Some issues and feature requests

[Enclear]

I love the game, but have some issues/frustrations and suggestions on top of the ones that I second from here, written by Greymane. This all would add more options to vary one's experience of the game to their individual liking and abilities/limitations.

I'd love to see options for the following settings/modes/features (with commentary on why). I also made a quick-and-dirty concept image (jpg) to convey the ideas below, and uploaded it to my Google Drive here:

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B8HrdnH-gHvWflpUTWtkRHV1NmNLX0xWUmJhRDNzbmtkXzAtZUVBMTVzZi1FOTU1MmJDeUU&usp=sharing (Updated Link to folder)


----



1) I'd LOVE to see a dynamic "action task pane" type thing on the side of the game screen, separate from/not obscuring any portion of the map. It would be like the flight data strip things controllers use, I'm assuming to order the planes in a linear fashion? It would automatically "insert" a strip with the next flight arrival into airspace or departure request. Each strip could have the buttons we currently have to access by clicking each individual plane (a HUGE PAIN/CHORE, as the arrivals are always moving, and the boxes get in the way of other traffic). Hoving over the strip would highlight the corresponding aircraft on the map, and clicking on it would allow you to set its instructions.


1) I can't really use the little radar blip screen and still manage arrivals and departures. By default it's too small for my peripheral vision to notice the green dots. I've tried moving it around, and then expanding it larger, but it just gets in the way of airborne traffic, to the degree that it hides the occasional plane under it, and I have to either move it yet again or wait until the flight reemerges a couple seconds later (and a lot happens elsewhere in the meantime). Using the radar box always results in either air or ground collisions because I can only track one or the other. The following below (and the Greymane's suggestions in the first link above) as game options would make the game SO much more enjoyable and playable.

2) I don't notice much difference (over time) when choosing "Go easy on me" mode. Eventually it seems to still result in the pace or traffic being too complex to handle, and I just quit when I hear crash after crash, or I just stick with the "easy" airports with less crossing of runways, but that is pretty limiting as I don't experience much of the rest of the game. What would make a huge positive difference is, when choosing "Go easy on me" like I always do, making the visible terrain/airspace of the map about 25-30% larger in area in all directions compared to the standard airport airspace map. It would give us more time to plan for arrivals and get crossings/etc out of the way. I just tried Barcelona map for the first time, and planes coming in from the east to land on RW 02 skirt the bottom edge and then go completely off the map before reappearing for short final. This kinda sucks because I'm missing a window with adequate room to follow and assign it an alternate RW. Its more annoying than challenging, so I'll probably just wind up not playing this map anymore.

3) What would work better for me than the radar blip I can't use is a red bubble at the edge of the game map letting me know an aircraft is soon entering the airspace from that direction. This way my peripheral vision can make me aware of the incoming flight passively while I'm still focused on keeping ground traffic out of the way of planes already on final approach. This too could just be a feature of the "relaxed mode" or "go easy on me" setting, since not everyone wants that much notice.

4) The current floating panes that open for each plane are really buggy, sometimes open mostly off screen, and more often than not they block view of runways and other inbound traffic. It's just not a fun way to play it, having to manage those floating boxes multiple times for each plane, as much as the game itself. This is probably the #1 frustration that makes me rage-quit. See the linked image for a concept to improve handling of assignments/instructions.

5) Restating in support of Greymane's suggestions: Having a floating tail on each arrival plane, denoting their auto-runway-assignment, would be AWESOME. I use a trackball stationary mouse, which I makes a lot of clicking of moving targets cumbersome. My fingers get tired and hurting from having to click every plane all around the map each time I need to see what it's doing and then again to tell it what to do. Also, we really do need an instruction for a "smart" holding pattern, where they don't crash into each other. Perhaps, to keep the challenge up, a timer for each holding plane could begin counting down to it running out of fuel anywhere from 15-30 seconds or something. As it is, planes diverted off map often cause a crash right on the edge of the map when coming back into the area, which I never see beforehand since it happens right on the edge of the map. It would also be nice to have other options for music (and remembering settings, of course), either inspired or a feature to allow the game to use a folder of our own music as a playlist. I tend to do that anyway, mute the game music and run my own player, but it would be nice to have the game run a playlist - one less program running in the background to alt-tab back and forth to.

[Enclear]

Some bug reports - will keep them separate from the dev suggestions in the OP

---

1) Air collisions are happening off-map in Barcelona between departing and not-yet-visible arrivals. Can't really take a screenshot of it though, happens quickly and it's over by the time I register where it happened.


2) At Honolulu, Las Vegas, and I think Barcelona IIRC, about 20% of the time when clicking on an arrival, the runway arrows denoting assignment do not show for that flight. It risks a collision elsewhere as it takes extra moments to realize that and then go back to the popup pane to manually read the current RW assignment.

---

It's hard to get screenshots of what isn't there. I'll look into recording a game stream somehow.

[Enclear]

Some Greenlight/etc promotion ideas:


There are enough titles by BFS that you could probably have your own exclusive bundle promotion ran, drawing 100% attention to your current/future projects. The better bundle agents seem to be Humble, Groupees (where I learned about AMWE/BFS recently), and BundleStars tends to draw a lot of traffic too but the former two are probably the most watched. India Gala are a bit shady (at least in the past; I've seen them manually alter bundle "average" prices, more than statistically possible), and Indie Royal = Desura I think, which is going bankrupt after not paying indy devs for months of sales.

Anyway, I'd vote for and pick up the Radar Chaos games too if they were put on Greenlight and promoted like AMWE was. With so many potentials (and junk) in the GL queue to sift through it's just easier to follow bundle promotions to learn of games likely to actually make it to the Store side of Steam. I'm definitely picking up the new 3D version of AM later if/when it hits Steam via GL promotion or Early Access.

Another idea for drawing attention to a Greenlight is running a Steam Key giveaway for AMWE at http://www.steamgifts.com/. Captive audience of thousands of gamers both giving away and entering for random drawings of steam games(keys), and very active forums where they chat about games, Devs, etc. I've given away quite a bit there myself[www.steamgifts.com], and won a few. Developer Promotions are frequent (there are 4 running at this moment), usually giving away anywhere from 25 to 500 product keys for a game they already have on Steam, in order to promote their latest Release/Greenlight/Early Access project/etc.

[bigfatsimulations]

Everyone, thank you for your comments. I appreciate the Greenlight advice. I'd love nothing more than to get AM4, AM Time Machine, Radar Chaos World Edition and Radar Chaos Hawaii Edition here on Steam as well. I fully plan on getting the 3D version onto Steam in the New Year.

So I read through the notes above. I will add some sort of red bubble to warn of incoming planes (a concept image would be appreciated!). I will add a floating tail with basic flight info to all aircraft. I'll add a 'remember settings' feature for sounds, voice, music, and clouds. I'll try to add a hold pattern feature, as well as a 'go around' feature. However, this means more buttons.

Thanks for the comments!!!!!

[Enclear]

Originally posted by bigfatsimulations:

(a concept image would be appreciated!)

This link should go directly to the concept image (link to folder view is in the OP):

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8HrdnH-gHvWS29NVzl6cGxQR00/view?usp=sharing

At the top left (11o'clockish) of that jpg, you can find a red bubble that shows an arrival soon entering the airspace - with a ? mark in place of the automatic runway assignment. I also uploaded the psd photoshop file that has all the individual pieces in that concept image. If you don't have photoshop or can't open psd files, I can try to extract each piece to image files in the same folder.

I imagine that the screen-edge-blip would fill in a runway # once it's visible on the screen. I just did it quick-and-dirty, not really contemplating color "loudness" and such. Some might find the deep red and white text distracting, but I chose for want of not having to actively take stock of it, as peripheral vision can register the contrast to the mind's 'queue' while you work on more immediate tasks over the airport. The screen-edge-blips would free you from having to split attention between the big screen and a little thumbnail. Again, some people may think this is too easy, so it might be best to have it as an option tic in settings.

If the "action/task pane" idea is too radical, here's an alternate: If the game can detect what quadrant a plane is in at the moment it's clicked on, and if it isn't too complex or game-breaking to implement, perhaps you could have its Info/command popup open in a reserved, farmost corner of whatever quadrant it's in (and steer the default flight lanes to either side of the popups, so other normal traffic isn't obscured). I know I spend a lot of time moving popups around, would be nice if they at least opened in predictable out of the way areas.

Steam Workshop is a powerful tool that hugely expands a game's playability and content without requiring further ongoing resources from the developer. Not sure how exactly that would work for AMWE or if it's programming is even compatible with Workshop, but it would be cool (and take a resource-burden off the Dev) to be able to add airport maps beyond those planned. I live in Phx AZ, so I'd probably work on Sky Harbor and local regional airport maps if it were possible, with events like priority for military/guard/AF jets coming and going. It's probably nothing special or challenging, straight in and straight out, thus probably not worth official resources to build, but adds overall to the game's appeal knowing there would often be a new airport map to work from other players. Something to think about anyway, if it's possible to implement.


Anyway, thanks for being a receptive and proactive Developer. We all want to see it be the best game it can be and various ideas from lots of different players will eventually distill into an overall better product. Keep us updated on future promotions, I can spread word in a few places when they start.

[bigfatsimulations]

That screenshot looks good. It's an easy thing to add. Let me look into how I could implement that. The flight data board is an interesting idea, but it would require some thought as to where it would go on the screen. I did this for Radar Chaos: Hawaii Edition, and had a slide-away data board that could be opened and closed. It was semi-transparent, so it would overlay the gameplay.

You are welcome, and I really appreciate your feedback and ideas.

[bigfatsimulations]

Ok, I've added the red bubble (created from scratch, but used your coloring!).

One thing I noticed right away, players will need the option to disable this. Also, it gets very cluttered with all aircraft showing the red "tag". So only arriving aircraft show it.

What happens is this: When an aircraft is approaching, you see the aircraft's tag flashing at the spot where it will appear. Once the aircraft appears, the tag stops flashing, then follows the aircraft. As the aircraft touches down, the tag disappears. The tag shows aircraft type and landing runway. I think type information is more important than a pretend flight number, so I went with that.

Seems to be a very handy feature, thank you very much!

[Enclear]

Originally posted by bigfatsimulations:

Ok, I've added the red bubble (created from scratch, but used your coloring!).

One thing I noticed right away, players will need the option to disable this. Also, it gets very cluttered with all aircraft showing the red "tag". So only arriving aircraft show it.

That was my expectation as well after more consideration, that not everyone will want this feature active at all, let alone all the time, let alone on both arrivals and non-critical departures. Some will find it distracting and "too busy" visually, etc. so an option to disable/enable it is great.

I imagined that the high contrast arrival-announcing bubbles would disappear completely once the plane enters the visual field (no longer needed), and that perhaps only a low-contrast tail/tag simply denoting current RW assignment would accompany them beyond that point. This latter feature will become even more important for tracking and planning if/when there are holding patterns and go-arounds making the sky more cluttered.

Re Aircraft Type tagging: The only really distinct difference in type behavior I see is the concorde reaching TO more quickly and at higher velocity than all the others, as well as maintaining arrival velocity farther down the runway. It's the only one I really have to plan for differently - waiting longer to clear it for TO behind a widebody, especially, but also slowing it down if a different type has just touched down ahead of it. It doesn't take long at all to learn this about it, so I'm not sure even Type info makes much difference currently, other than having some kind of info there for realism appeal.

Anyway, the announcements and RW assign tag alone would cut out a huge amount of extraneous, chore-like clicking, leaving more awareness/fewer popups, and more processing available for enjoying the fun/challenging parts of the game.

Thanks for working to implement it with options to enable/disable/tweak it per individual preferences.

[MightyOwl]

All of Enclear's suggestions are very good and would add to the game, however, please make them all able to be turned on/off in the options as I know that not all players would want them, and the player may personally wish to use different options for maps/modes as the player decides. :)

I just tried Barcelona map for the first time, and planes coming in from the east to land on RW 02 skirt the bottom edge and then go completely off the map before reappearing for short final. This kinda sucks because I'm missing a window with adequate room to follow and assign it an alternate RW. Its more annoying than challenging, so I'll probably just wind up not playing this map anymore.

It would be brilliant if Barcelona could be extended slightly on the bottom such that these planes are still visible (or their entry path altered)?

[MightyOwl]

As an aside, I notice that when playing AM4 and AMTM, when you click "Faster" once it disappears so that you know the aircraft is now going as maxium velocity, the same with "Slower", however this does not happen in AMWE, so I often press it multiple times for the same aircraft without realising. Would it be possible to make it disappear in the same way as the other AMs?

[Enclear]

Originally posted by (DoW) Trix:

All of Enclear's suggestions are very good and would add to the game, however, please make them all able to be turned on/off in the options as I know that not all players would want them, and the player may personally wish to use different options for maps/modes as the player decides. :)

I think all players appreciate an abundance of variability options, especially when there are too few. Fewer options = narrower audience appeal (especially in niche subgenres). Even if they never turn them off or on, it adds to a game's perceived value and enjoyment that the options to play it in different ways are there whenever you want to change it up. I'd personally turn off the little green thumbnail radar in most maps, since I can't really utilize it as intended anyway (trouble splitting attention between it, airborne traffic, and ground traffic).

Barcelona definitely needs more map space to the South, it feels really claustrophobic (almost all the maps I'd expand by 25% if I could, and increase the resolution for better appeal on larger widescreen monitors. As such, it's cumbersome to manage arrivals that go down out of view then show up again without much room to think about an alternate plan for it.

[Enclear]

Originally posted by (DoW) Trix:

As an aside, I notice that when playing AM4 and AMTM, when you click "Faster" once it disappears so that you know the aircraft is now going as maxium velocity, the same with "Slower", however this does not happen in AMWE, so I often press it multiple times for the same aircraft without realising. Would it be possible to make it disappear in the same way as the other AMs?

I haven't paid close attention to that, so I could be remembering it falsely, but I could almost swear that it does disappear in at least some maps. But I also definitely remember it not disappearing at times, so yeah this appears to be a bug of the popups for some maps.

[bigfatsimulations]

I've added an option to disable cloud, as well as the aircraft tags. I will add the AM4 functionality to the fast/slow buttons.

As for shifting Barcelona, that's going to be a tough one. I apologize for how cramped it is... please think of it as an extra challenge, and I'll think of it as a lesson learned, for future level designs.

[Enclear]

Originally posted by bigfatsimulations:

I've added an option to disable cloud, as well as the aircraft tags. I will add the AM4 functionality to the fast/slow buttons.

As for shifting Barcelona, that's going to be a tough one. I apologize for how cramped it is... please think of it as an extra challenge, and I'll think of it as a lesson learned, for future level designs.

The new arrival warning sort of helps reduce some of the negative affect of the map being so tight at the bottom (though it still looks unappealing, of course). Just have to make a mental note to act sooner than later for any arrival announcements auto-assigned for 02 so that you don't have a need to reassign it while it's going off the map to the south.

[Enclear]

Originally posted by bigfatsimulations:

What happens is this: When an aircraft is approaching, you see the aircraft's tag flashing at the spot where it will appear. Once the aircraft appears, the tag stops flashing

Thanks for adding it! I think it may be flashing too long for some arrivals though - will play and evaluate this more. It may wind up being perfect after playing longer.

[Enclear]

Originally posted by bigfatsimulations:

As for shifting Barcelona, that's going to be a tough one. I apologize for how cramped it is... please think of it as an extra challenge, and I'll think of it as a lesson learned, for future level designs.

Many maps actually feel too cramped up against the runways. They'll definitely need expansion when adding holding patterns for example.