What is your suggestion?
(My apologies for this being so long, this is a very in depth suggestion)
It has been apparent for a long while now that both the players and devs of WoA want to see different types of aviation added to the game in addition to the current civil transport / cargo operations. This includes things like General Aviation, Corporate/Business Aviation, Firefighting/SaR, Law Enforcement, Military, etc.
The main issue/roadblock in adding these things, besides the amount of work it would be, is how to integrate them with the current Contract based system, as many of these types of aviation would just not work with it. Thatâs why I am proposing some possible solutions and ways to implement other aviation.
How would it work in the game?
The current way aircraft and airlines have routes to our airports is via contracts, which are purchased to allow one specific aircraft from one airline to fly back and forth to a destination indefinitely. This works pretty well for Transport-Category operations, but it would be very unrealistic for all of the other types. Here is my idea of how we can fix this.For government operations such as Military, SaR, Aerial Firefighting, and things of that sort, I propose introducing a system sort of like an âAgreementâ or âCommissionâ with an agency or company.
How this work is you would essentially âsignâ an agreement with an organization such as, for example, the U.S. Air Force or the U.S. Forest Service, and what this would basically do is it would permit these organizations to operate aerial operations out of your airport, obviously for compensation. This is different from a standard contract, because it wouldnât be ONE aircraft from ONE destination in a predictable pattern. These organizations would send these aircraft at random from any (logical) airport without giving notice, and these ârandomâ arrivals could be somewhat structured, like there is a wildfire, missing person, or military exercise going on, so almost like a random event.
So what this could look like is say randomly you get a USCG C30J that is stopping for fuel and then departing. These could also be bigger events, like where multiple USAF C17s from an airbase come in for whatever reason and need to be based out of your airport for a couple days, or the same kinda thing with other agencies like Firefighting, SaR, etc.
You could still see where these aircraft go and fly around to on the world map, but once they are finished with their business they wonât come right back from the destination like a normal contract. These âagreementsâ would allow these operators to come in at any time, so you will always have to be ready for them.
For things like General and Corporate aviation, these realistically wouldnât be a voluntary thing like what I previously listed, and this traffic could essentially just come in whenever it wants to. This would work similar to the government contracts where you could randomly just get aircraft like a C172 or a GLF4 that come in from any random airport, do whatever they are there to do, and then depart. You would get rewarded based on the scale of what aircraft landed, if it was just a little Cessna or Piper it might only 50-100 wollars, but for a businessman or celebrity with a GLEX or Falcon jet would be 1000-3000 wollars.
What ties this system together is the introduction of a Ramp/FBO (Fixed Base Operator) system where these aircraft can park and go about their business, because obviously you arenât gonna bring a Bizjet or military aircraft up to a normal gate. Most if not all of the airports in game have an FBO or ramp in real life, and an FBO/Ramp would be purchased just like a terminal. There wouldnât be gates like a normal terminal, when one of these aircraft is ready to land, you would just clear it to park at the ramp/FBO, and it would taxi and park at any open space on the ramp.
I have attached a concept screenshot of what a GA aircraft arriving to land at INNs GA ramp would look like in game (roughly). Apologies for the crude photoshop, I am terrible with graphic design
Now many of you all are probably wondering, âwhy should I even deal with these âcommissionsâ if they get added, they donât help me?â Well, they would, in the long run, make more money than normal contracts. Let me explain. These commissions would have something almost like a âreputationâ system, and essentially how that would work is, by allowing aircraft from different agencies to land, stay at your airport, and be handled on time, your reputation for the company goes up. This would do two things.
First, it would allow you to get more aircraft from a company, and more unique/rare aircraft as well. So for example, the more you handle general aviation aircraft, not only will you start to see more Cessna 172s and Piper 28s, but you could also start to see more unique aircraft, like a Beechcraft Baron or a Cessna Skymaster, or even could see some civilian-owned warbirds start to rarely come in, like the P-51, Spitfire, or even the recently announced PBY. Same thing for government agencies, so for the Military, you might start only getting the occasional light transport like a C27J, but one you develop your reputation you could start to see A400s, C17s, C5Ms, you can get the idea.
Secondly, it would give you better rewards than normal contracts. So, like I previously said, when your reputation goes up, you start making more money per aircraft (depending on size), and with some of the biggest aircraft from an organization, you could even have the rare opportunity to make (small) amounts of Golden Planes. (obviously this would have to be balanced well or this could be abused)
Please note that obviously this would depend on the sizes of your ramps/FBOs at the airport, because some airports have very small or very large ramps, so these commissions will only give you up to what you can handle.
Why is this a good idea?
I love the gameplay of WoA. Itâs organised, itâs diverse, itâs engaging, and it is obviously pretty good considering Iâve been playing upwards of 5 years. But there is one major problem with the gameplay.It is too predictable. There is nothing wrong with predictable gameplay, but just think for a moment how much more entertaining this game would be if, as an example, you are playing PRG normally, going about handling your airliners like usual, when a pair Czech Air Force C295s randomly come in from Eastern Europe to get fuel and unload cargo. Or another example, you are playing SAN when a Erickson Air Tanker MD87 makes a few trips in and out of the airport over the course of a few days. Or yet another example, it is skiing season at INN and a bunch of Bizjets are coming in from all around the world for snow sports. The amount of storytelling and engagement that very simple things like this would add is astronomical, and would bring the game to a whole new level of realism, because things like this happen every single day at airports around the world, so having them in game would just the game as we know it, for the better.
I know this a very big ask, and I know I talked about probably way too many things for one request, but I made this suggestion post because I know this has been a hot topic recently, and many people have struggled with ideas on how to make this work, so I thought I would just give my input.
People of this forum, let me know what you think of some of these ideas, and hopefully we can work to build a baseline or template so that one day, maybe in a few years, we can start to see these things brought into the game. Thank you so much for reading!