We've got some big changes coming!
Regional networks should be more viable. City proximity is now the main demand factor. For example, pax generation on SFO-LAX was massively buffed. I also surface each city's demand score in the Connections view in case you want to help me tweak the algorithm further.
Passengers don't despawn anymore. Yes, this is a big change. Passengers have always despawned. Even when I was first prototyping this game a little over two years ago (wow, time flies huh). Now, airports have capacities (split into per-airlined preferred caps, and a shared open cap). Overflow now more transparently counted as lost demand and surfaced in the Connections view.
Delivery rate gone, replaced with "% on time". This is a necessary change because we got rid of pax despawning so, well, delivery rate doesn't really make sense anymore. Instead, pax who wait more than 24h will count as being delivered late. Luxury, business, and comfort pax who wait 24h+ will get impatient and take economy/standing seats and pay you less.
Plane wait time shortened to 4h. It sounds like a weird change, but it seems to more-or-less work when paired with the other changes. Let me know your feedback.
New game rules. Airline airport expansion rate, passenger loyalty window, etc.
AI should be smarter. Should spend more on planes and less on buildings + stocks. Should choose better cities to expand to. And of course, improvements to the autobalancer algorithm will help them out.
Some things that I would love feedback on:
New right click to pan. Did it confuse you? Should I add a big warning on the main screen?
New autobalancer hangar dwell time mechanic seem ok?
Does the rebalanced city demand algorithm seem ok?
Does the removal of pax despawns seem ok?
Does autobalance seem ok?
Does AI seem any smarter?
To play this new version, please enroll in the preview branch!