I have been playing with airlinesim for almost a year now but I have witnessed a gradual slide down of the numbers of players in different serves. What makes the players leave and lose the interests of playing with airlinesim?
I used to play on many servers but now only play on one. For me the game gets boring since you have to use only a few select aircraft to be competitive.
It is impossible to use heavy aircraft on short routes, the fuel burn etc is completely wrong.
I have complained many times about this but nothing has changed in game since i started playing 3 years ago. This is why I only play on one server now. I guess I am waiting for the balance to come into the game before I start playing more often again.
I would say the total difference. Well there are more players but they do not have accounts on many servers. For me it would be very hard taking care of airlines on other servers, so I just have 1 holding on 1 server. Well there are very many newbies everywhere and very few of them really stay to one server. Why I think they leave is that the game is actually because it is very hard and there is not that much information about how it works. There are many players who want to help newbies but they do just help when they see a AAA rating and that the airline has started getting some profit, this could be very hard to do if there is no information about it. I know that Alfapiomega has made tutorials and let´s plays (I personally have watched all let´s plays and tutorials but still did not understood until I tried it out about 5 times and failed). Well when I finally found a good server whit nice people and not to much competition I could start follow what Alfapiomega said.
Christian
Maybe because the only way to have a large enterprise is to use the exploits/cheats that are left open by AS so that servers and slots become dominated by two or three large players who used those exploits in the first few weeks to be making over 50 to 100 million profit per week of the server to then.
No gamer likes to think they are just subsidising the running of a server for the benefit of 2 or 3 "cheats" so they vote with their wallets and leave?
Maybe because the only way to have a large enterprise is to use the exploits/cheats that are left open by AS so that servers and slots become dominated by two or three large players who used those exploits in the first few weeks to be making over 50 to 100 million profit per week of the server to then.
Almost all players using exploits to grow quickly during the first weeks will shut down their company and jump to play on a new server as soon as one opens some months or a year later, so this problem only exists on the new servers.
Take for example the infamous alliance Earth Stand. on Aspern which is only a year old the alliance is now disbanded and not a single one of the exploiters left, all moved to ellinikon or quimby.
Most of the bigger airlines dominating older servers are more serious players that didn't abuse exploits day one but started out smaller and instead actively look for opportunities to grow and when and where other big airlines leave and there is a big wake/demand that opens up. The servers actually change ALOT over the years as players join and quit ( yes even big airlines quit ), so anyone keeping their eyes open can grow on old servers.
While it does help you don't need to be there from the start to stand a chance and compete.
You will find many examples if you look around on older servers of top 20 ranked airlines that joined over a year after the server was launched.
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Maybe because the only way to have a large enterprise is to use the exploits/cheats that are left open by AS so that servers and slots become dominated by two or three large players who used those exploits in the first few weeks to be making over 50 to 100 million profit per week of the server to then.
No gamer likes to think they are just subsidising the running of a server for the benefit of 2 or 3 "cheats" so they vote with their wallets and leave?
He does have a point. It would be nice to have a real competitive game as opposed to a monopoly that is in full swing at the early onset by players taking advantage of the "cheats."
He does have a point. It would be nice to have a real competitive game as opposed to a monopoly that is in full swing at the early onset by players taking advantage of the "cheats."
I've been around this block for the last year or so with this game and in the forums. The gist of it is that the servers themselves are just too expensive for them to run persistent environments that also have regular opportunities for "clean slates" for new players.
I actually asked how much it would be to run a private server, and it was astronomical. Like, absurdly, laughably, "you must and translated that wrong from German" high. Honestly, if I went that route I'd prefer to pay the actual hosting myself, maybe by provisioning an AWS instance or two, and giving AS the private keys to those servers so that I don't get access to the source code or database (the keys can't be changed after spinning up). But somehow I doubt they'd go for that.
Regardless, the problem is mostly slots. The way they limit the slots now makes a lot of sense for balance and realism... the problem is that because of the passenger rights rules and the fact that this game is mostly popular among American and European players, the slots are very easy to fill up, much easier than in real life. Particularly when someone purposely fills the slots with cheap planes.
I have jumped in to many different established servers, and have no problem playing the little guy while I work my way up. The thing that was very frustrating is that unless there is slot availability, it's almost impossible for new players to do waves that set up connections correctly, because of the fact that most of the 7+ demand airports are almost entirely filled. You have to take what you can get, which is different at different airports.
I asked what I should do about this as a new player in an established server a while back, and the answer I got was to wait. Wait until someone lets go of slots for one reason or another. Check all the time for it.
To which I basically said "no, that doesn't sound like fun at all".
There's a problem when you have to tell players that aren't the top 5% on the server "just wait and the game might become fun eventually", but there's also no point in make it easy for everyone like on Quimby (which is a testbed so it isn't really an issue there).
This isn't an easy issue in game design for them to solve.
Please not yet AGAIN! This has been discussed Ad Nauseam ... slots, old planes, big players, yawn.....
If only I had a free month of Airlinesim every time I respond to this kind of thread or find somebody a suitable base, I would now already be playing Airlinesim free for the rest of my life.
I will say it yet again: virtually none that was said in this thread is true.
AS players can be divided into two groups: the lazy bunch (TLB) and the others. One of the posters in this thread is a particularly heavy complainer (every thread I read his posts he is complaining) and a clear example of TLB proud member.
TLB wants to have everything handed to them on a silver platter, without any work. They want an airport ready by, and have 100+ planes overnight. They actually do not have any feasible strategy and they could not even probably survive on a new server either, let alone old server with lot of competition.
But I tell you what:
I started 5 (that is FIVE) major airlines in BIG markets when there was an opportunity (and I have been playing AS for less than 15 months).
2 x Brazil, 1x Turkey, 1x Mexico, 1x USA. Out of these, I sold one company for big profit and I accidentally deactivated server with the other.
So I am left with 3 companies I started on 8-9 bar airports when opportunity arose. I did have a strategy and I used a lot of cheap jets to expand fast. But using cheap planes without strategy and without knowing what one is doing, on an old server is suicide. So Do this if you know what you are doing.
In the meantime, I have seen a competitor overtake me in one of the countries by using a bar-lower airport...simply because I did not have time to manage that particular airline.
I will give you 6 (that is SIX) examples of airlines that were started and become huge, in less than a year ... so you can see it's not just me. It can be anybody who is not TLB and who actively looks for opportunities. And there are many ... so stop complaining.
US Star http://fornebu.airlinesim.aero/app/info/enterprises/43619 This airline started less than 10 months ago, on a 4-year old server, and now has 1100+ planes.
Alti Aviation http://fornebu.airlinesim.aero/app/info/enterprises/43299 This airline started also less than 10 months ago, on a 4-year old server and now has 300+ planes and 3 subsidiaries
Beach Jet http://nicosia.airlinesim.aero/app/info/enterprises/61346 This airline started less than 10 months ago on a 5-year old server and now has almost 500 planes
Linea Tenocha: http://idlewild.airlinesim.aero/app/info/enterprises/54177 Airline that is 15 months old on 7-year old server, 160+ planes but a very light player
Green Jet http://idlewild.airlinesim.aero/app/info/enterprises/56894 This one is 12 months old on a 7-year old server, 250+ planes
Intervol http://idlewild.airlinesim.aero/app/info/enterprises/58400 Another one, airline less than 10 months old on a 7-year old server, 480+ planes
(shall I continue?)
An airline with 1000+ planes and 4 subsidiaries went bankrupt several days ago in USA on Fornebu
huge opportunity there
Recently, Philippines on Fornebu was widely open (widely as 95% of slots available)
I guided one player there who I think was on a good way to become ...established..., yet he left without saying a word, with 25+ planes after 2 weeks, only to open up 3-4 companies on different servers in days later to have them all liquidated. I am therefore no longer willing to guide people without any strategy who do not know at least basics of what they are doing. Ungratefulness (at its worst) of some does take a toll on many.
Recently, I found many 8-bars, several 9-bars, and even one 10-bar airport on Nicosia, with enough free slots to build a substantial airline there. I posted them in the German forums, and that was only after 10 minutes of quick research (to prove my point), and on one single server.
As I said hundred times: the one who shall look, will be the one who shall find (opportunity) .....
Btw .... the point that airlinesim is losing player is a opinion by the thread opener. It is not based on any facts provided by us.
Please not yet AGAIN! This has been discussed Ad Nauseam ... slots, old planes, big players, yawn.....
…
True that.
We’ve had enough of this bullcrap already.
You can build an airline on Il18 Aircraft and become the laughing stock of the real world or just build the airline that works. Thanks AS for making the new servers as they will become the gameplay worlds, the other worlds need strategy and working together with other players to make the airlines work.
Its easy to think there is only luck.
Is Airlinesim loosing players, in my opinion not, i see many players on differentworld that have been playing for years. There is always a smaller group coming and going.
just my 1 cents worth....
It seems as in all online games, there are the fanboys who think that any criticism is 'outrageous' and unfounded.
It is far too easy to start a new gameworld and use the blatant exploits to make over 50 to 100 million profit in the first week and 3 to 4 times that by week 2. That gives you the abilty to start new enterprises in 2 or 3 markets with a 100 million head start on all the normal players who have no idea about 'super' aircraft or the importance of connecting traffic. In normal gameworlds that head start gives you the ability to buy up a large percentage of the old aircraft to exponentially grow before the average DH4 or ATR player can even afford their first narrowbody. To claim that is not the case is to be an ostrich.
it is possible to find a niche market and maybe be fortunate enough to remain well under the radar that you are free to expand, but if a Holding with 3 or 4 enterprises with 1000+ aircraft in each notices your market is good you'll find 10 airbus or boeings on all your routes within days and your only choice at survival is default pricing and no little profit as you watch all slots disappear fast. And those who are able to find those niches are the few ( maybe 6 to 10 players) out of the 1000's who start and disappear after the first few weeks they try and their enterprise disappears.
Even those who claim to be experts now, struggled and had major problems when they began and badgered for all the answers they could find on the forums to get the inside edge they now boast about and claim should be obvious to all. the reality is not all players want to spend days reading 2 or 3 year old forums to find the way to exploit and 'game' the system.
All online 'German' style games have the some kind of exploits whether it be Travian or Football manager,. Industry building games etc. although most other operators tend to close the loopholes and exploits rapidly especially. AS on the other hand seems to build them in, eg the super cheap underpriced aircraft in Quimby
There are a number of other glaring faults that AS seems reluctant to fix which considering it claims to be an accurate simulation is poor. LHR in game does not have a night curfew when in reality it is limited to 5 movements per hour for the night hours. This leads to about 25% more slots than it should have and makes it a license to print money for those who use the exploits and hoover up the slots in the first few weeks. Who ever heard of 100's of narrow bodies flying routes in the real world that are fitted with only 65% capacity of seating to drive up ratings and capture more traffic.
Many of the fanboys point out that the use of exploits may lead to that enterprise eventually going belly up after a month or 2 with a poor rating, but the point is, they are used as boiler rooms that provide 100, 200, 1000 million to the secondary enterprises to start up with new 5 bar aircraft and those second enterprises are ready to snap up all the slots as they know exactly when the initial cash cow will go bust.
It seems the fanboys are all in favour of the cheats and exploits as that is how they start themselves and any mention of it just bores them and they'll shout down the conversation about it with, oh not that again yadda yadda yadda. Simple thing is if it bores you no need to comment. You do not need to be on every topic on every board of a forum even if it is your job
If you so much don’t like the way Airlinesim is, you are free to play zillion other games or buy Airline 7 and play offline with no competition.
More comments to follow when on PC.
Well said Topherpilot.
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More comments to follow when on PC.
Better save your time.
Everything has been said a hundred times already, incl. ways and suggestions to get around the issues.
It’s just the whiner’s name that changes with every new post concerning this.
Agreed on the rest of your post.
If you so much don't like the way Airlinesim is, you are free to play zillion other games or buy Airline 7 and play offline with no competition.
That is the precise anecdotal point that the original poster put, that he feels players are voting with their feet to leave gameworlds.
As for competition, there are plenty of exploits and ways to game the system that make AS not a balanced competition until you know those exploits.
More comments to follow when on PC.
No need for you to be that guy, the proverbial cyber stalker who feels the need to jump on the back of anyone who holds a contrary position to yours.
Better save your time.
Everything has been said a hundred times already, incl. ways and suggestions to get around the issues.
It’s just the whiner’s name that changes with every new post concerning this.
Agreed on the rest of your post.
If things have been written a hundred times over by many different players then maybe it's not the players whose names change over time that are the ones at fault but the basic mechanic that is glaring at fault?
I see that you stick to the O'Leary customer care mentality of calling your customers whiners, works well for some I suppose.
Maybe it is not the right way to call other players whiners. But with all respect to other opinions, the are always players leaving AirlineSim and others are coming. In total concerning the numbers I can see, there are more coming as leaving. Of course there are several ways to play the game and some are on the first view a bit more easier as other do. But on long term, others are more succesfull. And if someone is not seeing this or does not like this, it is his right to leave and also his right to debate about this.
AirlineSim is definetely not perfect and there is a lot of room to improve it. But if someone thinks that the holy improvement is lifting some limits and everyone can built up a Lufthansa, this is definetely not the right simulation for him.
But as much I don't like to call someone whiner, I also do not like to call someone a fanboy who is only defending for the purpose of defending. This isn't the right way we should debate here ;)
I enjoy this game immensely. But with IL-18s being so cheap, there is a mad rush to create huge networks overnight, which goes against the grain of this being a real-time game.
I somehow feel the need to defend my own game play, the game itself and the culture we generally share in this forum. Nevertheless, there are posts that are in regard to their quality and style just not worth to gain any attention and additional space.
So I suggest to take a deep breath and leave it by a compassionate smile. ;)