I'm probably the last person to give advice since I'm a newbie on this board but I'll offer this. I based my operation on real life since in real life I worked for the airlines from regional companies to global companies. With respect to planes, I always stayed with M planes rather than P or C because it sucks to sit on the ramp with a bunch of passengers when all you have is a cargo plane. Second, come heck or high water I never passed up giving a bux a ride even if it meant less money. Another thing, rather than thinking of a base or region, my goal was to do whatever necessary to get a class 3 airport closest to where I started and then run a "spoke and hub" operation. After grinding out a stream of short flights and building assets, then shoot for another class 3 ...etc. Over time I built a string of class 3 airports from Los Angeles to Tokyo. This allows me to jump to any global event with a nearby "spoke and hub" easily. So, I guess my advice on what airport to get......shoot for a class 3, probably Tokyo and grow westward in a somewhat straight line for profitability. I'm at Level 55 with only 27 airports and 35 planes. All my airports are class 3 with a Sequoia attached to each one with about a dozen Kangeroos running to whatever cities I need to buy for an event. Right now I'm feeding Jakarta with my bigger planes from everywhere east of Istanbul with a dozen Kangeroos grinding out back and forth to Perth. It's setting a global goal that will tell you what airports to buy. Finally, don't get discouraged. I started Pocket Planes in August 2014 (5 months ago) and love it......so I really am a true newbie I hope I helped you. Bobby
Finally... Somewhere where I can reach Just need to purchase Manila and Jakarta- and of course, Perth. Then I can probably hop my Birchcraft and my future Equinox there and send stuff there! btw: That conga line looks quite cool there Is that airport you're turning on Jakarta? Event Info: Perth: Military Experience -Class 1 City -Closest Class 3: Jakarta/Manila Prizes: Top 1: C-130 Hercules Part + 10 Bux Top 10: C-130 Hercules Part + 10 Bux Top 100: C-130 Hercules Part + 3 Bux Participation (Under 100): C-130 Hercules Bux
Hi, Yes. I'm feeding Jakarta. With all the upgrades I think I can layover 60 at Jakarta. Then I use a dozen or so Kangaroos in a Conga line back and forth to Perth. Tedious, but it gets the job done #
I still haven't tried to get to Perth It seems like I should buy Jakarta. Here is a screenshot of my setup here: (JC with numbers planes are Class 1; JxFED (x= a number) are Class 2) How should I improve my strategy in general? How should I get to Perth? Also: A ghost passenger appeared on my Equinox- getting rid of it was as easy as putting it in the hangar and back out- but it cost me a 5 bux for the ordeal...
Sorry for the delay, I had to shovel a foot of snow to get my car out of the parking lot. Well, you're in the general area. What I would do is take a class 1 plane and put it in Perth. That way you can see it's range. If you have class 3 planes, see which class 3 airport is closest to you fleet and within range of that class 1 in Perth and use that as a hub. All of your existing planes can feed into the class 3 hub and the class 1 planes can grind the route between the feeder and Perth. I added a picture of the range of a Kangaroo Class 1 with the distance upgrade You can always upgrade the feeder class 3 for layover space if need be. At the end of the event, you can keep the class 3 feeder hub and build your empire west. Hope that helps. Bobby
Jakarta as the hub? I guess Shenyang, Shanghai, Beijing, Tokyo, Chengdu, and Taipei could all be feeders...
Yes, that would work. You can use any airport as a hub but a class 3 is preferred because there is no restriction on what planes can fly into them. Also, class 3 planes will carry more so you'll need less planes to move the same number of passengers and/or boxes. If your goal is to build a string of class 3 airports across your service area, then you can simply open and close the smaller airports depending whether you're chasing events or going for profits. i don't have much bux because I made a very expensive mistake halfway through building my network. At one point I spent a lot of bux to create a fleet of fully upgraded Cloudliners. Big mistake on my part because the profit margin was to small for the network I designed. I ended up getting rid of a large fleet of Cloudliners and replacing them with Kangeroos. At the end of a day, I was making much more money for the same number of trips with the Kangeroos. Exciting game # Bobby
I would suggest phasing out the Class 2 (blue) cities and focus on buying Class 3 (red) cities. Fully upgraded Class 3 cities will also give you a bigger pool of jobs to choose from (and also allow you to leave more layover jobs there too). Swap Osaka for Tokyo. Swap Taipei for Guangzhou. Sell Sapporo, Harbin & Chengdu. It's slow going at the beginning, but it does get better!!! (It's been so long, I can't remember exactly, but) I think it got better around level late-teens to early-20s, so just keep grinding away until you reach that sweet spot. Pick up any Bux jobs, they're worth more when you cash them in for coins. Have you started the Perth event? The prize is a C-130 Hercules part. This is not a plane you can buy. You can only earn them through these special events. You only need to deliver 50 jobs to Perth to qualify for the C-130 part. You'll probably need to buy Jakarta. Your Kangaroo should be able to make it from Taipei (or Guangzhou) to Jakarta to Perth. There's a link in my signature below that takes you to a page with strategies, tips, resources, etc. Part of the fun is experimentation, you can get some ideas of what other people have tried by reading some of their strategies. Make sure you read the one about Bux exchange. If you exchange too much at once, you will lose the Bux and gain zero coins in return. Until you get a feel for how far your planes can go, you may find this website handy (it's also linked in on the resources page I mentioned). http://therustysnowman.com/proj/pocketplanes.php Scroll down to the Earnings Comparison section and use that to plan out the route of your multi-hop trip across the globe. There is no right or wrong way to do things. Just make sure you're having fun. Oh, and join Flight Crew TOUCHARCADE1
My Cloudliners stay grounded most of the time. I have 8 other class 3 planes that are permanently grounded (C-130, Sequoia, Cyclone types). I don't really have hubs, unless you count the closest class 3 city to a Global Event city, which changes every 3.5 days. Here's where I am at the moment for the Perth. I have 27 Cyclones (sorry, I was mistaken earlier when I thought I was using 35) bringing jobs to Jakarta from all my other airports: Los Angeles Chicago New York Lima Rio Sao Paulo Buenos Aires Lagos Kinshasa London Paris Moscow Istanbul Cairo Dhaka Mumbai Tokyo Seoul Beijing Shanghai Guangzhou Wow, that's a lot of cities now that I have enumerated them! LOL I am using 6 Mapples and 16 Kangaroos to move jobs from Jakarta to Perth. I have no Class 2 planes in play. I put them in the hangar aeons ago and never bothered to pull them out. I play Class 2 Global Events using my Class 1 planes. But if I were to pull out Class 2 planes, they would be Aeroeagles. Sometimes I swap out the Class 1 planes, they can be any combination of: Mapple, Sea Knight, Kangaroo, Mohawk, and Kringle Kruiser.
Hi Faye, After I got rid of the Cloudliners, I debated between the Cyclone and Sequoia. The trade offs were 2 additional slots for the Cyclone against efficiency of the Sequoia. In the end I went for the efficiency because I needed the coins to buy airport slots. Like you, I have a string of class 3 airports from LAX to TYO. I finally hit the number I needed. I keep 6 class 2 Aeroeagles for events with a cluster of class 2 airports near a class 3,airport.....like the last one at NYC. Otherwise I run 1 of them to Hawaii. I use Hawaii to haul the big number bux to my hub in Mexico and run them across the pond through Lagos. Since I just recently started doing global events, I don't have very many specialty planes......if I'm not doing events, I'm making my money with 34 Sequoia's and 1 Aeroeagle.. I will read your information in your signature......thank you very much. Bobby
OK... Just bought Shenyang, Beijing, and Tokyo. Closed Sapporo but hanging on to Harbin and Chengdu for time being... It seems like everybody wants to go to Chengdu and everybody wants to leave! Also... noticed that everybody on this forum seems to have airports in a straight line. I jut have a bunched mess of Class 2 and 3 airports in Asia... Should I buy Tehran and Xi'An to send flights there? Or should I buy Guangzhou instead? (For Toucharcade1- I am currently in TOUCHARCADE and it seems like they are getting 1st always- how come TOUCHARCADE1?) (Update: Just bought Guangzhou) Here is current setup (That airport that is covered is Shenyang...):
Hi, Faye will answer your other questions but I can answer this one. When you do long flights with layovers, your profit is determined by the most efficient route which is a straight line. You can test this yourself on a long haul flight. Try different routes before you actually release the flight and you'll see the route along the straightest line produces the most profit. As for TA or TA1, I don't know how this evolved, I'm new here but, like you, I discovered that TA was always in first which means all anyone has to do to win the big prize is do the minimum amount of work. The sheer volume of players makes first a shoo-in. There is nothing wrong with that and I'm happy for everyone who plays. However, I like the competition so I joined TA1 to see if I can help the team get to either second or third. Right now we are 3rd and it's fun to see my friends on the leaderboard. Bobby
Thanks for info! Looks like geometry class is paying off So- seeing my setup above, which airport should I buy? OK In all- my questions for you and Faye are: 1. Which Class-3 airport should I buy next? 2. Should I buy Pearjets or wait for Aeroeagles? 3. Should I shut down airports and which ones? 4. Should I trade parts often (the trade thread is not very active...) 5. Should I be buying planes that I unlocked (Mapples, Equinoxes, Kangaroos, etc.) or wait patiently for juicy planes like Pearjets and Aeroeagles?
I will defer to Faye as her recommendations and experience is much better than mine. With respect to Class 3 airports, I built a network from Los Angeles to Tokyo with 2 ways to route my long hauls.....either through New York to Paris (range of my Sequoias) or Mexico to Lagos (again, range of my Sequoia). That worked for me since I fly long haul flights with the 25% bonus. I don't know about trading parts.....to new on the board. Again, Faye has much better experience for planes. I took the Aeroeagle over the Pearjet because of the configuration. With few exceptions, I always use the M variant and like to keep them equal when feeding a hub so I don't end up with more passengers than boxes to vice versa. So the 3/3 Aeroeagle was my choice over the 2/3 of the Pearjet. Another thing to research is efficiency. Sometimes a plane that goes faster or carries more weight doesn't make as much profit. I learned this the hard way so my choice of planes works for how I designed my network but may not work for others. Have fun !!!!!!!!! Bobby
Thanks Explains why Cloudliners are so unpopular: Superfast and Super-uneven (12/5- seriously!) Also, ugghh... Seoul closed for 29 Minutes... I'm sooo lucky that my planes aren't there
Yes, I have 1 stuck there and another one waiting in Jakarta to go there fully loaded. I always have an alternate airport to route in cases like this. Like in Europe I have both Paris and London. If one closes, I can route through the other. My Sequoias can only reach either one from New York (plane and airports are class 3). This is the amazing and fun part of designing your network. The combination of airport classes and the range of your planes really determine what to buy or where to build.
What if both Paris and London are closed? Yeah Closed Osaka and Taipei because of Tokyo and Guangzhou opened.
Sorry for double-post but: New Event In ... (drumroll)... Anchorage, Alaska! Pirate Party! Hooray! Good News: Class 1 Airport! (A bit of a challenge is always welcomed) Bad News: 1) Bux-only 2) Class 1 Airport (Con for beginners and level-teens like me who started in Asia/Australia as we have to jump our way through) Also, I'm starting to hate Tokyo because of its position. 1) It doesn't have any airports east of it which means that if you're delivering stuff there- you have to make it your last stop. 2) All my airports are in line except Tokyo, which stands out like a sore thumb 3) Jobs to Tokyo (maybe I'm unlucky) are Cheap-Cheep! Honestly, no plane can make a good profit there because passengers are offering 88 coins to get there... err... please go to Seoul if you seriously need to get to Tokyo 4) It just doesn't have expandability. Like I stated in #1, it's the end of the map so planes just have to go west once they touch Tokyo.
Actually, I like Tokyo because it is on the far end of my routes. I also have Los Angeles (class 3) with Honolulu (Class 2). When I'm grinding away at just making money for another plane slot, a 25% bonus run from Tokyo to Los Angeles is a lot of coin. If I manage to grab a few Honolulu bux riders, that is 10 bux for 1 trip. That is why I don't do global events when the first prize is only 35 bux without a plane part. I can make 35 bux in 20 minutes on my money runs rather than 3 days in an event. You say that Tokyo doesn't have expandability, this is true if you look at it as your destination airport. Try looking at it as your origin airport and as your empire expands westward, then Tokyo becomes a great money maker. Keep experimenting and, more importantly, have fun. Bobby
