The game is starting to get routine -- and boring -- at this point. I have traversed the ground between my three bases. I find out what the missions are at each base, then have my factories in Alamosa produce whatever is in demand. The items are then flown to the base where they are in demand.
Bases have been added in Fort Collins, Laramie Wyoming, Akron Colorado and Colorado Springs. Eventually, a bases may be added to Albuquerque and El Paso. In the meantime, I may look for other promising productions centers. Laramie, Wyoming offers some good possibilities, but is not as good as Alamosa, meaning that I may have to fly in some raw materials to do productions.
While bases are limited in how much can be held, the same is not true for factories. This means a large stockpile of raw materials can be held in factories.
Flying between the cities is pretty routine. Like most jobs, it is not so interesting. I guess a lot depends on how one wants to play the game. If one wants to fly to a wide variety of different airports, probably flying cargo jobs is the best way to do this. If one wants to make money, flying missions to larger airports is the way to go.
The number of missions an airport offers seems related to the size of the city it serves. Jeffco, for example gets a lot of business. But it is considered to be part of Denver, even though it is really much close to the city and county of Broomfield and is a more suburban part of Jefferson County, Colorado.
I may add additional factories to cities, just because it is easier to produce commodities at the airport where they are in demand. Ultimately, this requires fewer flights.
I have hired one AI pilot to do a lot of the routine flying. After he does his route, production begins in Alamosa, and deliveries can begin the next day. Customers really can't complain about a 24 hour turn around on orders.
As orders get larger, I will purchase cargo planes with a larger capacity.
A passenger service will be explored. A passenger plane has been purchased. Eventually, I will switch to jets, for faster passenger service.
I don't plan on giving blow by blow accounts of each flight, or even each round of flights. Those reading this blog should have some ideas on one way of playing the game. However, Air Hauler can be played many different ways. It is a very flexible game.
Friday, August 12, 2016
Thursday, August 11, 2016
Clothing
Leaving Jeffco, my base in Pueblo was about a half hour from completion. I built a fashion factory there which makes clothing, designer clothes and jewelry. Pueblo has textiles; Alamosa does not. Pueblo also has precious metals at a decent price for jewelry making.
I flew from Jeffco to Pueblo with 3115 pounds of beef. I only made $3 per pound when I sold it in Pueblo. It was about the best I could do with arbitrage on this flight. But it was better than nothing. And better than what most regular cargo jobs would pay.
Clothing was loaded in Pueblo and flown to Alamosa to meet the demand there.
I flew from Jeffco to Pueblo with 3115 pounds of beef. I only made $3 per pound when I sold it in Pueblo. It was about the best I could do with arbitrage on this flight. But it was better than nothing. And better than what most regular cargo jobs would pay.
Clothing was loaded in Pueblo and flown to Alamosa to meet the demand there.
Televisions
Jeffco wants 285 pounds of televisions. Alamosa already has an electronics factory with the ability to make televisions, and Alamosa has all the supplies needed to do it.
But can more money be squeezed out of this?
Of course! Jewelry can be made in Pueblo, and sold in Jeffco. Currently, jewelry is a Tier 2 commodity which is listed as a tier 1 commodity. Who knows how long it will be until this bug is fixed. But jewelry can be made inexpensively in a factory, and sold for a good profit.
With only three bases, I can start doing runs of Alamosa to Pueblo to Jeffco, and back again. Alamosa is my primary manufacturing center and Pueblo is a secondary manufacturing center. Jeffco is a population center with lots of wants.
But can more money be squeezed out of this?
Of course! Jewelry can be made in Pueblo, and sold in Jeffco. Currently, jewelry is a Tier 2 commodity which is listed as a tier 1 commodity. Who knows how long it will be until this bug is fixed. But jewelry can be made inexpensively in a factory, and sold for a good profit.
With only three bases, I can start doing runs of Alamosa to Pueblo to Jeffco, and back again. Alamosa is my primary manufacturing center and Pueblo is a secondary manufacturing center. Jeffco is a population center with lots of wants.
Tuesday, August 9, 2016
Booze, Computer Games and Cows
The Pueblo base is still under construction, leaving several orders for clothing yet unfilled.
Jeffco wants cows (livestock). And Jeffco wants them now. There are no cows in any of my bases. But eastern Colorado is the place to go for cows. Akron offers some arbitrage opportunities: I can purchase cigarettes in Alamosa for $109 per pound, and sell them in Akron for $122 per pound. Meanwhile, I can buy just about anything in Akron for less than what it sells for at Jeffco. I can make a nice but not exhorbitant profit by buying wine and spirits in Jeffco and selling them in Akron. After all, the Coors brewery is located in Jefferson County!
The plane is filled with booze at Jeffco, and it is off to Akron. It is sold for $294,313. Livestock is purchased in Akron for $61.750 and is sold at the mission price of $209,040. Additionally computer games are purchased in Akron for $217,536 and sold for $252,144.
Jeffco wants cows (livestock). And Jeffco wants them now. There are no cows in any of my bases. But eastern Colorado is the place to go for cows. Akron offers some arbitrage opportunities: I can purchase cigarettes in Alamosa for $109 per pound, and sell them in Akron for $122 per pound. Meanwhile, I can buy just about anything in Akron for less than what it sells for at Jeffco. I can make a nice but not exhorbitant profit by buying wine and spirits in Jeffco and selling them in Akron. After all, the Coors brewery is located in Jefferson County!
The plane is filled with booze at Jeffco, and it is off to Akron. It is sold for $294,313. Livestock is purchased in Akron for $61.750 and is sold at the mission price of $209,040. Additionally computer games are purchased in Akron for $217,536 and sold for $252,144.
Aircraft Engines and More
Aircraft Engines are another lucrative tier three product. Jeffco next ordered 732 pounds of aircraft engines and 298 pounds of designer clothing.
A new factory was built in Alamosa, the San Luis Aerotech, which produces aircraft engines, avionics and computers. Avionics are one of the components of aircraft engines. The other components are machine parts and electronics.
Avionics are a complex product, requiring electronics, battery packs and plastics. The battery packs were produced in another factory located in Alamosa and were made with batteries and electronics. I probably should have included battery packs in the Aero Tech factory instead of computers.
The battery packs were completed first, then moved to the Aero Tech factory to be used in the avionics. The factory produced avionics and airplane engines simultaneously. By a little after midnight, 732 pounds of aircraft engine were completed and loaded on the Kodiak along with 814 pounds of jewelry and 1403 pounds of perfume for delivery at Jeffco the next day.
The company was paid $1,967,616 for the aircraft engines, $116,400 for the jewelry and $375,446 for the perfume. All in a day's work, literally.
A new factory was built in Alamosa, the San Luis Aerotech, which produces aircraft engines, avionics and computers. Avionics are one of the components of aircraft engines. The other components are machine parts and electronics.
Avionics are a complex product, requiring electronics, battery packs and plastics. The battery packs were produced in another factory located in Alamosa and were made with batteries and electronics. I probably should have included battery packs in the Aero Tech factory instead of computers.
The battery packs were completed first, then moved to the Aero Tech factory to be used in the avionics. The factory produced avionics and airplane engines simultaneously. By a little after midnight, 732 pounds of aircraft engine were completed and loaded on the Kodiak along with 814 pounds of jewelry and 1403 pounds of perfume for delivery at Jeffco the next day.
The company was paid $1,967,616 for the aircraft engines, $116,400 for the jewelry and $375,446 for the perfume. All in a day's work, literally.
Monday, August 8, 2016
Haggis, Scooters and Watches
A few hours after completing the first round of missions, the game generated a second set. Alamosa (KALS) wanted pilot watches and emergency supplies (the latter do not appear to be present in the game). Jeffco (KBJC) wanted haggis and scooters. In Alamosa, there was a demand for pilot watches. There were no missions out of Pueblo.
The haggis mission is easy to do. The cargo plane already is at Jeffco, where enough sheep could be purchased to fill the order, fly them to the Alamosa haggis plant, and then fly the haggis back to Jeffco. 176 pounds of haggis sold for $121,792.
A haggis plant could not build at Jeffco at this time because tje base there is still being built. One must have a finished base before one can build a factory. So far, my mistaken build of a haggis factory in Alamosa has actually paid off. Two orders of haggis were made in succeeding mission cycles. The money has not been wasted. However, an order be received after the Jeffco base is completed, I might build a second factory at Jeffco.
Motoscooters are a highly lucrative mission, a mission one does not want to pass up. Unlike haggis which might only yield a couple hundred thousand dollars in profits, motoscooters can result in million dollar profits. Fortunately, much of the infrastructure of motorscooter production already exists in Alamosa. First of all, a base already exists there. Second Alamosa has factories for radios and plastic. Radios and plastic are tier two commodities used in making motorscooters. I do have to build a motorscooter factory in Alamosa. It's pricey, but worth the price.
Alamosa is home to a plastic factory to build all of the plastic I will need to make my motorscooters, including the plastic which will go in the radios. There is an electronics factory start making the radios that go into the motorscooters. Other commodities can be bought to make motorscooters.
Since I am avoiding night flights at the moment, given my bad experience with the last one, I will wait until morning to deliver both the haggis and motorscooters to Jeffco. My factories are actually done producing by midnight. The flight to Jeffco is uneventful. 515 pounds of motorscooters sold for $1,771,136
Pilot watches are more problematic. In the region where San Luis Enterprises operates, there is one place ideal for making pilot watches: Raton, New Mexico. Raton has all the commodities needed to make pilot watches. Locations like that are very rare in the game.
However, building in Raton will be both time consuming and costly. A new base will have to be built there. Fortunately, no other factories will be required to build any of the other components for these watches; there are no tier two commodities in pilot watches.
A second alternative is to build a pilots watch factory in San Luis Enterprises home base of Alamosa. Alamosa lacks both the precious metals and watches needed to make pilots watches. These two components can be flown in from Pueblo, where my base will be done in another 33 hours. But components can be purchased without a base.
This is an important decision because a pilots watch factory does cost about $300,000. However, pilots watches also are the most profitable commodity in the game. Again, this is another mission I do not want to pass up.
There are certain efficiencies in having all or most manufacturing in one location. For example, multiple cargos can be flown, including cargos to different locations. It also makes for a nice hub and spoke operation: all raw goods flow into one location, and all manufactured goods flow out of that same location.
While another base might be useful, Raton is not a big population center. The arbitrage opportunities are limited. The commodity prices on expensive items are not all that different from Pueblo. Besides, Pueblo is right on the path from Alamosa to all of the front range cities. Stopping there does not take me far out of my way. So I will build my chronograph factory in Alamosa -- when I get the money. But I should have that after selling haggis and motorscooters in Jeffco. On the way back I can pick up watches and precious metals in Pueblo and might even find a half decent arbitrage opportunity with goods from Jeffco.
I stopped in Pueblo and picked up a load of precious metals. Originally, these were to be used for the watches, but they were used for making jewelry instead.
Meanwhile, I purchased a new cargo aircraft with some of the money I made: a Quest Kodiak. This plane holds about twice the cargo of a Bonanza. I failed my first test flight; something happened during the landing; probably a random failure. Second test flight went fine.
By this time the jewelry was finished, which was then loaded on the plane and sold in Pueblo. 500 pounds of jewelry sold for $106,000.
Even though I swore off of night flights, I was going to try again with the Kodiak. After selling off the jewelry, the plane was loaded with 650 pounds each of watches and precious metals for the pilots watches. The rest of the plane was filled with precious metals for more jewelry production.
Finally with the watches and precious metals arriving in Alamosa, production of the pilots watches began. 650 pounds of watches were sold in Alamosa for $959,075.
The haggis mission is easy to do. The cargo plane already is at Jeffco, where enough sheep could be purchased to fill the order, fly them to the Alamosa haggis plant, and then fly the haggis back to Jeffco. 176 pounds of haggis sold for $121,792.
A haggis plant could not build at Jeffco at this time because tje base there is still being built. One must have a finished base before one can build a factory. So far, my mistaken build of a haggis factory in Alamosa has actually paid off. Two orders of haggis were made in succeeding mission cycles. The money has not been wasted. However, an order be received after the Jeffco base is completed, I might build a second factory at Jeffco.
Motoscooters are a highly lucrative mission, a mission one does not want to pass up. Unlike haggis which might only yield a couple hundred thousand dollars in profits, motoscooters can result in million dollar profits. Fortunately, much of the infrastructure of motorscooter production already exists in Alamosa. First of all, a base already exists there. Second Alamosa has factories for radios and plastic. Radios and plastic are tier two commodities used in making motorscooters. I do have to build a motorscooter factory in Alamosa. It's pricey, but worth the price.
Alamosa is home to a plastic factory to build all of the plastic I will need to make my motorscooters, including the plastic which will go in the radios. There is an electronics factory start making the radios that go into the motorscooters. Other commodities can be bought to make motorscooters.
Since I am avoiding night flights at the moment, given my bad experience with the last one, I will wait until morning to deliver both the haggis and motorscooters to Jeffco. My factories are actually done producing by midnight. The flight to Jeffco is uneventful. 515 pounds of motorscooters sold for $1,771,136
Pilot watches are more problematic. In the region where San Luis Enterprises operates, there is one place ideal for making pilot watches: Raton, New Mexico. Raton has all the commodities needed to make pilot watches. Locations like that are very rare in the game.
However, building in Raton will be both time consuming and costly. A new base will have to be built there. Fortunately, no other factories will be required to build any of the other components for these watches; there are no tier two commodities in pilot watches.
A second alternative is to build a pilots watch factory in San Luis Enterprises home base of Alamosa. Alamosa lacks both the precious metals and watches needed to make pilots watches. These two components can be flown in from Pueblo, where my base will be done in another 33 hours. But components can be purchased without a base.
This is an important decision because a pilots watch factory does cost about $300,000. However, pilots watches also are the most profitable commodity in the game. Again, this is another mission I do not want to pass up.
There are certain efficiencies in having all or most manufacturing in one location. For example, multiple cargos can be flown, including cargos to different locations. It also makes for a nice hub and spoke operation: all raw goods flow into one location, and all manufactured goods flow out of that same location.
While another base might be useful, Raton is not a big population center. The arbitrage opportunities are limited. The commodity prices on expensive items are not all that different from Pueblo. Besides, Pueblo is right on the path from Alamosa to all of the front range cities. Stopping there does not take me far out of my way. So I will build my chronograph factory in Alamosa -- when I get the money. But I should have that after selling haggis and motorscooters in Jeffco. On the way back I can pick up watches and precious metals in Pueblo and might even find a half decent arbitrage opportunity with goods from Jeffco.
I stopped in Pueblo and picked up a load of precious metals. Originally, these were to be used for the watches, but they were used for making jewelry instead.
Meanwhile, I purchased a new cargo aircraft with some of the money I made: a Quest Kodiak. This plane holds about twice the cargo of a Bonanza. I failed my first test flight; something happened during the landing; probably a random failure. Second test flight went fine.
By this time the jewelry was finished, which was then loaded on the plane and sold in Pueblo. 500 pounds of jewelry sold for $106,000.
Even though I swore off of night flights, I was going to try again with the Kodiak. After selling off the jewelry, the plane was loaded with 650 pounds each of watches and precious metals for the pilots watches. The rest of the plane was filled with precious metals for more jewelry production.
Finally with the watches and precious metals arriving in Alamosa, production of the pilots watches began. 650 pounds of watches were sold in Alamosa for $959,075.
Sunday, August 7, 2016
Sheep are Baaaaad!
One thing Jeffco has are sheep. And sheep are the only ingredient in the game for making haggis. It's sort of funny, Hispanics have called the San Luis Valley home for 400 years. I did not know they liked haggis.
In any case 732 pounds of sheep are loaded into the Bonanza for a trip to the haggis plant. I will need to make two such trips to fill this order. The first trip was uneventful, and my haggis factory quickly made up for the cost of building it.
Jeffco had a need for 678 pounds of live poultry. I also found I could buy perfume in Alamosa for $216 per pound, and sell it at Jeffco for $262 per pound, for a gross profit of $46 per pound. Since I had a little over 300 pounds of excess capacity, I bought and loaded 300 pounds of perfume. Best smelling chickens ever!
On the return flight, another 732 pounds of sheep were loaded on the plane. Jewelry can be purchased at Jeffco for $200, and sold in Alamosa for $ 225, so I bought and loaded another 343 pounds of jewelry on the plane. Sheep look great with necklaces and earrings!
Jeffco also needs televisions. I built a personal electronics factory in Alamosa. It makes televisions, cell phones and personal electronics. After opening the factory and buying cargo for my flight, I didn't have any money left over. In fact, I was in the hole. Jewels are not cheap!
Another flight back allowed me to add more sheep to my haggis run. I now also had the cash to start television production for Jeffco. It looks like Jeffco did not acknowledge my delivery of live poultry, so I will add more to my next run.
The next outbound flight to Jeffco carried newly made televisions and the leftover live poultry The flight was uneventful. The airport would not take my chickens. But three of the four missions was complete, and the fourth could not be completed.
In any case 732 pounds of sheep are loaded into the Bonanza for a trip to the haggis plant. I will need to make two such trips to fill this order. The first trip was uneventful, and my haggis factory quickly made up for the cost of building it.
Jeffco had a need for 678 pounds of live poultry. I also found I could buy perfume in Alamosa for $216 per pound, and sell it at Jeffco for $262 per pound, for a gross profit of $46 per pound. Since I had a little over 300 pounds of excess capacity, I bought and loaded 300 pounds of perfume. Best smelling chickens ever!
On the return flight, another 732 pounds of sheep were loaded on the plane. Jewelry can be purchased at Jeffco for $200, and sold in Alamosa for $ 225, so I bought and loaded another 343 pounds of jewelry on the plane. Sheep look great with necklaces and earrings!
Jeffco also needs televisions. I built a personal electronics factory in Alamosa. It makes televisions, cell phones and personal electronics. After opening the factory and buying cargo for my flight, I didn't have any money left over. In fact, I was in the hole. Jewels are not cheap!
Another flight back allowed me to add more sheep to my haggis run. I now also had the cash to start television production for Jeffco. It looks like Jeffco did not acknowledge my delivery of live poultry, so I will add more to my next run.
The next outbound flight to Jeffco carried newly made televisions and the leftover live poultry The flight was uneventful. The airport would not take my chickens. But three of the four missions was complete, and the fourth could not be completed.
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