Pocket Planes - strategy, trading, discussion

[QuikSand]

There was some chatter about this iOS game on this forum earlier, and I suspect many have moved on.

My daughter and I remain engaged, and there seemed to be some action in the #FOFC group last I checked. So, I thought I'd toss this up and see if there's still a community here.

[QuikSand]

FOFC User List and GameCenter handles


QuikSand = Quik$and
Critch = CRITCH101
britrock88 = bri7r0ck88
finketr = tfrichards92

[QuikSand]

FYI, as I write, we are at level 27, 17 planes, and pretty global coverage. I am heavily barbelled, with most of my density in eastasia and the Americas. I'm running a few big planes on long routes, have smaller feeders (kangaroos) on either side, and have several 5-6 seaters that do flexible duties.

[QuikSand]

...and if anyone has parts to a Sea Knight, I would be very interested in a trade.

[britrock88]

I played a bit of this as a distraction during bar exam study, but could jump back in... I'm in Australia, high single-digit level. (bri7r0ck88)

[QuikSand]

Well, here's my deal. My daughter digs the game, and i like what she is learning from it, so we are likely to keep playing, a least for a while. And if I'm going to play, I will have little choice but to think about it.

I'm not interested in the totally obvious stuff. How about going on to PP 401 or so?


Here's the sort of thing I have in mind:

My style of play is to pick up the game occasionally, set it down, and when i pick it up again, all my flights will have finished. That's probably 90% of my play.

So, with that in mind, what really is the optimum profit strategy? Obviously, landing with full bonus-earning flights is ideal, but at what cost? Here's an example that hit me all the time -- I have a 4-seater flying out of Mexico City, and have 3 passengers to Rio and 1 to Sao Paolo (fill in your details as necessary - the important thing is the two destination cities are close to one another). Now, were I playing the game continuously, I think this is very easy -- I fly them all to SP, drop off the 1, and fill the 4th seat next cycle, and get the 25% bonus at the end. Another angle would be to fly all 4 to some other site closer to their final destinations (like La Paz, for me) and fly from there to get the bonus for all the passengers eventually.

Now, thinking this through a bit more - maybe the obvious isn't as obvious. What are the real bounds of profit maximization? Profit per passenger? per flight? Or per day of real time? Some of it is definitely the last one -- and that intrigues me. If I'm in this situation, maybe the right call is just to deliver all 4 passengers bonus free and get my profits now, so my plane is empty and sitting at a heavy airport for the next time i pick up the game (i.e. sitting in Rio empty rather than in SP with 3 still waiting to go to Rio).

My current leaning is that this approach might really be best for the smaller planes, but not for the larger ones. I have not really teased out any data, but I suspect the flight per unit of larger planes is higher than that of the smaller planes -- I have not found anyone who has pulled this information out, but the staggering travel costs of flying my 8- and 10-seaters suggest this to me.

Anyway... that's the sort of thing that intrigues me at this point. i'm not having trouble making money overall, but I'm sort of fiddling around with the right mix of plane sizes, airport sizes, and flight strategies as a way to keep the game interesting. I don't feel like I have it solved, really, even though I'm doing well.

[QuikSand]

One easy pointer for anyone here...

Forget trying to build up our own flight crew #FOFC, the game does not adequately reward our efforts. Get onto the winning team #TOUCHARCADE and you get 50 bux for each global event, that's easy money.

[Critch]

New convert to Pocket Planes this morning, level 4 and with a few 1 and 2 slot planes buzzing between Montreal/Ottawa/Boston/Detroit.

With this and CosmicColony, I'm spending too much time picking up the iPad when it bings instead of working.

Critch = CRITCH101

[cody8200]

I played this for a week straight a month or two back and lost interest once I got to the higher levels. It just didn't have enough of the Aerobiz feel I was hoping it would to keep me going.

[wahoomac]

I have two Sea Knight engines that I am not using (already built my Sea Knight). Sent you a Game Center friend request.

...and if anyone has parts to a Sea Knight, I would be very interested in a trade.

[wahoomac]

I am pretty high level in the game with 19 planes I think. I have graduated from the small airports, now I only use the Class 2 and Class 3 airports. I have also retired all of my smaller planes (except for a Sea Knight, which is good for bringing groups of 5 for some of the world events). On each of my largest planes, I have done the full upgrades to make them 15% lighter, as well as 15% more range (if needed). Haven't really upgraded the speed, except on my Sea Knight.

I usually run at one airport below what my level can handle, just so I can add an airport for a world event. I just re-opened my airport in Nairobi due to the world event. When it finishes, I will just close it. If the world event is to a small airport, I ignore it and try to do some of the other, lesser world events (if they are at a 2- or 3-Class airport).

I have quite a few spare parts (enough to build a few of the smaller planes), if anyone needs some parts. Let me know and I'll see what I can do.

[QuikSand]

Anyone planning to hit Yellowknife? (It's well up into Canada, FYI, and is the location of the latest global event... there's a Bobcat part in it, apparently)

[QuikSand]

And on a related note - is there any reason to think the Bobcat is anything but useless? Seems it to me.

[Masked]

Anyone planning to hit Yellowknife? (It's well up into Canada, FYI, and is the location of the latest global event... there's a Bobcat part in it, apparently)

I'll do the 50 job minimum for Yellowknife just because I find that events keeps the game a bit more interesting. I also see no benefit to the Bobcat, but I'd like to get a least one of each of the special planes.

[QuikSand]

Out of pure bigger-must-be-better instinct, we are gathering parts for a Cloudliner (17 seats), but I can't imagine that plane being marginally productive. We have enough trouble keeping our 2x 8 seat Figbusters and our 10 seat Sequoia full and profitable.

[DanGarion]

One easy pointer for anyone here...

Forget trying to build up our own flight crew #FOFC, the game does not adequately reward our efforts. Get onto the winning team #TOUCHARCADE and you get 50 bux for each global event, that's easy money.

Do you have to contribute to the global event to get the money?

[AnalBumCover]

Do you have to contribute to the global event to get the money?
There is a minimum number of jobs to qualify for the prize.

[DanGarion]

There is a minimum number of jobs to qualify for the prize.

I just started playing the game last night, I doubt I will get 50 done, but I guess I can try.

[QuikSand]

Tokyo event with part of Sea Kinght as the prize, 2 days to go

[QuikSand]

Latest global event gives more $ for 2-10 than for #1... Anti TouchArcade move I guess. Odd.

[QuikSand]

...and now the global event in San Diego offers a seemingly worthless hot air balloon at its prize...but I'm totally locked in, guided by my 6yo co-pilot who already loves her blimp(and her dad). Fun stuff, really.

[AnalBumCover]

Yeah, I just went in, and did the minimum number of deliveries, and shut down the airport. What will I do with a hot air balloon? Dunno, maybe shuttle it between Honolulu and Hilo.

[QuikSand]

So, does anyone have any tradeable parts for a Sea Knight? I'm short the controls, and would love to make a swap of some sort.

[finketr]

I just started this game... how do people go about expanding? Increase range/speed on the small planes? Purchase the largest airport in your region (LA, in my case)? Upgrade to bigger/better planes immediately?

thanks in advnace,

[BrianD]

I didn't upgrade the planes much at all in the beginning. Work on getting some level 2 (blue) airports and level 3 (red). That will give you more available jobs and allow you to keep the planes in the air more often. Hold off on upgrading airports as well. You may eventually get to a point where you only use red airports, so there is no use upgrading the black/blue ones.

[finketr]

so, you do go get the big airports, like LA is the red dot at 10.0m population served, too?

I can probably also get dallas shortly after that.

is there a wikipage or something that shows the distances between airports?

Oh.. to participate in an event, do you just need to complete flights to/from the targetted airports? That has me a bit confused.

[BrianD]

LA would be a good airport to get. Phoenix, Dallas, Houston and Monterrey would be good also. You will soon struggle to fill a plane from the black airports, but Blue and Red will keep you full. You don't have to worry too much about your expansion route except to make sure you can always get to another airport from the new one. You can always do a multi-hop route, like taking someone from San Francisco to Miami via Phoenix, and Houston. As long as you can chain airports, you can go just about any distance.

[BrianD]

I forgot your events question.

To complete events, take trips to the targeted airports. For the "main event", the passengers/cargo should be blue. Special passengers/cargo will be in gold. Always take gold if possible. Secondary events won't give you a prize, you will just see more people looking to go to those areas. Primary events are on top of the list and will show in the "Flight Crew" area. I would suggest changing your active flight crew to be "toucharcade". If you make enough trips to qualify, you will always get the winning prize. Good way to make extra bux.

[finketr]

Thanks for answering another question I had but forgot. I joined "toucharcade" on the advice of QS (way up there) about how to qualify for the prize. I don't think I have any planes that can make the flight to Iksi(?) or whatever as it is middle of nowhere.


When you close airports, do you get paid, or they are just mothballed? Just curious and trying to figure this mess out.

[QuikSand]

I'm skipping the out-of-the-way event also, too much of a pain. But Team QuikSand does like the event as a driving and organizing force in playing the game long term.

When you close an airport, you get back half your investment, including the cost of any upgrades. Eventually, the cash won't be a major problem, and I now routinely open and close airports when needing to reach spot for the global events. But early on, those decisions are a lot tougher, obviously.

[QuikSand]

My style of play is to pick up the game occasionally, set it down, and when i pick it up again, all my flights will have finished. That's probably 90% of my play.

So, with that in mind, what really is the optimum profit strategy?

Following up on this...

So, here's what I now do, and I think this is best. When I want to fly a plane to a small or out-of-the-way airport, I fly full there, but then I fly that plane back empty to the nearest major airport of mine.

Thinking is that I only pick this up and play it occasionally anyway, so it's a waste of my time to have a plane stuck in Perth or even Honolulu when I start it up. So, I pay the cost to fly it back to my nearby hubs (Jakarta and Mexico City, respectively) and am assured of having full loads to take from there then next time I want to fly the plane.

Yes, I'm missing out on whatever haul I might have gotten from Perth... but I think it's worth it for enjoyability and even for profit/day as opposed to profit/flight.

[AnalBumCover]

Here's my strategy:

I split the USA to halves, East and West, and use Dallas and Houston as my two main hubs down the center of the country. I lay over my deliveries to the Western half in Dallas, and deliveries to the Eastern half in Houston. When Dallas gets enough to fill a plane for a city, say Los Angeles, I'll pick up those LA passengers from Dallas and send the plane on to LA.

When it reaches LA, that plane will pick up any passengers going to any eastern cities and drop them all off at Houson... try to fill a plane going to an eastern city (say Washington DC), send them off to DC, and collect anyone going to a western city for layover in Dallas. And the cycle continues.

I found the need to upgrade both Dallas and Houston to accomodate for the high number of layovers, and it's worked so far. I've got 10 planes here, five all-passenger types and five all-cargo types (I don't care for mixed planes for some reason), all flying across the country, picking up/dropping off through Dallas and Houston.

Then there's Honolulu, with a similar double-hub system in San Francisco/Los Angeles. Honolulu-bound deliveries are dropped off in LA, and those coming from Hono, are dropped off in SF and the plane is sent down to LA to pick up Hono passengers.

My two largest planes (a 6-passenger and a 6-cargo), circle among Honolulu, SF and LA. I renamed these planes to HI001 and HI002 and painted them red so I don't send them anywhere else by mistake.

Once I'm able to expand my fleet, I may use Monterey or Mexico City as a hub to South America.

[finketr]

thanks, abc.

so, for the hnl-sfo-lax triangle, you just cycle your two planes around the circle in opposite directions?
hi0001 pick up for sfo in hnl go to sfo. deliver sfo, pick up LAX, go to LAX. deliver LAX, pick up HNL, go to hnl ?

Backwards for the other direction?

[finketr]

Quiksand: tfrichards92 for gamecenter here.

[finketr]

thanks, abc.

so, for the hnl-sfo-lax triangle, you just cycle your two planes around the circle in opposite directions?
hi0001 pick up for sfo in hnl go to sfo. deliver sfo, pick up LAX, go to LAX. deliver LAX, pick up HNL, go to hnl ?

Backwards for the other direction?

i'm an idiot as one plane is cargo, and the other is passenger, but still the same though applies?

Are all your airports Class2/3? (big ones)

[AnalBumCover]

Both planes go clockwise, HNL to SFO to LAX. Mainland-bound fly from HNL and laid over at SFO. Plane then flies empty (unless there are any LAX or HNL to tag along) to LAX to pick up the HNL-bound layovers from the mainland, then fly to HNL.

Planes from the mainland will drop off HNL-bound at LAX then fly empty to SFO to pick up the stranded folks and cargo for final delivery to various mainland cities.

I only have blue and red cities with Dallas, Houston and SFO fully upgraded. I plan to upgrade LAX next and possibly reverse the Hawaii routes to counterclockwise.

[AnalBumCover]

Global Event is now in Rio De Janeiro. 40 Bux to winning flight crew and also to top 10. Minimum 50 jobs to qualify.

This may very well be my entry into South America.

[finketr]

Likewise, ABC. i'm thinking getting SP and RdJ and a couple of planes.

and maybe get lima if i'm not in a distance problem.

[QuikSand]

So, I'll dial back the strategy talk, and try again.

I never pay to complete a flight ahead of schedule. Anything I'm missing there that's a valid profit-making strategy?

[QuikSand]

Global event - 50 to Paris gets a complete Sea Knight!

[AnalBumCover]

So, I'll dial back the strategy talk, and try again.

I never pay to complete a flight ahead of schedule. Anything I'm missing there that's a valid profit-making strategy?

Use the hub system, and store your jobs at the hub city until you have enough jobs to get the 25% bonus. Select longer jobs (higher fares) to maximize the bonus increase.

That said, my barbell strategy (east vs west with hub in the middle) seems to work best for me in terms of maximizing my profits. I only select jobs that want to go to the opposite coast and park them in the center until I get enough to get the bonus.

[QuikSand]

Use the hub system, and store your jobs at the hub city until you have enough jobs to get the 25% bonus. Select longer jobs (higher fares) to maximize the bonus increase.

Right, i'm plenty good with the simple strategy. I am global now, and use a three tier hub system -- Mexico City and Rio as my main western portals, Delhi and Bangalore in Middle Asia, and Seoul and Jakarta and Tokyo in the East. I am very efficient at finding full flights and managing pattern so my overall advantage. This is the easy stuff, overall (it's a fun part of the game, but the strategy is fairly self-evident to me).

What I'm on to now is the deeper less obvious stuff. Like... perhaps it would make sense for me, when I'm in a play-a-bit stint, to load up my plane with non-layover bux-paying flights and even be willing to pay the extra cost to advance them immediately, rather than wait? In theory, say I have a plane that I can fly 20 bux worth of fares... if I load it up, and then pay 12 bux to immediately finish the flight, I can then load up the same plane and fly again before I shut down for the day.

I don't know how frequently this math would work out... most of the time I think I see insufficient bux-paying flights to make this effective, but I'm wondering if this is an effective strategy often enough to be looking for it (which I basically do not, now).

[AnalBumCover]

So you're asking if the additional flight for the day is worth the cost to advance? I think it would require some forward planning at the destination city. Plus consider if you need the immediate bux (net +8 in the above case), or can wait it out for the 20 bux later. Unless I were hankering to buy a particular plane to fly to a remote location to participate in a global event that ends in 12 hours, I usually wait it out and browse FOFC until the flight lands.

[QuikSand]

w00+, got a mystery part during the global event, and landed the piece we needed for a Sea Knight. We'll have two soon, and that should be a nice boon to our small-city network ability.

[BrianD]

For the minimum jobs for event prizes, does the number represent individuals delivered, or planes with a delivery? Do we currently need to deliver 50 people/packages to Paris, or do we have to have 50 planes land in Paris?

[AnalBumCover]

One job is one passenger or cargo.

Is it just me or are everyone else's planes traveling at supersonic speed today?

[ntndeacon]

I just started as ntndeacon in Europe. and bought a few 1 star airports.

[HeavyReign]

One job is one passenger or cargo.

Is it just me or are everyone else's planes traveling at supersonic speed today?

Must be for everyone.

[Passacaglia]

I dunno, I turn the volume down when I play.

[finketr]

I usually set my 8 planes to flying and go play some bejeweled blitz or something.. but i'm thinking of closing my class 1 airports and concentrate on class 2/3 airports.. but need to reconfigure my fleet first (and get some longer range planes)

[QuikSand]

I'm sort of caught now in the trap of "when to cash out bux?" I have more than 2,300 bux, enough to buy two new plane slots, but with the exchange rate increasing I keep seeing the mini-exponent growth, and still haven't pulled the trigger.

Also, once the bux become worth 1,000 or 1,500 coins each, the dynamics of flying efficiency really fall apart... That one job worth 8 coins makes a lot of bonus-planning feel pretty insignificant. I'm increasingly leaving big loads of holdovers as I "have to get that one bux job" my way to lots of sideshows.

[QuikSand]

(aside: yes, I realize I'm griping about the failure of a free/cheap app to capture my attention for longer than a couple months of regular play)

The market decisions driven by high-value bux is troubling in the game, and really undermines what I want to do with a high value global network. Here's a simple enough example to follow:

I set up Jakarta as a hub for access to the Australian region, where I have airports in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne. Over time, I have offloaded tons of jobs at Jakarta, awaiting eventual deliver on full flights to those smaller airports.

So, now I have a 6-slot plane in Jakarta, looking to load up. I have 6 jobs there for 1,600 coins each -- meaning that corralling them at the hub and gaining the 25% bonus for a full flight can net me an additional 2,400 for the trouble. This is, in essence, what drives the hub system overall.

However, when I go to load up, I fairly often will see at least one bux job that is not a layover, meaning it disappears unless I pick it up now. On a global setup, that could be as high at 10 bux, but let's say it's just one job and it's just 5 bux to Lagos. Next time I cash in my bux, I'll probably get at least 2,000 coins for each bux... likely more, but I'll just use that lowball figure. So, even with that disappointing a haul for bux jobs, I'm still *way* more motivated by the one medium sized bux job than I am by picking up the entire flight of carefully managed layovers to get the coin bonus -- in this case by a factor of about 4:1, in practice usually much more so.

In essence, I think if I'm really trying to just profit maximize at this point, I pretty much stop carrying non-bux jobs other than those that fill up my bux-laden flights. In that example, I'll just fill up the rest of my seats with jobs to Bangalore and Lagos and pick up the non-bonus cash that's ancillary to my main goal now, which is to at least secure, if not deliver, every non layover bux job practical.

Bottom line is that the game model is sort of built around 1 bux = 500 coins, but once that gets way out of line, the whole marketplace breaks down I think.

[finketr]

I'm looking for the aeroeagle-P controls. 1 or 2 sets. Anybody have any?

[QuikSand]

I'm looking for the aeroeagle-P controls. 1 or 2 sets. Anybody have any?

I don't think I have you linked as a friend - but I have them and am glad to share. I'm Quik$and, send me an invite and I'll hook you up.

[finketr]

I don't think I have you linked as a friend - but I have them and am glad to share. I'm Quik$and, send me an invite and I'll hook you up.

tfrichards92. I just sent you equinox-p controls as a test.

i have critch101
qcfrogman
bri7rock88
and
quikand .. though I think this shows up as quik$and in gamecenter.

[britrock88]

I wouldn't have aeroeagle parts, sorry.

[finketr]

Thanks, QS. I got them from you.

[finketr]

So i've been thinking about the network/strategy side of things:
is it better to upgrade your current airports before expanding?

I've been considering that as my next thing to do rather than opening the rest of class-2+ airports in the Americas. i already opened London and Barcelona for the previous event, unfortunately, i noticed quite a bit later that you can fly NYC-Madrid with upgraded-range AE/PJ's. Theoretically, it generates extra jobs in the upgraded airports to have the availability of bonus-inducing full planes.


part 2: Quantity and "quality" of planes in fleet
Do most people stay current/up-to-date on planes?

I've been retiring (hangar) my class-1 aircraft and going with the aeroeagle/pearjets in my fleet with two birchcraft and one kangaroo left as I ponder the upgrades. i can build 1x Fogbuster-P and -C, as my first class-3 only aircraft. Do most of you find that you upgrade your aircraft as they become available?

Is it better to focus on expansion or upgrades in airports?

[QuikSand]

Overall, I think any sensible strategy probably works fine... my approach has been to maintain a solid staff of small (level 1) planes (mostly kangaroos, now including two seas knights), and supplement it with long distance planes -- and then to observe the balance over time. While I was developing, my main objectives were to use the large planes to take high value jobs a long ways, and then to use the small planes to finish them for bonuses. So -- big plane might take off from (fully upgraded) Mexico City and fly to, say, (fully upgraded) Seoul. Then, my small planes in eastasia would drop off stuff to Tokyo or Shanghai 4 at a time and rack up bonuses, while the big plane then loaded back up to Mexico City with jobs to all over the Americas.

I'm nearly maxed out on the game at this point, but that strategy felt effective, if not completely optimal.

[QuikSand]

Curious decision to overtly screw #Toucharcade with the latest global event, as #1 team gets a useless part, while everyone else gets piles of bux.

Think a Kringle Kruiser is in the offing next?

[finketr]

Or, the KK is the last gift for everyone.

[QuikSand]

Or, the KK is the last gift for everyone.

Wrong thread, maybe?

Countdown to Dec 21, 2012 - End of the World - Front Office Football Central (http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/showthread.php?t=84401)

[BrianD]

Is there any special benefit to the unique planes, like the balloon or the blimp? They all seem so slow and small that I haven't tried to use one yet? Do they offer any bonuses or other reason to use them other than uniqueness?

[QuikSand]

I don't see any real benefit. My balloon is in the hangar, I only have the blimp out to make novelty runs to Easter Island. I do use the Sea Knights, though -- 5 capacity in a level 1 plane is money.

[QuikSand]

Global event = 50 jobs to Paris to get a Concorde part

Get on it, that looks to me like the best plane in the game.

[finketr]

Global event = 50 jobs to Paris to get a Concorde part

Get on it, that looks to me like the best plane in the game.

it's a shame it was only a part as there are no mystery parts to deliver either.

such is life.

[QuikSand]

Another Concorde part up for 50 jobs to NYC

[finketr]

Yep.

Completed 50 in like no time as NYC is one of my big airports...

status update:
LVL: 29
Slots: 19
cash: 281k
bux: 3,540

too many airports right now, but global operations and had 10m airport open in all regions achievement done.

[QuikSand]

Anyone with Concorde parts to trade, drop a line. Happy to be lopsided in your favor. Have 2x body, need other parts.

[QuikSand]

If anyone has a dormant PP account, like I did, and might be game to gift me something, I'd be grateful. I started over with my second daughter, and we're stick with a tiny Aussie fleet. A hand up might be nice.

Account is Quik$and