Well, this is really all up to you. Only you the community can change this. As a little nudge to help encourage more exploration “Region Of The Week” was added to coincide between Friday Night Flights. However nobody can make anybody try new things. So far ROTW has been going well. Obviously less as much when the ROTW is a paid add on region. However with the rather impressive numbers of annual subscribers, it’s doesn’t add up.
I’m curious. What or how is it we can really see much more traffic in regions other than SoCal all the time? What do you think would help?
Remember nothing is stopping any of you from creating and posting events in whatever region or server you want.
I’d love to read your ideas to help expand pilots and controllers beyond the comfort of SoCal. :)
If someone draws specific attention to a particular airport in an unpopular region and provides great photos and description of the airports characteristics, features, surroundings, that may entice some users into trying out that airport. Then, hopefully they will like the airport and explore surrounding ones or try to find a similar one in that region.
Maybe make a competition in which you find the best Class Echo airport in _____ region. Users can search the assigned region and the person/people that find the best airport can get a pat on the back from the IF team or have a screenshot of them and their airport posted on the “Loading” screen?
I’m thinking that the interest of both controllers and pilots tend to wane over time, especially in prolonged areas. Heck, my fellow advanced controllers just open other regions whenever they feel like it, for a change of scenery.
With that being said, SoCal is too much of a crutch for the majority of the community. There are a lot of other great regions out there that need much-deserved attention. Chicago, Paris, and Oshkosh need the most love, being barren for the majority of the time.
Also, pilots do follow advanced controllers anywhere. Even that sort of thing scares me, with the way they sniff us out like bloodhounds. That’s why I’m in the thinking that us advanced controllers really do help to determine where people end up at. If there isn’t anyone, then people automatically fall back on SoCal.
My simple solution? Remove SoCal for a week, and see how people deal with it. Be warned… we may need to initiate a program for people with “withdrawal” issues. ;)
However, after testing a few flash events here and there for the last few weeks, I’m planning a rather big initiative to get people in other regions. Some of you might’ve heard of my Approachin’ Aspen, Pullin’ Paris, and Chillin’ Chicago events. All these events are just a prelude to a big suprise in the future. ;)
More people=More planes=Lots of Atc=More planes=More atc. Amd since KLAX can handle almost any commercial aircraft they can fly there and lot sof airlines fly out of there so its like a real takeoff that a real plane and that airline do.
Maybe a Pop-up saying “We recommend you to give a try to ## region !”.
Or create a Region of the Day!
In the list of the regions add a “Region of the Day” label that redirect to a new region each day and since we can’t see the name of the region, people will be tempted to look!
As an advanced ATC, I find it that people come when more of us is controlling. It’s not really an issue in terms of us having people to control- they come when we open up towers.
Theres live flight app. That someone made it shows how many people are playing and in what region. But its both ways more pilots will be more atc unless your the atc that ignores peoples request
I have an idea for a long time just didn’t know where to post about it, finally this looks like the best place.
Some regions ONLY, and of course not SoCal area should have Taxi Ways,
Ground control should give basic instruction how to taxi. Of course not too confusing, but the concept of a little different styles in other regions will attract more pilots as well as controllers.
Some pretty interesting information, ideas and feedback.
I don’t believe imposing any lock out or restrictions would be appropriate.
I’ve discussed this as well with the ATC Advanced team leaders, and we have (really mostly they have) decided to try a little formula experiment to help make sure more attention is paid to the ROTW. The ATC Advanced team will make it a point to staff and operate more regularly in the ROTW to encourage more users to explore. Instead of just going mostly to SoCal by default because that’s where pilots happen to be.
You should start to notice more ATC in alternate regions. SoCal will surely contain with plenty of coverage as well. Just less saturated.
The rest is up to you. Join in and have some fun in a different locale. It’s up to you. ;)
By all means try this on the ATC Playground or feel free to organize your own experiments. Let come together and try some new things. No need to stick yourself in the same, familiar box every day. That just seems masocistic.
Extend some other regions like Amsterdam, just next to EDDL is EDDF which is Germans busiest airport but it’s not available in IF. Same goes for the region where Aspen is, only one or two major interesting know airports but all located next to eachother. Paris region has this issue as well.
London is great but would be even better with Manchester added.
SoCal offers a lot of variation and it’s a big region that’s why it’s more interesting to fly there.
I personally fly as often as I can on the Advanced server.
But since I simulate real world arrivals in real time I can’t always be present.
For example there are often Adavanced ATCs in the Hawaii region when it’s actually deep night in that area. There are no flights except the few cargo planes which aren’t featured in IF.
That’s why I fly mostly in the real world crowed regions New York, London and Singapore (on the playground server).
Dont worry about Sid / stars as in real life in 80-90% of the time we don’t follow them and we get radar vectors or directs so better fly on advanced :)
@Aernout really? Which countries in Europe do you generally fly? Here in Australia it’s STARs 80-90% of the time, mostly due to noise restrictions etc - Sydney Kingsford Smith is right in the middle of the city and built up areas.
Can any U.S. Pilots comment on this? I was of the belief STARs and SID were used the large majority of the time in the U.S.? That is why I don’t use the advanced server a lot - whilst the controllers overall do a good job of separations, sequencing etc, they take you on some odd and unrealistic courses to get there