Airport CEO Beta 3 released
Good evening, airport CEO!
After a few long weeks consisting of unexpected hard work, we're finally ready to deploy the third beta version of Airport CEO to the default branch! It's taken some time longer than expected but for good reason as we with beta 3 are not only releasing numerous improvements but also several new features. The release is in fact, in terms of size and fundamental change, more like one of the good ole alpha releases but with a much quicker development pace. Beta 3 thus consist of a large amount of bug fixes, balancing and other minor improvements as well as some highly requested and long awaited features.
These changes are indeed fundamental and may, if you load an existing save from beta 2, invoke some strange one-time behavior and therefor it's very important that you read through the update notes below.
But first, let's go through the patch notes for beta 3...
[h3]New feature[/h3]
[h3]Improvement[/h3]
Due to character limitations on this message post, the full change log containing bug fix notes can be found here.
[h3]Large maps[/h3]
Finally, Airport CEO now supports larger maps! When creating a new airport from the main menu, you can now select the option “large map” which will enable building your airport on a map that has two extra world tiles to the top and bottom left.
Please note: There is no way to reliably convert existing small airports to large airports, we therefore recommend that you test out the large map feature by creating a new airport.
PLEASE ALSO NOTE: When you load your existing save with the beta 3 version for the first time you might be presented with a dialog panel that says “you have not unlocked this area yet” and some world tiles may be blacked out and needed to be purchased again. This is a harmless one-time bug that will only happen this one time (unless you don’t save the game) and therefore something we will not implement a fix for -and also something you don’t need to report!
[h3]A new tiling system[/h3]
In order to allow the Airport CEO game engine to better cope with the bigger airports on the larger map designs we’ve overhauled all aspects of tileable building (walls, terminal, floors, fences and more) which should allow for a significant performance boost when it comes to tile construction, loading large saves with a lot of tiles and a significant file size reduction, compared to beta 2.
This is where most of the hours taken to develop beta 3 went and while it doesn't look like much, overhauling a very fundamental system in this stage of the development is not an easy, but definitely necessary, task.
New climate textures
Extending on the new weather system as of beta 2, Airport CEO now simulates four different types of climates depending on where you place your airport. Polar, temperate, tropical or desert climates are now part of any airport you build and along with the climate comes typical weather and typical graphical asset representation.
Please note: We’ve included another 15 weather stations to the base supply which should increase weather accuracy, however please note that there will most likely be multiple areas in the world where the climate does not necessarily exactly match reality. We will continue to balance these values and climate settings to get at close to reality as reasonably possible.
[h3]Buildable world tunnel entrances[/h3]
Is your airport entrance road always congested? Well, now you can build more! Gone are the days of a single static tunnel entrance on the bottom of the map and now are the days where you can build up to 10 different world entrance tunnels on any position of the map’s border as you so please.
The directions of the entrance tunnels can also be changed, allowing for better control of vehicle flow.
[h3]Planning mode[/h3]
A long awaited feature as part of the feature voting request category, planning mode is here! Any object can now be planned, and of course later on built, using the planning tool found in the lower build menu.
[h3]Improved rendering and serialization performance[/h3]
The changes in beta 3 also enable a significantly better performing game, especially when it comes to loading. The new tiling system, together with general performance improvements across the board, should allow for airports to load much faster.
[h3]Loads of bug fixes[/h3]
And of course, loads of bug fixes and balancing as can be seen in this forum post.
This release has been thoroughly tested on both the internal and experimental branch by our hero CEOs but as with any large release containing fundamental changes, additional updates are to be expected as per usual throughout the week.
We've immediately started work on beta 4 and the remaining work that is to be done on Airport CEO, as we continue to progress throughout this beta period.
Thank you for your continued support and have a great rest of the week!
// Alexander, Fredrik & Olof - Apoapsis Studios
After a few long weeks consisting of unexpected hard work, we're finally ready to deploy the third beta version of Airport CEO to the default branch! It's taken some time longer than expected but for good reason as we with beta 3 are not only releasing numerous improvements but also several new features. The release is in fact, in terms of size and fundamental change, more like one of the good ole alpha releases but with a much quicker development pace. Beta 3 thus consist of a large amount of bug fixes, balancing and other minor improvements as well as some highly requested and long awaited features.
These changes are indeed fundamental and may, if you load an existing save from beta 2, invoke some strange one-time behavior and therefor it's very important that you read through the update notes below.
But first, let's go through the patch notes for beta 3...
Release notes - Beta 3.3-2
[h3]New feature[/h3]
- [ACEO-32235] - Player buildable world traffic entrance tunnels
- [ACEO-32246] - Construction planning mode
- [ACEO-32257] - Larger map
- [ACEO-33358] - New aircraft: McDonnell Douglas MD80 (Atom Air, Stripe Air & Nordic)
- [ACEO-34897] - Added multiple new data sources for weather system generation
- [ACEO-34899] - Added new ground textures and animal spawning rules to better reflect chosen airport climate
- [ACEO-34901] - Tree and windsock sway now represented by actual wind speed
- [ACEO-35740] - Contractors can now build multiple tiled objects such as sidewalk, walls and fence with one construction material box
- [ACEO-36110] - Rocks (buildable)
- [ACEO-36130] - Climate override system implemented to more accurately set ground layer graphics based on airport coordinates
- [ACEO-36385] - World entrance tunnels can now be set to entry or exit only
- [ACEO-37096] - Load and start new game as paused setting implemented
- [ACEO-37337] - Automatic reordering of fuel can now be disabled via fuel depot panel (right button stack)
- [ACEO-37391] - Added quick accept and reject buttons to contract containers
[h3]Improvement[/h3]
- [ACEO-32243] - Time observer system improved with more performant solution
- [ACEO-32678] - Consolidate separate object connection check coroutines into single interface solution
- [ACEO-33340] - Windsock now emits soothing sound effect
- [ACEO-33355] - Aircraft wheel landing sound now more relevant to the aircraft size and runway foundation
- [ACEO-34898] - Local average climate data now exposed in CEO panel
- [ACEO-35417] - Removed game object instantiation need from tileable build objects (such as sidewalk, terimnal, floor, wall and fence) to lower load times and save file size
- [ACEO-35418] - Adapted construction system to new tile build system
- [ACEO-35625] - Fuel depot flip orientation incorrectly reversed compared to other vehicle accessible buildings
- [ACEO-35626] - Adapted vehicle traffic system to new buildable world entrance tunnel system
- [ACEO-36367] - Removed show hide planned object toggle to avoid player confusion
- [ACEO-36592] - Overall loading time slightly improved
- [ACEO-36621] - Enable disable all security checkpoints slider removed since it has no apparent use to players
- [ACEO-36885] - Implemented better tooltip and visual representation of boarding gate door entrance and exit
- [ACEO-36993] - Better tooltip to inform new users that holding CTRL is required to demolish zone, taxiway and similar
- [ACEO-37131] - Improved roof tile renderer system
Due to character limitations on this message post, the full change log containing bug fix notes can be found here.
Update notes
[h3]Large maps[/h3]
Finally, Airport CEO now supports larger maps! When creating a new airport from the main menu, you can now select the option “large map” which will enable building your airport on a map that has two extra world tiles to the top and bottom left.
Please note: There is no way to reliably convert existing small airports to large airports, we therefore recommend that you test out the large map feature by creating a new airport.
PLEASE ALSO NOTE: When you load your existing save with the beta 3 version for the first time you might be presented with a dialog panel that says “you have not unlocked this area yet” and some world tiles may be blacked out and needed to be purchased again. This is a harmless one-time bug that will only happen this one time (unless you don’t save the game) and therefore something we will not implement a fix for -and also something you don’t need to report!
[h3]A new tiling system[/h3]
In order to allow the Airport CEO game engine to better cope with the bigger airports on the larger map designs we’ve overhauled all aspects of tileable building (walls, terminal, floors, fences and more) which should allow for a significant performance boost when it comes to tile construction, loading large saves with a lot of tiles and a significant file size reduction, compared to beta 2.
This is where most of the hours taken to develop beta 3 went and while it doesn't look like much, overhauling a very fundamental system in this stage of the development is not an easy, but definitely necessary, task.
New climate textures
Extending on the new weather system as of beta 2, Airport CEO now simulates four different types of climates depending on where you place your airport. Polar, temperate, tropical or desert climates are now part of any airport you build and along with the climate comes typical weather and typical graphical asset representation.
Please note: We’ve included another 15 weather stations to the base supply which should increase weather accuracy, however please note that there will most likely be multiple areas in the world where the climate does not necessarily exactly match reality. We will continue to balance these values and climate settings to get at close to reality as reasonably possible.
[h3]Buildable world tunnel entrances[/h3]
Is your airport entrance road always congested? Well, now you can build more! Gone are the days of a single static tunnel entrance on the bottom of the map and now are the days where you can build up to 10 different world entrance tunnels on any position of the map’s border as you so please.
The directions of the entrance tunnels can also be changed, allowing for better control of vehicle flow.
[h3]Planning mode[/h3]
A long awaited feature as part of the feature voting request category, planning mode is here! Any object can now be planned, and of course later on built, using the planning tool found in the lower build menu.
[h3]Improved rendering and serialization performance[/h3]
The changes in beta 3 also enable a significantly better performing game, especially when it comes to loading. The new tiling system, together with general performance improvements across the board, should allow for airports to load much faster.
[h3]Loads of bug fixes[/h3]
And of course, loads of bug fixes and balancing as can be seen in this forum post.
This release has been thoroughly tested on both the internal and experimental branch by our hero CEOs but as with any large release containing fundamental changes, additional updates are to be expected as per usual throughout the week.
We've immediately started work on beta 4 and the remaining work that is to be done on Airport CEO, as we continue to progress throughout this beta period.
Thank you for your continued support and have a great rest of the week!
// Alexander, Fredrik & Olof - Apoapsis Studios