Passangers or Courier. Which?

[J_Vakarian]

Hey commanders,

I've started the game again last night and all day at work I've been wondering what type of job I want to go for - bus/coach driver or delivery driver. It isn't credits that motivates me but simply the fun of it. I've never been a driver before but I've been reading and it seems pretty cool, however I've always enjoyed delivering cargo to here and there.

If you were me, which would you go for?

I'm leaning more towards cargo since the risk is low but I like the idea of taking people on holiday.

 

[Vardaugas]

Both are jumping around for the most part but while taking VIPs on sightseeing tours you will at least see some tourist attractions.

 

[Darth Wonko]

Hey commanders,

I've started the game again last night and all day at work I've been wondering what type of job I want to go for - bus/coach driver or delivery driver. It isn't credits that motivates me but simply the fun of it. I've never been a driver before but I've been reading and it seems pretty cool, however I've always enjoyed delivering cargo to here and there.

If you were me, which would you go for?

I'm leaning more towards cargo since the risk is low but I like the idea of taking people on holiday.

I prefer passenger missions:

• Some are criminals and will freak out if you get scanned
• Some want to go see a particular sight and maybe you've never been there
• Quite often, they will ask you to pick up some commodity while you're flying around

So, there's more variety and sometimes some interesting gameplay.

 

[Kynami]

Delivery space trucking is pretty boring most of the time. And the gotchas in cargo hauling where something is a stupid distance away from the jump in point can make what looked like a sweet haul a real annoyance. Bulk passenger is somewhat similar, but can massively inflate your faction rep when there are burning stations to evacuate.

Now as for the longer range tourist stuff? It is something of a prompt for you to go someplace you otherwise might not. Be sure to have a fuel scoop and basic scanning necessities. You'll make more money off information you collect along the way than the mission itself usually. And on top of that you get to see the sights, which is one of the better aspects of the game.

 

[J_Vakarian]

I prefer passenger missions:

• Some are criminals and will freak out if you get scanned
• Some want to go see a particular sight and maybe you've never been there
• Quite often, they will ask you to pick up some commodity while you're flying around

So, there's more variety and sometimes some interesting gameplay.

I was hoping to avoid having criminals on my ship. I'm to goodie goodie for that, also I don't want the headache of sneaking into stations.

But is it true that you also have to sneak in none criminal types into stations?

 

[Darth Wonko]

I was hoping to avoid having criminals on my ship. I'm to goodie goodie for that, also I don't want the headache of sneaking into stations.

But is it true that you also have to sneak in none criminal types into stations?

I haven't done any in a while, but if I remember correctly it's not just criminals who are scan-shy. Some are high-profile passengers and some are targeted by criminal factions, as far as I can remember.

Also, go and do rescue missions from burning stations. Those are fun as you have some interesting mechanics to make gameplay more challenging. Also, rescuing Occupied Escape Pods feels good.

 

[J_Vakarian]

Delivery space trucking is pretty boring most of the time. And the gotchas in cargo hauling where something is a stupid distance away from the jump in point can make what looked like a sweet haul a real annoyance. Bulk passenger is somewhat similar, but can massively inflate your faction rep when there are burning stations to evacuate.

Now as for the longer range tourist stuff? It is something of a prompt for you to go someplace you otherwise might not. Be sure to have a fuel scoop and basic scanning necessities. You'll make more money off information you collect along the way than the mission itself usually. And on top of that you get to see the sights, which is one of the better aspects of the game.

I hear you have time limits when moving passangers. True? Is it minutes or could I simply walk away from the game for a few hours and go back to it?

Sorry for the bizarre questions, I just want to make sure this job would be for me

 

[J_Vakarian]

I haven't done any in a while, but if I remember correctly it's not just criminals who are scan-shy. Some are high-profile passengers and some are targeted by criminal factions, as far as I can remember.

Also, go and do rescue missions from burning stations. Those are fun as you have some interesting mechanics to make gameplay more challenging. Also, rescuing Occupied Escape Pods feels good.

Running your ship in silent mode is the only way to achieve getting people into the station undetected, correct? So using auto landing is more or less out the question then? I don't have a lot of experience landing myself but I have an idea how it works

 

[Vardaugas]

Running your ship in silent mode is the only way to achieve getting people into the station undetected, correct? So using auto landing is more or less out the question then? I don't have a lot of experience landing myself but I have an idea how it works

Easiest way to get into the station without getting a finished scan is to drop out of supercruise directly facing the slot and then just boost once to close quickly. No need to get through the slot at boost speed either, you can start throttling into the blue well before you pass the slot. Even if you get the scanning message, they will not be able to finish the scan before you're in the station and thus out of sight. Works as long as you're not using a T-9 for sightseeing tours.

 

[J_Vakarian]

Easiest way to get into the station without getting a finished scan is to drop out of supercruise directly facing the slot and then just boost once to close quickly. No need to get through the slot at boost speed either, you can start throttling into the blue well before you pass the slot. Even if you get the scanning message, they will not be able to finish the scan before you're in the station and thus out of sight. Works as long as you're not using a T-9 for sightseeing tours.

Is it literally the mail slot that scans you or just outside the slot when it starts to scan ?

 

[Chorda]

Running your ship in silent mode is the only way to achieve getting people into the station undetected, correct? So using auto landing is more or less out the question then? I don't have a lot of experience landing myself but I have an idea how it works

Dropping a heatsink or deploying hardpoints will break a scan too.

 

[J_Vakarian]

Dropping a heatsink or deploying hardpoints will break a scan too.

Isn't having hard points deployed near a station considered naughty?

 

[Vardaugas]

Is it literally the mail slot that scans you or just outside the slot when it starts to scan ?

It's the security ships circling the front doing the scans. You break line of sight with them when entering the slot and that breaks the scan attempt.

 

[Chorda]

Isn't having hard points deployed near a station considered naughty?

Yeah, but you get a warning and can retract with plenty of time to spare. The net effect is you're still docking and the scan was stopped.

 

[sinisalo]

Some passenger missions are wanted criminals, some are not, though some list 'secretive' as a trait, which means passenger satisfaction will drop if scanned. For someone new to the transport game I'd recommend avoiding the former, but the latter is pretty easy to overcome once you know how to avoid scans (speed, low heat, heatsinks, controlling faction relationship, etc) All the potential pitfalls are in the fine print however, and if you pay attention to the missions you're accepting you can easily avoid falling in to a bad situation. It seems every time I am about to choose the cabin, I hit back to triple check exactly what I am signing on for. Do this, and you'll be fine.

I run a lot of transport missions. Mainly bulk haul in a Krait II, which are missions like 54 Businesspersons Seek Transport, sightseeing in Orca or Dolphin (Ben Dover Seeks Sightseeing Adventure) and rescue missions in incursion systems and burning stations (these have fluctuating availability). I don't do much of the one-hop VIP transport or the very long-range sightseeing, but will if it pays especially well.

Passenger missions are nice for a few reasons. One is they are pretty peaceful, with rare interdictions. They tend to pay well. The money seems less than it used to, but many have G5 mats and Rep+++++ as rewards. As mentioned you also are often sent to some of the best spots in Elite. Often, these destinations feature valuable planets like earthlikes, water worlds and ammonia worlds. Stick these with probes to boost the profits on your passenger trips.

If I had one piece of advice for my prospective competition in the passenger hauling game, it is to ignore any requests made by your passengers. That doesn't mean to just not do what they are asking, but to not even open the message. Ignore completely. I've hauled many thousands of butts and have zero ejected or disgruntled and it's because I am careful with which ones I choose and I then ignore the passengers entirely until they disembark.

My passenger ships

Bulk Haul and Rescue (swap stuff out for rescue and it seats 100 in ecocabins)

Parabellum Krait II -- Armed Merchant Cruiser / Rumble Bus

Sightseeing, smuggling and mixed roles

Sunburst Orca -- Interstellar Style Magnet

Interstellar Overdrive Dolphin -- Sightseer / Criminal Smuggling

The Orca and the Dolphin are both engineered to run frosty to help avoid scans. Both idle at 13% heat or lower. Keep a large variety of cabins on hand, and don't forget to look over the missions at the bottom of the board you do not qualify for. Often, a quick cabin change will open some of those up for you.

 

[Simmo137]

Isn't having hard points deployed near a station considered naughty?

(Edit) sorry meant to reply to comment about deploying hardpoints breaking scans…
Deploying hardpoints. Really? Did not know that!

 

[sinisalo]

Deployed hardpoints receive a warning but no fire. I have gear and hardpoints on the same four-way hat, and sometimes I deploy hardpoints when also raising gear when lifting off, and the station does not shoot, but COVAS warns you.

 

[Ashnak]

No, deploying hardpoints doesn't break the scan - shooting at the scanner, however, does. Which is not really helpful if the scanner is the local police (which it is near the station).
And yes, it's the station patrol (the 3..6 ships circling around the station) that scan you. Entering the station usually breaks the scan.

As for smuggling passengers (or whatever) into a station:

• drop out of SC in front of the station, i.e. aligned with the mailslot (you can see the mailslot on the station representation in SC)
• use a cool ship and go fast. At ~300 m/s, the fuzz won't have time to complete the scan, even if they start it. Best ship for that is the Krait Phantom.
• bring along a heat sink, just in case
• of course, you can also go silent, drop a heat sink and then slide slowly and silently into the station. Again - Krait Phantom.

If you want a smaller ship, get a Dolphin.

Passenger requests: when I'm hauling passengers, I don't have cargo racks. They still ask, but without racks, I can't go shopping.

Timouts: Depends. Usually on the trip distance - some of the long distance sightseeing trips out to Colonia (or wherever) have timeouts of a few weeks. Single hop transport jobs may have a timeout of a few hours only, you'll need to check the mission descriptions.

Bad proposition: sensitive passengers who want to go to planetary ports. You can't boost through the mailslot on a planetary port, so the patrol ships always get a chance to scan you.

 

[sinisalo]

It's worth knowing too, if interested in sightseeing missions, that the arrival distance is not displayed on the mission select screen. So it's a bit of a roll of the dice. You could have a supercruise of any length. I like it, and don't mind long low-wakes, it shows me how cool my ships actually run haha. But I realize there are some commanders who view these long supercruise flights as mind-numbing. So something to be aware of.

Another thing I like about passenger hauling is the Lounge has not been infested by wing missions.

 

[Felix DiCestria]

Passenger missions give more variety, however they do require maintaining good rep with factions. The exception is refugees and aid workers which can be a good source of rep but tend to attract unwelcome company so be prepared to defend your ship and passengers.