Extremely low mission payouts for long range passenger missions

Jethro_Mulligan

J
I am Elite exploration and Allied with the minor faction in question, however I have mission offers for destinations 22000LY away that only pay around 1 million credits.

Yet there are missions for closer destinations paying over 20 million credits.

Additionally, the game only gives you 1 week to complete these missions, which is inaccessible to many players, and I am only able to consider them as I am on holidays.

I cannot think of any reason why these missions rewards should be so inconsistent, and the oppressive completion time windows encourage unhealthy gaming habits.

Therefore I believe that Frontier should increase the rewards to a reasonable level, and just about have a duty of care to increase the time available for completion.

I cannot add a screenshot as it says "error" when I try to upload an image.

I have not yet reported this as a bug however am leaning toward doing so unless there is something I have overlooked.
 

Ferry_25

F
For me the main reason I don't do those passenger missions is the moronic term they don't want to be scanned. I wouldn't mind combining an exploration session with a passenger. But I don't know how to leave a station without being scanned. Yes I know how to enter one but very often when I leave a station my ship gets a severe vocal tic attack "scan detected." Even when I'm jumping to the next system I'm getting scanned. I have no idea why that no scan term is even a thing with "famous explorers."
 

Rat Catcher

Rat Catcher
Jethro_Mulligan said:
I am Elite exploration and Allied with the minor faction in question, however I have mission offers for destinations 22000LY away that only pay around 1 million credits.

Yet there are missions for closer destinations paying over 20 million credits.

Additionally, the game only gives you 1 week to complete these missions, which is inaccessible to many players, and I am only able to consider them as I am on holidays.

I cannot think of any reason why these missions rewards should be so inconsistent, and the oppressive completion time windows encourage unhealthy gaming habits.

Therefore I believe that Frontier should increase the rewards to a reasonable level, and just about have a duty of care to increase the time available for completion.

I cannot add a screenshot as it says "error" when I try to upload an image.

I have not yet reported this as a bug however am leaning toward doing so unless there is something I have overlooked.
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Passenger missions to Colonia are not very well paid generally - whereas stacking 20 data courier missions can be very lucrative in comparison (no weight penalty and stripped down high-jumping ship can be used) as well as generating some reasonable bounty payouts for the hired killers sent after you! (I take the missions, change to a warship, take care of the hunters - then jump into an explorer ship for the trip)

The error you are getting in uploading an image is possibly because it is in the wrong format (should be .jpg and less than 1 MB in size for the forum).

Once you reach the start of the Western Neutron Field you can speed up transit considerably, but should still be budgeting around 10 hours flying in e.g. Orca
 

Jibroni Gibironi

Jibroni Gibironi
So far, the only things I've found that is actually worth doing at all are scan jobs and mining. Pretty much everything else in this game involves more grind, and your precious time than they are worth. These clowns are asking you to take them all the way damn near on the other side of the galaxy, and then ALL the way back, for bread crumbs. 🙃 ....they can miss me with that bruh. :rolleyes:
 

Rat Catcher

Rat Catcher
Jibroni Gibironi said:
So far, the only things I've found that is actually worth doing at all are scan jobs and mining. Pretty much everything else in this game involves more grind, and your precious time than they are worth. These clowns are asking you to take them all the way damn near on the other side of the galaxy, and then ALL the way back, for bread crumbs. 🙃 ....they can miss me with that bruh. :rolleyes:
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I'd expect to make around 300 million or so in exploration data from a trip to & from Colonia... More if I'm not rushing...
But at least taking such missions are by choice 🤷‍♂️
 

Shiro Akai

Shiro Akai
Something, something... exploration data additional income.... something... something.

I bet the low payout is due to you getting lots of exploration data on the way. The mission payout is just an exscuse. And it sounds like waitress job advetisement - we pay you pennies but your main income will come from tips.
 

Jmanis

Jmanis
Last time i raised this, i got a chorus of fairly inane replies of "oh but it's just a bit extra on the side"... which is fine for the courier missions. They levy no additional requirements to your fitting, pay ~1.6m at allied and would add almost 35m onto your end journey balance.

But the one way passenger missions? What a massive joke. A return trip VIP mission gives you 4 weeks and pays over 20m, but a one way pays you less than a courier even though it hits your jump range due to fitting requirements for cabins, and you're substantially limited.

"Oh but if you don't like it, don't do it..." a mechanic which does nothing but generate pointless chaff just shouldn't be in the game... and if it is, it should be fixed to be at least a little sane... even 5m would be "ok" for such a mission.
 

MickyG1982

M
Jethro_Mulligan said:
Please add a report to this issue https://issues.frontierstore.net/issue-detail/21768

Hopefully Frontier fix it soon.

I just got to Colonia and the mission payouts for a 10LY mission are about the same as I just got for a 22000LY mission.
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Just out of interest, and probably a little critique to your "bug" there.

You say you are allied with the faction, yet you show an example of a courier mission (which are generally low paid anyway as you literally can't fail it, even if you die, you also don't need any specialist equipment for them) from a faction you have never been to before. Those courier missions by the way are quite well paid for what they are.

You talk about passenger missions yet... See above, but at least show an example of the subject matter in hand when adding pictures. If you are talking about passenger missions, show an example of a passenger mission that falls under your criteria for the bug, not something completely different.

1 week is perfectly reasonable to get to your destination, even at a couple of hours per day, decent players can get there in only a few hours
https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/d68qj4
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/d68qj4/new_sol_to_colonia_time_record_1h_38m_11s/
this guy did it in less than 2... But even the most casual of players can do it in a couple of days, if they put their mind to it.
 

Red Anders

Red Anders
They are a joke right now, as are long in-system travel passenger missions and pretty much everything to do with operating a passenger service (as opposed to running sightseeing tours). Payouts are poor, passenger groups are generally too large and not enough want to be taken to the same, or nearby, locations. All of this has been the case since they nerfed the long in-system travel missions ages ago because they were paying out a fraction of what even platinum mining does today. It's the ranking that you can't earn via stacking a few due to the absurd numbers of passengers that really irritates me though - FDev seem to live in a world where someone will take a mission that runs for 15-20 mins or more, pays a pittance in cash terms and offers a tiny rank increase even at low levels, which is pretty much the epitome of a lack of respect for the players time. Meanwhile a different cohort of players grind away at Robigo or Sothis doing other, excruciatingly boring passenger missions because this is apparently fine in FDev world. Seems a bit of an odd way to run a rodeo.

TL-DR I want to drive a passenger service, not a mystery tour bus, why does FDev hate me? 😐
 

Jethro_Mulligan

J
MickyG1982 said:
Just out of interest, and probably a little critique to your "bug" there.

You say you are allied with the faction, yet you show an example of a courier mission (which are generally low paid anyway as you literally can't fail it, even if you die, you also don't need any specialist equipment for them) from a faction you have never been to before. Those courier missions by the way are quite well paid for what they are.

You talk about passenger missions yet... See above, but at least show an example of the subject matter in hand when adding pictures. If you are talking about passenger missions, show an example of a passenger mission that falls under your criteria for the bug, not something completely different.

1 week is perfectly reasonable to get to your destination, even at a couple of hours per day, decent players can get there in only a few hours
https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/d68qj4
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/d68qj4/new_sol_to_colonia_time_record_1h_38m_11s/
this guy did it in less than 2... But even the most casual of players can do it in a couple of days, if they put their mind to it.
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I didn't make the original bug report, I added to it as to not make a duplicate report. I actually didn't look at the screenshot but yes looks like the original reporter has made an error there. Perhaps I should make a new report.

1 week is not reasonable for people that have multiple jobs and/or children among other responsibilities and may only have a few hours per week to play, if that. "Putting your mind to it" has nothing to do it, a chimp could be taught to mindlessly jump from The Bubble to Colonia.

The fact remains that these mission payouts are far from balanced with other income streams, even if they were combined with exploration data, which doesn't make sense at any rate as you would only be able to explore the same route once. Players should not be punished for wanting to play in the role of a passenger craft, perhaps the payouts should be less than riskier activities, but the rational consensus seems to be that they are far too low at the moment.
 

Factabulous

Factabulous
The main fail for long range pax is actually the opposite of the OP's case - most are complaints about taking the missions because of the high payouts and only later realising they have poorly paid in terms of CR/Hr.

Increasing the payouts as the OP requests would increase those complaints. Plus even more would hit the 50M payout ceiling (a lot do already).

Not really sure how to fix them - pax missions are antithetical to exploration (since they keep you on well worn paths, and limit your time). Only thing I can suggest would be increasing the time allowed - after all these explorers are off sightseeing. Then pax become like an exploration bonus (though with the downside of the extra mass).

(And ofc there is the thing that catches many out - the most likely time to fail the mission is when you come to hand it in - and after weeks in the black get scanned by a random NPC causing the passenger to eject :) Probably long range pax should not have that wrinkle as it is a massive gotcha.)
 

Rat Catcher

Rat Catcher
Jethro_Mulligan said:
The fact remains that these mission payouts are far from balanced with other income streams, even if they were combined with exploration data, which doesn't make sense at any rate as you would only be able to explore the same route once. Players should not be punished for wanting to play in the role of a passenger craft, perhaps the payouts should be less than riskier activities, but the rational consensus seems to be that they are far too low at the moment.
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I have flown to / from Colonia a few times, although in my case stacked with 20 courier missions, and have just moved my waypoints slightly each time, once clear of the 2Kly bubble exploration zone the 'firsts' soon start to stack up - from around 5k out it is even better. By flying above or below the plane by a couple of 100's Ly more chance to be on undiscovered paths.

Passenger payouts are poor for the limitations carrying them give, I'll agree.
 

Crank Larson

Crank Larson
Jethro_Mulligan said:
and just about have a duty of care to increase the time available for completion.
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Duty of care? No - you need to take the care to take missions that you want to do, can complete, and enjoy. Nothing to do with FD, that bit.

Besides, many of these missions can be completed much quicker these days by hitching a ride on an FC... Find one going the right way, and you can get there without even playing... What fun!
 

Jmanis

Jmanis
Factabulous said:
The main fail for long range pax is actually the opposite of the OP's case - most are complaints about taking the missions because of the high payouts and only later realising they have poorly paid in terms of CR/Hr.

Increasing the payouts as the OP requests would increase those complaints. Plus even more would hit the 50M payout ceiling (a lot do already).

Not really sure how to fix them - pax missions are antithetical to exploration...
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Rat Catcher said:
I have flown to / from Colonia a few times, although in my case stacked with 20 courier missions...

Passenger payouts are poor for the limitations carrying them give, I'll agree.
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This is kinda why i suggested one-way missions should pay out around 5m.

People will complain forever and a day that they can't make a carrier in one day of playing... and the idea that tourist missions are in any way for exploration (and count for it, rather than trade) is pretty crazy.

Doing a trek from Bubblr<->Colonia is a fairly routine thing these days, so i can handle the concept of these just being a "nice to have" on the way up.

What's incomprehensible for me, and @Rat Catcher touched on it, is that most one- way bubble<->Colonia missions pay out less than the courier missions, with couriers coming in at 1.6m, and last i checked, a luxury-class one- way mission paid about 1.2m... that's insane and needs correction. It's made worse that a courier mission could be done in an FC if you really wanted, but passenger missions, you're definitely doing the jumps, or at best putting the passengers on an alt to tag along for the ride.

Either way, the idea that a mission with no special fitting requirements which can only be failed if you run out of time pays more than a mission which needs special equipment (cabins) and can fail due to a simple ship scan or excess damage, is pretty laughable.
 

Ian Doncaster

Ian Doncaster
Jmanis said:
What's incomprehensible for me, and @Rat Catcher touched on it, is that most one- way bubble<->Colonia missions pay out less than the courier missions, with couriers coming in at 1.6m,
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Yes. The balancing so far has made it so that each profession has a super-money option available ... but the balancing within each profession is still a mess.

(Trading now has the similar bizarre issues that raw ores now cost about ten times more in some cases than the refined metal produced from them, which itself generally costs more per tonne than most things it might be used to make ... so trading out of an extraction system I might make 500k/trip in my Krait II, or 4M/trip in favourable states ... whereas trading out of just about anywhere else I'll make maybe 100k/trip in favourable states, or 5k/trip in unfavourable ones.)
 

Urbanski101

Urbanski101
Lots of inconsistencies to be found on the mission boards these days. I keep bringing this up but I'm not sure anything will happen now.

From what I gather the balance pass has been successfully concluded? I really hope I'm wrong on that.
 
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