The Ultimate Airport Management Game

Early Access | Features | Dev Roadmap | Detailed Info
Screenshots | Videos | FAQ | changelog | facebook

Airport Master: Change Log: Versions 0.2.x

Please note: Airport Master is currently in Early Access Public Alpha stage of development. Some features described here may (and will) change from version to version as game development progresses. If you participate in early-access public alpha testing, keep in mind that savegames created with earlier versions may become unreadable in newer versions.

This section of Airport Master Changelog lists changes introduced to the Public Alpha version of the game in versions 0.2.x Public Alpha. See Airport Master Latest Public Alpha Version Changelog. For earlier versions changelogs, please see changelog sections for versions: 0.3.x Public Alpha, 0.1.x Public Alpha

Airport Master Early Access Public v. 0.2.5.3 Alpha released FEB 11, 2018

Game workflow

• Fixed bug with fuel quantity required upon re-fueling for general aviation aircraft was calculated in obsolete code fragment: despite that since v0.2.3a all fuel calculations are performed by an Airline and then are fed to an aircraft when requesting pre-flight ground services, the obsolete fuel need approximation code was never removed and it caused very annoying and hard to catch bug when a GA aircraft would request re-fueling, then display Player interaction icon and notification ('Aircraft needs re-fueling') while at the same time the requested amount was less than 3% of fuel tank capacity and thus ignored by FBO Pipeline workflow (it would simply delete such request) - this in turn caused such aircraft to go (in some cases of loadsheet fuel and obsolete-code calculated fuel) in a dead loop; fixed
• Fixed bug with types of precision- and non-precision approaches may have become mixed up in descriptions of phases of flight; fixed
• Implemented additional check for situations when Player may have forced (with his or her editing of Flight Schedule) the aircraft to still get an unassigned ground parking stand or an erroneous parking stand assignment; from now on (hopefully as a temporary measure, while Flight Schedule Editor is being further developed) - if such an erroneous or empty or invalid or conflicting with actually occupied\free stands chart, parking assignment still exists by the moment of reaching holding points HM2\HM3 on Apron 1 and further on with upcoming version 0.2.6a - on new Apron 2 - the conflicting aircraft in question will be removed forcefully from game world without affecting Player's Airport Rating with owner Airline; please note: this solution is temporary and in most cases should not be interfere with gameplay; it is intended mostly for Player who play a lot with Flight Schedule Editor (either for purpose of testing or any other) and may eventually run into a logics lockup situation - so in order for these Player to continue playing current playthrough without having to start over - the logically locked up aircraft will be removed from game world and all ATC and management records without any implications - after we complete integrating all new features of the game and the modes of Flight Schedule Editor, this mechanism will most likely be revised.
• Implemented additional check for taxi clearances involving those affected by bug described above: if it is possible to still 'salvage' the flight with erroneous parking stand assignment, the taxi clearance is issued in such a manner: first the aircraft is cleared to taxi back to apron and then another taxi clearance is issued for normal taxi to runway of departure; added

Airport Master Early Access Public v. 0.2.5.1 Alpha released JAN 25, 2018

Game workflow

• Fixed ground service vehicles drive resolutions in vicinity of entry to service parking; Catering Vehicles were erroneously giving way to all other vehicles while waiting to enter AeroDelish Catering Building service driveway, thus in some situations creating congestion at this spot, which in turn could have caused vehicles lockup; fixed; thanks to Chrisophe Lemaire for detailed bug-report and providing his savegame file for analysis
• Fixed bug with Flight School theory flight hours not being counted correctly during TimeSkips: instead of adding the time which was skipped multiplied by reduction coefficient, it added only the reduction coefficient itself, which resulted in theory hours filling up too quickly; fixed; thanks to Chrisophe Lemaire for bug-report
• Fixed bug with Helicopter (under some circumstances on some CPUs) may have never actually started the final approach sequence and instead would try to fly precisely (a float point precision bug) to the actual Approach start point resulting flying in circles above said point with ever increasing float point precision; fixed; thanks to Leif Arne Schemann for noticing this behavior and sending us his savegame file

Aircraft

• Fixed incorrect flight surfaces axis, that used to be ignored (arbitrary Y or -Y angles) in our sub-engine prior to introduction of helicopters' rotor blades surfaces; at that point two aircraft model sets (E30P and P05T) had the following arbitrary axis set incorrectly E30P: Left Aileron, Left Outboard Flap, Left Spoiler); P05T: Right and Left Flaps (had axis reversed) - this bug caused above mentioned flight surfaces of said aircraft to operate in reversed manner (e.g. flap extending instead of retracting, spoiler extending in incorrect direction, aileron reversed) - all axis of all mentioned flight surfaces were fixed to normal non-arbitrary (explicit) coordinate axis; aircraft in all liveries of types E30P and P05T were checked and fixed; thanks to Robert from CAT-group for noticing this bug and reporting to us with screenshots and a theory that proved nearly perfectly correct
• Fixed bug with an Aircraft sometimes not resetting it's HaveActualTaxiRoute flag upon reaching parking when taxing after landing and thus on return flight resulting in crew not requesting new taxi clearance; fixed and installed a mechanism preventing this flag to even be in unrealistic logics state; thanks to Chrisophe Lemaire for providing his savegame file for analysis

Sound

• Fixed bug with sound of jet engines at startup sometimes may have gone out of sync with actual fan RPM causing either a short silence dropout at the end of engine start sequence or incorrectly high RPM on startup of some jet engines in the game which have RPM change profile on engine startup synchronized with engine startup sound set; this was caused by incorrect calculation of interphase discretion, which caused this bug to never manifest itself on high-end newer CPUs while being caught on an older CPU under heavy system load; fixed

Visual enhancements

• Tweaked minimum range of detail draw distance for taxiways markings; previously, setting the Draw Distance to Near (or around it) may have caused central taxiway markings to be excluded from draw queue; fixed

Airport Master Early Access Public v. 0.2.5 Alpha released JAN 5, 2018

Game workflow

• Added helicopters game mechanics, including flight dynamics, helicopter-specific flight-scheduling, helicopter-specific ground service vehicle operations, helicopter-specific ATC; added
• Added weather-dependent pendulum-type micro-rotations of helicopters when hovering; the intensity is still being tweaked, not final; added
• Fixed discrepancy of relation of vertical speed to current pitch of an airplane, this should result in smoother vertical speed adjustment when changing pitch in climbs and descents; fixed
• Added new type and range definitions to Object View camera for support of Helicopters and Large Airplanes; added
• Added Helicopters initial visual departure and final visual approach routes; added
• Added Helicopters air-taxi routes to and from ground parking stands F1 through F8; added
• Added new airline MedEvac (Air Ambulance and Medical Evacuation) - code MED; all MedEvac aircraft that previously been treated as Private are now correctly related to actual airline; added
• Changed how MedEvac flights are scheduled; changed
• Added Intercomm communication channel (VHF radio), to be used by various facilities, services and personnel of the Airport to communicate directly to Player; Added
• Added 34 new ground vehicles routes for Airport Vehicles in Heliport area for a total number of 164 vehicle routes around the Airport; added
• Added 10 new helicopter-specific VFR routes (DEP and ARR) to and from existing VFR points; routes are arranged in such a way so that they do not interfere with airplanes flying visual departures and arrivals and cross glide paths of runways 17 and 35 at safe altitudes; added
• Fixed bug with PAPI lights on inactive runway being still on even after command from ATC to switch them off; fixed
• Fixed very well hidden bug with ATC assigning Ground Service Vehicles jobs identifiers may have occasionally assigned non-unique identifier causing two vehicles share same job and thus first reporting ground service job completion causing the other one to hang dead; fixed

Visual enhancements

• Added Large Factory building near ILS 35 glideslope entry point; added
• Added 3 new city buildings types, currently can be seen in various static locations around Appleton city, in later versions will be used for auto-generated procedural blocks of City buildings; added

Aircraft

• Added new aircraft [J358] Finelad-Durniere 358 JET (real-world prototype Fairchild-Dornier 328JET) an aircraft with amazing history and amazing fate, whose production (and production ownership rights changed several times throughout last 30 years, including transferring production to different countries - but it still flies and remains in demand for short runway twin-jet operation - aircraft with following registration numbers were added: RK-DBS (Aster), RK-LOB (Aster), N313L (Private), TDHQE (Private), HV-SSA (MedEvac)
• Added new helicopter [B409] Bull 409 (real-world prototype Bell 407) - one of the most massively produced and popular modern helicopters in the World with very efficient design becomes the first helicopter type in the game - helicopters with following registration numbers were added: N101M, RK-OZM, FL-TRE, SQ-RTW (Private), HV-LAF (MedEvac)

ATC

• Added 2 new Airports: Wellmerton City (JAWL/WLM) and Roulent Municipal (JART/RLN); Both serviced by Aster.
• Added full ATC service for Foxtrot (heliport) ground parkings; added
• Added new VFR points for Helicopters final approach PT-HA (HeliAlpha) and initial departure PT-HD (HeliDelta); added
• Changed Squawk codes issuing guidelines, from now on: VFR: Airplanes: ARR: 7200-7277; DEP: 7300-7377; Helicopters: ARR: 7100-7177; DEP: 7400-7477; IFR: RWY 17: ARR: 5200-5277; DEP: 2300-2377; RWY 35: ARR: 3500-3577; DEP: 1400-1477; changed
• Added proper ground communications of Service Vehicles to ATC(GND), including permission to cross taxiway, reports of taxiway vacated, starts and ends of Fire and Rescue and ATC shifts; added

Cameras

• Changed behavior of Object Cam when switching from one object to another (but Object Cam remains active camera) - from now on, the change of Info Window information will be immediate and precise; changed
• Changed default back to camera action for Object Cam - it now defaults to returning to overview camera (by pressing [Backspace] key at any time, while using Object Cam); changed

Sound

• Added new engine sounds for J358 aircraft, recorded from a real PW engine; thank you, Tony!
• Added new gear operation and flaps motors sounds for J358 aircraft, recorded in hangar, cleaned and remastered to create the full audial immersion for this aircraft type; thanks Tony and our best regards to Heinrich for allowing us to place mics in hangar during maintenance!
• Added new engine sounds for B409 helicopter, recorded from actual engine; blades spins and blades sound fade out on engine shutdown were recorded from other helicopter rotors and then digitally remastered into blended sound effects of engine operation; this technique will be used for all helicopter engine sounds from now on as it gives good results rendering blended rotor+engine sound very similar to the real thing;

User Interface

• Completely reworked CommBox - the new CommBox design allows for comfortable Comms-system usage that will suit various Players' UI-styles preference: CommBox can work in one of the following modes: 1) Unpinned-Normal: when a new radio comm message is broadcast over VHF band, a text message appears in corresponding frequency display tab and the CommBox remains fully opaque while Player's mouse is within its boundaries, once mouse cursor leaves the boundaries of CommBox, it will slowly fade to fully transparent for less cluttered UI; 2) Pinned Mode - the CommBox window stays always visible and fully opaque regardless of whether Player's mouse cursor is within its boundaries or elsewhere; 3) Minimized mode - after Player presses Minimize button - CommBox stays minimized (even when a new message is broadcast over a comm channel) until Player clicks small COMM button in lower-left corner of the screen (CommBox restore button) - for convenience COMM button starts flashing if there are new messages in CommBox that Player has not yet seen due to CommBox been minimized; Changed
• Added timestamp and frequency as well as color-coding based on station transmitting to each message on CommBox; Added
• Changed CommBox to tabbed layout for more convenient data management: the following tabs were added - ALL FREQs (displays all messages on all frequencies from all stations); ATIS (for Automated Terminal Information System messages), DELIVERY (clearance delivery frequency), GROUND (ground taxing, air-taxing of helicopters in heliport maneuvering area, service vehicles comms, emergency services ground movements, ATC shift changes etc.), TOWER (takeoff and landing clearances, visual circuits); APPROACH (IFR approaches and departures, VFR flight following); INTERCOMM (Player's avatar's - Airport General Manager's personal VHF radio frequency - to be used in later versions for important comms from various Airport facilities to the Player); how tabs work: if a Player elects to keep ALL FREQs tab open - there are no flashing tabs, all messages are displayed in this tab (newest on top), color-coding and frequency are used to easily distinguish one station from another (this mode is default for a new game and resembles having VHF band scanner at your disposal; if Player switches to any other tab - say APPROACH - he or she will only see messages related to this frequency - however, when a new message is broadcast (say on TOWER frequency), the corresponding tab will start flashing, indicating that it contains new, unseen message(s) - upon switching to this tab (or ALL FREQs tab) - it will stop flashing; Changed
• Changed slightly location and size of Radar overlay in Main UI to look better with new CommBox; changed
• Changed slightly location of Time Skip control in Main UI to look better with new CommBox and shifted Radar overlay; changed
• Added logos for new airlines - Aster and MedEvac
• Fixed error in VFR arrival phase of flight description in Info Window for airplanes flying VFR arrivals; fixed
• Added gust component of wind display to Main UI status panel if gusts are at least 2 knots stronger than steady wind speed; added
• Added vehicles Info Window Display (standard Info Window as airplanes and helicopters show on mouse-over and statically in ObjectCam view); added
• Added color-coded differentiation to Info Window Display to help Player instantly understand what type of object information is shown about - traditional pale-yellow for airplanes, pale-orange for helicopters, light-gray for ground support vehicles, pale-green for airport facilities; added

Airport Master v. 0.2.4 Alpha released NOV 27, 2017

Private build for Closed Alpha Testers (CAT) group

• PC\Linux\Mac interoperability and compatibility & new optional multipass-shaders fon *Nix-builds. Details for CAT-group members only.

Airport Master Early Access Public v. 0.2.3 Alpha released OCT 31, 2017

Game workflow

• New mechanics for flight scheduling for all non-regular flights operators: when a new non-regular flight is scheduled, it's now scheduled as VFR if when the following conditions are met: 1) an aircraft can use general aviation ground parking stands (i.e. wingspan < 14m) and 2) flight arrival time is between 0800Z and 1700Z (daytime) and 3) meteorology conditions at the time of arrival are expected to be VMC; otherwise - flights are scheduled as IFR. For the return-flight, it is scheduled as VFR when the following conditions are met: 1) the arrival flight had been filed as VFR and 2) time of return flight departure falls between 0800Z and 1700Z (daytime) and 3) meteorology conditions at the time of departure are expected to be VMC; In all other cases IFR flight plan is filed (even if initial request by aircraft operator has been for VFR return flight). Note: in future versions government, law enforcement and Airforce Academy flights will be scheduled as SVFR if need arises to file VFR flight plan at night (still with regard to VMC meteorology conditions).
• Airforce Academy (airline code: ARF) can now operate both as regular and non-regular flights airline; this concerns both weekly and daily scheduling procedures;
• New game startup states now include VFR flights; changed
• Now flight scheduling and actual flight taking place are more distinguished: a flight plan filed to flight planning system does not necessarily mean a flight would happen as well as it does not mean that if the flight does not happen, it will result in rating change consequences for Player: a whole host of situations are now taken into account as to flight planning and actual flying: a) a flight has been scheduled but been canceled on operator's behalf (no rating change); b) a flight has been scheduled but Player canceled it (standard rating change as per airline master contract); c) a flight has been delayed but not canceled due to weather conditions prohibiting flight to take place on time (no rating change); d) a flight has been delayed by operator (no rating change); e) a flight has been delayed by Player (rating change due to this behavior of Player to be implemented in future versions); f) a flight has been scheduled but for some reason failed to comply with arrival\departure min\max time shift margins (e.g. an operator used that same aircraft to schedule a flight to some other airport than Player's and there it got delayed for any reason) - no rating change; e) flight scheduling on either Player's side or Operator's side ran into some obscure logical condition (e.g. a new arrival for the same physical aircraft but under other Flight Number somehow (bugs or erratic or intentionally interruptive behavior of a Player) got approved to be put on flight planning system while the aircraft is still physically in Player's airport (pending departure + flight time + whatever associated times of service) - no rating change, silent removal of conflicting 'rogue' flight data from flight planning system upon first regular check; added
• Changed how IFR departures and arrivals are handled internally: previously an operator was bound to request an IFR arrival\departure point and ATC was bound to provide routing to\from that point; from now on when filing a flight plan, an operator simply specifies To\From Airport and desired routing prior to or after operations in Player Airport TMA - that is fully sufficient for flight planning; on actual operation start ATC may elect to issue clearances to other routing points or vectors for IFR departure\arrival - this is a very important step towards future expansion of routes and airports and especially important for implementing real-world style operations of larger airliners; changed
• Changed how Non-Regular Flights flight plan filing works, from now on: no new flight plans will be filed starting 2200Z and until 0800Z time (during night hours), since the majority of private general aviation flights would now prefer VFR, and in accordance with common sense and realism, this is an obvious choice (note: a flight plan filed say at 2150Z for arrival at 0300Z and back flight at 0430Z will, of course, be processed and proposed to the Player for approval or denial; if approved it will be filed as night time IFR according to new mechanics); this change only affects new flight plans filed during night hours - there will be none, making night a less burdened, quieter time of day for Airport Manager; changed
• Raised precision of all Meter-to-Feet-to-Meter calculations for altitudes and flight levels - this becomes more important as variety of VFR traffics co-use terminal maneuvering area airspace; changed
• Added Heliport facility to the Airport - currently available at the start of new game but will become an upgrade item (requiring certain amount of funds, achievements and City Mayor's rating to be purchased). Heliport is added as a predicate of Helo operations coming in future versions;
• Added heliport lighting equipment (approach and pad lights, light masts) and configured them in accordance with standards;
• Added VFR arrivals and departures (full-scale VFR flights are now possible); Smaller aircraft scheduling flights to\from nearby airports will prefer VFR over IFR when visibility permits, thou some IFR flight plans by smaller aircraft will still be filed once in a while; helicopters (coming in future versions) will file VFR (and SVFR) flight plans;
• Changed: aircraft now take a little more time (from 3 to 7 seconds on average) to start taxing after receiving taxi clearance, making it look more natural as it takes time to check visually 'clear on left side' \ 'clear on right side' and release the parking brake; changed
• Fixed runway border lights used same rules for turning on and off as taxiway lights - changed to correct set of rules; fixed
• Fixed time-gap between 0700Z and 0800Z when under IMC, incorrect set of rules applied to runway and taxiway lights; changed to correct set of rules; fixed
• Fixed departures (smaller aircraft that don't require full ground service) not displaying pilot and pax thou those are onboard and reported to statistics module correctly; fixed

Aircraft

• Added new aircraft Zeccna Z205 Estateair (real-world prototype Cessna C206 Stationair) - single piston-engine prop, very popular as small cargo and charter airlines workhorse, featuring seating of six (or roomy cargo-space) and signature double-door to ease up loading. The following liveries are added: N1217P, DE-AFG, EC-ORM, RH-JWL, FE-VKX, N881L, LE-RCK (all privately owned);
• Tweaked pilot's taxi visual precision for VE58 type of aircraft for smoother following of taxi routes; tweak

ATC

• Added 3 new Airports: Suntown Regional (JASU/STR), Sharkole County Municipal (JKSC/SHR), Culfer Airfield (JACL/CUL); all three located to the North or North-East of Player's airport and use IFR SIDs\STARs via PAROM intersection and VFR point PT-N for TMA entry\exit;
• Added visual departure routes to VFR-traffic exit points: PN-N, PT-NE, PT-W, PT-SW, PT-E;
• Added visual arrival routes from VFR-traffic entry points: PN-N, PT-NE, PT-W, PT-SW, PT-E;
• Fixed ATC issuing incorrect altitude clearance for STARs\SIDs via MONET, LINTA and PAROM intersections (ATC neglected westbound\eastbound odd\even Flight Level rules); from now on: PAROM and LINTA clearances are: departures - FL110\FL130; arrivals - FL120/FL100; MONET clearances are: departures - FL100\FL120; arrivals - FL130/FL110; fixed
• Fully implemented ATC handoffs from APP to CTR on any of 4 conditions: a) aircraft reached designated point of standard instrument departure procedure (SID); b) aircraft reached VFR departure route point (or reported leaving TMA); c) aircraft reached maximum radar-control-distance; d) aircraft reached assigned Flight Level while flying a SID - in any of these cases, Approach controller hands the aircraft off to the Control\Center controller;
• Fixed aircraft not reading back taxi instructions to GND controller in some cases; fixed
• Fixed GND issuing taxi clearance from holding point HC3 to holding point HM2 via taxiway Charlie (now correctly via taxiways Charlie & Delta); fixed
• Fixed ATC phraseology when clearing an Aircraft for ILS approach (both APP and TWR); fixed
• Fixed ATC phraseology when being called on DEL frequency, Delivery responded with TWR callsign; fixed
• Fixed ATC not giving next frequency when transferring aircraft from DEL to GND; fixed
• Radar flight following mark now displays only TMA entry\exit point (instead of visual route name) for VFR arrivals and departures; changed
• Fixed Cleared altitude or FL not displayed on a flight strip after loading a saved game; fixed
• Changed default time on visual orbit left or right from 30 seconds to 1 minute for more realistic traffic separation on visual circuits and VFR arrivals entering downwind leg; note: IFR arrivals if assigned an Orbit on ILS maneuver by ATC - by default, still orbit for 30 seconds; changed
• Fixed Landing Clearance issued by Tower sometimes not appearing in Comm-Box; fixed
• Fixed (hopefully!) the rare occurrences of ground stand scheduling for Flight School aircraft when a Player could cause any other parking stand assignment than G7 & G8, which in turn caused pesky bug with completed time table operation by a Flight School aircraft to stay persistently on Flight Schedule Management screen; hopefully fixed
• Added differentiation between clearing VFR arrivals for visual circuit altitude (1000ft) and issuing a 'maintain 1000 ft' resolution to aircraft currently already on visual circuit (local training flights and VFR go-arounds); added

Visual enhancements

• Added 3 new types of 5-storey houses to the city;
• Added 3 new advertising posters to Pax Terminal automatic ad-changer displays;
• Added new detail layers to MTMLBs covering airport area, mostly grass underlay details, occasional dirt and nature details;
• Added new set of MTMLBs covering area next to existing runway, where a new runway (purchasable as mid-game upgrade) will be situated; two other sets of MTMLBs (one covering Second Pax Terminal area and the other one, covering city-side area were tested but not included in this update as both require more compatibility work with regard to coming auto-generated (autogen) blocks and streets of buildings, trees and other non-systematic detail objects);
• Added new experimental shader for MTMLBs - depending on GPU load it may use double pass to render ground details MTMLBs in order to eliminate z-buffer flicker; added; experimental
• Terrain shader has been modified to work seamlessly with experimental MTMLBs shader both in single-pass mode and double-pass mode; changed; experimental

Cameras

• Changed the way Selected Object Camera treats minimum and maximum distances for each object type: instead of old uniform formula for all types of aircraft (wingspan/2+5m for MIN and MIN+35m for MAX values), which was uniform alright but did influence the fact that the larger aircraft gets, the more it's subjective scale in Player's eyes would seem distorted); the new formula takes wingspan groups into account allowing for better perceived MIN and MAX distances; changed
• Tweaked MIN and MAX distance for vehicle object type when Player selects Object Camera; tweaked
• Fixed the location of Object Camera Reference Point on all aircraft of type D170; as a configuration error, the reference point was shifted too far front, making the rotation of Object Camera uneven; fixed; Thanks go to Mathew Ellison for noticing this bug and reporting it!

User Interface

• Changed how Flight Schedule gets updated when an operation completes: previously Flight Schedule window was updating in sync with Airport Time Table Displays, so when a flight arrived at the stand or left TMA, the actual update of both would happen with regular 5 minute intervals - thou this behavior is realistic for Airport Time Table Displays it is not for Flight Schedule - so now: once an operation completes the data of arrived\departed flight stays on Time Table Displays for 5 minutes, but gets instantly removed from Flight Schedule; changed
• Added new flight phase descriptions displayed in InfoWindow for VFR arrivals and departures; added
• Changed flight phase descriptions displayed in InfoWindow for IFR departures and arrivals to display actual STAR\SID instead of associated intersection; changed
• Added current balance display to all management UI windows, where purchases are possible, namely: Airport Administration, FBO, Flight School, Electric Power Management, Meteorology Office, Vending Machines Management, Cafeteria, as per multiple Player requests; added
• Changed balance display format: leading zeroes display is now optional; grouping by thousands digits added;
• Added option to display or hide leading zeros in balance display to settings window;
• Fixed Flight Schedule Management Screen information update performance issue caused by non-optimal 'Update Slot' calls; this may have resulted in some slots that has already been updated to receive a command to update data another time - thou not critical and rarely encountered, this bug could have caused a slowdown when updating Flight Scheduling Screen; fixed
• Added two options, 'Display Airline Rating increase notifications' and 'Display Airline Rating decrease notifications' to Airlines Relations Management tab of Airport Administration Screen: if checked - each time a corresponding Airline Rating change occurs (increase or decrease) a notification is displayed, clicking it switches Player to Airlines Relations Management screen; this way each Player can decide whether they want such notifications displayed or not; added
• Fixed Airlines Ratings numbers roundup to one digit (one tenth of a per cent) in all screens displaying Airlines Ratings; fixed
• Changed layout of Flight School student view bar for better readability; changed
• Added %% of completion of Theoretical, Practical and Solo Flying courses with color coding of completion progress; added
• Fixed actual flight hours of a Flight School student were displayed incorrectly (multiple digits after comma), now fixed to standard e.g. 13.1h; fixed
• Fixed some notifications not switching to corresponding tab in Airport Administration UI when Player clicked notification, thou opening the Admin UI itself, no tab change happened; fixed
• Added new game main menu backgrounds;
• Added game main menu animations;
• Added animation to STICLI Games logo; clicking the logo now opens our website
• Changed scrolling credits view screen to close and return to game main menu on any key or mouse button press, not just [ESC]-key (as it was before); changed
• New color coding of ATC Flight Strips now distinguishes IFR and VFR departures and arrivals (with VFR ops being slightly dimmer colors of IFR counterparts); also changed Missed Approach flight strip to brighter 'pale-red' color; also changed ground ops and ground service flight strip colors to define commonality of ground ops; changed
• Changed Help Screen #3 to reflect new color-coding of ATC Flight Strips; changed

Sound

• Added new engine sounds for Z205 aircraft, recorded from a real Lycoming TSIO-540 engine; thanks Tony!
• Changed engine sounds for V28A aircraft, previously it used generic PT-6 sounds making sound clearly unlike the real-world counterpart, but now that we've got a possibility to record live sounds from vintage hangar-stored Archer with Lycoming O-360 engine, VE28 finally gets its real-world engine sounds; changed
• Changed engine sounds for ZN17 aircraft - recorded from Lycoming O-360-A4 engine after restoring - one can hear the definite difference of later two; thanks Tony!
• Tweaked audibility zones ranges of all nature ambient sounds for better sound blending of overlapping ambient sounds; tweak
• Crickets and cicadas ambient sounds zones located in Heliport area are now only working when Heliport upgrade is not yet purchased by Player; once Heliport upgrade is purchased, cricets and cicadas move further out to the east; changed

Airport Master Early Access Public v. 0.2.2 Alpha released SEP 11, 2017

Game workflow

• Changed how flight scheduling works: from now on: Regular Flights (Airlines) add flight plans to flight schedule as per agreed Airline Master Contract; Non-Regular flights add flight plans only via Player's input (each new proposed flight is to be accommodated and approved by Player); each and every flight (regardless, regular or non-regular) that upon being filed interfere with currently allocated time slots (and\or ground parking stands allocation) requires Player's input to resolve the conflicting slots. Note: essentially Airline Master Contract penalties apply here in case that Player elects to resolve conflicting slots by moving regular flight's slot from previously agreed allocation; if the opposite way to resolve conflicting slots is elected by Player (e.g. move non-regular flight's slot and preserve the regular flight's one) in most cases, this will result in no penalties (other than cases when non-regular flight's slot is moved too far away from initially requested). For such cases, Player may elect to disapprove a planned flight of non-regular operator taking standard rating penalty. Also note: no Time Skip operations are possible if there is at least one non-allocated flight waiting approval\disapproval of a filed flight plan at any given moment.
• Changed how initial startup state templates work; now more elegant implementation compatible with new flight scheduling system is used;
• Added new (4-th) initial startup state template;
• Added Airport Maintenance Center (and waste processing facility) buildings and equipment to the airport;
• Changed mechanics of waste removal from aircraft: now upon requesting cleaning & maintenance, a maintenance vehicle arrives to stand of aircraft being serviced, removes the waste in batches of 8 units (this refers to liters of liquid waste, used food trays, etc), performs interior cleaning (as a separate operation), completes servicing at stand, proceeds to Airport Maintenance Center, unloads waste at the waste processing area, replenishes cleaning supplies, then proceeds back via security checkpoint to service vehicles parking; the UI for Maintenance Center will become available in future versions;
• Changed mechanics of catering delivery onboard aircraft: now upon requesting catering, a catering vehicle arrives to stand of aircraft being serviced, delivers food rations onboard, proceeds to AeroDelish Catering Building, replenishes food rations supply, then proceeds back to service vehicles parking; the UI for managing Catering Facility will become available in future versions;
• Added 3 new solar-panel blocks: 2 x 2kW roof diagonal blocks added to Airport Maintenance Center roof, 1 x 2kW PVB added to Fire and Rescue Station building roof;
• Added and configured power consumption to Airport Maintenance Center;
• Increased minimum interval for scheduling of non-regular flights from 10 minutes (since last scheduled) to 35 minutes - a temporary measure to ease workload on Players who do not purchase 'Fuel Transfer Rate' FBO upgrade early in game and get jam-locked airport due to high frequency of non-regular flights; this feature will still be available as a late gameplay upgrade (hiring a schedule manager) and will not affect the manual scheduling of flights performed by Player using the new scheduling system; changed;
• Reduced sale probability for all Vending Machines, especially not upgraded, especially after the machine has recently performed a sale - the resulting re-balance should render about 30% less frequent sales by each Vending Machine; upgrades improve this stat by a percent of the corrected re-balanced value; changed;
• Fixed Departures on Airport Time Table not updating; fixed
• Changed how Airlines' Rating of Player's Airport changes: instead of legacy system, which re-calculated Airlines' ratings once a game day, the new system is 100% dynamic, and displays updated ratings as they change; a notification is also displayed; Changed
• Fixed very rarely manifesting bug with Flight School student taking theory class under some circumstances being reported by Flight School both as taking theory class and as flying a training flight - this bug caused an exception breaking further play; We express our gratitude to Airport Master player - maxmilan76 for catching this bug and sending us his save-file along with very detailed description of circumstances under which it manifested itself. Thank you!; fixed
• Flight School students initial capacity increased from 10 to 13, theory class capacity increased from 6 to 8; in future versions this will become an upgradeable option; changed
• Fixed Time Skip mechanics bug resulting in Time Skip control becoming visible under certain rare conditions when ATC first reported that it has no actually executing operations and then once Time Skip control became visible a new ATC op became active. This allowed for mixups with actual and scheduled times for operations. Currently Time Skip control will become disabled (if it was enabled but a new ATC op began at that moment); fixed
• Added Aircraft Atlas, a centralized aircraft data repository, significantly optimizing the way various aircraft data (including physics-engine parameters, UI data, data used in intermediate processing etc.) being processed by the game engine - instead of storing aircraft related data in a variety of localized data spots, it is now centralized, has its own high-priority processing thread which leads to overall performance increase with any element of the game world depending on getting aircraft data;
• Fixed Maintenance Vehicles reporting removed 1 unit of waste instead of 1 pack of waste (8 units) both to Aircraft being serviced and to ground vehicles management causing erroneous display of waste removed in Aircraft Info Window and incorrect value in Statistics (thou waste was removed correctly and all charges\costs involved were also calculated correctly); fixed
• Maintenance Vehicles now display work progress indicators (0-100%) during all three activities, namely: cleaning airplane (waste removal), maintenance procedure, dumping of waste at maintenance center and refill of cleaning supplies; changed
• Added standard work progress indicator (0-100%) to Catering Vehicles, Pax Mini Buses, Baggage Carts, Fuel Trucks; added
• Added Follow Me \ Administration vehicles apron operations. Currently implemented: Apron Check (ATC may call for Apron\Taxiways visual checkup by Follow Me car once in a while at own discretion); Personnel Transfer between Control Tower and Admin Building; added
• Added Fire & Rescue vehicles apron operations. Currently Emergency Fire Engine at main Apron shift changes take place roughly every 2,5 hours game time during day hours and roughly every 4 hours at night;
• Added 37 new ground vehicles routes for Airport Vehicles in Admin\Maintenance area, Fire & Rescue Station area, Apron fire truck emergency parking area, Control Tower area
• Added event-driven barrier-gates operation to Security checkpoint located between Apron and Admin Building / Maintenance Center areas: every car passing in and out of Apron now must stop at Security checkpoint, obtain permission to proceed from Airport Security, only after that corresponding barrier-gate opens; added
• Changed parking stands assignment for FlightsCool aircraft: now stands G7 and G8 are always reserved for Flight School aircraft; changed
• Removed performance analyzer from Passenger Terminal doors; previously a special tool was attached to each of 4 doors to visually demonstrate memory leaks by causing doors to 'run away' from door frames - this has now been replaced by far more sophisticated performance analyzer and reporter tool; changed;
• Redesigned Passenger Terminal automatic doors, new optimized open\close routines, dispatch by Pax-bus, dispatch by Passengers arriving to terminal from City; darker glass material; changed;

Aircraft

• Added new aircraft Poggio Davanti D170 E (real-world prototype Piaggio Avanti D180 II) - the fastest commercial twin-turboprop in the World utilizing the unusual pusher-prop (duck) scheme, capable of high-altitude cruise at speeds comparable (and sometimes exceeding) those of business-jets, fuel-efficient, innovative and also the first truly commercially successful pusher-prop aircraft. The following liveries are added: N-210LS, BA-SLT, M-ASZO, GE-RLJ, N-134V (all privately owned);
• Implemented 3-section flaps (to be used later on larger aircraft and with D170's front wing coordinated flaps);
• Changed aircraft brief description, displayed in Info Window for the following aircraft types: CT55 (fixed typos, shorter description), L20V (fixed typos), PC13 (fixed typos), E30P (shorter description), P05T (shorter description), V28A (shorter description), RJ5X (longer description, fixed typos), ZN17 (longer description), VE58 (shorter description); changed;

Visual enhancements

• Implemented new FPS-effective Physically-Based Subpixel Lighting Model on some ground surfaces in and around the Airport;
• Added new computation maps (used by new PBSLM-lighting model) to various surfaces in and around the Airport;
• Implemented new shader pass batching \ caching for use with new PBSLM-lighting model;
• Added Player-configurable Details Draw Distance parameter to graphics sub-engine: as most flight environment simulations, our sub-engine relies on draw distances to balance FPS-loads on Player's GPU. Previously, it used single setting optimized at the game design time to fit most GPU configurations, however we think it would be appropriate to allow Players with decent modern GPUs to be able to set Details Draw Distance farther while Players with older graphics cards, integrated video boards or simply running a weak PC configuration may benefit from setting closer Details Draw Distance. Note: this parameter explicitly affects FPS, as we use many detailed objects with draw distances crossing at various possible combinations and we use more and more such objects with each new version - so a sound advice: if you're happy how your game looks - leave this parameter at Normal (Default), you may as well play with it to match your GPU-performance on the go - the slider in Settings menu affects the Details Draw Distance changes immediately;
• Added several Wind Generator Farms, consisting of groups of typical modern wind power generators - 5-10mW with rotor diameters of about 110m and total height on towers of about 150m; each wind generator is accurately modeled and all visible wind phenomena are simulated - those 'wind farms' allow for better visual immersion as they slowly rotate into wind, speed up and slow down rotors depending on wind speed etc. - 2 farms are installed in proximity of each runway end's ILS glidepath entry points making a nice live view on final approach, some windfarms are located on mountain ridges and can be visible on IFR departures and arrivals; additionally Wind Farms will become a part of gameplay when Helicopter operations are implemented;
• Added Soccer Stadium to the city, visible when watching aircraft on final approach runway 17 or go-around runway 35; in future versions, Stadium will become one of the venues generating passenger ops demand;
• Added parking lot in front of Passenger Terminal as a part of city side details enhancement (road traffic - buses and automobiles will be added in future versions);
• Added bi-directional x3 lanes road part serving as entry-exit road to Passenger Terminal area from M20 highway (to be added in future versions);
• Added bus stops at the airport and several key city locations;
• Added benches outside Passenger Terminal at city side;
• Added baggage carts inside and outside Passenger terminal;
• Added several types of highway and road signs to the roads nearest to the Airport;
• Changed asphalt textures of Power Substation and StoreStar Warehouses to new, compatible with subpixel lighting shader; changed

Sound

• Added new engine sounds for D170 aircraft, recorded from a real PT-6 engine (from another aircraft) and slightly re-mastered to implement signature 5 blades prop swoosh sounds at low-RPM prop revolutions;

User Interface

• Added Flight Scheduling UI Screen (available via button on main UI buttons panel or by pressing F5 on keyboard); Each day's Flight Schedule consists of 24 1-hour allocation blocks, each consisting of 12 5-minutes spanned slots (as IRL);
• Improved Facilities and Businesses tabs in Airport Administration UI: new large buttons with images corresponding to each manageable item, easily readable large headers and brief description texts added;
• Fixed mouse cursor changing to hand-cursor over wrong click-areas due to incorrect order of 3D and UI elements when camera was in the following management screens: Airport Administration, FBO: Fuel, Flight School, Meteorology; fixed
• Re-designed in-game Settings window: now it is split into Visual, Audio and Interface sections in a more orderly fashion;
• Added Fullscreen\Windowed mode toggle button to in-game Settings window;
• Added Details Draw Distance control slider to Visual section of in-game Settings window (read more on how Dynamic Details Draw Distance works in Visual Enhancements section of this changelog); the slider is liked directly to graphics sub-engine, so all changes take effect as Player moves the slider; default and recommended setting is Normal (feel free to play with it to match your GPU performance);
• Added three new help screens to Help and Knowledgebase: #5 - definition and explanation of IMC and VMC, IFR, VFR and SVFR; #6 - International Radiotelephony Phraseology and help on ATC comm-box and two-way communications explanations; #7 - flight scheduling principles of operation and tips for efficient Flight Scheduling;
• Fixed bug with mouse-clicks going through the in-game menu and settings window overlays if an aircraft is visible right under an overlay; fixed
• Redesigned in-game menu overlay for more crisp and volumetric look;
• Changed some descriptions of current aircraft states, displayed in Aircraft Info Window during some stages of flight and ground operations; changed
• Fixed Average Airlines Rating not updating correctly in GM tab of Airport Administration screen; fixed
• Added Average Airlines Rating display + date and timestamp of latest ratings update to Airlines tab of Airport Administration screen;

Airport Master Early Access Public v. 0.2.1.1 Alpha Service Update released JUN 22, 2017

This is a service mini-update. It fixes two gameplay-critical bugs found by Airport Master players after the release of v.0.2.1a. Savegames created in 0.2.1a are readable\usable in 0.2.1.1a.

Game workflow

• Added computation maps for several surfaces around airport in preparation to adopt the new Physically-Based Subpixel Lighting Model to be introduced in v.0.2.2a
• Fixed TimeSkip's dayskip bug that may have caused several critical game lockups with arriving aircraft - this non-regular bug manifested itself as Game Day suddenly changing from 1 to 8 (also Monday, but a week in the future) during a Time Skip operation initiated by Player, which in turn caused the arrivals schedule to break badly on actual day 1 - this has been fixed (hopefully for good!) and a protection against this type of bug's been introduced; fixed; thanks go to Christophe Lemaire for quickly letting us know of this bug in his playthrough and sending us his savegame files for us to analyze!
• Fixed bug with Chronometer on aircraft performing 'visual orbit left', 'visual orbit right' and 'orbit on localizer' on ATC request: if the game was saved while aircraft was flying an orbit and then the game was reloaded the pilot's Chronometer would have never been re-started and thus the plane would fly out of game world eventually depleting fuel reserves; fixed; thanks go to Lei Fo Schermimann for catching this one and for providing us with his saved game file for analysis!
• Fixed solar panels blocks, installed by Player on Passenger Terminal roof being displaced vertically by 1ft at the moment of installation and thus elements of these PVBs protruding the roof into visible area of passenger lounge; fixed

User Interface

• Fixed Radar overlay in Main UI looking dim\dark after sundown; fixed
• Fixed daily Salaries payout value not shown until Player presses any Department's 'Info' button; fixed

Airport Master Early Access Public v. 0.2.1 Alpha released JUN 19, 2017

Game workflow

• Added Salaries mechanics to the game - very important step towards planned game economy model: previously each facility or business on Airport property had its own accounting for salaries (and paid those at 1750Z daily) - this now changes to centralized accounting: from this version on each facility or business employing workforce simply reports to Airport Administration the job in question, employee data and salary (including promotions & demotions - both as a result of Player's direct decision to promote\demote an employee and as a part of purchased upgrade: e.g. when Cafeteria 'Skill of Cooks' upgrade is purchased by Player, Current Cooks salaries increase etc.);
• The following departments within Workforce structure of Player's Airport are now implemented: Airport Administration Staff, Air Traffic Control, Baggage Handling, Food Processing, Drivers, Fixed-Base Operator: Refueling Operations, Fixed-Base Operator: Repair and Maintenance Hangars, Fire & Rescue Staff, Flight School Staff, Airport Maintenance and Engineering Staff, Meteorology Office Personnel, Airport Security Department, Passenger Terminal Staff;
• Upon starting a new game, the minimal workforce required to run the Airport is generated according to startup templates with salaries randomized within certain economy balancing limits; currently about 110 staff positions are manned when player starts a new game; further on, the Player will be able to fire\hire\promote\demote staff, currently only Hire mechanics is implemented; Note: the balance of salaries is very preliminary and does not depict what will be the final balance of salaries, currently the economy is balanced so that Salaries have a certain impact on Airport growth (taking into account that say Player already pays Maintenance hangar salaries, but no income mechanics for servicing aircrafts (Form-A and Form-B) are yet implemented) - so basically, at the moment the burden of paying daily salaries should not generate massive expenses Player would need to counteract with more profitable business, but that will definitely become the case, once the economy model is fully implemented, weighted and balanced; Also note: until the moment that Mayor's subsidies (quests) are fully implemented, we are not planning to raise the overall burden of Salary expenses to somewhat 'realistic' level, but once the Mayor subsidies are there - we'll do thorough re-balancing both as to number of employees required by each department and minimum salaries.
• Added Radar overlay popup on pressing and holding R key on keyboard (available in any free view camera);
• Added new (7th) Airline - AirForce (prefix: ARF); Despite the fact that no military actions will be depicted in game, AirForce training exercises and training flights to Player's airport will occur regularly; this new Airline being a government-specific institution will have more strict requirements as of service quality, it's rating will be harder to earn, easier to lose, but the impact on City Mayor's rating (which in turn means more subsidies) will be higher;
• Added electric power generation using photovoltaic panels; Solar panels generate realistic amounts of power taking into account sunlight coverage, time of day, clouds coverage; Airport electric power consumption is now calculated as follows: accumulated daily power usage value minus generated daily power value; upon payment (once a day) only said amount of power (actually used minus generated on site) is now to be paid for
• Modified solar panels power output calculation algorithm to depend on following: angle of Sun over horizon line, angle of Sun relative to a solar panel, cloud coverage, air density; the new algorithm creates very accurate simulation of solar panels power output affected by Sun visibility; ready for integration with weather engine
• Added solar panel blocks raging in mean power output from 2 kW to 10 kW to the following buildings' roofs: Administration Building (single 2 kW block); Passenger Terminal (double 5 kW block available as a single 10 kW upgrade + single 7 kW block); Flight School (single 2 kW block);
• Solar panel blocks at Power Substation split into three 3,5kW blocks (lower, middle and higher)- middle block is available at new game start (free), other blocks can be purchased and installed by Player
• Improved algorithm estimating average power usage during Time Skips - the new version takes into account the average of generated and used electric power, the average of photovoltaic elements Sun coverage, the actual amount of time Sun has been powering the solar panels during Time Skip phase and the average cloud coverage during that time (as the averaging data gets accumulated during play, the estimation of power used and generated during a Time Skip is naturally becoming more and more precise);
• Added support for cross-platform software identification (for compatibility with MacOS)
• All static lights have been re-calculated and re-baked using new optimized routine
• Nav, Strobe & Beacon lights on all aircraft in game changed to new version, resulting in great FPS economy on processing massive numbers of lights - the same improvement that previously been undertaken for landing and taxi lights of all aircraft in game - a big step towards even more dynamic lights in game world! Note: GPUs 3 years old and older will see moderate FPS increase; newer GPUs will see considerable FPS increase, especially when many dynamic lights are on simultaneously.
• Migrated our sub-engine graphics handling to newer version for compatibility with Unity 5.6\Unity 2017.1' new ways to handle fullscreen and post-processing effects

Aircraft

• Added new aircraft type Vertical Noble J58 (VE58) (real-life prototype Beechcraft Baron G58), the newest version of legendary twin-prop. The following liveries were added: N-445D (this aircraft will be used in game as ILS calibration\flying laboratory service in future versions, private registration), N-445D, FS-ODR, N-778G, LE-AMR (all privately owned), DY-DUN (AirForce Flight Academy training aircraft)
• Added new livery for V28A - FP-BHH (privately owned)
• Fixed Landing lights on PC13 aircraft with registration number ED-KTC not operating correctly

ATC

• Added intersection PAROM (North IFR arrivals and departures);
• Added the following STARs: PAROM 2A (for runway 17), PAROM 1B (for runway 35); added the following SIDs: PAROM 3V (out of runway 17), PAROM 5Y (out of runway 35)
• Added VFR point PT-NE, for North-Eastern VFR operations
• Added new airport - Mulhouse Airbase, a military-only airfield, operating 24x7 and situated 382nm northern of Player's airport
• Fixed annoying (and randomly manifesting) bug when an arriving flight would stalk and look like it's starting all over and over and over again - actually the thing was that upon certain conditions, ATC for some weird reason would consider recurring flights by regular Airlines (TravelAir, FongAir, SkyFly - these three Airlines were affected) that are scheduled for 7+ days later (1 week difference in flight date) to come on actual schedule as thou they were planned for the same day - we have found and isolated the cause (finally!) and made sure the Slot Coordinator at ATC never makes such an error again ) This was a pretty critical bug, sometimes causing the entire game to become locked and further unplayable; fixed

Facilities

• Added water reservoir tower next to Fire and Rescue station

Vegetation

• Some tropical plants and trees added to high-detail layer of vegetation (currently testing the performance, some may be included in 'Normal' vegetation density setting

Sounds

• New real-world engines sounds for Vertical Noble J58 aircraft (thanks, Tony!) recorded again in very high quality with almost zero rogue noise on a 58 with Continental IO-550 engine with dual directional microphones, remastered in Stereo with dual channel input. Very distinctively sounding engine!

User Interface

• Added Salaries tab to Airport Administration UI, left part lists all the departments of the Airport along with analytical data: the number of employees, total monthly salaries per each department (along with bar-graphs visualizing the proportion of workforce expenses among departments; each department data block has an 'Info' button; upon pressing said button, all current employees of a department are listed in the right part of the tab (scrollable list), currently providing the following data: type of job occupied, name, job name, workplace, monthly salary. Should Player want to switch between monthly salaries view and daily wages view, he or she may press and hold [ALT] key on keyboard and while holding it, the daily wages display mode is on; in future versions the arrows will appear next to the amount paid allowing for Salary increase\decrease and a meter, displaying Employee's happiness (please note: all HR-related perks' bonuses apply here - e.g. the 'Appealing Looks' perk will render in 10% lower salaries for the gender opposite to that of Player's avatar (Airport General Manager) to keep employee at the same level of happiness (i.e. say an office staff Female employee has a margin of happiness starting to go down at $850\mo salary, if the GM has selected a Male avatar and 'Appealing Looks' perk when starting the game, then the margin moves down to $765\mo - this is just an example of how this mechanics will work in new Salaries UI - it is also possible that a special small icon indicating that a perk affects salary may appear next to affected employees in future versions; the lower bar of Salaries tab displays total number of jobs, total monthly expenses on Salaries, average daily wage for Airport and the most important value to keep an eye on - the amount to be paid today at 1750Z time.
• Added Radar overlay to main UI - this is an enlarged version of the radar screen as can be seen in Control Tower view, available while in either of the following views (Airport Overview, Object View Camera, Passenger Terminal view and General Manager's office view); in order to bring up the Radar overlay into view, the Player should hold R key on keyboard pressed; once R key is released, the Radar overlay is closed; this is a convenience option allowing Player to have a quick glance on radar screen when needed, without having to switch to Tower view;
• Added tabbed UI to help screen;
• Quick Help screen expanded to become Help and Airport Management Knowledgebase; with this step we start adding more in-depth aviation-related and airport management related knowledge data for Players to learn or use as a reference when playing the game
• Added screen #4 to Help and Airport Management Knowledgebase - Understanding Radar Readout, which contains a brief info on how radar systems work in real world and in game, clarifies the meaning and usage of elements displayed on radar screen and provides information on reading and understanding aircraft labels
• Fixed 'Total Meals Ordered' instead of 'Total Drinks Ordered' in statistics display; the statistical values were correct, stat parameter name was wrong; fixed
• Added display of next flight operation for all idle aircraft on ground right in its InfoWindow (no need to check the weekly schedule to get this info); this displays type of operation, flight rules, flight number, day and time for next upcoming op; note: Flight School aircraft only have flight plans filed after Flight School opening hours (9:00) - so after daily flights end for Flight School aircraft and before the next day's Flight School Daily Roster Planning takes places, no info on next flight op will be available (e.g. at night); all other operators should have their flight plans filed long before their aircraft arrive at Player's airport, so such information theoretically should always be available for all Airlines and Private aircraft;
• Added 'Power used today' and 'Power generated today' to Electric Power Management UI (see Game workflow section for details on changes in Electric Power Management system);
• Added 7 new statistics parameters to statistics display screen
• Added new game tips to game loading screen

Airport Master Early Access Public v. 0.2.0 Alpha released APR 25, 2017

Game workflow

• Added Airport General Manager's office: available for preview when personalizing Player character at the beginning of a new game and fully walkable\usable in game
• Added prototype Avatar system, currently 8 male and 8 female avatars are available (note: the avatar system is very preliminary - currently it features pre-rendered mid-poly faces created by an open-source avatar system, the system itself is not in the game yet as the final decision whether this avatar system or other 3D dynamic avatar system will be used in final product is not yet taken)
• Added character name, gender, appearance, job background and perks selection to Character Selection screen available at the beginning of a new game. Persona job background and perks affect various character bonuses in game (such as -10% discount on all businesses upgrades or 10% mitigation of airline's rating of their flight being serviced (this works both ways - if a flight was serviced on time and with fair pricing on fuel\catering\etc - the character having selected such perk receives +10% to the value of changed airline rating (like +4,4% change instead of +4% change) and if the flight was serviced poorly and\or at high pricing per fuel\catering\etc - the rating drop with airline is mitigated by 10% (like instead of -5% rating changes by -4,5%)
• Added 5 career backgrounds and 5 GM specialties (perks) to choose from when creating a character on new game start. Player can have active bonus from 1 career background and 1 specialty (perk) Note: not all bonuses work currently, some do, some await integration with more in-depth economy game mechanics to be gradually introduced in v-v 0.2.1a & 0.2.2a
• Added Statistics module that accumulates game stats on all aspects of airport life - from number of meals and drinks served in Cafeteria to Runway operations per day, IFR and VFR clearances issued, management decisions etc. etc. Currently more than 40 statistical parameters are monitored and calculated in real time; in future versions the list of statistical parameters will be further extended to over 150+ and player achievements and City Mayor's tasks (quests in Career mode) will base upon this statistical data
• Cafeteria workflow changed: income now is generated upon customer making an order (not finishing eating his meal) for better precision on Time Skip approximations; cost of ingredients is deducted by cook at the completion of cooking now;
• Cafeteria orders allow for various types of order type (e.g. Drink only, Drink+Meal, Drink+2 Meals etc);
• Cafeteria now correctly accounts for orders placed and served during Time Skip interval; immediately after Time Skip is complete, probability of new order being placed is increased; same is true for the night-time break period (currently 3am - 5am) at the Cafeteria coming to an end - to simulate (with high probability) customers waiting for Cafe to re-open
• Upgrading level of skill of Cafeteria cooks now not just broadens the menu but also results in salary raise to already hired cooks and cooks hired after skill level upgrade(s)
• Fixed Cafeteria 'Number of tables' upgrade enabling 4th table prematurely
• Surveillance radar is now fully operational and provides accurate primary (radar sweep) and secondary (ADS-C\B\S transponder readback) data on screen;
• Radar display unit installed in Control Tower, providing large display for radar data; the model is a replica of last generation dedicated radar displays (some are still in use around the World, yet many are now replaced by common 16:9 digital monitors)
• Added Ground Power Units (GPUs) on A stands - currently this is purely eye-candy, but in future versions Player will be able to choose between allowing prolonged onboard Auxiliary Power Units (APU) operations (save money on installing GPUs vs higher noise factor) or installing GPUs on larger aircraft parking stands (and thus reducing Noise pollution by allowing only limited time onboard APU operation)
• Fixed incorrect bug in Initial Game Start State #3, which caused F-ISHR aircraft to file flight plan for arrival and departure at the same time, which caused ATC logics lockup, when new game started from State#3; now fixed - in future versions, the entire concept of 'New Game Start States' will be replaced by fully-automated, error-proof algorithm with virtually indefinite variability of initial New Game Start state

Aircraft

• Added new aircraft type Canonnier Contender CT-550 (CT55) (real-life prototype Bombardier Challenger CL-650), the latest version of a very popular large private\corporate jet famous for its very roomy interior and intercontinental range. The following liveries were added: HV-JRS (a medevac aircraft, with livery commemorating the amazing Swiss medevac air service, thou in game it's considered a Private aircraft for the sakes of logics), KO-FXV, OE-LUT, N6258R, MT-ZUL (all privately owned)
• Fixed very rare yet very serious bug when an aircraft that has executed missed approach, then landed, taxied to the parking, then would not correctly notify ATC of required services
• Added full support for thrust reversers. As we gradually move towards including larger and larger aircraft in the game, with inclusion of CT55 (that would absolutely need to use thrust reversers to stop on Appleton airport 1300m runway) we are introducing thrust reversers. Reversers operate on very realistic basis: deployment and retraction times are configurable for each type of thrust reverser as well as spooling time; all existing types of thrust-reversers (target-type, clam-shell and cold-stream\bypass) are supported; the crew utilizes thrust reversers (if aircraft is equipped) from firm touchdown of main and front landing gear to about 40knots landing roll speed. Noise-levels produced by operation of various types of thrust reversers are also simulated.

ATC

• Fixed very rare and dangerous bug that would allow ATC to make Time Skip possible while aircraft that has previously been marked as going around (executing missed approach) would not request ground service; this may have led to dramatic delays in service and thus inadvertent dramatic lowering of Player's airport rating with aircraft owner airline - this is now fixed!
• Tower now gives wind direction, speed and gust component in takeoff and landing clearances correctly
• Intersection MONET repositioned further to the East; hence: STARs: MONET 8Y and MONET 3B changed, SIDSs: MONET 1D and MONET 5C changed;
• Overall times for arrivals to complete STARs from MONET and LINTA are now similar, allowing for more tense ATC workload when arrivals from both of these intersections are cleared at roughly the same time slots
• Following TMA entry\exit points for VFR flights added: PT-W (west entry\exit point of TMA), PT-E (east entry\exit point of TMA), PT-SW (south-west entry\exit point of TMA), PT-N (south entry\exit point of TMA) - these are the first VFR routing points added, in further versions PT-NW will also be added alongside with VFR points for helicopters via City area
• Changed range at which APP hands off departing IFR traffic to CTR (important for aircraft climbing with smaller gradient) from 13 km radar-range to 17km radar-range; note: if aircraft reaches handoff flight level (e.g. FL120 for departures via LINTA intersection) sooner than it flies the entire SID or sooner than handoff-by-radar-distance rule applies, the aircraft is immediately handed off to Control (CTR)

Vehicles

• Fixed very very unlikely to manifest bug, when game is saved while a vehicle driver starts the engine (about 3 seconds all in all) - the data on vehicle state was saved incorrectly (indicated that the engine is not running, which in turn caused the vehicle in question, once such savegame is loaded, to stay idle indefinitely and not driving) - this is fixed. Now if the save game procedure captures such rare moment, on loading the 'Engine is being started' state is recognized and as a result, the vehicle will not get into indefinitely idle state. Moreover, a safeguard against such rarely-manifesting logics flaws was installed - now if the vehicle driver has the route to go and for some reason other than that drive path is obscured by some other object, he will start the engine and continue towards target on his path.

Meteo

• Wind direction, speed and gust component (if more than 5 kts of wind speed component) are now correctly shown both in METAR and in decoded METAR

Sounds

• New real-world engines sounds for our new CT55 aircraft (huge thanks to Tony who was able to record very clear and distinctive sound of GE CF34-3B engine on real CL604 starting up, idle thrust, revving up and down and shutdown just outside maintenance hangar on a quiet day!!!) - the new sound set for CT55 sounds great!
• Sound spread ranges for all types of aircraft re-balanced again - the way it was in 0.1.9a was pretty good, but we went too far on reducing the ranges for piston-engines and small turboprops, it is absolutely unrealistic, that someone staying in Control Tower (about 11m elevation) would hear a piston-powered Znecma pass by and then would stop hearing it the moment it turns from twy D to twy C - so we've spent some time tweaking sound distribution ranges again and came up with much better aural composition of sounds - huge thanks to Tony for hearing all the variations and comparing them to his daily real-world experiences… The balance is hardly final, but it's much more realistic now!
• Sound spread ranges modified for all ground vehicles (significantly reduced) for more realistic sound spread effect
• Added new ambient people crowd sounds to passenger terminal
• Added ambient people eating and chatting sounds to Cafeteria area
• Increased the value by which glass and concrete walls block sound distribution - the resulting effect is that Player will hear more faint sound coming from outside the buildings (Pax Terminal, GM's Office, Control Tower etc.) and full volume sound when exiting those buildings and going in airport view (Apron Cam)
• New announcement sound inside passenger terminal, when flights arrive, start boarding or delayed

Visual enhancements

• Changed some terrain around airport, lowered slightly mountains closer to the visual maneuvering area, slightly raised mountains farther away from airport;
• Resolution of terrain mesh increased to twice as before, which results in more realistic mountain ridges and even smoother transitions between mountains\hills and flatter surfaces of terrain
• High-altitude textures of terrain around airport changed to reflect new placement of geographical objects - removed large city to the North, leaving a nice patch of rural land where normal North VFR ops (dep\arr) will take place; extensively mountainous terrain in vicinity of LINTA intersection reworked depicting a typical small town right at LINTA, large agricultural area to the South replaced by more mixed terrain - there are still large agricultural fields, but now mixed with greener patches and a small city to the South also added
• City: added new type of houses: large private two-storey house with garage and driveway
• Added new high resolution concrete runway textures that support more precise blending and concrete tiles corners now look more aesthetically pleasing
• Added new high resolution asphalt texture for apron; now with better blending achieved lightened asphalt material to represent color of dry asphalt more realistically
• Added new high resolution concrete tiles textures for G & A aircraft parking stands, now all concrete tiles sizes are realistic and as per standard specs & sizes
• Completely reworked taxiway D and partly taxiway C - now taxiways have smoothly cornered taxiway skirts with correct sizes as per regulations
• New taxiway border-line markings, smoothly curved and with new shader to represent slightly-glossy paint
• Added holding point markers for M2 & M3 points (M1 sign reworked for better readability and conformity with other hold point marker signs) - all three taxi 'hot-spots' are now properly marked
• Radar dish rotation cycle and display beam are now in sync at new value of 2.81 seconds for full revolution (more typical for Terminal Area Radars of the kind in game) instead of previous value of 2.16 seconds (more typical for radars with larger coverage)
• Added sets of wheel chocks to A stands
• Added wheeled fire extinguishers at A and G stands, at FBO fuel-truck refill station and at fire and rescue station
• Control Tower changed both inside and outside - outside more visual details added like paint cracks and underlying bricks visible through chipped paint; inside: changed doors, chairs, floor surface and many other small details to higher definition and\or higher resolution meshes
• Improved lighting and reflections on many objects inside Passenger Terminal, more matte surfaces introduced; shiny surfaces are now more shiny and reflect up to 8 surrounding lights (normally 4)

User Interface

• Airport Administration UI is now split into 7 sections, each available by clicking corresponding tab: Finances, Airport Fees, Facilities, Businesses, Airlines, Statistics, General Manager. Tabbed UI will allow us to pack the Airport Admin UI window with all the airport management shortcuts in one handy interface
• Added button 'Go to GMs office' (your office) to main buttons UI strip
• Help-screen 1 now displays new keyboard shortcuts to accessing various airport facilities
• Added Settings->Mute Time Skip ticking clock sound - this may become quite annoying when Player manages some aspect of Airport business and at that moment Time Skip becomes possible, so now Player may keep choose to mute this aural notification
• Added small keyboard shortcuts labels to main UI buttons
• Added Cafeteria management UI screen, including currently employed cooks, current drinks list and meals menu, customers eating and waiting for their order at the cafe, upgrade buttons
• Changed appearance of Settings window, some polishing on UI
• Changed appearance of Aircraft Information window, some polishing on UI
• All sliders used to set values of current prices for services in Flight School UI, FBO UI, Administration\Airport Fees UI colored more distinctively, clearly indicating the relation of set price\fee to Min\Max; slider control knobs changed from round to rounded rectangle type for easier grip
• Aircraft receiving ground services are now marked with light-gray color in ATC Flight Strips block to allow Player easily distinguish those from idle aircraft on ground
• Changed display time of game tips on Game loading screen from 3 seconds to 5 seconds per tip

This section of Airport Master Changelog lists changes introduced to the Public Alpha version of the game in versions 0.2.x Public Alpha. See Airport Master Latest Public Alpha Version Changelog. For earlier versions changelogs, please see changelog sections for versions: 0.3.x Public Alpha, 0.1.x Public Alpha