Pocket Planes Flight Crew lounge

Owen

Our flight crew is: #POCKETTACTICS
Enlist today!

All right lads - the first global challenge is behind us, and we placed a very respectable No. 16. We are pound-for-pound the best flight crew in the world as I reckon there's about 20 or 30 of us and there's hundreds of cats in the bigger crews.

The Roll of Merit
Calgary: 16th Place
Brisbane: Top 100 (where exactly?)

Current Event
Casablanca!


edited 20 June

athros13

There is a way, even if you're not even close to Australia. If you buy airports at Brisbane and Rockhampton (or anywhere else close), and build an airplane there, you can run flights between them, racking up jobs for your flight crew ;-)

zoso

Hello, friends. I live in USA, but just by accident started my PP empire in Australia. Running lots of jobs to the Brisbane Air Museum opening. Just joined the Pocket Tactics Flight Crew. Tally-ho.

doublefeh

Doublefeh here. I think I was #3 or 4 in the crew for the Calgary challenge.

Starting an independent Australian Subsidiary is working okay, but probably not going to rack up the big shipments without support from your main base. Anybody have thoughts on the most efficient route for a class2 plane like the Birchcraft or Equinox to get down under from North America? That Atlantic Ocean is tricky.

stea1th4

stea1th4 reporting for duty. Just joined, I just bought airports in those 2 cities and put a plane there so I can start flying missions. I kinda of know how flight crews work, but let's say this flight crew gets top 10. Does everyone in the flight crew get the mustang and 5 bux? Or how does that work?
Thanks
stea1th4

ilovefizzypop

I'm hitting brisbane


Shit, I'm completely addicted:(

athros13

@stea1th4 - yes. Every person gets the reward.

ilovefizzypop

How are people playing this?

I started out in Japan, and have worked my way down into Australia and NewZealand. Ive now have 10 planes and 14 cities.

I was previously just flying massive long haul flights up and down this stretched, but just reorganized to a central Hub system - using Darwin as the drop off point. Half of my planes are working the cities from Sapporo down to Darwin, while the of half are flying exclusively in Australia & NZ. In between this im also making 'local' drop offs' within the same continent.
No idea if it will work, but i thought i would share! ;)

Im also making loads of runs to Brisbane (i think im 2nd in the flightcrew)

Please feel free to add me on gamecentre - im Zymeck - im a bit rubbish, but seem to be doing OK with this one...

Nightgaunt

I'm centered in the Western US and I have just gotten access to the Mohawk plane. Not sure I'm going to be able to help with this one, chums. But I'm not sure I totally understand how the events work, so if there's some way I can contribute, let me know.

Are the jobs being logged in the flight crew stats only ones that apply to the event?

stea1th4

@athros13 thanks! Yeah I bought an airport in rockhampton and Brisbane and put two planes in them an have them alternating. It's working pretty good, I'm either 12,11, or 10th.

tripper54

Ok, I'm in! I started in Australia (live near Sydney), so I'm well placed to chip in

Owen

Great showing here guys! Is anybody else having trouble getting the leaderboards to refresh? I have no idea how well (or poorly :D) we're doing.

@Nightgaunt The Mohawk is pretty great but I've found that you need to invest in lowering its weight or you spend so much on fuel that it never churns out much profit, despite having better range and airspeed than anything else in Class 1 (at least, that I've seen so far in Class 1).

In the flight crew stats, I think you're only seeing the jobs that were completed as part of the global challenge. So if you're in the crew but haven't delivered anything to Brisbane, you won't show up on the leaderboard.

@ilovefizzypop Which of your planes are making the most profit per hour? Your short-haul stuff or the long distance ones?

MazerRackham

I'm starting to think that upgrading to long range planes isn't an automatic win. I'm getting great results from the original Navigators doing short hops because they can turn around so many per hour. Granted, you have to babysit your planes a lot that way, but when you've got time that turns into a lot of money.

Owen

Leaderboards are working again and it looks like we're currently #18. Top 10 would be tough but not impossible, I think.

ilovefizzypop

@owen. I've pretty much given up on the 'hub' approach - wayyyy to complicated. I've pretty much been sticking to long haul, but stopping off on route to try to maximise the 25% bonus.

I've now notched up 150+ Brisbane flights ;)

Nightgaunt

Thanks for the note on the Mohawk. So where should I be spending my coins? Should I be buying more planes? Upgrading planes? Upgrading airports? All of the above? Right now, I've been focused on just getting a lot of planes and airports up and running. The cost of upgrading seems so prohibitive I assume it's more of a mid-game kind of expense. What's been working for you guys?

Apoy

Just joined, thanks for having me.

Owen

We've crept up to 17th place, people. :)

@ilovefizzypop, @MazerRackham, feel free to interject, but to answer @Nightgaunt, I think upgrading airports might be the most important early game expenditure. When you've got more jobs and more options, you get the full-flight-to-one-destination 25% fare bonus a lot more. I think upgrading the Class 1 airports pays itself off pretty quickly.

athros13

@Owen - early game, absolutely. Airport upgrades allow for more jobs, which means less downtime due to lack of jobs. Don't go too crazy with upgrades, I think I only upgraded to level 2, and nothing to 3 and never really ran out of jobs. I can't be sure, since I've been closing them down.

I'm past that, and I'm only picking up class 2 airports. I started in the Southwest of the US, (Phoenix, Las Vegas and San Diego), just picked up Dallas and Philadelphia, and I had enough in 2 hours to snag Washington DC. I'm making better money now, with the longer routes and bigger airports, than I was with the smaller airports. Also, my planes are constantly running (well...all but the one in Rockhampton/Brisbane). I'm netting, on average 600-1500 per run, with full cargo. My best run thus far is 1627 (Seattle -> Philadelphia, 2P and 2C, 3 stops)

I'm now in the process of selling small airports (unless I need them for connections) and purchasing Class 2 only (unless I need a connection). I'm aiming for Class 3 airports by the end of the week (LA and New York to be specific). That should put me in a good spot to jump across the pond to London and begin buying things in Europe.

EDIT: Here's a link to show my current setup: http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p6/athros13/pocket_planes_1.png

seventh_wave

Hi, have been playing the game for 3 days now and joined the flight crew earlier today. Am based in Europe and have committed all my resources to expanding there right now, so I'm afraid I won't be of much help with the Brisbane challenge. Hopefully the next one drops in Europe. Was also just wondering how other people are running their airlines.

Does it make sense to implement regional/long haul hubs and commit planes to specific routes, or should one just pick up whatever jobs are available? At the moment I am basically running 3- and 4-seaters on fixed routes and use my smaller planes to pick up odd jobs wherever they happpen to be. Cargo planes are also very erratic, not following specific routes.

Also, how do people feel about buying BUX with real money? To me, that undermines the whole purpose of the experience, which is patiently expanding your empire, so I've not made use of it so far.

Owen

@athros13 having looked at your setup - don't you start to run out of jobs when all your birds land in Philadelphia one after the other? Also, I think your notion of shedding Class 1 airports is totally right - I had been toying with the notion but I think sentimental attachment to my early planes was holding me back. I will follow your hard-nosed example. :)

@seventh_wave - welcome aboard, sir. I don't think that demand is regular enough to commit planes to specific routes - and indeed, there's no facility in the interface to make that easier for you so I don't think that was the intent of the devs. That said, I still have a lot of Class 1 airports. @anthros13 might have a different perspective.

As far as buying bux - I paid for the 200 bux package early on but I doubt I'll buy more. I've got enough bux coming in that my balance is typically above 100 and I don't sweat making plane upgrades. I think buying bux once or twice is a great way to show support to the devs that made Pocket Planes but you're right that buying a huge package would throw off the game experience.

athros13

@Owen not really. I'll run out of jobs from any of the Class 1 airports with 2 planes there. I've had 4-5 planes in place in Philly, and not run out. With Washington DC right there, it's trivial to hop to it if I do happen to run out.

@seventh_wave You can commit planes to routes, I can see some benefits with where I'm heading. As I get more class 2 planes, having a dedicated flight to pick up layovers to smaller airports is fast becoming a reality for me. At the early levels, there isn't really a point to do that. Fill the planes and send them.

Nightgaunt

Thanks for the advice, guys. I'll be upgrading my airports as soon as I can. Looks like I've been taking a slightly wrong approach, since I started in the western US and have opened up most of the mid-sized and small airports, from Chihuahua to Seattle and from San Fran to Kansas City... Maybe I should be selling some off?

TheWhiteFoxx

I just joined you guys. Unfortunately my game glitched and I got reset. I'll do my best though. As an airman in the US Air Force I also really love how i find this game addicting.

athros13

@Nightgaunt I did the same thing you did. The pic I posted is after selling off Bismark, Spokane, Calgary and Chihuahua.

On another note, I just picked up LA and sold San Deigo. I can fill 5 planes in LA and not run out of jobs. Lots of jobs to the same place, so I can get that lovely +25% consistently. Very worth the 51,000 coins

doublefeh

Looks like Brisbane's over and done. Next up: Casablanca. Time for you European-based players to pull your weight!

I've picked up New York in hopes of bridging the Atlantic before the event ends, but we'll see.

Owen

Finally, a European destination. Let's do this guys.

stea1th4

Anyone know what place we came in and when we will get our rewards?

Owen

We must have been bumped out of the top hundred somehow because I didn't get anything. I can't believe it - we were at #17 just a few hours ago.

EDIT: I was just told that you need to do at least 5 jobs in the event city to qualify for a prize, even if your crew gets one. I couldn't reach Brisbane so that's why I got nothing. Can any of our guys verify that they got a P-40 part?

doublefeh

I received the Controls for a P-40

Owen

I received the Controls for a P-40

There you have it. Onward to Casablanca, gentlemen.