Tower!3D Pro - No Free Terminal (Limits Departures)

[crbascott]

Vic,
Just finished a multiplayer session at KPHL using the latest Real Traffic schedule. Our sim starting time was 09:00 and according to the schedule we should see 40 departures during that hour. At the end of our session we had only handled 26 departures during a sim session that spanned 08:49 to 10:21.

In the attached log, I'm seeing a lot of NO FREE TERMINAL messages for departing flights. I can understand arriving flights not having a place to park and getting this message, but I'm unclear to why departing flights at the beginning of a session are having this issue.

My perception is that a full airport schedule severely hampers the flight bandwidth allowed by the sim. I'd appreciate you insight ... again, the log is attached for review.

Thanks, Craig  

output_log.txt

[crbascott]

As a follow up, I ran the same session as single player but paired down the schedule file to only include hours 08, 09, and 10. Using the full file we had 26 departures and 24 arrivals and there were 78ish NO FREE TERMINAL messages in the log file. Using the smaller schedule file for the same starting time, I had 50 departures and 23 arrivals and the log file (see attached) only had 2 NO FREE TERMINAL messages.

As a result, I still believe there are issues with the way the sim initially assigns gates. However, I'm a realist and don't expect FeelThere to change the game engine based on previous responses. So, these posts are probably more of a public service message to those that may notice the number of flights is not as expected. Fortunately, there is a workaround that I have used since Tower!2011 and that is to limit the hours included in the schedule.

Pushback approved,
Craig

game.log

[FeelThere_Vic]

Please try the game with the included traffic. Once you start modifying it then we no longer support it. Unfortunately it is very easy to make mistakes that abuse our gate assignments. So please try with the default first, let us know then we can check the rest.

 

Vic

[crbascott]

5 hours ago, FeelThere said:

Please try the game with the included traffic. Once you start modifying it then we no longer support it. Unfortunately it is very easy to make mistakes that abuse our gate assignments. So please try with the default first, let us know then we can check the rest.

 

Vic

Vic, did you read the posts? Where in the first post does it say anything about modifying anything?  So, as you asked I'm letting you know that I tried with the default first. 

On the second post (and second try) I didn't modify anything. I just took a subset of the default schedule and used it. You're reading more into this than there is. 

 

[FeelThere_Vic]

If you would see that we see daily how many bugs are coming from modification please believe me your first question would be the same :)

The scheduling system is a fine balance; we cannot simulate real world as we can't move idling planes from gates and we don't track the registration number of the planes to make sure the same airplane leaves that arrived early. We wrote a system that works most of the time so there are possibilities when we won't have enough gates, etc. When you read no free terminal for departures it can mean something totally different. We told/asked many times the log file is for us to help you when help needed, not to troubleshoot things on y our end.

[crbascott]

You're rather sensitive on this topic aren't you? No worries ... I didn't expect you to say "Thank you for the report, we will look into this". 

Since I'm a good boy and always do what I'm told, I will leave the debugging to you. Besides I'm just an ignorant customer who couldn't begin to understand the rocket science behind the log files. Please accept my apologies.

[FeelThere_Vic]

If you call my explanation being sensitive then I can't really help :) All I was telling you that just because you feed Tower with a certain number of departure/arrival flights it not necessarily means that you will get them all out due to it's limitation. I thought explained it loud and clear.

 

Vic

 

[crbascott]

This whole exchange could have been avoided if you would have (a) ignored my posts - which is what I expected or (b) actually read my first post. But instead you decided to question my intelligence.

But you have spoken loud and clear and I have listened. I surrender, you win! 

[FeelThere_Vic]

Quote

 But instead you decided to question my intelligence.

For sure I didn't or at least it was not my intention in fact it was the opposite to give you a reason for your finding and not to ignore you. If you feel that I insulted you I apologize and I can promise you that it wasn't my intention.

I hope we are OK :)

 

Vic

 

[crbascott]

We're ok. :)

 

[Avwriter]

That's right.  Play nice boys!  Otherwise there will be no new add-ons for a year ;-)

 

Andrew