SimAirport launched about 130 days ago, roughly 4 months, and we hope you agree with us that the game has come an incredible distance in just that short amount of time. We originally released a roadmap a bit after release, and since then we’ve been able to cross off the majority of the items listed; it’s now time to give you a glimpse into the future, and to share with you what our plans are for the coming patches.
Much more is planned and we definitely do not intend to slow down anytime soon -- in fact we’re really just now hitting our stride, there’s a whole lot more coming.
We’ve been clear about our goal since day one -- creating the best management-style tycoon game possible -- we’ve been active within the community and we cannot thank you enough for being there with us every step of the way, helping us strive towards achieving the stated goal.
Creating the Updated Roadmap
We asked you, the community, to voice your opinions and provide your feedback via the SimAirport survey a while back. The results, and the turnout, were overwhelmingly helpful for us and the end result is that your collective desires are directly incorporated in our future plans, the culmination of which is this updated SimAirport Roadmap. The survey was a critical piece of the puzzle for us and has been instrumental in helping to craft this updated Roadmap -- we plan to continue updating the Roadmap every few months and we intend to continue to survey the community to help us ensure that we stay in tune with you, the players, and what you want to see in SimAirport’s future.
What Does it Cover? When will we see these things?!
Our tentative goal is to have everything below completed by the end of 2017! As most of you know, we like to release early & often -- we won’t be tackling the following items in any specific order, but we will be working on them all, and we will do our best to get them out to you as quickly as we can, on time, and without major bugs.
Game development is full of unknowns, and we can’t promise this all in 2017 for certain -- but we CAN promise that we’ll do everything we can to deliver it this year. This list is not all-encompassing either; there are times when we may deviate to address a specific issue or game mechanic, jump on a new idea, or decide not to pursue a feature. These changes typically come from your feedback, but in general we’ll strive to complete the roadmap during the remainder of 2017 -- and then we’ll probably be about ready to release another roadmap update! :-)
Thank You! We look forward to continuing to work with you as the game blossoms into an even more engaging, fun, and challenging experience over the coming months and years.
SimAirport Roadmap - Remainder of 2017
Patch - June 26, 2017
Just a quick patch today with the goal of fixing a few lingering issues from the major patch released on June 21. We'll now be getting back to work on the Experimental & Edge branches as we get the next round of major updates fully under way. Thanks everyone -- we'll be back with more soon!
Patch Notes for June 26, 3:36PM
Adds 'Flight Scheduling Queue'; Newly accepted flight contracts now go into your scheduling queue for scheduling
Adds lettering to the underground endpoints for easier recognition
Right click now cancels active drag for most build tools
Fixes an issue that could cause luggage golf carts to get stuck
Fixes an issues that caused outdoor baggage vehicles to not complete their tasks
Fixes an issue that caused passengers to get stuck at some single-passenger objects (cafe chairs)
Fixes an uncommon queue-related stuck passenger bug
Fixes assignments sometimes not getting saved
Adds a fix for pax stuck when target position in queue is different sector or security status
Fixes an issue that could cause pax to wait at the wrong baggage carousel
Aircraft using a fallback gate will now use the smallest fallback available that can accommodate them
Numerous small fixes & small UI improvements
Patch - June 21, 2017
Tonight we have a major patch with some big things ready for you! Big things, such as larger runways, land expansions for larger maps, light rail platform, conveyor utility updates, and much more. SimAirport launched into Early Access just 108 days ago and, though it seems like just yesterday, we've been quite busy and the game has come a tremendous distance already. Tonight we're thrilled to close out this round of updates with a general release default patch and take yet another giant leap forward. This one is a jumbo!
What's Next?
As usual, we'll soon be kicking off the next round of updates -- this time around we'll be pushing updates to the 'Edge' branch, and from there we'll move them over to the Experimental branch roughly once a week or so. We are also putting the finishing touches on an updated Roadmap now that we've addressed many of the things that were on the original Early Roadmap, and drawing heavily from the results of the survey that we put out last month. We'll be posting the updated roadmap here when it's ready and we plan to release that within next 1-2 weeks!
SAVE GAME COMPATIBILITY
Unfortunately existing saves are NOT compatible with this update. If you do have any saves that you'd like to continue your progress on, we have created a new 'Archived' branch which you can use -- this branch has the same game version as the Default (general release) branch did as of the May 20th update. You can use this branch to continue playing these old saves without issue, however you will not benefit from any of the bugfixes or additions contained in this patch. The archival branch is named "archived_may20_2017".
About Incompatible Saves We do absolutely everything we can to avoid having to invalidate old saves and to ensure full backwards-compatibility; indeed, we have not had to invalidate saves at all since the week of the original release (~145 builds ago!). In some cases it's incredibly difficult, if even possible, for us to maintain full backwards-compatibility -- this patch is unfortunately one such case. We will continue to do our absolute best to avoid breaking old saves and we apologize in advance for the annoyance & frustration that this causes.
We know how critically important it is for existing saves to continue working and we'll do our very best to avoid this situation for all future patches -- indeed, we have evaluated the code and we do not expect this to happen again moving forward.
Thank You!
We want to thank those of you who participated in the SimAirport Survey that we put out with the May 2017 patch. We had an absolutely fantastic response to the survey, and the results have already proved to be incredibly useful as a tool to help guide our development efforts. We want to extend a huge thank you to everyone that participated -- your feedback is, has been, and will continue to be critically important to ensuring that SimAirport is able to become the best tycoon-style management game ever created.
We also want to thank those of you in the community who played a direct role in shaping this patch, via your engagement with both the game and with us, playing consistently, and providing valuable feedback on the often-nightly updates that were released to the Edge & Experimental branches over the last 30 days. Without your help we seriously could not put together anything resembling the list below -- your participation is a critical component to the success of SimAirport. We sincerely thank you, and we look forward to working with you all during the next round of updates! =)
June 21, 2017 Patch Notes
MAJOR ADDITIONS
Larger Runways, Runway Size Upgrades
You can now build runways in three sizes, with the largest size being 260% larger than the runway was previously! Aircraft now have runway size restrictions, hovering over the aircraft in the Airline menus displays which minimum runway size is required for each aircraft type. Runway upgrades now also allow you to upgrade existing runways to increase their size; access this via the Runway Upgrades menu.
Land Expansion Purchases
After researching Land Expansion you'll be able to buy additional land adjacent (in the 'north' and 'east' directions only) to your airport in order to further expand your airport operations.
Standby Gates
Allows you to define gate failover options that will be used in the event that a flight’s original gate is not available at the scheduled arrival time. If necessary, passengers will backtrack to a different wing of the airport to reach the new gate agent desk(s). Used via the Master Flight Scheduler. Requires research to unlock.
Conveyor Utility Network Revamp
The luggage systems have been revamped and are now designed to give you more choices while also presenting more of a challenge in terms of design, layout, and expansion. Further enhancements and upgrades will be coming to the system in the future. Notable aspects of the new systems include:
Conveyors now must be direct object-to-object links, without intersecting other segments
Special 'Hub' objects must be used for interconnectivity between objects (3 new hub objects in this release)
Outdoor routing stations are now called 'Depots'
Aircraft Gates must be assigned to one or more 'Baggage Depots'; this controls where luggage gets sent for flights at that gate
Multiple hubs may be interconnected to form larger systems; hub-to-hub connections are always automatically a "2-way connection" (despite the visual arrows/colors implying otherwise). Hub-to-Hub connections should be made via either PINK-to-PINK or BLUE-to-BLUE
Baggage system performance substantially improved; note that individual baggage is not currently being displayed
Disjoint Taxiway Network Support
Instead of everything being required to be connected to one 'network', multiple separated networks will now work. Adds additional “road island” cache and improved heuristics for aircraft spawning, gate/runway functional checks, and baggage car job reservation.
Light Rail Transit Station
The Light Rail Platform has been added along with the associated research to unlock it. The Light Rail will allow you to increase your airport's total ground transit capacity, which in turn allows you to serve more passengers & flights each day. Use this in conjunction with the new Operations Control Panel and the new Transit Capacity Graph reports to perfect your ground transit operations.
Weather Effects and Weather Patterns
Weather effects have been updated, optimized, and re-enabled! Weather Patterns have been implemented and provide for more realistic, predictable & forecastable weather patterns. Further improvements are planned for the future including deeper integration into the gameplay experience. A new Weather Forecast graph is available via clicking the top Weather icon on the top main UI.
Queueing Improvements
The passenger queueing systems have been updated; they function quite similar to before, but contain several improvements, bug-fixes, gameplay/behavioral improvements, and performance improvements. This includes faster through-queue movement, passengers always using queues even when no line, more consistent timings, and several other minor improvements.
New Objects and Building Materials
About 20 new decorative flooring options and styles
Handful of new Hunger-satisfying kiosks and fast-food objects
Additional New Bench / Seating options and size combos
Two new Fountains, decor objects that improve environment scores
New Graphs & Operations Control Panel
Operations Control Panel -- edit bus, garbage, retail, and light rail service intervals
Ground Transport Demand/Capacity Report -- better understand your ground transport demand & actual capacity
Daily Cashflows Graph -- understand your airport's income and expenses with this 30-day graph
Weather Forecast -- available via clicking the top 'Weather' icon in the UI
And more...
Adds custom gate names
UI Categories Tabs added to build menus
Adds support for multiple pages of game preferences
Adds a game setting for displaying time in 12 or 24 hour formats
Adds a game setting for inverted click-and-drag camera panning
Adds Steam Trading Cards, Profile Backgrounds, Badges, and Emoticons
GAMEPLAY CHANGES
Increases the weight & importance of Terminal Usage Fee as it relates to Airline satisfaction
Garbage bins are now used throughout the airport / more important to passengers
Blank Slate starting balance increased by $250,000
Security Exit is no longer blocked by Outdoors or Walls, can now be placed on walls (similar to door placement)
Raw material refund amounts changed to 90% of cost (was 50%)
Dismantling large objects results in 50% of materials being recovered (was 100%)
Tweaked the environmental effects of some existing decor objects
Master flight scheduler time header row is now fixed position at the top when scrolling vertically
Wind tweaks: prevailing weighted more strongly & direction changes slowed
Garbage cans can now be placed indoors or outdoors
Conveyor material price reduced by ~50% and max stack size increased
Janitors will now prioritize emptying garbage bins over cleaning floors or removing garbage bags
Windows must now be placed on existing walls; tool description updated
Adds a placement indicator to the queue drawing tool
Supply Trucks will now spawn (assuming any piles are pending delivery) even if Deliveries zone is removed or at full capacity, for better visibility into idle workers waiting on that truck’s supplies
Supplies pending delivery from canceled construction projects will now sometimes be reallocated to new projects (terrain only)
Improves flight distribution when spawning departing pax
Spawn nodes now have edges to all orthogonal neighbors; prevents vehicles getting stuck trying to make a hard left at the top of the map
Storage shelves and dumpsters will be prioritized over ground spots
Reduced the hitbox size on trash bags, making it easier to see garbage zone capacity when full
Retail workers will now handle restocking kitchens; prevents delivery truck from blocking traffic longer than necessary
Added substantial code to Aircraft to make them much more robust & resilient; helps to prevent them getting stuck and becoming permanent airport decor. They should now look for backup solutions and re-attempt to find paths to the gate/runway if none exist on its first few attempts. Dismantle validations have been relaxed slightly now that aircraft can recover more reliably.
Adds "Transit Capacity" to the top UI "Passenger" hover, to better convey your total available throughput potential
Adds Minimum Runway Size restrictions to aircraft
Adjusted several early-game airlines to provide for more small aircraft flights
Construction Workers now always prioritize indoor luggage tasks higher than construction tasks
Baggage Cars that are idle & nearby now pick tasks up before cars that are further away
Bus, Retail, and Light Rail services now cost a fixed fee per spawn, as an inhibitor to scheduling them as frequently as possible / partially tuning late-stage gameplay
Moves B767 to Large Gate
BUG FIXES
Resolves multiple crash causes and thread safety issues
Addressed several memory leaks
Fix a bug allowing purchase of hangar vehicles with insufficient funds in Career mode
Fix the airport entrance sprite disappearing after completing road tech option
Adds a few fixes related to hidden zone overlays, e.g. when starting draw mode
Adding or modifying a flight will apply to the following day, whereas an offer cancelation will sometimes also apply to the current day if the arrival time is sufficiently far away
Prevents assignment to invalid gate (i.e. pending construction or dismantle) when accepting offers and editing schedule
Prevents dismantle of gate when it has flights pending arrival — these must be moved, canceled, or allowed to run their course.
Fixes a bug that showed completed Research items as disabled when running out of money
Fixes an issue with some construction indicators erroneously excluding zone drawing
Fixes text placement of zone/sectors (centered in largest rectangle)
Fixes Decorative Tree — should block object placement, and allow flooring changes w/o removal
Fixes a bug that could result in manually unloaded baggage being unreachable (adjacent security zone)
Fixes a leftover shadow bug when removing walls
Fixes the delay in updating wall sprites when ‘attach to wall’ object nearby
Fixes an issue that sometimes prevented “selected object dialog” buttons from being clicked
Fixes a bug that sometimes caused fired workers to be stuck
Fixes an exception when moving a flight with the cancellation dialog still open
Prevents vehicle passenger spawning while the game is paused
Greater contrast to primary scroll bar handles
Urinals changed to only be functional in male restrooms
Fixes a bug that could cause premature cancelation of flights
Fixes passenger bug, sometimes caused walking outside or through secure areas when crossing “U”-shaped sectors
Fixes a bug that caused passengers to sometimes get stuck at a wall after being 'pushed' off-course by other agents
Fixes some objects not repositioning properly after a nearby wall is built
Fixes the implementation of zone minimum dimension requirement/validation
Fixes a MM370 bug when pathfinding to garbage bins of certain rotation next to a wall
Fixes a bug with Flight Status dialog failing to display flights when a gate has been removed
Fixes a bug that could result in Storage Shelf showing the wrong sprite/state
Fixes a bug that could result in stuck workers, projects, and/or supply truck [when processing jobs near at-capacity zones]
Fixes a bug when canceling a project before the indicator animation is complete
Fixes Urinal "back" facing
Fixes pax stacking when waiting for an object — should always be aside not on it
Fixes a bug that allowed Clear & Demolish tool to sometimes bypass dismantle validations
Fixes a bug that prevented dragging modals that were partially off-screen
Modal windows that have their 'drag handle' off-screen will now re-position themselves so that their drag handle is at least partially on-screen
Fixes aircraft position being reset when deserializing into initial approach, landing, and takeoff states
Fixes an issue with UI becoming unresponsive when loading a corrupted save
Hotkeys U, P, & I now correctly toggle dialogs vs only showing them
Resizing the MFS dialog will now expand right/down only, vs in all directions
Fixes a bug where tall hover tooltips would go off screen
MISC
Baggage Car improvements; intended to be less prone to 'stuck', able to recover more easily
Aircraft hovers on the Airline "Detail" UI now shows req'd gate & runway size
Updates the aircraft gate tooltip (today's flights for that gate, with status)
Updates the Conveyor build menu tooltip, includes overview/instructions
Updates the "money changes" to be less distracting (smaller font, up to 10 most recent entries)
Improves the workshop integration to show more detailed status for help in diagnosing failures
Optimizes sector generation code, slightly improving performance during active construction
Optimizes rendering; improves frame rates on integrated and mid-grade GPU hardware, softens the minimum video RAM requirements
Patch - May 20, 2017
We're shipping a great general release patch today, numerous updates including substantially-improved Passenger AI, initial Steam Workshop support, and a number of new objects, tools, and other new and updated gameplay elements, and of course a number of fixes as well. Check out the change log below for the full rundown!
Next Round Kickoff
We'll be kicking off the next round of updates on the 'experimental' branch very soon, and as usual we'll continue shipping fixes, updates, improvements and additions just as quickly as we can. We've got some great stuff in store for the next round, and we're excited to get this one out to you all & be able to really focus on digging into the next stuff and starting to roll it out to experimental -- we're so incredibly excited about what the future has in store for SimAirport!
Feedback, Please! SimAirport Survey
As you may be aware, we try our best to be very actively involved with the community and we're always looking for your feedback, suggestions, and ideas. As part of that, and in an effort to ensure we're staying focused on the right things that you're most interested in, we've created a brief survey that we'd ask you to take a few minutes and fill out for us.
All fields are optional, so if you'd prefer to just answer a few items that's fine, but the more you can fill out the better you can help us as far as prioritizing our future efforts -- by participating in the survey you'll be playing an important role in guiding the future of SimAirport, so we really appreciate those of you that are able to take the time to fill it out and help to make the game the best tycoon-style management game that it can be.
We want to thank those of you who have been active participants on the experimental branch & in the experimental forum throughout this round of updates. Your bug reports, save submissions, attention to detail -- and, of course, your patience -- have been absolutely instrumental in allowing us to ship the way we have been able to. We sincerely appreciate it, and we thank you very much for your continued support; we truly couldn't do it without you.
NEW FEATURES
Passenger AI Improvements — passengers are now constantly assessing their environment, even when already engaged with a behavior. You’ll see better queue distribution, new line hopping, fewer pax missing flights, and other improvements. Numerous tuning adjustments made as well.
Steam Workshop Support - Initial support implemented! Share your maps with the community on Steam Workshop! Look for "Airport Sharing" in the game's Main Menu and the Workshop tab on Steam
Added 'Small Retail Bar' — complete with 2 bartenders! Will be further improved in future.
Added 'Windows' -- currently function like walls, with different sprites.
Full 'Security Wings' support -- fully implemented, works for Lifecycle & other needs
Added 'Profit & Loss' Report -- accessible only when CFO is hired with office. Hotkey: P
Added A320 aircraft model -- added to several airlines
Added a 'Storage' zone -- workmen will move leftover piles to it
Added 'Area Sell' tool -- allows you to mass-sell supply boxes that are eligible for sale
Added 'Male Restroom' and 'Female Restroom' zones -- removed generic/unisex 'Restroom'
Added 'Urinal' object -- for Male Restrooms (Known: does not yet have back view)
Added 'Bank Loans II' Research -- increases max loan amount
Added 'Lower Interest Rate' Research -- decreases loan interest rate
Added 'Highlight Passengers' button to Aircraft -- Green = Departures, Red = Arrivals.
GAMEPLAY CHANGES, UPDATES & IMPROVEMENTS
The in-game clock speed has been reduced 25%, while the simulation speed is the same — making the time scale more realistic (e.g. simulated walking speed)
Bag/Body/Metal scanners now all require staff to work
Workmen will now handle the indoor luggage (golf cart) duties
Numerous Passenger AI tweaks and object effect tweaks; Passengers also tuned to make them more likely to try catching their flight if running behind, even if their other needs are very high
Numerous small tweaks to timings & object effects
Cash registers and misc. other bulky objects will now count towards enclosed space zone validations
More restrictive Aircraft Gate and Runway dismantle validations to help prevent stuck aircraft
Prohibit passengers from using objects in Office zones
Storage Shelf can now be placed indoors
Fixed a bug that caused airlines to offer too many larger vs smaller aircraft contracts
Revised Vehicle parking spots (better ‘pull far ahead’ and ‘close enough’ targets)
Passengers will avoid cutting through Kitchen zones, if alternative routes exist
Passengers will now wait nearby for Toilets (if in use)— helps prevent oscillation against the 2nd highest need
ATM & Electronic Vending machine now working & usable, and revenue-generating
Foundation tool near existing walls/foundations will now dismantle walls (free) vs consuming valuable Concrete supplies for those positions
Road placement will now show the correct cost when available inventory exists
Zones can now be edited under pending construction, in limited circumstances (i.e. not walls)
Ticketing objects now require non-secure area to function
Adds a new text indicator where vehicles spawn to show the (hidden) queue size, when roads are backlogged
BUG FIXES
Fixed an issue with placement validations missing some items in scope for auto-Dismantle upon game load
Fixed a regression with ‘marker’ placement (Aircraft docking, object placement indicators, etc)
Fixed an issue with vehicles still spawning when the roads are fully backed up
Fixed an issue getting stuck w/ no path to Flight Info Display
Fixed an issue with Outdoor Gate not connecting to walls/fences after game load
Fixed an issue with Staff/Vehicle movement speed erroneously getting randomized during pooling
[UI] Makes valid TimeBlock drop region in Scheduler be only on arrival time, to show why Night flights cannot be scheduled past 10PM yet
Retail Workers can no longer be fired multiple times
Fixed an issue with needs calculation cache returning invalid results (“all 1.000”, “2.000” etc)
Fixed a bug where passengers could try to use objects in unreachable secure areas
Scroll speeds on Windows platforms fixed on majority of UIs
Fixes a bug that incorrectly allowed objects to be dismantled while still in use
Fixed the bug with conveyor system using non-built positions
Fixed an issue that could result in an agent obtaining an invalid path
Added more aggressive caching mechanism to conveyor systems
Fixed stuck passengers (missed flight, non-secure) trying to go to a secure Pickups zone
Fixed COO/Staff wages getting deducted even after being fired
Fixed a bug that caused the camera to 'jump' at low framerates
Fixed the markers on horizontal Bag Scanner (West; known issue: vertical only goes south, will fix North facing soon!)
Vehicle rotation is now serialized
Vehicles will no longer drive on Roads and Taxiway that are not yet built
Fixed a bug causing vehicles to temporarily get stuck at spawn point or unload prematurely when new roads are being built
Fixed a bug causing vehicles to get stuck for a second after loading game
Queues: Fixed an issue with large gaps emerging after queues overflowed
Queues: Fixed an issue with passengers restarting the same queue after loading game
Queues: Fixed a memory leak & optimized performance overhead
Few fixes to the assignment user interface (when clicking new ‘source’ objects)
Fixed an edge case with IDCheckStand placement at edge of zone that could result in passengers failing to select a bag scanner
Fixed an issue with abandoned Golf Cart (when ticketing desks destroyed during task)
Fixed aircraft runway lineup position
Fixed an issue with idle janitors while work to do
Staff now validate the objects the could go to are likely reachable as well as functional
Fixed a race condition with agents selecting newly-built objects which may not be functional
Fixed a bug that broke the Kitchen reference when un-assigning a queue to a Retail Cash Register
Road placement will now correctly de-zone tiles
Fixed a bug that could allow drawing off-map Conveyor tiles
Fixed an issue with passengers “looping” to the end of a queue (or otherwise reverting progress to an equivalent action), if it had multiple objects attached
MISC
Updated the welcome dialog and added a new Help screen
Adds hotkey ‘Z’ for toggling the zones overlay display
Minor changes to P&L and money changes to further break down source of funds
Save & Load Game menus now update the list of saves 'live' without closing & re-opening the menu
Executives will now wander a bit in their offices
Passenger speed while in queues is now fixed, to prevent later enqueues from arriving to their spot before earlier enqueues
Experimental Patch - Passenger AI & More
Passenger AI has received some attention as we kick off the latest round of experimental updates! There's even a small bar with bartenders, for the passengers who want to indulge a bit -- and several other significant improvements.
See below for more information on the latest Experimental updates and to get information on how to access these new additions right away!
Details & the complete change log are available in this thread:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/598330/discussions/2/1318836262661074397/
To find out more about the experimental versions, and for further discussion of experimental updates please visit the experimental forum:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/598330/discussions/2/
Patch - April 21, 2017
Just another quick patch to fix a few more issues from the major patch on April 19th. Barring any other major issues popping up, we'll now be getting back to work on the experimental branch for the next round of major updates!
Change Log - April 21, 2017
Fixed a bug related to passenger baggage pickup
Fixed an object selection bug where passengers could pick unreachable targets and get stuck
Minor performance optimization to passenger movement
Fixed a bug with the 3 new decorations
Patch Notes - April 20, 2017
Quick patch today to get a major bug from yesterday's patch addressed right away. We also managed to slip a few new objects in, though this patch is mainly a fix for passenger 'Stuck' issues.
Thank you for your patience and for sending in bug reports and saves -- we really appreciate it very much. We'll have more for you soon!
Change Log - April 20, 2017
Fixed a major bug in yesterday’s patch which could cause passengers to get stuck all over the place
Fixed a no-path condition issue that could cause passengers to get stuck
Added an after-load save game fix that will create demolish projects for objects that are placed in non-useable positions
Added 3 new indoor decorations
Added 1 new seating object / bench
Patch Notes April 19, 2017
We've been working hard and we've got a great patch for you all tonight. There's still a lot more left to do, but some fantastic progress has been made in this round. We've been listening closely and we know performance has been a major issue, so it's one of the primary things we've addressed in this patch -- and several smaller additions, and of course numerous fixes as well.
We'll be back with more as usual -- and if you're itching to get your hands on the latest updates or fixes, check out the Experimental branch. Instructions to access it are available in our Steam forum (the experimental subforum). Experimental received numerous updates, one almost every day since the last default patch on April 1st -- and we'll be hard at work with a similar rollout plan for this next batch of updates.
Thank you to everyone for your continued support & for your assistance with the bugs, we couldn't do it without you. Thank you very much!!
Performance Improvements -- Major performance improvements have been integrated with the Agent AI and Agent Pathfinding systems. The game is also now available in 64-bit and 32-bit flavors. Performance should be be substantially better than before; we have more work to do here, and quite sizable gains are still possible, but this should yield a substantially improved gameplay experience versus gameplay prior to this patch.
Multiple Security Wings -- Passengers now use the proper security zone when two separate ‘wings’ are secured by different security zones
Flight/Boarding Time “Resize” -- Flights can be ‘resized’ by hovering over their right edge in the Master Flight Schedule. Passengers arrive to your airport based on flight arrival time, not departure time, so this does lengthen the amount of time passengers have to catch their flight.
Vehicle Zone Destinations -- Target selection has been improved substantially. Detailed overview available here: forum thread
Security Exits -- Security exits should NOT be built on the exit to your security zone, only on separate exits -- exits “stop the flow” of security within your airport, and are designed to allow you to have dedicated exits instead of having passengers go through your security zone to leave your airport.
Passenger Security & Traversal -- Passengers can no longer walk outdoors in a secure area, even to get to their gate
FULL CHANGE LOG
<*>Major performance improvements to Agent Pathfinding & Agent AI
<*>Fixed an issue with some sprites invisible on certain video cards (taxiways, runways)
<*>Metal detector: arrows added & vertical orientations positions fixed
<*>Body Scanner: arrows added & vertical orientations positions fixed
<*>Vehicle targets improved; prefer to stay in 1 lane and will try to park better
<*>Some needs were re-generating too fast; turned them down
<*>Runway now requires connection to all functional gates in order to be functional
<*>Added validation to walls that prevents objects being walled in & having unusable positions
<*>Fixed an issue with construction indicator sometimes being in incorrect position
<*>Fixed a bug that would cause hangars to incorrectly show “requires ramp area” error
<*>Fixed a bug that caused canceling a Clear or Demolish project to not finish correctly
<*>Fixed a bug with food inventory deliveries
<*>Fixed a bug that would cause passengers to not become ‘nonsecure’ again after leaving a secured area
<*>Fixed a bug that would cause passengers to become stuck in restrooms
<*>Fixed a bug that caused Clear tasks to become Demolish tasks when loading a save
<*>Added scheduled arrival & departure times to Aircraft hover
<*>Passenger spawn changed to be based off of aircraft arrival time instead of departure time
<*>Construction worker pathing improvements; prevent ‘stuck’ issues and more clearly show the cause when they happen
<*>Fixed a bug that could cause passengers to get stuck/no path
<*>Fixed a bug with queue settings not showing any options at higher zooms
<*>Fixed a bug that caused passenger bags to flicker/wiggle
<*>Improved performance for runway connection validations
<*>Minor tweak to improve queue distribution; will be addressed further in future updates
<*>Fixed issue with Flight Info Display causing stuck passengers in certain rotations
<*>Small change to help ensure aircraft will depart if fully boarded
<*>Several baggage car loading & unloading reliability improvements
<*>Fixed bug that sometimes caused new Gate Agent Desks to not function right away
<*>Autosave now always saves to ‘autosave.airport’
<*>Fixed bug that prevented adding objects you have in inventory even if unable to afford them
<*>Fixed bug that allowed outdoor trees to be placed on roads
<*>Fixed a passenger behavior bug that over-allocated memory
<*>Fixed a bug that could sometimes cause stuck vehicles
<*>Construction/Worker performance optimizations; may temporarily result in more ‘task swapping’
<*>Fixed a few worker ‘stuck’ issues
<*>Fixed a bug that could cause garbage truck to drive into a position it couldn’t drive out of
<*>Implemented several misc. memory optimizations
<*>Fixed a bug that could cause janitors to get stuck
<*>Fixed several construction related bugs; could cause them to get stuck or not finish projects
<*>Improved performance of worker pathfinding substantially
<*>Decreased memory allocations required during save game
<*>Fixed a runway validation; runways now correctly require a taxiway (non-runway) connection on both ends (was causing stuck aircraft after undocking)
<*>Made aircraft & baggage cars a bit more resilient to environment changes
<*>Fixed a bug that prevented placing utility objects over existing conveyors
<*>Fixed a bug with luggage when arriving to a destination that no longer exists
<*>Several minor performance and memory allocation improvements
<*>Improved Passenger need calculation performance
<*>Performance improvements on construction tasks and construction indicator UI
<*>Fixed a bug that could cause the vehicle spawn queue to back up excessively
<*>Added additional checks to help prevent vehicle spawn queue backups
<*>Fixed a bug with Gate Agent Desk assignments
<*>Fixed several bug that could cause the game to crash
<*>Fixed a validation for Gate Agent Desks
<*>Fixed a bug that could cause passengers to get stuck on doors/corners
<*>Fixed a bug that caused conveyors to unset Sidewalk tiles
<*>Fixed a bug where loading save games could rarely lose state for an individual agent
<*>Slightly lowered the chance of dirty floors in restrooms
<*>Fixed a bug that allowed conveyor construction when bankrupt
<*>Fixed a bug that allowed zones to be placed under security exits
<*>Fixed a bug that prevented ‘require enclosed area’ from being satisfied by security exits
<*>Added new ‘Sectors’ report, will be utilized further in the future
<*>Added queue graphics
NOTABLE KNOWN ISSUES
<*>Bag Scanner: Does not yet follow arrows in vertical orientations.
<*>Multiple Wings: Passengers will not correctly exclude objects in other wings yet, though they will correctly use the proper security entrances.
<*>Passenger Pathfinding: As part of the pathfinding optimizations, passengers may take slightly-strange paths especially around zones. We’ll be improving this in the future.
Patch Notes April 1, 2017
Patch Notes
<*>Reduced passenger build-up/swarming in some cases at zone boundaries
<*>Fixed a UI bug on Schedule Editor when having a large number of gates
<*>Fixed a few bugs related to assignment dialog being up while creating kitchen/cafe zones
<*>Kitchen/food delivery improvements; deliveries now scheduled for noon
<*>Fixed a bug related to checking whether objects are functional or not
<*>Vehicles now do better target-selection to avoid getting stuck
<*>Fixed a bug resulting in leftover trash/dirty floor when no trash zone
<*>Fixed a bug with the '# Standing' for aircraft hover during boarding
<*>Adjusted passenger AI to better distribute & re-check intentions
<*>Adjusted agent-positions for using several kitchen/retail objects to prevent no-path conditions from causing lockups
<*>Pending construction prep carts no longer usable until finished constructing
<*>Fixed a bug that could cause excessive garbage buildup due to an agent pooling issue
<*>Fixed several issues with Garbage pickups & stuck garbage trucks
<*>Greatly reduces chance of passengers missing flights due to their lesser needs/stuck at Cafe
<*>All passengers should now engage in getting picked up within 1.5 hours after having missed a flight
<*>Fixed a bug with redundant dismantle object projects resulting in a demolish to grass
<*>Fixed a bug with kitchen objects sometimes not getting fully restocked
<*>Fixed a bug with dropped off passengers being stuck when the airport is not functional / they spawned bored, outside
<*>Fixed a class of bugs resulting in stuck pax + staff when the objects they started using (or were headed to) are destroyed
<*>Fixed an issue with placing walls where doors had been previously
<*>Fixed an issue that could rarely result in queues becoming 'stuck'
<*>Fixed an issue that could cause workmen tasks to get stuck after firing workman
<*>Several save/load fixes & minor performance improvement
<*>Fixed an issue with placing Dumpsters & Doors on zones
<*>Fixed a bug with RetailCashRegister showing kitchen as “no inventory” when should be “not assigned”. (Sorry, kitchens may need to be reassigned)
<*>Janitors will now assist with loading garbage into garbage trucks
<*>Adds a handful of new flooring colors/tile visual styles
<*>Adds a new design/style of cafe chair & table
<*>Some decorative bushes can now be rotated
<*>Adds a basic 'Planning Mode' set of drawing tools
<*>Enables Cafe/Kitchen functionality again!
Save Game Files from Previous Versions We encourage you to start a new game with this patch, however many recent saved games will work fine. Depending on the age of your saved game, you may experience issues attempting to play on this latest patch however. We make every effort to ensure that patches are backwards compatible with older saved game files, but it is not always realistically possible. When reporting bugs please try beginning a new game to ensure that the issue isn’t related to an old save game file.
Specific Known Issues in this Update
Multiple kitchens / cafes: Staff priorities are not properly tuned yet which may result in staff running back and forth between cafes/kitchens in generally undesired ways.
Performance: We are aware that performance is a problem for many players right now and we will be focusing on it much more directly in the coming updates. Performance is critical to gameplay in SimAirport and we take it very seriously; you can expect to see substantial improvements in the near future.
Roadmap & Patch Notes March 25, 2017
It's time for another SimAirport patch and we have also released the SimAirport Roadmap that we mentioned in the previous patch notes!
A few days ago we came across a bug related to zones and 'zone references' which turned out to be one of the primary root causes of the cafe/retail issues. It has required us to take a slight detour to address the underlying root issue and we're just about through that now. We anticipate having that fix, and cafe/retail itself, fully up and running very soon and you can expect to see it on the experimental branch early next week. We'll then be proceeding to get that out in a general availability patch as soon as we can thereafter!
Patch Notes
Fixed a bug with Flight Info Display incorrectly emitting Environment effect instead of Information
Fixed the “# standing > # departing” bug when 2+ desks are assigned to a gate
Aircraft can now depart earlier than scheduled departure time if otherwise ready to leave (boarded & loaded etc)
Demolish tool now must be used adjacent to outdoors areas; helps prevent confusing islands of “outdoors” surrounded by “indoors”. Use ‘Clear’ tool to clear indoor areas and keep them as indoors.
Minor memory allocation improvements [performance]
Fixed an issue where workers didn’t complete a tasks or stopped mid-way through
Fixed aircraft becoming stuck when their runway was destroyed while at the gate
Nearby construction workers will now assist in unloading Supply Trucks
Airlines UI now shows available flights broken down by morning/afternoon/night
Existing indoor decor will no longer be removed when placing flooring
Fixed an issue that sometimes caused security & zone validations to stop running
Fixed multiple small save/load related issues
Flight Schedule UI Overhaul -- Scheduling is now done by gate.
Note - When loading an existing save from a prior patch you may end up with some cancelled flights for the first day until you have adjusted your schedule accordingly. Schedule changes only take effect for 'tomorrow' and forward.
Thanks everyone -- and as usual, we'll have more for you as soon as we can!!
SimAirport Early Roadmap
It feels like an eternity already but it was a little less than 3 weeks ago when we released SimAirport publicly into Early Access. It's been an absolutely wild ride ride so far but we're honored to have so many of you playing and having fun with the game already -- even at this early stage of the game's life! We have been having a blast working with you in the forum and via email, getting bugs tracked down, and getting fixes & patches out to you as quickly as we can.
We really want to thank those of you who have jumped on board early with us -- you've been great so far and we're really excited about what the future holds as we continue to work together to craft SimAirport into the best tycoon-style management game out there.
There's still a lot of work to be done, and it's certainly not going to happen overnight, but we're incredibly excited for what the future holds for SimAirport over the long-term. Just as we have been over these quick first three weeks, we'll continue to be here day-in and day-out -- listening and engaging directly with the community, working on fixes, updates, content, and above all, actually shipping patches -- for the long haul.
Our community has tons of ideas, and we have many ideas as well; we wanted to prepare a roadmap of sorts, and that's what we are delivering to you today. Game development is definitely a fluid process, and things are subject to change, but below you will find a rough outline of how we foresee the development process evolving over the next few months and we've called out some specifics that we know we'd like to get addressed, or implemented, sooner than later.
Keep in mind that the roadmap below is not written in stone, and is not all-inclusive; especially given that we like to stay directly engaged with the community, so if something comes up, or the community has a great idea, or there's anything important to the game that comes along unexpectedly -- we won't hesitate to deviate priorities temporarily and get it addressed or implemented.
The one thing that won't be changing? Our dedication to SimAirport, and to the community that has formed around the game so far. We'll be here working on this game not only until it is considered 'finished', but for a long time after that too -- together with your participation, we intend to explore the boundaries of tycoon-style management games in SimAirport.
Roadmap Notes:
In an effort to stay nimble and ship patches fast, and the fluid nature of game development in general, we aren't putting specific timeframes on these 'stages' of development. Rather our goal is moreso to convey and share our perspective and the overarching stages we foresee in the shorter term future of SimAirport's development cycle.
Coinciding with the release of this roadmap, we will soon be doing some basic structuring & reorganization of the Steam discussion forums in an effort to better cater to the ongoing development lifecycle, to make things easier to find for you and to make it easier for us to see what's important to you.
Bug Bash -- Everything working, flawlessly
Zones; zone editing, movement, assignment handled properly in all cases
Cafes / Retail; working perfectly
Destruction of in-use or planned-to-use objects always handled correctly
Incremental performance improvements
Nothing stuck. Ever!
Passenger AI Improvements
Task switching, reconsideration
Distribution weighting improved
Memory footprint reduced (performance)
Queue timings adjusted to function as intended
First class passengers given meaning
Minor requested additions, as time permits
Flight Scheduling UI & Concept Updated [done]
Janitors, Workers help with loading, unloading trucks [partially complete]
Storage zone, Supply Piles being returned to Storage
Additional minor object additions / options (decor, chair types, etc)
Textures; support lower-end GPUs via size reductions or shipping multiple sizes
Misc; track down game exit CTDs, begin tracking down problem memory leaks
Content & Gameplay -- The FUN begins!
We have a LOT planned, and it’s just a matter of time before we get there. We’ll be adding some things in sooner than later, in some cases even within other update cycles that aren’t dedicated to content addition. In other cases, we’ll be waiting until we’re really within a full ‘content mode’ update cycle.
Please Note: This list is NOT all inclusive of our plans. It is just meant to be a representation of some of the things that we’re confident we want to get implemented sooner than later. We will be getting to a lot more over time. There are also no guarantees; items from this list could be removed, re-prioritized or even skipped entirely.
We listen to and engage with our (fantastic) community quite often; we’re always willing to listen and learn from our players, and there’s even a fantastic thread that we follow quite closely in our forum. As a result priorities may shift, ideas may change, or new things may become more important -- please consider the following list only to be a rough guideline, there are a LOT more things we want to do beyond just these things, and we’ll be shipping many content updates & patches over time!
