A quick update on the 777, a new version will come online tomorrow:
Passenger boardingI have improved the weight & payload dialog, allowing to enable jetways for doors 1 and 2. This will
not move the AI jetways in range, as it is impossible to detect which jetways are the right ones (detecting the nearest ones is not the right way to go, as the nearest jetway can e.g. be the jetway from the gate to your right). This will however enable you to board realistically when connected to multiple jetways and when you don't want to connect stairs to increase the boarding speed. The 300 series aircraft will receive a 4th staircase on door 3 (the one behind the wing). This will allow you to board even faster.
The boarding system has also been improved in a number of ways:
- Pax can only board when one or more stairs or jetways are connected.
- First class passengers will only board via door 1 (the front door), unless no jetway or staircase is connected to that door. In that case they will board via door 2. They will never board via the rear door(s).
- Business class passengers will only board via door 1 and 2, never via the rear door(s)
- Economy class passengers will only board via door 2 and 3, unless no jetway or staircase is connected to those doors. In that case they will board via door 1.
- If you only enable the stairs for door 3 and/or 4, the system will tell you that business and first class pax are unable to board. The boarding process will stop and the system will ask you to connect a staircase or jetway to door 1 or 2.
Weight & payload + fuel truck dialogThese dialogs have received a time remaining field, so you can monitor the progress. Please be aware that the time remaining for passenger boarding can vary, as the system adds pax quite randomly and because of the boarding constraints above it can happen that the boarding process goes faster/slower depending on how efficient the passengers come aboard. This is a challenge in real life too, so not too bad I guess
Of course the baggage loading and refueling time will be correct.
Baggage loadingIf all goes well, extra catering trucks will be added to all passenger versions. The catering trucks will allow you to load a small amount of cabin cargo (food trolleys etc.), making the boarding/loading process a tad more interesting.
Other updates and bug fixes- Fixed reference to fire truck models (they were broken in the last commit)
- Fixed bad property referencing that could possibly pollute the property tree of other pilots when flying online (I 'm learning as I go
)
- Added some more screenshots to make the launcher a bit more interesting
- Possibility to keep the weight and ground services persistent, so you startup in the same config as you exited the sim.
- If I still have time: add a dynamic taxi light (see the previous page of this thread)