Is there a point to 'Luxury' Cabins?

[Hacker#451563]

I'm thinking about buying an Orca for doing some passenger missions that don't just involve Ceos>Robigo type back and forthing, and have been looking at missions from many different factions from around the bubble and just outside (Pleiades sector specifically).

I'm Friendly or Allied with quite a few of these minor factions, and at least Friendly with the Major ones, but I haven't found any missions that require Luxury cabins. Loads of 1st class, loads of Business class and Eco of course but basically I'd be better off with a Python with Business and 1st class cabins for 95% of the medium range sight seeing tours and then I've got a multi-role ship too that can do pretty much any other job as well.

Saud-Kruger CMDRs out there....Don't make me buy a Python....Where's those pop stars and corrupt politicians...?...What am I missing?

 

[Borko]

I dunno. I've run hundreds of passenger missions of any type you could think of. I've never even SEEN a mission that requires luxury suites, and that's in years of looking.

 

[Captain Willard]

After all the whining they made the passenger ships multirole. Now they are just biowaste haulers like the annie.
I'm allied with all factions in 5 of my home stations. Different economy stations.
Only one of them consistently gives me luxury missions.

 

[Jenner]

I used to do a lot more passenger hauling and I never saw much point in the luxury cabins either. From a pure credits per hour standpoint they're not worth it.

 

[Blasphemous One]

Those whiny NPC's belong to Cryogenic canisters.

 

[Captain Willard]

I used to do a lot more passenger hauling and I never saw much point in the luxury cabins either. From a pure credits per hour standpoint they're not worth it.

To true.
FD missed the boat on making the true passenger ships viable with more luxury missions.

 

[dxm55]

Just more "features" without a valid use, no doubt.

 

[CMDR X]

You need to be looking around in Tourism systems and stations. You wont find pop stars in an industrial Coriolis.

 

[Jmanis]

You need to be looking around in Tourism systems and stations. You wont find pop stars in an industrial Coriolis.

This is true, but the payouts are still weak compared to what you'd get from the extra passengers you can haul for lower-class missions

 

[Muzz UK]

Do you really want lower class people on your Beluga?

Peasants.

I guess that's the calibre of people from Empire and Alliance systems!

 

[pzykozomatik]

Sometimes there is a passenger mission for it. Generally pays a bit better than first class too, but not by much.
I have one in the class 6 slot on my Orca just in case, together with two 5C first class ones. Usually I run three tourist groups together, and most of the time they're all 1st class or business passengers, but you never know, and the 8 seats on the luxury cabin can also fit almost any group of a lower class (are the even tourist missions >8 people?), so nothing lost there.

 

[Hacker#451563]

Do you really want lower class people on your Beluga?

I was going to get an Orca so that would be K-Pop chicks and the odd GalTube B celeb I recon.

Hmmmm....from the sounds of things it will be a pure role-play decision if I get one. Still might, Cheers for the info CMDRs

o7

 

[MickyG1982]

Of course, the game isn't all about credits and credits per hour.

If you look at it from a credits per hour perspective then yes, they make no sense.

From a role playing point of view, you can't be a luxury transportation specialist, without luxury cabins...

 

[BDelacroix]

Luxury only missions are super rare and don't justify the cost of transport or purchase of the module. Passenger missions are weird anyway because you are basically a charter flight working backwards. You seek customers rather than customers seeking you. Economy flights don't work anything like they do in the real world where you fill your transport to the brim.

 

[Kissamies]

I have encountered one or two, but they are pretty rare. It'd be nice if the cabin class being above their requirements would decrease the possibility of them demanding things and the rate that they become unhappy by the factor of how much above the asked cabin class it is. That'd give the luxury cabins a point.

 

[Jmanis]

Of course, the game isn't all about credits and credits per hour.

If you look at it from a credits per hour perspective then yes, they make no sense.

From a role playing point of view, you can't be a luxury transportation specialist, without luxury cabins...

I disagree entirely, it's more subtle than that. It needs an incredible amount of cognitive dissonance to rationalise that you're operating a "Luxury transportation service" when your economy class fares are roughly the same. If Economy paid 100cr per passenger, business 1,000cr, first class 10,000cr and Luxury 100,000cr, I'd be much happier in that respect, regardless of the pitiful payout you're facing overall.

A quick search shows me I can fly one-way to Japan economy for $400-600 economy, $1600-2400 business, $4,000-$12,000 first-class... and that price differential isn't even considering a "luxury" class.

If it's about game balance and credits-per-hour, then Luxury-class cabins aren't worth the lost income compared to increased passenger volumes using lower-class.

If it's about roleplay (which is in-part about creating believable, realistic environments), then that's the sort of price differential I expect to see between classes of service.

As they currently stand right now, they don't meet either of these outcomes, so it makes no sense regardless of which way you look at it.

EDIT: I could even be convinced about luxury cabins if the rewards were as they are, but Luxury-class missions were materially different in some significant way. Except they aren't.

 

[WR3ND]

No, but it doesn't stop me using one on my Dolphin, The Skipper anyway.

My sin is probably that I bother trying to take the game seriously at all.

 

[Old Duck]

My sin is probably that I bother trying to take the game seriously at all.

"Cabins" for a 10 minute trip, along with ED's supposed zero-G environment on ship (except when we are manuevering and throwing our passengers from one luxury wall to another) makes it impossible for me to take this game seriously without a whole lot of imagination. The only reason I'd use a luxury cabin is to take someone on one of those multi-week trips, and thankfully MY ship uses the FSD to generate an AG field so the passengers can actually enjoy their fancy beds and couches and swimming pools and whatnot.

 

[Stealthie]

Kind of OT but I wish FDev would develop the whole "Passenger Happiness" thing a bit more.

It'd be great if there were, for example, things like Casino-modules, Restaurant-modules, Retail-modules and Leisure-modules etc.
Passengers would have a variety of "happiness criteria" and they'd only ask for stuff if you didn't already have the related module fitted in your ship.

Also, the modules would generate credits from the passengers.
If you have, say, a Dolphin with 2 economy cabins and a casino you might make a few thousand credits for each system you visit.
If, OTOH, you have a Beluga filled with luxury cabins and a couple of casinos, you might make a million credits per system you visit.
Set it up so the credits are awarded on arrival in a new system to prevent players exploiting it by just parking-up for days and leaving the ship to generate credits.

I'd love to build an Orca into a proper "gin palace", for rich tourists.

 

[CMDR Snailman]

Kind of OT but I wish FDev would develop the whole "Passenger Happiness" thing a bit more.

It'd be great if there were, for example, things like Casino-modules, Restaurant-modules, Retail-modules and Leisure-modules etc.
Passengers would have a variety of "happiness criteria" and they'd only ask for stuff if you didn't already have the related module fitted in your ship.

Also, the modules would generate credits from the passengers.
If you have, say, a Dolphin with 2 economy cabins and a casino you might make a few thousand credits for each system you visit.
If, OTOH, you have a Beluga filled with luxury cabins and a couple of casinos, you might make a million credits per system you visit.
Set it up so the credits are awarded on arrival in a new system to prevent players exploiting it by just parking-up for days and leaving the ship to generate credits.

I'd love to build an Orca into a proper "gin palace", for rich tourists.

And passengers should not be loaded just like any commodity.
You equip your ship with cabins and services, go to a station , set your target and your price(s). Then you hope that the combination of service offered, destination and price generates enough bulk passengers.
Smaller ships would be easier to fill than larger ones, and trying to get enough luxury class passengers from one poor and low populated system to another poor and low populated one 1K LY away might not be a good idea either.