Passenger missions make absolutely no sense (and how I'd fix it)

[Badben]

As I was being offered to sell some passengers into slavery, (for a ridiculously low price) it suddenly occurred to me that the whole passenger mission system in this game makes no sense whatsoever.

Why would any sane passenger get on my ship if they run the risk of me selling them into slavery? Wouldn't there be tour guide companies set up, who would run the risk of going bankrupt if they were found to be selling passengers as slaves?

There's absolutely no accountability the way it works now. I could go sell 100 people into slavery, go to another starport, and more people will happily climb on my ship. I could make this my sole profession, picking up hapless tourists and selling them as slaves, and I'd never run out of willing participants. I wouldn't make much money mind you, but it would be possible.

How I would solve this would be a reputation level that only counts towards passengers. You start with low rep, only able to get the lowest paying, most desperate passengers. As your rep increases, higher paying passengers will trust you. Do passenger missions badly and your rep goes down. Sell anyone into slavery, and your rep bottoms out.

Not only would this system make more sense, it would add depth to the gameplay. You'd have to work your way up to get luxury passengers and the big bucks (which would mean a re-balancing of income seeing as economy passengers make most money now) . It may also be a good way to balance what seems to be far too much profit from passenger missions at the moment. It would be better than an outright nerf to passenger missions, the big bucks could still be made, you'd just have to work your way up to it.

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

As I was being offered to sell some passengers into slavery, (for a ridiculously low price) it suddenly occurred to me that the whole passenger mission system in this game makes no sense whatsoever.

Why would any sane passenger get on my ship if they run the risk of me selling them into slavery? Wouldn't there be tour guide companies set up, who would run the risk of going bankrupt if they were found to be selling passengers as slaves?

You are not tour guide company though, idea is you are freelancer, and you snatch some leftovers. Not everybody travels with us - because we are a risk. They usually choose us because we either are ready to accept their whims, or risk our necks when someone tries to attack them.

There's absolutely no accountability the way it works now. I could go sell 100 people into slavery, go to another starport, and more people will happily climb on my ship. I could make this my sole profession, picking up hapless tourists and selling them as slaves, and I'd never run out of willing participants. I wouldn't make much money mind you, but it would be possible.

When selling someone to slavery you gain serious reputation hit from faction you delivered from. In long term it might tank your reputation quite low. So I would dispute your theory that nothing would happen to you.

I wouldn't mind to see your rep tanking though. At the moment consequences are too low for that.

I think in some early stages of DDF there were discussion about role based reputation. While it is tricky thing and most likely got ditched for good reasons, I would like to see actions taken against factions to bear more heavy penalties. If you don't complete mission - fine, you got your minus, no one bothers. But if you sell someone to slavery...faction should be furious with you. Like proper angry.

 

[Ian Skippy]

As I was being offered to sell some passengers into slavery, (for a ridiculously low price) it suddenly occurred to me that the whole passenger mission system in this game makes no sense whatsoever.

Why would any sane passenger get on my ship if they run the risk of me selling them into slavery? Wouldn't there be tour guide companies set up, who would run the risk of going bankrupt if they were found to be selling passengers as slaves?

There's absolutely no accountability the way it works now. I could go sell 100 people into slavery, go to another starport, and more people will happily climb on my ship. I could make this my sole profession, picking up hapless tourists and selling them as slaves, and I'd never run out of willing participants. I wouldn't make much money mind you, but it would be possible.

How I would solve this would be a reputation level that only counts towards passengers. You start with low rep, only able to get the lowest paying, most desperate passengers. As your rep increases, higher paying passengers will trust you. Do passenger missions badly and your rep goes down. Sell anyone into slavery, and your rep bottoms out.

Not only would this system make more sense, it would add depth to the gameplay. You'd have to work your way up to get luxury passengers and the big bucks (which would mean a re-balancing of income seeing as economy passengers make most money now) . It may also be a good way to balance what seems to be far too much profit from passenger missions at the moment. It would be better than an outright nerf to passenger missions, the big bucks could still be made, you'd just have to work your way up to it.

Sounds like a good idea. Many would complain about 'more grind'.

 

[Mxpower76]

They need to boost these offers to a more realistic level. Your passengers are paying 6mil and they offer 20k to sell them as slaves? Makes no sense other then just being a bad guy. That offer needs to be 7mil for a 6mil mission. If you're somebody needing money you might want to consider it.

 

[Shiro Akai]

Why would any sane passenger get on my ship if they run the risk of me selling them into slavery?

Because they don't know the risks? Simple as that. It's totally against logic, but imagine this. You're a simple worker, your contract at Station A just ended. You got mail that there's job opportunity at Station B. Since you're not alone, whole brigade is with you, you file a transportation need.

Mission: 12 workers seek transport.

Then some CMDR appears and accept the mission. You are noticed that Asp Explorer, by the name of "Not a Slaver" is awaiting at Dock #28. You board economic cabin and then you take off. CMDR came, took "cargo" and left. Upon arrival you noticed that people that came aren't company clerks with job contracts but slavers with collars.

CMDR is paid for his service and ventures off. He could go back to the Station A and no one will ask questions. If he came back it means he delivered previous mission, right?

There is no feedback (*).

Wouldn't there be tour guide companies set up, who would run the risk of going bankrupt if they were found to be selling passengers as slaves?

Except it's not the companies who organize those trips. For me it's more like rich kids that stepped out and shouted: "I want to see the world". Civil contract, between you and them.

There's absolutely no accountability the way it works now. I could go sell 100 people into slavery, go to another starport, and more people will happily climb on my ship.

Because there is no info flow. No personal reputation, no karma system. Nothing. Except (*) - when you fail the mission in any way. Then the "system" is omnipotent and knows exactly how you failed, where you failed and how much it will hit you.

Overall, all breaks upon karma system. I really wish we had something like in Fallout games (original 1 & 2, not Bethesda's vision). You could do literally anything. Be anything from living saint to scourge of the wastelands. But every action had its consequences. Play nice and people will like you. But get caught doing some forbidden things and even living saint status won't help.

But this requires a lot of depth. Can you get rid of some bad karma or is it permanent? What happen if you decide to go full slaver and then heave a change of heart? Will you have to reset your account to remove it? Too many question inclining way too deep mechanics changes.

 

[matemaster]

Passenger missions are broken because they were implemented as a single mission board.
Mission board contains everything from trading, combat, exploring, mining, assanination, piracy...except passengers.
Passanger lounge only contains passenger missions so players can cherry-pick and relog very efficiently.
Passenger missions should have been part of regular mission board and as abundand as other types of missions.

Now because of that the "bus drivers" are the master financial elite of ED.

 

[Stealthie]

I kind of had the same idea as the OP.

I'm a "my word is my bond" kind of guy so I just flat-out never accept counter-offers for things but I've often thought, when carrying passengers, that if you sell them into slavery then surely your reputation with the faction(s) who provided the passengers should take a hit?

Course, for all I know that might happen already because, as I say, I never back out of a deal once I've made it.

 

[Oshirigami]

Passenger missions are broken because they were implemented as a single mission board.
Mission board contains everything from trading, combat, exploring, mining, assanination, piracy...except passengers.
Passanger lounge only contains passenger missions so players can cherry-pick and relog very efficiently.
Passenger missions should have been part of regular mission board and as abundand as other types of missions.

Now because of that the "bus drivers" are the master financial elite of ED.

This.
The way transport, travel, and cargo missions should be is that you set your destination in the mission board and you get various offers that are more than you can carry, and you chose the ones you want the most.

No flipping boards trying to get them all in the same place, and this sort of system would open up more avenues like the OP describes. Is your destination is near a common slavery outpost, you know you'd be be getting offers to slave people. Ergo, you could have some dynamic where passengers only want to trust you to take them there if you're trusted not to enslave them. But slavery would also probably pay a lot more, under such a system.