Newcomer / Intro Liner career dead?

[Fhloston Paradise]

Not a newcomer but a returning player... Got to say coming back has been bittersweet.

I loved flying my Beluga liner filled with passengers around. Now I can't find stations that provide more than a combined 30 passengers per route. Deck after deck of the ship is empty. Fdev, why are you not providing liner pilots with passenger contracts to fill their liners?

I'm not looking to make massive profits like the old days would allow. But it's incredibly frustrating to want to play a playstyle you like and you struggle to fill a ship with the "commodity" it's designed for.

I can't even do the log off log on tactic to refresh the passenger lists to fill up the ship.

If you're not gonna provide more passenger contracts at ports, then why even support the Beluga?

 

[Chris Simon]

Honestly, it was always kind of hard to fill up a Beluga at one single station. (yes, you could cheat and refresh the board by re-logging, but that's an exploit I've always hated so if it's finally fixed I'm glad to hear that).

If you want to use your Beluga to her full potential, you have to do milk runs. Kind of like ferries or low-cost airlines do in real life.
Meaning - you board passengers heading to several locations. Fly to the first location, disembark passengers who went there and board more passengers heading to more destinations. Then at each stop you repeat that, hopping between stations with your Beluga always full and several places to go.
Just don't take contracts that would lead you too far away and it's a great way to increase your reputation in the whole area and you can do it indefinitely.

If passenger ferry worked like you want it to work - fill up the ship, fly to the destination, empty the ship and fill it up again, well, that would be no different to hauling cargo. So you can do that, instead.

 

[Fhloston Paradise]

If passenger ferry worked like you want it to work - fill up the ship, fly to the destination, empty the ship and fill it up again, well, that would be no different to hauling cargo. So you can do that, instead.

Beluga's counterpart isn't a ferry. It would be a liner, cruise ship or passenger airline.

Milk runs is something you'd do in smaller ships (as per your comparison).

Does an A380 make multiple stops between Sydney and Dubai International? That doesn't happen, because the plane is designed to ferry bulk passengers en mass between two major hubs.

 

[Chris Simon]

Beluga's counterpart isn't a ferry. It would be a liner, cruise ship or passenger airline.

Milk runs is something you'd do in smaller ships (as per your comparison).

Does an A380 make multiple stops between Sydney and Dubai International? That doesn't happen, because the plane is designed to ferry bulk passengers en mass between two major hubs.

And it fails. Last time I've flown one there were 15 of us in the whole plane (before COVID). Maybe it should have.

Look, I'm just trying to give some advice:

 

[Fhloston Paradise]

And it fails. Last time I've flown one there were 15 of us in the whole plane (before COVID). Maybe it should have.

Look, I'm just trying to give some advice:

And that's fine. But if I wanted to do cargo.. I'd fly a t-9. Elite should be about promoting a variety of playstyles that are equally valid and worthwhile, not forcing round pegs into square holes.

It's one of many issues with elite that fdev need to address.

 

[SlickPBW]

Sirius Atmospherics runs out of Hauser’s Reach