Darkriser wrote in Thu Jul 06, 2017 10:53 am:If ACFTs in the air break the horizontal/vertical separation, ATC-pie starts yelling at me.
ACFTs on the ground seem to have this warning (intentionally?) turned off.
There are two kinds of alerts: (1) measured separation loss, and (2) anticipated route/course conflicts based on registered assignments (strip routes & vectors).
...and one could say, two types of traffic: airborne and ground. Alerts indeed only apply to airborne traffic.
Separation loss makes little sense on the ground, since it is mostly the pilots' responsibility: "follow ...", "taxi via ... behind ..." are sufficient instructions. Also distance cues for dangerous movements are too small and depend on the planes' sizes.
One could picture taxi route conflicts, but it seems only barely realistic in the general case (controllers do not register taxi clearances on progress strips like they do in-flight routing). Also, impossible with the scarcely available ground route data and no way of registering precise taxi instructions.
But this is where I say it makes sense for AI (simulated) traffic to stop if there is traffic ahead. That behaviour is rather realistic, and keeps you from getting away with bad ground management since you will have to intervene in the case of opposite routes. Otherwise traffic locks in place, which is better than just alerting. Thanks to your remark, I have already implemented something now being tested for the next upgrade.
NB: To control a complex ground layout, I recommend using a loose strip bay with the ground chart in the background, and moving strips directly to reflect the assigned routes.
Darkriser wrote in Thu Jul 06, 2017 10:53 am:Btw. I'm aware of the General settings -> Separation, routes, vectors -> Aircraft separation,
but does it mean that ATC-pie absolutely ignores separation below this altitude?
When controlling ACFTs below this altitude am I left on my own to manually watch and keep the separation?
Yes, you choose a floor for conflict checks, under which you decide an en-route type of separation becomes unnecessary. Nobody wants a 5-mile sep on traffic at airport circuit level.