AirwaySim uses an unique concept for handling of the simulated time to allow us play all the way from history to the future in different interesting ages of airline world.
Time Frame
Each of our simulation scenarios have a predetermined starting and ending date for the simulation.
These can span anywhere from 1950s to 2030s.
All of the economic variables, such as fuel prices, and other data, such as aircraft, correspond to the simulated time for full realism. Generally speaking the whole economic model is relative to the game year. The setup may be also customized for each particular simulation scenario, so real history is not always followed.
Check the current year / era, and other specifications, of each particular game scenario from the overall game listing page.
Simulated Time
The game worlds run at a predetermined time rate which is called accelerated real time. This means that game time progresses on day-by-day basis but faster than in reality.
Usually a single day in a game world equals 30 minutes of real time. This allows the game world to progress faster than in 1=1 time system and to run longer scenarios even from 1950s to the modern era.
An individual player is not able to affect the game time, or "pause" it for example, as AirwaySim is a multiplayer simulation. The game time and current clock are determined by the servers.
Since the game worlds move faster than real time there cannot be "never ending" scenarios. At the end of a game world (end year / end date) the game world is simply closed and it's time is stopped. Certain pages like statistics and press releases pages are browsable after game world has ended. The results in previous worlds are not related and are not transferrable to any other game worlds as they are all completely separate and independent units.
Educational Simulations
If you are playing our simulations as part of your class or other course, your simulation might also run in what we call as "classroom mode".
In this mode the simulation times move forward one financial quarter at a time, when ever the instructor of your course initiates the backend calculation. At other times the simulation clock is paused and no financial results are being processed.
If your simulation is running in normal (continuous time) mode, you can see the game clock at the top part of the interface (status bar) running constantly.
Please consult your instructor about the setup of your particular scenario.