Trying to get this thread back on topic and constructive as opposed to a complain fest…
I think some of the issues with pathing is many of the devs decisions in recent airports are less logical than some of the older ones. Let’s compare IAD, SAN, and LHR for example.
- At IAD, regardless of where in the airport the plane is going, it exits the runway based on plane size. planes can taxi across the airport in both directions because there is multiple sets of taxiways.
- At SAN, all of the M pax planes use different exits based on where in the airport their assigned gate is. Planes only taxi in one direction as there is only 1 set of taxiways.
All of this is pretty logical. LHR doesn’t have this…
(Image courtesy of Geo on Discord)
Taxiway N5W (red) for S/M planes going to T1, T2 and T3 Pier 6
Taxiway N6 (blue) for all L/X planes, or S/M planes going to T3A, T3C and T5
Taxiway S6 (yellow) for all S/M/L/X planes going to T4 and Cargo Terminal
Taxiway S7 (green) for all S/M/L planes going to Cargo Terminal West
If we break this down, all of the passenger tiers north of runway 09R/27L (T1-3, T5) are serviced by two taxiways allowing for bidirectional travel without adding extra logic to holding back, etc. Yet, unlike IAD, the taxiway planes exit at depends on stand location, so S/M planes heading to terminal 5 and most of terminal 3 stay on the runway for longer, slowing down airport operations. This change alone would improve airport operations by a significant margin by reducing runway occupation times.
It terms of the south side of runway 09R/27L - the taxiway assignments are logical for cargo and L/X pax for T4. With only a single taxiway, it’s logical for it to be one way to prevent complicating the code. What I’d like to see is for S/M pax heading to T4 to exit via taxiway S5W, directly across from N5W. The lines are drawn showing an exit path there in the direction the runway operates, so it seems that the taxiway not being used is an oversight.
These are minor things, but would very much improve airport operational efficiency especially for players handling 100 planes.
As to @Nikoko’s point
This is why I’ve switched to player only at all airports… it’s the only way to have some sort of “finished” state in the airport which is nice as a player. I’d encourage the devs to prioritize implentation of more social features like Alliances in order to encourage more of this gameplay type, as just landing the endless stream of AI planes gets boring fast.