Long time, no see, airport CEO!

The wait is over and the release train is finally ready for departure. Alpha 27.4-0 is now available for public testing on the experimental branch after about two months of internal development. Instead of our long usual write-ups, which will come in tonight’s devlog, here’s a few questions you probably want to ask us:

If you’re wondering how to activate the experimental branch, check out this handy guide: The Airport CEO Experimental Branch

1. What does the update contain?

It contains the very foundation and initial rough version of the new Airport CEO user interface as well as Steam Workshop integration. A lot has changed over the hood and perhaps even more has changed under the hood but we want to stress that that this is the first version of Alpha 27 that is publicly accessible, there are still a lot of bugs and there are still many design and functional changes to happen before Alpha 27 goes live on the default branch. We estimate at least another month of development, partially on the UI and surrounding systems, but another main purpose of this release is to get it out so that we again can work closely with you, the community, and push weekly and daily updates for the experimental branch with bug fixes and new features.

2. Can we expect bugs?

Yes! It’s on the experimental branch for a reason, and while we’ve had great help from a dedicated focus group to take care of the worst issues we now need your help to find out what is still broken, not intuitive or missing.

3. So... is Steam Workshop live now?

Yes. If you own the game you can view the Workshop here and freely upload and download mods. If you do not own the game, you cannot access the Workshop, which currently contains a few mods we’ve tested with over these past weeks.

Please note that there have been several changes to the underlying modding system and that the official Airport CEO modding kit and instructions have been updated!

4. Do you want my feedback?

Yes! Please share with us what you like and what you don’t like.

5. Will we have to wait another two months for an update?

No, from this point on the experimental branch will again get daily (and) or weekly updates.

6. What happens now?

Now you get to test what we’ve been working on and influence the future development. We will onboard a professional UI/UX consultant this week who also will have their say in the new user interface and since Alpha 27.4 finally is out we can again continuously update the game with bug fixes and new features. We’ll let you know more of the roadmap ahead in the coming devlog.

Below is the full change log history from Alpha 26.2 to Alpha 27.4. This means that bugs that are addressed in this change log might not have existed in Alpha 26.2, just for your information.

When Alpha 27 gets deployed to the default branch we’ll write a proper update log on all of the new functions.

Well, what are you waiting for? Head over to the experimental branch and try it out now!

Release notes - Airport CEO - Version Alpha 27.4

Improvement

[ACEO-2339] - Implement hot links to Airport CEO community channels on the main menu

[ACEO-3023] - Overhaul management panel layout

[ACEO-3663] - Overhaul main game world UI panel layout

[ACEO-3666] - Improve notification system and notification UI panel

[ACEO-3804] - Several minor bugs in relation to the loan system

[ACEO-3913] - Improve flight process manager panel to display data in a more intuitive way

[ACEO-3914] - Improve flight planner visuals allowing slot coloring

[ACEO-3919] - Clicking locate button on flight process panel should close the panel

[ACEO-3921] - Mods activation status is stored separately from each mod

[ACEO-3922] - Reduce loading spike caused by opening the flight planner panel

[ACEO-3937] - Implement generic interaction point access system to avoid strang false flag path issues being throw

[ACEO-3938] - Various economy improvements and balances

[ACEO-3942] - Repairing an object using a service technician should simulate repair costs

[ACEO-3960] - Improve staff panel card layout

[ACEO-3967] - Update design and visuals of object panels

[ACEO-4002] - Implement toggle to turn off default businesses in the mods panel

[ACEO-4007] - Implement asphalt tile

[ACEO-4008] - Upgrade game engine version

[ACEO-4012] - Implement requirement to have a hired CIO in order to access the management data panel

[ACEO-4022] - Slightly adjusted aircraft take-off simulation

Bug

[ACEO-2171] - Business images do not keep aspect ratio for modding

[ACEO-2439] - Loan not automatically ending

[ACEO-3524] - Removal of small stand causes notable performance impact

[ACEO-3699] - Mind reader functionality is reversed

[ACEO-3915] - Steam creates 3 saves when trying to upload a save

[ACEO-3918] - Basic vehicle depot roof not lighting up at night in building mode

[ACEO-3934] - Several minor issues with UI based functionality (buttons, panel displayments, etcetera)

[ACEO-3941] - Aviation fuel delivery not payed for and unrealistic fees in aviation fuel supplier contract

[ACEO-3945] - Economy panel not summing up correctly

[ACEO-3946] - Airport status icon reversed coloring

[ACEO-3947] - Flight process panel sometimes count passengers twice as the go through security

[ACEO-3948] - Placement panel does not hide when opening other panel

[ACEO-3949] - Requirements panel show "not available" on available starts

[ACEO-3950] - Game settings X does not close panel

[ACEO-3951] - Status column in flight process monitor cannot be sorted

[ACEO-3962] - Incorrect sorting in flight schedule

[ACEO-3968] - Graph container not correctly aligning time tick with time value

[ACEO-3969] - Notification container too long to properly fit dashboard summary panel

[ACEO-3971] - Minor issues with statistic log calculation and recording methods

[ACEO-3972] - Save game option still broken; ‘No valid save path found’

[ACEO-3973] - Old button prefab spawned on of save error window

[ACEO-3974] - Scroll bar overlaps object panel interaction buttons and messages

[ACEO-3975] - Operations menu doesn’t show a difference between the employee and vehicle job tasks, vehicle tasks are not shown at all

[ACEO-3976] - Conveyor belt system build button tool tip has incorrect spelling

[ACEO-3977] - Airport status button does not toggle management panel when clicked

[ACEO-3978] - When signing a food contract, the menu bar is still showing

[ACEO-3979] - Procurement Director remains visible even when a procurement director is hired

[ACEO-3980] - The stand information indicators can sometimes be showing red when it should be green

[ACEO-3981] - Minor visual bugs in relation to the the flight process monitor panel

[ACEO-3982] - Day indicator in flight planner not visible

[ACEO-3983] - Notification panel mouse scroll doesn’t work

[ACEO-3984] - Staff panel mouse scroll doesn’t work

[ACEO-3985] - Selected employee is not properly displayed

[ACEO-3986] - Scroll bar in filtering menu is too big

[ACEO-3987] - Staff overview panel does not display COO properly

[ACEO-3988] - Stand buildings are not previewed correctly when hovering over build buttons

[ACEO-3989] - Rejecting all executives applicants results in no new executive applicants showing up.

[ACEO-3990] - Flight process panel sometimes slow when openeing

[ACEO-3991] - Terminal bulldozer is not working

[ACEO-3992] - Fuel truck bar is always showing 100% full

[ACEO-3993] - Negative values generated for graphs which has an absolute minimum Y value of 0

[ACEO-3994] - NaN vector values generated for animated panels at low FPS can break animation

[ACEO-3995] - World notification container for broken items does not clear correctly when item is repaired

[ACEO-3996] - Employees occasionally get weirdly positioned when performing a job task for a certain object, or claim that they cannot access the job task object

[ACEO-3998] - No workshop mods loaded

[ACEO-3999] - Large ramp agent dummy driver is spawned in world when generating procurement containers

[ACEO-4003] - Pushback truck costs not resetting each hour

[ACEO-4006] - Scene fading panels not correctly enabled when quitting to main menu or desktop

[ACEO-4016] - Several minor UI alignment and positioning issues

[ACEO-4017] - Large performance spike when opening certain panels with scroll functionality

[ACEO-4018] - Certain agents cannot correctly spawn world notifications

[ACEO-4019] - Some ATC related notifications do not correctly clear when an incident is resolved

[ACEO-4020] - Some notifications increase their occurance count when invoking an investigation state

[ACEO-4021] - Implement generic world notification size determination

[ACEO-4023] - Opening accepted contracts immediately after launch the game renders weongly colored containers

[ACEO-4024] - Stands and roads not properly previewed in object description panel

New Feature