Airport Master Public Alpha v. 0.3.7a RELEASED!

Airport Master Public Alpha v. 0.3.7a RELEASED! Changelog follows:

Game workflow

• Added Negotiations System to the game (currently only Fuel Purchase Offers are subject to Negotiations procedure; more Negotiations to come in future versions); The Negotiation system works as a mini-game of quick reflexes for Player, the rules are as follows: once there is a contract of some sort, it's final amount is now negotiated by Player Avatar (Airport GM) and partner company Negotiator; a window pops up where one can see parties Negotiating - both parties have their CON and NEG attributes shown (note: partner company Negotiators have higher chance to have higher negotiating skills on higher game difficulty setting); below that Player can see a Negotiations Bar, inside which a Negotiation Plank is running from top to bottom and again to top; the speed of Negotiation Plank is determined as difference in Negotiators' NEG skill (so if Player Avatar has NEG skill of 8 and opposing Negotiator has NEG skill of 2, the Plank would be running 60% slower and vice versa); inside the Negotiations Bar there is a Green Zone which represents the most lucrative discount area, with its center being the Highest Possible Discount; the Green Zone area size is determined by CON skill difference of Negotiating parties (so if Player Avatar has CON skill of 2 and opposing Negotiator has NEG skill of 10, the Green Area would be running 80% smaller and vice versa); within the time, defined also by Player Avatars' NEG skill (lower skill equals less time to negotiate), a Player should stop the Negotiation Plank whenever he or she deems its being closest to the center of the Green Zone - once the Plank is stopped, the final negotiated sum is deemed settled and negotiations are over; if for some reason, Player did not stop the Plank within time of negotiation, and time runs out, the Plank stops at that millisecond by itself and resulting sum is deemed settled and negotiations are over; added

• Added parameters Negotiations Complete, Successful Negotiations and Negotiations Success Rate to Statistics module; added

• Added new Control Tower to east apron (part of Terminal 2 upgrades set), elevating some 23 meters from roofing level of Terminal 2 for total elevation of about 35 meters, the new Tower features spacious Control Room with dedicated workplaces for DEL, GND, TWR and APP controllers, modern flat monitors etc., external stairs and internal elevator access from terminal upper floor to Control Room and tower rooftop (stairs only), organic in design to Terminal East architecture, great view of Apron East operations; note: Player can use keyboard shortcut (key [2]) to cycle between Control Towers views; added

• Added new Ground Movements Radar (GMR) system (as part of Tier 5 Airport Upgrades) to new Control Tower East; GMR extends for additional 1,88 meters from Tower rooftop, sharing electrical and data wiring physical site with Tower East elevator motor hub; the radar itself is typical modern GMR-system operating in K\Ku band with 5m antenna in protective shell, rotating at 60rpm (1 second sweeps); ground radar displays will become fully operational in later versions of the game; added

• Re-enabled random wind-scheme preset selection on starting new game (previously disabled for purposes of testing runway-specific Ops for runways 16 and 34); from now on each new game again starts with randomized wind direction, speed and gusts speed - which in turn determines runway in use on new game start; changed

• Added new airline - Clean Power Corp; this airline has base at JNCR airport, currently has a known fleet of 2 AH-134 helicopters that it uses to monitor and service multiple Wind Power Generators across the region; in future versions, CPC will become one of non-typical airlines that require special attention (thou currently all its flights are classified as General Aviation); added

• AdjustedChanged how new game initial state is createdstartup state templates are gone for good, instead a universal startup state algorithm now generates initial state for a New Game, totally randomized, with regard to starting Airport Upgrade Tier, weather conditions, aircraft types, flight rules; this flexible implementation ensures best variety for game day 1; changed

• Added per-aircraft-type parameter Required Turnover Time; previously that Airlines decided exclusively on turnover time, from now on, Airlines cannot request turnover times to be shorter than minimum turnover time for given aircraft type; added

• Added 20 new ground movement routes for Airport Security / Police vehicles; added

• AdjustedChanged routing of vehicles around potentially congested areas of Apron Westnew vehicle wait zones (mandatory full stop lines) were added to avoid slowing down of airport vehicles traffic (and even possible lockups) when the number of cars using same driveways was exceedingly high; changed

• Added 5 daily events of Security Shift Change type, splitting 24 hours into 6 unequal Security Vehicles shifts (night shift that starts at 1:55 is longer); added

• Re-enabled Service Hangars H4 and H5 to accept aircraft for checks and repairs; changed

• AdjustedChanged how FBO hires staff for hangars H4 and H5 upon Airport reaching Upgrade Tier 4from now on a non-uniform template of required staff is applied individually to each of these hangars, also a protection was installed to prevent accidental double-hire of staff even when changing Airport Upgrade Tier back and forth via Dev Console; changed

• Fixed Fuel Truck 2 not appearing immediately after the Upgrade Number of Fuel Trucks is purchased; fixed

• AdjustedChanged Service Hangars max wingspan limitations, from now onH1 - 14m, H2 and H3 - 17m, H4 - 76m, H5 - 80m; changed

• Added 140 new avatar presets to Avatar System, allowing for much larger diversity in avatars both for male and female NPCs; added

• Added a key to Avatar definition signifying that given avatar is taken by a Negotiator for partner company and thus is excluded from rotation of random avatars; added

• Fixed Weather System bug enabling generation of surface wind layer with wind direction opposite of currently dominating surface winds (e.g. lowest surface layer wind of 140@10G14 while prevailing winds would be 350@5G10) - from now on, the major trend for lower wind layer determines all sub-layers general wind direction deterministically; fixed

• Added AutoSave interval selection to Settings; Player can now select whichever interval is suitable in the range of 5 minutes to 1 hour; added

• Added capability to disable Hi-Quality Particles and Hot Air Effects is Settings; if disabled - Hot Air Effects are not rendered and Lower Quality (less CPU-hungry) particles are rendered; an option for old GPUs on older machines; typically these options should stay enabled for any machine with GPU 5 years old or newer; added

• Changed how safety pulsating red lights on tall buildings and airport facilities utilize rendering (specifically light mapping) pipeline: since there is no visible shadow from a red light that has visible corona of no more than 20cm, all pulsating red safety lights were changed to a much simpler light-model, excluding shadow cascades that on more than 40 of those lights around the airport (and more to come on tall buildings in the city) saves up to 3,5% on shadow queuing render routines, while new lights look even better and more realistic than the old ones; changed

• Added Detailed Roads Generation prototype 5 module to the game (fully working and creating pretty good 6-lane and 8-lane highways and roads with sidewalks); first 7 detailed segments of generated Detailed Roads are now active in vicinity of Terminal 1 (Apron West) and about 5km to Pontemarlo area and about 4km to Hon Valley, intermediate connecting roads are active from main highway to Terminal 2 (Apron East) and around it; some overlapping of sidewalks is possible and will be addressed in future versions of this module; added

• AddedAdded new City side road featuresRoofed Car Parking (4 storey tall) - 1 added next to Open Car Parking Lot near Terminal 1 (thus completing the Terminal 1 Road Side), 2 added next to Terminal 2 (Apron East); also added 3 new Open Car Parking Lots and 3 new Bus Stops next to Terminal 2 (Apron East); those will be fully working Parking Lots and Bus Stops, with cars and buses moving in and out once the general auto traffic in Airport area and around Appleton City is fully implemented; Parking Lots and Roofed Car Parking Buildings near Apron East will become available automatically as soon as Player upgrades airport to Tier 4; added

• Added Fences and Security Checkpoints to Terminal 1 (Apron West) City Side; added

• Changed power consumptions for both Passenger Terminals; Terminal 2 (Apron East) now consumes considerably more electric power; corrections made to take into account all the new electronic equipment in Terminal 1 (Apron West); changed

Aircraft

• Changed Flight Dynamic Physics module to a new version. Previously, the entire Physics of Flight ran in intentionally limited 'safe box' environment (most notably this could have been seen when looking in close-up at airplane takeoff - once the aircraft's main wheels left the ground it looked like it slowed down a bit - this was the previous version of safe box environment for simulating physical forces on aircraft at a reduced clock specifically to ensure correct calculations on that model of Physics of Flight; from now the new version of Flight Physics does not require a 'safe box' nor does it require any limitation of clock while running simulation, thus all limitations have been removed. Players may have such a perception that 'everything started moving faster in the air' - but in reality, it's just the discretion of new Physics of Flight engine we use, thou of course, everything moves in the air much smoother now; changed

• AddedAdded Airecoach Helicopters AH134 [AH34] (real life prototypeAirbus Helicpoters H135, previously Eurocopter EC135) helicopter, a pinnacle of new-age innovative design featuring fiber-composites, fenestron (fan-in-tail) instead of classic tail rotor and an anti-resonance isolation system, all of which not just make it superb in performance but also rightfully nominate it as the most quiet helicopter in its class. Can be outfitted for SAR, Evac, Emer, Mil and other roles; helicopters in the following liveries were added: AP-BOS (GovFlight, City Mayor's Helicopter), N230T, N422C (both operated by CleanPowerCorp), N436R, FOTLS, VBPJJ, QETRX (all four privately owned); added

• Changed AN25 aircraft configuration so that shortened takeoffs of this fully loaded cargo aircraft are no longer a viable option for a pilot; will use full-length takeoffs, thou shortened landing rolls for AN25 are possible depending on load and weather; changed

• Added tail-mounted ground-light capability to helicopters; added

• Added airspeed restriction curve to simulate smooth speed up of high performance aircraft up to 250kts limitation below FL100: acceleration altitude of 1000 ft is simulated as well as gradual airspeed growth from 1000 ft to FL70 - this is implemented in order to restrict too much of performance of some engines in new Physics of Flight model; added

• Changed APU startup and shutdown properties on several aircraft equipped with APU; changed

• Changed (reduced) delay for power and compressed air becoming available for engine start after APU startup; changed

• Changed takeoff-roll remaining distance influencing throttle-up rate increase by a pilot to better reflect actual acceleration of an aircraft depending on roll distance and weight; changed

• Added pre-spin-up fan rotation to all jet engines for more realistic view of initial engine start phase; added

• Changed blurriness effect of Helicopter main rotor blades shadows increasing with main rotor RPM for more realistic view; changed

ATC

• Changed takeoff\go-around time intervals to more precisely account for aircraft wake turbulence category: when a L (light) WTC aircraft is taking off (or going around) before speedier M or H, following him an interval of 2 minutes is introduced; same goes for when L is about to takeoff after H; for all other cases 1 minute takeoff interval is set;

• Changed SID PAROM 4W for shorter, more optimal route; changed

• Fixed bug with DELIVERY controller saying “Runway 16 Shortened takeoff”, thou actually issuing correct Runway 16 full length clearance, fixed

• Fixed several typos in ATC to pilot communications; thanks to following players who reported those typos: Serge Fedorov, Roel Smiths, Lu K., Steve Barns; fixed

Cameras

• Fine-tuned Airport Overview camera acceleration when camera movement keys are pressed for longer than 1 second and made acceleration rate configurable via Settings window; changed

• Added camera positions for quick jump to H4 and H5 hangars from Service Contracts screen; added

• AddedAdded Tower View camera switching capabilitywhen Player presses key [2] on keyboard or clicks Tower Cam icon in main UI, the next key press or icon click cycles between Tower West and Tower East; added

• Added storing of custom Tower View cameras positions on cycling this camera type; added

• Fixed immediate Details Draw Distance-affected details redraw not happening correctly (in the same screen redraw cycle that the Camera is actually moved to new position, which sometimes caused visible glitch causing Detail Draw Distance module to ignore immediate redraw command and instead redrawing details only on next free cycle (dynamic pipeline), which in turn may have caused a delay of up to 300ms before actual details redraw may have happened in Graphics Engine pipeline; this was most noticeable on Tower View and Terminal View cameras; fixed

Sound

• Added new sounds for AH34 helicopter engine and main rotor recorded from the real-world prototype; added

• AddedAdded new sounds for AH34 helicopter fenestron (two versions were recordeda typical low-RPM swooshing blades sound and hi-pitch hi-frequency hi-RPM version) recorded from the real-world prototype; added

• Fixed sound distribution model type for all helicopters being incorrectly set to single-piston configuration; actual helicopter-configuration sound distribution in space is used now for all helicopters; fixed

• Added new sound of power transformer and bar rotation for Ground Movement Radar, installed on rooftop of new Control Tower East; added

User Interface

• Added Negotiations System UI popup overlay used for negotiating pricing on various contracts, deals etc.; added

• AdjustedChanged how FBO Fuel Contracts UI worknew fuel contract offers now explicitly list the Negotiator for shipment of fuel in available offers list, so that Player can decide whether he or she wants to engage in Negotiations with more or less skilled Negotiator as well as volume of fuel on offer and time of delivery; after the Negotiations take place, the offer remains visible in contracts list showing status of offer and in case the purchase or negotiation is not possible stating the reason why; changed
• AdjustedChangedupon Player upgrading Fuel Offers - new fuel offers are now generated and are available for negotiation immediately; changed

• Changed Main UI Info Bar showing wind of direction North as 0 to correct 360; changed

• Split Settings window in two panes, that are now displayed to the left and to the right of in-Game Menu ([ESC] key) - Left Setting Pane contains gameplay and game engine-related options, while Right Settings Pane now contains options specific to graphics and audio; changed

• Added view toggling action to Control Tower View button in Main UI - Player can now click this button first time to go to Control Tower view (Control Tower West if Airport Upgrade Tier is less than 4 and Control Tower East is it is higher), then second time to cycle view to opposite Apron Control Tower (if Airport Upgrade Tier is 4 or higher); added

• Added option Hi-Quality Particles Enabled to Settings window; determines whether render engine should use more CPU cycles to render higher quality particles or not; added

• Added option Hot Air Effects Enabled to Settings window; determines whether render engine should render Hot Air SFX at all; added

• Added Airport Overview Camera Acceleration toggle and Rate of Camera Acceleration slider controls to Settings window; added

• Added AutoSave Time Interval Selection Drop-list allowing Player to select the desired interval for Auto-saving games; added

• Added mouse wheel scroll control to all sliders in UI (namely Settings window sliders, Admin\Airport Fees sliders, Fuel Prices sliders, Flight School fees sliders); scrolling mouse wheel up increases the value if the slider, scrolling mouse wheel down decreases value; each slider has its own pre-set increments for either smooth adjustment (e.g. Master Sound Volume slider) or faster coarse adjustment (e.g. Flight School theory hour price slider); added

• Changed buttons in Save Game / Load Game / Confirm Save Overwrite UI windows for uniform UI look; changed

• Added Back To Main Menu button to Character Creation Screen; added

• Fixed Airlines tab in Airport Administration UI screen incorrectly displaying total number of know aircraft owned by an Airline without helicopters; now displays cumulatively fixed wing + helicopters; fixed

• Added Help Screen 9 (Explaining Negotiations System) to help and knowledge base system; added

• Changed Help Screen 1 (Game Controls) of help and knowledge base system to reflect recent changes to keyboard commands; changed

• Added Technical Information display to Help and Knowledge Base screen; added

• Fixed several typos in Help screens; fixed