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I agree with the sentiment of no more new cities for this year. We spent a bunch on opening up Asia, now we really need to put planes in the air and take advantage of the Europe-Asia trans-continent thing we have going for us. Get some more planes in the air. I don't think the Caravelle is cost efficient, and if the DC manufacturer is poised to release some good planes we should snuggle up with them as much as possible. We've also been securing slots all over the motherland that we should make sure we're filling up. Maybe get some more slots in Asia and fill those too, since they've got the population to handle it. We've got a lot of good property right now, let's take a year to up the efficiency and start pulling more money out of it to fund the inevitably painful expansion into Amurrica.
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Feb 28, 2014 07:07
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I vote reinforce what we have for the time being. Shore up our cash flow, maybe invest in a bus or hotel to get that passive income foundation. We can expand next year.
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Feb 28, 2014 08:43
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I support buying more planes and using them to reinforce current routes. Eventually, open up Sydney and Oceania (this is probably for much later when we have more cash though).
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Feb 28, 2014 15:54
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In light of what everyone else has said, I'm changing my vote. Don't buy the Caravelle just yet, get a handful of DC-8s but not many because better stuff may become available, invest in existing airports and routes like that Tehran commuter airline, and as a stretch goal aim for reaching Oceania.
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Feb 28, 2014 16:21
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 Business Plan 1959 Primary Objectives: pre:7 - Procure DC6s 6 - Expand existing routes, Prioritizing Asia Secondary Objectives: pre:4 - Purchase Business in Hubs, Priority Hotel in Hong Kong 4 - Procure Long-Range Aircraft for connector flights, DC8-30 Preferred Stretch Goals: pre:3 - Go for Sydney 3 - Make moves towards South America Get A Boat: pre:3 - Greek 1 - Chinese A_Raving_Loon fucked around with this message at 15:30 on Mar 10, 2014 |
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Feb 28, 2014 16:49
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I voted 5, this thread owns and I'm glad one of my favorite games as a kid is being done! I think I always cheesed it as a kid and started in North America which felt the easiest. It's cool to see you do a Middle East run!
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Feb 28, 2014 17:38
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Wow. 5000 miles is a lot of miles. Is there a lot of demand for hub-to-hub flights that far apart?
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Mar 1, 2014 02:43
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My recollection is that inter-regional flights generated crazy amounts of money & passengers. I'd assumed there was some kind of "whole region bonus" at work where it was assumed people from other cities were hub & spoking it in, but they generated good money even if you totally lacked a hub or regional flights, too. I usually prioritized them first (also known as the "Pan-Am strategy"), so I would offer a light vote for expanding to Australia sooner (1960?) rather than later, money permitting, & both Middle East-Oceania + Asia - Oceania. No need to make a hub in Oceania, just the flights... if we have any aircraft that can fly from Tehran to Sydney, at least. (Perth is a crappy city and not closer enough, IIRC.) ConAir may have beaten us to the Hong Kong - Sydney route, but we can still get in on this. Of course, the downside is A) inter-regional routes are worthless for regional dominance, aka winning the game B) all inter-regional routes compete with each other even if they're from different cities (for those who haven't played the game). So London - NY competes with Rome - Atlanta. Also, Iran - US relations are tense in the late 50s? Tsk tsk, game designers. (Ah well, that's still more plausible than some of the game's future history, like Switzerland & Russia joining the EU in 2007 or thereabouts.) Rando-trivia: I checked with someone who lived in Tehran in the 60s and is a pilot, and the real Iran Air did in fact have crappy routes that connected to Pakistan then and probably lost money. Accuracy! (OTOH, he thought they ran mostly Viscounts which weren't in the starting stock in-game. But the DC-6s we bought are, according to Wikipedia, true to history, so there's that.)
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Mar 1, 2014 21:54
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1959 - Lifestyle Adjustment Q1 1959  Coming into the year, most of our agents are occupied and we’ve not enough cash on hand for even a single Doug. Igor is sent to top us off with 4 more slots in Hong Kong. Next turn, everyone will be ready for action.    I start putting more of our slots to use, activating our extra time in Cairo and stripping time from Paris to feed to THROM. I’ve seen Paris-Rome do much better than this in other games. Perhaps more people will want to leave France after our network adds more exotic destinations.  They hook into Africa and send more agents to America.  Speaking softly in Austria and at home.  People just won’t shut up about this island.   More growth in the hubs of our enemies.    A pretty quiet turn. Q2 1959  Knowing them, this time will wind up assigned to a weather balloon. It will still earn more than a Tu104.   We have cash to spend on Doug.   Time to put on flights  And people to send on adventures. Those slots get pumped into our old-time Mideast routes to see how much they can handle.  With how well Egypt took to theirs, I’m optimistic.  We’re at our max share of most of our far-east destinations. Igor’s sent for 9 slots in Shanghai, which would bring us up to 14, and Cindy snipes 1 left in Kuala Lumpur.  Air Murica’s extensive use of London as a hub has driven up the size of their airport. There’s plenty of space for us to get up to the twice-daily limit for our British Connection. This will only take 3 months.  Jerry gets a matching mission to top us off in Athens. There won’t be new space in Rome until 1960, but it doesn’t hurt to have the other ends squared away before then. This will take him 9 months anyway.  Their first competing route in North America, along with bids in Washington.  Nothing out of them. Weird that they set up their hub in South America but haven’t used it for anything.  Cover of our new album - Trouble on Tehran to Baghdad.  Debuting live in concert at New Delhi. No one flies there.    loving recording contracts. Worst turn of the year, right here. Q3 1959  Viva! New regime is neutral with us. We’ve been quite fortunate with these government shifts so far.  Sports are coming.   Coming soon - The B707-320, slightly better than a 707-120 in every way for an extra $2.7M. A straightforward upgrade its older brother.  No.  No.  gently caress. Only three major nations in the world don’t like us, and the two we need to break into new regions both bring deals we can’t afford.    In better news, 9 British slots plus a shiny new Doug equals piles of new customers. I skim the Rome-time off of Berlin. It’s worth far more with the British. We can refill their schedule after Rome expands.       Time well spent.  We’re either near-full-up or bidding our way there at every city in our network, and there’s no cash to spare for other interests, so Veronica gets some time off.  Their first taste of Ameri-Biz has them hooked. ConAir links Philadelphia and makes more bids overseas. People come from far and wide to see India’s giant replicas of foreign landmarks, on foot.    Business runs much more smoothly when nothing explodes. Q4 1959  America status - buying some Doug.  Same, Blue. Same.  drat fine Doug.  Quite generous for a first visit. There's a lot of money between us opening that link though.  They saved the last one for us.  Everyone wants a piece of Doug.    Breathing room in all of our hubs.    Close on a high note. We break profit records with a $12.4M quarter. ConAir is pulling ahead with their new links in America, and brings the first signs of Air’Murica slowing down.  1959 Year-End Review  Ilyushin drops out of the passenger aircraft game. Perhaps some day they’ll return.  Nothing special out of them. Jerry gets back from Athens with half of what we sent him for, and we get hooked up with more Doug. The midgame is firmly upon us. We must live and grow by our own means, and this means many desirable things which cost than a year’s income to acquire. These are still things we want, and things people will vote for, but under the current LP framework they become very difficult to attain. To correct this, it is time for Budgets. Each update, I will use the previous year’s income as the next year’s nominal operating budget. When voting on our next business plan, shareholders shall also vote on which types of capital expense our budget should be allocated to: Routing funds will go towards opening new connections and establishing new hubs. Money back from any routes closed will be deposited back into this account. Aircraft funds are dedicated to procuring new planes for our fleet, and refunded with any proceeds from resale of planes. Business funds purchase secondary operations and power marketing campaigns. They will receive all proceeds from liquidating any existing business. Flex funds are left unassigned, but are free to finance any project in need of them. Bank funds are safely stored, and will not be spent unless directly demanded by a high-priority item on the business plan. Budget will be assigned to each fund in proportion to the votes they receive, and all of these funds will carry over between years. This allows shareholders to support multi-year projects directing resources into the relevant funds, then calling for them to be spent down the road. Out performance for 1959 means that we have $34,650K up on the block. Build our Plan, and Cut our Budget for 1960. A_Raving_Loon fucked around with this message at 21:20 on Mar 5, 2014 |
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Mar 2, 2014 00:08
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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?
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Mar 2, 2014 07:47
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Edit: replied to the wrong thread, sorry!
Testikles fucked around with this message at 09:26 on Mar 2, 2014 |
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Mar 2, 2014 08:59
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The Casualty posted: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. 1. HKG-SYD Startup cost is $24,840K 2. At a range of 4560 miles, it's too far for Doug but in range of the L1049, DC8, and the B 707-320. 3. Can do!      Business performance is fairly variable turn-to-turn compared to air fare, but has been trending upward as our network grows. To date, our business unit has accumulated an operating profit of $33,520K. 'Value' Is what they're worth on resale. A_Raving_Loon fucked around with this message at 14:21 on Mar 2, 2014 |
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Mar 2, 2014 14:09
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Does the game allow you to use more than one type of airplane on a route? Or if you were to take the plunge and upgauge the mighty THROM to a big jet, you'd have to do it all in one go?
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Mar 2, 2014 15:52
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StandardVC10 posted:Does the game allow you to use more than one type of airplane on a route? Or if you were to take the plunge and upgauge the mighty THROM to a big jet, you'd have to do it all in one go? Yep, it's a limitation of the mechanics. The switch would also free up all those Doug for actions elsewhere, so it's not that big an issue.
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Mar 2, 2014 16:01
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I vote that there not be a new update until the next page, because these are a lot of images.  Or, rather, that another update would be way too many images.
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Mar 2, 2014 20:52
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The next page will come all the sooner if you vote about the business. To clarify what I'm looking for with budget votes - Aside the usual Bold-Lettered Demands for things that get added up to form our plan, simply declare which funds you think deserve money, like "We need to Buy more Doug so let us budget for Aircraft." When all the votes are done, I count them up and split the budget amount by who got what. So a vote of 4 Routing, 7 Air, 5 Biz, 2 Flex, 6 Bank would split our $34 Million into a block of 5.6/9.9/7.0/2.8/8.5 for the departments. A_Raving_Loon fucked around with this message at 16:00 on Mar 3, 2014 |
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Mar 3, 2014 03:11
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Buying up new planes and businesses requires some cash standing around, so I vote 50/50 Flex/Bank.
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Mar 3, 2014 03:31
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StandardVC10 posted:Buying up new planes and businesses requires some cash standing around, so I vote 50/50 Flex/Bank. Seconding this, although maybe we shouldn't be buying new businesses until we're in better financial health. Would increasing fares slightly on routes with 100% ridership be a wise option, or are we only getting that many passengers due to low ticket prices? There doesn't seem to be that much genuine fat to cut, other than possibly the hotel in Tashkent, but even that will pay for itself in time.
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Mar 3, 2014 04:27
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Standard practice, really. Do it a little at a time and you'll only lose a handful of tickets on the one turn you cross the line. Aside from when lower prices help clamp down a trap-route like in Bombay. We would make more there, but then so would ConAir.
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Mar 3, 2014 04:35
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I like the idea of doing a 25% split to Business, 25% to Bank, and the remaining 50% to flex. Gotta spend money to make money. As far as Business goes, maybe we could look at snapping up assets in Asia. Perhaps a Hotel or Shuttle Service in Hong Kong? That will drive up some passengers and income while we wait for the opportunity to expand into Oceania. Also, would it be a good time to lay down some kind of Marketing Campaign? I know it's only short-term effective but it could bolster our savings and give us the push we need to start a larger expansion project. (Koei made some amazing games, nearly everything on the SNES was gold in my book. I'm really excited to see this LP.)
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Mar 3, 2014 05:50
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Ad Campaigns are often worth the money. They target a region and a business type, cost some amount of money, and occupy an agent for a year. Choosing to spend more or less shifts the success rate of the campaign. Types: Art/Culture: Art Pavilions, Stadiums, Museums Travel Network: Shuttle Service, Ferry, Commuter Airline, Catering Service Leisure/Sports: Pleasure Boat, Amusement Part, Golf Course, Ski Resort Potential Marketing Campaigns: pre:Region Type Biz Base Cost -------- -------------- -------- --------- Mid East Travel Network 1xBus $700K Europe Culture & Arts 1xMuseum $700K
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Mar 3, 2014 14:13
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I'm not good with percentages so I'll just list in order of importance to me: I say continue with Doug acquisitions until we get that sweet discount for the nice jets when we're ready to ocean-hop. Major Focus on Aircraft! If there's anything left to bid on in China do that and put the new planes to work there. Minor Focus on Routing! Olympics are about to hit Rome, and it's one of our best locations anyway, so any business we haven't taken advantage of in Rome itself we should get into. Tiny Sub-Focus on Business! I think in the future we want to look towards Australia, but not in the short term.
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Mar 3, 2014 21:51
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 "Hey, Atlanta has turned into a complete shithole over the years, what can we do to clean it up?" "Do we have the money to do that ourselves?" "Nope." "What about Murica, surely they have lots of money!" "They've already bribed all government officials so now we just literally give them all of our money by the truckloads." "Hey, I have a brilliant idea! Let's ask some of our nations worst enemies to help us out! Surely Russia and Iran will be willing to just give us money and undo ALL of our past arguments and misunderstandings!"Seriously though, ouch. An opportunity like this is never going to come up again, is it? So I don't think we need to worry about savings, other than just a bare minimum in case of emergencies jar for when one of our airplanes explodes. Let's not go for Bank. Lets do some marketing to get more people on the planes we've got and upgrade our THROM into the greatest route mankind will ever know. So in general, Flex and Business, which ever one is lowest when voting is done. gently caress Atlanta. Krysmphoenix fucked around with this message at 01:06 on Mar 4, 2014 |
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Mar 3, 2014 22:38
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Krysmphoenix posted:
Iran in the 1960s isn't exactly one of the US's "worst enemies". The Shah is still in charge.
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Mar 3, 2014 23:02
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Bank 30% towards opening Australia next year. Budget 20% for business and advertising. Budget the remaining 50% on flex spending.
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Mar 3, 2014 23:20
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The Casualty posted:Bank 30% towards opening Australia next year. Budget 20% for business and advertising. Budget the remaining 50% on flex spending. 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. For example, the current budget split: pre:Routes 1 - 2.4M Planes 1 - 2.4M Biz 3 - 7.4M Flex 4 - 9.9M Bank 5 - 12.3M
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Mar 3, 2014 23:42
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I advocate more Planes. The steady purchase of DC-6s will keep our income growing and push us towards a discount. I don't think banked funds are going to be useful for us at this point until we are ready to start buying the biggest planes and businesses.
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Mar 4, 2014 00:58
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It's boring, but I'm voting for more planes and businesses. Also crank up an ad campaign in Europe: there's a lot of potential there for us to tap, and if advertising will steal some customers from our competition it will lead to a virtuous cycle as our popularity buoys our passenger numbers.
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Mar 4, 2014 00:59
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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?
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Mar 4, 2014 01:01
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Flex funds will support purchases in any category, with priority given by votes for actions. Funds which don't get spent will remain in that department's budget and carry forward to the future.
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Mar 4, 2014 01:09
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MiltonSlavemasta posted:I advocate more Planes. I always vote for more planes. Buy the russian planes, do it.
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Mar 4, 2014 04:43
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biz and planes please. Also buy more Doug. Maybe a jet, possibly??
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Mar 4, 2014 05:09
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Routing, routing, routing, planes, & routing. (80/20 split?) Per earlier post, let's open up Hong Kong - Sydney (and possibly Tehran - Sydney if any plane can reach that far) sooner rather than later.
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Mar 4, 2014 05:45
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Good lord that price tag for Atlanta. Is that a random value or is there some reason behind it?
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Mar 4, 2014 09:23
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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.
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Mar 4, 2014 14:16
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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.
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Mar 4, 2014 20:20
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Chicago is 4810 miles from Rome, with a $16.9M hookup cost. Perfectly viable connection for a DC8.
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Mar 4, 2014 20:56
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The Casualty posted: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. LAX-HKG is pretty long. If I remember right, it only started getting regular nonstop flights in the 1980s.
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Mar 4, 2014 21:16
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I checked ahead to confirm which planes even show up in scenario 1, and found that we will not get anything capable of a trans-pacific flight from Hong Kong this game. Our only hub which will get within reach of the Americas is Rome. Revised list of Hub/Link Candidates: pre:From To Dist Cost ---- -------- ---- ----- Rome New York 4310 29.2M Rome Washington 4500 10.0M Rome Chicago 4810 16.9M Rome Atlanta 5060 9.2M Rome Dallas 5620 11.5M Rome Havana 5430 13.8M Rome Sao Paulo 5930 34.6M
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Mar 5, 2014 00:00
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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. For budget. Routing and Bank.
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Mar 5, 2014 04:16
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