It’s almost Christmas - and we’ve got an early present for you! We know many people wished for a new new long-term game world, so we’re launching a new one today!
For the launch of this world we are doing a few things differently: We know from your feedback that balancing long-term game worlds is difficult. A major complaint is that in older game worlds long-time players can achieve such a dominant role that it makes joining that game world unattractive to other players. One aspect of this issue is that there are several larger countries available with unrestricted market access. We therefore decided to remove the free market access for some of them, including Qatar, Pakistan, Colombia, Argentina and more. These countries will now offer space for players without the risk of being conquered by other players with billions of dollars to spare.
The stock market has also caused concerns for many players - mainly because of the cheating potential and the ability to acquire foreign traffic rights. Therefore we have decided to disable IPOs on our new game world. Adding to that, players will only be able to have one holding per account which eliminates tactics in which holdings of a single player are cooperating via third parties. We hope that these changes will enhance fair-play on Hoover and we will keep an eye on that to provide a better gameplay experience for everyone.
Hoover will launch with less demand and a slower growth curve than we had for the last few launches, in an effort to further curb some aggressive start-up strategies. There might be more changes to come in the future. And based on what many players have requested in the past, we will apply the changes to Hoover whenever possible, despite it being a long-term game world. So please note that changes might be coming to Hoover, even if they cause some disruptions.
Last but not least, a word on costs: In our opinion, LT game worlds represent the essential AirlineSim gaming experience. The oldest ones have been around non-stop for more than 10 years and we intend to keep them running for as long as it’s feasible. But as you might know, player numbers drop significantly over such long periods of time and the respective game worlds barely generate enough revenue to keep them financially viable. Some of the measures described above aim to mitigate the issue of player numbers, but for Hoover we also decided to increase the price per holding to 6 credits per day. It should help keep the new world profitable in the long run, making it possible for us to continue offering new LT game worlds.
Configuration summary for Hoover:
- No used aircraft at start
- Only current aircraft types available
- One holding per account maximum
- Slowly increasing demand over time
- No IPOs possible
- New list of countries with unrestricted market access
- 6 credits per day
Get started right here: https://hoover.airlinesim.aero
We have updated some airport data for the start of Hoover. It’s a rather short list but we hope to bring more some more updates next year. You can find a PDF showing all airport data updates right here.
As announced with the start of Otto III, all game worlds will also receive the latest data updates today. Please see the Otto III blog entry for a detailed list of all aircraft data changes.