Passenger lines

[wabboo]

Summary
Passenger lines are an extension to the current passenger system in Elite: Dangerous. They require a different type of passenger cabin: The line cabin. These are just seats. You can buy them in different sizes, but they don't have different luxury versions. Line flights are always directly linked to the controlling faction of the station. So any reputation or influence for passenger flights goes towards the controlling faction.

Purchasing your line flight cabin

Line flight cabins have slightly smaller sizes to cargo racks and are rated F (one rank below economy cabins):

• 3F, 4 seats
• 4F, 8 seats
• 5F, 16 seats
• 6F, 32 seats
• 7F, 64 seats
• *F, 128 seats

Terminal

Station will display list of destinations and amount of passengers that need to go there. You can select number of passengers and board them. What is different from commodities is that by selecting a set of passengers, you also are required to deliver them on time. Failing to do will require the commander to reimburse their ticket.

Once you've boarded a single passenger, the status of that destination becomes now boarding. This will fix the arrival time for any subsequent added passenger. Destination times should be relatively lax, as commanders should be able to combine several travel locations together. Certain destinations could have higher prices, but smaller transport time windows, which require good planning. Cancelling flights will always cost you credits (reimbursements). If the passenger board is kept open for too long, certain destinations will get the delayed status (it would no longer be possible to complete the transport in time). When that occurs, commanders will need to have to wait for the next update tick of the terminal board.

Layovers

If you visit a station and passengers don't need to disembark there, this is known as a layover. These passengers remain seated and await the trip to their final destination. Layovers will be shown as a separate group with the state layover on the terminal board. A commander can cancel a layover flight, which will disembark those passengers. Passengers will need to be reimbursed for this action. If a station has the same destination as one of the layovers, a new flight can be added. The ticket price and arrival time of that flight will only apply to the passengers on the new flight. The old flight will keep the original ticket price and arrival time.

Checking flights

The passenger tab in the inventory will show which flights you have committed to. What exactly needs to be shown is up for debate. At least destinations should be shown, but arrival times could be countdown timers. The image also shows profit (instead of number of passengers), because that's probably the more interesting bit of information for the commander.

Payment / Reimbursement
When a commander docks at the appropriate station passengers will automatically disembark. There is no need to disembark them manually. The notification should be similar to the discovery notifications, showing earnings for each disembarked flight. For each on time passenger at the correct destination the commander will receive the ticket price. If passengers are late for the destination, the commander will reimburse the ticket price for those passengers. If you manually disembark passengers on the wrong station, you´ll have to pay twice the ticket price (these passengers need to make new arrangements).

Considerations

• What happens when your ship gets destroyed?
• Are you allowed to kidnap passengers and fly them around the galaxy? Or should a similar escape pod mechanism be used as normal passenger missions.
• How would waiting / pricing / arrival times be determined?
• Does this improve upon passenger missions or is it too similar to commodity trading?
• Does this extend passenger missions in a meaningful way?

 

[HAMM3R]

I think that's a cool idea. I've never liked the current system of passenger transportation being just missions. Like, what about the millions and billions of people wanting to travel (just as tourists or maybe visit relatives or friends living in different star systems), yet not having the luxury of their private spacecraft.

Given the size of our ships, I think Belugas and the likes should take thousands of people at once like the massive cruise ships they are. And while we're at it.. maybe spaceports could have specific landing pads for passenger liners, with the surrounding visuals resembling those of an air-/maritime ports to differentiate them from the regular landing pads/hangars. Also, when hailing a station/settlement you'd need to let them know you're a passenger liner so they could give you an appropriate pad. NPC's wouldn't be able to embark/disembark from regular hangars. Or they'd at least give you negative rep if you just dumped them into a cold and damp cargo bay

For some of the considerations,

Maybe an insurance fee of some kind if ship is destroyed with passengers onboard? The amount depending on how much people there were. Kidnapping could result in cmdr becoming a wanted criminal. Timetables could be something relatively simple. Like, departure times every fifteen minutes; 12:00, 12:15 and so on regardless where you are in the galaxy. Arrival times could be based on how the ship transfers are calculated. And maybe ship type could affect ticket prices? People would pay less travelling aboard a Type-9 than a Saud Kruger luxury yacht.

This could also work with an idea I had long time ago. Say, some of the bigger systems within their respective superpowers could have these huge passenger "megaship" hubs (kind of like a train station/airport, where you travel from one station to another) for the aforementioned common NPCs without their own ships. We, the players, could then use our "space busses" to transport NPCs between planetary settlements, spaceports and the transport hubs. Now that we have FC's and their docks floating about, I doubt it would be too much of an hassle to create transport hubs using and tweaking those assets.

 

[Deleted member 121570]

I think it's a great idea.
I also think that the effort put into the suggestion post, and time taken to provide clear images of what you mean is fantastic.
Good job dude!

Added idea: You could even add an additional 'Passenger Safety/Escape" module...an optional extra. (See below)

• What happens when your ship gets destroyed? A hefty compensation fine multiplied by the number of passengers carried if you don't have the optional safety/escape module. You could go budget but run the risk....
• Are you allowed to kidnap passengers and fly them around the galaxy? Or should a similar escape pod mechanism be used as normal passenger missions. Again, if you had the optional module, it automatically ejects them all and you get fined. If you don't have it, you get wanted and will need to manually eject them. Failing that, you could die and then have the compensation fine.
• How would waiting / pricing / arrival times be determined? Shorter times, more expensive. Longer travel, more expensive. Arrival times based on distance with flex, but then compensations for lateness scale according to price per passenger.
• Does this improve upon passenger missions or is it too similar to commodity trading? Seems like it'd be fun. Who cares? RL airlines treat us like that anyway in economy
• Does this extend passenger missions in a meaningful way? I'd say so.

 

[wabboo]

Both posts touch on an interesting subject: being able to influence profit/risk through ships/modules. While I think ships shouldn't factor in the profit, I think optional passenger line support modules should (bigger ships can offer more luxury through modules). Rough concepts:

• Safety/escape module.
  • Reduces death fees.
  • These need to be properly balanced against passenger line cabins (escape modules can handle larger amount of passengers then passenger line modules).
  • Every lost passenger needs to be compensated.
• Bar module.
  • Increases ticket price by percentage.
  • Require (rare) food/drinks in cargo (type determines income bonus).
  • Cargo is consumed by module.
  • Bigger class bars allow multiple food items to be served (increasing income).
  • More passengers consume more food/drinks.
• In flight entertainment module.
  • Reduces late fees by percentage.
• Toilet module.
  • Allows you to transport long range flights.
  • Require splitting flights into several groups.
  • Generates biowaste in cargo.
  • More passengers generate more biowaste.

With these modules you can have a wide variety of risk/reward configurations for all sorts of flights. It would be hard to balance properly, but the added flexibility might just be worth it. The mechanics for these are very complex though.

 

[Exeider]

And can I add this would be a good way for a real player CMDR to get around if they needed. Add to that with Space Legs, interacting with all the amenities would be awesome.

 

[Exeider]

Both posts touch on an interesting subject: being able to influence profit/risk through ships/modules. While I think ships shouldn't factor in the profit, I think optional passenger line support modules should (bigger ships can offer more luxury through modules). Rough concepts:

• Safety/escape module.
  • Reduces death fees.
  • These need to be properly balanced against passenger line cabins (escape modules can handle larger amount of passengers then passenger line modules).
  • Every lost passenger needs to be compensated.
• Bar module.
  • Increases ticket price by percentage.
  • Require (rare) food/drinks in cargo (type determines income bonus).
  • Cargo is consumed by module.
  • Bigger class bars allow multiple food items to be served (increasing income).
  • More passengers consume more food/drinks.
• In flight entertainment module.
  • Reduces late fees by percentage.
• Toilet module.
  • Allows you to transport long range flights.
  • Require splitting flights into several groups.
  • Generates biowaste in cargo.
  • More passengers generate more biowaste.

With these modules you can have a wide variety of risk/reward configurations for all sorts of flights. It would be hard to balance properly, but the added flexibility might just be worth it. The mechanics for these are very complex though.

I think the bar module and entertainment module should give you bonus time to your delivery window. The idea being that boozed up or entertained passengers have had a good time and are less likely to complain about getting to their destination a little late.

 

[wabboo]

I think the bar module and entertainment module should give you bonus time to your delivery window. The idea being that boozed up or entertained passengers have had a good time and are less likely to complain about getting to their destination a little late.

That could also work, but each module type needs to do something unique:

• Safety/escape module -> Death fee reduction.
• Bar Module -> Late fee reduction.
• In-flight entertainment -> Flight time extension.
• Toilet -> Medium/Long flight support.
• Dining Module -> Ticket price bonus.

 

[Maggie_Oz]

I would like to see a mechanism where you are running a set route and the game BGS decides how many people will board your ship to go to a particular destination. You could set your own fees for carriage and you would attract passengers based on the value for money you are offering.
You could also add in freight contracts wherein you are paid for the carriage of items rather than the buy cheap/ sell high model

 

[Maggie_Oz]

And can I add this would be a good way for a real player CMDR to get around if they needed. Add to that with Space Legs, interacting with all the amenities would be awesome.

Lovin' that idea !