Fuel prices

[Unknown98]

I welcome any comments on fuel prices. How much they should be, should there be any random variance to them, etc.

I'm certainly not going through the airports database and manually adding a fuel price for each one. So that's out of the question. We could potentially do it by country... get an average for fuel price in each country and use that. But looking at AirNav right now Jet A prices range from $2.15 to $9.01, with an average of $4.17. That's a pretty large variance.

[Carde]

Honestly to keep it both simple and allow a bit more flexibility and fun (aka not everyone builds their HQ where the fuel costs are lowest because fuel is the biggest cost factor) I would look at the data of the 100 largest airports, take the average and change the price daily in a certain range from that point.

So say the average is 4 bucks, the price on any given day can be between 3 and 5 bucks.

[Unknown98]

That's interesting, and most importantly simple. I like it

I'm just starting to get into coding the financial aspects of flights, revenue, costs, all that good stuff so figured I'd start some discussion on these things.

[PolarMonkey]

Sorry to drag this one back up again, but I was just curious how you managed to figure this one out. I got bored today and thought I'd take a look at my flights (23 in the air at the time) to see what the price was, and it seems to be all over the place, from a low of $2.26/Gal in Toronto to $10.62/Gal in Los Angeles. Evan from the same airport with flights about 3 hours apart, one flight cost $4.59/Gal, the second $10.62/Gal. Is there a base cost for fueling, such as a callout fee, or are they just random for each flight?

I had made a spreadsheet up to check this, if it would help with anything. I might do some more later on to see if I can get the same flights again and see if there are any differences.

[Unknown98]

That is strange...

Formula for fuel price is simply a random number between $3.17 and $5.17 per gal. Should never be larger or smaller than that. I did some calculations with the most popular airports and I think the average fuel price was $4.17 per gal so that is why I picked those numbers.

Eventually I would like to figure something else out though, make fuel prices more stable and predictable.

[sw889432]

Unless tankering is a thing, or fuel contracts/fuel hedging, I don't think that a super large spread, or a complex country/region average is really "fair" to the players. It just adds complexity for no added game play or benefit. Something stable, simple will work. Maybe a global average per day and a little noise/variance.

[gaff85]

Unless tankering is a thing, or fuel contracts/fuel hedging, I don't think that a super large spread, or a complex country/region average is really "fair" to the players. It just adds complexity for no added game play or benefit. Something stable, simple will work. Maybe a global average per day and a little noise/variance.

I disagree, hedging would be a great option and more realistic option for the game,

[sw889432]

Unless tankering is a thing, or fuel contracts/fuel hedging, I don't think that a super large spread, or a complex country/region average is really "fair" to the players. It just adds complexity for no added game play or benefit. Something stable, simple will work. Maybe a global average per day and a little noise/variance.

I disagree, hedging would be a great option and more realistic option for the game,

You mean you agree? Just to clarify, UNLESS tankering or fuel hedging/contracts is a thing, then the proposed country/region average system is just added complexity for no added game play or benefit.