[UI/Economy] - Contract Update Idea

[Hirohitoswaifu]

What is your suggestion?
My suggestion is to improve the current contract system in regards to how it can produce unwanted contracts regularly, as well as limiting the realism of an airport through missing aircraft type’s and filling up players contract capacity just so they can have more types on a single route.

Bottom of the suggestion for a terrible paint job of my vision .

How would it work in the game?
The way it would work in the game is that contracts would instead be limited to an airline and a destination, for example Bari (I’m going to use BRI as my choice for this as it’s E class and I like it ).

A new player beginning at BRI currently receives 3 local contracts which could be a range of Alitalia, Air Dolomiti, ITA, SkyAlps or Ryanair contracts, for my example I’m only going to cover the first 3 as they have a varied fleet. One contract they get is from Bari to Milan Linate with Air Dolomiti and utilising an AT75. Now that player has a type which is small, slow and which isn’t realistic, which can be annoying as when the player takes their next local contract, they might yet again get another AT75 this time going to Cagliari which again is unrealistic, slow and small. Now ofc later on the player can purchase a new type to do the route like an E195 for the Linate route, but they likely would cancel the AT75 first and it’s a bit of a waste of credits, especially for a newer player wanting to build the airport up or would rather buy another contract say to Turin or Munich. This is further made annoying if a player wants to operate a couple of types on a route, like for example myself who operates an ITA A319, A320 and BCS3 on the Linate route as well as an A319, A320 and E190 of Alitalia’s, taking up 6 slots that really should only be 2, stemming the amount of routes players can have at their airport and increasing the chance of the player having 4 aircraft flying the same route all on the ground together, even more unrealistic.

My idea is that local contracts and purchased contracts would all start out as they currently do on the smallest type in the fleet (with Air Dolomiti’s AT75, Alitalia’s E175 and ITA’s A319 for local and regional contracts) but instead when your aircraft returns and you complete the contract it upgrades, giving you access to the next tier for example with Alitalia you gain the ability to put the E190 on the route. Now this would continue as you send the aircraft to and from the destination unlocking the larger types such as the A319, A320 and A321, plus it will also unlock all the liveries the type wore at each tier (such as for the A321 the 1990s-2006 livery, the 2006-2015 livery and the 2015-2022 final livery). Now these types would be able to be ticked on and off depending on what the player wishes, giving them more choice something I’ll explain a little bit further down.

Special liveries

Furthermore, once a contract reaches 10/10, the player would unlock all the special liveries for the airline and contract type (No massive planes for short haul lol) such as the Retrojet for Alitalia’s A321 or the Muoviamo livery for the A320, again being able to select which ones they want to see and even turning off all normal contracts to just have a special if the player so wants as they’ve earned it as a reward.

Multiple liveries for a type

This is also perfect for airlines with multiple liveries on a single type like Condor and Icelandair as well as providing players like myself access to older liveries such as United’s Blue Tulip, that other players wouldn’t want to see so they could switch off (I’ve showcased the examples on Krankenwart’s post).

Larger aircraft on short haul routes

Talking about bigger aircraft, this could be a great way for larger aircraft to be assigned to a route they irl cover. For example at HKG and LHR, large aircraft operate routes which either can’t be got in-game or which are available as regional contracts allowing players (Me at LHR buying all Iberia A340s ) to get an advantage before any other types would be available. Instead, once a player unlocks international, the later stages of the contract would unlock allowing more choice in the type players want to operate, for example at HKG a previously only A21NX Cathay route would allow for the A330s, A340s and 747s to fly the route as they do or have done irl. This would also be easier for the devs to limit routes, preventing the Iberia A340s from being available at Barcelona or another Iberia base as they can select routes where this could be unlocked from their end, without the tedium of selecting individual types for a route, something players could help with suggesting.

The bigger aircraft ofc would earn more wollars than the smaller ones still as that’s realistic but the xp instead would be tied to the contract, providing no incentive to purchase the biggest aircraft type for the maximum amount of xp and instead limiting it to the destination’s distance.

Why is this a good idea?
This is a good idea as it makes the local/regional/international contract system more viable as no longer will players ignore a contract to a city just because the aircraft type is too small such as an Alitalia A319 to Dubai from Bari, players would be happy to take it and then level it up. It would also provide an incentive for players to complete contracts to unlock special liveries as well as being able to operate the airport they want to, maybe favouring an old style 2008 Bari with the 1990s livery and no modern ones.

Another reason this is a good idea is that routes would now be diverse on a single contract, so a KLM aircraft arriving at BRI could be an E75, A21NX, B737 or a Fokker 100 but would also allow players to lock a type out they don’t want to see say the E295 or Fokker 70. This would be even better for photography at the airports allowing for more diverse stand shots.

It would also make the contract menu a lot smaller, currently at the likes of LHR and IAD, the contract choice menu is very busy with many types and liveries being displayed (Soon to be increased massively at IAD with United’s 737’s coming I hope in full) something that would no longer be an issue as a contract would just be the airline. Ofc, that complexity would be passed down onto a new menu but once a new type or types are unlocked, the player wouldn’t have much work to do to tick on or off the liveries or types they don’t want to see.

It also would get players operating types they wouldn’t ordinarily see rewarding the devs hard work creating them by them having more traffic.

Optional: Image or reference
An example here of PMI from LEJ, 6 different contracts just to have a diverse fleet. Using my above suggestion this would just be one, providing 5 extra slots for destinations for players whilst giving them that full diversity or liveries, this could further be expanded adding the B753 in which irl operated the route.

My idea would be for a menu like the above, but which is instead part of the contract and which unlocks additional types as the contract further completes with instead of the contract information underneath the liveries, you would have a switch like the ones in the menu pictured below, which would allow you to select on or off the types and liveries you wish to see.

This I’m envisioning being available on the airport screen as per my crude paint skills below,

I’d do a crude one showing the xp-ey thing but I’m not an artist it took me half an hour to do the above lol.

I did the crude Paint thingy,

This would combine a few different ideas in a way I think is feasible, but I’m not a dev so would love to hear if this is actually something that could be done.

Give these a vote too if you like this ;

Krankenwart’s post about variable airline liveries,

LeChonk’s post about buying special liveries,

Pavel’s post (I was prioritising my uni work over paint lol, had the rest written in)

[Jamesonplanes]

Brilliant idea!

[Hirohitoswaifu]

Thanks, it’s one of those annoying bits about LHR and the likes that you have the E170 spam and it’d be made worse with the AT43 and CRJ’s I’ve requested. This would solve it as well as a couple of other issues in one. I just need the devs to tell me it’s not possible now

[Jamesonplanes]

Yeah exactly, just a bit of variety lol

[Royston2712]

I like the idea. So as part of it are you thinking maybe once you unlock various aircraft on a route do they randomly come on the route?

Like your PMI-LEJ. Say you have got it to level 10, so unlocked all varieties of the A321 for condor. So then each time the flight returns back to the airport it could be one of the various liveries that have been unlocked? And ties in with your toggle on the route. So you may of unlocked all the liveries and the 753. Maybe you only want the 321 on that route and the 757 on another route. Would make it more realistic to get variety on a single route. I don’t mind when you unlock a new livery you still have to “buy” them as part of the unlock but it would still keep it realistic I. Managing a flight operation.

[Hirohitoswaifu]

Yeah, my though is that they’ll automatically tick on and the player will have to tick them off if they don’t want them. For the likes of Condor you’d start with the A320, then completing level 2 say would unlock the A20N, then Level 4 the A321, then the A21NX and finally the B753. When you hit level 10, you unlock all of the condor specials and can select which ones you want as part of your connection (Ofc you can switch off all other types just leaving the one special you want). Potentially after international has been reached on the busy routes like PMI or TFS, you could employ the 767/A332 on the route but that’d be something the devs would have to allow for certain contracts, though I think it’s maybe easier but definitely more realistic than the current system.

[Royston2712]

Yeah like it a lot. But what I was meaning so yeah like you say you have to untick. But the ones that you keep ticked they occur on the route on a loop or randomly selected.

1st time handling the flight at level 10 - blue liveried 320N

2nd - Standard 320

3rd green liveried 320N

And so on and so on. It adds variety and brings in almost a spotting element where your not knowing what will come in next (obviously you do as you have them selected but you know what I mean)

It could maybe be the specials have a lower chance of appearing the more things you have ticked on one route but they will make for nice surprises for sure

Great idea!

[Hirohitoswaifu]

That was my thought yes. Also makes it realistic as most airlines don’t have the same aircraft operating the same route everytime, they switch them based on demand like how Aer Lingus switches their MAN A320 to an ATR.

Would make that realism happen especially at the likes of Heathrow where an A319 will arrive from say Amsterdam and be put on another route with the next Amsterdam flight being an A21NX.

Just to add on, it’d be a good update to allow multiple contracts to the same airport so you can have 2 or 3 contracts from say LHR to EWR with United, but they’d all have a mixed fleet allowing for the potential of the same aircraft type on the ground, perfect for those players who would like a couple of Emirates A380s at their airport. Could maybe limit it to 3 contracts per airport or something. Up to the devs.

[Royston2712]

yeah really like this idea more and more