With The Terminal Update and Alpha 35 now live on the default branch it's finally time for another round of AMA! This evening at 20:00 GMT+2 (CEST) (24th of May 2020) we'll host the fifth installment of the ACEO Discord AMA together with the brilliant server staff!
If you haven't already, prepare a few questions you'd like to ask us about anything and make sure to join the Discord server before 20:00 tonight.
We'd like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who's been reporting, and continued to report, bugs and issues in the wake of the Alpha 35 release and we'd like to pay it forward by releasing another small stabilization patch solving some of the most critical or common issues you're currently experiencing.
[/url]] - Disable arrival only airside shuttle bus stop from being connected to stand if stand does not have a connection to a departure airside shuttle bus stop
[/url]] - Swiftly and Stripe Air share the same IATA code [/list]
We will continue to juggle Alpha 35 stabilization with Alpha 36 development for the time being so do expect more updates as bugs get reported! Thank you all once more for that.
We're back with yet another important Alpha 35 stabilization update. This small update has a series of important fix it but perhaps most notably it resolves two widely reported issues concerting random deletion of items across the airport after extensive deconstruction as well as an issue concerning stalled passengers and employees after reloading a save.
[/url]] - Zoned areas do not always get properly saved[/list]
We are now slowly putting more development time into Alpha 36 but will of course keep a close eye on backlog and issues reported on Alpha 35 so do expect more stabilization updates however, starting this coming week, at a slightly lowered pace.
Thank you for all of the qualitative feedback we're getting on this Monday's Alpha 35 and The Terminal Update deployment. Here's a first, of a few to come, minor stabilization patch with various fixes ranging from passenger and employee behavior improvement to contractor stalling fix.
[/url]] - When multiple ramp agents work by a single baggage bay duplicate baggage pick-up can cause ramp agents to deadlock in baggage bay offload behavior[/list]
We'll be back with more updates throughout the week!
The terminal update features a wide array of new content and improved systems revolving around one of the airport’s main structures: The terminal! With proper support for multiple fully divided terminals and thereafter adapted flight and passenger AI, passport checkpoints and immigration, new desks, restaurants and airline lounges, walakators and elevators and much much more this update will for sure reset the clock on terminal design in Airport CEO.
In this update we’ve included:
Multi-terminal support via a terminal painting tool
Passport checkpoints and immigration
Departing and arriving passenger segregation support
Restaurant and airline lounges
Various automated desks including self check-in and more
Overhauled and expanded passenger and employee AI, a new trash generation system, multiple new placeable items such as vending machines and statues, walakators, elevators and much, much more…
[/url]] - Employees and service vehicles covered by a terminal area and are unassigned will now automatically be assigned to the newly created terminal
[/url]] - Slightly decreased medium aircraft distances to improve route generation in certain areas [/list]
Due to a maximum character limit the full change log could not be posted here. Please see this forum post for the complete list of resolved bugs.
Update notes
Upgrading your airport
This is one of the largest and most fundamental updates Airport CEO has ever seen which means that there are a lot of things to adjust to! Given these large changes we do recommend that you experience Alpha 35 by starting a new airport and adjust to the new systems by following the updated tutorial.
If you decide to adapt your existing airport to international flights, automation or multiple terminals we highly recommend that you stop all traffic to the airport and make those adjustments with the airport closed.
Multiple terminals
You can now divide your airport into multiple terminals using the terminal paint tool. Make sure that a dragged out terminal covers both aircraft stands, the terminal building and transit structures like bus stops and subway entrances. By pressing [T] you will reveal the terminal overlays and terminal employee and service vehicle assignment menu. Job tasks that are generated within a terminal can only be executed by employees and service vehicles assigned to that terminal, so make sure that your terminals aren't empty and lacking resources!
You can still build and operate an airport without any terminal assignments. Job tasks that are generated outside of a terminal area will be executed by employees and service vehicles that are not assigned to any terminal.
International zone
The international zone is a new zone type that can only be built within a secure zone area. International zones cancel out staff zones and employees can freely walk across any international zone border but passengers require passport checkpoints in order to enter or exit an international area.
Passport checkpoints are used for both entering and exiting an international zone and can be built in either direction, secure to international (entrance) or international to secure (exit). This is outlined in the updated tutorial. Large stands require connection to a boarding desk placed in an international zone area where medium and small stands require connection to a boarding desk in a domestic area, however, experienced CEOs who've played through the tutorial can enable a 'realistic stand' toggle setting in the in-game gameplay menu which enables international flights for any stand size using a per-stand toggle (found by clicking on the stand).
Automated desks
All the new desks are researched via the automation project and, once that project is completed, become available in the desk build menu. Make sure to research everything or play using sandbox mode to unlock all new items!
Airline lounges
Airline lounges are built using the specific room type "airline lounge", found along the other rooms in the room build menu (the ultimate commercial project must be researched). In order for an airline lounge to operate it requires the placement of at least one buffet table and one information desk - you select which airline operates which lounge by clicking on the room to open the panel and select your preferred airline from the drop-down menu. Airline lounges can also house bathrooms within them which will then only be exclusively used by airline lounge visitors. In order to brand your airline lounges you can place down airline logo stickers on the floor, found in the decoration build menu.
Important information regarding airline changes
The terminal update also introduces several new airlines and aircraft. With this change we've also overhauled each airline's current fleet setup which means that each of the default airlines have had one or more changes to its fleet. The effect of this is that all contract needs to be re-signed in order to get the new fleet update and if they don’t, they will continue to fly with the old fleet setup. What will happen then is that the system will try to find the correct livery for that airline and aircraft type and if it fails, because you have the old version of the fleet, it will simply pick any random livery. This is so that your saves don’t break and that you can continue playing on that save despite the update's changes. Please do not report this as a bug as there is really nothing we can do about it, instead you can simply cancel and accept the contract in order to make sure you have the most recent fleet configuration.
Future stabilization updates
Given the very large and fundamental change this update brings it is very likely that we will deploy several stabilization updates to the default branch throughout the rest of this month. Please bug report any issues you find and we'll get busy fixing them!
It's time for another development blog and update on the development process of Airport CEO. In today's episode we're reviewing the current state of Alpha 35 and reveal the release date for it on the default branch. We're also taking a little peek into the future and check out what Alpha 36, and beyond, hides... read all about it in Dev Blog 150: Stabilizing Alpha 35, Alpha 36 and beyond!.
We're finally back with a new dev blog and an update on the experimental testing of Alpha 35, as some of you may or may not be aware of. We're also taking a little deeper dive into the airline changes that have already dropped and that are coming in the future. So join us now and read all about it here in Dev Blog 149: Experimental testing of Alpha 35, new airlines and the studio tour!
We're finally back with another short status update on the current ongoing internal testing period of Alpha 35 and you can read all about it in this evening's Dev Blog 148: Internal testing of Alpha 35. We're going through the latest revolutions of the quality of the current Alpha 35 build, talk a little bit about walkalators and try to leave a prognosis on when the terminal update will be available for public testing.
Airport CEO is translated using the online crowd translation tool Localizor and as a result of all of your hard work we can now happily announce that as of today Italian is officially supported. This milestone is another great achievement made possible by our Italian community and we'd like to extend an additional thank you and appraisal to Francesco Orabona (frankieorabona) who's been a core contributor to this project and someone who's put massive effort into the translation project. Grazie mille!
Here are a few questions you might have relating to the new language...
How do I change language?
Launch into the game's main menu and go to the gameplay settings menu. Click on the preferred language's flag and accept the prompt by pressing "OK". The game will now reboot into your preferred language version.
Why is some text on the experimental branch not localized?
The experimental branch is our fast paced development branch where we primarily focus on implementing features and content. When new content is added, the text we produce for the interface is written in English and the translation of that text is automatically placed in a localization backlog. Once we've accumulated enough text, or once we deploy a new major update, the text in the backlog will be translated.
Why is some text on the default branch not localized?
The Alpha 34 update contains around 20% of the game's total amount of text, meaning that all of the new content added in this update has understandably not yet been fully translated. In most cases there's a few percent of each language that's not yet been translated, but as Airport CEO becomes more and more complete the text will eventually be fully translated.
Why is the word "[insert any word]" incorrectly translated?
Airport CEO consist of a lot of complex industry terminology. We would love your feedback on the language you've chosen in the game and you can send it directly to us via the bug reporting panel, or reach out to us via any of our social channels!
Can I help out translating?
Yes you can! Airport CEO is translated using Localizor and we'll always need your native language expert help on translating the texts of the game. Learn more about it here or head over immediately to Airport CEO on Localizor to get started!
We hope you're doing well and are staying safe. Perhaps you're spending extra time inside playing Airport CEO? If so, you'll be glad to hear that we're today deploying a small stabilizing update for Alpha 34 in anticipation for both internal and public testing of Alpha 35.
This update takes care of a widely reported issue regarding duplicate flights planned when using the auto planner and running the game on higher speeds. There's also a few other minor fixes in for both localization and user interface stuff. Please refer to the below patch notes for a full list of what's changing in this small update.
Release notes - Airport CEO - Version Alpha 34.6-3