_______________________________________________________________________________ ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ ___ __ _ / | ___ _____ ____ / /_ (_) ____ / /| | / _ \ / ___/ / __ \ / __ \ / / /_ / / ___ |/ __/ / / / /_/ / / /_/ / / / / /_ /_/ |_|\___/ /_/ \____/ /_.___/ /_/ /___/ _____ ____________ __________ _____ ______________________ _______ ___(_)_______ __ ___/_ / / /___ __ \_ _ \__ ___/__ ___/_ __ \__ __ \__ / _ ___/ _(__ ) / /_/ / __ /_/ // __/_ / _(__ ) / /_/ /_ / / /_ / / /__ /____/ \__,_/ _ .___/ \___/ /_/ /____/ \____/ /_/ /_/ /_/ \___/ /_/ _______________________________________________________________________________ ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Aerobiz Supersonic FAQ/Walkthrough April 17, 2009 Version 3.0 Written by: Dan Simpson Email: dsimpson.faqs@gmail.com When emailing, use this subject: Aerobiz Supersonic v 3.0 Email Policy: ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ If you see any mistakes, or have anything that you want to add please email me! I will, of course, give you full credit for your addition, and be eternally grateful to you. Notes ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The most recent version of this FAQ can be found at: http://www.gamefaqs.com/ Eric Little (elittle04@msn.com) contributed greatly to the content in the 3.0 version. Per his request, I did not tag each addition from him, however I will summarize the sections he sent, or contributed to, in here: Difficulty Levels, City Statistics, Airport slots, Plane upkeep, Business ventures and promotions, Building profitable routes, Inter-regional flights, Regional flights, Scenarios, and Putting it all together. If you are a webmaster and wish to post this on your web page, please email me first. And if you do post this FAQ on your site, please make an attempt to keep it up to date. There is nothing worse than getting emails from people who saw an old version asking about things that are already in the newer versions. Well, maybe there are worse things, but it IS annoying! This FAQ looks best in Courier New at about 9 points. This Document is Copyright 1999-2005 by Dan Simpson Aerobiz Supersonic is Copyright by Koei I am not affiliated with Koei, or anyone who had anything to do with the creation of this game. This FAQ may be posted on any site so long as NOTHING IS CHANGED and you EMAIL ME telling me that you are posting it. You may not charge for, or in any way profit from this FAQ. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- __________________ What's New in 3.0: ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Eric Little sent in a huge amount of content, which I added where appropriate. Per his request, I did not tag each contribution, but a summary of what he sent in can be found above. Added the scenario 4 planes from Marsk Ong. For a complete Version History, check out the Final Words Section at the end of the FAQ. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Table of Contents: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. The Scenarios 2. Difficulty Levels 3. The Planes 3.1 Plane Upkeep 4. Game Basics 5. Routes 6. Cities 7. Other Ways to get Money 8. Other Strategies Final Words... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. The Scenarios ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There are 4 scenarios, each has different jets because each is set in a different time period. Each scenario gives you 20 years to be the best, and each year has 4 quarters. 1. The Dawn of the Jet Age -- 1955 to 1975 2. Air Travel Takes Off -- 1970 to 1990 3. Airlines Cover the Globe -- 1985 to 2005 4. Supersonic Travel -- 2000 to 2020 For a list of which era has which planes, look in the next section "2. The Planes" for the list. After you select your era, you then select a difficulty level, from 1 to 5. One being easy, five being hard. Then you select how many human players will play. If this is your first time with the game, you may want to play on DEMO. You will get to see how the computer strategizes by watching 4 computer players playing against each other! For an easier game, select and play more than 1 human player. This would cut back on actual opponents to compete against. Note: Due to the amount of wars in the middle east in the "Dawn of the Jet Age" scenario, it isn't recommended that you have any dealings in the mid-east in that scenario. Remember that history is set in stone, and many events like wars and the Olympics happen exactly the same every time. Each region changes significantly from scenario to scenario, with the city stats changing each time. Political events around the world will change relations between countries and will decide nationality of others. Pay attention to these as they may have a profound affect on your airline (and may not). The biggest differences between the scenarios are the cities’ stats. Notice that in Scenario 4 flights to Noumea, Pappete, and Nandi are fairly good, while in Scenario 1 they are doomed to failure. Why is this? Because they haven’t become viable tourist locations yet, they are not yet developed, something or another. Their stats increase with time, just as Tokyo’s population changes radically over time. However, the US and European populations change little between the scenarios because in real life they have a lower birth rate. Take note of differences such as these between the scenarios, and realize that not all flights are equally profitable in every scenario. (Obviously, technology improves with each scenario, and more and more possibilities come available with new aircraft.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Difficulty Levels ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In Aerobiz Supersonic, you have five difficulty levels from which to choose. Most obviously, the amount of starting cash for each player is decreased as difficulty is increased, and starting provisions are lowered in terms of initial slots. But what else is different about the difficulty levels? My observations are that the computer works more and more "realisticly" as you move forward in difficulty level. For example, if you compete with another airline in the exact same spot (let us choose London—Athens) and you lower the price significantly, in real life you would get all of the passengers from the existent airline. That is how capitalism works. However, in the easier levels, this does not happen—it takes time to deteriorate “customer loyalty” that is really quite annoying when you are trying to get that last region. Of course it works both ways—as soon as Sunrise moves in to New York, you are left on the defensive, and this creates a situation where prices fall and the airlines lose money. As the difficulty levels increase, so does the computer’s response to your actions. For example, if you open a competing route that is a lower price than the computer’s, the computer will often not react on Level 1 but will react perfectly in Level 5. Small changes are common on Level 1, with increasing profoundness as you move to Level 5. On Levels 3 and 4 the computer begins competing with prices and number of flights. Levels 1 and 2 are marked by the computer just giving up after a couple of turns of a non- profitable flight. Now this is not all to say that the computer doesn’t ever change its routes on Level 1 and always does on Level 5, but this is a strong correlation. Ironically, the computer will never factor in the costs of a certain plane, in terms of maintenance and fuel. So you will often see western countries buying those crappy Russian planes after 1985 because they are cheaper (sometimes). Don’t be fooled! Have you ever seen the computer promote its businesses? Rare, isn’t it? Actually, it is quite common if you play on Level 5. What happens is that they will set up a route that does not profit for whatever reason and its reaction is to buy a business, usually a very expensive one (like the pleasure boat in Algiers). Well, when the company is stuck for lack of money, but still has a bit to do something with, they send their people to promote that pleasure boat. Usually, they do it every year and they often profit from doing so. Placement of computer opponents is another difference between the levels. In Level 1, you are guaranteed at least one hub (often two) south of the equator. If you only have one, you are guaranteed a communist capital. You probably won’t have competition in your own region, but if you do it will be the easiest ever (like Vancouver in Scenario 4 or Bangkok in Scenario 1). That means it should be a cake walk, you really can only lose if you yourself have been placed south of the border and are facing Tokyo or something. The computer will do that to you, but you would be amazed in Level 1 how many passengers in SE Asia prefer you as AirNile flying from Beijing. Now in Levels 2 and 3 you are mostly guaranteed competition in your home region. I usually allow the computer to take it over, and waste its money building flights in Africa. I am then building interregional flights that make bang and when they go broke, I take back the home region in a sweep. Otherwise, what you end up with is the computer trying to take its home region by making a flight to EVERY SINGLE CITY in the region. This is really annoying in Level 5 where cumulative cities in a single region is a factor in passenger totals and they are easy to sway by the computer’s willingness to shift prices each and every turn -- who wants to modify every price of every flight every quarter? In Levels 4 and 5, the computer is not kidding around. They place the opposing three hubs in some of the best spots in the game—London, Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong, New York, LA, Chicago, Sydney. (Sydney is the worst— because you must compete from Sydney as well because routes from Auckland and Perth are horrible.) Often they do not place competition in your home region as the computer often “gangs up” on you in that region, everyone wanting a piece of you. Especially when you are New York or Tokyo—those flights to Honolulu, LA, Singapore and Bangkok are yummy. The computer tends to make very good decisions with international flights in these levels, often adding unnecessary yet profitable flights like Cairo—New York, Mexico City—London, even Sydney—New Delhi (amazingly profitable). Ever try Tehran or New Delhi— New York? Incredible! Okay, so the computer is still AI, and is far from perfect. First off, its priority is in passengers and not money, which is mistake number one. Normally what happens is that the airline stuck in Tehran decides it would be best to expand to Cairo so that it can capture a second region, but in the middle of creating its desert empire it goes bankrupt (why is the computer buying those B747s to go from Cairo to Tunis?) This becomes really annoying on Level 5 because the computer calculates a need for more and more passengers, resulting in 9 flights between Tokyo and Hong Kong, -50% price with a B747-400. How do you compete with that?! (See a following section.) So remember in dealing with the computer in Level 5 that it just wants passengers, and cares little about earning money (at least with domestic flights). The other fatal mistake is the use of that Russian aircraft when Boeing is cheap to western countries. But the computer will never learn. One final note, the “beggars” usually appear only from non-influential countries on Level 5, and rarely appear from 1st world countries like Europe, the US or Japan like on Level 1. If you ever get the chance to do that with the EU in Scenarios 3 or 4, and you have the cash to spare, it is very worth it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. The Planes ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Old planes do go obsolete, so if you don't see all the old planes, that's why. Note: During the era of the Cold War (which is up to 1989) non-russian airlines cannot buy Russian planes (Ilyushin and Tupolev) and Russian airlines cannot buy non-russian planes. Note: When new planes are first introduced, all you get is to see it, they won't start production on that plane until the next year. Note: Prices of planes listed is the Initial price, the prices do decrease over time. Note: If a given plane has a second year listed, then that means that while you are playing a scenario that plane will be taken off the market. Also realize that some planes are only available in certain scenarios, so don't panic if you don't see something even though it should have been available. Plane list is sorted by Builder, then by Years: * Indicates Supersonic plane Name: Builder: Years: Range: Seats: Price: ¯¯¯¯¯ ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ ¯¯¯¯¯¯ ¯¯¯¯¯¯ ¯¯¯¯¯¯ ¯¯¯¯¯¯ Concorde* Aerospat. 1976-79 4000 120 110000k A300 Airbus 1975 3620 350 60000k A320 Airbus 1982 4180 180 28000k A300-600 Airbus 1985 5500 370 62000k A310 Airbus 1985 6000 280 47500k A340 Airbus 1993 8870 330 99000k A360 Airbus 2005 3750 500 175000k A370 Airbus 2008 4500 200 34000k A700* Airbus 2010 3750 350 155000k A720* Airbus 2010 2810 200 125000k B707-120 Boeing 1958 4180 140 42300k B707-320 Boeing 1960-82 5560 160 45000k B727-100 Boeing 1964-71 2310 110 21600k B727-200 Boeing 1967-84 2620 150 33000k B737-200 Boeing 1968-88 1500 110 24750k B747-200 Boeing 1970 6750 450 134000k B747-300 Boeing 1983 6750 500 112500k B737-300 Boeing 1985 1620 120 34100k B757 Boeing 1985 2930 200 35750k B767 Boeing 1985 4060 230 38500k B747-400 Boeing 1989 7180 550 135000k B777 Boeing 1995 5500 360 54000k B2000-HJ Boeing 2007 7500 1000 400000k B2001-SST* Boeing 2008 4060 300 225000k B747-500 Boeing 2004 7000 600 195000k IL14 Ilyushin 1954-60 1870 30 8000k IL62 Ilyushin 1965 4930 150 24000k IL62M Ilyushin 1970 5620 160 28800k IL62MK Ilyushin 1978 5500 170 34000k IL86 Ilyushin 1981 2560 350 37800k IL96-300 Ilyushin 1988 6870 300 45000k L1049 Lockheed 1951 4750 90 19800k L1011 Lockheed 1972-84 4500 350 72000k DC6 MDC 1947 4000 80 11200k DC8-30 MDC 1959 5120 140 43200k DC8-50 MDC 1961 6060 150 44550k DC9-30 MDC 1966 1500 120 23400k DC8-60 MDC 1967 5930 240 40800k DC10 MDC 1971 5560 350 67500k MD80 MDC 1981 3560 150 33000k MD11 MDC 1991 7750 360 102000k MD12 MDC 1995 8000 400 120000k MD100 MDC 1998 4680 200 36000k MD1* MDC 2009 5000 300 196000k TU104 Tupolev 1955 2500 50 13500k TU124 Tupolev 1962 3500 40 18000k TU134 Tupolev 1967 2310 70 17600k TU154 Tupolev 1972 2430 150 21600k TU144 Tupolev 1977-79 2620 140 81000k TU154B Tupolev 1977 2500 160 25200k TU204 Tupolev 1989 2870 210 26000k Caravelle Sud 1959-72 1500 80 30000k Viscount Vickers 1953 1680 70 20000k Korath sent me the following: First, in the list of planes, depending on your starting home region (though your city choice may not matter), your choice at the start of the game, will affect how much planes will cost you. The prices you have listed are for a company based in Europe (Africa, Australia, S.America, and the Mid-east may also have the same prices, as I did not check prices for companies located in those regions). My test cities were London, Paris, New York, and Tokyo. I choose London and Paris to see if there were differences within region, but they were exactly the same. A Russian city (Moscow for example) may still be different than London, or Paris, but I don't want to check. One note, Boeing prices were the same regardless of region. As an example, starting in the Supersonic age, these are the prices for companies in these cities: London/Paris New York Tokyo A340 99,000 110,000 110,000 B747-400 135,000 135,000 135,000 B777 54,000 54,000 54,000 IL96-300 45,000 45,000 45,000 MD11 102,000 81,600 81,600 MD12 120,000 96,000 96,000 MD100 36,000 28,800 28,800 TU204 26,000 28,600 28,600 So while you shouldn't remove the Price column, it would be recommended to put a big note that these are Europe (and possibly other region) based companies (except when it comes to Boeing). AlbertC79 sent this: The price of planes is determined by one or both of two factors: The number of planes from that particular manufacturer you are holding in your stock, and your company's relations to the country home to said manufacturer. The following lists the aircraft manufacturers and their homebase countries: Manufacturer Homebase --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Boeing United States McDonnell Douglas (MDC) United States Lockheed United States Airbus France (EC)* Sud-Aviation France Aerospatiale France Vickers United Kingdom Ilyushin Soviet Union (Russia/EC)** Tupolev Soviet Union (Russia/EC)** * After 1993 in Scenario 3, and in the beginning of Scenario 4, France is a member of the European Community (EC) and EC will be considered the homebase for Airbus. ** The Soviet Union collapses and becomes Russia in Scenario 3, and in Scenario 4, Russia becomes a member of the European Community (EC). As far as how price is affected via the number of planes on your airline's stock, if your aircraft stock contains more than half of a particular manufacturer's planes, you will get a 10% discount upon ordering more. Here's an example: Your company owns 20 planes. They consist of 6 Boeing B747s, 5 Boeing B737s, 4 Airbus A300s, and 5 MDC DC-10s. The breakdown is 11 planes from Boeing and 9 planes combined from Airbus and MDC. This means more than half your planes in stock are from Boeing, and if you choose to order more planes from Boeing, they will give you a 10% discount! However if you choose to buy 2 more planes from either Airbus, MDC, or another manufacturer, this will shift the balance of planes in your stock, and you will have more than 50% of non-Boeing planes, and if you choose to order more Boeing planes in the future, the 10% discount will no longer apply. A plane's price is also affected by your company's relations to the country that is home to its manufacturer (mentioned above). Your company will get a 10% discount on planes from a manufacturer if you have great relations (green guys handshaking) with its homebase nation. Here's an example: Your company's homebase is in Beijing, and you wish to purchase some Boeing 747-400s. Relations between China and the US (Boeing homebase) are average (orange guys standing apart), so the price Boeing will offer you for a single 747-400 is $150,000K! Pretty pricey, so you'd probably hold off on buying one. However in your next quarter, a representative from the U.S. visits you, and asks you to make a contribution. If you accept, relations between you (China) and the U.S. will improve from average (orange) to great (green)! (Isn't it amazing how a lowly airline can significantly alter the course of global PR! If only the real world worked that way ^_^). Now visit Boeing once more, and you will see the price for a single B747-400 would have fallen from $150,000K to $135,000K! Maybe those annoying representatives aren't as bad as we thought. ^_^ Oh and it gets better! Both these discounts can be compounded! If your company has more than 50% of a certain manufacturer's planes in stock AND you have great relations with the manufacturer's homebase, then you will get a 20% discount from the manufacturer! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3.1 Plane Upkeep ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The stats on the airplane itself can also be confusing, at least they were for me for a while. Obvious are the range, the passenger capacity, and the name and date of production (and price). Less obvious are the costs on the plane. The wrench symbolizes maintenance costs and the fuel pump symbolizes fuel costs. Do not forget that lower numbers are bad; higher numbers are better and symbolize efficiency. Those L1049s in the first scenario are sweet because they cost virtually nothing to maintain; however those initial jets introduced in the early 1960s guzzle gas and require a lot more maintenance, so use them wisely. Anyways, purchasing planes is covered by someone else in this walkthrough, yet I will confirm everything they mentioned, as I was even informed on a few pointers. In case anyone is lost, the hangar icon symbolizes how many of that type of plane you have in storage and the plane with starts above it is how many planes you have flying in your fleet. Why two numbers for fuel and maintenance, when they could be joined for one simpler statistic? Two reasons. One can be changed—you can choose to lower your budget for maintenance but cannot change the amount of fuel required to fly. (Never do that.) The second reason is that when fuel prices skyrocket due to war, only the fuel becomes more expensive and the maintenance doesn’t. A very few planes have very different statistics between gas and maintenance, but when you buy them you ought to take that into consideration; gas guzzlers are certain to hurt your profits during wartime, so it is my advice to avoid gas guzzlers unless you have little option otherwise. Obviously, you cannot play the game in Scenarios 2-4 without using the Boeing 747, but those are profit monsters, regardless of how much gas they use you need to use them on your major routes. But the Russian planes should be largely avoided if possible, regardless if Ilyushin offers you “the deal of a lifetime.” It still isn’t a deal my friends, your profitability will suffer and in the long run you will be worse off. Also wait in Scenario 1 for more efficient jet planes to come out before upgrading; if you are doing things right, you are expanding your routes and making enough money to buy two at a time when those DC8-30s come onto the market. I suppose the best CEOs would buy planes the one turn before using them, and no extras. This would prevent buying a large sum of expensive planes but then running out of money to set up routes. (This really only happens in Level 5 occasionally.) However, I tend to buy planes in mass if I can afford it and worry about it later. (I am lazy.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Game Basics ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The first thing that you have to do in the game is to select a Region to start from. Logically you want a region away from the computer players. Here is a small breakdown of the Best Regions to start from: Best Starting Cities: ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ 1. SE Asia -- Tokyo, Singapore 2. N. America -- New York, Los Angeles 3. Europe -- London, Paris 4. Africa -- Cairo* 5. S. America -- Mexico City Avoid: Mideast and Australia * Cairo has some war troubles, but is still the best city in Africa These are the best because of their size, but more importantly they all have good locations. Never get a starting city in the middle of the Region as you won't be able to do any Long/Medium distance routes, and the ones you will do will be less effective. After choosing all the starting cities, you will be given an option to change the names of the companies (i.e. Metlink, Sunrise, UK AIR, etc.) and their colors. You will then be given your goals by a staff member, and tossed into the scary world of Airline Management! ____________ The Buttons: (from left to right) ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Top - Create New Route, Adjust Routes, Negotiate for Slots, Order/Sell Planes, Budget, Business Ventures Bottom - Create Hub, Advertising, Staff Meeting, Info, Options, End Turn ______ Slots: ¯¯¯¯¯¯ First off, note the numbers under the various cities in your region. Those are slot numbers. The higher the number, the more flights into that city you can do. There are a few things to remember with slots: - They aren't unlimited. Eventually every city will run out of slots at their airport (given enough demand) and it takes time to build new slots. - They aren't free. Slots do cost money, so don't just go around getting slots everywhere you MIGHT need them. In fact, if you don't use all your slots after awhile, you may want to return them! - In determining the Max amount of flights possible, you have to consider how many slots you have in both cities on the flight route, not just the city you are flying to. If you are doing a New York to L.A. and NYC has 2 slots and LA has 8, you can only do 2 flights. - Remember at the most you can be negotiating for new slots in 4 cities. To get new slots, push the STAFF icon (it looks like 2 hands), and send a staff member to a city to negotiate for slots. Depending on relations between your company and this city, your negotiations could take as little as 3 months (one quarter) or 12 months (4 quarters). Remember that you only have 4 staff members! You can, if you want, send 2 staff members on the same job to speed things up. (Although that doesn't always work) _____ Hubs: ¯¯¯¯¯ To expand to other areas of the world, you will need new Hubs. They're like miniature versions of your home base, allowing you to create new routes from them as you would your home base. Hubs can be created at any Green city that you already have slots at. Use the same logic in selecting your hub as you did your home city. (choose large cities, at an edge of the map, like Paris) ________ Tourism: ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Every once in awhile you will see various messages like "Olympics will be held in XXXX" or "XXXX is experiencing a boom in tourism. Take advantage of these! They will give you a large bump in traffic. Also pay attention to warnings about wars about to break out and cut off the route before it gets cut off for you. Note: Wars increase the price of oil, which increases your expenses, which lowers your profits. So don't panic if you see a bunch of Red Routes after a war breaks out! _________________ Special "Offers": ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Eventually a country will come up to you and ask you to back their new proposal with some of your hard earned cash. What do you get? Their love. Goodie. It will improve relations with that country's cities, but nothing more dramatic than that. However, this improved relations could mean something quite useful like a decrease in the time needed to negotiate for slots/hubs/etc., and even get you into places you can't normally get. Note: To switch between regions at any time, use the L and R buttons, and use the Y button to select a region on the world map. Note: To speed up text as it is scrolling, hold down one of the ARROW buttons. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Routes ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Choosing a new route is always a tricky business. Will there be sufficient demand on the route to make it profitable? Will you be able to charge enough to make a GOOD profit? Is there going to be competition on the route? And once you finish the route, how do you tinker with it to make it even better? The maximum amount of routes you can have is 40, so you have to choose wisely where to start a new route. Airport Slots ------------- Before we can build routes we need slots. Simply, you will be allowed to bid for 5 slots in any city in the world in the beginning. You will be allowed to bid for more (it goes to 14 quickly) once a route of a city type has been made for one turn in a given region. For example, I am Metlink and I have made a flight to Tokyo. The next turn I put a hub there and send out my people to search for slots. In Bangkok, I can bid for 14, but only 5 in Guam, despite the fact that Guam is my home country. Once I make a flight to Guam and let it run a turn (sometimes you need 2 turns), all of the minor cities in SE Asia will allow me to grab 14 slots as well. There are some restrictions to how many slots you can have in a given airport. This section is of particular interest to those who enjoy the first scenario, which is known for its slot shortages. In your home city, you may enjoy 75% of the city’s slots before you are cut off. In your other hub cities, you can get up to 50%. (A strategy might be to start in SE Asia since London and New York often don’t have slot problems, if slot shortage is a consistent problem.) In other cities, you may have up to 14 slots total in any minor cities provided that they do not total more than 75% of the slots available. In other major cities, rarely is there a situation where you can’t get 14 slots—you can normally get more, but avoid this as it obviously is of no advantage to you. (Slots cost money.) Time is the other factor— this is dependant on your relations with the country. The best relations are 3 months for hub city, 6 months for others. Good relations will require at least 6 months for all negotiations with the possibility of 9 months. Bad relations will sometimes allow for 6 months in a hub city, usually take 9 and can take 12. Horrible relations are sometimes 9 months, often 12 months and sometimes impossible. Note that cities in war cannot be entered into negotiations with until the war ends (and your people get sent home.) Strangely, I have discovered a glitch that sometimes allows the computer to carry on with these negotiations and act as if the war isn’t taking place at all—I have witnessed this only in Scenario 1 with Cairo in that first war. A final consideration. Especially in Scenario 1 we have a slot shortage, but even Scenario 4 in cities like Tokyo slots can become scarce (Tokyo is one of few cities that can make an interregional flight to every other region, starting in Scenario 3 in 1990.) Whenever you are in cities like Tokyo, London, New York, and your other major hubs, it may be an idea to bid for lots of slots in those cities early on, even if you don’t need them right away. Two reasons—first, to reserve them for you. The $10-50 spent per turn per slot isn’t as bad as you think it is when you consider what you can do with them in two years. This is especially important when playing against human players who might choose to grab all of your slots to stifle you. The second reason is more common, as it is to trigger airport expansion projects. Once an airport has more than 50% of its slots taken for a complete turn, it will begin work on expansion (major cities only). These can take from 4 turns to 10 turns, and always the longer it takes the fewer slots that result in the end. So it is wise sometimes to grab all of those slots early (especially if your people aren’t doing anything better) so as to trigger those projects earlier rather than later so they will be ready when you are. ________________ The Best Routes: ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ International Routes -- that is, anything going from one geographic area to another. Like New York to London, or Los Angeles to Tokyo. There is always a great demand for these routes, PLUS the distance means it is economical to use large planes like the 747, which carries a lot of people, which means lots of money. Also you may be able to charge whatever you want here if you get 100% capacities. Note: You can only have one international route into each region, that is, if you do a Tokyo-Paris, you can't do a Tokyo-London, but you could do a Tokyo-New York. Long/Medium Distance Routes -- not quite international, these go from one extreme end of a geographic area to another. Like New York to Miami, or London to Athens. Use a medium sized jet here, but have more flights. You can't charge as much, but the short distance means less expenses. If you have 3 or 4 of these in every region you are in, you will do fine. Korath has more to add on this: International routes are a must. In one game where the company was based in New York, with my above mentioned New York to London/Cairo to Tokyo route, I had an extra route into Sydney, and two (unprofitable) ones going into Mexico, and Tehran. Along with maybe 6-9 medium distance routes in N.America (and 2 in Australia), and maybe around the year 2003/4 of the supersonic scenario, I was pulling in $178,000 in profits from around $300,000 in sales. In contrast I had another company based in London which had International routes into Cairo, another into New York, and then to Mexico. My main routes were Europe in which I had maybe 6-9 medium distance routes. With tinkering, I was pulling in 200,000+ passengers quarterly through Europe, though overall my profits were only one-third of the New York based "International" airline. With about the same number of routes in North America, the routes pulled in maybe 100,000 passengers. My advice: "Look almost immediately into building an international circling route (to the point of focusing soley on slot negotiations, and possibly business ventures). From the start, gradually build supporting routes (one at a time) within your home region, but unless you have a competitor based in the same region, you won't need to worry about establishing a dominating presence (that comes later). "Based on the planes available in the different scenarios, in the very first scenario, you will not have as good a range. In the first scenario, you will need to establish a 4 city route which goes from London to Vancover to Tokyo to New Delhi to London. In the last scenario, you have longer ranged planes available, and thus only require a 3 city route, which connects (recomended) London to New York to Tokyo to London. "Later on, if you want to compete with someone in Oceania (as I have not found any reason not to, except for possible lower potential for profit and passengers), extend down into Sydney (in the earliest scenario you may need to wait for a 5000+ mile ranged plane which would be a DC8-30 (5120 miles) in '59 or a B707-320 (5560 miles) in '61). If you want to compete in S.America, Mexico city is probably the best (and likeliest choice)." Additional Strategy: "With disposible cash, anyone can walk into another companies backyard (aka home region) and take their business. By using similar planes/flights/etc, but with around a 20%-30% lower ticket price than your competitior, you can easily grab the majority of flights after establishing 4-6 routes in about 4-6 quarters (results will vary depending on how established your competitor is). I took down MetLink in N.America in about 6 quarters after establishing my first competing route, when they had a consistant 30,000+ quarterly passengers (and many of their routes had a ticket increase by 50%). I had nothing to really lose, as I wasn't established there except for a hub, and everything to gain, which I did. Unfortunately, in my focusing of North America, MetLink took back South America (which they had held until I established myself there), and UK Air took back Oceania (which like South America, they had held until I established myself there). As I was based in London, I had another competitor in Europe that was based in Moscow (which had only Europe regional flights). About this time they went on an advertising frenzy which significantly reduced my lead in Europe (to the extent that they were close to taking over Europe (which they might've done)). It was all I could do to recover Oceania and South America, while Moscow played Spoiler in Europe. My cash flow dried up, and I wasn't able to maintain it. Looking back, I could've (and should've) gone into Africa which was not established by *anyone* to win the game (I did have Oceania South America and Europe after all, and it wouldn't have taken much especially when I believe I had a Cairo hub ;-) already. As it was, I not only wanted to win, but I wanted one of my #1 regions to be the home region of one of my competitors ;-)" ___________ Bad Routes: ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Short Hops -- these are really bad. Avoid making any routes like this! An example is the London to Paris route. Sure it may SOUND good, but even if you get a profit from it, it won't be as much as you would get otherwise on a better route. Although it will get you people, which can get you market share. However, I wouldn't waste my planes on a short route, when there are so many nice Medium Routes to do. ______________________ Tinkering with Routes: ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ If your route is at 100% capacity and is raking in the bucks, then you will want to tinker with it to make it even better at making money! - Swap to a larger plane - Add more planes - Buy new slots at both airports and increase the flights - Increase the ticket price by 10% If your route is not 100% and/or is losing money then you need to get it to be profitable. - Swap to a smaller plane - Decrease the amount of planes/flights - Advertise! - Cut prices by 10% Note: A route that is Red is losing money! Often times these Red Routes are temporary, as in times of war, or Oil Embargoes (which raise your costs). Korath has some input on tinkering: In the Tinkering with Routes Section, another suggestion if the route is unprofitable and you have done all you have to try to improve things, suspend the route. It does you no good to continously lose money. Depending on the cost of the route startup, closing it down completly may not be worthwhile (you can always try to resume it later). As an example, I had a company which had a London to Cairo route that had at best a 6% load (even with a single 200 seater plane, 1 flight, and rates down to -50%). My main competitor on the route (which happened to be another company I was managing) has 100% load and had a couple flights and even more than one plane. Prices I believe were increased in the area of 20% or so. This is even when Cairo got a boom in traffic. Another situation which may have affected this reduced load is that (with New York and Tokyo connected on one side, I had a New York to London to Tokyo route open as well as New York to Cairo to Tokyo route. Essentially the only difference was one passed through London, and the other passed through Cairo. I'm thinking that the London-Cairo direct route failed because of that. Finding Profitable Routes: -------------------------- After playing a while, you will get a good feel for what is profitable and what is not. Always try new combinations (that appear decent)—you will never stop being surprised at what combinations like Rome—Minsk can do for you. Remember some key factors in determining a good route are the city stats (population, economy, tourism, relations), distance, competition and planes available. The difficulty level and other factors are included as well, but those often cannot be controlled. Notice that when you change difficulty levels, flights become more/less popular (as it gets harder to woo those passengers in Level 5 than Level 1). The main factors are: City Stats Distance Competition Planes Available Gas efficiency and maintenance Initial Cost Speed City stats. Obviously, higher stats and better relations will do a route justice. Below in the Cities section I have already talked a lot about the stats individually, so here I will talk about them together, working in tune with one another. Economy and tourism go hand in hand, one needing the other; a flight between two tourist cities or a flight between two cities with high economy is not as strong as a flight between a city with high economy and another with high tourism. This is why routes such as New York—Honolulu flourish. Population in this sense is important with the cities with high economy stats but not with the tourism city. It never hurts (I don’t see any problem between London—Athens, and due to an obvious error in the game Athens has the biggest population in Europe), but it will increase the price of the flight. Remember, starting costs for flights is based entirely on population, and nothing to do with economy. For example, Oceania has the lowest overall population in the game, yet a strong economy. Flights there cost little and earn little; while the economy is great, there are so few people to fly!! Tourism is very low as well (a bit surprisingly so) and therefore no one has incentive to fly. General rule of thumb here? When you see low stats, like in Africa, Middle East and S America, realize early that those flights are not very profitable yet are necessary to win the game. I do not recommend prioritizing Africa, South America, the Middle East or Oceana until after you have set up shop in the other three regions as these poorer regions simply don’t profit like North America, SE Asia and Europe. Distance. Distance determines two factors—what kinds of planes you can use and cost of the ticket. It may seem like the plane factor is more of a concern, but it is in fact the ticket price that you are concerned about. Flights between close cities are never recommended, unless you need passengers and are willing to spend a lot of money only to find you are not profitable. However, when cities are more distant, they tend to make more money. The computer does not calculate number of passengers based on the actual ticket price, but on the percentage above or below average; therefore flights that are really expensive but at an average price will rake in big bucks since the people think they are getting “a good deal.” (Ex. Tokyo—New York 6750 miles) Competition. What I understand the least in this game is how competition is calculated, how it works out that one airline is beating another and how the customers react to price changes. Each difficulty level is different still; as mentioned before, it is difficult to woo customers from another airline in Level 5 if they have had a presence before you, despite marking down prices to -50%. But there are many factors, not just price. Price is important; people want lower prices. However, the airline with more businesses present and advertising campaigns is more likely to sway more people. Also, the number of flights in a region can affect passengers for interregional flights connected to it. If you are a solid number 1 in both Oceania and SE Asia, and you have a Tokyo—Sydney route, despite being marked up you will carry more passengers than AirMex coming in with -30% flight. Good relations don’t hurt. Planes available. Obviously, to make a flight you need a plane that can make the distance and carry enough passengers to make it worth your while. But when we talk about profitable routes, we must take the statistics of the aircraft into consideration—namely, gas efficiency, maintenance, initial cost and speed. It hardly needs to be mentioned that planes with more seats will carry more passengers, allowing potential to earn more (or spend more on gas and maintenance). Gas efficiency and maintenance. Remember, higher numbers are better as they represent efficiency. Propeller planes, smaller jets and modern aircraft usually have good stats. Early jet planes, large planes and most planes from Tupolev and Ilyushin usually have lower stats and therefore are costly. In selecting a plane for a route, it is often a good idea to take this into consideration—if you have to lower the price significantly due to competition, it is a good idea to make sure you have a very efficient aircraft chosen so that the flight still profits. When the computer is using a B747 between Cairo and Tunis with a -50% price, it is impossible to beat their prices—how do you compete with this? You create the same flight but with higher efficiency. Open a flight with a B737 instead with a -50% price tag. You will probably lose money as well, but the computer will lose much more money and will not change planes—they will suspend the route in about two turns, and with the flight suspended, you will get all of the passengers. Easy! Remember, when competing with the computer, you must often create a more efficient route to succeed, rather than wasting all of your time with costly business ventures. Initial cost. It goes without saying that the initial cost of the aircraft must be justified by the amount of profit you are pulling in. To create a flight between Sydney and São Paulo is cool, but the aircraft cost $110,000 apiece (this is Scenario 4 obviously) and your flight will barely be half full. Not to mention the initial cost to create the route—is all of this justified by this sad profit of $10,000/turn? No. It would take half of the game before you broke even, and I don’t know about you but I am not wasting one of my precious 40 flights on a flight between Oceania and South America. Speed. Speed? There is no such statistic on the screen! This is true, but it exists nonetheless. Very few planes have a speed outside of the standard. Some prop planes are slower than jets (DC6, for example) and supersonic planes are faster (Concorde, all those planes in Scenario 4 starting about 2006-2007). Let us use an example. A flight from New York to Chicago, any scenario. Assign any plane and you will note that it can handle 5 flights. Well, assign a DC6 (Scenario 1) and it can only handle 3; this is because it is really slow. Assign a Concorde and it can handle a whopping 7. Neat huh? Well, speed is not a consideration unless you are in Scenario 1 or 4 or have the money to buy a Concorde in Scenario 2. But speed is the reason I never use DC6s; I always use the L1049 in Scenario 1 despite its higher price because it is all-around better, and worth the initial cost. I personally have not dealt much with the other propeller planes in Scenario 1, but I imagine that there are others like the DC6, slow and not worth it. Also, speed is why you might choose to buy those planes in Scenario 4, and is why they are so expensive. Otherwise they are a rip- off. Interregional flights --------------------- Interregional flights are usually where you make the best money, but not always. It is important to use the essentials above and logic; for example, a flight from New York to Tokyo is a guaranteed winner, but Cairo to Baghdad is less so. The former route is between two heavily populated cities with incredible stats and very good relations, not to mention it is an incredible distance (6750 miles). The latter is between two cities of lower population, bad stats and less than perfect relations, and is less than 1000 miles away. Interregional flights are almost always very profitable when departing from a “solid” city: London, Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong, New York, LA, Chicago, Sydney. Flights between the above cities are incredible, and you should make as many as you can so as to make more money. Other strong cities for profitable interregional flights include Seoul, Tehran, Cairo, Rome, Mexico City, Vancouver. Pretty much, other cities are weak and such flights should be made only after careful consideration and out of necessity. Remember that interregional flights are strengthened when your regional flights of the two regions are strengthened. New York—London is twice as strong when you are #1 in North America and Europe. It goes without saying, but interregional flights from your home base are advantaged because of this. I do not recommend making interregional flights to/from regions where you have no presence (obviously you have no presence in one region, but to lack presence in the other is bad as well). Also, if you are having trouble in a certain region (this always happens to me in the Middle East), I advise setting up “extraneous” interregional flights there to aid your regional passenger loads. I would avoid this if you are on the 40 flight limit mark, but otherwise it is a sure way to beat the competition. Regional flights ---------------- Aside from the general advice for creating routes, you should take other considerations in planning and making regional routes. Do realize that not all regions are equal, and that while some flights profit immensely, others are doomed to lose money. Interregional flights are largely necessary; you must have a hub in every region to win, regardless of level. Therefore, the purpose of interregional flights is to 1) make money and 2) complete the game. Regional flights’ purpose is to 1) make money and 2) carry more passengers than other airlines in a given region. The latter is different because the passenger load is significant, whereas it is not significant with the interregional flights. Note that the first and foremost important step is to generate income (see below). In the beginning of the game, passenger totals take a backseat to profitability. So in the beginning, we are creating flights based on how much money they make, not taking into consideration if we are winning the game yet. It is very possible that you will be #2 in any and all regions (including your own) because you are not worried about winning, but building a profitable airline that can later dominate the skies. Focus on profit first, passengers last. In order to make more money, read the section above on profitability. In order to get more passengers, read the section above on businesses, advertising and competition (under building profitable routes). Strong destinations by region (in no particular order): North America: Honolulu, San Francisco, LA, Philadelphia, Chicago (however note that any flight in North America has good potential of being highly profitable) South America: Santiago, Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City, São Paulo Europe: London, Athens, Rome, Paris, Madrid, Moscow, Kiev, Vienna Africa: Algiers, Tunis, Lagos, Cairo (though note that Africa rarely profits much) Middle East: Bombay, Tehran, New Delhi, Karachi, Tashkent (though note that the Middle East rarely profits much) Southeast Asia: Tokyo, Bangkok, Singapore, Hong Kong, Osaka, Sapporo, Guam, Saipan Oceania: Sydney, Melbourne How to Calculate Passenger Totals (from AlbertC79) ------------------------------------------------- Have you always wondered how the game calculates passenger totals per route? Well I finally figured out the breakdown! Presuming the route has a 100% passenger load, the total number of passengers can be figured out with the following equation: No. of seats * No. of flights per week * 12 weeks = Passenger total The figure "12 weeks" was taken from 12 weeks per quarter (4 weeks per month * 3 months per quarter). Here's a good example using the Tokyo-New York route while playing Scenario 4 (2000-2020). If you are using 3 747-400s (550 seats per plane) flying 5 flights a week, and you have a 100% passenger load, this would be the breakdown: 550 seats * 5 flights per week * 12 weeks = 33,000 passengers per quarter Sometimes switching to a smaller plane but adding more planes and more flights can help boost passenger loads significantly! Look at the following example. Say you decide to switch over to the smaller MD-12 (400 seats per plane) for this route, but you increase the number of flights per week to 14. This would be the new breakdown: 400 seats * 14 flights per week * 12 weeks = 67,200 passengers per quarter Amazing huh? You've more than doubled your passenger loads using a smaller, cheaper, more economical plane! Now let's say you are running low on homebase slots (because those damn airports can only add so many new slots so often!) and you want to shift slots over from this route, but you don't want to drop your passenger loads, then a good suggestion for the above route is to switch over to a much bigger plane like the B2000-HJ (with a whopping 1000 seats per plane!) and cutting the number of flights a week from 14 to 7. This would be the new breakdown: 1000 seats * 7 flights per week * 12 weeks = 84,000 passengers per quarter Really sweet huh? You've increased your passenger loads yet again, but using less flights! This is a great way to determine what kind of plane to use on a certain route, and how many flights per week to set. I know what you're probably thinking now. "But not all flights have a 100% passenger load, how do you come up with the odd-numbered figures like the game does?" Well I figured that one out too! Just do the same equation but in reverse! Here's an example, let's use a different route this time. We'll use Mexico City-Rio de Janeiro while playing Scenario 3 (1985-2005) for this example. Say you initially open the route using 3 A300-600s (370 seats per plane) flying 5 flights a week. Presuming a 100% passenger load, this is the breakdown: 370 seats * 5 flights per week * 12 weeks = 22,200 passengers per quarter The flight is set and you let the quarter run through, but you notice that the Mex-Rio route only had 14,768 passengers for that quarter. Note: Anytime you have a passenger figure for a route that does NOT end with a 0, that means that route is NOT at 100% capacity. Normally you would just check the flight to see the passenger capacity, but I bet I could tell you what it is without looking at the game. Here is how you calculate a reverse breakdown to determine passenger loads per plane: No. of passengers per quarter / 12 weeks / No. of flights per weeks / No. of seats = % passenger capacity Note the game doesn't display decimal percentages (like 52.5%) so the figures shown would be rounded up to the nearest whole percentage. Using the equation, plug in the figures from the above example: 14,768 passengers per quarter / 12 weeks / 5 flights per week / 370 seats = 67% capacity With a 67% capacity, you might want to consider either downgrading to a smaller plane like the A310, or decreasing the number of flights. But which is the more feasible option? Using the first equation is a great way to find out. This would be the breakdown if you decide to decrease from 5 flights per week to 3 flights per week with the same plane: 370 seats * 3 flights per week * 12 weeks = 13,320 passengers per quarter This is not a good solution as you will end up losing more passengers this way. Let's try keeping the 5 flights per week but switching to a smaller plane like the A310 (280 seats). Here's the breakdown: 280 seats * 5 flights per week * 12 weeks = 16,800 passengers This will bring your passenger load up from 67% to 88% which is a more decent passenger load, which still leaves some room for increase in case something like a tourism boom or the Olympics should take place. Note: Switching to a smaller more economical plane on a particular route actually may yield further benefits. Using the smaller more economical plane will decrease the costs associated with fuel and maintenance, which can help cut costs and further increase profits! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. Cities ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So what effect do population, economy and tourism have on a route? On a hub city? Profound effects, actually, as those are the statistics that largely govern the calculations that determine how many passengers you carry. Each number governs a different idea/concept and has different impacts on different routes. Population. The population governs how much a route costs initially to set up, taking into equal consideration both the hub and the destination. That is why flights to/from Tokyo are outlandish while London is much cheaper, yet Mexico City, a third-world country, takes the cake. Obviously, population also governs the number of people available to travel at all. Regions that are more populous will have higher passenger totals than those that are less populous (compare SE Asia to Europe, especially in the later scenarios). Population tends to increase during the course of a scenario, though many cities do not increase in population. Also be aware that the game is fairly old, and the statistics for the 1990s onward are just a guess. We all know that Mexico City and São Paulo are more populated than Tokyo in the 2000s, but they didn’t know it would be like that. Economy. The economy statistic (higher is better) governs several things. First and foremost, the higher the number, the higher percentage of citizens from that particular city will be able to fly to various places in the world. Densely populated cities, like São Paulo, with a low economy number do not attract more passengers and are not always good routes. However, cities with high populations and high economies are idea locations for routes, especially hubs. The economy statistic is also responsible for the costs of business ventures and regional hubs in a city. Notice that when you wish to buy a business or establish a hub that is experiencing a boom in tourism, the prices are outlandish. (It is not the tourism number that governs this, but remember that when there is a tourism boom, both economy and tourism ratings go up to 100.) Wait until the boom is over to expand your empire. Tourism. The tourism statistic (higher is better) governs several things as well. First and foremost, the higher the number, the more people will want to travel to the city. Why is Honolulu a good flight with a sorry economy and population factor? Because of its huge tourism factor!! Tourism effects all flights, regional and interregional. Purchasing tourism-related businesses will increase a city’s tourism rating as well, but I believe that is merely for you and not other players. (I have not confirmed this.) Relations. Relations between countries largely govern how easy or difficult it is for you to work with other countries bidding for slots, buying airplanes, and setting up hubs. It also has an influence on flights, however; a flight between New York and Moscow in Scenarios 1 and 2 is doomed to failure, because the two countries are on bad terms, regardless if you are Cairo, who is on decent terms with both. That is why the computer usually makes routes between only democratic or only communist countries (like Moscow—Beijing or London—Tokyo). Just because your airline’s relations with the countries are good does not mean that your home country’s relations are as well. You can change relations by paying the “beggars” when they ask for money, but this is the only way and I do not recommend it unless you are well-established in the game and you are at a point where money isn’t an issue. Either way, if you as Russia give the US money in Scenario 1, even though you can now buy planes and get slots in 6 months, your flight may not be successful from New York— Moscow like a flight between communist brothers would be. Putting it all together. So how do we take these stats and make killer routes? First determine if the relations are decent. Normally they are. Hubs with a good economy rating will flourish with flights to cities with high tourism. For example, Tokyo— Guam, Saipan and Cebu are usually banking like crazy despite the short distance. And since the population in those cities is .1 million, the initial cost of the flight is significantly lower. This is a crucial consideration in the beginning of the game. Two cities with merely high economies and low or moderate tourism will be decent, but those Aussies don’t want to go to New Zealand, they want to go to a tropical resort in Papeete! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7. Other Ways to Get Money ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- __________________ Business Ventures: ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ The far right button on the top row is the Business Venture button. You can buy a business anywhere you want. (you don't need to have flown there) The idea is mostly to complement your airline, so you want to buy Hotels, or Bus services. It requires a staff member to buy the Business so make sure you have one before you attempt to buy, and it also takes time. Not all businesses are instantly profitable. To check their profitability, call a staff meeting. Note: The best businesses for you to buy are those which are deep in your territory, and which have several routes connecting to them, or one major route. You can buy a business anywhere on the map, however. ______________________________ Business Ventures and Tourism: (from AlbertC79) ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ On the section of Business Ventures, I noticed that whenever you buy certain leisure businesses (Amusement Parks, Golf Courses, Ski Resorts, and Pleasure Boats) and certain cultural businesses (Museums, Arts Pavilions, and Concert Halls), that particular city's tourist rating actually goes up! The level it goes up depends on the particular business you purchase and the number of said businesses that you purchase. I believe the more expensive the business is, the more it will affect the city's tourist rating. With the city's increased tourist rating, I noticed a SIGNIFICANT increase in passenger traffic on all my flights to and from that city! Here's an example I noticed: In Scenario 4 (2000-2020), I played a game using Tokyo as my homebase. Tokyo's initial tourist rating was 50 when I began the game. As the game progressed, I purchased the Museum in Tokyo (relatively cheap), and within the next quarter, Tokyo's tourist rating had increased to 52! Later I then purchased the Amusement Park (VERY expensive) and by the next quarter, Tokyo's tourist rating had increased to a whopping 72! I also noticed an increase in passenger traffic on my routes! I have ascertained that cultural and leisure businesses increase a city's tourist rating by a fixed amount. Here are the results: Leisure Businesses --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Amusement Park - increase tourist rating by 20 Golf Course - increase tourist rating by 12 or 15(?) Ski Resort - increase tourist rating by 10 or 12(?) Pleasure Boat - tourist increase rating by 5 Cultural Businesses --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Concert hall - increase tourist rating by 4 Museum - increase tourist rating by 2 Arts Pavilion - increase tourist rating by 2 I also noticed that the city's economic rating did not change. In the example above, Tokyo's economic rating never changed above or below 76 as a result of purchasing those businesses. I also noticed that purchasing other businesses such as Hotels and Travel Services, and any others not mentioned above will NOT affect your tourist rating. Also your city's tourist rating will NOT change further if you have a successful advertising campaign for it, however passenger traffic to that city will change. It is important to note that even though this benefit will work for any city it is implemented on, not all cities will have the appropriate business ventures to allow for it, but if they do, you should definitely take advantage! Business ventures (more) ------------------------ These things crack me up. They are deceiving, and on the whole I recommend you ignore them. The computer is programmed to buy the Grand Hotel/City Hotel in all of its hubs if it can, and I don’t know why. Graphing the results after several years, it is rare to profit significantly and when I mean “significantly” that means about $5000/year. There are better things to spend your money on—Arts Pavilions are even better than Hotels as they at least boost your flights a bit. Travel agencies will increase your passenger loads for the region, but cannot be promoted. The three categories of what is left of business ventures are sports/leisure, arts/culture and travel. I find that the travel ones have a more profound effect in hub cities and the others do better in your other cities. I like to buy Shuttle Services in my opponents’ hub cities in a region and then promote the network—that is a good way to eliminate the opposition. (A section for competition follows this one a ways down, for more details.) However, the only time I buy any business ventures is when I am competing, as otherwise I find they are a waste of time and will not profit by themselves. Business ventures should never be bought with the idea of bringing in cold, hard cash. Instead they should be used for promotions, increasing passenger totals and to compete with your opponents. Business ventures always require 3 months to purchase, even in Red China. Remember their costs are dependant on the city’s economic factor and on population. ____________ Advertising: ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Advertising is directly related to Business Ventures and so is listed down here. You can only advertise when you actually have a Business, because you are advertising the Business, not your airline. However, your airline reaps the rewards of the Advertising. Confused? Anyway, there are 3 categories of Ads, and you can only do the ones that correspond to the Businesses you have. Also if you increase the amount spent on advertising, it increases the likelihood that something will happen! Promotions: ----------- Ad campaigns are easily overlooked in the game as futile but are actually a very powerful tool for increasing passenger loads and competing. They cannot be done on a whim, as you need at least one promotable business venture and if the promotion is successful, your employee dude will be busy for a full year running it (not the best plan if all you are promoting is an art stand in Manila.) Promotions will increase passenger loads in all of the regional flights within a region, not just the cities directly affected; however, those cities with the businesses will see a more profound impact. The more ventures you have of the same type in a region, the more profound the effect is. I highly recommend that if you decide to use businesses and advertising in a region that you stick to one type of business (avoiding sports/leisure if you have any money troubles whatsoever) and go with that; you don’t want to send three different guys to the same region just to run campaigns, then you aren’t able to do anything for a year. Especially in the easier levels, ad campaigns are strong tools for wooing customers despite their “customer loyalty” to the opposing airline. Also in Level 5 when the computer insists upon using B747s from Tehran to Bombay with a price tag of -50%, the only way to beat that is with a more profitable route (details later) and with business promotion. When venturing into the south of the equator regions (Africa, S America, Middle East and Oceana) I recommend you take a look at all of the cities you will include in your network and see what types of ventures are represented in every city, and base your decision on ventures on this. For example, there are no golf courses, ski resorts or theme parks in Africa, so a sports/leisure campaign is limited to the pleasure boats on the northern coast (Cairo doesn’t even have one). Perhaps this isn’t the best type of campaign to run in Africa, where you should instead focus on travel ventures (even Addis Ababa has a Shuttle Service.) Prices of promotion is based upon the price of the venture, which is based on economy ratings. Always pay the most unless you want failed campaign after failed campaign. Never lower the service funding on your maintenance toolbar. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8. Putting it all together ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- First is choosing a winning starting location. It is interesting and fun to play as Manila, Perth or Tunis—however, you are going to have a tough time winning even at Level 1. If you wish to play on Level 5 or against humans, I recommend starting on at least even ground. For example, when you choose Level 5 the computer will usually choose New York, Tokyo, London, Sydney and the like. To compete, you need to choose a city that is comparable (remember your other 6 hubs can be placed anywhere that you can fly to). This is especially important if the computer gives you competition in your home region; you don’t want to go up against Sunrise if you are Chinair. If you play against humans, and you wish to choose Amsterdam, Atlanta and Havana, make sure everybody starts on the same ground as it would be unfair to go up against London if you were Amsterdam. Unless you really want a challenge. As stated above, though it is worth mentioning again, profit is first and foremost in this game, and passenger loads are a distant 2nd in priority. Create a lot of interregional flights right off the bat and create flights to the three most profitable regions—North America, Southeast Asia and Europe—in order to set up hubs there and make profitable regional flights. Do not waste time on your home region if it is not one of the above regions; set up a couple of decent flights and get on with it. If you lose #1 position there, do not fight, especially if it is also the computer’s home region, as the computer will compete and compete until it has victory in its home region, creating flights to each and every city until it wins. Also, avoid becoming #1 in other airlines’ regions until they have run out of money, because they will spend it all regaining #1 in that region. Africa’s profitability is already very low and flights there can get ugly; don’t make things worse by fighting with AirNile earlier than you have to. If you are going to compete, do so when you have a steady income each turn and the computer is largely broke. So once you are profitable, you must compete for passenger loads. Cut prices, add flights/upgrade to larger planes, buy businesses and run ad campaigns to woo the passengers to take those #1 positions. When you are low on slots, upgrade to larger planes and lower prices further to get close to 100% capacity (if you are at 100% you need to keep upgrading; when trying to win a region, and money doesn’t matter, you don’t want to raise prices). When you are competing in a region, remember that your work is two-fold; your goal is both to increase your passenger totals and decrease your opponent’s. Even if you built your hub in Seoul, your flight to Guam at -50% is going to put pressure on the computer’s flight from Hong Kong to Guam. I find that targeting the computer’s routes is the best way to gain a strong #1 in a region. I also recommend purchasing business ventures of the same type (pick your poison) in 1) your hub, 2) the computer’s hub and 3) the major cities that you share in common. Advertise, lower prices to -50% and enjoy your retirement as you easily win the game. This strategy works in all 5 levels and in all 4 scenarios. Review of general strategy: 1) Pick a good starting point and appropriate difficulty level. 2) Create profitable routes, interregional and regional. Make lots of $$. 3) Capture #1 position in each region, beginning with regions where the computer has not placed its starting location. 4)Do not forget the principles in this guide. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8. Other Strategies ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bob Hall sent me this neato strategy: "If you base your carrier in North America, there’s no point whatsoever into paying money to the various foreign representatives who show up hat-in-hand. However, if you ever feel like a challenge and use Moscow or Berlin as your headquarters there’s indeed a benefit I’ve spotted. IF (and this is a big if) the folks asking for money are from the United States and you’re Moscow or Berlin (and as the flag shows, that’s East Germany’s Berlin) based, after you see the "relations with the United States have improved" dialog you can buy US-built planes. Even BEFORE Perestroika. I stumbled upon this trying to keep my Moscow-based carrier Jetflot alive in a scenario II game. Since I was actually trying to bankrupt it (so I could start again with some fresh cash) I had no qualms about sending some money to help clean-up the pollution around Dallas airport. But when I went to check out airplane sales instead of the cursor starting on Tupolev, it was on Douglas. Indeed, I could buy anything offered, so I stocked up on Boeing 727-200s in place of economical(ish) but tiny Tupolev TU132s and fuel guzzling TU154s. And that was only the start. "I set up another game with Berlin (also restricted as a Warsaw-pact state in the earlier scenarios) and eventually had the same thing happen, so there are benefits to paying these beggars. A sideline is that those 12 month negotiation periods for slots in New York shortened to six, and when I set up a hub there it was only a three-month wait. A real improvement." =============================================================================== Final Words... =============================================================================== There is a small "Bonus Game" in Aerobiz Supersonic, and it is a "Flag" game. Find the icon that looks like the SNES controller, and press A then SELECT to get into the game. It will show you a flag, then give you 4 options as to which country it belongs to. Simple. -- from GameSages -- http://sages.ign.com/codes/12/8227.html This FAQ was writen entirely using the GWD Text Editor: (shareware) http://www.gwdsoft.com/ ASCII Art created using SigZag by James Dill: (freeware!) http://www.geocities.com/southbeach/marina/4942/sigzag.htm _________________________ Shameless Self Promotion: ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ I am Dan Simpson (dsimpson.faqs@gmail.com) and have also written FAQs for: NES: Disney Adventures in the Magic Kingdom Final Fantasy -- Magic FAQ The Legend of Zelda SNES: Aerobiz Aerobiz Supersonic Utopia: Creation of a Nation Genesis: StarFlight PSX: Thousand Arms -- Walkthrough -- Forging/Dating FAQ PS2: Madden NFL 2001 XBOX: Star Wars: KotOR II: The Sith Lords -- FAQ/Walkthrough -- Influence Guide PC: AD&D Rules FAQ, 2nd and 3rd Editions Baldur's Gate & Tales of the Sword Coast -- FAQ/Walkthrough NPC List Creature List Baldur's Gate II & Throne of Bhaal -- FAQ/Walkthrough -- Items List -- Class FAQ -- Creature List Civilization III (incomplete) Colonization -- the Single Colony Strategy Guide -- the Cheat Guide Drakan: Order of the Flame Dungeon Hack Icewind Dale & Heart of Winter -- FAQ/Walkthrough Items List Kresselack's Tomb Map (JPG) Burial Isle Map (JPG) Shattered Hand Map (JPG) Icewind Dale II -- Items List Master of Magic (revision) Messiah Pharaoh (currently being edited by Red Phoenix) Planescape: Torment -- FAQ/Walkthrough Items Listing Rollercoaster Tycoon Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri The Sims Ultima 4: Quest of the Avatar Ultima 7: The Black Gate Ultima 7 Part 2: Serpent Isle Ultima Underworld -- Keyboard Commands Ultima Underworld II -- Keyboard Commands -- Spell List All of my FAQs can be found at: http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/recognition/2203.html ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ ________________ Version History: ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Original Version (6-5-99, 15k) STILL TO DO: Finish listing all the planes! Changes in 1.1 (7-30-99, 17k) Added the Other Strategies section complete with 1 strategy! Some Small Changes and Addendums Changes in 1.2 (10-1-99, 21k) Small format Changes Small Changes Changes in Version 1.3 (2-29-00, 24k) Pretty much the same as 1.2, Small Changes and Small Format Changes Changes in Version 1.31 (4-26-00, 25k) Updated the format some Small Changes Version 2.0 April 18, 2001 32k Reformatted and updated a little. Then added lots of good information from Korath. Version 2.1 January 17, 2005 32k Changed my email address, and updated the format. Version 2.2 January 22, 2005 38k Added quite a bit of new information from AlbertC79 on the cost of planes, and the effect of Business Ventures. Version 2.3 January 23, 2005 44k Added quite a bit of new information from AlbertC79 on Passenger Totals in the Route section. Version 3.0 April 17, 2009 83k Eric Little sent in a huge amount of content, which I added where appropriate. Per his request, I did not tag each contribution, but a summary of what he sent in can be found above. Added the scenario 4 planes from Marsk Ong. _______________________________________________________________________________ ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ This Document is Copyright 1999-2009 by Dan Simpson Aerobiz Supersonic is Copyright by Koei I am not affiliated with Koei, or anyone who had anything to do with the creation of this game. This FAQ may be posted on any site so long as NOTHING IS CHANGED and you EMAIL ME telling me that you are posting it. You may not charge for, or in any way profit from this FAQ.