Imagine if Airlines operated like ED Passanger mission...

The Captain of the 747-400 lands in New York JFK, having flown from Heathrow, London, his disgruntled passengers get off. Some of them are upset because 10 mins before they landed, they decided they wanted to go to Gatwick London and not New York.

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Then, once the plane is cleaned, restocked and fueled, it turns out no passengers are booked for the return flight. So the captain goes down to the terminal to see if he can find anyone who wants to go back to London. Oddly the disgruntled passengers who wanted to go to Gatwick are nowhere to be seen. After about 20 mins he has a 100 passengers to go in this 500 seat plane.

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Fortunately the captain is a bit of a magician. You see he's really an inter dimensional being, and can jump into alternate private realities at the tap of a few buttons. After another 40 mins he finally has gone through 5 alternate universes, and got his plane 95% full.

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TLDR:

Board hopping is tedious!

If you are going to offer (large) passenger ships, why make it so difficult to fill them up FDev?
 
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I see it more like insufferable rich people on a cruise ship.

I cannot for the life of me understand why a sudden need of a few tonnes of kitchen appliances or land mines comes from when they have a luxury suite and all the entertainment available.

A "required items" list of goods to purchase BEFORE takeoff would be nice.
 
Someone at FD confused "entertaining and interesting" design with "annoying and tedious". I prefer to think that way since the alternative (well thought design) implies bad things.

OT - it always puzzles me. Such vast space, so many stations with so many people. Yet compiling a full deck of passengers that want to fly to ONE DIRECTION is impossible. Passenger routes should be busy lines. Workers, refugees, managers, aid workers... But no. You can get one, two tops missions to the given destination. Otherwise you could earn credits too fast and too much. And FD doesn't want that.
 
You are not the pilot of a passenger liner. You are the captain of big plane that offers services to those who don't use the standard passenger liners on the regular flights.
Or maybe the owner of a VIP stretched limo service.

You take the surplus missions. Transport passengers that for whatever reason don't use the regular flights.
You are the Boing 747 pilot that flies a big rock band around (think Iron Maiden, I think they have a Jumbo Jet).
 
They really should implement a supply and demand.

I'm making the numbers up here:

Let say every hour there are 100,000 passengers wanting transportation from a station. If there are only 100 CMDRs docking every hour, then it should be easy for CMDR's to get passengers, and they will be paying over the odds. When word gets out, and 10,000 CMDR's turn up, the supply no longer meets the demand. It's more difficult to get passengers, and the payments drop.

This should then have the effect of balancing things out, forcing some CMDR's to go elsewhere, since it's not a lucrative anymore.
 
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You are not the pilot of a passenger liner. You are the captain of big plane that offers services to those who don't use the standard passenger liners on the regular flights.
Or maybe the owner of a VIP stretched limo service.

You take the surplus missions. Transport passengers that for whatever reason don't use the regular flights.
You are the Boing 747 pilot that flies a big rock band around (think Iron Maiden, I think they have a Jumbo Jet).

Bad example as Bruce is also a pilot :)
 
Sounds like the problem here is that OP has decided that they will only take passengers heading for one particular location, and is board switching to fill up. If you instead take passengers to multiple locations you can easily fill up (and take other missions for the same locations as well). Then watch out for further passengers along your route. Then instead of board hopping for 40(!) minutes just ... transport the passengers, see some other systems.

And passengers don't get annoyed if you don't change their destination: just ignore them (y'know, like you're ignoring how the game wants you to transport passengers:))

Agree with zadian, you don't run a regular service, you are more like a corporate jet for hire - once you stop trying to be American Airlines you'll be a lot happier.
 
Sounds like the problem here is that OP has decided that they will only take passengers heading for one particular location, and is board switching to fill up. If you instead take passengers to multiple locations you can easily fill up (and take other missions for the same locations as well). Then watch out for further passengers along your route.


So I'm a Bus service then?
 
You are not the pilot of a passenger liner. You are the captain of big plane that offers services to those who don't use the standard passenger liners on the regular flights.
Or maybe the owner of a VIP stretched limo service.

You take the surplus missions. Transport passengers that for whatever reason don't use the regular flights.
You are the Boing 747 pilot that flies a big rock band around (think Iron Maiden, I think they have a Jumbo Jet).

Which does not really matter. I am a private owned company where i CAN set the rules and not be at the willy-nilly notions of every two-bit customer. And a change of contract where the customer just leaves would still require they pay me for the time they used.

if i take a taxi and constantly ask the taxi to stop everywhere I cannot just skip paying because the driver got tired of my constant weird decisions and demands outside of the job they initially gave me.

- An escaped fugitive that is paranoid should not be allowed to "demand" 2 tonnes of landmines.

I mean, it would help a bit if there was some flavor text depending on customer so one has an idea of what kind of customer they are.

- The contract should specify that deviations from the assigned route might happen
- The contract should specify what kind of goods they would like to have with them (a lot of drugs and booze for a rockband)
- Not getting "what they want" should not be a reason for them to completely skip paying the running costs for a long range luxury ship or transport.

No, you are an independent taxi driver.

And how many taxi drivers allow customers to just leave without paying after demanding the most outlandish things (what taxi driver would wait while a customer gets a load of guns and ammo and then tell you to take a weird detour away from the initial route).
 
More like somebody who uses Uber to get passengers who don't want to use the regular taxis, railways, bus, subway, airlines.

Interesting comparison.

How would this play out in real life if a customer is overly demanding and skips paying? Is the Uber driver a full private company or would it be a case with customer vs UBER?
 

- The contract should specify that deviations from the assigned route might happen
- The contract should specify what kind of goods they would like to have with them (a lot of drugs and booze for a rockband)
- Not getting "what they want" should not be a reason for them to completely skip paying the running costs for a long range luxury ship or transport.

The contract specifies that the passenger might make demands (detours, new destination, strange cargo)
If the passenger doesn't get the wanted thing (detour, new destination, strange cargo) the satisfaction of the passenger will drop, but nothing else happens. You will get paid the agreed upon sum of credits.
If you do what the passenger wants you will get an extra payment and the satisfaction of the passenger will be good - allowing you to make more mistakes.

It's just that the passenger offers a contract and you agree and not that you offer a contract to the passenger who then has to agree to that contract.
You are in the weak position.

Interesting comparison.

How would this play out in real life if a customer is overly demanding and skips paying? Is the Uber driver a full private company or would it be a case with customer vs UBER?

Passengers don't skip paying unless the CMDR violates the contract.
 
Interesting comparison.

How would this play out in real life if a customer is overly demanding and skips paying? Is the Uber driver a full private company or would it be a case with customer vs UBER?

Its a game. Stop with the RL examples, they are really silly when discussing game design. In the end Passenger missions are High Paying cargo missions with way more wrinkles in them. Unexpected stuff happens, security may turn hostile, and you cant blindly AB trade. In return you make dozens of millions per hour. Thats it. Any comparison to 21st century cab services are daft. If you want we can make it like Uber, in that you earn minimum wage, get yelled at a lot and occassionally have the opportunity to sexually assault your passengers and get away with it.

Not sure how it works in a spacesim though.
 
Boardhopping... Isn't that like logging in and check the other local travel agents and airports for passengers. A planet/station is big! There is not only one travel agent in a big city.

If you want to ferry people A-B you can take broke imperial citizens to their new jobs.
(I-slaves should not be a commodity they should be passengers, they have to be treated with respect.
 
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All passenger missions are akin to charter flights, not regular commercial airline flights.

People want go go somewhere to do something, and you either choose to provide them with that service or not.
 
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I don't work for a passenger airline, I smuggle people to the death star and save princesses.

And I transport refugees and tourists. And maybe some rich sob occasionally.

As for OP - but main point is that this isn't airlines. This is charter at best, space taxi at worst (ok, smallest).

I don't do passengers exclusively, it is too long for wait. It is extra money I get with trading and working for courier.
 
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