With the recent UI improvements, I wanted to suggest a potential upgrade to the Operations Control Center panel that could significantly improve immersion and operational awareness for players managing larger fleets.
Currently, the fleet timeline view is very useful for monitoring aircraft rotations and scheduling. However, expanding this panel into a more complete Operations Control Center (OCC) style interface could make AirlineSim feel even more like managing a real airline dispatch operation.
Concept Overview
The idea is to keep the existing fleet timeline panel but combine it with a live flight tracking map within the same interface. This would allow players to visually track aircraft positions while still seeing the current operational timeline.
Proposed Layout
Left Panel: Current fleet timeline view showing aircraft rotations and flight status.
Right Panel: Live map displaying aircraft positions and route paths between airports.
Makes it easier to visually understand where aircraft are currently located
Improves fleet situational awareness during large operations
Enhances immersion without changing existing gameplay mechanics
Aircraft on the map could display basic information such as:
Route (origin → destination)
altitude and speed
ETA
delay or weather deviation status
Color indicators on routes could represent:
On-time flights
Weather deviations
Delays or disruptions
Overall Goal
The goal would not be to replace the current timeline view, but to augment it with a visual operational map, similar to what real airline operations centers use.
I attached a quick concept mockup to demonstrate how the interface could look.
This type of OCC-style view could make AirlineSim feel even more like running a real airline while keeping the current mechanics intact.
I cant remember if a similar proposition has been mentioned before around the roadmap boards its half ringing a bell. But anyway, I have no idea how feasible it would be to implement in terms of complexity. However its a cool idea & it would be awesome to explore ideas that would make the experience feel a little more hands on.
I know we already have asroutemap & dont get me wrong its a great tool that I refer to regularly but more in house tools would be fire.
Also I really like the concept image btw its nice & clean. Probably needs a search bar though for the large airlines
Idk if any of you guys are familiar with Simbrief? Which is a popular tool used for flight simulator flight planning but if your looking for some inspiration on ideas for UI layout & how some of the weather/map information is displayed over there then I’d recommend having a look.
Honestly, with today’s technology—especially AI—feasibility really shouldn’t be an issue. I was able to create a mockup using standard AI tools and even built a few websites based on the same concept. As long as the developers have access to an account, making adjustments shouldn’t be overly complicated aside from normal testing and refinement.
ASRouteMap is definitely a great tool, but for users who may not be aware of it—or for those playing directly through Steam—having something integrated in-house could help keep more users engaged within the platform.
And yes, I’m familiar with SimBrief; it’s actually what inspired me to put together this mockup in the first place. Thanks for the feedback.
The mockup looks fantastic for 4 planes, but check out @rubiohiguey2000’s Central Airways in Idlewild for example, where the holding company alone operates almost 5000 planes.
But technical feasibility aside, those numbers merely point to the real reason why current operations control is so bare-bone: AirlineSim simply isn’t an operational simulation. While such a screen is cool to look at, the player wouldn’t be able to act on most of it. The game is a tactical/strategical simulation, so while a lot of operational aspects are in fact currently missing and should be added over time (see the roadmap), the goal is always to implement them in such a way that one manages them on a tactical/strategic level, but you don’t have to actually do the operations. Otherwise @rubiohiguey2000 would be sitting in front of ops-control 24/7
I think that is half the idea though to be fair. It’s not necessarily about increasing the operational gameplay. I mean sure elements could be if wanted it to be. But primarily I think it is to make you feel like your a bit more connected to your airline & gaining feedback on your airline having an impact upon the world.
Chances are if your playing a game like this you probably have some degree of interest in aviation over just numbers and spreadsheets.
I do find that sometimes when your playing this game & you are quite large, the slots are dying. Or perhaps you are waiting for more cash reserves. That aside from staring at departure/arrival boards there’s not much to tune in for if u don’t feel like having a day going down financial micromanagement & playing with numbers. It can become quite easy to just tune out for a few weeks an leave it.
I can admit I’ve been guilty of doing this myself sometimes.
Ngl I can recall having two airlines in the past. Both on seperate timelines. One was like 2014ish & the other was when I was in college so about 2017/2018. They both became stable but over time I actually forgot about them entirely. So they ended up defaulting when the credits ran out.
I get that, and in fact, a live flight view and dynamic maps are on the roadmap. Even with a fairly high priority.
Just wanted to make sure it’s understood that I don’t see an actual “ops control tool” as something AirlineSim should have or need. As in: something one has to actively use rather than just “consume” (for fun or for analytics).
Love this, AS needs more stuff like this. You could sort by fleet or type and max out the displayed aircraft at something like 250 aircraft. I’d like to see all the routes a specific aircraft will run in a 24 hour period as well.
Are you suggesting adding a map to the current “Operations Control” feature? Or is it about adding disruptions like weather, break downs, etc requiring the player to actively run airline operations?
Not trying to speak for the OP, but I think a map like this should (initially) provide existing information in a more visual way and not be a gameplay mechanic in and of itself.
My primary use case for something like would be to see, at a glance, which airports are served during a specific bank of arrivals/departures. With Asroutemap and the in game map, it tells you that a route exists but doesn’t give any information on the specific timing of the route. Having this sort of display would make things a bit more intuitive in identifying viable routes to open.
