There’s only two weeks left in 2018, so it’s time to sum up this year and also have a glance at 2019.
We’ll be honest with you: This year hasn’t worked out as well as we had hoped and there’s been a lack of development for some time now. But why is that? As with most development studios, AirlineSim isn’t the only thing our team is working on, and work for external clients continues to be essential for the sustainability of our company. We are aware that this situation has been difficult for AirlineSim especially in 2018. We have been thinking about how to solve it and make more progress with AirlineSim both in terms of game development and support.
When we launched Hoover almost one year ago, we already discussed the dilemma of long-term game worlds: It is one of the unique features of AirlineSim to have these “endless” game worlds that allow you to manage your airlines for many, many years. But thanks to market forces, these game worlds naturally become saturated over the years and the airlines are big, but few. Therefore, player numbers drop and finally stagnate. We definitely do not want to shut down those long-term game worlds, thus undoing all the hard work players have put into their airlines. But while 100 players on a game world are still enough to pay for the server hardware and upkeep, our old long-term game worlds contribute a rather small share to AirlineSim as a whole. So we’ve decided to address this issue, and with the start of 2019, we will adjust the credit consumption on all long-term game worlds to the Hoover level. If you play on a long-term game world, your first holding will be charged with 6 credits per day and any additional holding with 4 credits per day. We are making this change to ensure that all game worlds are contributing their fair share to the development and support of AirlineSim, which we are set on improving significantly starting in January.
To summarize the future credit consumption, starting January 1st, 2019:
For all time-limited game worlds (Quimby, Otto, Yeager):
- 4 credits per day for the first holding
- 2 credits per day for every additional holding
For all long-term game worlds (all that aren't listed above):
- 6 credits per day for the first holding
- 4 credits per day for every additional holding
This means there are no changes for all players on Quimby, Otto, Yeager and Hoover.
What’s the plan for 2019?
We want to increase our time budget for AirlineSim again to improve both our support and the game’s development in 2019. Here’s a preview of what’s about to come:
- An aircraft conversion feature that will enable you to convert passenger aircraft into freighters or retrofit winglets to your fleet.
- The in-game demand data for passengers and cargo will receive a global update.
- “Historic” game worlds with accelerated time advancement - so you can play through several decades of aircraft history.
- A completely new wiki will be launched to provide reliable information about AirlineSim.
- More patches to improve smaller issues in the game and fix bugs.
And what’s the plan for December?
We will launch a new long-term game world this Thursday, December 20th. This will be accompanied by a data patch for all game worlds.
But most importantly, we’d like to say thank you to our loyal players! For the first time ever, there’ll be a discount on your credit purchases over the next two weeks! And no matter on which game world you play, this offer is for everybody!
You can buy:
- 1000 Credits for 10% less
- 2000 Credits for 20% less
Those discounts are available until December 31st, 2018.
Thank you for your understanding, your loyalty and your support! We’ll do our best to make 2019 a great year for AirlineSim and the community. Good luck to all your airlines!