[Sanky Panky]

Two gripes on this game

- It's BS that my Birchcraft can't land in airports like Santo Domingo, or for the current challenge in San Jose. Not only does this plane get more jobs to San Jose than the rest (in the same airport), but in real life, we have bigger planes landing on these. The worst is when I forget that I'm loading this plane, and have to redo the whole thing after I click on the airport.

- It wouldn't take away from anything if the passenger/cargo loading screen had some sort of organization. Why not organize airports by optimal route? It's becoming more and more of a drag to sort through this screen.

[Katana_Strikes]

Upgrading an airport doesn't change it's colour or class but it does give it more jobs and layover spaces available.

[mrklaw]

Two gripes on this game - It's BS that my Birchcraft can't land in airports like Santo Domingo, or for the current challenge in San Jose. Not only does this plane get more jobs to San Jose than the rest (in the same airport), but in real life, we have bigger planes landing on these. The worst is when I forget that I'm loading this plane, and have to redo the whole thing after I click on the airport. - It wouldn't take away from anything if the passenger/cargo loading screen had some sort of organization. Why not organize airports by optimal route? It's becoming more and more of a drag to sort through this screen.

Birchcraft is a class 2 plane. Of course it would be nice to land at class 1 airports, but it doesn't so you have to work around it. I happen to have Dallas, so I pile my big planes into there, then have a couple of mohawks doing shuttle runs to San Jose.

I'd like to be able to sort by distance rather than the default cost.

[shira]

Birchcraft is a class 2 plane. Of course it would be nice to land at class 1 airports, but it doesn't so you have to work around it. I happen to have Dallas, so I pile my big planes into there, then have a couple of mohawks doing shuttle runs to San Jose. I'd like to be able to sort by distance rather than the default cost.

It does sort by distance

[AlphaTwo00]

What is the benefit to upgrading an airport? It's so expensive I haven't done it yet... Is it better to upgrade a class 3 like new York or Chicago than say, Dallas or atlanta?

Entirely for capacity reason. With this new challenge, I've got 4 cities: San Jose <-> Mexico <-> New York <-> Paris. I've upgraded Mexico/New York to be Level 2, so they become holdings for all the crap that I'm trying to funnel down to San Jose.

[Dynamite Ringo Matsuri]

Thanks a million for the planes Katana! I'm steadily working my way towards San Jose. I'll be able to buy it soon to help out with the challenge

[shira]

Thanks a million for the planes Katana! I'm steadily working my way towards San Jose. I'll be able to buy it soon to help out with the challenge

You can just buy San Jose and bogota/guatamala.
Just send one of your planes to the hangar and revive it near San Jose

[jrDev]

Two gripes on this game - It's BS that my Birchcraft can't land in airports like Santo Domingo, or for the current challenge in San Jose. Not only does this plane get more jobs to San Jose than the rest (in the same airport), but in real life, we have bigger planes landing on these. The worst is when I forget that I'm loading this plane, and have to redo the whole thing after I click on the airport. - It wouldn't take away from anything if the passenger/cargo loading screen had some sort of organization. Why not organize airports by optimal route? It's becoming more and more of a drag to sort through this screen.

I'm pretty sure it sorts by distance since the farther you are the more the ticket is going to cost for the passenger...

[Katana_Strikes]

That's it all out of planes/parts/bux. Randomly given out the rest to peeps. Hope they help give you a little boost.

Good luck to the Team for the new challenge. Been a blast. Here's to the next Nimblebit game.

[DigitalDevil]

That's it all out of planes/parts/bux. Randomly given out the rest to peeps. Hope they help give you a little boost. Good luck to the Team for the new challenge. Been a blast. Here's to the next Nimblebit game.

Thanks!

[strem]

We need to step it up. Just hanging on to 10th

[mrklaw]

We need to step it up. Just hanging on to 10th

Any benefit in spreading flights out? I have quite a few near Dallas/San Jose/bogota, but is it worth having some
planes in Europe etc? Are customers dished out evenly all over the place?

[DigitalDevil]

Gafair is dying this quick? Shame...

[AlphaTwo00]

We need to step it up. Just hanging on to 10th

I've done 4 times more delivery than 2nd place already, I can't exactly see how long our list is, but I'm assuming we've dropped off a lot in actual players in our group.

10th should be safe for us though.

[kittens]

I'm #15 in the crew with 115 deliveries to San Jose. I'm gonna keep at it all weekend. I'm surprised at competitive this actually makes me feel, hah.

[Dynamite Ringo Matsuri]

Jus bought San Jose this morning. Level 6 nearly 7, special thanks to Katana Strikes for all the planes! I'm using them to cover the long distance to San Jose. Having a heck of a time fillin them up though, but I've already got a few planes in the air headed that way. 21 minute flight!

[shira]

Gafair is dying this quick? Shame...

Well you just throw down 5 and you get the prize. Kinda broken system

I've done 4 times more delivery than 2nd place already, I can't exactly see how long our list is, but I'm assuming we've dropped off a lot in actual players in our group. 10th should be safe for us though.

I'm 2nd almost at level 20. Not sure if bigger planes are going to help.
I've been saving all my bux in anticipation of a level 3

Any advice A200?

[Meier]

Gafair is dying this quick? Shame...

Unfortunately I have a feeling the game itself is dying pretty quickly for a lot of folks which is a shame especially since NB is so small that it's not like they can just pump out completely new games quickly. I'm still having fun with it since I love the concept and think the execution is pretty solid.

[Vivalaraza]

I'm 20th and I've done about 110.

[Dynamite Ringo Matsuri]

Unfortunately I have a feeling the game itself is dying pretty quickly for a lot of folks which is a shame especially since NB is so small that it's not like they can just pump out completely new games quickly. I'm still having fun with it since I love the concept and think the execution is pretty solid.

I kind of treat it the same way that I did with Tiny Tower, as a little toy that I can check in from time to time. The mechanics and level of involvement are pretty barebones and it hooks you in the same way that games featuring loot do. Once you've attained some of the better planes, I'd imagine your level of investment/interest starts to taper off severely. The one saving grace is the crew mechanic, as it's pretty cool to be able to compete globally against other teams

[AlphaTwo00]

Well you just throw down 5 and you get the prize. Kinda broken system I'm 2nd almost at level 20. Not sure if bigger planes are going to help. I've been saving all my bux in anticipation of a level 3 Any advice A200?

I've seen the first few Lvl3 planes, and I've stuck to the cheapest one of Sequoia: it's the cheapest one, but it's also the largest one for now and needs the least number of same layovers to be profitable (5+), the Fogbuster and Tetra may be way faster, but the cost to try to make them to break-even seems kinda meh. For level 2 planes, I stuck to the Aeroeagle.

[mrklaw]

Yeah, slower seems better for me. Anything other than full to the brim loses you money or barely breaks even on pearjet and Fogbuster. Aero eagle, birchcraft, Mohawk and sequioa seem much more forgiving. That gives me the flexibility to shuttle half full flights around to hubs without being hit in the wallet too much.

needs the least number of same layovers to be profitable (5+),

Can you explain this more? Do you mean you can fly it half full and still break even? How do you work out this kind of stuff, I'd be curious about the pearjet and Fogbuster which seem expensive to run

[Flunkie]

Unfortunately I have a feeling the game itself is dying pretty quickly for a lot of folks which is a shame especially since NB is so small that it's not like they can just pump out completely new games quickly. I'm still having fun with it since I love the concept and think the execution is pretty solid.

yep, way less legs for me, althought I didn't stick with TT very long either

[DigitalDevil]

Unfortunately I have a feeling the game itself is dying pretty quickly for a lot of folks which is a shame especially since NB is so small that it's not like they can just pump out completely new games quickly. I'm still having fun with it since I love the concept and think the execution is pretty solid.

It's odd as I don't feel that way. As long as they continue to have interesting events, I imagine I wil be playing for some time!

I do however want to be competitive, and as loyal as I am to GAF, I'm not sure I'll hang on if we fall consistently below #10.

[DigitalDevil]

Also, I'm excited to see the "pot of gold" at the end of those mini events, the 0/1000 ones. It seems like it will take a long time to complete any of those!

[666]

You know how they can combat the "megateams"? Decrease the team wins and add inner team ranking prizes, so you benefit from being part of a smaller team. Would be much more competitive.

And maybe a team percentage bonus for the team with the highest relative percentage of point earners. So you'd benefit from being in a team of 10 committed players or a thousand, it's all about quality of members.

[shira]

I've seen the first few Lvl3 planes, and I've stuck to the cheapest one of Sequoia: it's the cheapest one, but it's also the largest one for now and needs the least number of same layovers to be profitable (5+), the Fogbuster and Tetra may be way faster, but the cost to try to make them to break-even seems kinda meh. For level 2 planes, I stuck to the Aeroeagle.

How many airports and planes do you have?
I can't comprehend how you are so far ahead.

[Meier]

It's odd as I don't feel that way. As long as they continue to have interesting events, I imagine I wil be playing for some time! I do however want to be competitive, and as loyal as I am to GAF, I'm not sure I'll hang on if we fall consistently below #10.

I could be wrong, but if GAF isn't sticking with it, I wouldn't doubt that would be indicative of a larger issue. We had people going strong with Tiny Tower for a very long time and it was obviously even more successful than Pocket Frogs. I just don't see that happening here.. in part because I think people prefer to be able to continue to get some level of reward when not playing which this limits to a certain extent.

My only real gripe personally is that you're essentially punished if you expand. I'm tempted to just close half my airports but where's the fun in that? :(

[MThanded]

Gafair is dying this quick? Shame...

I lost interest in the game after playing quite a bit in the first days. Just wasn't doing it for me.

[toythatkills]

I could be wrong, but if GAF isn't sticking with it, I wouldn't doubt that would be indicative of a larger issue. We had people going strong with Tiny Tower for a very long time and it was obviously even more successful than Pocket Frogs. I just don't see that happening here.. in part because I think people prefer to be able to continue to get some level of reward when not playing which this limits to a certain extent. My only real gripe personally is that you're essentially punished if you expand. I'm tempted to just close half my airports but where's the fun in that? :(

There's nothing in Pocket Planes to keep people playing. You can basically max it out in three days, where Tiny Tower took about six months to get all the floors.

I think the problem is that it's backwards. It's too hard to get plane slots, and too easy to get airports, but nobody really cares about collecting planes. If you unlocked a plane slot with every other level, and had to spend increasing amounts of money to unlock airports, then you'd have that Tiny Tower-esque feeling of progression, unlocking airports would feel like you were actually achieving something and people would still be playing trying to unlock the whole world. As it is, everything's available far too easily.

Obviously there are other pretty major balance issues with layovers and big planes being useless, but I think the above would have made it a much more compelling game for a longer time for more people, at least.

[mrklaw]

Come on gafair, we can catch #9..

[Meier]

Transatlantic is still bugged. I reset my achievements and got the pop up after flying from Lagos to Salvador, but it isn't showing as achieved when I click Awards. What a shame. :\

[mrklaw]

Bogota closed, half my san Jose fleet grounded, aargh!

[AlphaTwo00]

How many airports and planes do you have? I can't comprehend how you are so far ahead.

Lvl 26 right now, 19 planes operational, with 4 cities: San Jose <-> Mexico (upgraded to lvl 2) <-> New York (lvl 2) <-> Paris.

Right now, I'm running 5 Sequoias between New York and Paris, 6 Aeroeagle between New York and Mexico, and 8 Kangaroos between Mexico and San Jose.

Oh, and I have a lot of free time clicking away.

There's nothing in Pocket Planes to keep people playing. You can basically max it out in three days, where Tiny Tower took about six months to get all the floors. I think the problem is that it's backwards. It's too hard to get plane slots, and too easy to get airports, but nobody really cares about collecting planes. If you unlocked a plane slot with every other level, and had to spend increasing amounts of money to unlock airports, then you'd have that Tiny Tower-esque feeling of progression, unlocking airports would feel like you were actually achieving something and people would still be playing trying to unlock the whole world. As it is, everything's available far too easily. Obviously there are other pretty major balance issues with layovers and big planes being useless, but I think the above would have made it a much more compelling game for a longer time for more people, at least.

Plane slots have been a pain to get, and seeing how much it is to get #20, yeah, it's daunting. However, I have been collecting every plane available (I'm filling that chart, dammit).

Personally, I think the game runs into the issue that a lot of one-hit makers on iOS run into: how do you come up with a sequel to a popular game? For a lot of them, simplicity and easiness was the central focus on why the games were popular, and a lot of these companies' solutions were depth and complexity. In this one, players who did like Tiny Towers may have enjoyed it for how simple to see whether they were doing good or not: here, the answer isn't anywhere as clear cut. Tiny Tower was also relatively linear: you know your goal, build the biggest tower; here, players are given numerous choices, and this level of depth may be great for someone who wants to sink their teeth in, but may end up hurting the appeal of "ease of play".

[Pachael]

Like SimCity 4/Rush Hour, I love the micromanagement and the transport theme though I know that can be fairly offputting for many - this game can be quite complicated if you're into micromanaging layovers from cities and so on.

My Cairo depot is at max level and there are 60 layover slots, most of which are full most of the time, for instance, and it's hell trying to micromanage just to avoid filling all the slots, much less determine whom goes on what plane towards where.

Tiny Tower was far more simple and straightforward which I think is a plus; despite the micromanagement that comes with moving bitizens around, there's a lot of straightfoward fun in restocking and seeing the tower build up.

[mrklaw]

Lvl 26 right now, 19 planes operational, with 4 cities: San Jose <-> Mexico (upgraded to lvl 2) <-> New York (lvl 2) <-> Paris. Right now, I'm running 5 Sequoias between New York and Paris, 6 Aeroeagle between New York and Mexico, and 8 Kangaroos between Mexico and San Jose.

How do you deal with getting enough passengers for 5 sequoias? I just waited lots of turns to fill up an LA-Tokyo flight? I do have lots of airports open though - does that dilute the number of passengers?

[AlphaTwo00]

How do you deal with getting enough passengers for 5 sequoias? I just waited lots of turns to fill up an LA-Tokyo flight? I do have lots of airports open though - does that dilute the number of passengers?

Yeah it's a waiting game. In NYC, they get Paris passengers funneled over, but Paris is a bottleneck waiting for enough passengers. Usually, I fly back as long as I have 5 passengers to NYC (so the flight is profitable), the rest became layovers for other cities.

[NervousXtian]

I lost interest in the game after playing quite a bit in the first days. Just wasn't doing it for me.

Yeah, once you realize that getting a bigger plane actually means less profit unless you micromanage layovers and/or cut down on airports to stop mixing Class 1/2/3 so you stop having stupid level 1 people with a level 2/3 plane.

I make more money with Kangaroo and Anan in my North America empire than I do with the larger planes.. and they are considerably less of a PITA to manage. I can load up a Kangaroo with 3 stops on the East Coast and make almost a grand.. but my Pearjet? Yeah.. better have 4 seats to the same city or more to make anything.

It's stupid. The game was fun in the start and got progressively more unfun as time went on.

This is a timewaster app, as it requires checking in often to keep things going, but when that becomes a chore.. I'm out.

[jyoung188]

After 4 job cycles I loaded 5 San Jose cargo into my Pearl Jet C and then remembered that it's a class 2 plane -___-

I am starting to lose interest in this game, it's starting to feel more like work as you get bigger planes and I'm only level 14.

[AlphaTwo00]

There's actually a myth of "flights losing money": if you're doing any layovers, as long as you're not sending people in circles, you're going to make money. The problem is a stat display issue: your larger planes that are the bridge flights between cities don't get any of the profit on it.

An example with my map of San Jose <-> Mexico <-> New York <-> Paris: I run a bunch of class 2 planes between Mexico and New York, and a lot of them are passengers from paris that wants to get to San Jose. On a loaded flight, I actually lose $800 between New York to Mexico, but the end flight of Mexico -> San Jose, I make almost 5 times more than what a normal Kangaroo flight would have made within it's flying range.

The net result is still a profit, but in the log graph, the profit doesn't show on the larger planes.

[yogloo]

One thing that would add a lot to this game is named rankings. I don't feel the need to compete when I'm shown to be competing against arbitrary numbers. I want to know which gaf member is above me and whom I have just beaten.

[mrklaw]

Half tempted to ground my Fogbuster. Just so expensive to run, even a full flight doesn't make a huge profit. Might switch it for an aeroeagle which is forgiving

[shira]

Lvl 26 right now, 19 planes operational, with 4 cities: San Jose <-> Mexico (upgraded to lvl 2) <-> New York (lvl 2) <-> Paris. Right now, I'm running 5 Sequoias between New York and Paris, 6 Aeroeagle between New York and Mexico, and 8 Kangaroos between Mexico and San Jose. Oh, and I have a lot of free time clicking away.

weird. Ok I'm going to try a 4 city shuttle service next round

[Chopper]

There's nothing in Pocket Planes to keep people playing. You can basically max it out in three days, where Tiny Tower took about six months to get all the floors. I think the problem is that it's backwards. It's too hard to get plane slots, and too easy to get airports, but nobody really cares about collecting planes. If you unlocked a plane slot with every other level, and had to spend increasing amounts of money to unlock airports, then you'd have that Tiny Tower-esque feeling of progression, unlocking airports would feel like you were actually achieving something and people would still be playing trying to unlock the whole world. As it is, everything's available far too easily. Obviously there are other pretty major balance issues with layovers and big planes being useless, but I think the above would have made it a much more compelling game for a longer time for more people, at least.

That's it. I've been trying to figure out what's not clicking and it's the fact it's backwards. Unlocking planes doesn't feel like progress. Expanding your network is where the progressions at. But I went full length of the equator in a matter of days.

Haven't heard from Ian and Dave in a while. Would be interested in what they think of their feedback.

[Katana_Strikes]

One thing that would add a lot to this game is named rankings. I don't feel the need to compete when I'm shown to be competing against arbitrary numbers. I want to know which gaf member is above me and whom I have just beaten.

Yeah that would have been nice. I think the only way other names show is if they are on your gamecenter friends list.

[Copycatken]

#GAFAIR is actually catching up with 9th place. We were trailing 9th place by 1000 this morning and the gap has narrowed down to about 500 now. Too bad the event is over in 2h or else we could have gained a spot.

[AlphaTwo00]

Moscow! Level 3 city! GO GO GO!

[kinoki]

Moscow! Level 3 city! GO GO GO!

Finally no need for lay-overs. All planes are fully loaded and on their way.

[FerranMG]

I couldn't do much for the San Jose event, I ended up being 40 something in the gaf leaderboard, but Moscow looks like I will do much better.
I was 11 when Casablanca! :)

[Meier]

I am based in Europe so I'll definitely be contributing to Moscow quite a bit. :)