Airport Master Public Alpha v. 0.4.0a RELEASED!

Airport Master Public Alpha v. 0.4.0a RELEASED!

Changelog follows:

Game workflow

• Added Airport Integral Rating and Airlines Integral Rating - these two major ratings will determine Player's success in various areas of Airport Management - both ratings are weighted distribution dynamic ratings with complex algorithms of re-calculation including such parameters as Airport Upgrade Tier, Passenger Comfort, Crime Safety Rating, Green Enterprise Rating etc.; Airlines Integral Rating weighs proportionally the existing Average Airlines Rating with Turnover Times, Delays, Cancellations, Slot Trading, Prices and Quality of Ground Services etc.; some Airport upgrades and advancement in developing Airport Facilities will require either the entire Integral Rating to be at given level or some parts of it to be at least of given value ensuring there is no rush-to-top strategy possible and rewarding Players that react to changing tendencies appropriately; added
• Added pushback mechanics for ground ops on Apron East; Tow Tugs 1 and 2 now serve southern part of Apron East (from gate V10 to gate V17) and Tugs 3 and 4 serve Northern part of Apron East (from gate V1 to gate V9); upon receiving Flight Clearance from ATC, an aircraft at Terminal East requests pushback and one of corresponding Tow Tugs is summoned to the gate, a Towbar suitable for given aircraft type is attached and pushback is commenced; after detaching Towbar, an aircraft is free to call ATC for startup clearance, while the tug departs for its parking position (except for Tugs 1 and 2) that move aside to join the wait on outbound driveway so to not interfere with any consequent pushbacks from gates in Southern part of Apron East, from that moment on, Tugs 1 and 2 follow general vehicle traffic on outside driveway (note: Tugs 3 and 4 drive directly to their respective parkings as they don't use inside driveway but rather use taxiway M to reach those without interfering with other vehicles or aircraft; added
• Added first batch of Tow Bars (all are to real world data) for use with traditional scheme Tow Tugs; added
• Added new regular Airline - Latuk Air (LTK), the first International passenger service Airline in the game, operating from Desseldurf Intl with flights to and from Brumin, Lepsing, Lunden Veldrow; added
• Added new regular Airline - Poseidon (POD) operating from Torton Muni with flights to and from Aretizo, Welmerton, Tornton, Cerf Memorial, Roulent Municipal; added
• Added new regular Airline - Rumba (RBA) operating from Genueva Intl with flights to and from Orlyk, Lunden, Dussledurf, Lepsing, Welmerton, Cerf Memorial and Newbark; added
• Added new Airports - Lunden Veldrow Intl (JGLL\LVR), Lunden City (JGLC\LCY), Brumin Intl (JDDW/BRM), Desseldurf Intl (JDDL/DES); Orlyk Intl (JFPO/ORK); Genueva Intl (JSGG/GVA); added
• Added Airport Crime system that provides a set of typical Airport-related crimes (ranging from illegal items posssesion to armed assault) with set weights and probabilities; Airport Security \ Police capability to react and enforce law in each situation depends on current Airport Crime Safety rating (which in turn depends on how well the Player manages Airport Security); rewards and penalties for successful and failed crime detection and law enforcement are proportional to crime severity and rarity of event; in future versions the system will be balanced based on Players' feedback and new factors such as capability to install better survilance and scanning equipment, capability to run Officers Training course or simply provide more cash for Law Enforcement jobs will be introduced; note: Airport Crime Safety Rating is an important part of Airport's Integral Rating, making it a non-omitable part of gameplay; added
• Added Ornithology and Pest Control Service Building next to Tower West; this facility is available to Player since Airport Upgrade Tier 1 and provides bird control services in vicinity of Airport, at first with very primitive and outdated measures (that can infuriate the Ecologists) but later on - fully upgradable to modern bird control technology; this facility also provides rodents control in all terminals, controls bio-hazards and is important part of several Ratings; added
• Fixed "Spirit of Patroni" perk not influencing final amount on Service Contract correctly; now a correct bonus of +10% is accounted for when completing a service contract in case a Player has chosen said perk when creating a character; fixed
• Fixed CommsBox messages on Ground Services Delivered not being generated for stands Golf and helicopter stands Foxtrot; fixed
• Added new 17 pushback routes to 3 startup point on Apron East, added 3 new taxi routes from startup points on Apron East to holding point HJT on taxiway J; added
• Fixed Hangars East building doors opening and closing animations may have out-of-sync with their logical positions due to previously existing duality of logical and physical positions of door models; fixed
• Added FAA-style Runway Remaining Distance signs for runways 16 and 34, marking each thousand feet with corresponding number on black sign (illuminated at night); in future, the Player will be able to decide whether they want only ICAO-standard signs or both ICAO-standard and FAA-standard signs; added

Aircraft

• Added new aircraft Endrewer E193 (real world prototype Embraer E195-E2, a very popular and versatile Brazilian passenger jet known for high level of automation, use of composites and high profitability); this modern medium aircraft type is the first aircraft in the game to make use of Terminal East, pushbacks and jetways; aircraft in the following liveries were added: PA-ZTE, LA-PNE, LA-RYQ (all three operated by Latuk Air), F-ABBQ, F-ABRD (operated by Poseidon), O-P73-R, O-P89-V (operated by Rumba); added
• Added new aircraft Sirrius CR-22 (real world prototype Cirrus SR-22) - this composite general aviation aircraft is one of the best-selling G\A aircraft of modern times, it comes with built-in aircraft-parachute system and is often an aircraft of choice for many flight schools; aircraft in the following liveries were added: N275Y (operated by FlightsCool, replaced ZN17); F-TTUS (operated by Poseidon Training Academy); RH-OKB, N-933X, FA-BEG, N637P (all four are privately owned); added
• Changed aircraft type designator: A21F in lieu A210 to indicate Freighter modification of Airecoach A210-F; Airecoach A210 will have the proper A210 type designator; changed
• Changed both FlightsCool aircraft to better suited modern ones: ZN17 with registration N743A is completely removed from the game and replaced with CR22 with registration N275Y; V28A with registration N332J is completely removed from the game and replaced with Z205 with registration N782A); changed
• Fixed a bug with some Thrust Reversers which by the moment the retraction of reverser bowls has already started, may have first trigger deployment of Thrust Reversers to full and only then retracting; fixed
• Changed aircraft animation technique to Unified Parallel Blending - some earlier models required us to use compatible animation techniques, while more recent ones already used our in-house developed PB animation technique, which resulted in some flight surfaces animations to appear jerky when compared to those of more recent models - this now has been fixed to a unified PB animation technique on all models and for all animations; changed
• Fixed A21F ground spoilers surfaces following negative air pressure physics; fixed
• Fixed CT55 thrust reversers applying full reverser thrust before the bowls open fully; fixed
• Fixed landing lights may have light up before front gear is fully down and locked, causing a slight visual distortion; fixed
• Fixed ailerons physical input may sometimes be available during flight surfaces check, which in turn may have caused a rare bug with flight crew unable to complete ailerons movement check before flight; fixed

Vehicles

• Changed physics of wheel rotation (both spinning and turns) for all airport vehicles to become compatible with our Vehicle Physics 2.0 sub-engine resulting in much smoother, much more realistic vehicle movement physics; changed
• Added Ornithology and Pest Control Service vehicle (Iweko ST409); the vehicle used by Airport Ornithology and Pest Control Service as a mobile bird scare platform and rodent poison dispatch vehicle; part of Ornithology and Pest Control Station Upgrades; added
• Added indicator of current Vehicle status to Vehicle Info Window: Fuel Trucks indicate fuel on board; Catering vehicles - number of meals; Maintenance - waste load; Fire and Airport Police vehicles indicate whether they are on mobile patrol or on\off duty; Cargo Loaders report number of ULDs loaded on both platforms; Passenger Buses - number of passengers onboard; Baggage Carts - number of bags transported; Tow Tugs report which aircraft and from which gate they are pushing back; this is intended for even better situational awareness of the Player and can be extended in future versions; added
• Fixed too aggressive front wheels turning in sharp turns on all Trucks; fixed
• Fixed Flasher light on Tow Tugs inoperative in some cases when pushback jobs are assigned after ATC delay (when another aircraft is cleared for pushback); fixed

Quests and NPCs

• Added Messaging System, used to promote main and side quests lines as well as for sending generic messages by various services of the airport informing Players of their advancement in the game; the Messaging System is much more complex tool than existing Notifications System, as it allows for full-text messages to be sent by various NPCs and services to Player, giving quests, notifying of important (and critical) events, financial state, Airline relations, fuel, contacts, side quests, choices etc.; the new Messaging System allows Player to delete\restore\trash any message as in normal real-life mail client application; sorting by Airport departments is also available; added
• Added the following NPCs to the game: Mayor Sid Deuce, Chief of Operations Alex Hare; Chief of Pest Control Kenneth R. Oswald; FlightsCool Flight Instructors: Greg Arcy, Kate Winston, Stuart Fisher; Chief of ATC Ops Liam Stonegift; Chief Financial Officer Carrie White; FBO Chief Engineer Michael Dolph; Fuel Facilities Manager Mark Brady; Chief of Fire Safety and Rescue Ops Robert Hays; Transport Police Sergeant Andrew Cochet; added
• Added generic messages, sent by corresponding NPCs when the following events happen: Initial Financial Report, Daily Financial Report; Electric Power Bill paid; Fuel purchase deal negotiation report, Fuel Delivery complete; Service Contract ; Crime ; Law enforced (or failure to enforce law) by Airport Police; added
• Fixed Hangars H4 and H5 sometimes appear as unavailable on first game start and then later become available again when a saved game is reloaded; fixed

ATC

• Changed how Regular Operators flights are scheduled weekly, replacing huge bulk of obsolete code with new robust optimized code resulting in very fast and smooth scheduling of Regular flights; also a visual tool for editing Regular Operators Schedules Templates was added - this can be used by Developers (and Moders in future) to easily create and edit Regular Operators Schedule templates; changed
• Added separate processing for ground services at Terminal East area, introducing Jetway assignments and jobs for servicing aircraft on Apron East; added
• Changed internal workings of ATC by splitting it into separate modules: for instance all Ground-related processing now happens in a separate higher-priority thread as measured load on this part of ATC (formerly monolithic module) is significantly higher (and will grow with more flights) in comparison with Air traffic (APP and TWR) or coordinating Airlines requests with Flight Schedule; changed
• Fixed (hopefully) issues with vacate and taxi clearances to landed aircraft that used reduced runway stopping distance during landing roll; fixed
• Added new type definition and separate color for Pest Control vehicles strips; added
• Added new color codes to Flight Strips for RWY (Runway Ops) - takeoff, landing, lineup and go-around when still over the approach end of runway centerline; TAXI - all taxi operations including Helicopters air-taxi; added
• Fixed phraseology discrepancy when aircraft request startup at the stand and after pushback; fixed

Sound

• Added real world sounds for E193 aircraft, recorded at field from E175 and E195-E2 aircraft in high quality during hangar servicing; recorded and re-mastered sounds for CF34 engines and APS2300 APU, flap and gear motors; added
• Added real world sounds for CR22 aircraft, recorded at field; added
• Changed how engine sounds pitch dynamics changes with RPM on all engines for more realistic sound; changed
• Added UI sounds for Messaging System, namely New Message, Click, Delete, Restore, Empty trash folder; added
• Added option to separately mute all sounds related to Messaging System, corresponding checkbox can be set in Settings window; added
• Changed how over 25 ambient sound effects are normalized and blended (e.g. cicadas, random wind, random noises, road noises etc.); changed
• Fixed sound effect for spending a Skill Point not playing in Admin UI; fixed
• Fixed Tower East sound effects using improper mixer which resulted in sounds not being heard when Ground Radar is in operation; fixed

Cameras

• Added default initial camera locations to Airport Overview Camera for Airport Upgrade Tiers 1 thru 5 respectively; added
• Changed how Airport Overview and Tower View Camera positions are saved: upon upgrading Airport to next Tier, Airport Overview Camera gets re-positioned to default location for new Upgrade Tier; in all other cases its last Player-used location is stored in savegame; Tower View Camera always stores its Player-defined location (within control rooms limits) in a savegame; changed
• Changed the functionality of key on keyboard: while using Airport Overview Camera or Tower View Camera, pressing resets camera location to default initial position; Pressing + immediately switches from any active Camera to Airport Overview Camera and resets its location to default initial state with regard to current Airport Upgrade Tier; changed
• Add 5 new types of Object View Camera configurations to be used with airplanes with wingspans from 28m to 67m; added
• Fixed distortion of perspective by inappropriately high FOV-angles for some Object View Camera configurations; fixed
• Fixed Tower View camera erroneously processing requests for switching between Tower East and Tower West; the new switching algorithm correctly processes in-field clicks, keyboard and main UI requests for camera change without mixing up cameras; this bug also affected otherwise perfectly working object-preload mechanism introduced earlier, which sometimes may have caused Tower West objects to be re-drawn with delay on Tower View camera switching; fixed
• Added camera definition for Terminal 1 overview camera position to be consistent with new Upgrade Tier-based default camera positions system; added

User Interface

• Added Airport and Airlines Integral Ratings display Badge to main UI, just after the top Information Bar next to Notifications icon; the Ratings Badge displays both integral ratings, Badge color changes from Gray to Green to Blue to Gold to Purple as for each 20% increase of given rating; Barge flashes on update; added
• Added Airport and Airlines Ratings Breakup to GM Tab in Airport Administration UI; the right portion of the tab now displays several key ratings that comprise the Integral Ratings, thus giving Player a hint what part of Airport Enterprise he or she should focus on improving; added
• Added New UI screen - Messages, the UI screen resembles typical messaging application with exception that it displays all available messages (Mail, Fax, Telex, Sita) as structured by folders messages; Player can delete unwanted messages (those go to trash folder), upon viewing a message it is marked as read; Messaging System supports rich text \ simplified HTML, in-game hyperlinks, images, linked contacts, avatars, etc. added
• Added Messages button to main UI (also available by pressing on keyboard); the button also displays a slowly blinking indicator including number of new messages when there are unread messages in any folder of Messaging UI; added
• Added Messages button to Airport Admin :: GM UI; the button also displays a slowly blinking indicator including number of new messages when there are unread messages in any folder of Messaging UI; added
• Changed Admin UI :: GM tab to display number of free Skill Points available to spend on developing skills; changed
• Added option checkbox to separately mute all sounds related to Messaging System to Settings window \ Audio; added
• Changed FlightsCool UI: added avatars for Flight Instructors, unified airplanes cards, set the new UI up in more ergonomic fashion; changed
• Added Time Tables and ULDs logos for Latuk Air; added
• Added Time Tables and ULDs logos for Poseidon; added
• Added Time Tables and ULDs logos for Rumba; added
• Added Flight Instructor and Flight Student designator icons to Flight School avatars; added
• Changed Keyboard Bindings Help Screen to reflect keyboard shortcuts changes introduced in this version; changed
• Changed Flight Strip color coding in Help Screen to reflect changes to color coding of modes RWY and TAXI; changed
• Fixed Airplane and Helicopters Information window text in fields representing data on current load (Pax, Cargo, Bags, Waste, Meals, Fuel) may have gone multi-line where it is not supposed to causing poor readability; fixed
• Changed Airplane and Helicopters Information window layout so that actual numbers appear below icons representing each commodity type onboard for better readability and smoother UI look; changed
• Added new Game Main Menu backgrounds and UI animations; added

Please stay Safe and Healthy during these dire times! and enjoy Airport Master =)