Passenger hubs / space bus vs space taxi

[NSR2]

The problem:
I have a beluga with loads of space.
I can fill it up with lots of people going to different places / directions.

But I don't feel satisfied with that for some reason.

What I really want is to be a space bus, not taxi.
So I would like to fill it up with a bunch of people going to the same place.
Now I know there are weird boundary places, where missions spawn between 2 points...but going between 2 points is a bit boring.

What if this could happen:

Systems with large populations are thought of as "transport hubs", much like major cities vs smaller towns.
"Taxi missions" could spawn with an increased probability of going to the nearest "transport hub".
"Bus missions" could spawn between "transport hubs".

So I just go to the nearest "transport hub", and find missions for carrying loads of people to another "transport hub".


Or I suppose just spawn huge bus missions everywhere, so I can fill up my beluga! [money]

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

This was my idea:

Have a passenger hub for each station where you have a list of destinations and a number (depending on population) of people wanting to go to those destinations, these would be your economy passengers. Get rid of economy passenger missions.

You fill up your seats with these people and fly from port to port dropping them off. You get a set amount of credits depending on distance. Then you can set up a route that goes to these destinations, you may also pick up a lucrative passenger mission: a CEO needs to go somewhere to go into one of your luxury suites who is going in the same general direction.

First Class, business class, specific tourist places, and luxury class passengers should be the only ones in the passenger lounge (mission type passenger).

To me that would be a better way of doing things. There are always passengers available, need to plan your route. Basically get rid of all economy class passenger missions from the board entirely (why would everyday citizens be affiliated to factions anyway).

It should mean more passenger missions for for the luxary liners.

Also luxury suites should be exempt from passengers wanting certain commodities. They should be already stocked with everything. Maybe give them "ammo" which needs to be refilled from time to time at a price.

 

[Ozram]

What a surprise. FD didn't flesh out a game mechanic! I agree OP. Also, have you tried fitting your luxury cabins? I tried on an Orca and missed out on so many missions that I ended up downgrading to first class and now I'm thinking of going down further. The prices offered are not what one would expect. I think of the difference between economy and business in real life (not even delving into first) and it's pretty staggering. Hardly any difference in game though.

 

[Galactic Fork]

Another option is a sort of bus route mission. You need to go from Station A to B to C to D to E back to A. They could have heavy time constraints, like you'd have to rush to make it to each station on time. Also there could be wrinkles, like a guy causing a disturbance, making the trip miserable, so you have to stop at the next inhabited system to ditch the person. You get paid the maximum for being on schedule, but lose money for being too early or late.

 

[Gavin Burke]

Although I agree this'd be awesome, it's pretty much the opposite direction of where FDev has headed with the latest update, like restricting scanning missions to only x 3 etc...

So expecting to get a handful of transport missions to a single location would likely tip the delicate balance way way way too far in favour of passengers over the other missions (data, courier, cargo) etc., which would mean they get nerfed (AGAIN )