A grab-bag of balance tweaks, bugfixes and small QoL features. We are almost at the finish line--the next patch will probably be a release candidate, with the update out by mid-month.
v17-pre13
Features:
- The Penguin: 2x speed and -50% service point cost for regular maintenance.
- The Ostrich: 15% chance of receiving an extra plane whenever you take delivery from manufacturer.
Changes:
- Tutorial now explains ordering new planes
- Removed retrofitting.
- Some plane models, such as the PAX-200, can now become obsolete.
- Airplane view in Network Overview now shows the model.
- Route ruler now configurable in the settings menu.
- Discontinued models now appear on the 'Models' tab of the Manufacturers GUI.
- Increased fuel efficiency of the Atto to make it easier to break even.
- Route ruler now only shows up if you have planes in your hangar.
- Nerfed the PAX-125 range from 4,000km to 3,300km base.
- Debug menu will now show you airports that you have never unlocked before, for help with the Completionist achievement.
- If a new model is researched and there are no production lines to steal, then the manufacturer will go into debt to open a new one.
- Moderate (25%-ish) decrease to the price of starter planes
- Tightened up research costs to make planes appear earlier on average.
- Plane labor unit cost increases again (sorry I keep going back and forth on this).
- Two new planes, the 'Levering Veteran ER' and the 'Sawtelle Macro'.
- Added some more flavor to production line names.
- Nerfs to % income policies such as the "Status Program" and "Low Cost Carrier" policies (now just a 2.5% boost across the board except for LCC)
- Nerfed the Puffin % income bonus from 15% to 10%
- Significantly increased crew costs (50% increase); aiming for plane operating costs to be around ~80% of revenue
- ...to compensate, base income is back! Should help you out early game; 500 per day.
Bugfixes:
- Route ruler now shows the stats for the highest block that you have.
- Fixed the Midvale PAX-250 research cost being absurdly low for testing purposes.
- Fixed a typo in teh "Establish a Hub" contract.
- Removed references to the abandoned "lease" concept from the game.
- Fixed the 'purchase' button for a new building showing NaN if you had no building selected.
- Fixed being able to create plane if you had enough money to unlock cities, or purchase the used plane, but not both.
v17-pre12
Changes:
- Larger planes now cost 50% more miles to maintain than smaller planes.
- Removed the 'Plane Factory' airport bonus.
- Improved End Screen OST by Rod
- Game Over screen now stops music
- Route Ruler will now only show models that you have in your hangar, rather than all models.
- Boost Pax are back; all airlines will receive a base "income" of passengers spawning to make early game more fair.
- Made some pitiful attempts at game balancing (I swear it's so difficult!)
- Raised the amount of starting miles from 25K to 30K
- Significantly increased most plane prices (by 2-3x for many of them)
- Production lines should now slowly reassign to models with busier backlogs (threshold is 2x total length in days)
Bugfixes:
- Fixed airplane costs (fuel, crew, etc) not scaling with inflation (mega facepalm)
- Fixed discontinued planes getting new production lines (e.g. PAX-125)