Part 15: - Lifestyle Adjustment

1959 - Lifestyle Adjustment


Q1 1959



Coming into the year, most of our agents are occupied and we’ve not enough cash on hand for even a single Doug. Igor is sent to top us off with 4 more slots in Hong Kong. Next turn, everyone will be ready for action.





I start putting more of our slots to use, activating our extra time in Cairo and stripping time from Paris to feed to THROM. I’ve seen Paris-Rome do much better than this in other games. Perhaps more people will want to leave France after our network adds more exotic destinations.



They hook into Africa and send more agents to America.



Speaking softly in Austria and at home.



People just won’t shut up about this island.




More growth in the hubs of our enemies.





A pretty quiet turn.

Q2 1959



Knowing them, this time will wind up assigned to a weather balloon. It will still earn more than a Tu104.



We have cash to spend on Doug.




Time to put on flights



And people to send on adventures.

Those slots get pumped into our old-time Mideast routes to see how much they can handle.



With how well Egypt took to theirs, I’m optimistic.



We’re at our max share of most of our far-east destinations. Igor’s sent for 9 slots in Shanghai, which would bring us up to 14, and Cindy snipes 1 left in Kuala Lumpur.



Air Murica’s extensive use of London as a hub has driven up the size of their airport. There’s plenty of space for us to get up to the twice-daily limit for our British Connection. This will only take 3 months.



Jerry gets a matching mission to top us off in Athens. There won’t be new space in Rome until 1960, but it doesn’t hurt to have the other ends squared away before then. This will take him 9 months anyway.



Their first competing route in North America, along with bids in Washington.



Nothing out of them. Weird that they set up their hub in South America but haven’t used it for anything.



Cover of our new album - Trouble on Tehran to Baghdad.



Debuting live in concert at New Delhi. _{No one flies there.}





Fucking recording contracts. Worst turn of the year, right here.

Q3 1959



Viva!

New regime is neutral with us. We’ve been quite fortunate with these government shifts so far.



Sports are coming.




Coming soon - The B707-320, slightly better than a 707-120 in every way for an extra $2.7M. A straightforward upgrade its older brother.



No.



No.



Fuck.

Only three major nations in the world don’t like us, and the two we need to break into new regions both bring deals we can’t afford.





In better news, 9 British slots plus a shiny new Doug equals piles of new customers. I skim the Rome-time off of Berlin. It’s worth far more with the British. We can refill their schedule after Rome expands.








Time well spent.



We’re either near-full-up or bidding our way there at every city in our network, and there’s no cash to spare for other interests, so Veronica gets some time off.



Their first taste of Ameri-Biz has them hooked. ConAir links Philadelphia and makes more bids overseas.



People come from far and wide to see India’s giant replicas of foreign landmarks, on foot.





Business runs much more smoothly when nothing explodes.

Q4 1959



America status - buying some Doug.



Same, Blue. Same.



Damn fine Doug.



Quite generous for a first visit. There's a lot of money between us opening that link though.



They saved the last one for us.



Everyone wants a piece of Doug.





Breathing room in all of our hubs.





Close on a high note. We break profit records with a $12.4M quarter. ConAir is pulling ahead with their new links in America, and brings the first signs of Air’Murica slowing down.


1959 Year-End Review



Ilyushin drops out of the passenger aircraft game. Perhaps some day they’ll return.



Nothing special out of them.

Jerry gets back from Athens with half of what we sent him for, and we get hooked up with more Doug.

The midgame is firmly upon us. We must live and grow by our own means, and this means many desirable things which cost than a year’s income to acquire. These are still things we want, and things people will vote for, but under the current LP framework they become very difficult to attain. To correct this, it is time for Budgets.

Each update, I will use the previous year’s income as the next year’s nominal operating budget. When voting on our next business plan, shareholders shall also vote on which types of capital expense our budget should be allocated to:

Routing funds will go towards opening new connections and establishing new hubs. Money back from any routes closed will be deposited back into this account.

Aircraft funds are dedicated to procuring new planes for our fleet, and refunded with any proceeds from resale of planes.

Business funds purchase secondary operations and power marketing campaigns. They will receive all proceeds from liquidating any existing business.

Flex funds are left unassigned, but are free to finance any project in need of them.

Bank funds are safely stored, and will not be spent unless directly demanded by a high-priority item on the business plan.

Budget will be assigned to each fund in proportion to the votes they receive, and all of these funds will carry over between years. This allows shareholders to support multi-year projects directing resources into the relevant funds, then calling for them to be spent down the road.

Out performance for 1959 means that we have $34,650K up on the block.

Build our Plan, and Cut our Budget for 1960.