Passenger Modules & Missions

[Arubeto]

OMG!! do the old Elite had dialogue screens??

I want that for ED NOW!!! i mean RIGHT NOW!!

Yes, Elite 2 & 3 both had dialog options and NPC portraits, so in that aspect ED is a step back atm.

Since the devs have confirmed that "NPC comms" are still "on the list" multiple times, I am confident that we'll at least get that some time down the line.

 

[Vasious]

What I really would like to see is some missions going further than next door.
50-100 light years distance or sometimes even more - let's use the galaxy if there are so many stars in it.
With cargo it's only the rares making sense to take them far away as ED's economy looks like a repeated pattern built up from 30 LY bubbles one after the other but passengers will have the chance to get out of this box and take long journeys with many adventures...
Another reason to get a ship with higher jump range.

I would agree, missions, cargo, courier, or passenger, that actually take a few jumps to cross the Civilized space.
Deliveries between Faction Capitals, Passenger hubs linking the Tourist systems, courier missions linking the service systems.
Missions asking for the collection of certain rare goods to be brought back to the origin station

 

[Rall]

I still hope, it will be (a simply not yet detailed announced) part of the PowerPlay mission overhaul.

Unfortunatly, It's already been stated they are not. From shortly after the AMA with David Braben on Powerplay.

No passenger missions yet, but they're still on the list.

Michael

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=137922&page=34&p=2140053#post2140053

On the upside they are still on the to-do list, hopefully we see them soon.

I also hope we can vent passenger cabins into space, for when someone complains about the wine selection.

 

[Deipfryde]

I've been wondering about this ever since they added the Orca. You know... the passenger ship? Ship like that seems pretty useless without having any passengers, probably why so few people are flying one.

 

[Surly_Badger]

Maybe a more short-term disaster than a pair of stars colliding. That would be predictable thousands of years in advance (though admittedly someone would always have to be the last person to leave...) A plague evacuation would be fun, as a CG. Especially if we had the option to take our passengers to a slave market if they didn't have enough scratch on them...

"Oi! These people are labelled as 'stolen'!??"

 

[Agarthan]

I like everything except the more modules part, most ships are limited on space enough as it is, if it's one passenger and it's a ship that has more than 1 seat, that's where they should go, I guess if it's a large group of passengers a 'cabin module' would make sense, but seriously, too many modules, there are a ton of things that need to be added as things a ship should be able to do as modules.

 

[Dym]

i would really like to see passengers in the next update, old mission system was fun in elite. to be honest, i miss it so much in ED.

 

[Twelvefield]

While transporting passengers should definitely not be considered the be the same as hauling cargo for reasons already discussed above, ultimately it is about getting something from A to B and so I'd agree that it's a best-fit for contributing to the Trader rank.

Then again, maybe there could be an entire Transport ranking system as well...

-Careless (i.e. you can't trust the commander with your valuable person)
-Mostly Careless
-Driver
-Courier
-Escort
-Pilot (in the sense of someone who knows his way intimately around a difficult harbour)
-Guide
-Companion
-Elite!

I would respectfully switch Guide and Companion's ranks. Since if you were going to be the Hitch-hiker's Guide To The Galaxy, that parses better. Also, I'd replace Escort with Socialator, since I'm nostalgic.

 

[Obtuse]

Just please make the dialogue diverse, if anyone played X:Rebirth, you know "Show me your wares please" (shudders)

Yes, Elite 2 & 3 both had dialog options and NPC portraits, so in that aspect ED is a step back atm.

Since the devs have confirmed that "NPC comms" are still "on the list" multiple times, I am confident that we'll at least get that some time down the line.

 

[Lobot]

How about scientific passanger missions. Take scientist near certain star, black hole, nebula etc. Detailed surface scanner must be on board.


Or combat/adrenaline freak missions. Take passanger to bounty hunting. Bonus from close calls, destroyed canopy for example.


Extortion/pirating missions. With passanger find certain NPC ship, interdict, take its shield down and let your passanger do the talking to make target drop a black box.


Funeral mission. Take cargo near the sun and drop it in right direction. Fly slow and gently.


Hijack mission. Take soldiers to certain point where they betray you and turn off your life support and try to hijack your ship. You have little time to get back to any friendly station and let the security take care of hijackers. You will get bounty from them, but you have to pay for security services and fix the damage to your ships internals.

 

[Arubeto]

What I really would like to see is some missions going further than next door.
50-100 light years distance or sometimes even more - let's use the galaxy if there are so many stars in it.
With cargo it's only the rares making sense to take them far away as ED's economy looks like a repeated pattern built up from 30 LY bubbles one after the other but passengers will have the chance to get out of this box and take long journeys with many adventures...
Another reason to get a ship with higher jump range.

There was a mission (one of the two?) in the old Elite to take an agent to Birera (I think that was the planet's name but not sure) which was a cross-galaxy route. The destination planet was really far from the neighbours, all but one out of the one-jump range so it was a great challenge to find the way there. Not to mention the hordes of thargoids interdicting all along the way...

That's a great idea! Having a reason to make longer journeys apart from exploration and rare trading would be great!

This could also give individual places of importance in the universe more personality, as we'd probably have more passengers wanting to visit the core worlds like Achenar and Earth than some backwater pirate hole in the middle of nowhere

If the kind of passengers to transport would depend on where they want to go - VIPs, politicians etc. to the capital and important worlds; soldiers, mercenaries to systems with conflict zones; scientists, undercover agents to remote research facilities etc. - this could support some implicit "feeling" of places in the galaxy, so we know what kind of people are likely to be encountered where.

 

[Red Dirt Nurse]

While we're on the topic of passengers, a few other elements about passenger missions that could improve them when they eventually appear in the game.

Nicely put.

This also ties in with a similar discussion going on, under the title of Passenger Concepts.

 

[Aegis I]

I like what I see. Have some rep OP

 

[Arubeto]

I still hope, it will be (a simply not yet detailed announced) part of the PowerPlay mission overhaul.

To be honest, I am kind of relieved that passenger missions won't be in Powerplay.

Think of it this way: if they'd introduce passenger missions with the game play mechanics we have right now, they could be little more than glorified cargo hauling missions - that's what I think would be the worst case of how passenger missions could be implemented. No interaction (e.g. communication) with our passengers, no cabins, no persistent tier 2 NPCs, no NPC contacts...

The best case would incorporate all those planned but not yet realized mechanics. Being able to communicate with our passengers via some list of basic dialog presets (with the occasional funny line in between), the possibility to meet some NPCs again after you delivered them somewhere (NPC contacts and persistency) and the ability to outfit our ships with different classes of passenger cabins - depending on the vessel - like described in the DDA thread are essential to make passenger missions interesting, IMHO.

Edit: I started a thread some time ago just to urge FD to take the time they need to develop passenger missions to their full potential!

 

[Arubeto]

Very novel! This is an idea that I like a lot - I expect that some criticisms of Transport missions is that you'd feel like a glorified bus driver, so this is a deft way to get past that with some real drama.

To be honest, I like the idea of a "glorified bus driver" in space! Given we have passengers we can interact with, this could very well be a very entertaining and interesting profession to pursue in ED without being a fearsome bounty hunter or filthy rich trader.

More than a decade ago, I played an obscure game on my Sega Dreamcast, called "Tokyo Bus Guide". The game was never released outside Japan so I had to play the import version. It mainly centers about following all the rigid rules of driving a bus through downtown Tokyo. You lose points for many things - exceeding speed limits, changing lanes or turning without flashing your "blinker" (is that the right English term?), being late at or early on individual bus stops, hitting other cars or forgetting to close the door before departing from a bus stop.

One very funny aspect where the passengers that would sometimes trigger cut-scenes with hilarious dialogs and stories (see the 19:10 minute mark in the video below). Collecting all those different small conversation videos was a main motivation to keep playing the game long after finishing each route multiple times. Now, I understand that this kind of spoken stories will probably difficult to do for a game with the scope of ED, but something in the same direction, for example just text based interaction with the passengers, would already be great.

[video=youtube;B5syA1AmoTk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5syA1AmoTk[/video]

It's kind of obscure and many people might think it looks dull, but I liked it a lot and it's much more exciting to keep an eye out for all those things you can do wrong than the initial impression might make you think.
I am sure there are other Commanders who would welcome an alternative, less fighting oriented game play mechanic, too.

Edit: also: dat music! Pure awesomesauce!

Edit 2: the Orca boost "bling" sound would also go very well with this "bus driving" kind of game play

 

[medwyn]

That's a great idea! Having a reason to make longer journeys apart from exploration and rare trading would be great!

This could also give individual places of importance in the universe more personality, as we'd probably have more passengers wanting to visit the core worlds like Achenar and Earth than some backwater pirate hole in the middle of nowhere

If the kind of passengers to transport would depend on where they want to go - VIPs, politicians etc. to the capital and important worlds; soldiers, mercenaries to systems with conflict zones; scientists, undercover agents to remote research facilities etc. - this could support some implicit "feeling" of places in the galaxy, so we know what kind of people are likely to be encountered where.

That would be great!
Actually this way the whole universe could be rebalanced in other ways too.

There are threads about how can we put smaller ships back in the board and to a good use other than flying them until there's a better alternative we can buy. A well implemented passenger system could point at some specific ships in which the passengers are willing to travel because of some reasons (safety, nostalgia, privacy, speed, etc.).
The other way it could affect the area of play is the destination: passengers going to backyard places where only tiny outposts are in service, it could limit the ship variety to be used for the mission by the ability to land at outposts too. So there are good reasons to have a Sidey or an Adder in the hangar.

And that builds another backup for these small systems economically as they are pretty much out of a general trader's map. It's very rare that the biggest profit is attracting the trader to these remote places with tiny population and low supply/demand. With passengers going there too these systems would not be that abandoned like they are now.

So I guess the passenger mission system will be a great chance to recirculate the galaxy with life and to make a good use of the already existing game elements which are there but abandoned by now.

 

[Alien147]

I also hope we can vent passenger cabins into space, for when someone complains about the wine selection.

I snorted with laughter.

 

[GluttonyFang]

-If you're attacked by pirates and told to drop your cargo, a cowardly commander could sell his passengers into slavery instead...

Was about to fall asleep and now you have my attention, implement this good sir FD.

 

[Arubeto]

And that builds another backup for these small systems economically as they are pretty much out of a general trader's map. It's very rare that the biggest profit is attracting the trader to these remote places with tiny population and low supply/demand. With passengers going there too these systems would not be that abandoned like they are now.

Actually, that could introduce another very cool nuance to the game: the number of passengers could realistically change the number of inhabitants displayed in the system map.

Now, this wouldn't be reflected in systems with multiple inhabited worlds with billions of people, but for those very remote systems with just a single small outpost that houses under 1000 people, the number could change according to the number of passengers you transported.

A good example could be Jaques Traveling Station. It has only 500 inhabitants, IIRC. If you get a passenger mission to transport a group of 20 people to the station, the corresponding number in the system map description could be updated accordingly to 520 inhabitants. It could work in a similar way as the "demand" and "supply" tabs in the "Commodity" tables.

In case of passengers and NPCs, persistence could also again tie into this very nicely. If you were to return to Jaques Station after some time, you could meet one of the passengers again, hear his stories, or get another mission from him (for example transporting him somewhere else again).

The more I think about this, the more potential passenger missions have, when combined with things like persistent NPCs and a Contacts list for every commander.

Lets hope FD gets ambitious with passenger missions!

 

[Dorohedoro]

But... I want to see the passengers in my ship, inside and also boarding, I dont want everything to be "virtual" or "in your imagination", oh, and with those cool rpg menus for the dialogs.

So, yeah, passengers... but after the "walking around" dlc/expansion.