|
I played the poo poo out of this and its prequel. Even my mom (a travel agent) got in on the fun and had a good time with it. Air Murica in Blue, flying out of NYC
|
#
¿
Feb 13, 2014 17:19
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 11:52 |
|
|
I wonder, does your choice of planes flip from Western Bloc to Eastern Bloc after the Shah is exiled? I've never played as a Middle Eastern airline before. Edit: Tehran would be a believable hub though. Don't even think about offering flights to Israel! (Because places like Jerusalem and Tel Aviv don't seem to be on the map  )
The Casualty fucked around with this message at 01:35 on Feb 14, 2014 |
|
#
¿
Feb 14, 2014 01:25
|
|
|
Coolguye posted:Oh please why don't you just cop to the fact that you want us to be Delta Nobody wants to be Delta. Nobody.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 14, 2014 02:51
|
|
|
Testikles posted:Air-ran with a green livery flying out of Tehran. Long live the Shah! My airline isn't getting any votes so I'd like to endorse this choice!
|
|
#
¿
Feb 14, 2014 05:24
|
|
|
I've found in my experience with the game, that we should open routes more aggressively than the computer does. We can't fill hotels if we don't have passengers. Planes don't make any money sitting in hangars. And unless money is tight, we should be maximizing the use of our executive agents. We should focus on our local area for the early turns. These routes are not the most lucrative, but the medium and big cities will always be profitable, and you definitely want to have good relations with your home turf. Europe will turn into a dogfight between Murica and AirMarx, one which we don't have the capital to compete in right now. Africa is relatively safe from expansion by the Russians, due to the limited range of their planes, but they will look to the Middle East, so we must create stiff competition here! First, purchase the bus line in Tehran, so that we may get more people to and from the airport (it's also a little less expensive than the hotel, which should be our next property purchase). Then, order four DC-6 aircraft. Aircraft take a few turns to arrive usually, so hang on to the Tupolevs until the new planes arrive, then sell them. Open routes to Baghdad and Tashkent using our current supply of aircraft. Next, bid on slots in Karachi, and New Delhi.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 15, 2014 20:54
|
|
|
Bear in mind, for those who haven't played the game, turns are basically fiscal quarters, and actions take a certain amount of time. Aircraft orders can take several turns and you can't buy from the opposite side of the Iron Curtain if you're in a NATO country or the USSR. We can do it but we shouldn't assume that forever. Usually business deals only take 1 or 2 turns and one of your agents. Colder relations can cause them to take more time or fail outright. You have to plan ahead several turns in a row. It's also smart, in an area of political turmoil such as our region, to be conservative with our reserves. Political strife can lock us out of a city or country (or even an entire bloc!) and jeopardize a route, our aircraft can be targeted by terrorists causing negative press or even the loss of a plane, the price of oil may fluctuate; your profit stream can turn red in an instant if you play too close to the margins. Edit: one last thing to keep in mind, is that you can only have ONE hub per region! If you're going to expand into new territory then it should be through the most lucrative spot you can get. Big cities with big airports. You're gonna need the slots when you spread your spokes. The Casualty fucked around with this message at 07:31 on Feb 16, 2014 |
|
#
¿
Feb 16, 2014 07:11
|
|
|
A_Raving_Loon posted:Meet Team 'Murica: From right to left: 1. Don Draper. Senior VP of Operations. Considered a genius by his peers in the industry, Don is a Korean War veteran, who served with distinction, and uses his brash leadership style to get exactly what he wants at the negotiating table. A creative mastermind, chain smoker, boozehound, and pillager of panties. His favorite activity, other than achieving victory in the boardroom, is taking long naps in his office. 2. Peggy Olson. Acquisitions Executive. Peggy started out as Don's secretary, once. When she managed to seal a crucial deal while Don was MIA, Draper promoted her in exchange for her silence on the matter. Recently began putting on weight mysteriously and wearing ill-fitting coats. Nobody seems to know why, but she is the butt of many jokes and wild water-cooler speculation. 3. Harry Crane. Inboard Office-Haver. Harry is the comic relief of this gang. A slothful buffoon when it comes to everything except making the company money, Harry is only kept around because he is "a visionary," and also he happens to have a rolodex that's one card away from exploding violently. His obsession with the new television technology is sure to land him a nice dose of thyroid cancer in the future. Still, for now, the airline can't find anyone better, and so his future is secure. 4. Dawn Chambers. Junior Executive. The first colored employee of Murica Airlines, a distinction which people remind Dawn of constantly. Hired after Don unilaterally demanded more workplace diversity (much to everyone's chagrin), Dawn has actually landed some impressive accounts. Unfortunately, most people assume that any memos about such accounts are actually in regards to Don, and that somebody is a terrible speller. I mean really, Don is such a 'Murican name, how dare you screw that up?
|
|
#
¿
Feb 16, 2014 08:48
|
|
|
On one hand, we will eventually be expanding into British spheres of influence. On the other hand, "eventually" could be years from now. If we were moving in within the next few turns then this would be worth it. But how long does the good will last?
|
|
#
¿
Feb 16, 2014 20:12
|
|
|
A_Raving_Loon posted:Indefinitely. Then this is a no-brainer. Take the deal. I suspect Murica will beat us to using London as a hub, but look to the east. Hong Kong could be the crown jewel of our East Asian operations, and good relations in Singapore could make taking gates right out from under ConAir's noses that much easier.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 16, 2014 20:39
|
|
|
Gamerofthegame posted:Agreed. It's a gamble, sure, but expansion into Africa is going to happen within a year or two, and having a friendly hub in Asia, competing against what will surely be a big rival, is something that is worth a lot of money. That's really the best part of the deal in my book. Hong Kong is a powerhouse city in a region with growing populations and economic potential.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 16, 2014 23:04
|
|
|
Something to note for those who aren't so familiar with the gameplay. Cities that get a positive boost from the Olympics or a tourism boom get a temporary boost of their economy and tourism stats to 100%, meaning your properties will make huge profits and you can charge premium ticket prices without worrying about empty planes! We may not be able to fly people to the Olympics, but we should consider buying a business in Melbourne, and raising rates and flighrs to Rome for as long as the boom lasts. We'll also have at least 2 agents left if we do that. Let's expand our future European holdings with slot negotiations in Berlin and Paris. We obviously should open up routes in our newly available airports too.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 18, 2014 05:52
|
|
|
Killing Rome as our hub in favor of London will not only cost us tens of millions of dollars, but too much time. We should not bury ourselves up to our necks just to impress the Brits. We bought their happiness, which will help us globally so long as they have imperial holdings. Like I've been saying, that deal is more valuable for us in Asia than it is here. Stay in Rome, but use our leverage to get plenty of slots and businesses in London. We can at least make it tough for the other guys.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 18, 2014 07:31
|
|
|
A_Raving_Loon posted:I never pointed it out in the update, but you can see on the Finance sheets that our businesses are doing quite well. The game doesn't give you a way to check on how each individual one is performing, but we can see on a macro level that they're earning about twice their upkeep cost. That puts them on course to pay off their puchase costs in about 5-7 years just from their own operations, without counting the buffs they're giving to air routes. (Unfortunately, those are also rather hard to measure.) There is a way, actually! This LP got me back into playing again and I stumbled upon it accidentally. It's a little convoluted (as is the rest of the UI, if you ask me), but it's possible. 1. From the main screen, select the info tab (second row, looks like a radio tower) 2. The info tab is open. Select the Properties tab (second from the right, looks like buildings) 3. This breaks down your business holdings by type and region. Left/right changes the type, up/down changes the region. Find the business region and type you want to view and press A. 4. Now you can see a detailed view of the relevant businesses. Select one and press A and it gives you a precise income breakdown. Unfortunately, as you said, it's tough to tell how good they actually are for the routes. If there's research into which businesses are best and what exactly they do behind-the-scenes, I haven't seen it.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 18, 2014 20:02
|
|
|
MiltonSlavemasta posted:I don't know as much about this game as some of the other posters, but that makes it exciting! In order of priority: quote:2. Go East! Asia looks like a great prospect at this point. Hong Kong is Friendly now and is perfectly suited to be a Hub. We should make Hong Kong into a hub, then aiming to connect it to Beijing and Tokyo for routes that could be major moneymakers. quote:3. Rome-Africa Africa is virtually untouched. We should use our new hub to get routes to Cairo and Lagos going. Ideally, we can lock our opponents out of this region. quote:4. Buy Boats. There is a service business that has a boat icon. I like boats. The Casualty fucked around with this message at 10:06 on Feb 19, 2014 |
|
#
¿
Feb 19, 2014 02:39
|
|
|
StandardVC10 posted:In theory, a jet engine can be made to burn almost anything. The Tu-104 was basically a Tu-16 medium/long range bomber with a passenger cabin, though. It even had a glass nose for a navigator, a trend which continued in Soviet passenger aircraft for some time! Here's my strategy for 1957: 1. We won't be seeing better aircraft for another couple years, at least. Instead of further expanding intercontinentally, we should branch out to more places in the regions we already fly to. Right now the range and speed of current aircraft -as well as our public relations- is not good enough for us to properly service the Americas or Australia. However, Europe and Asia do have profitable routes to be tapped, and there's several high-population centers in each region that will undoubtedly be money-makers. I recommend getting the ball rolling on routes in Paris, Shanghai, Madrid, Athens, Taipei, Calcutta, Algiers, and Tripoli, in approximately that order of priority. Money is certainly getting tight, but it's pretty hard to gently caress up service to these cities, due to their large sizes and economic importance. 2. Opening these routes will probably take most of our resources. Let's limit our spending for new businesses. We must focus on getting the right number of aircraft for these routes. I suspect that our reliability issues will only grow as we acquire more and more Il-14s, we can't afford to be sinking cash into hotels and... pleasure boats, without factoring this in as a cost of doing business!
|
|
#
¿
Feb 21, 2014 02:55
|
|
|
Hedera Helix posted:
The problem with having 1 flight and a 50% discount. You'll sometimes see the AI do this on their own routes, desperately trying to fill too-big plane for a short hop to a backwater town. In my own game one of the AI airlines is trying to get a 747-400 to be profitable on a route between LA and Phoenix. He tries to fit 550 souls onto one flight a week, and gets 40% occupancy at a 50% discount, losing $1.5 million per quarter. If he was using a 737 or A-320 he could do 5-7 flights a week and pull in $2-$3 million in profit, assuming no competition. In fact, AirRan probably losing a great deal of money. The route will take forever to pay off at this rate. Plus it's an aircraft which can't be used on a more lucrative route. In a vacuum, yes, the route turns a profit, but in this network, it's a tumor.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 21, 2014 08:00
|
|
|
Yes, remember what you guys learned from going into Europe. The game mechanics only allow for the following: 1. ONE inter-regional route per airline, between any two regions. This is why we can't fly Tehran-Rome and Tehran-London simultaneouly. 2. All routes must originate from a hub, and with the exception of your first route into a region (because you obviously haven't built the hub yet), all inter-regional routes must land in a hub. 3. All inter-regional routes must land in a major city (green dot). If you commit to sending a flight into the US, then it behooves us to make it the city we wish to make our hub in. Otherwise you just waste money because the high route startup costs sometimes take a year or two just to get paid off. Inter-regional flights do typically pay more money per flight, this is true. But running a business economically is usually about taking the path of least resistance. We have a lot of options already in reach of us. Let us expand locally and give time for technology to improve before we start crossing the oceans. I'd also like to remind you of our victory conditions: Become #1 in SIX regions. There's seven total. We might want to think about making ourselves the very best in the rest of the world before trying to tackle North America, because there's very little chance we will overcome Air'Murica's domestic advantage. The Casualty fucked around with this message at 18:25 on Feb 22, 2014 |
|
#
¿
Feb 22, 2014 18:17
|
|
|
FH_Meta posted:I thought it was in four regions, which is why I was going to ask how many regions there were. But then on looking back, it's just hub everywhere, #1 in home, 1# in four regions, and profit for the year. Where are you getting only four regions for victory? That would be too easy. I recreated the current scenario (1955, Mid East start, Turbo difficulty) and got six. 
|
|
#
¿
Feb 23, 2014 06:24
|
|
|
FH_Meta posted:
Oh, I can see the misunderstanding now! I must have missed that somehow.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 23, 2014 07:08
|
|
|
The original Aerobiz has some different objectives, due to the fact that it's less detailed. There's only 22 cities worldwide that you can fly to, and you don't have to worry about the whole regional mechanics thing. Instead, you're asked to create routes to every city, and based on difficulty level, carry X number of passengers annually while running a profit of Y dollars.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 23, 2014 15:02
|
|
|
We're only a couple thousand passengers from being #1 in Europe. That's just a couple of routes. Let's continue to gradually expand in Europe so as to overtake instead of falling behind. Asia is becoming hugely successful for us as well. Routes to Bangkok and Beijing will solidify our holdings. We're on the doorstep of the jet age! I say we purchase 707s for use on our Hong Kong route and use those prop jobs for other business. This will really put the squeeze on ConAir. Alternatively, we could use them on the Rome route, whichever raving loon thinks is more profitable. These babies will revolutionize our business. The Casualty fucked around with this message at 18:28 on Feb 25, 2014 |
|
#
¿
Feb 25, 2014 17:23
|
|
|
Glazius posted:Air 'murica looks like it's got an amazing pile of money going. Are we going to try to break into the lucrative North American market at all? Easier said than done. Our cold relations over there make obtaining routes time-consuming and expensive. We also don't have a good inventory of planes to take advantage of trans-Atlantic or trans-Pacific travel at this time. It's also only 1958. The scenario concludes at the end of 1975. We have plenty of time.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 26, 2014 22:04
|
|
|
Gabriel Pope posted:I'm going to buck the trend and say no to the Caravelle, buy DC6s forever (or until something legitimately better comes out). These newfangled jets are a fad. You're forgetting that slots are worth their weight in gold. Caravelles can do the same job on fewer slots. I say buy some Caravelles and use them on our highest capacity short hops. You'll get more flights per plane and in most cases that means more passengers per route, and more money for us! Keep what IL-14s and DC-6s we replace in reserve and use as required. We have good routes right now but we also have some slots left over in unopened cities, so let's expand only into cities which we've bought slots for already and purchase businesses in our hub cities, prioritizing HK and Rome. Also, Papeete will not be a booming tourist destination for much longer, that ship has sailed. Do not bother with Papeete. (In this game, cities only get the tourist boom perk for about a year, max)
|
|
#
¿
Feb 27, 2014 19:00
|
|
|
Gabriel Pope posted:You've got it backwards: Caravelles let you consume more slots per plane. Being cash strapped that could theoretically be useful since we'd have to buy fewer planes, but the Caravelles cost twice as much and can only run ~1.5 times as many flights so it's not actually cost-efficient. They're both 80 seaters, so they have the same revenue per flight, but the DC6 is slightly more efficient so it gets us marginally more profit per slot and our up-front order cost is lower per slot too. Eh... I hadn't had my coffee yet.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 27, 2014 20:15
|
|
|
Jazerus posted:Yes, but both continents are also awful. We want to set up outside the third world while jets are still a luxury. Later our passenger numbers there will be high enough to justify the investment, but not yet. Yeah if anything we should be looking to Oceania next, seeing as Hong Kong to Sydney is a gangbuster of a route, and that region constantly pops tourist booms.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 27, 2014 22:10
|
|
|
You guys are obsessed! This is Aerobiz, not Searobiz! 
|
|
#
¿
Feb 28, 2014 00:14
|
|
|
A real shame about that US deal. It always seems like the ones that come through later in the game when you don't have much disposable income are way more useful than the lovely ones in the early game. One of my recent games started up with an offer from Kenya to fix their noise pollution for something silly like $250 million, for instance. Bear in mind, this is a quarter billion dollars just to improve your relations with the airport in Nairobi. Before I make a decision about the budget, I'd like some information: 1. What is the startup cost for a route between HK and Sydney? 2. Which aircraft have the range to do it? I'm assuming DC-6, L-1049, 707, and DC-8? 3. May we see the detailed ledger on our business properties?
|
|
#
¿
Mar 2, 2014 07:47
|
|
|
Bank 30% towards opening Australia next year. Budget 20% for business and advertising. Budget the remaining 50% on flex spending.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 3, 2014 23:20
|
|
|
A_Raving_Loon posted:Detailed splits like these are not what I'm looking for in an individual budget-vote, as they would quickly make sorting out the final plan very complicated. I'm keeping a simple tally of supporters for each fund, then splitting the money in proportion to that count. It appears I missed that post, my bad (shame on me, this thread doesn't exactly move fast). What will you do if a given budget ends up being too small to actually do anything meaningful? For instance, $2.4 million won't buy us any planes or routes. Just cover the difference with our flex budget?
|
|
#
¿
Mar 4, 2014 01:01
|
|
|
A_Raving_Loon posted:Connection prices seem to be a mix of Distance, Relations, and city Size/Quality. Atlanta has 0.2M People and 20/30 Econ/Trsm, making it the smallest potential hub in North America and almost the smallest one in the world. Only Auckland has fewer people. I have a feeling they included Atlanta as a hub because of its historical significance as being Delta's hub since the 40s. It's actually not that great to use in terms of gameplay, unfortunately. It does receive a high amount of traffic for its size, but then again, most of the North American cities almost seem to have a positive modifier to passenger counts. It's main benefit is its proximity to Miami (which loves to pop for tourist booms) and South America. But if you're going to fly out of the south, then Dallas is better; it has four times the population and a stronger economy. We can make it to Chicago, right? That's a pretty nice hub competitor to New York. Los Angeles would also be good, if we can reach it from Hong Kong.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 4, 2014 20:20
|
|
|
Juvenalian.Satyr posted:My vote for an American hub is with Washington DC, personally, as it's going to cost a lot of time and money anyway to get established and I feel because of Murica and ConAir already in the Chicago/New York routing we could start making back the startup costs a lot quicker. So we'd have one good route with some major competition. On the plus side, we'd be in a central location with the ability to maximize the use smaller planes where it counts, and bigger ones where it's affordable. On the other hand, We're probably years away from truly being able to enter the American market. We have a lot of buildup to do if we wish to get there. We should probably be strategizing for our Australian expansion, first.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 5, 2014 04:54
|
|
|
Continue to bank money towards opening Sydney. We're going to need at least a couple (preferrably jet) aircraft to reach it so earmark money for Planes with the goal of buying DC-8-50 aircraft.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 6, 2014 18:02
|
|
|
Krysmphoenix posted:Surprisingly, Sports! didn't give us that much of an income boost that season. No matter, we've got some drat good Routes up, we need to milk them for all their worth. THROM still hungers, and Tehran-Hong Kong has risen to bring us to prosperity. Ia Thr'Hkg! The Olympics usually guarantees that you'll attain maximum profits on flights to that city for one turn, plus boosts in demand for a turn on either side of the event. It isn't the straight 100/100 for 9-15 months like a Tourist Boom, but it is something you can at least plan for. Tourist Booms don't really pay off unless you already happen to be flying there, whereas the Olympics typically takes place in cities that you should be flying to anyways, because of their size or relative power. So, when you get the news that the Olympics is coming, that extra year can be spent setting up a really good connection there.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 6, 2014 23:03
|
|
|
Glazius posted:Wow, 'Murica's actually making serious bank in Europe. I'm surprised. The finest in all of Tehran! (Murica brings through more passengers because they're linked to an insanely popular North American hub, and because London is a superior hub city to Rome)
|
|
#
¿
Mar 7, 2014 01:51
|
|
|
I wonder, if we buy Lockheeds at half price, will we be able to sell them later without as much depreciation? Because if so, we could definitely buy those now and then upgrade later for less money.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 9, 2014 16:20
|
|
|
We've plateaued until we can get some intercontinental routes, but we're short of the discount by a couple planes. We need to budget accordingly. Planes, followed by routes. Surprisingly, Sydney is going to be $8.1M more expensive to open than Chicago. We need consensus. You know I've been a big proponent of opening Sydney, and I still am. But I also recognize the alternative. While wounding ConAir in their home market is a definite objective if we are to win the game, wounding 'Murica on their home turf to check their raw purchasing power is something we could consider, at a short-term cost savings to us, no less.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 11, 2014 01:29
|
|
|
Techno Remix posted:Now is the time. HK -> LA is 7,310 miles. That's about 1,250 miles further than the max range of any long range jet currently in production. We'd be able to make it if our hub was in Tokyo, I think, but our positive relations with the British have been more than beneficial.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 11, 2014 06:48
|
|
|
CommaToes posted:Buy a Boeing 707. Those Murica guys are winning for a reason. While the 707 is a good aircraft, we will be able to purchase DC-8-50s at a discount soon. We have to purchase as efficiently as we can because we simply don't have the revenue that they do.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 14, 2014 01:46
|
|
|
What exactly did ConAir do to raise their profits $10M in a single year?
|
|
#
¿
Mar 16, 2014 06:50
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 11:52 |
|
|
We can't have routes without more planes! Another DC-8-50 running to Chicago will expand out profits and get us closer to the point where we can sell off some of our tired IL-14s for 727s, and use the speed advantage to shuffle DC-6s around for a slight bit of expansion.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 19, 2014 23:47
|
|