Portal chaos: a sector that moves your aircraft for you
Portal mode adds two objects to the radar. One teleports aircraft across the sector, the other randomises their heading. Only one is a hazard.
Portals: blue in, yellow out
Portals come in pairs. An aircraft passing within 55 pixels of the blue portal is moved to the yellow one and carries on from there. It only works that way round.
Steering around them wastes the best transport in the game. A plane spawning west with an east destination would otherwise cross the whole sector and everything in it; with a blue portal near the west edge it is across in a second, never touching the congested middle.
Ask one question of every arrival: does a portal put it closer to its exit than flying there would?
Aircraft in transit are exempt from collision checks, so the transfer itself cannot kill you. The risk is the arrival: planes appear at the yellow portal without warning, so treat that airspace like a spawn edge and keep it clear.
Punchers: the purple circles
Punchers sit still and re-randomise the heading of anything entering them. Same 55-pixel radius as a portal. You start with two and gain one every five waves, up to five.
There is no upside to them: a storm cell at least creates empty space, a puncher is pure tax on careless routing.
The defence is planning. When you set a heading, look along the line the aircraft will fly, not at where it sits now. A clean-looking heading often runs through a puncher forty pixels on, and the plane flies that line for many seconds while you are busy elsewhere. You find out later, when it is on a heading you never gave it.
Both objects move between waves
Portals and punchers are re-placed at every wave change, so a route that has been safe for two minutes can cross a puncher the moment the wave ticks over. Take a full-sector look each time: where are the portals now, where are the punchers, does anything need re-routing?
The altitude plan changes
A level per exit direction works less well here, because portals drop aircraft into places you never routed them through. A plane on FL002 for north traffic can land in the middle of your east-bound stream at the same level.
Separate by where an aircraft is rather than where it is going. Keep the airspace around each yellow portal on a level that differs from your general traffic, then re-level each plane once you have seen where it came out.
The order that works
- New aircraft appears. Check its destination edge.
- Does a portal shorten the trip? Aim at the blue portal instead of the exit.
- Trace the line it will fly. Does it cross a puncher? Adjust now.
- Set an altitude that differs from whatever is near its path and its exit.
- Leave it alone until the wave changes or it nears an edge.