Congratulations AS...

English Boards General
1

For making AS one of the most unplayable simulations overnight…

Forgive my openness in this matter, but as I try to log into my account and check my enterprises whilst away at work, it’s frustrated me so much I felt I needed to express my views

I have spent many an hour and many credits on this truly awesome simulation. Watching my babies grow into what they are now after all the sleepless nights and dedication.

But overnight, you’ve changed it from an easy to use, easy to navigate, and easy on the eye airline simulation, suitable for all devices (including my iPhone with just a few random “workarounds”) into the most non user friendly place ever.

Awful colours (even after changing themes) missing links we all used before, re-titled directories and the crammed, complicated and poorly laid out screens and pages has immediately made me lose interest. You’ve even lost the grid style display on your flight schedule page with differing shades that made it easy to read…now just a mass of text!

Have you heard the saying “If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it”?

My landlord lives by this everyday.

I (and I’m sure others) welcome the tech and innovations that the latest patch has brought…and I’m sure a number of the bugs will be ironed out over time. But the new way it’s all displayed in a busy and complicated environment for me at least, is enough to make me question buying more credits…

I disagree with the AS teams views that the original layout didn’t depict the professional simulation feel desired. We, the users, all know that AS IS a professional simulation. It’s why we continue to play and buy credits. The fancy frilly-ness of the latest patch was just not needed.

And don’t even get me started on the fact you haven’t even added my much wanted Boeing 737-40SF…lol

No body likes change, I understand that. I’m sure after a few hours gameplay I may start to understand it all. (From a laptop and not a mobile device at least) if I can find the hours required in my flying schedule.

I just think the change was just too much, and certainly not needed.

Best regards as always.

James (FinnAvia)

CEO Thai Wings, cargoMAX, Hawaii Fly-0, Fly Royal Falcon…amongst others.

2

I second you James

3

...

James (FinnAvia)

CEO Thai Wings, cargoMAX, Hawaii Fly-0, Fly Royal Falcon…amongst others.

I can't say I disagree. Things did becomes *more* complicated.

Germans, as a stereotype that they seem to relish, over-engineer things...I would recommend trying to tone that down. We don't need a Porsche...we need a Subaru - a car that does everything it needs to do rain or shine whilst being best in class at a reasonable price. 

4

OK people, at a cost of being deemed a spokesperson for AS which I am not, and I am expressing my opinion!!! what exactly do you have problem with?

I did miss the old Route Management, but the new group by flight numbers option in Inventory actually makes everything much clearer, and now I can say it's all fine by me. I might add just one tiny bit of suggestion, and that is to use "FB" instead of 0 for fully booked flights (or "FB 0"). That would make it immediately obvious to see fully booked flights among plethora of numbers and fare buckets.

You can see market details of all flights for the route under Market Analysis.

You can pre-schedule flights with Scheduling

You can adjust price/service settings through Inventory in a much better way than before - e.g. you can apply new price to a route pair without changing price of all existing flight numbers, You can apply price and non-price settings individually, and for all flights, for a route, for both, and even for a return all with one click.

You now have better terminal handling options, both through Terminals tab and through Inventory.

The whole process for scheduling is same for me:

Fleet Management -> Aircraft->Scheduling.

The design is a bit different but it just takes time to get used to it. Process-wise, it's the same.

To see bookings and market analysis, I can use 2 of the 3 methods the same way as before:

Checking aircraft profitability and overall load -> Fleet Management -> Aircraft -> Flights

Checking station load factor for inbound and outbound routes -> Station -> Load Statistic

These are the 2 of the 3, which have remained the same (albeit with a slight name change)

The third one was, yes the Route Management.

But in recent months I was less and less dependent on it as I started to use Station load statistics more.

You still get the same results for booking overview of your and competitor's flights by going to Market Analysis under Inventory, and displaying "all" flights.

Plus, you also get Load Monitoring and in a more extensive form than before. So many ways to analyze routes and flights... There is no one single piece of information missing compared to the old version....

5

I would say the same about the black and whit coulours (horrible) but after some days you will get used to the lay out and I actually find it quite good now (trust me I hated it).

If you use the classic theme it is ok for the PC

But for a phone it is terrible (z3, z3 compact, iphone 6), I hate the scrolling down it is almost more ridiculous scrolling down in AS then playing Cokkie Clicker.

6

Well, there are a lot of new functions on the new GUI, which are really good work. I will say i depend on the new GUI in some ways. The classic theme is as good as old version. after taking back some old functions, which are already suggested, it will be a better GUI than the old one.

However, there are some changes are really unnecessary. I don't know how many times the icons of "Immediate Purchase" and "Place Bid" on aircraft market page have changed since the used of new GUI. switching color several times, switching the locations back and forward... Please, just stop it. The original green and orange icon work pretty well.

i have no problem with the new GUI itself, just some small problems, and i will get used to it.

7

I do find the current GUI a bit to cumbersome.

8

However, there are some changes are really unnecessary. I don't know how many times the icons of "Immediate Purchase" and "Place Bid" on aircraft market page have changed since the used of new GUI. switching color several times, switching the locations back and forward... Please, just stop it. The original green and orange icon work pretty well.

The position was changed because people were clicking the wrong buttons...

http://community.airlinesim.aero/topic/8066-62-immediate-leasing-bug/

http://community.airlinesim.aero/topic/8089-verlorenes-leasing-gebot/

9

You know what, when the GUI was just changed, i actually read before i clicked. But when those icons were switching positions to "prevent" people making mistakes, i made mistakes twice simply because i thought they were in the "right" position.

10

I agree with James.

It's not about the old/new features and capabilities but about the interface. And new interface is terrible.

You missed the first rule in designing applications for client - simplicity of interface. You can make gigabytes of information/data/settings but still have simplicity of interface. But you do not have.

In applications, there are 3 levels of informations -

1. Basic game settings that must be immediately available, visible and adjustable

2. Supporting information to the point 1, which should be easily understandable and searchable

3. Other stuff

What you did, you place all 1-2-3 to the one, throw it in a blender and add some awful colors. Now we have on the top of page a lot of of unimportant stuff and we have to scroll or click (!!) to find important informations. And in case that were nothing new added in some sections, you just moved everything to make it look "new" (omg why?). It's ridiculous.

Im playing AS over a year and yes, and the end of the day, I'm capable to learn where important informations are hidden and I will be able to stiffle this tons of information smog presented as significant. But it is thanks to the experience of playing in the old version.

BUT

I do not know survival rate of new accounts in old version (trail account to regular priemium account), but if it was, for example 10% of account, I guarantee you that with this new interface, it will be hardly 1-2%. I not see anything that would attract new players so much that after a week began to pay - gameplay is hard (I appreciate it) but now, for new players, is interface even harder that gameplay.

From the business perspective - hard times comes for developers.

Vlado

11

Congratulation AS you guys are the winners, i hate the black color of  6.2. But i have no choice but still paying for the credit because this is the only choice. 

12

Congratulation AS you guys are the winners, i hate the black color of  6.2. But i have no choice but still paying for the credit because this is the only choice. 

You can change to "light" or "classic"

Classic is not bad at all.

13

You can change to "light" or "classic"

Classic is not bad at all.

Even with light and classic, the new themes still contain a lot of Black. Personally I dont like it. All the themes are kind of hard to the eyes, compared to the old.

I do like a lot of the new features, but for gods sake, get rid of all the Blackness.

14

As a person who started playing on the new server (quimby) 6.2. version and never having played before I would say that I would have to agree with everyone regarding the the theme color choices. They are hard on the eyes and I even had to switch over to the classic theme. So you have a perspective from a person who wasn’t biased to the new theme at all but can still say it is horrible.

15

There is a group of from my work work- 4 people in total. 2 have said they are going to let their credits run out and they are done. 

They both said they can't easily monitor their airline- they used the route page so heavily but now can not see anything.

I would suggest that something needs to be fixed ASAP. 

16

The rending garments and threats of quitting are starting to go a bit overboard.

I've switched to 'Light' and quite like it ('Dark' is, I agree, useless). The breakdowns between Scheduling/Inventory/Market Analysis took a bit of getting used to but provide a lot of new and useful information. I got confused by some of the changes at first- immortalised in the the thread 'why is immediate leasing giving me planes immediately?' which is not my proudest moment- and there are still some kinks to iron out but the way some of the comments in the forum are carrying on is completely disproportionate.

I've only played AS for a bit over a year so don't have some of the heritage that others do, but I'm happy to be one of the few who will publicly congratulate the team on the massive overhaul. It's not perfect, but considering how little I pay for the hours of enjoyment, it's a great step in the right direction.

17

Hi,

my following feedback is based on my past experiences with AS in regards to the new design I tried out on demo since I'm not an active player at the moment but monitor the development of AS to warrant my comeback :P . I have to go with the title of this thread and say "Congratulations AS". (though, I understand it's meant to be ironic by the thread starter)

The new design makes the simulation a lot more sophisticated and professional. 

The 2 things I've noticed around the forum being criticised is the "inventory" as a replacement to the old "route management" and colour scheme.

Inventory:

I do not understand the critics. IMO the inventory provides one very helpful tool called "load summary". You see on an instant how your LF is across the board on a given route without the need to go through individual lines/flights as it was in the old layout. This gives you a very basic overview if you want to "quickly check the status" of your routes. It's even faster than before but you have to understand what it is: a basic quick overview.

If you have more time you could then go into the details by simply scrolling down and watch your individual flight LF (group by flight is a must here) and this is extremely close to what we had before.

Additionally, having "historic capacities, loads and prices"-chart right there is very well organized.

Suggestion: A "tag" button that allows you to mark this route for later deeper evaluation or changes I'd like to to. Perhaps a "show only tagged routes" sort of thing could be implemented somewhere although I'd understand if this is seen as unnecessary given the "load monitoring".

Colour:

If you dont like the dark or light scheme then change it to "classic". It's the same colours as before what is the issue here?

Overall I like the new structure and I'm looking forward to the new features so that I can become an active AS player again  ;)

18

Hi,

my following feedback is based on my past experiences with AS in regards to the new design I tried out on demo since I'm not an active player at the moment but monitor the development of AS to warrant my comeback :P . I have to go with the title of this thread and say "Congratulations AS". (though, I understand it's meant to be ironic by the thread starter)

The new design makes the simulation a lot more sophisticated and professional. 

The 2 things I've noticed around the forum being criticised is the "inventory" as a replacement to the old "route management" and colour scheme.

Inventory:

I do not understand the critics. IMO the inventory provides one very helpful tool called "load summary". You see on an instant how your LF is across the board on a given route without the need to go through individual lines/flights as it was in the old layout. This gives you a very basic overview if you want to "quickly check the status" of your routes. It's even faster than before but you have to understand what it is: a basic quick overview.

If you have more time you could then go into the details by simply scrolling down and watch your individual flight LF (group by flight is a must here) and this is extremely close to what we had before.

Additionally, having "historic capacities, loads and prices"-chart right there is very well organized.

Suggestion: A "tag" button that allows you to mark this route for later deeper evaluation or changes I'd like to to. Perhaps a "show only tagged routes" sort of thing could be implemented somewhere although I'd understand if this is seen as unnecessary given the "load monitoring".

Colour:

If you dont like the dark or light scheme then change it to "classic". It's the same colours as before what is the issue here?

Overall I like the new structure and I'm looking forward to the new features so that I can become an active AS player again  ;)

Well, I appreciate your post and of course, not everything is bad.

However, don't you think it's a bit funny that you like the new look but don't play AS at the moment? So maybe you can't really tell how it is to run an airline with the new design, and I don't even want to talk about how it is to run an airline with 1500+ aircrafts! Motivation currently is pretty low, guess not only for me...

19

I have to admit motivation is at an all-time low for me. Seven brand new 747-8 are standing in Everett, new Airbuses pile up in Toulouse and Finkenwerder, about 70 E-Jets are waiting to get flight plans... But whenever I give it a try, after 10 Minutes I think "hmm.. maybe later. Whatever." It's just no fun anymore.

20

I have to admit motivation is at an all-time low for me. Seven brand new 747-8 are standing in Everett, new Airbuses pile up in Toulouse and Finkenwerder, about 70 E-Jets are waiting to get flight plans... But whenever I give it a try, after 10 Minutes I think "hmm.. maybe later. Whatever." It's just no fun anymore.

Exactly my feelings!

Very open for the new version, lots of "projects" under way, already started before the changeover and everytime I sit on the computer and wanna start I just end up after a while saying "oh, too much work for now, maybe later"...