Tips & Tricks¶
This section of the manual contains some advice that you might find useful for increasing your performance while playing.
Shorthand notation¶
Since HEADING, SPEED and ALTITUDE are the most used command in the game, the parsing engine also accept them in a shorthand notation which saves a few keystrokes. The shorthand notation allows to issue these commands by their initial joint with their argument. Example:
>>> QFA1234 H210 S200 A25
Autocompletion¶
The command line provides a contex-aware autocompletion (that you can activate by pressing the TAB key). Context-aware means that ATC-NG will only try to complete a word with makes sense according to the command grammar.
Example: in a scenario with a flight numbered ABC1234 and an airport AZZ, the autocompletion will react differently:
>>> A
>>> ABC1234
>>> AZA1234 LAND A
>>> AZA1234 LAND AZZ
This is especially useful for flight numbers, that can be tedious to be memorised.
Command history¶
By pressing the Up and Down keys, it is possible to browse the command history.
Cleaning the command line¶
Beside the standard Backspace key, it is also possible to:
- completely erase the prompt line with Esc,
- delete the last word on the prompt with Control-Backspace.
Approaching¶
Make sure to approach the airport for landing at a reasonable speed: the slowest the speed, the easier it will be for the aeroplane to adjust their altitude to that required for ILS approach.
A slower speed also means that it will be easier for planes to keep separation (just before landing, planes drop their speed to the minimum, so there is a risk for oncoming planes in the landing queue to come too close).
Taking off¶
Always issue the command in combination with SPEED and ALTITUDE: a take-off performed without these parameters will keep the aeroplane busy until maximum flight altitude and speed are reached. In many scenarios, by the time the aeroplane will have reached that configuration, it will be flying extremely fast, and near the edge of the radar screen, and it might be too late for you to direct it towards its final destination.
Running out of fuel¶
Since aircraft running out of fuel still have the possibility to glide for quite some time, if you ever find yourself away from your target and low on fuel, climbing up will extend your gliding range of various kilometres. Also consider that given the simplified physics implemented in ATC-NG, the descent ratio is fixed regardless of the ground speed, so: keep going as fast as you can!
Combining expedite commands¶
Using the EXPEDITE flag will cause an aeroplane to perform any adjustment at twice the normal speed, and also to burn fuel at twice its normal rate. However, since the flag is “global” (meaning that it will affect SPEED, ALTITUDE and HEADING simultaneously), it is often a good idea to combine these commands in a single radio dispatch. For example:
>>> ABC1234 H180 A20 S500 EXPEDITE
will cause the aeroplane to veer and climb and accelerate at twice its normal ratio simultaneously, and might result in a better fuel consumption than issuing each of those commands separately.