Hire NPCs to fly trade ships for me?
- Thread starter Triple88a
- Start date
No.
FD have consistently said that this is a spaceship-flying game, not a fleet-owner or colony-administrator game. You want spaceships flown, fly 'em yourself. I'm pretty sure this is not going to change.
FD have also consistently acted against anything that could be used as "earning credits while AFK" or even worse, "earning credits while offline", both of which an NPC trade fleet would be expected to do.
That being said, "Escort for hire" missions, where it's your job to fly alongside and protect traders (or other soft targets), has long been an ideal FD have aimed for; I believe one of the training missions runs along those lines. Winging up with NPCs has, sadly, not yet been included in the main game.
FD have also consistently acted against anything that could be used as "earning credits while AFK" or even worse, "earning credits while offline", both of which an NPC trade fleet would be expected to do.
That being said, "Escort for hire" missions, where it's your job to fly alongside and protect traders (or other soft targets), has long been an ideal FD have aimed for; I believe one of the training missions runs along those lines. Winging up with NPCs has, sadly, not yet been included in the main game.
Now that i would like. I love escourt misions.
Think you'll find that conflicts pretty strongly with Fdev's philosophy of the game being about YOU flying a ships, and it NOT being about fleet/business management.
Though simple fleet management would be fun and should be on the to do list... just not a priority.
Given that Braben's been asked about it and he gave a very strong, definite "NO!" I don't like your chances of seeing it any time soon.
It's not about what Braben wants. It's about what we want. He'll do whatever keeps the playerbase here, and he'll like it.
Yeah, coz that argument's been proved right so many times.
I'm not saying you're wrong, it's a fairly reasonable idea though I'd suggest employer other players rather than NPCs. I just doubt they'll go for it. Historically they've been pretty good at resisting pressure from players.
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Yeah, coz that argument's been proved right so many times.
I'm not saying you're wrong, it's a fairly reasonable idea though I'd suggest employer other players rather than NPCs. I just.doubt they'll go for it.
No doubt. It's not a deal breaker for me but I'd like to see a very simplistic expansion on the Trade profession. Kind of bland right now. Even compared to exploration... and well the rest of the game.
Thinking about it you might have a better chance of getting it through with other players driving your ships... sort of like a trucking company with contracted drivers. If you split the profits and losses 50/50 with "your drivers" you'd make more money than if your Type 9 was sitting in the hangar, and a newbie driver would make more than he could from his Hauler, and it would get around Fdev's demand that it's about players in ships and not spreadsheets. Win win. Plus you could always escort your own ships. You'd have to sort something out along the lines of the driver putting the insurance buyback into a holding account to avoid ship loss by griefers etc but how hard could that be to code?
Seems very hard and what if you had a griefer blow up your trade ship for the lolz.
That's why they'd have to put the insurance rebuy in a holding account before they took your ship. If they blow up your ship it automatically gets rebought from their account and returned to you. They'd have to be unable to change/sell modules too... just do repairs, reloading, refueling. Probabky a good idea to have any repair etc costs taken from that account to repair the ship when it's handed back too.
I just don't understand this future where I can be a multi-billionaire but still be unable to find any help decent enough to take a cargo ship from a to b for me, all while I sip exotic mixed drinks from some far flung tropical moon. I'd of course emerge to exact revenge on anyone who interfered with my smugg... I mean shipping business.
Why these artificial boundaries? Maybe I can't own the ship, fine! Let me invest in someone else's cargo buy then get some of the profit. They get jacked then I get a mission to kill something in return. Sounds like fun!
Why these artificial boundaries? Maybe I can't own the ship, fine! Let me invest in someone else's cargo buy then get some of the profit. They get jacked then I get a mission to kill something in return. Sounds like fun!
The way I imagine it working... you've got a Type 6 with an insurance rebuy cost of eg: 5 million credits parked at XYZ station doing nothing, and you list it as available for contract work. The player would log into the bulletin board and find a list of contracting positions available at various stations. He sees your T6 at a station only a few light years away, takes the contract, and flies to XYZ station. Before he gets the keys he puts 5 million credits into a security deposit. He then uses your ship to haul whatever cargo wherever he likes and you get 50% of the profits in your account automatically. When he logs out or surrenders the ship it gets repaired and transported back to the station it started at and the costs taken from his security deposit and the remainder refunded to him (so he gets more back if he brings it back where he got it). If it's destroyed, insurance buys you an identical one and the contractor has the option of putting down another deposit and having the new T6 delivered to where he currently is so he can continue the contract, or to end the contract and have it delivered to the originating station, and all costs are taken from his deposit. Stations will refuse to let him add or remove modules coz it's not his. All fines, bounties etc stay with him, not your ship.
He gets a higher income, trade rank, etc... and he gets to play with bigger ships than he could otherwise afford. You get extra income, at the cost of not being able to access your ship for a few hours. You could even have an option to offer him your escort services for an extra percentage of his profits, plus you keep all bounties of any attackers destroyed.
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Because they are "building the game they want to play" and that's not the game they want to play. It's about game design philosophy.
He gets a higher income, trade rank, etc... and he gets to play with bigger ships than he could otherwise afford. You get extra income, at the cost of not being able to access your ship for a few hours. You could even have an option to offer him your escort services for an extra percentage of his profits, plus you keep all bounties of any attackers destroyed.
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Because they are "building the game they want to play" and that's not the game they want to play. It's about game design philosophy.
You are thinking of the X series of space games.
I'm not really sure if they know what game they're building anymore.
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Hopefully, if/when they get around to adding in winging with NPCs, they will remember that there's more to the game than just pew pew. Gathering my NPC pilots together, getting us all some freighters then going trading as a wing of 4 seems fun.
Yeah specifically not the game D Braben said he wanted to build so i think you can ditch that. Try aiming for controlling capital ships....mwuhahahahah