Are Player Contracts For Me?

Trying to level up quickly can be a headache when you don't have a lot of contracts and your planes are too small to earn a decent amount of XP. To improve this situation, you would try to get better contracts to expand or replace your contract mix; but then the contract offers are usually not the best, and buying bigger contracts from the map could be costly. Even after the purchases, you would need to handle the contracts for a while before they bring higher XP.

Player contracts seem to be able to solve that issue: to start, you can get them for free; not only that, but they also start at tier 10, earning the highest XP possible for the plane type right away. To get one, you just need to ask another player, usually via social media, and after some discussion, they will send a contract to your airport.

On the surface, this is incredibly appealing to players who need a hand on building and levelling up their airport. However, in the right conditions, it could also be a double-edged sword that might slow down your airport progress.

This article hopes to discuss the advantages and the hidden potential disadvantages for player contracts.

It is important to clarify what is meant by "player contracts". This article refers to direct player contracts, which is done between the plane owner and a single receiver; it lasts for 10 handlings, as this type of contract is always on tier 10, also being the same reason for the very high SP and XP rewards when completed. They are colloquially referred to as just player contracts, or sometimes player-to-player (P2P) contracts.

Some may be thinking of the one-time player contract, but this is not the same as a direct player contract. Random player arrivals, or also random arrivals, are the contrary: firstly, the plane owner is not sending the plane to a specific player, so multiple players may be able to handle the arrival at the same time; more observably, it only lasts for a single handling and gives very little SP and XP rewards, because it is only on tier 1.

While both are technically categorised as player contracts, for the purpose of this article, direct player contracts will be the type of contract that will be discussed below, and it will be referred to as player contracts for the sake of simplicity.

Let's begin with the first obvious advantage. As mentioned, player contracts last for 10 handlings because they start at tier 10. Now consider a regular contract of the same route and same plane type: in order to reach tier 10, it would need to be upgraded all the way from tier 1. This levelling-up would require 45 handlings in total, summed up from tier 1 to tier 9 - this means player contracts can skip all of that and also avoid the lower SP and XP rewards in the process.

Since the SP and XP reward scales quadratically with the tier, it means tier 10 has the highest SP and XP per handling. Even when looking at the absolute numbers, the rewards are astounding and the XP rewards may be able to complete a few levels in the early-game of the progress rewards.

In the same vein, if there is an over-reliance on player contracts at the starting levels, the number of handlings needed to get the rewards may hinder the progress. The first number of levels don't need a lot of XP, yet they give rewards that may be very useful for expanding the airport's infrastructure, notably wollars, handling crew, and fleet planes that may be sold for a decent sum of cash - wollars can be used to buy equipment and unlock stands for more handling crew, allowing more planes to be handled at once. Regular contracts that give lower rewards but require less handlings may be better at this stage.

In short, regular contracts may be better for the first dozen of levels, since they are able to earn enough XP in less handlings to level up, giving rewards that may be used to invest into the airport to handle more planes at the same time. After the initial expansion, regular contracts no longer have the advantage of bringing more rewards, meaning levelling up becomes less time-sensitive, and the 10 handlings of player contracts stops being an issue. Therefore, player contracts should be able to earn more XP in mid-game and late-game.

From the perspective of the receiver, a player contract costs basically nothing - as long as you have a free contract slot, you can accept the contract and the income and rewards it brings is all yours. This is not always the case, especially when the airport hasn't been fully built, and it is only more evident when the plane is of a larger size class.

Firstly, the airport needs a stand big enough to fit the aircraft type. Typically, airports give some class B stands for free, and occasionally class C stands as well; however, stands of class D and larger are never given, and it costs more to unlock larger size classes for a stand: 8000 wollars for class D, 10000 wollars for class E, and 12000 wollars for class F - the costs stack up if smaller size classes need to be unlocked beforehand. Sometimes, a terminal may also need to be unlocked to access these larger stands, which adds to the cost just to fit the player contract.

As an example, class E will be used since it is one of the most common size classes for player contracts. One D-E stand costs 18000 wollars to unlock, and one A-E stand costs 30000 wollars to unlock. Ignoring the 10000-50000 wollars that may be required to unlock a new terminal, this is already a massive investment that starting players might not be able to afford, and would take a lot of handlings just to break even.

Next, after the airport becomes able to accommodate the aircraft, more handling crew and equipment may be needed to handle the plane; otherwise, it may come at the expense of needing more playtime, with the existing contracts queuing up to be handled. While handling crew could be increased by purchasing the 2000-wollar class A stands, getting a set of service equipment could run into 10000 to 20000 wollars. Yet again, a large contract requires either a huge investment or some more playtime to be handled.

This is the problem of an oversize contract, and the numbers show why class D and larger planes are not ideal for a starting player; while not exclusive to player contracts, it is more prevalent as this contract type, simply because the larger planes are able to come without any cost to the receiver. This can be avoided by asking for class B or class C planes to avoid the additional infrastructure costs. However, on a side note, this does not apply if the airport infrastructure is there already; in which case, the airport should be able to enjoy higher XP rewards and a higher wollars income.

From the perspective of the sender, the plane itself has great costs that are not considered by the receiver. 

To start, the plane itself costs a lot of wollars to be purchased. A fleet plane costs typically 7 to 15 times more wollars than a regular contract; while fleet planes sometimes are able to earn a higher profit, the profit is only up to 4 times as good at best - the cost does not scale with the profit for the sender. Fleet planes also earn the same amount of XP, though sometimes even less SP compared to a regular contract (more explanation later).

Even if the plane comes as a reward for free, the sender has to pay maintenance costs to keep the plane flying. At the start of a contract, the plane is checked for its quantity of maintenance points (MP); since each flight takes away MP from the plane, if the plane does not have enough MP to complete all the flights in the contract, then a check has to be conducted.

The two types of maintenance checks are small checks and large checks. A small check typically takes about 1000 to 25000 wollars, depending on the aircraft type. A large check occurs after 3 small checks have been done, however notably it costs 10 times that of a small check to be done.

Additionally, maintenance takes time to be completed. While a small check takes 10 to 25 minutes at the airport, a large check can last from half a day to a full 24 hours. 

All of this is to say fleet planes come with more complications for the operator, with extra costs and additional time that needs to be considered in order to sustain the aircraft and therefore the player contracts it may be assigned to. The hefty costs means that player contracts are a lot more limited in quantity compared to map contracts that can be obtained on-demand.

As said already, the primary way to get a player contract is to communicate with another player and establish a connection. It is impractical to send planes to random players as they may not be reliable all the time, and it is unrealistic to expect planes to be received from other players as it is pretty rare, especially if you have not handled enough random arrivals for your username to appear on other players' contractee list.

While it is possible to ask for acquaintances in real life for contracts, the article will be discussing the methods for getting player contracts online. 

To name the most prominent platforms, the Discord server and the forums have channels dedicated to player contracts. Players may create an account (if they don't have one already), go to the dedicated channels, and either browse through existing posts or create one to begin negotiations. The receiver has to provide their username or user ID as well as the airport they are playing, and the sender has to use this information on the contract assignment map to send the plane away.

This is the process for the typical player. While the negotiation itself isn't tedious, one shouldn't expect fast response times from other players as everyone may be situated in different timezones and more importantly be busy with something else away from the game. It is therefore typically time-consuming just for a player contract to be established.

However, there are players dedicated to handling player contracts, who may be more active and therefore be able to respond faster. These players may operate independently, though there are alliances - groups of players for the interest of player contracts. Being more proactive and seeking these players is often faster than waiting for others to come to one's own post.

These players may allow direct communication for the planes to be sent away, though they may also have a form for receivers to fill in. These forms are a bureaucratic way to get the player's username and contact details, while letting them choose the routes and the plane types to be used for the connection.

Regardless of how active the player is, it is most realistic to expect a player contract to be established after at least 12 or even 24 hours, at least for the average player. These connections usually do not get established within a few hours.

After the contract has been established, the planes now have to be handled to make progress towards completing the contract and getting the rewards. Upon acceptance of the contract by the receiver, the sender has to handle the plane at their airport and let it depart; the plane then takes its time to fly to the receiver's airport, where the receiver has to handle the plane and let it takeoff to begin flying back to the sender. This repeats for a total of 10 times until the contract has been completed.

Immediately from the start, there is the concern that the sender may be offline when the receiver is online to accept it. The receiver may have to wait for the sender to go online again to handle the plane.

Similarly for all the other handlings, both the sender and the receiver may only play the game once a day. Usually this means the contract gets handled once per day, meaning it takes 10 days for the contracts to be completed. However, if one user goes offline by the time the plane arrives at said user's airport, or the game sessions of both players happen at the same time, then the plane may take an extra day to be handled - at worst, it may take 20 days to complete the contract.

It is therefore important to say and know the handling frequency of the other player. It is normal for players to only play once or twice a day, or even once every few days. Also, timezones and gameplay time may also be important information: confirm both players don't play at the same time so that the handlings may be pipelined seamlessly without adding extra days to the completion. Some players and alliances may require player contracts to be handled regularly and the contracts may be cancelled if they are not returned on-time.

To further elaborate on the handling frequency: if there is a mismatch of frequencies between the two players, then the players who play more often may be disadvantaged. For example, if one player only handles once per day while the other plays twice per day, then the other player may not be able to handle the player contract a second time because the plane is not at their airport. Compared to a map contract that may come back in the second session, the player contract is taking up a contract slot and allowing less handlings to be done, thereby reducing the wollars, XP and SP earnt.

When this happens, the more active player may need to expand their contract capacity by buying more stands or terminals. If the airport has already been fully built, then the currency shop may be the only option for more contract slots, costing extra SP or even GP if they decide to sacrifice such. It is not uncommon for active players to bloat their contract capacity, so as to reduce idle time at the airport caused by contracts not coming back.

With most players operating on a once-daily routine, those playing at least twice a day may need to find contract partners that handle at the same frequency, if not a higher one. However, these players may be less available in quantity, so map contracts should be considered as they may come back faster than the player contracts and the choices are larger in numbers.

The same applies to those who play continuously for a very long time in one session: if map contracts can be handled more times than the player contracts, then the map contracts may earn more XP in the long term compared to the player contracts. The general benchmark is about 1 hour and 30 minutes, where the closest class B/C map contracts return in just 30-40 minutes and can therefore be handled at least twice per session. 

In short, even though map contracts cost money to be purchased, and checking for the specifications of the contract (such as handling time and XP) may be slightly tedious, it may still be worth it for players who may be able to handle at least twice a day, either from having a minimum of two game sessions, or playing long enough in one session to allow multiple handlings.

As opposed to map contracts with the player handling the plane and the servers returning the plane in a set duration of time, player contracts require two players to handle the plane on both sides. It is therefore crucial to be considerate of the other player.

Players are only humans and may not always be able to deliver as they promise to. To begin, players may have shifting and varying schedules that may place their game session earlier or later than usual. More importantly, players may get busy with real-life matters such as work, school, health or family and may need to take a break from a day to weeks or months. While this doesn't happen often, it is a possibility that should be considered. 

If one demands a 100% guarantee for the plane to return to the airport, then map contracts should be used instead as they are not subject to unavailability of the other player.

The income of a contract concerns wollars, SP and XP. Here, the income of player contracts will be compared against the default and standard map contracts, assuming the same route, the same plane type and the same tier (tier 10), and ignoring random fluctuations for the wollars revenue. To get things out of the way, the XP from the rewards is the same for both contract types, as the XP solely depends on the handling time limit of the aircraft type (and the tier of the contract).

As for wollars, there is a drastic difference of income on the sender's end. Since the sender owns the aircraft, the profit of the player contract is usually higher than that of the map contract. Exceptions may apply to unprofitable aircraft that are either small or inefficient, or long-range aircraft that may lose money from flying too far. If the aircraft is a passenger aircraft, and its size class is C-F, then it may be configured with more premium seats (business class and first class for size class D-F) in order to increase the ticket revenue. Keep in mind this reduces the total number of seats on the plane.

On the receiver's end, the revenue between the map contract and the player contract is the same. This is assuming the plane is either a freighter or a class A-B airliner. From the previous paragraph, if the player contract is configured with more premium seats and so less total seats, then the revenue may decrease by 20-200 wollars depending on the aircraft size. This is because the handling revenue for the receiver depends on the passenger count rather than the ticket fares.

Moving onto SP: SP depends on the route distance, the handling time limit, as well as the total seat count on the plane - similar to the wollars income for the receiver. However, both the sender and the receiver get the same quantity of SP upon contract completion, so a configured plane gives both players 10-100 SP less than a map contract.

In practice, even though the decrease in wollars and SP happens to class C-F passenger planes (which are the most common aircraft types for player contracts), the difference is minute and most players ignore it because of the immediate tier 10 during the contract's runtime. 

Fleet planes have a demand system in contrast to map contracts. The senders must make sure their plane's capacity is able to fit the destination's demand to make the route possible for the plane type. 

One special behaviour of player contracts is that the demand is ignored after the establishment of the contract; for example, if the demand is 80% of the plane's capacity, then a satisfactory player contract will guarantee a 90-100% occupancy. That being said, the plane is still subject to the minimum demand requirement of 70%, as this requirement is imposed prior to the contract assignment.

It is this requirement that causes a problem to the choices of plane types available on a route. In particular, if the receiver's airport has low demand, then larger planes with too much capacity cannot be used on the route. 

These under-demand situations can fall into two categories in general: one is low passenger demand on airports such as Sint Maarten (SXM) and New Orleans (MSY), having the capacity but not the demand for the A388; the other is low cargo demand which happens to airports including Innsbruck (INN) and Sint Maarten, all 3 of which have near-minimum cargo demand, making cargo routes nearly if not completely impossible. Impossible cargo routes are particularly bad as cargo aircraft have longer handling time limits (compared to their passenger counterparts) and therefore earn more XP; the demand bars players from using cargo contracts and so prevents more XP from being earnt especially by the receiver.

Furthermore, runway distance of the destination may be an obstacle as well, though this is generally not a problem for playable airports as the runway distance is tuned to allow more plane types to land there. One example is A346 and A346F requiring more runway than what New Orleans can offer, so player contracts to New Orleans using these plane types are impossible; however, map contracts ignore the runway distance from the playable airport itself, so map contracts of these plane types can be purchased.

Finally, the aircraft's range may imply less route choices. While not a problem on its own, fleet aircraft always have less range than the max range of map contracts, even for class C-F airliners that may extend their range by reducing the total number of seats. This also means player contracts have a lower maximum possible SP compared to that of map contracts.

All of these requirements are imposed on fleet aircraft in general, though it affects the receiver in the concern of player contracts. Player contracts may be subject to demand, runway & range, but map contracts are subject to the aircraft types operated by hub airlines and airlines based at various destinations.

To summarise, player contracts may be glamorous because it is free for the receiver and the contracts start at tier 10 for the max rewards, but there are a lot of underlying disadvantages and restrictions for both players. 

Firstly, player contracts are generally suitable for most players since they only handle once a day, but map contracts may be more suitable for those who can handle at least twice a day from either playing twice daily or playing long enough to handle map contracts multiple times. For players of the latter condition, player contracts may take up contract slots unnecessarily and may bloat the contract capacity if too many are used.

Player contracts may also take some effort for both players to communicate and negotiate. It is important to make sure both players handle just as frequently and don't have overlapping sessions, so that the player contracts may be finished as soon as possible.

Above those, players need to have an understanding for each other as life events may take priority over the game, so handlings and communications may take some time. It is best to expect at least 24 hours for the other side to handle and respond. In a sense, player contracts aren't guaranteed to come back as opposed to map contracts returned by the servers.

Receivers should also appreciate the funds and time needed from the sender to buy and maintain the plane. Because the expenses are paid by the owner of the aircraft, the quantity of player contracts are more limited than the availability of map contracts.

Keep in mind player contracts have limiting plane types depending on the receiver's airport due to demand and runway distance restrictions for fleet aircraft. Compared to map contracts, player contracts may earn slightly less wollars for the receiver and less SP for both players, if the plane is a class C-F airliner and configured with more premium seats to reduce the total seat count. Player contracts (because of using fleet aircraft) cannot earn as much SP as possible, since SP depends on route length and fleet planes have less range than map contracts.

As a final and important note to those who have decided to use player contracts at the start of the airport - please select smaller plane sizes if possible and do not burden yourself with the cost of larger stands or a new terminal. Please also do not use too many player contracts as they take longer to complete than map contracts and early levels don't need a lot of XP to boost resources. Please also make sure to handle the contract on-time and post a notice in advance in case you may be unavailable.