Introduced new regular flights scheduling sequence in preparation to new Player-managed flight scheduling mechanics - the new system accounts for time slots intersecting and if too many flights strive to get the same time slot, gently moves conflicting time slots apart (within reasonable interval); for now this works fully automatically and serves the purpose of not allowing for uneven regular flights distribution in flight schedule, in future versions, once the Player gets full control over moving regular flights' time slots upon signing slot-contract with operator Airline, this mechanics would serve as Player's advisor, offering optional nearby time slots on flight schedule sheet in case any significant airspace (and\or aircraft ground parking spots) overlapping occurs
Added Vending Machines upgrades mechanics and economy
Fixed fuel consumption on several aircraft where incorrect calculation took place upon converting gal\hr to L\sec - now all aircraft use same L\sec fuel consumption formula
Fixed passenger buses not receiving correct route for ground movement after loading a saved game
Fixed Flight School airplanes reporting training flight complete multiple times and thus causing an exception that was in turn causing weird behavior of all further flights of Flight School airplanes
Improved Flight School daily roster planning algorithms to account for weather forecast (TAF) and general flights schedule
Changed how ATC data on aircraft is stored in saved games, now all agents that require saved aircraft data subscribe to unified ATC broadcast and all accept the unified data format - this should add more flexibility on larger airport with larger number of aircraft and also is a step to making savegame-files version-independent
Fixed Fuel Truck #2 becoming available after savegame loading if corresponding upgrade have not yet been purchased
Added two new initial new game startup game states (used at the very beginning of a new game before flight scheduling algorithms kick in). Initial states of a new game are randomly selected upon each start of a new game with equal probability
Further balanced vending machines profitability (nerfed low level of VMs upgrades profitability and upped high level upgrades profitability) - the balance is in no way final, as VMs profitability will be re-balanced again when Gift Shop profitability and Cafeteria profitability get balanced altogether
Added electric power consumption smoothing algorithm to all taxiway and runway lights during dusk-dawn cycle changes and when visibility reduces to LVP conditions
Temporarily disabled individual runway and taxiway lights reporting 'out of order' status to maintenance facility as currently Player is unable to take any action to fix the broken light in question; this will be re-enabled with maintenance facility introduction in further versions
Non-regular flights now have random turnover times, not less than minimum turnover time for aircraft type and no more than two hours (the latest value will become Player manageable via scheduling sheet UI in further versions)
Fixed annoying glitch when game was saved during aircraft engines shutdown sequence and then re-loaded the last engine in sequence would run on idle for extended period of time before being shut down by flight crew) - now if such saved game is loaded, the standard shutdown sequence is initiated with no delay on last engine in sequence
Aircraft
Added new aircraft type Looney L20V Tribute Ultra (real-life prototype Mooney M20V Acclaim Ultra), the newest version of all-times general aviation classics! Looneys are easily recognized even at a distance thanks to signature tail and stabilizer shape. The following liveries of L20V were added (all privately owned): N215G, S224N, L701U, F-ISHR
Fixed bug with too much pitch smoothing upon reaching cleared altitude (or Flight Level) - this resulted in a very weird bug on some machines (presumably those with CPU occupied by many processes running) - a plane would reach say 999.99999 feet instead of cleared altitude of 1000 feet and will not climb further nor pilot would consider this value to actually be the same altitude - thus planes (mostly slower and with lower climb-profile) may have flown out of the game world - this is now fixed; pitch smoothing is redone in such a way that it does not produce really obscure floating point values and additionally, pilots now consider 999 feet to be 1000 feet
ATC
When 'extend downwind' command is now issued by ATC, it is now supplied by range of extension, i.e. was: 'FSC123, extend downwind', now: 'FSC123, extend downwind 2 nm'
Reworked ATC's traffic resolutions when mixing slower and faster traffic on final
Reworked ATC's traffic resolutions when mixing IFR and VFR traffic on final
No lineup\takeoff clearances are allowed now, when there is an aircraft that is going around and said aircraft is above the runway (on upwind leg of visual circuit or on runway heading when executing published IFR missed approach procedure)
Fixed bug with Time slots and Squawk code data loaded from savegame being overwritten by dummy data in process
Fixed bug with IFR arrival time slots not being reported correctly by ATC unit to actual flight strips upon savegame loading
ATC Time slots and Scheduling Time slots are now unified, this allows for more robust and transparent management of time slots both by player and by ATC units
Sound
Reduced range at which aircraft engine(s) sounds spread (temporary, this will change back to full range when weather engine is fully implemented and in game, since atmospheric sound dampening curve influences all sounds in the scene (e.g. in high moisture conditions the sounds spread less etc)
Added more types of engine sounds range spreads - previously was: Jet & Prop, currently following types of engine soundwave range exist: Small piston engines, Small turbo props, Medium turbo props, VLJs, Small Jets
Added variable function of aircraft noise spread depending on altitude and angle to camera (this if highly experimental feature for now and thus it only affects hearing range by no more than 10% of value typical to engine type)
Visual enhancements
City: added new types of houses: 8-storey living building, 10-storey office-type building
City: added StoreStar Warehouses on the opposite side of main airport road as a part of city venues and attractions (StoreStar Warehouses will facilitate cargo traffic)
Timetables in Passenger Terminal and Control Tower now display day-of-week of a flight together with time of flights; flights are now correctly sorted from earliest to latest and timetables update more frequently
User Interface
Added display of mouse cursor changing to hand when moving cursor over any non-UI object that can be clicked and on click it takes Player to managing related facility, business or object (e.g. Player 'walks' in main camera view and hovers mouse over Passenger Terminal building - the cursor changes to hand icon and if Player presses LMB, the view transitions to Terminal camera view, if then he hovers over a Vending machine again the cursor changes to hand icon and if Player presses LMB the view transitions to Vending Machines management screen etc.)
Fixed in-game settings window fonts may have broken up at certain screen resolutions, now fixed
Fixed Squawk, Time slot and cleared altitude fields appearing blank or misreading on Flight Strips after savegame loading
Aircraft information window now correctly states 'aircraft is flying visual circuit' (as opposed to 'visual circle' pilots' slang).
Added Vending Machines management screen - player can access this screen either by pressing Manage Vending Machines button in Admin Building UI screen (under Terminal Business) or if player is inside Passenger Terminal by clicking any vending machine in his sight
Implemented all upgrades to Vending Machines via management screen UI
Added new screen to Help system: Help Screen #3 explains how to read and understand ATC FlightStrips and how to easily distinguish flights by FlightStrips color coding