How can I choose which ground services operate at which airfield? *SOLVED*

[kyleh]

Hello! I am loving GSX but I  have a slight issue. I am flying for an airline which only has Swissport as their ground handlers, but not all airports have Swissport as a choice, although they do operate there. Is there any way of adding specific ground handlers to specific airports if they're not already there as it is incredibly unrealistic for other airline's to handle another airline without having any partnership.

I have had a look at the repaint kit manual, but the instructions aren't helping as I have tried to get Swissport ground services, but it does not appear in the list.

Thanks!

[virtuali]

I have had a look at the repaint kit manual, but the instructions aren't helping as I have tried to get Swissport ground services, but it does not appear in the list.

The PaintKit documentation includes everything you need to know to change the ground operator assignments so, if you don't see your changes, it can only mean you made some kind of mistake and/or haven't fully understood how it's done.

Since it's clearly not possible to repeat here in a forum post the whole multi-page PaintKit documentation, and you haven't said what you did, it's quite difficult to understand what you did wrong without looking at your changes.

[kyleh]

Understood.

For every vehicle, I done this to the Swissport entry:-

[fltsim.139]
title=FSDT_Baggage_Loader_Swissport
model=01
texture=Swissport
couatl.icaoprefixes=LS LG LE LB LC GC EP EG EPWA MD SB EHAM PANC KCLT KATL KBOS KIAD KLGA KLRD KMIA KBNA KEWR KMCO KSAT KSJC KSFB KSEA CYUL CYOW CYYZ CYWG LFSB EGBB EGCC LSZH LSGG LEMD
couatl.atc_parking_codes=_SWP

I added EG so that all UK airports had the Swissport handling agents. However, at Gatwick, I am only getting British Airways, easyJet and Virgin Atlantic and I'm guessing that every other UK airport apart from EGGB and EGGC won't have a Swissport option.

To make sure, I also reviewed the FlightSim entry for the aircraft I was using:-

'atc_parking_codes = _SWP'

However, this didn't work. It is very difficult to understand a manual which was written for a completely different version and of which refers to things which are not anymore applicable.

Any guide on helping me with my error will be appreciated.

[virtuali]

I added EG so that all UK airports had the Swissport handling agents. However, at Gatwick, I am only getting British Airways, easyJet and Virgin Atlantic and I'm guessing that every other UK airport apart from EGGB and EGGC won't have a Swissport option.

This indicates you haven't understood the scoring system. The PaintKit documentation, Page 7, says:

The Number of character of each code will define the score of that code in case of a match, and will be evaluated against all the codes of the other suitable vehicles. The vehicle with the highest score will "win" and will be selected for service. If two or more vehicles have an identical score, the winner will be determined randomly

So, what you did, was to assign a score of 2 to Swissport in all UK airports. Which means, as explained above, that Swissport will appear ONLY at airports where NO other operators have a score higher than 2.

So, in order to be sure you get an operator on any given airport, you must do one of the following:

1) If you have assigned a score lower than 4 (by using less than 4 characters for the code), check that no OTHER operators have an higher score

OR

2) Assign it a score of 4 on that airport. This will ensure the operator will appear on that airport.


Depending on the airport and the number of competing operators, #1 might be easier than #2, or vice-versa.

To make sure, I also reviewed the FlightSim entry for the aircraft I was using:-

'atc_parking_codes = _SWP'

Quoting from the PaintKit documentation, Page 7:

NOTE: only the Parking code matters, the airline code of the airplane you are flying doesn't affect the choice of the operator

It is very difficult to understand a manual which was written for a completely different version and of which refers to things which are not anymore applicable.

There isn't a single line in the PaintKit documentation that is not applicable to the current GSX version. The ONLY difference would be this sentence:

If two or more vehicles have an identical score, the winner will be determined randomly.

That might be "updated" as such:

If two or more vehicles have an identical score, they will be all listed in the operator selection menu, with a randomly selected default entry.

But this won't obviously affect any of what you are supposed to do to change the files, just make it easier to get the operator you want.

[kyleh]

This indicates you haven't understood the scoring system.

I didn't think this applied anymore since there is a list of operators to choose from and all ground handlers would work at airports of which their ICAO code started with EG - sorry about that. I'm sure that customers would be a bit happier if you could only do this or select from all operators installed?

Thanks for your help!

[virtuali]

I'm sure that customers would be a bit happier if you could only do this or select from all operators installed?

We decided to add to the menu only those operators that have at least a score of 4, otherwise the menu selection will be very long in some cases and with lots of operators that will never appear there.

It's much better to allow only operators that are really supposed to be on any airport.

In your case, it would have been wrong to have Swissport *everywhere* in the UK. According to their website, they do ground service in 26 airports in the UK, so it would more realistic to only add those, explicitly, with 4 letters.