Development Update #2

to keep you updated some new information.

I have decided to accelerate the pipeline a little bit and push more features into the game (e.g also to include later features already now into the game).

This might resolve into more bugs during the runtime, but also hopefully directly more fun for the game (at least it is for me steamhappy )

Biggest additions are the holding feature, change of RFL and weather. All are still to be optimized but already working.

Update to be expected within the next days.

Best regards!

Weather:

• Three weather modes. Pick per session at the sector picker: OFF, WIND ONLY (deterministic upper-air wind affects ground speed & drift), or FULL WEATHER (wind plus drifting precipitation cells, some of which are thunderstorms).

• Wind: Will impact the speed and turn radius of aircraft (Ground speed)

• Realistic cell behaviour. Cells build, mature and decay over their lifetime; thunderstorms render with darker green/grey and animated lightning glyphs. Cell drift speed is roughly half the upper-air wind.

THUNDERSTORM DEVIATIONS

• Pilot weather requests. When a controlled flight's route passes within 8 NM of a CB within ~5 minutes, the pilot transmits once: [c]"Callsign, request weather deviation, cumulonimbus ahead"[/c]. The strip flashes yellow for 3 s and gains an orange ⛈ WX badge on the route line until the threat is gone.

• penalty for storm penetration. Ignore the request and the aircraft enters the 8 NM zone => penalty in score.

• Background traffic auto-deviates. Flights you haven't accepted route around thunderstorms silently — no radio call, no penalty. Only flights on your frequency cost points.

Holdings:

• Full holding system. Issue ICAO right-turn racetracks at any fix via [c]HOLD AT [/c] or the radial menu (DCT/HLD → Holding). Hold state is shown everywhere it matters — [c]H {fix}[/c] badge on the radar label, HOLD tag on the flight strip and a dedicated panel section with fix, inbound course and elapsed time. Speeds follow ICAO caps (230/240/265 KIAS by altitude band) with a further reduction once established, so pattern radii stay realistic. Pilot voices include new hold-clearance, established and resumed clips.

• Smart hold handling. Aircraft in an active hold cannot be handed off — clear the hold or use [c]RESUME[/c] first. Issuing a [c]DIRECT[/c] or [c]HEADING[/c] auto-cancels the hold. Holding traffic is excluded from the MTCD predictor (racetracks aren't modellable), so you stay responsible for vertical protection of the stack!

RFL CHANGE REQUESTS

• Pilots request new flight levels mid-cruise. Realistic operational reasons (turbulence, weight burn-off, smoother ride). The requested FL is shown next to the cleared FL on both the radar label and the FlightInfoPanel.

• Manual RFL override. Controllers can push a new requested flight level down from the FL menu, independent of the cleared level.