The Ultimate Airport Management Game

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

Airport Master: Change Log: Versions 0.3.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.

Airport Master Early Access Public v. 0.3.7.3 Alpha Bug-Fix Update released DEC 26, 2019

Game workflow

• Fixed serious bug with aircraft requesting STAR/SID (instead of visual arrival/departure) while flying actually under VFR but having return flight scheduled as IFR, which in turn may have resulted in Aircraft/Helicopter flying out of bounds of game world and throwing an exception, which in turn may have prevented adequate processing of data when re-loading any saved game that had been created after such occurrence; fixed
• Added protection for any kind of out-of-game world boundaries flights that may have happened due to any bug with approach departure type mismatch, the affected aircraft is removed from game world silently without affecting Player's rating with owner Airline; added
• Fixed bug with Airport Administration HR division processing Service Hangars request to hire new staff incorrectly which caused hiring additional 65 personnel for hangars H4 and H5 each time a saved game is loaded; additionally a correction mechanism was introduced that catches this kind of incorrect behavior (per each individual institution requesting HR division to hire and fire personnel), then checks against number of required specialists and either tries to determine which are duplicate hires and fires those or if data is big, simply fires everyone and re-hires correct number of positions; fixed
• Fixed bug with Aircraft waiting for ATC clearance indefinitely when game had been saved, while ATC had no indication that Aircraft is (still) awaiting clearance; thou previous behavior is more natural (ATC calls 'standby for clearance' and keeps track of who is waiting for clearance), in reality there are too many possibilities that error-correction algorithms or asynchronous processes may prevent ATC from calling back with clearance, especially on game saving and re-loading, especially for lengthy operations such as Service Hangars operations; fixed
• Added a version-specific fix-up for all of the Players whose airplanes burnt all the fuel while waiting to say leave the Hangar, due to bug(s) fixed in this release; this fix is purely cosmetic as it refills fuel tanks of such affected Aircraft to the value that had been there before a bug manifested, without actually spending Airport fuel or bringing profit, so just that you can continue playing without seeing zero or negative fuel in tanks; added

Flight scheduling

• Fixed numerous bugs with Flight Scheduling system that may have been caused by out-of-bounds and IFR instead of VFR bugs, described above; fixed
• Added the following Flight Schedule cleanups: a) flights that have departure flight plan without arrival operation finished (due to any sort of IFR/VFR nav-points bugs); b) any residual linked flight ops that may have been left from saving a flight schedule with bugged flight operations and then re-loading the game; c) orphaned flight operations, with either departure missing an arrival or vice versa; d) flight school airplanes not correctly reporting an operation (LOCAL FLIGHT) has ended upon instructor and student disembarking the airplane; added
• Changed the procedure of initiating a new Flight Operation: from now on any Delayed flights (for any reason, be that any bug or intentional delays due weather, routing or aircraft incapability to arrive at STAR initial fix on time, ground delays (both incurred by Player and again weather conditions, other factors like events and quest activities (e.g. Mayor delays his flight, a MedEvac flight is delayed waiting for patient to arrive etc.) are now processed in the same main thread as on-time flights, reserving half-minute separation slots for concurrent arrivals and reduced (or increased) priority on departure; changed
• Changed how non-regular airlines schedule flights: the algorithm (apart from probability of new flight plan filed based on time since last time a given airplane or helicopter been in Player's airport) has been changed completely: a) flight scheduling for non-regular airlines is now properly split for helicopters and airplanes (this tremendously hard-to-catch bug had sometimes caused TimeSkip function to lock on fade-to-black phase since a mixup was happening: a helicopter would try (and succeed) to file a flight plan as an airplane, which would cause an unrecoverable error prior to screen coming back from fade to normal (end of TimeSkip); b) helicopters now properly schedule VFR only flights from 0530Z to 1500Z with actual arrivals starting around 0730Z and latest actual departures complete by 1700Z (note: helicopters flying under SVFR - military, MedEvac, Police, Mayor would not be affected by this rule as SVFR heli flights have their own flight scheduling algorithm); c) airplanes can still properly plan flights as VFR (from 0730Z to 1800Z under VMC) as well as switch to IFR if departure flight is to happen at night time; fixed / changed
• Fixed very randomly manifesting bug with Service Contract Airplane receiving taxi instructions to taxi to apron A instead of hangar, which in turn may have caused further havoc with Time Tables; from now on, such mishandled aircraft are automatically fixed on loading a savegame - yet the price is that we have to un-schedule all other flights for given aircraft for remaining days of the week, as there is no way to tell how bizarre may have the further scheduling for given aircraft be affected; once returned to proper Service Hangar and all potentially messed up flight plans for given aircraft are removed, it then again becomes available for flight planning and Owner Airline may re-schedule it; fixed
• Fixed Airlines not being notified when their aircraft are forcefully removed from game world, thou normal leaving TMA worked fine; from now on any forceful removal of aircraft from game world requires owner Airline to reset corresponding flags for such aircraft so to make it available for scheduling new flights to Player's airport sooner; fixed

ATC

• Added out-of-bounds check to every 10th radar sweep, that excludes local area flights; added
• Fixed Flight clearances and Taxi clearances issued during IFR/VFR bug mentioned above staying in ATC system as valid clearances and thus preventing further TimeSkips and reclaiming of taxiways previously marked as occupied (while the aircraft affected by the bug were actually taxing on those, but been removed after loading a savegame with erroneous data); from now on those invalid Flight and Taxi clearances are cleaned up on every game loading and also in the event that any Aircraft is forcefully removed from game world (without affecting Player ratings with owner airline); fixed
• Fixed phraseology when VFR arrival joins pattern before landing; fixed
• Fixed numerous minor typos in ATC readbacks of visual pattern legs; fixed
• Fixed Radar screen labels for Go-Arounds displaying SID or visual Arrival Route instead of 'GOAROUND'; fixed
• Fixed Radar relying on Flight identification instead of Aircraft unique ID to display last pulse readout when an aircraft had already left the game world or had been forcefully removed by any of error-correction routines, which may have caused a serious error in Radar system operation; fixed
• Changed STARs PAROM 4W and PAROM 2D to go deeper in Hon Valley, skipping the mountain range and allowing both for faster descent and not leaving Radar depiction area (especially 4W procedure for runway 16); changed

Graphics Engine

• Fixed detail draw distance manager incorrectly interpreting draw distance settings for some city-side and agricultural area buildings (city houses, rural area housing, greenhouses) which may resulted in those building not rendered at either very near or very far detail draw distance setting; fixed
• Fixed numerous bugs with semi-transparent shaders not utilizing dedicated semi-transparent render queue, which should result in slight to moderate performance improvement on slower machines, especially when switching from distant airplane view to one of the views at the airfield; this fix also ensures best performance for upcoming foliage, 3D-birds, trees and other objects that benefit from using dedicated semi-transparent render queue; fixed
• Changed how graphics sub-engine handles optimizations for narrow stretched shapes such as taxiway markings for long taxiways; the new routine allows for partial pre-render, conditional pre-render and detail draw distance influenced sequential render of such elongated shapes for much better view and smoother transitions; changed
• Changed minimal lights visibility range for Calvert approach lighting system installed on runways 16 and 34 for white lights of medium intensity from 800m to 1100m, for red lights and white lights of high intensity from 1100m to 1400m; this tweak is intended mainly for Players with very old GPUs who had lowered Detail Draw distance to lowest setting thus making older approach lights visibility values unrealistic causing a visual effect of approach lights 'kicking-in' very late on approach; this tweak does not affect the visibility of Calvert approach lights in fog and rain, only plain VMC value; also no tweaks were applied to MALS-R systems installed on runways 17 and 35, as Detail Draw distance setting there (even on minimal slider value) worked correctly - partly due to the fact that MALS-R model measures distance from its third bar and newer Calvert model does so from runway threshold; changed

User Interface

• Fixed switching to correct Tab in Airport Contracts basing on where a call happens from: so from a 'Service Contract complete' notification the Service Contracts tab will open, while clicking Fuel Contracts in FBO screen will open Fuel Contracts tab; fixed
• Fixed incorrect use of 'Show notifications when an Airline increases our rating' option, despite the name and correct usage elsewhere, Service Contract Complete Notification used incorrect value of 'show when decreased' which may have caused in unwanted notifications to appear regardless of the option setting in Administration/Airlines screen; fixed
• Fixed font size for Hangar field in Contract Information windows; fixed
• Fixed Service Hangars brief display (lower part of Service Contracts UI screen) may have become locked from being updated by some Service Contract related bugs; now it updates data independent of Service Contracts module; fixed

Airport Master Early Access Public v. 0.3.7.1 Alpha Hotfix Update released SEP 03, 2019

ATC

• Fixed takeoff\go-around time intervals had been assigned to some departing aircraft not at holding points of active runway but on holding points before crossing inactive runway; fixed
• Fixed TWR ATC issuing correct taxi direction upon leaving runway (was introduced in 0.3.7a) but GND ATC not issuing correct further taxi clearances for aircraft bound for hangars H1, H2 and H3 after landing on and vacating runway 34; fixed
• Fixed Go-Around IFR routes for runways 16 and 34 leading to IAFs of ILS approaches of runways 17 and 35 respectively; fixed

Airport Master Early Access Public v. 0.3.7 Alpha released AUG 10, 2019

Game workflow

• Added Negotiations System to the game (currently only Fuel Purchase Offers are subject to Negotiations procedure; more Negotiations to come in future versions); The Negotiation system works as a mini-game of quick reflexes for Player, the rules are as follows: once there is a contract of some sort, it's final amount is now negotiated by Player Avatar (Airport GM) and partner company Negotiator; a window pops up where one can see parties Negotiating - both parties have their CON and NEG attributes shown (note: partner company Negotiators have higher chance to have higher negotiating skills on higher game difficulty setting); below that Player can see a Negotiations Bar, inside which a Negotiation Plank is running from top to bottom and again to top; the speed of Negotiation Plank is determined as difference in Negotiators' NEG skill (so if Player Avatar has NEG skill of 8 and opposing Negotiator has NEG skill of 2, the Plank would be running 60% slower and vice versa); inside the Negotiations Bar there is a Green Zone which represents the most lucrative discount area, with its center being the Highest Possible Discount; the Green Zone area size is determined by CON skill difference of Negotiating parties (so if Player Avatar has CON skill of 2 and opposing Negotiator has NEG skill of 10, the Green Area would be running 80% smaller and vice versa); within the time, defined also by Player Avatars' NEG skill (lower skill equals less time to negotiate), a Player should stop the Negotiation Plank whenever he or she deems its being closest to the center of the Green Zone - once the Plank is stopped, the final negotiated sum is deemed settled and negotiations are over; if for some reason, Player did not stop the Plank within time of negotiation, and time runs out, the Plank stops at that millisecond by itself and resulting sum is deemed settled and negotiations are over; added
• Added parameters Negotiations Complete, Successful Negotiations and Negotiations Success Rate to Statistics module; added
• Added new Control Tower to east apron (part of Terminal 2 upgrades set), elevating some 23 meters from roofing level of Terminal 2 for total elevation of about 35 meters, the new Tower features spacious Control Room with dedicated workplaces for DEL, GND, TWR and APP controllers, modern flat monitors etc., external stairs and internal elevator access from terminal upper floor to Control Room and tower rooftop (stairs only), organic in design to Terminal East architecture, great view of Apron East operations; note: Player can use keyboard shortcut (key [2]) to cycle between Control Towers views; added
• Added new Ground Movements Radar (GMR) system (as part of Tier 5 Airport Upgrades) to new Control Tower East; GMR extends for additional 1,88 meters from Tower rooftop, sharing electrical and data wiring physical site with Tower East elevator motor hub; the radar itself is typical modern GMR-system operating in K\Ku band with 5m antenna in protective shell, rotating at 60rpm (1 second sweeps); ground radar displays will become fully operational in later versions of the game; added
• Re-enabled random wind-scheme preset selection on starting new game (previously disabled for purposes of testing runway-specific Ops for runways 16 and 34); from now on each new game again starts with randomized wind direction, speed and gusts speed - which in turn determines runway in use on new game start; changed
• Added new airline - Clean Power Corp; this airline has base at JNCR airport, currently has a known fleet of 2 AH-134 helicopters that it uses to monitor and service multiple Wind Power Generators across the region; in future versions, CPC will become one of non-typical airlines that require special attention (thou currently all its flights are classified as General Aviation); added
• Changed how new game initial state is created: startup state templates are gone for good, instead a universal startup state algorithm now generates initial state for a New Game, totally randomized, with regard to starting Airport Upgrade Tier, weather conditions, aircraft types, flight rules; this flexible implementation ensures best variety for game day 1; changed
• Added per-aircraft-type parameter Required Turnover Time; previously that Airlines decided exclusively on turnover time, from now on, Airlines cannot request turnover times to be shorter than minimum turnover time for given aircraft type; added
• Added 20 new ground movement routes for Airport Security / Police vehicles; added
• Changed routing of vehicles around potentially congested areas of Apron West: new vehicle wait zones (mandatory full stop lines) were added to avoid slowing down of airport vehicles traffic (and even possible lockups) when the number of cars using same driveways was exceedingly high; changed
• Added 5 daily events of Security Shift Change type, splitting 24 hours into 6 unequal Security Vehicles shifts (night shift that starts at 1:55 is longer); added
• Re-enabled Service Hangars H4 and H5 to accept aircraft for checks and repairs; changed
• Changed how FBO hires staff for hangars H4 and H5 upon Airport reaching Upgrade Tier 4: from now on a non-uniform template of required staff is applied individually to each of these hangars, also a protection was installed to prevent accidental double-hire of staff even when changing Airport Upgrade Tier back and forth via Dev Console; changed
• Fixed Fuel Truck 2 not appearing immediately after the Upgrade Number of Fuel Trucks is purchased; fixed
• Changed Service Hangars max wingspan limitations, from now on: H1 - 14m, H2 and H3 - 17m, H4 - 76m, H5 - 80m; changed
• Added 140 new avatar presets to Avatar System, allowing for much larger diversity in avatars both for male and female NPCs; added
• Added a key to Avatar definition signifying that given avatar is taken by a Negotiator for partner company and thus is excluded from rotation of random avatars; added
• Fixed Weather System bug enabling generation of surface wind layer with wind direction opposite of currently dominating surface winds (e.g. lowest surface layer wind of 140@10G14 while prevailing winds would be 350@5G10) - from now on, the major trend for lower wind layer determines all sub-layers general wind direction deterministically; fixed
• Added AutoSave interval selection to Settings; Player can now select whichever interval is suitable in the range of 5 minutes to 1 hour; added
• Added capability to disable Hi-Quality Particles and Hot Air Effects is Settings; if disabled - Hot Air Effects are not rendered and Lower Quality (less CPU-hungry) particles are rendered; an option for old GPUs on older machines; typically these options should stay enabled for any machine with GPU 5 years old or newer; added
• Changed how safety pulsating red lights on tall buildings and airport facilities utilize rendering (specifically light mapping) pipeline: since there is no visible shadow from a red light that has visible corona of no more than 20cm, all pulsating red safety lights were changed to a much simpler light-model, excluding shadow cascades that on more than 40 of those lights around the airport (and more to come on tall buildings in the city) saves up to 3,5% on shadow queuing render routines, while new lights look even better and more realistic than the old ones; changed
• Added Detailed Roads Generation prototype 5 module to the game (fully working and creating pretty good 6-lane and 8-lane highways and roads with sidewalks); first 7 detailed segments of generated Detailed Roads are now active in vicinity of Terminal 1 (Apron West) and about 5km to Pontemarlo area and about 4km to Hon Valley, intermediate connecting roads are active from main highway to Terminal 2 (Apron East) and around it; some overlapping of sidewalks is possible and will be addressed in future versions of this module; added
• Added new City side road features: Roofed Car Parking (4 storey tall) - 1 added next to Open Car Parking Lot near Terminal 1 (thus completing the Terminal 1 Road Side), 2 added next to Terminal 2 (Apron East); also added 3 new Open Car Parking Lots and 3 new Bus Stops next to Terminal 2 (Apron East); those will be fully working Parking Lots and Bus Stops, with cars and buses moving in and out once the general auto traffic in Airport area and around Appleton City is fully implemented; Parking Lots and Roofed Car Parking Buildings near Apron East will become available automatically as soon as Player upgrades airport to Tier 4; added
• Added Fences and Security Checkpoints to Terminal 1 (Apron West) City Side; added
• Changed power consumptions for both Passenger Terminals; Terminal 2 (Apron East) now consumes considerably more electric power; corrections made to take into account all the new electronic equipment in Terminal 1 (Apron West); changed

Aircraft

• Changed Flight Dynamic Physics module to a new version. Previously, the entire Physics of Flight ran in intentionally limited 'safe box' environment (most notably this could have been seen when looking in close-up at airplane takeoff - once the aircraft's main wheels left the ground it looked like it slowed down a bit - this was the previous version of safe box environment for simulating physical forces on aircraft at a reduced clock specifically to ensure correct calculations on that model of Physics of Flight; from now the new version of Flight Physics does not require a 'safe box' nor does it require any limitation of clock while running simulation, thus all limitations have been removed. Players may have such a perception that 'everything started moving faster in the air' - but in reality, it's just the discretion of new Physics of Flight engine we use, thou of course, everything moves in the air much smoother now; changed
• Added Airecoach Helicopters AH134 [AH34] (real life prototype: Airbus Helicpoters H135, previously Eurocopter EC135) helicopter, a pinnacle of new-age innovative design featuring fiber-composites, fenestron (fan-in-tail) instead of classic tail rotor and an anti-resonance isolation system, all of which not just make it superb in performance but also rightfully nominate it as the most quiet helicopter in its class. Can be outfitted for SAR, Evac, Emer, Mil and other roles; helicopters in the following liveries were added: AP-BOS (GovFlight, City Mayor's Helicopter), N230T, N422C (both operated by CleanPowerCorp), N436R, FOTLS, VBPJJ, QETRX (all four privately owned); added
• Changed AN25 aircraft configuration so that shortened takeoffs of this fully loaded cargo aircraft are no longer a viable option for a pilot; will use full-length takeoffs, thou shortened landing rolls for AN25 are possible depending on load and weather; changed
• Added tail-mounted ground-light capability to helicopters; added
• Added airspeed restriction curve to simulate smooth speed up of high performance aircraft up to 250kts limitation below FL100: acceleration altitude of 1000 ft is simulated as well as gradual airspeed growth from 1000 ft to FL70 - this is implemented in order to restrict too much of performance of some engines in new Physics of Flight model; added
• Changed APU startup and shutdown properties on several aircraft equipped with APU; changed
• Changed (reduced) delay for power and compressed air becoming available for engine start after APU startup; changed
• Changed takeoff-roll remaining distance influencing throttle-up rate increase by a pilot to better reflect actual acceleration of an aircraft depending on roll distance and weight; changed
• Added pre-spin-up fan rotation to all jet engines for more realistic view of initial engine start phase; added
• Changed blurriness effect of Helicopter main rotor blades shadows increasing with main rotor RPM for more realistic view; changed

ATC

• Changed takeoff\go-around time intervals to more precisely account for aircraft wake turbulence category: when a L (light) WTC aircraft is taking off (or going around) before speedier M or H, following him an interval of 2 minutes is introduced; same goes for when L is about to takeoff after H; for all other cases 1 minute takeoff interval is set;
• Changed SID PAROM 4W for shorter, more optimal route; changed
• Fixed bug with DELIVERY controller saying “Runway 16 Shortened takeoff”, thou actually issuing correct Runway 16 full length clearance, fixed
• Fixed several typos in ATC to pilot communications; thanks to following players who reported those typos: Serge Fedorov, Roel Smiths, Lu K., Steve Barns; fixed

Cameras

• Fine-tuned Airport Overview camera acceleration when camera movement keys are pressed for longer than 1 second and made acceleration rate configurable via Settings window; changed
• Added camera positions for quick jump to H4 and H5 hangars from Service Contracts screen; added
• Added Tower View camera switching capability: when Player presses key [2] on keyboard or clicks Tower Cam icon in main UI, the next key press or icon click cycles between Tower West and Tower East; added
• Added storing of custom Tower View cameras positions on cycling this camera type; added
• Fixed immediate Details Draw Distance-affected details redraw not happening correctly (in the same screen redraw cycle that the Camera is actually moved to new position, which sometimes caused visible glitch causing Detail Draw Distance module to ignore immediate redraw command and instead redrawing details only on next free cycle (dynamic pipeline), which in turn may have caused a delay of up to 300ms before actual details redraw may have happened in Graphics Engine pipeline; this was most noticeable on Tower View and Terminal View cameras; fixed

Sound

• Added new sounds for AH34 helicopter engine and main rotor recorded from the real-world prototype; added
• Added new sounds for AH34 helicopter fenestron (two versions were recorded: a typical low-RPM swooshing blades sound and hi-pitch hi-frequency hi-RPM version) recorded from the real-world prototype; added
• Fixed sound distribution model type for all helicopters being incorrectly set to single-piston configuration; actual helicopter-configuration sound distribution in space is used now for all helicopters; fixed
• Added new sound of power transformer and bar rotation for Ground Movement Radar, installed on rooftop of new Control Tower East; added

User Interface

• Added Negotiations System UI popup overlay used for negotiating pricing on various contracts, deals etc.; added
• Changed how FBO Fuel Contracts UI work: new fuel contract offers now explicitly list the Negotiator for shipment of fuel in available offers list, so that Player can decide whether he or she wants to engage in Negotiations with more or less skilled Negotiator as well as volume of fuel on offer and time of delivery; after the Negotiations take place, the offer remains visible in contracts list showing status of offer and in case the purchase or negotiation is not possible stating the reason why; changed
• Changed: upon Player upgrading Fuel Offers - new fuel offers are now generated and are available for negotiation immediately; changed
• Changed Main UI Info Bar showing wind of direction North as 0 to correct 360; changed
• Split Settings window in two panes, that are now displayed to the left and to the right of in-Game Menu ([ESC] key) - Left Setting Pane contains gameplay and game engine-related options, while Right Settings Pane now contains options specific to graphics and audio; changed
• Added view toggling action to Control Tower View button in Main UI - Player can now click this button first time to go to Control Tower view (Control Tower West if Airport Upgrade Tier is less than 4 and Control Tower East is it is higher), then second time to cycle view to opposite Apron Control Tower (if Airport Upgrade Tier is 4 or higher); added
• Added option Hi-Quality Particles Enabled to Settings window; determines whether render engine should use more CPU cycles to render higher quality particles or not; added
• Added option Hot Air Effects Enabled to Settings window; determines whether render engine should render Hot Air SFX at all; added
• Added Airport Overview Camera Acceleration toggle and Rate of Camera Acceleration slider controls to Settings window; added
• Added AutoSave Time Interval Selection Drop-list allowing Player to select the desired interval for Auto-saving games; added
• Added mouse wheel scroll control to all sliders in UI (namely Settings window sliders, Admin\Airport Fees sliders, Fuel Prices sliders, Flight School fees sliders); scrolling mouse wheel up increases the value if the slider, scrolling mouse wheel down decreases value; each slider has its own pre-set increments for either smooth adjustment (e.g. Master Sound Volume slider) or faster coarse adjustment (e.g. Flight School theory hour price slider); added
• Changed buttons in Save Game / Load Game / Confirm Save Overwrite UI windows for uniform UI look; changed
• Added Back To Main Menu button to Character Creation Screen; added
• Fixed Airlines tab in Airport Administration UI screen incorrectly displaying total number of know aircraft owned by an Airline without helicopters; now displays cumulatively fixed wing + helicopters; fixed
• Added Help Screen 9 (Explaining Negotiations System) to help and knowledge base system; added
• Changed Help Screen 1 (Game Controls) of help and knowledge base system to reflect recent changes to keyboard commands; changed
• Added Technical Information display to Help and Knowledge Base screen; added
• Fixed several typos in Help screens; fixed

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

Airport Master Early Access Public v. 0.3.5.2 Alpha [bugfix build] released MAY 17, 2019

ATC

• Fixed very serious bug with Aircraft filing a VFR flight plan for arrival at daytime hours and corresponding flight plan for return flight during night hours changing to IFR, all facilities (Flight Schedule, ATC) having correct information but not the Aircraft itself, which may have caused the game to enter dead loop where Aircraft would ask IFR clearance to a Visual point and such request could never be accomplished; fixed; thank you Jucheng Lim for sending us a perfectly timed saved game with this bug caught!
• Fixed ATC not checking for actual parking stand availability before allowing aircraft further taxi to said parking stand, which in turn may have caused errors in Flight Planning (say, Aircraft 1 have not yet vacated stand A1 by the time Aircraft 2 (correctly scheduled) arrives to take the same parking stand); from now on, the final taxi to stand instruction correctly checks for actual parking stand availability and if the stand is occupied assigns new (free) parking stand to this and return flight, notifies Flight Schedule and only then clears aircraft to taxi to new parking stand; fixed; thank you Serge Fedorov for providing a savegame, created right before this exact bug manifested itself!
• Fixed some spelling errors in pilot-to-ATC communications; fixed

Flight Scheduling

• Fixed bug with Flight Schedule Slot Editor incorrect behavior for Service Contracts flights - if a Player edited time slot for a flight with service contract after accepting it there was a bug in slot editor that offered a list of slots on editing (while correctly saying 'you cannot edit service contract parking stand after SC had been accepted') - thou the display may have shown correct parking stand (e.g. H3), the bug allowed the algorithm to offer a selection of stands on other apron (e.g. general aviation apron A, since an aircraft would fit there) - thus a wrong selection may have been re-assigned on slot editing and continue onwards; a protection is now installed into slot editor which ensures that for service contract flights that had already been accepted the only possible parking stand selection is the one that it had upon loading into slot editor; fixed; thank you Christophe Lemaire!
• Fixed bug when under certain circumstances, Flight Schedule would not display Aircraft Type for return flights; if you continue your playthrough from 0.3.5.a, all the return flights previously added to flight schedule affected by this bug will still not display aircraft type in brief info box on Flight Schedule screen, however all newly scheduled flights would display aircraft type correctly; note: this bug does not affect ATC or other requests based on aircraft type; fixed
• Modified Time Tables cleanup code in such a way that global-scale clean-ups happen less frequently and be more robust, while implementing more frequent local Time Table data clean-ups with entire system now working more fluently and requires less CPU time to clean up the Time Tables of complete, erroneous, cancelled and otherwise not needed entries; changed

Aircraft

• Fixed missing textures for forward lights bay on all D170 aircraft; fixed
• Fixed APU sounds for CT55 aircraft incorrectly mixing channels with engine start sounds; fixed

UI

• Fixed bug with comms-box messages queue was possible to overflow, which in turn may have caused memory leak and game crash; from now on a hardcoded limitation to the capacity of messages queue was set at 35, preventing this behavior; fixed; thank you Jucheng Lim!
• Fixed several typos in Help screen; fixed
• Fixed 'youtube' button in Help screen not appearing on some systems; fixed

Airport Master Early Access Public v. 0.3.5 Alpha released MAR 26, 2019

Game workflow

• Changed how Time Tables work: from now on only ATC (in tower view and as main UI overlay available when holding [T] on keyboard) has full Time Table of nearest 10 departures, 10 arrivals, 5 local flights and 10 airfield events; each terminal (Pax 1, Pax 2, Cargo) has its own Time Table display (however specific and realistic they may be); this is now an extendable, manageable feature that provides standard data exchange interface for Time Tables allowing each specific Time Table to only poll data relevant to it, get corresponding update intervals, announcements, events etc.; changed
• Changed core code for managing Time Tables data in such a way that all data requests are now managed centrally; as the game grows larger, we have noticed significant concurrent data polling delays (especially when multiple objects - and that is very important in regards to future DLCs that may feature extendible airport facilities - start polling Time Table data frequently or in large batches from Flight Scheduling System, slowing down both the FSS and the game itself) - at one (thou specifically simulated instance we measured around 400 simultaneous calls to FSS for TT data on loading a savegame which in turn caused a 14 seconds delay on test machine running i5\4GB) - this has now been eliminated by introducing centralized data delivery to Time Tables, which is now smooth, and depends on type of Time Table; changed
• Removed Private flights from Time Table of Terminal 1 Display, only regular operators appear on it now, thou passengers would still hear announcements when boarding starts for Private flight; changed
• Added daily Airfield Events to ATC Time Table Display (note: administrative events such as electricity and salary payments are not displayed here); added
• Added new Avatars system, which completely replaced our old pseudo-3D avatar system prototype; the new Avatars system uses a set of pre-defined human face features to produce computer-generated avatars with a lot of diversity, it then applies image-transformation effects to make resulting avatars look rather realistic yet with a touch of cartoonish \ comic style; among those generated images, there is a chance to find several 'easter-eggs' with stylized photos of members of our development team and some great folks who help us create the game; added
• Added Appleton Hospital of St. Pantaleon with helipad, which will be used as local destination by MedEvac helicopters
• Fixed bug with minimum details draw distance parameter being interpreted wrong by large city objects like Stadium, Expo Center, Warehouses etc. resulting in distorted view distance values on lower draw distance setting; fixed
• Added new airline - Government Flight Squadron; this airline has no base airport, provides air transportation to City Mayor and visiting government officials, never posts Service Contracts Auctions, never shown on public time table displays, always has priority for ATC when sequencing traffic, always has priority when requesting time slots, does not accept rejections to flight scheduling, has basically higher than average rating of Player's airport, any Player-induced rating decrease (like delays in servicing aircraft) will result in major rating penalties, angering City Mayor and eventually premature termination from the position of Airport GM (note: there are safeguarding mechanisms making it much harder to loose job over ignoring government priority flights, yet it is possible); added
• Changed regular airlines scheduling templates to reflect new fleet additions; changed
• Added Calvert (CAT II precision approaches) Approach Lighting System for runways 16 and 34; Calvert-2 will be the first ALS available for Runway 2 (Airport Upgrade Tier 3) and it will be upgradable to ALSF-2 (CAT III precision approaches); added
• Changed runway 34 entrance lights to LED-versions and moved them to correct placement at the end of displaced threshold of runway 34; changed
• Added runway 34 stopway (50m) to compensate for displaced threshold of runway 34 and thus keep the ASDA equal for runways 16 and 34; added
• Changed Runway 2 (16-34) concrete material to be compatible with sub-pixel lit shader; changed
• Fixed sky dithering at horizon line becoming to appear broken at sharp angles of camera, fixed
• Fixed Moon and Sun size depending on time of day and Moon phase sometimes allowing for depiction of ridiculously large Moon and unrealistically small Sun; fixed
• Fixed placement of wind power generators located on ridges of mountains near the Lake Intahoe; since terrain model has changed and adopted new elevation matrix, some wind-farms required position corrections; fixed

Aircraft

• Added Vertical V-1900D [VE9D] (real life prototype: Beechcraft B-1900D) turboprop. A very capable regional, military and executive transport. With service ceiling of FL330 and typical cruise speed of 275kts it covers range of up to 1400nm, thus providing high comfort and near-jet performance at much lower cost. Favored by governments, politicians, businessmen and rock-stars, V-1900D is often used as executive and administrative transport; aircraft with following registration numbers were added: APMYR (operated by Government Flight Squadron), Appleton City Mayor's executive aircraft, BS-RDQ and BS-VOF (operated by TravelAir), RK-CCE and RK-PVX (operated by Aster Airlines), N-521-L and GC-DAE (privately operated); added
• Added two new aircraft of type VE20 - N733-D and LT-GVO (both are privately operated); added
• Changed B409 helicopters rotors depiction at high RPM - thou realistically not accurate (as real life prototype merely reaches 300 RPM and any side observer would see rotor spin as individual rotor blades), but for the sake of great screenshots and videos this was decided to be changed - both main and tail rotors now produce fast rotation effect (rotor blades spin so fast that they are perceived as single spinning disc); changed
• Changed main to tail rotors ratio slightly on B409 helicopters from 1/3.35 to more realistic 1/3.5; as we now use fast spinning rotors effect, we may as well stick to actual real world value; changed
• Added tail lights to the following types of aircraft: VE9D, AN25, CT55, J358; tail lights are turned on after engine startup for departures and after landing for arrivals, tail lights are turned off after takeoff for departures and after shutting down engines for arrivals; added
• Added missing APU (logics, effects, original sounds) to AN25 aircraft that was missing it due to non-standard scheme: thou a turboprop in reality it has additional small jet engine located in rear cowling of engine number 2 that serves as an APU on ground and may be used by flight crews on takeoff to provide additional thrust on short runways and\or when close to MTOW; added
• Switched all aircraft of types VE9D, VE20 and AN25 to new extended physics colliders (previously tested on A210 aircraft) that provide more precision to all physics-based calculations, easier selection-by-clicking and more comfortable walking around when using overview camera; changed

Vehicles

• Added new ground vehicle type - Tow tug (model Schoopt TF50). This universal aircraft towing tug, is suitable for traditional towing using towbar of aircraft with MTOW up to 130 tons. Heavy, reliable and versatile. Frontal and rear hinges stacks allow for attachment of most popular aircraft towbars. Great cabin visibility assures safe obstacle avoidance when towing; added
• Fixed Airport Security cars may have taken spot near Administration building that was directly in the way of driving Follow Me cars, entering the Administration building premises; now the assigned Airport Police car spot near Admin building moved further to parking facing Heliport; fixed
• Fixed Fire Engines occasionally used real emergency siren mode (high pitch) during routine shift changes (ow pitch siren mode is used); fixed
• Fixed Heliport Buses reporting all jobs complete slightly prematurely (when still moving to parking spot) which sometimes caused incorrect vehicle readiness flag to be set upon Time Skip invoked by Player immediately after a Heliport Bus report it has completed all assignments; fixed

ATC

• Added new type of Radar screen mapping object - Helipad, used to mark helipads not on Airport property but in located in Airport TMA such as hospital helipad, energy company helipad and upcoming helipad on lake bank; added

Weather

• Added Q-Pressures system to the game: Q-Pressures (mostly notable for Player would be QNH and QFE, thou other Q-Pressures are calculated and used in weather module as well) represent a complex data structure that holds a custom tendency (for instance it could be seasonal QNH tendency chart for Player's Airport or a tendency of abnormalities in QNH drift in climate pattern etc.), several mechanism for randomizing tendency change, several interfaces to other weather conditions (e.g. temperature influences pressure, pressure influences dew point, pressure change rate influences visibility etc.), normalization algorithms and other very useful tools - a Q-Pressures data block can be included multiple times in Weather Block, or exist on its own, it can easily be summed up or deducted from other Q-Pressure data blocks, as well as multiplied by a factor or by another QPB - thou we argued whether we should make this kind of data such a powerful tool, it was decided that this way we ensure maximum capabilities for building realistic weather patterns and also we may provide very powerful tool-set for mod-developers should we decide to open moding after the release of 1.0, if later is achieved - moders will be very happy with this kind of implementation; added
• Added QPBs to the following Weather Blocks: Previous, Current, Next; note: thou QPBs also present in Weather Blocks Tomorrow and SuddenChange - they currently carry no functionality other than passing data thru Timeline, as most forecasted changes happen in Next block - in future versions this may change to imitate far- and near- forecasted Weather changes; added
• Added Terminal Aerodrome Forecast (TAF) generation, providing 24h weather forecasts in airport area; added

Terrain

• Changed Terrain model to version 5.3; new terrain model features twice as smooth mountains and lakebed and more precise tiles management: unused tiles now free up memory in much smarter way: based on weighted per-average bit-statistics of tiles loading\unloading (this bit is stored in tile itself), less frequently used tiles have much higher chance to be unloaded than those with higher use frequency stat; changed
• Added Lake Intahoe to the game world; Lake Intahoe (hence intersection name LINTA) is a large mountain rivers-fed lake, occupying significant part of Appleton valey; besides directly influencing local weather in Appleton TMA, there will be a hydrodrome for floatplanes and at least one helipad on shore of Lake Intahoe; added
• Changed Terrain around airport, mostly to the East of Passenger Terminal 2: Airport land max boundaries are now well-defined by all roads from all sides; further East agricultural area been moved further to mountains with two new mountain rivers defined; changed

Sound

• Added new sounds for VE9D aircraft engine operations recorded from the real aircraft; added
• Added new sounds for VE9D\VE20 aircraft gear motor operation recorded from real KingAir 200; added
• Added new flap motors sounds for VE9D aircraft recorded from real aircraft in hangar; added
• Added RU-19-300 engine (APU) sounds for AN25 aircraft, recorded from real RU-19-300 auxiliary unit; added

User Interface

• Added Time Table overlay to Main UI (available by holding [T] on keyboard); added
• Added ATC Flight Priority markers to ATC Time Table Display; added
• Changed Help Screen to reflect new keyboard commands; changed
• Added tab to Flight Strips control to display Ground Service Vehicles currently operating in airport; Player may switch between Flight Strips and GSEs at any moment, clicking a Vehicle Strip brings the camera to that vehicle; added
• Added tabs to control Flight Strips displayed: for aircraft it is now possible to select only Fixed Wing (airplanes) or only Helicopters; the Flight Strips controls allow switching between All Aircraft - Fixed Wing - Helicopters - GSE Vehicles; current tab\filter selection is stored in saved game file; added
• Changed Flight Strip design for better, cleaner and crisper look; new Flight Strips use background checker-toning for better readability, they are also spaced by 2px distance in scrollable list; changed
• Added new color-coding for GSE Vehicles, with pale-green being Service vehicles, light-gray being Security vehicles, red being Emergency vehicles, yellow being administrative and follow me vehicles and light-brown being towing vehicles; added
• Added 35 new male and 35 new female avatars setups for new Avatars system; added
• Changed Player Avatar depiction in main UI (buttons bar): now Airport Upgrade Tier icon and Player Level icon are shifted out of borders of Avatar image, while experience bar is slightly smaller and moved slightly below the Avatar image; changed
• Changed Player Avatar depiction in Airport General Manager tab of Airport Management screen - Airport Upgrade Tier and Player Level icons are now located to the right of Avatar image forming a data row, that will include other Player statuses display in future versions; changed
• Changed customer Avatar sizes, proportions and placement in Cafeteria and Flight School UI; changed
• Fixed Flight School UI not polling avatar images for Flight School students due to lack of appropriate number of non-repeating avatars; fixed
• Changed how selected Avatar looks when starting a new game: once selected - the Avatar gets tinted pale-green to indicate readiness to start the new game, all hover effects for selected avatar image are disabled until another avatar is selected; changed
• Added UI logos for airline Government Flight Squadron; added
• Added new flight operation classifier 'Government Flight' to Flight Scheduling \ Slot Editor UI; added
• Changed the main UI Notifications design for better readability, especially against sky and other lighter objects; more contrast scheme is now in use; the notification messages can now span wider, and Notification type icons been moved to the right; changed

Airport Master Early Access Public v. 0.3.4.1 Alpha released DEC 30, 2018

Game workflow

• Fixed bug with aircraft with no ground parking spot assigned were given incorrect taxi instructions by ATC: the Flight Scheduler for some reason allowed Pending Flights with ground stand assigned to "--" value to be added to actual Flight Schedule - once such flight arrived to the airport and vacated the runway, the ATC would then clear it to vacate with direction "To Passenger Apron East" - hence the lockups on taxi where the aircraft was not supposed to taxi. From now on, any such aircraft (if it in question makes it to Flight Schedule) with ground parking assigned to "--" will be immediately removed from the Game world; fixed
• Fixed linked flight on Pending Flights list not being removed after its first flight in pair was removed; fixed
• Fixed the Waiting list for ground taxi operations not being updated after an aircraft is forcefully removed from game world; fixed
• Fixed Game world loading module not stacking already loaded aircraft taxi instructions for feeding to ATC module for checkup; fixed

User Interface

• Fixed new loading screen images not have been re-cached for faster loading (0.3.4a specific UI bug causing older cached Loading Screen images to appear on some installations of Airport Master on Windows systems); fixed
• Fixed typo in E30P Aircraft info: description instead of Mach .079 it now correctly reads Mach .79; fixed

Airport Master Early Access Public v. 0.3.4 Alpha released DEC 17, 2018

Game workflow

• Added Player Avatar (Airport GM) experience and levels system: upon completion of servicing aircraft, upgrading facilities, unlocking achievements etc. each such action is awarded with EXP points: each EXP gain consists of base value (e.g. Ground Services Delivered to Medium WTC Passenger Twin-Turboprop - has base value of 32, completing a tutorial step has base value of 5 and so on), base value is incremented using a balancing algorithm which takes APT (Aptitude) character stat into account (so, basically you earn least EXP with APT skill of lvl 1 and most EXP with APT skill at level 10), after that a game difficulty modifier is applied: if Player plays on Easy game difficulty setting, additional bonus not exceeding +20% is applied, on Hard - a deduction of no more than -20% is done, no bonus or deduction on Normal game difficulty setting; once the Player completes enough interactions fill next level EXP, his avatar automatically levels up, with each level up bringing possibility to spend 1 additional skill point on any skill Player desires; added
• Added Player Avatar skills (those are main character attributes) and can be customized on new game start and unlike Career Background and Personal Perk, skills can be improved through leveling up. The core skills set at the moment includes the following skills: Connections [CON] - defines how well you know people and businesses around you. Higher CON results in more contracts and offers; Negotiation [NEG] - defines the efficiency of your contract price and resources purchase price negotiations. Higher NEG allows you to buy lower and sell higher; Discipline [DSC] - defines how you build discipline in your workers. Directly influences speed of completion of various jobs performed by airport staff; Social [SOC] - defines your social skills with your workers, City Mayor and partners. Higher SOC allows you to hire people for less and receive better funding; Aptitude [APT] defines the effectiveness of your learning. With higher APT you get more experience each time and thus you are able to progress faster; Luck [LCK] - defines how Her Majesty Luck treats you. Higher LCK increases chances of more positive random events occurring in your life. Each skill can be at least level 1 and at most level 10. The cost of leveling up a skill is 1 skill point. Player gets 1 skill point for each character level up.
• Added new Cargo Airline operating A210s: FHL Global Air Cargo Logistics (FHL) with base airport of Lepsing Intl and major world hubs in Sandopure Intl and Hing Hong Intl; added
• Added new batches of LD3 cargo containers for the following operators: Fong Cargo (FNC): 58 new ULDs added in 3 cargo container identification groups (APN, APS, APP); FHL Air Cargo (FHL): 60 new LD3s were added in 3 cargo container identification groups (AKE, AKN, RKN); added
• Added statistics parameters Service Contracts Accepted, Service Contracts Rejected, Service Contracts Complete; added
• Added 2 new Wind Tees to runways 16 and 34, the new larger Wind Tee model complies with FAA-standards (7m by 3,65m T with 20 Night\IMC lights) and does not include visual pattern indicators; also consume more electric power; added
• Fixed Flight Schedule Slot Editor not changing parking stand of an edited flight's linked flight; fixed
• Implemented new colliders system for Large aircraft: whereas box colliders are efficient and usable on smaller aircraft, it is not the case with Large aircraft, that would require such a box collider that would occlude other objects around; from now on a group of colliders represents physical dimensions, click areas and other collider-related properties of Large aircraft: fuselage_body, engines_block, wing_area, tail_area, stabilizer_area; added
• Added Income Tax to economy model: taxation happens on all incomes that are subject to Income Tax (subsidies, bonuses, investments) are not taxed; Tax Rate varies both on Airport Upgrade Tier and Game Difficulty setting with minimum value of 0,25% (at Easy, Upgrade Tier 1) to 17% (at Hard, Upgrade Tier 5); Income Tax collected counts towards Expenses and additional group of Expenses called Taxes represents its value over time; added
• Fixed Flight Schedule and Time Tables in Terminal 1 not removing completed flight operations in some cases; note: fixed

Aircraft

• Added new aircraft - Airecoach A210 (real-world prototype: Airbus A310-300F) - the legendary airplane that first introduced Airbus-style winglets and many other innovations, that had great service life as a pax transport and then found its second life as a massive cargo airplane. The first HEAVY (MTOW 164 tons) aircraft in the game! Airplanes in the following liveries were added: N712X (operated by Fong Cargo); PV-KTB and PV-KWA (operated by FHL); added
• Added APU (Auxiliary Power Unit) to all aircraft actually having APU; all aircraft equipped with APU will start the APU upon exiting the runway on landing and will keep it running until a ground power source (GPU) is attached; departing aircraft will startup APU after all pre-flight ground services delivered and ground power source is disconnected and will keep APU running until all engines are started and generators switched on; on some aircraft it is possible that flight crews will delay APU shutdown until taxi; added
• Changed Rudder stiffness to be based on aircraft size: larger aircraft now have very stiff rudder with longer full traverse time and less affected by airflow around tail; smaller aircraft have more dynamic, softer Rudders with a lot of visible Rudder Travel caused by air flow around tail as well as shorter full traverse times; changed
• Fixed Aircraft not retracting flaps to intermediate position upon vacating runway, only on taxi to parking; now flaps are retracted to intermediate position on vacating the runway and to fully retracted position upon reaching runway vacated hold line; fixed
• Fixed Aircraft communicating with ATC on Departure\Arrival frequencies readback IFR altitude and Flight Level change instruction on Tower frequency; fixed

Vehicles

• Added new ground vehicle type - Airport Police Car (model Bjord Scout PSE). Bjord Scout Police Special Edition features cranked up engine with dual exhausts, strengthened frame, hydraulic-boosted steering, individually locking rear doors, interior gunmount, heads-up display, dual HF-radios and many other improvements over stock version to make Airport Police Officers life a tad easier; added
• Added working flasher to Rosencrantz AFF5 fire truck; configured according to active flasher standard (85 flashes per minute rate); added
• Added working siren to Rosencrantz AFF5 fire truck; added
• Added working flasher to Bjord Scout PSE police\airport security car; configured according to active flasher standard (100 flashes per minute rate \ 50 dual flash-sequences per minute); added
• Added working siren to Bjord Scout PSE police\airport security car; added
• Optimized all vehicle headlights, turning lights, brake lights and rear lights to use less computations for lighting; changed
• Fixed Large Fuel Trucks erroneously not splitting fuel loading into sequential job orders when required fuel quantity is more than the capacity of Large Fuel Truck, thus forming a request for refueling that could have never been completed; fixed
• Fixed Large Fuel Truck using refill-rate and fuel delivery rate values those of Small Fuel Truck; fixed
• Changed the way Cargo aircraft are serviced pre-flight: from now on Fuel can be loaded parallel to loading cargo; changed
• Fixed Large Fuel truck not accounting for refueled Aircraft wing height and thus not operating forward lift-platform when refueling high-wing aircraft; fixed
• Fixed heliport vehicles routing rare bug that may have resulted in two heliport mini-buses to lock-up due to permissions to drive inconsistency when entering and exiting Heliport vehicles base at the same time; fixed

Facilities

• Added new East Service Hangars, featuring two hangar stands able to accommodate SUPERHEAVIES (max wingspan 75m); both hangars spots feature independent sets of rolling doors, individual lighting and access to maintenance shacks inside hangar; added
• Added Passenger Terminal 2 (East) building (light version); fully walkable inside model of the Passenger Terminal 2 will be added in future versions; added
• Added fully functional Jetways to Pax Terminal 2: jetways can be driven in designated maneuvering area of a parking stand, adjust height, roll and extension length to connect to any type of aircraft a parking stand supports; Jetway interiors are modeled thus making it possible to walk from Passenger Terminal 2 via Jetway to aircraft boarding door and back; added
• Added Airport Security (Airport Police) Station building next to Aerodelish Catering building; added

ATC

• Changed radar readouts frequency to depend on distance of closest aircraft on approach to active runway to ensure proper conflict resolutions of precision and non-precision approaches within 5nm range of active runway threshold; since the new algorithm relies on circular distance measuring (actual radar distance instead of calculating a triangle's edge distance) it does not care for cases when traffics are on opposite headings (visual approach traffic on downwind and precision approach traffic on runway heading), it will detect and recognize distance as close and will increase the frequency of radar readouts while resolution for possible conflict is not issued; since in most cases visual approach traffic will be given an instruction to either Extend Downwind or Orbit Left\Right, the distance then will naturally increase effectively lowering the radar readout frequency; this new method ensures much more potent ATC capability to predict and solve possible conflicts in 5nm area while gradually increasing and decreasing CPU load when needed; changed
• Added ATC radio-call on Intercomm frequency when all required ground services to an aircraft are delivered; aircraft Type, Registartion Number and Parking Stand are specified in this radio call; added
• Added 3 new Airports: Lepsing Intl (JDDP/LPS, 980nm away), Sandopure Intl (JSSS/SAN, 2710nm away), Hing Hong Intl (JHHH/HNG, 3230nm away); added
• Fixed ATC issuing correct runway vacate instruction while setting incorrect direction-of-taxi flag, which in some cases may have resulted in aircraft taxing after landing to taxi to incorrect aprons (e.g. Cargo Aircraft taxing to Pax Apron East) thou still having perfectly correct taxi clearance from ATC; fixed
• ATC now correctly appends "Heavy" to callsigns of Heavy aircraft; added

Sound

• Added new sounds for A210 aircraft engine operations, recorded in hangar on actual CF6-80 engine and remastered to allow for fine blending with APU running idle sound; added
• Added siren sounds for Rosencrantz AFF5 fire truck; siren operates in two modes - Mode A uses 1,5 second sin-waveform tones and Mode B uses 7x0,25 second short burst tones; added
• Added siren sounds for Bjord Scout PSE police\airport security car; added
• Added heavy hangar doors rolling sounds for East Service Hangars; added
• Added new UI sounds associated with Player Avatar Experience and Leveling: level up, skill point added, skill point subtracted, experience gained; added
• Fixed sound audibility ranges for several vehicles and buildings; fixed
• Fixed Doppler-shift effects on several vehicles and buildings; fixed

Visual enhancements

• Added vehicle driving lanes to Apron East; added
• Added parking stands numbers on asphalt\concrete for stands V1-V14 and U1-U3; added
• Added hot air effect to jet engines (for aircraft types: RJ10, RJ5X, E30P, J358, CT55, A210) and APUs (for aircraft types: RJ5X, J358, CT55, A210); the new hot air effect uses high-efficiency shader that on contrary to original hot air effect using alpha-blending of particles that was introduced in v.0.2.1 and disabled due to performance issues especially on *Nix platforms in 0.2.3a; the new hot air effect has minimum impact on game performance and adds great looking hot air distortion; added
• Added new shader for vertical surfaces eliminating flickering (z-buffer fighting) on vertical surfaces that are very far from the camera; added
• Fixed incorrect distance to camera measurement for several groups of taxiway signs on taxiways P, H, K, J, E - previously some of them measured distance to camera based on incorrect location data which may have caused some taxiway signs disappearing from view despite they should not have as per Detail Draw Distance setting; fixed
• Added new advanced shading model to graphics sub-engine allowing for detailed high quality shadows on all objects and terrain MTMLBs: the resulting shadows are crisp, accurate, computation-efficient and produce overall great picture; added
• Changed General Shadow settings to crisper high definition shadowing model on higher game quality settings (Maximum and High are affected); shadowing precision and shadow cascades also increased for Maximum setting; this may cause slight FPS decrease on older video cards, while having minimal to no impact on newer GPUs; changed
• Changed MTMLBs shader to more efficient computation model allowing to accept new high quality shadows; changed
• Changed minimum draw distance for MTMLB-tiles and terrain tiles in vicinity of Player's airport to work best with new shadows model; changed
• Changed minimum draw distances for taxiway signs to work best with new shadows model; changed
• Fixed elevation data for ILS GS and LOC antennas, Wind Tees and other navigation and meteorology equipment to blend perfectly with MTMLBs using new shadows model; fixed
• Fixed no shadows been cast by Small Wind Tees; fixed
• Changed blending with ground markings shader; pure physical-based multi-layer pre-multiplied alpha-blending is now used; changed
• Changed blending of some small ground-level decals overlapping MTMLBs to use faster and more efficient shader; fixed

Cameras

• Added 2 new QuickCams to Overview Camera rollout, available when hovering mouse cursor over overview cam button in main UI: Terminal 2 and Service Hangars East; added
• Changed minimum and maximum distances for ObjectCam for many object types, primarily for vehicles and airplanes: vehicles are now split into three categories: cars, vans and trucks\buses, ensuring adequate zoom in capability is available for smaller cars while no polygon occlusions happen when ObjectCam is on larger truck or bus object; also tweaked values of different wing spans of airplanes; changed

User Interface

• Added Achievements screen providing access to achievements and Airport Upgrade Tiers (also available via [F2] on keyboard; added
• Added Skills to New Game Character Customization Screen; upon starting a new game a Player is presented with average (default) skill distribution of having 3 points in each of the Skills Levels; it is possible using Plus and Minus buttons to customize starting Skills to Player's liking; in order to start the game (Start button turns green) Player needs to input his or her Avatar Name and distribute all unallocated skill points; added
• Added Player Avatar display to main UI buttons bar: the box displays Avatar, current Airport Upgrade Tier, current Player Level, Experience bar (floating notifications appear for approximately 2 seconds over EXP bar every time experience points gained); upon reaching new Level(s), three running arrows appear next to Player avatar to indicate there are unallocated Skill Point(s) - clicking anywhere in Avatar area brings up Airport Administration \ General Manager tab, where unallocated Skill Point(s) can be spent on improving one of Player's skills; added
• Changed the layout of Airport Administration \ General Manager tab, from now on: area to the left of Avatar displays Skills (and when Unallocated Skill points left - controls allowing to improve skills) alongside with Skill Icons, Skill Tag and Skill Description; avatar is now larger and has a gold medal icon with current level; right part includes ratings: Airport Upgrade Tier, Average Airlines Rating, City Mayor's Rating, Game Difficulty; changed
• Removed Airport Upgrade Tier preview dropdown from Airport Administration \ General Manager tab list as it has no use anymore; removed
• Changed position and size of Alpha Build watermark on screen; made it less visible, moved to lower right corner and made it visible even when UI is turned off using [F12] key; changed
• Changed how Level Up, Game Saved, Upgrade Complete!, Insufficient funds pop-up messages appear; from now on they do so above all UI screens, i.e. Player will see Level Up animation or 'Game Autosaved' notice even if they are currently on Flight Planning or Contracts screen; changed
• Added Tax Rate display to Airport Management\Financial Tab; added
• Added new statistical group Taxes to bar-chart display area of Expenses in Airport Management\Financial Tab; added
• Changed name of statistical group Passenger Terminal Businesses to Businesses & Commercial Services to better reflect statistical parameters of the group; changed
• Added Tax Rate display to Financial tab of Airport Management screen; added
• Added display of the following statistics parameters: Service Contracts Accepted, Service Contracts Rejected, Service Contracts Complete to Statistics screens; added
• Added help-screen page on Transition Altitude \ Transition Level and local Q-pressure values; added
• Fixed several typos on several UI screens; fixed

Airport Master Early Access Public v. 0.3.2 Alpha released AUG 28, 2018

Game workflow

• Added Game Difficulty Setting: currently the following game aspects are affected by Game Difficulty Setting Player selects on starting a new game: a) initial financial subsidy from City Mayor, b) all financial subsidies from City Mayor received as rewards after completing Mayor's Quests (like servicing 100th aircraft, performing 100 upgrades etc.), c) fuel costs on FBO fuel contracts, d) airline rating changes (both increase and decrease), e) initial quantity of fuels (100LL and Jet1A) left in tanks from Player's avatar predecessor on Airport GM position, f) salaries of already hired personnel and personnel being hired due to Airport facility upgrades, g) electric power cost per kWh; e) electric power consumption; added
• Added protection to Flight Scheduling system that would not allow scheduling of flights of Aircraft that require higher Airport Upgrade Tier; as a double measure (for hypothetical cases of erroneous data in saved games or Player intentionally tampering with saved games) additional protection was added upon any Flight operation start that would also prevent such Aircraft to appear in game world before the required Airport Upgrade Tier is achieved; added
• Added bounds protection that is a fix to a very rare bug report by our Player Steven (thank you!) and also once reported by CAT-tester that exhibited very strange behavior: if upon saving a game an aircraft was starting a new flight op (regardless of type) and then the saved game is reloaded, and aircraft could have been placed below ground level while reporting it's on parking stand or in the air - from now on, a strict protection mechanism is added that addresses this issue - if at any time Aircraft's reported altitude ever goes below ground level - it's simply removed from the game world, without affecting Airline ratings; fixed \ added
• Added GSE vehicles driveway east (as part of Airport Upgrade Tiers 3 - leading from FBO Fuel Base East to Cargo Apron and Tier 4 - leading from Cargo Apron via FBO Fuel Base East to Passenger Terminal 2 Apron (Apron East); added
• Added FBO Fuel Base East facility with two large cisterns holding (370,000 Liters Jet 1A fuel each); added
• Changed how Fuel Tankers are purchased (upgraded) and associated staff hired: from now on, each consecutive Fuel Truck (Tanker) purchase will result in hiring 3 drivers\operators to cover 3 shifts (24 hours); changed
• Tweaked fuel transfer rates for both Small fuel tankers and Large fuel tankers based on FBO Fuel Transfer Rate upgrade level: Small Fuel Tanker: L1: 17 L\sec; L2: 23 L\sec; L3: 28 L\sec; Large Fuel Tanker: L1: 35 L\sec; L2: 41 L\sec; L3: 53 L\sec; tweaked
• Changed how fuel system (mainly for Jet1A fuel tanks) works in the Airport: all Jet1A tanks (tank A is available at game start, larger tanks B and C are upgrades that become available when upgrading Airport from Tier 3 to Tier 4) are linked together via underground pipeline with 2 fuel balancers installed: one allows Player to balance fuel between Tanks A and B, the other one controls fuel transfer between tanks B and C; when purchasing fuel at Refineries, it is always delivered to tank A; Player may select from one of the following Fuel Balancer modes: NO CROSSFLOW - crossflow is closed between given pair of tanks; AUTO EQUAL - automatically equalizes fuel levels for given pair of tanks; MANUAL TRANSFER - allows for manual control of fuel transfer at any time; note: fuel balancer installed between Tanks B and C has additional mode - AUTO FILL B - now, for Fuel Base located on eastern side (Airport Upgrade Tiers 3 thru 5, serves Cargo Apron and Pax Terminal 2 Apron it is typical to crossflow from both tanks B and C to refill tankers, it is however possible for base operator to issue order to fill a tanker from C - so this additional fuel balancer mode allows gathering fuel in tank B - which is useful when fuel levels are low; Fuel Tanks A and B have nontransferable reserve level, which is currently set to 1 refill volume of a tanker operating using this tank - 17,000L for Tank A and 41,000L for Tank B; Tank C has no set reserve margin, so it is possible to dry this tank completely by transferring fuel to other tanks; if any of the AUTO modes encounters a restriction or is unable to perform as programmed, corresponding fuel balancer switches to NO CROSSFLOW mode and if required, notifies Player via notification system and\or on radio on intercom channel; changed
• Changed how notifications are issued (both yellow and red warnings) in regard to low fuel levels: there are now two sets of warnings: set 1 works as previously (25% and 10%) but not for individual tank but rather for total fuel capacity; set 2 issues warnings in case there is a refill or fuel delivery problem is encountered (when refilling a tanker or trying to deliver 100LL fuel to G\A and Helicopters aprons via pipeline); changed
• Added new type of Airport Fee: Cargo processing fee, this fee is charged per 1 kg of cargo entering or exiting Cargo Terminal sorting area; added
• Added Fire and Rescue Service firefighters training simulator - this modern firefighting simulator can be used to mimic fire on fuselage and all types of engines (jet, prop, wing-mounted, tail-mounted); firefighters training simulator area will be used for Player scheduled firefighters' daily training exercises; added
• Added Cargo management module; added
• Added first batch of LD3 cargo containers (20 for Fong Air Cargo and 20 for CargoLet), each ULD (including pallets) has its own number and logo painted\stickered on front and back, is unique, can be tracked by Cargo management module (in future versions, when Cargo terminal inside space is implemented, Player will be able to walk among cargo sorting lines and storage in warehouse - and see (and track) which cargo ULDs arrived with which flight etc.; added
• Fixed airplanes filing flight plan for local visual circuit training sometimes not getting correct shortened runway in flight clearance for runway 16; fixed
• Fixed annoying bug with situations when there is enough fuel left from previous flight (mostly noticeable on local VFR flights) and\or load sheet for new flight has lower value than currently on board - thou the algorithm of checking for this condition was correct it had a small bug with floating point variable used to determine minimum fuel request at FBO, due to incorrect division this figure may have resulted in setting state of the aircraft to 'waiting for fuel via pipeline' thou the miniscule amount would at the same time prevent FBO from actually creating a pipeline job; hopefully fixed
• Added Fong Cargo airline (a subsidiary of Fong Air), code FNC; in future versions the mechanics of influence of ratings of daughter\subsidiary on parent Airline ratings and vice versa will also be implemented; added
• Fixed CargoLet airline initial rating was incorrect on game start; fixed
• Added 37 new ground movement routes around Apron East area and taxiway Papa; added
• Added the following Statistical values: Tons of Incoming Cargo Processed, Tons of Outgoing Cargo Processed, Total Tons of Cargo Processed to stats module; added
• Added temporary Cargo unloading mode for Cargo Loaders when they encounter aircraft like AN25, in which case making it to the rear loading ramp of such cargo aircraft without colliding seems not-practicable, in such case Cargo Loader would unload ULDs first to the ground and then perform semi-automatic loading on ramp; added
• Fixed bug with fuel trucks (small and large) may have reported that tanker refill from FBO's tank is complete while actually it was still underway - this bug manifested rarely, specifically when saving and immediately reloading a game while tanker refill was in progress; fixed

Aircraft

• Added new helicopter - Airecoach Helicopters A305 (real-world prototype: Airbus Helicopters H125, formerly Eurocopter AS350 B3) - this unique helicopter was able to actually climb the required obstacle clearance altitude and land on Mount Everest summit - which is very important for rescue ops in so called 'death zone' on the mountain; besides, AS350 is among the most popular (3590 built to date) helicopters on the planet and it has some distinctive features: easy to operate, very capable and reliable; helicopters in the following liveries were added: N364B, N8311F, QS-LDA, CA-HZE (Private operators) and HV-TUL (operator: MedEvac); added
• Added 2 new liveries for AN25 cargo aircraft - N382P & N202S (operated by Fong Cargo); added
• Fixed incorrect prop rotation direction for AN25 left engine; fixed
• Fixed rare bug with game being saved and immediately reloaded while an aircraft was lining up or vacating active runway may have caused aircraft to get stuck; fixed
• Fixed bug with L20V aircraft type landing and taxi lights halo effects were shifted beyond the light bays glass, resulting in incorrect depiction of both halos and projecting lights; now moved to appropriate distance; fixed

Vehicles

• Added new service vehicle type - 41,000L Fuel Truck (model PAS Excelente 41). Perfect Airport Services Excelente 41 high capacity fuel truck with dual frontal steering axis allows for refueling of medium to super heavy aircraft. Its massive 41,000L tank holds enough to refuel most medium and heavy aircraft in one go, while sporting a hydraulic lift platform to allow re-fueling of high-wing heavies and super heavies; added
• Added new vehicle movement mechanics: Dual Front Steering Axis Heavy Trucks; added

ATC

• Changed how ATC assigns full length runway takeoffs vs shortened runway takeoffs: for runways 17 and 35 - omitted; for runway 34: depends only on aircraft's capability and flight crew decision to perform shortened takeoff (note: general aviation aircraft will in most cases try to acquire clearance for shortened takeoff from intersection Golf); for runway 16: general aviation and cargo flights (that will reach runway 16 via intersections Echo and Hotel) - full-length takeoff is mandatory, shortened takeoff requests will be denied; for aircraft requesting clearance from Apron East (Passenger Terminal 2) and Service Hangars Apron East - depends only on aircraft's capability and flight crew decision to perform shortened takeoff; changed
• Changed how Apron East entry and exit taxing is performed: all aircraft regardless of gate \ stand \ hangar assignment, regardless of runway in use (16 or 34) from now on must enter Apron East via taxiway Kilo and exit Apron East via taxiway Juliet; pushback directions to be adjusted accordingly; changed
• Changed how handoff from TWR to DEP occurs: now on reporting airborne, VFR traffics and local visual circuit training flights stay on TWR frequency, while IFR departures proceed via proper handoff to DEP frequency; changed
• Changed how vacate runway instructions are issued by TWR controller: from now on no runway vacate instructions are issued prior to aircraft slows down to approximately 50-40 knots on landing roll (for future compatibility with touch-and-go's and aborted landings with main gear already touched the runway), instead TWR issues a specific runway vacate instruction and proper GND handoff at the end of landing roll; changed
• Fixed ATC incorrectly treating some MedEvac helicopters and airplanes as being privately operated; now actual MedEvac callsign and flight designators on Flight Strips are used; fixed

Sound

• Added new sounds for A305 helicopter, recorded on actual AS350 B3, startup sequence shortened, shutdown sequence blended with sounds of main rotor spinning down to produce more realistic engine shutdown sound; added
• Added new guard rails sound for Headman 14 Universal Cargo Loader; added
• Added ULD rolling sounds for two surfaces: Cargo Terminal dispenser and Cargo Loader platforms rollers; added

Visual enhancements

• Added new 22m high light masts to Cargo Apron area with light cones reaching 100m light dissolve margin; same kind of lights will be used at Passenger Terminal 2 apron area in future; added
• Added ULD-container conveyors and loading areas to Cargo terminal building; added
• Fixed incorrect use of flashing lights by some Ground Service Vehicles: due to state detection error it was possible to induce such mode in which flashing lights would never go off; fixed
• Increased minimal distance at which larger city objects (Soccer Stadium, Warehouses, Expo Center etc.) are drawn unconditionally; changed

Cameras

• Fixed AN25 aircraft preset for Object View Camera - from erroneous 22m wingspan to 30m wingspan, so no more steep angles when viewing this aircraft using Object View Camera; fixed
• Fixed discretion on float values used to determine the tempo of camera movement acceleration when holding directional keys pressed; fixed
• Changed how transparent surfaces\materials are cached\batched when using all forward-rendering path cameras; slightly increased performance on all outside cameras; changed
• Tweaked Airport Overview camera maximum range of travel to correctly allow it to reach farthermost corner of Cargo Terminal; changed
• Changed how colliders on complex objects affect Airport Overview camera movement near them, new improved algorithm ensures clickable objects are still clickable even when a collider is either dead ahead of said camera or when it already affects camera movement by letting it overflow a collider using nearest gravity-induced path; changed

User Interface

• Added Game Difficulty selector to New Game Character Selection Screen with Normal difficulty as default setting and options being Easy and Hard; upon clicking on desired game difficulty the description of a difficulty setting is displayed in the box below the selector; added
• Added flight classifier 'Emergency Flight' to Flight Schedule Slot Editor; added
• Changed Flight Schedule Slot Editor window to be movable by clicking its header, holding mouse down and dragging to a new position, so that it does not obscure flights on Flight Schedule screen, previously invisible while Slot Editor occupied center of the screen; changed
• Significantly re-designed FBO: Fuel UI; changed
• Moved Fuel Contracts to Airport Contracts UI; changed
• Added 2 Fuel Balancers UI to FBO: Fuel management screen; note: fuel balancers are only available when Airport is at Upgrade Tier 4 and above; added
• Added Total Fuel Volume and Total Fuel Worth display, which reflects currently set prices and is very useful when estimating fuel costs vs sell price; added
• Changed FBO Fuel UI - sell price selectors for Jet1A and 100LL were assigned a special area of the screen, data on currently available and active Fuel Tanks became modular and dynamic; capacity of all Fuel Tanks is now shown below current volume of fuel in a tank; changed
• Added new cursor - Click and Drag; normal cursor now changes to four-arrow drag here cursor when over drag-n-drop UI elements; added
• Fixed time stamp in Comms Box messages not being visible on some screen resolutions; fixed
• Changed Airplane Info Window display so that it displays only data relevant to aircraft type: e.g. CARGO is not shown for aircraft without cargo capacity and vice versa - PAX not shown for cargo-only aircraft; changed
• Added Cargo Processing fee setter slider to Airport Fees management tab in Airport Management screen; added
• Fixed clicking on 'New Service Contract Available' notification leading correctly to Airport Contracts screen but incorrectly to 'Fuel Contracts' tab instead of 'Service Hangars Contracts' tab; fixed
• Fixed incorrect Save Game \ Load Game window title; fixed
• Fixed typos in some game tips shown on game loading screen; fixed

Airport Master Early Access Public v. 0.3.1 Alpha released MAY 25, 2018

Game workflow

• Added new Aircraft Atlas definitions for each aircraft in game: minimum landing distance, minimum tkof distance, minimum airport upgrade tier at which aircraft in question may appear in game world - as a preparation to actually enabling Players to upgrade Airport tiers and to keep sane with shortened takeoffs and mid-runway vacating for new runway 16-34; added
• Added 20 new taxi routes around Apron 2; added
• Added definitions for Cargo parking stands (S1 thru S3), new Passenger Terminal 2 Apron East parking stands\gates (V1 thru V8, W1 thru W6 and T1 thru T3), service hangars H4 and H5; added
• Changed how aircraft on Missed Approach measure minimal distance before first turn as per published IFR go-around procedure, from now pilots actually use distance to APT VOR\DME; changed
• Changed how Lights Controller module processes rules for day\night\dusk\dawn and LVP-induced lighting procedures sets of rules: from now on airport lighting schemes are not hard-coded but rather are a dictionary of rule-sets that can be used by ATC (and in future versions freely edited by Player, with regard to realistic lighting requirements, of course) to implement custom light-schemes: e.g. while taxiway centerline green LED-lamps are mandatory if installed during LVP, Player may elect to disable them at dusk and dawn hours, but keep them lit at night (reducing power costs), basically this new implementation gives freedom of airport lighting schemes configuration; changed
• Changed how ATC selects Runway In Use - since both new and old runways are facing common prevailing winds in Appleton Airport area and taking into account that we really want Open Alpha Players to test Runway 16-34 operations extensively, temporarily ATC will prefer runway 16 over runway 17 and runway 34 over runway 35 regardless of aircraft type and length of taxi route, later on, when both runways ops are well-tested, Player will have the choice to keep both runways active (higher energy bill, faster taxi times for Business and G\A aircraft) or use only Runway 16-34 (lower energy bill, longer taxi for Business and G\A aircraft); please keep in mind that since there's no required separation of 2000m between runways centerlines (as per ICAO regulations), no parallel runway operations will ever be possible, however in 2-active-runways scheme it will be possible to issue say a 'lineup runway 17 and wait' clearance right after another aircraft touches down on runway 16 and so on; changed
• Changed how ground movement segments are handled - a new robust algorithm replaced the old one where segments were initialized on game start (and also any savegame reload, exit to main menu and re-enter game world etc.) and then specifically checked against saved data, from now on ATC preserves its continuous ground segment map which only syncs with savegame data if a disambiguation is encountered, also no pre-initialization is required - this will save loading time and is a step to error-free ground segments management, which is crucial as Player's airport grows larger; changed
• Added radar display de-clutter controls to Radar Display Unit in Control Tower: an additional panel with clickable led-illuminated mode change buttons was added to SkyView Radar Unit enabling Player to switch on or off the following markings: VORs, NDBs, Extended Runway Centerlines, Visual Ref Points, Mandatory Reporting Points, Rotating Beam and toggle between full (TWR-style) and brief (APP\CTR-style) target identification labels; added
• Fixed smaller G\A aircraft that do not require post-flight services incorrectly reporting there are still passengers, baggage and waste onboard after going to idle mode and until new company loadsheet is received; fixed
• Changed monitor sizes in Control Tower (Apron 1) to larger size, also increased resolution on all ATC monitors; changed
• Added heliport apron F camera on lighting pole near heliport; the display of this camera becomes available at workplace of heliport controller in Control Tower once the corresponding Airport Upgrade Tier is unlocked (beforehand, said monitor is turned off); added
• Increased interval of time between helicopter engines startup/shutdown/control hover operations for smoother and more realistic behavior; tweaked
• Fixed bug with Flight School airplanes may not go to proper shutdown sequence due to the fact that their flight number has already changed in Flight Schedule and they were making invalid data requests using non-valid flight number; fixed

Aircraft

• Added new aircraft - Andronov AN25 (real-world prototype: Antonov An-26-100B) - initially developed as a military transport, recon, radio-relay and supplementary bomber, this aircraft took part in the majority of armed conflicts of second half of XX century and after retiring from military service it's second life as an utility cargo aircraft started, many Cargo operators around the World strived to acquire one as its ramp allows for quick loading\unloading of various cargo units (both pallets and ULD containers); Aircraft in the following liveries were added: VP-POB, VP-PWH (operator: CargoLet); added

Vehicles

• Added new service vehicle type - Universal Cargo Loader (model Headman 14, based on real-world Commander 15i). Cargo Loader has bridge and rear platforms (max 7 tons load each) and room for 3 LD3-containers or 3 universal cargo pallets. Cargo Loader is capable of loading\unloading cargo at Cargo terminal from rear, left or right and is compatible with all modern cargo aircraft configurations (ramp, lower deck, full-cargo). As usual, the vehicle features real world performance data as to turn radius, movement speed restriction, platforms lift-motors performance, convey speed etc.; added

ATC

• Added the following SIDs: LINTA 2D, LINTA 4F, MONET 1F, MONET 4S, PAROM 2D, PAROM 1C and STARs: LINTA 7E, LINTA 8A, MONET 7K, MONET 8L, PAROM 4W, PAROM 7B for IFR operations on runways 16 and 34; Added
• Added routing for VFR flights arriving and departing to and from runways 16 and 34 via VFR points: N, NE, E, W and SW; added
• Added ILS for runways 16 (IAT, 109.35 MHz, 163 deg) and 34 (IAP, 111.10 MHz, 343 deg); added
• Added NDBs for runways 16 (AT, 520 kHz and TA, 350 kHz) and 34 (AP, 580 kHz and PA, 305 kHz); added
• Implemented ILS, VOR and Visual approaches to runways 16 and 34; added
• Added go-around (missed approach) routes for runways 16 and 34; added
• Fixed ATC giving altitude clearance for IFR Missed Approach in same manner as for visual go-around; now IFR go-around altitude clearance follows published procedure (e.g. climb 1000 ft on runway heading, u-turn to VOR, climb 2000 ft and re-join localizer); fixed
• Fixed phraseology for IFR Go-Arounds; fixed
• Fixed radar display continued to display STAR name in Clearance Limit section of Radar label instead of 'GO AROUND' even after status changed at ATC; fixed
• Implemented conditional display of ATC radar screen aids and markings in relation to current Airport Upgrade Tier, so Radar screen shall only display helicopter visual points PT-HA and PT-HD when Player had upgraded Airport to include Heliport (Tier 2), only display ILS 16\ILS 34 range lines on screen when Airport is at Upgrade Tier 3 etc.; changed

Sound

• Tweaked (again) engines sounds audibility ranges for all types of aircraft and rotorcraft: smaller piston props range increased; VLJs - range decreased; larger jets and twin-turboprops - range decreased; tweaked
• Added new sounds for AN25 aircraft, recorded on actual AN24-RV (same engines as AN26-100B), RU19 (AN24\26 APU\takeoff boost engine) engine sound synthesized; added

Visual enhancements

• Added new modern-style LED-lights to Apron 2: runway centerline red, runway centerline white, runway borderline white, taxiway borderline blue, taxiway centerline green; those consume 60% less electrical power than old-style lamps and almost never malfunction; added
• Added Appleton Airport logos to some ground support vehicles; added
• Added new models, lighting models, light maps for new type LED runway centerline and border line lights; added
• Added 2 new types of 25-storey buildings to city-side; currently static, in later versions would be used in auto-generated blocks of buildings; added

Cameras

• Fixed incorrect requirements of Airport Upgrade Tier for Overview Camera quick cams; fixed
• Added 2 new Quick Cam locations: Hangars West and Cargo Apron; added
• Changed render resolution on some pre-pass cameras that render transparent details in forward rendering path for better blending of complex semi-transparent materials without the need to use second pass shader; changed
• Tweaked how speed of movement for free-cam type cameras (e.g. Airport Overview, Pax Terminal Inside cam etc.) gets adjusted basing on how long the directional key is pressed: camera movement acceleration is slower in the beginning (for slow and fluid near movement and it gets faster the longer Player holds direction key pressed - for faster far movements); tweaked

User Interface

• Added Financial Graphs to Finance tab in Airport Administration screen; Incomes and Expenses breakup by general type graphs are now available in the left section of the screen for easier analysis of cash flow; currently Incomes are segmented into 5 major types and Expenses are segmented into 7 major types, each represented by its own bar-graph (note: numerical per cent value is omitted on graph when the value is less than 1% of total sum, otherwise it's displayed in clearly readable box above the bar-graph itself); added
• Changed how Financial values Brief Line looks in Finance tab in Airport Administration screen: from now on it's one continuous line with left part being Income values (total, per day, per hour), middle part being Expenses (total, per day, per hour) and right part being current balance; all parts are color-coded per our standard scheme (red - expenses, green - incomes, golden on blue - balance); changed
• Added radar display de-clutter controls to Radar UI Overlay, including capability to switch on or off the following markings: VORs, NDBs, Extended Runway Centerlines, Visual Ref Points, Mandatory Reporting Points, Rotating Beam and toggle between full (TWR-style) and brief (APP\CTR-style) target identification labels; added
• Changed Game Loading Screen: instead of dark background it now features colorful in-game stills, more distinguishable 'game tips' area. In later versions Loading Screen will also display information on current Player achievements; changed
• Added Income Per Hour, Income Per Day, Expense Per Hour and Expense Per Day display in Finances tab; also these values will be used by City Mayor when setting goals for Player; added
• Added new Status Panel icons to display runways 16 and 34 as active runways; added
• Changed LVP\IMC\VMC icons on Status Panel; changed

Airport Master Early Access Public v. 0.3.0 Alpha released APR 08, 2018

Game workflow

• Added Service Contracts Mechanics: service contracts (available in game UI via Contracts button or F8 key on keyboard) present the market of aircraft servicing contract offers. It currently works like this: 1) upon starting the new game (regardless career or free play mode), each aircraft gets initialized with its current service state including date of last Form-A, Form-B and Form-C technical servicing timestamps; 2) upon certain time interval, the technical state of all aircraft is re-evaluated against very complex probability randomizer, which is set up in such a way that aircraft serviced longest time ago has higher chance to malfunction in one of the several categories (airfoil, mechanical, hydraulics, engine, electrics, operational fluids etc.) - if such a malfunction is reported by a pilot (e.g. magneto on piston engine), a corresponding service contract appears on the market - i.e. Player's airport along with nearby airports (an airport must provide hangar services and lie within reach distance of one flight); 3) when contract is formed by aircraft owner, it may include one or two additional services required (e.g. [eng] 100-hours engine check (hence time has come) + [hyd] hydraulics line check (probability ~32,5%) + [elec] right landing light lamp change (probability ~12,5%, which does not stack with previous random roll); 4) Player evaluates offered contract against hangar(s) he or she has available and against servicing capabilities said hangars have (i.e. cannot accept service contract for customer aircraft with wingspan larger than that of largest hangar, cannot accept contract if the only hangar doing computer diagnostics is already occupied and the contract requires that service etc.); 5) if Player accepts a contract - corresponding ARR and DEP flights are scheduled, if Player rejects contract a decrease in rating with operator Airline (or Private Pilots Association) will be applied; if Player does nothing (does not accept the contract, does not reject it) - the contract has expiry time (about 4 to 8 hours for smaller aircraft and about 22-37 hours for larger aircraft), upon hitting the expiry time - the contract is automatically rewarded to some other Service Hangars operator on the market leading to minimum negative rating change and customer aircraft in question not available in the game world for any purposes while it's servicing is complete plus some time more; Note: at any time between 30 minutes Service Contract is available on the market and its expiry time, if not accepted nor rejected it may be awarded to a competing airport with Service facilities; a notification is displayed upon new Service Contract becomes available and first 30 minutes are guaranteed to hold contract available for Player to accept\reject; Added
• Added capability for an Airline to cancel one, several or all flights for its Aircraft for given day (without affecting Player's Airport rating with Airline) due to several possible reasons: weather, aircraft malfunction, re-scheduling purposes; added
• Added new rules for Airlines ratings changing when dealing with Service Contracts: for accepting a Service Contract - owner's Airline rating change is +0.5%; for rejecting a Service Contract with owner Airline: -1%; for completing a Service Contract with owner Airline: +1,5%; thus by accepting and then fulfilling a Service Contract Player can totally increase Airline rating up to +2%; note: by not rejecting a contract but letting it expire or be picked up by another Airport's FBO it is possible to escape -1% penalty to Airline rating but at the cost of new Service Contracts not appearing sooner; added
• Added ATIS\ATIS-D: the ATIS (Automated Terminal Information System) message is generated in Appleton airport every hour at all times; a new weather observation is included in ATIS message if one or more of the following conditions are met at any given time: 1) mean measured steady wind speed and\or sporadic recent wind gust speed changes more than 7 knots between two recent observations; 2) prevailing mean measured wind direction changes 20 or more degrees between two recent observations; 3) visibility changes more than 1000 meters on surface level straight line between two recent observations; 4) QNH local air pressure changes 5 or more hectopascal (mbar) between two recent observations; 5) temperature changes or dew-point fluctuates more than 5 degrees C within last 30 minutes - in such case a new ATIS message containing the latest observation is generated; pilots are required to specify ATIS info designator\letter when requesting clearances and ATC is required to confirm the latest ATIS information onboard aircraft is correct; ATIS messages are transmitted on CommBox ATIS channel\tab with every update, also upon switching to ATIS tab the new fresh ATIS message readout is loaded regardless if ATIS itself changed or not; added
• Added weather descriptive blocks - instead of previously used fixed variables defining current weather set, new implementation is used from now on - WDB (weather descriptive block) - this expandable information block contains mandatory weather info (such as visibility, temperature, pressure, cloud coverage etc.) and may contain other non-mandatory properties such as weather area-specific differences (example: thunderstorm west of Appleton, transitioning north to south, not passing Airport itself), corrections to existing weather data (example: cloud coverage is 4 octants in general in TMA area but there is an 'opening' above the mountains area, where cloud coverage measures 1-2 octants) - the major benefit of this new system is capability to freely mix WDBs, measure differences between 2 or more WDBs etc. - this is a very important step towards full-scale weather engine coming in version updates 0.3.x a; added
• Changed how completed flight ops are removed from current Time Schedule - now the actual removal happens when both flights ops in a pair (ARR + DEP) have been completed; changed
• Added support for various helicopter rotor types configurations (Fixed Ratio Single-shaft with all possible tail-rotor ratios, gearbox-reduction type, 2-,3-,4-,5-blade main rotors with blade tip speeds all subsonic and NOTAR-specific configuration are implemented; Tandem- and Coaxial- specific configurations - to come in future versions); added
• Added support for single-strobe light and single-beacon light on helicopters; added
• Added support for blended night-lights over distance - previously the only setting for night-lights of game-world background objects (buildings lights, far lights, road lights etc.) was pre-configured intensity of light, from now on the new setting (will be actively tweaked in following versions) for dispersion of lights facing camera with distance to active camera and eventually taking into account atmospheric characteristics (compatible with both Rayleigh and Mie atmospheric scattering models) is used; added
• Fixed helicopter engine module not respecting time-freeze \ time-speed \ time-skip conditions; fixed
• Modified number of positions taken by hangar specialists and mechanics on initial game start to 10 per each hangar, 3 shifts per day; changed specialties of mechanics and engineers in accordance with new service hangars system; changed
• Fixed owner Airline being reported as 3-letter airline code instead of Full Airline Name and vice versa, sometimes causing incorrect depiction of data in various UI screens; fixed
• Fixed Flight Strips not always displaying aircraft taxing to parking after landing; fixed
• Fixed Service Hangars colliders blocking mouse clicks on Aircraft inside hangars; fixed

Aircraft

• Added new helicopter - Rovertzone R55 Crow II (real-world prototype: Robinson R44 Raven II) - a classic low-cost private helicopter produced in vast numbers (about 6000 to date including all modifications), a helicopter that one can encounter at almost every heliport or G\A airfield around the World, cost-efficient, reliable and number one choice among helicopter flight schools; Helicopters in the following liveries were added CS-OGJ, DS-PNL, LE-PUM, N401Y, N910R, RGSTA, SVRZO; added
• Added new aircraft - Viper 32 Vajano (real-world prototype: Piper PA31 Navajo) - this twin piston-prop with more than half-century history of upgrades and improvements is flying around the Globe in large numbers, for many private pilots it's the aircraft they use to get their multi-engine rating and also this aircraft is still very popular among private owners; Aircraft in the following liveries were added DA-VOL (operator: Airforce Flight Academy), N120Z, OL-CAF, PE-RTN (all three privately owned and operated); added
• Fixed gear up and gear down sound effects were swapped on VE58 aircraft; fixed
• Fixed some prop blades materials not having matte-gloss component; fixed

Sound

• Added new sounds for R55 helicopter, recorded from actual real-world prototype; added
• Added new sounds for VA32 aircraft, including specific sound-blend of PT6 engine and Hartzel triple-blade prop found on genuine real-world prototype; added

Visual enhancements

• Added Tier 3 Airport Upgrade Segments airport structures visual models: 3-1: new runway 16-34, 2530m x 44m, taxiways E (connects runway 17 end to runway 16 end) and G (connects runway 35 end to K taxiway); 3-2: Apron 2 main taxiway P, taxiways H, N (link to runway 16 end, link to Cargo terminal area), J, K (Passenger Terminal 2 entrance\exit taxiways), L (link to runway 34 end); de-icing pads on taxiways L and H; 3-3: Passenger Terminal 2 apron, inner main taxiway R, inner taxiways J and K, Large Service Hangars area taxiway O; Note: Tier 3 Airport Upgrades will be separately purchasable Airport upgrades, each with its City Mayor quest and upgrade cost, each upgrade segment of Tier 3 will unlock specific gameplay: 3-1: capability to accept largest business and medium regional aircraft; 3-2: Cargo operations and capability to accept all categories of aircraft; 3-3: capability to accept Medium, Heavy and SuperHeavy passenger aircraft; added
• Added Apron 2 taxiways designator signs (all lit at night); added
• Added Cargo Terminal building; added
• Added sub-pixel lighting to all new surfaces used on Apron 2; added
• Added new segment of MTMLB-detail textures to the area surrounding Apron 2 area, runway 16-34 and infield connecting taxiways; added
• Changed Terrain resolution to higher definition in mountains areas to the West and to North-East of Airport; changed
• Changed terrain tiles in Airport area for better blending with new Apron 2 area and new city-side blocks of buildings; changed
• Changed how Terrain pre-loader treats texture tiles: from now on - first a master tile is loaded in 8192x8192 px resolution and the pre-loader informs game loading module that 'terrain is in mode 0', indicating that all meshes calculations are complete and master-tile is loaded, immediately after that loader proceeds with loading all subsequent layers of 3D-objects, while Terrain pre-loader uses multi-threading capabilities of a CPU to continue loading detailed terrain 8192x8192 px tiles in lower-priority threads until all needed terrain tiles are loaded into memory, it then checks whether a high-detail tile(s) need to be loaded at current camera position and does so, however if not - the Terrain pre-loader starts caching detail tiles closest to Player's Airport into video memory; this new algorithm may significantly speed up game loading (and re-loading from saved game while still in game world) on multi-core CPUs, additionally camera-switching renders more fluently and GPU-buffering micro-stutters are far less likely to happen even on older GPUs and even when using significantly larger number of tiles layers than there are currently in public builds of the game; changed
• Added Appleton Expo Center building to the city-side, creating more lively look especially when viewing helicopters on visual approach and departure; added
• Added 2 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
• Adjusted night time lighting of many houses and large city building for better look at dusk\dawn\night time; changed
• Detail Draw Distance parameter now is limited on lower side to pre-configured value, below which any limitations imposed on Detail Draw Distance by option is Settings window, are lifted - this is done to ensure proper drawing of large and tiny objects in batches affected by Detail Draw Distance; changed
• Added support for both normals and sub-pixel lighting to ground tiles in service hangars; added
• Fixed missing emission map on G\A Apron Service Hangars lamps; fixed
• Fixed weird bug occurring randomly on some non-16:9 screen resolutions when some game screens would have a tiny 'running line' on pixel-coordinates x0,Yinfinity - this was caused by double division error in render camera high-pass shader when it encountered non-standard division and would round up to incorrect value; fixed

Cameras

• Added capability for Airport Overview Cam to instantly move to a specific position and view angle; added
• Tweaked default movement and rotation speeds for the following cameras: Airport Overview, In-Tower View, Pax Terminal 1 Inside Cam, General Manager's Office - all 'move-and-turn' style cameras are now smoother and faster by default; changed

User Interface

• Added Airport Upgrade Tier Preview selector to GM tab in Airport Admin screen: the lowest possible setting is currently implemented Airport Upgrade Tier, the highest is Tier 5. At any time the Player can switch the display option on GM tab to reflect any stage of Airport Development; if for some reason Player does not wish to see currently non-functional parts of future Airport Facilities or if Player wants to preview the steps in which the system of Airport Upgrade Tiers will allow him or her to expand the airport - he or she may switch to any Upgrade Tier Display mode at any time; the selection is saved with each individual savegame; added
• Added new behavior of Airport Overview Cam button in main UI to display a set of pre-configured specific positions depending on current upgrade tier of the Airport, the following quick-views were added: [T1]: runway 17 threshold, runway 35 threshold; [T2] heliport, helipad; [T3-T5]: runway 16 threshold, runway 16 threshold; added
• Added Contracts Screen (available via main menu button or F8 key on keyboard); added
• Added Hangar Contracts tab on Contracts Screen, displaying currently available service contracts, currently accepted service contracts, hangar stats, equipment and facility data as well as availability state icon and button to go directly to hangar in question with Airport Overview Cam; added
• Added Operator classifier to Flight Schedule Editor for easier 'first-glance' identification of operatiom type and operator specifics; currently the following Operator Classifiers are supported: General Aviation, Regular Operator, Flight Training, Cargo Operator, Military, Government, Has Service Contract; added
• Added color and bold text markup to Time Slot Editor in Flight Schedule for better readability of data; added
• Added new coloring for Flight Strips displaying aircraft currently in hangars, added
• Fixed internal logics when CommBox being minimized to a Comms icon would be ordered to start flashing while main UI is not visible (hidden by user or some other UI is visible instead - e.g. Flight Scheduling screen), this in turn would throw an unhandled exception, not crashing the game but effectively disabling Comms icon from flashing in future; fixed
• Added mechanism to remove all notifications of the same type (e.g. 'New service contract available') when Player clicks on one of them and gets to desired UI screen (Service Contracts in this example); added

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