Sometimes the aircraft popularity ratings are really weird…
For instance the classic B737 (aka Bobby) only has 3/5 while the Avro RJ, neither younger nor more comfy for pax, has 5/5.
The CRJ has a 5/5 rating, while the Fokker 70/100 and the ERJ145, arguably offering the same (ERJ) or slightly more roomy (F100) cabin experience only have 4/5.
The super modern Sukhoi Superjet only has 4/5, while at the same time that hot piece of junk metal called TU204 has 5/5 for some weird reason.
Generally older aircraft seem to have a lower rating (somewhat understandable), then again the A300 and A310, both long gone from commercial passenger aviation, have a 5/5 rating.
I feel that in many ways they are balanced. The Sukhoi’s beat all aircraft in sizes up to 737-700BGW I believe when it comes to per seat costs, particularly with more luxury configurations. CRJ’s NG are brand new, Fokker’s are old now. CRJ classics only have 4/5 now I think. For things like the TU204 and Avro’s, their 5 star rating promotes them to allow for rivals for main stream aircraft. The 737 Classic 3-star rating seems like a nerf to the spammers on older servers, although it is easy to work around .
Certainly agree that its not perfect but just trying to give a perspective from a gameplay standpoint.
Sure, I understand the perspective from a game-balancing standpoint.
But I feel like, if that’s the reason, we should fix the problem, not tweak around it.
Reason the Sukhois are so superior is that their maintenance cost is virtually nothing compared to the real world. That’s the main reason they are far from successful IRL.
On the other hand the TU204 is way too overpowered in the game already.
It would make sense to me that cheap (to obtain) Russian aircraft have a lower popularity because of their questionable reputation, but then I’d rate the TU204 even lower than the SU95.
Also I feel like we don’t need to balance everything. If aircraft are just not economically sustainable in the real world, we don’t need to artificially make them sustainable in the game. There is no reason to keep them around apart from nostalgia.
From what I know from the “real world” is that Sukhoi SSJs are not particularly expensive. It’s just difficult to obtain certain spare parts for them, as Sukhoi has no sizeable after sales and spare parts management network in place.
If you go for noise, space, cabin feeling (regardless of age), then a Tu204 is a reasonably comfortable aircraft. A Tu134 isn’t, the Embraer 1xx series certainly is a cramped affair in almost any configuration (even compared to CRJs).
But does a passenger care about spare part problems? It is comfy, so not to loud, good cabin height etc.
Don’t think that the superjet is bad here and worse than older E190 etc.
But it’s Russian. I don’t care and neither do most people from the CIS states, but you’ve got to acknowledge that Russian engineering isn’t exactly praised in the Western world.
I feel the +4 rating is quite appropriate for the SSJ. It’s better than old aircraft, but slightly worse than the Western A/C types. I wasn’t complaining that the SSJ is rated too good in itself, but rather in comparison to the TU204, which is an old aircraft with a historic aircraft cabin appearance.
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