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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.
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Mar 5, 2014 04:54
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 Business Plan 1960 Budgets pre:Routes Planes Biz Flex Bank ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ 4,331 8,663 7,219 7,219 7,219 Primary Objectives: pre:5 - More Doug 3 - Advertise in Europe Secondary Objectives: pre:2 - Expand Service in China 2 - Prepare to connect Australia via Sydney Stretch Goals: pre:Buy a Hotel or Bus in Hong Kong FEED THROM A_Raving_Loon fucked around with this message at 15:30 on Mar 10, 2014 |
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Mar 5, 2014 17:14
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1960 - Living Within Means Q1 1960  First things first, Doug needs a home. Adding him to Beijing would give us up to 4 new flights, but we only have time for 2 and can’t get more until their airport grows.  Subbing in at Shanghai, he could take up all five flights from our IL14. This adds 250 seats to our schedule, vs the 160 we’d get from adding to Beijing.  And frees that IL14 to hop into one of our other routes. Another 60 seats added.  Hmm...  Jerry’s handed $700K to endorse art in Europe. If he succeeds, he’ll be out for the rest of the year running the campaign.  Growing east and going south both take time in Hong Kong, so I reach out and claim 8 slots from their recent upgrade.  Blue is after their share in Tehran, and they buy a lot of B707-320s.  Pity the Russians. They’ve managed to develop a few routes where the Tu104 can pay its ridiculous operating costs, but those things are never really worth it.  Still hasn’t gotten old.  Jerry fails to generate any buzz.    ConAir continues to pull ahead of us. Worth it, as Air’Murica shows clear signs of facing competition. While still quite in the lead, their growth this turn was way down. Q2 1960  No word from Moscow.  They continue to upgrade their fleet, taking a liking to Boeing.  Scrambling for slots in the Middle East. As long as we keep our foot down in Tehran, there’s no real risk of being overtaken in our home region.   Speaking of, best to keep the pressure on.  Rome too.  A successful one, Jerry. Get back in there.   Good Hustle, Doug. That move, combined with gently raising fares added $2.2M to our air-profits last turn.  Let’s see you do better, Doug.  Pictured: At least one thing found at the location of this event.   Jerry makes us look bad in front of the Russians.    The Russians, Jerry! Q3 1960   An improvement on his older brother on all fronts, for just a few (million) dollars more.   Some nice clean bids. We’re an plane and an opening fee away from moving in on Oceania.  Well, a bigger plane. We have plenty of other work for Doug. He’ll fit right in with our Euro-fleet, but our bid for time in Rome hasn’t cleared. For now, I use him to add two flights to our connecting route to Hong Kong. With all the local volume added by our last Doug, I think demand is there for more THR-HKG.  Despite Jerry’s repeated failure to hype it, our Museum brings in enough to finance his marketing experiments. I step up his budget to $1.4M. No more mistakes, Jerry.  You’d drat well better.  With this year’s flex-funds sniped by Doug, the budget isn’t there for Hotel Kong. Instead, our agents double-down on claiming another 3 slots each in our Mid and Far-East Hubs.    THROM towers over all who dare oppose it, earning more than all its rivals combined.  Blue turns east, joining us in Hong Kong and opening service to the Uzbek SSR. Negotiations follow in Tehran and Calcutta. They also bid in Rio de Janeiro, laying groundwork for the game’s first route in South America.  Black keeps the pressure on America, buying more Lockheeds and more airtime Stateside.   Dear Moscow, please authorize production of a better plane. -AirMarx.   Sports!      loving SPORTS!! Q4 1960  More decolonisation. Their new leaders are also friendly, so no loss on our part.   Rome Status: Sports. Our new time slots are activated, mostly going to Berlin. Igor is sent in to see if he can pry their last free slot open for us.  Likewise at home. Note each of our enemies stuck at 6 whole flights.  To help prevent that from happening to us, I bid for some breathing room in Australia.  That new American route pops the bubble I had going in Tashkent. It’ll take competitive pricing to refill that plane. It will also close another trap.  That’s some good flying, Doug. $1.7M in your first quarter.  THROM Hungers.  With their current selection of aircraft, there’s not much they can do but wait.  More money, More Jets.  More invasion of personal space. They also connect Mexico.  Sometimes, a tourism boom can target an entire region. When they do, the effect on each city is much less intense.  Like so.     1960 Year-End Review   An uneventful winter for our opposition.  Sometimes vendors offer flash-sales on their craft. I don’t expect we’ll take advantage of this one.  Our footprint didn’t grow this year, but our business sure as hell did. We brought in $54,240K, an increase of $19.5 Million from last year with the addition of a mere two Doug to our fleet. While some of that was SPORTS!! money, there’s no denying that our core business is going strong. If we put our money in the right places, we can rise even higher. Budget Carryover: pre:Routes Planes Biz Flex Bank ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ 4,331 0 4,419 482 7,219 A_Raving_Loon fucked around with this message at 01:06 on Mar 7, 2014 |
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Mar 6, 2014 05:04
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I can't seem to find the distance; is Sydney beyond the reach of the Constellations Lockheed just put on sale? Would buying one simply be too expensive even at half price? I've never played this game so I have no idea if that would tank us or not... Or are they not big enough?
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Mar 6, 2014 07:36
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Budget into Planes and Routes. For the next year, I'd probably look into establishing bases in Africa and Oceania to get a foothold in both areas. Buy some more Dougs and use them to expand profitable routes. Also, buy a Greek boat. Still on-board (pun not intended) with the company yacht.
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Mar 6, 2014 12:50
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Seconded for Routes and Planes. That last year was pretty successful and we can afford to start expanding. I'd say focus on expanding to Oceania first. Africa is still going through a tumultuous period and the only other company that's in Africa, AirMarx, has both routes losing money. That casts severe doubt in my mind about whether we could still undercut them profitably. Buying Dougs is also a move that can't go wrong. That new DC8-50 might be a good way to get our foothold in Oceania too. Also, maybe Jerry could benefit from a few classes. I'm glad he eventually succeeded, but...the Russians.
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Mar 6, 2014 15:41
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Red_October_7000 posted:I can't seem to find the distance; is Sydney beyond the reach of the Constellations Lockheed just put on sale? Would buying one simply be too expensive even at half price? I've never played this game so I have no idea if that would tank us or not... Or are they not big enough? With the sale on, L1049s are $12.1M each for Q1 '61. Temporarily less than Doug. They have the range to reach Sydney, and are built a little larger and run a little smoother than Doug. Buying a couple to launch HKG-SYD is a perfectly viable move. Short term, it means cheaply growing the fleet with things that won't take long to pay back their purchase cost. Longer term, it slows down our path to friendship with Doug, and thus discounted DC8s. quote:the only other company that's in Africa, AirMarx, has both routes losing money. Less suicidal planes can bring some modest returns from Africa. It's probably where our IL14s will migrate to once succeeded by Doug. A_Raving_Loon fucked around with this message at 15:59 on Mar 6, 2014 |
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Mar 6, 2014 15:55
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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.
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Mar 6, 2014 18:02
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I feel the sooner we break into transatlantic travel the better, though I realize I'm in a slight minority there. Still, for that reason I vote Routing with an eye to vote to go west, son. Also looking to enjoy the Aegean on the company yacht, and voting Business with that in mind.
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Mar 6, 2014 19:07
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Routes and Planes and Bank. We're going to need money to expand, and I would like to see us be able to launch several plans at once. Of the potential routes HK/SYD seems the best option for a foothold in Oceania as well. Given that we're cash poor we should go Lockheed for HK/SYD. I would also like to ask when we will start paying a Dividend, I didn't buy up all these shares just to have to work for a living. I am also down for buying a Yacht if we can name it The Seaward but am otherwise uninterested. Gob out! /segways away habeasdorkus fucked around with this message at 19:52 on Mar 9, 2014 |
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Mar 6, 2014 20:25
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Planes and routes, so that we can continue to feed THROM passengers with better planes and put our regular workhorses to use elsewhere.
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Mar 6, 2014 21:36
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Routes, since we need to expand our footprint to win, and Planes to service those routes. If we need to buy Lockheed rather than Doug in order to open Sydney sooner, so be it. Other than that, split between Bank and Flex.
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Mar 6, 2014 21:46
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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! EDIT: Actually, thinking about it, our biggest routes have been between our hubs. If we get a chance to set up a new hub somewhere else would probably be worth it. We're close to breaking into Oceania, so let's get a hub there. Krysmphoenix fucked around with this message at 22:06 on Mar 6, 2014 |
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Mar 6, 2014 21:56
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Feed THROM. THROM crush puny local routes.
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Mar 6, 2014 22:03
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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.
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Mar 6, 2014 23:03
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Wow, 'Murica's actually making serious bank in Europe. I'm surprised. Also, is there only one ad model in the entire world?
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Mar 7, 2014 01:47
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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)
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Mar 7, 2014 01:51
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There's also some weirdness about how that screen counts the passengers from inter-regional flights. There's a zone-by-zone breakdown that's shown before the quarterly report and gives connecting flights their own screen. It presents a lower count which, when added up agrees with the overall totals in the quarterly report. For example, the detailed breakdown for Europe last turn was 14.9K for us, 18.7K for AirMarx (The Russians, Jerry!), and 41.4K for the Americans. It reports North America's totals as 29.2K for Air'Murica and 15.2K for ConAir. I think it double-counts people on inter-regional flights, once on each end of the flight, so Blue's European and American scores are getting inflated by the high performance of New York to London. Then again, it isn't reporting any passengers for ConAir in Europe or Africa, Marx in the Middle east, or AirMurica in South America despite having connectors to those regions, so you must need at least one local route to appear on the scoreboard. I'm tracking all the true scores in the background, so if people want to see them I can go about assembling some graphs. A_Raving_Loon fucked around with this message at 19:53 on Mar 7, 2014 |
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Mar 7, 2014 02:25
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A_Raving_Loon posted:
That screen is cumulative for the year, which I think is what the win condition uses. I don't think inter-regional passengers count for anything on it.
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Mar 7, 2014 15:50
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Sensible. Did some housekeeping on the data I've been tracking, so now I can do things like this.     Also being tracked in detail - Quarterly totals on revenue/cost/profit and people moved for all lines, and the reports of our operating costs and revenues.  
A_Raving_Loon fucked around with this message at 23:31 on Mar 7, 2014 |
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Mar 7, 2014 16:39
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Now that we have a little more money, we should add flights to the routes at 100% capacity, and add connections to places that are sure bets like Tokyo. I would also like, as part of a long-term strategy, to expand our presence in Europe, if only because seeing AirMarx ahead of us in any metric seems wrong.
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Mar 7, 2014 19:32
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Start taking holdings in North America by making an Oceania->LA route using Hawaii as a leapfrog  is there a revolution: hawaii establishes independence event please tell me there is
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Mar 7, 2014 20:20
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The White Dragon posted:Start taking holdings in North America by making an Oceania->LA route using Hawaii as a leapfrog Hedera Helix posted:Now that we have a little more money, we should add flights to the routes at 100% capacity, and add connections to places that are sure bets like Tokyo. I would also like, as part of a long-term strategy, to expand our presence in Europe, if only because seeing AirMarx ahead of us in any metric seems wrong. At this point, or growth in any direction relies primarily on getting more planes. Everything we have is in service and working full time.
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Mar 7, 2014 20:45
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Planes, planes, more planes! Max out Rome too
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Mar 8, 2014 00:12
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Bank money - we'll need it to open new markets. When you do spend, focus on planes; if we need to expand our fleet, then take advantage of the Lockheed offer, providing it's possible to juggle planes around so as not to jeopardize the Doug relationship.
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Mar 8, 2014 00:54
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I vote for a split between planes and bank.
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Mar 8, 2014 17:04
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Our customers have spoken, and they want more plane. For us, there is only one plane, and his name is Doug. I'm gonna vote to Buy Dougs and to use them to Fill Routes At Capacity and Open Up Oceania, in that order. Hopefully, ConAir's little tiff with Air'Murica will distract them long enough for us to start snapping up some of their turf.
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Mar 8, 2014 23:41
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Well, if this works like the turn-based games I'm used to, advantages tend to have a "ripples-in-the-pool" effect, so every advantage we can claw out now will be felt more strongly down the line. I'd say jump on the L1049s for Sydney. It looks like the game has handed up a favour here.
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Mar 9, 2014 08:17
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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.
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Mar 9, 2014 16:20
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Quick bit of benchmarking: ConAir's Singapore-Sydney route currently runs 4 L1049s, 9/10 flights per week at +50% fare. They get 90% passenger load, brining in $1.1M per Flight, per turn. Our current budget split also doesn't quite add up to opening HKG-SYD this year. We a decision about this sale. Current projected budget: pre:Budget Votes Gain Carryover Balance Routes 7 16,508 4331 20,839 Planes 9 21,224 0 21,224 Biz 1 2,358 4419 6,777 Flex 1 2,358 482 2,840 Bank 5 11,791 7219 19,010
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Mar 9, 2014 17:17
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A_Raving_Loon posted:
I'd like to cancel my bank vote, then, as that will get us closer to opening HKGSYD
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Mar 9, 2014 19:45
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Planes and Bank, screw Lockheed Martin.
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Mar 10, 2014 01:05
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Those Lockheed fucks are making a grave mistake thinking they can try to buy off us, AirRan, greatest aerobiz in the land, by simply giving us a discount. Don't stray from your true allies, AirRan. You must stick with Doug. All Airplanes, All Doug, All Time.
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Mar 10, 2014 01:13
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Business Plan 1961 Budgets pre:Routes Planes Biz Flex Bank ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ 19,518 23,866 6,589 2,652 18,067 Primary Objectives: pre:6 - Connect Sydney 5 - Stick with Doug 5 - THROM Hungers Hail THROM. Secondary Objectives: pre:3 - Ia Thr’Hkg 3 - Greco-Boatman Purchasing Still can’t afford that boat. Stretch Goals: pre:Establish presence in Tokyo Prepare to go west A_Raving_Loon fucked around with this message at 15:30 on Mar 10, 2014 |
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Mar 10, 2014 02:00
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1961 - Indecision Q1 1961  The cost of connecting Sydney has gone up a little since the last time I measured it. Not sure why. Either way, without the funds allocated for a plane to get us there, let alone the opening fees, they’re off the table for this year.  Oh I think you know.  Number eleven. Cash on hand could go for more, but I obey the limits of our budget. Next time, Doug. Next time.  The last Doug we sent out east found the extent of current demand in Shanghai. A little discount will get him running at capacity in no time.  Back home, another trap is closed in Uzbekistan. The home region remains secure.   Post-Sports Europe is back to business as usual. England is bountiful, France is a wasteland. This is utterly bizare, as Air’Murica’s link to Paris is doing quite well. I give them another chance to shine with a sharply discounted fare and an extra flight.  Since we’re set on moving into unfriendly territory, Veronica’s off to Japan. Up to 8 Slots in 9 Months isn’t bad for an opener. Large, underused airports like theirs are often more generous with their time. I have a good feeling about the place, so I take them all.  People still love Africa.    Holding our ground for now. Q2 1961  The Americans are in love with this plane, almost all of their recent growth has been from piling these onto their routes.  A further Doug is only worth one more flight for THROM. Going forward, we should seek larger planes to feed it.  Some day...   Washington was a front-runner for an American hub back in the day, but with improvements in aircraft range our options have opened up. Chicago has comparable stats, five times the population, and a massive airport that's gone mostly untouched. Igor will return in 9 months, having claimed 8 of these 11 slots.  Doug  Doug Envy.  Having seen the rest of it, Tourists focus their attention on the one place in Africa worth flying to. Cairo and Sydney also pop more slots.    Not a great turn for us, mostly from a bad business quarter. On the upside, we’re within 2,000 passengers per turn of overtaking ConAir in Asia. That’s just a bit over two Doug-Flights! Q3 1961   At long last, the Tupolev design bureau succeeds in creating a not-completely-awful passenger plane. While still undersized and inefficient, it’s the farthest-reaching Russian plane yet. We can safely ignore it, but if we were stuck with Soviet aircraft this would be quite good news. AirMarx will appreciate a plane that pays its dues on a full load, and will have enough reach to move in on Southeast Asia.   For the most part, our opponents' agents have gone quiet. Their focus has shifted to building up their existing networks before reaching for new frontiers.  Our way is paved in Australia. All we need is a wing and a cheque.  At 5 Doug running 8 flights per week, THROM is satiated. Fares will be fine-tuned to bring us to capacity, at which point thirty thousand people per year will experience THROM.  Our snare in India endures. They’re not even selling more tickets than us anymore, at 92 fares per week against our 210.  By some miracle, the French finally grow a taste for air travel. We may make something of them yet. I hand them a spare slot in Rome that has nowhere else to go.  Our Greek flight, on the other hand, is a bit under the weather.   This is why. Indirect competition isn’t picked up by the direct-comparison feature of the UI. Fortunately, we can use the info screens to keep track of what everyone else is flying. Air’Murica is loving the 707. Those huge passenger volumes are great for the scoreboard, even if margins are far slimmer compared to prop routes. Sharp discounts are applied to draw customers our way.  Though more construction is coming, our current hubs are capped, so Cindy is sent back to talk to the Aussies. We’ll want as much time as ConAir has if we want to really undermine them out here, and eating up all the space we can will help keep the other two from slipping in. With six regions needed to win, shutting Air’Murica out of two is enough to protect us from them. They’ve not cast their die here yet, but the AI all tend to agree on which cities make the best hubs.  Back from his art campaign, Jerry is redeployed to join in American Aggression. Washington may not be as great a hub, but it remains a solid city. They’re on our list for local connections once we go overseas.  I do I little price gouging while this is on. No sense letting it go to waste.    We need everything we can get. Q4 1961  They know what they like.  A little bit of bidding and a few more planes.   More time waiting to go in Asia, more hands free to get hooks into the USA. New York has grown so much from its time as a major hub that won’t be hard for us to get our 14 for a nice side-link. Trying to run our own regional operations out of there would be suicide.  All quiet over here. There’s not much more they can do until the Tu124 goes up for sale. Cairo remains a star attraction, and Hong Kong adds even more capacity.    A return to form for us, and a continuing trend for others. 1961 Year-End Review Well folks, we have commitment issues. We’ve got money coming in, but without a strong agreement on what to spend it on most of our budget went unused. Core business stagnated for want of planes and places to fly them. We have rights to a lot of time that isn’t getting used. On the upswing, it means we have piles of money waiting to thrown into getting poo poo done. We have time open on two continents, and are within two Doug of getting our hands on discounts for big ‘ol jet airliners. AirMurica’s growth has slowed sharply in the face of competition from ConAir, who have in turn ignored their home territory in order to focus on breaking out overseas. Rome is clogged again, but we can scrape time from continental Europe if we chose to go Transatlantic, and we have an impressive 15 slots over in Hong Kong itching to be activated. There’s also ample time at home in Tehran, mostly destined to build on our connectors once they have more planes. Here’s some highlights. Connection Options: pre:City Time Dist Cost ---- ---- ---- ----- Tokyo 8 1810 36.2M Singapore 3 1560 21.4M Sydney 14 4560 26.9M Madrid 8 870 21.4M Chicago 8 4810 18.8M Budget Carryover: pre:Routes Planes Biz Flex Bank ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ 19,518 8,466 6,589 2,652 18,067 A_Raving_Loon fucked around with this message at 20:33 on Mar 11, 2014 |
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Mar 11, 2014 00:40
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Budget purely into Planes (and Boats). 1) Buy more Dougs. 2) Use them to expand routes in Europe and SE Asia. 3) Work towards establishing more bases in SE Asia and Oceania, to be expanded in the next round. 4) Buy that Greek boat.
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Mar 11, 2014 00:54
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Budget for Planes. Use them to open up Hong Kong - Tokyo and Hong Kong - Sydney. Once we're ready to go to the USA, make our hub Chicago, but that could be some time from now.
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Mar 11, 2014 01:02
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Hey, can we make life a little easier by allowing a chunk of the budget to be permanently assigned to flexible spending to shore up whatever we need to use? It seems like each vote hard capping the amount of money in each area is stopping us from doing anything. I vote to Set flexible spending to 25% of our budget at all times. This will allow us to direct spending without handicapping our glorious airline (or at least not handicapping us too much).
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Mar 11, 2014 01:12
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Budget planes I am beginning to get jet envy...when will it be feasible to get DC-8s? Is hong Kong making a profit? Maybe max that out before expanding?
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Mar 11, 2014 01:21
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Tetrakarn posted:Hey, can we make life a little easier by allowing a chunk of the budget to be permanently assigned to flexible spending to shore up whatever we need to use? It seems like each vote hard capping the amount of money in each area is stopping us from doing anything. I agree. The CEO must have flexibility to adapt to the circumstances he is presented with quarter by quarter, as the Board only meets once per year.
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Mar 11, 2014 01:21
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