 Likes

The game is an airport simulation, and airports have the threat of terrorism. If there is no terrorism then it makes the game too casual and too easy: just make money and congrats you’ve won. At very least make they can make it an option, if you don’t want it then switch it off, or at very least make it a DLC. But ever since I’ve bought the game I’ve felt a little cheated that these threats aren’t in the game because it’s an airport simulation. It’s like if Cities Skylines had no disasters and everything only ever went right.

I’m all for plane fires, crashes and smuggling and disasters I just think in reality terrorism is so rare and has such a large effect on people (ptsd and general upset) and the games rating (E) to maybe (15) that it really isn’t worth it. The threat to airports is low due to levels of security that l think adding it would just be not worth the time.

Fair point, but at the same time, it’s so uncommon because all airports have massive amounts of security now. If airports neglected security now, acts of terrorism would be far more frequent. Same should happen in a airport you create, if you completely neglect security the same should happen. I’m not saying it should happen every other hour in the game, but at least every blue moon. At the end of the day it’s about enjoying playing the game, there’s going to be the audience that wants it and doesn’t want it. Having the option to turn on and off would please both sides.

I think you could even put the threat of terrorism into the game. But there shouldn’t be successful attacks, that would be cynical.

So what im seeing generally is that people like security and smuggling idea, but not the terrorism side of things. Fair enough, and now that I think about it, I do agree that actually implementing terrorist attacks would probably be a bit extreme (especially due to how rare they are). What really bugs me about the current game is that the secure zone doesn’t actually have to be secure. I can have nothing physically separating the secure zone and the rest of the terminal and there would be no consequences whatsoever.

As someone else mentioned I think actually most of these things would be covered by customs or a government agency. In the UK the Border Agency is separate from the British Transport Police and HM Revenue and Customs who collect tax owed on items being brought in, check all items coming into the country are legal and if taxable have been taxed. Border Agency are wanting to prove that YOU as a person are allowed in.

So really most of the checks at least in the UK are done when you arrive here! Perhaps we could find some sort of government incentive to tempt the CEO’s to help government agencies protect their borders and taxes? The Police would have responsibility over criminal action. I saw on another thread about having holding cells in the airport… so that could be linked in and perhaps deport the criminal if caught smuggling perhaps with a hefty bonus for the CEO?

This is an apolitical airport management game striving for game-play and realism.

Security level on a global scale has very little to due with number of successful attacks. Regional prevalence of terrorism and political impact of the specific attack are of vastly greater importance. Also. I have accidentally taken a 3.5 inch knife through US airport security. I know a retired pilot who took a small blade through routinely flying domestically in the US and internationally in latin america. There aren’t statistically significant quantitative studies, but there is a good deal of evidence to suggest that security doesn’t actually catch all that much. So from an apolitical perspective, terrorism in a game that lets you put your airport anywhere at an undefined time in the 21st century makes no sense, whatever the terror level was would have to be contrived. From a realism perspective, we have some evidence that dumb luck is a bigger factor than metal detectors. What about gameplay?

I agree that secure zones should have to be walled/fenced in. (I happen to think detection should be automatic.) Not being allowed to fly commercially from an insecure airport makes sense.

Government interaction with your security is necessarily contrived (global game, governments function differently) and fundamentally political.

Terrorist interaction with your airport is either not your fault, not your problem, game ending, or a combination of these. I personally dislike all of these in a game.

Even if I was up for these “challenges”, what kind of game is this? I don’t think its a rebuilding after mass casualty explosion game, or a strategic combat game featuring innocent families getting shot game.

I’m not one to offer up criticism without a counterplan.

I’d look to airport tycoon 3. You had a security rating based on number of police stations vs amount of airport. A poor security rating triggered random bad events, but nothing graphic, and nothing you could do anything about once it happened, becasue these would be a distraction from core gameplay. We could improve on this by making more complex security rating calculations, and by making security rating effect various contracts. Maybe, maybe, if a fire fighting system was implemented somewhere along the line, one potential bad event could be a fire in a trashcan or on a plane on the tarmac. Maybe a fine related to something bad happening after a flight took off (I’d prefer to leave it up to player imagination what exactly happened). Maybe, on hardmode, massive financial damage or critical infrastructure damage.

Please not a contrived and complex system.

Please not terror-simulator.

Please not strategic combat.

Please not embedded prison architect.

Terror is not a game element. Terror is not part of our fun. Terror has been successful if we’re so convinced of its statistical significance as to structure our management games around it.

3 Likes

@zekew11 I absolutely agree with you. There should be no terrorism in the game,nor do I really need a graphical representation of a fire in the terminal.

BUT… I also agree with the OP of this thread that security breaches should have effects. Yesterday while building some new parts in my terminal I accidentally destroyed a wall between my dirty zone and my clean zone (unsecure and secure). No effect happened and this is absolutely unrealistic.

Take as an example Frankfurt Airport. Some years ago there were security tests performed and the airport failed miserably. It was a big thing in the news and the airport actually got fined and had to improve their security measurements.

Now truth be told, neither airlines nor passengers really care about the safety of an airport. If your airport is in an economically attractive area, it will have no problem getting new flights and new airlines.

Therefore I would implement something that is a bit disturbing for the player, but will not ruin the entire airport in the game.

Idea:

Once every so often a security check is performed by the local authorities. There can be certain levels of failure during this check (e.g. minor failure for being able to bring larger amounts of liquids through security, to major failures, where a passenger can move from the dirty zone to the clean zone without going through security).

Based on the severity of the failure and if it happended before or not, the local authority will fine the airport with a certain amount. It could also be, that the authorities add certain “increased safety measurements” for the airport. This could be something like adding two more security staff for each security station for 10 days or so.

The same concept can be applied to the baggage screening system.

Again, I am against huge disturbances as most of us are probably most interested in watching aircrafts being handled on the stand :wink: , but I am in favour of a little spice here and there.

1 Like

@zekew11I don’t agree.

Of course, I dont want the game to be “only” a terror simulator. But you have to understand that you build objects in a game not for just the visual representation, but for the consequences and effect they might have on the simulation as a whole. For instance, if you build security check-points, they must actually work, otherwise, they’re not needed at all and you might as well allow everyone through. A game with little depth and just a bunch of path-finding objects gets BORING incredibly fast. Once you’ve made all the money you could possibly earn, what else is there to do? Just move some articial art work around?

I careless on pretending this is functional and more on having meaning within the simulation itself.

I don’t play this game anymore due to the fact its just a simulation of planes with a scedule. Theres no challenges or hidden objective for you to try and solve. Why even play with money? just play with unlimited since thats your goal to build a beautiful looking airport.

This game will not be complete without a true security threat system. You have to face the fact that in the real world, airports need security and that security needs to be optimized to protect people. Otherwise, this game is just living in a utopian society.

This topic was automatically closed 31 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.