No more waiting between aircraft catches in flight
Since August every aircraft you caught from the cockpit started a one-minute clock, and the next plane had to wait for it. The reticle showed an amber ring, the touch Spot button counted down, and a shot inside that minute got the line "Next catch in Ns".
The minute was there for safety. It was the simplest brake we had on automated catching while there were no proper checks. Those checks are now in place: the fair play work added "Still there?" after 15 minutes without real input, catches only from an up-to-date client, and a server check that compares every catch with where your flight actually is. Ships lost their wait on 31 October for the same reason (ships are back to no pause between catches). From today aircraft follow.
What changes
- In flight there is no wait between aircraft catches. Lock the next tail as soon as the card you just got has flipped. It works the same in the photo world (Google 3D tiles) and in the stylised world, and in VR.
- The amber cooldown ring is gone from the aircraft reticle, and so are the "Next catch in" line and the "One catch a minute" note under it.
- On a phone or tablet the Spot button always shows the camera now. The seconds counter and the emptying ring on it are gone.
- Guests flying before they sign in get the same change. Their in-flight catches have no wait either.
What stays
The radar scan on the map, the one that looks for aircraft around your real position, keeps its own limit. Each scan there can cost a request to an outside data source, so its cap and its pause between scans stay exactly as they were.
One catch per aircraft per day is unchanged. A tail you already caught today, in flight or from the map, is marked in the reticle and can't be caught again before midnight UTC. The aircraft has to be within 9 km of you, and the lock still has to build while you hold it in the crosshair.
The fair play rule is the same too. Catches are made by you, at the controls. The full text is on the Fair play page.
If your tab still counts down
An open tab keeps the code it loaded with. If the reticle still shows the amber ring after a catch, reload the page once and it will pick up today's version.
If a catch gets refused and you can't tell why, write to [email protected] or post in Discord with the time of the shot. We'll check it against the server log. Your catches are in your hangar.