Needless to say, the past week was all about one topic: The Paine game world!
It was only until after it went live that I realised what a crucial milestone this launch actually represents for AirlineSim and for me personally. The Distribution System and all it entails is easily the single biggest initiative I am working in AirlineSim’s history. So much R&D went into it as part of the Technology Demonstrator but then didn’t see the light of the day for various reasons (largely personal). To finally have the first parts of this system in front of actual players, in a preview world that I already promised for the TD, makes me incredibly happy and optimistic about the future of the project.
Obviously, this is just the beginning: While I spent the last few weeks and months on preparing for this moment, I didn’t actually work on travel request generation, but rather on all the “meta features” required for the preview game world. This means the booking behavior is still in a very unpolished state and - in particular - lacks the actual customer types this feature is all about. I have that on the agenda for the coming week and beyond. In the meantime, I created an overview post about the new feature that you should check out for info on the current state of development, upcoming enhancements and known issues.
Besides that, please go ahead and build up your airlines in Paine. As stated several times before, it’s too early to judge the booking behavior there. But one things for sure: In the near future, we’ll need mature airlines and proper competition to do so 