Passenger missions upgrade

[S3B4ST13N]

The passenger missions, I feel, need a bit of tweaking and categorising.
To that end, I propose three distinct types of passenger missions; Taxi, Charter and Cruise.
The first two we already have; Taxi missions have you ferry people from one location to another. Charter missions are the ones that have you visiting tourist beacons.

My proposal, the third passenger mission type, is a type of cruise management and planning system.
This would have the CMDR set up their own cruise routes; with the success or failure of that route determined by their overall performance.
This performance is determined by, for example:

1. Did the CMDR meet the needs of the passengers?
2. Did they visit interesting places?
3. Was there a variety in the routes selected?
4. Was there stability of the systems you visited?
5. Did the CMDR go to efforts to pacify their passengers after an attack?
6. Did the CMDR provide some kind of defensive support, either SLF or another CMDR ship?
7. Were there any delays and did the CMDR make efforts to overcome them?

and so on.


[ this piece to be updated later ]

Each route could be built upon information that can be accessed in the game's galaxy and system maps, and a route overview determines whether or not the route is going to be successful based on that information at hand (information could be out of date for example), as well as your overall performance score.

When you set up a route, and adjust your ticket prices, you just need to wait at the station as your various cabins get filled up by passengers wanting to go on your cruise.

Your overall performance will determine if people want to use your services or not; as well as determines if they think your ticket prices are fair or not.

 

[coca_fr]

Intersting idea.

It would be requiere a lot time to implement, but it could be done inside the current passenger mission system : More recurring cycling tourist tour present in systems so you can pick them each time you want to do them.

 

[Raygun]

Sorry, I do a lot of passenger missions and I would not use this. In the "real" universe, people go where they want to go. The more points of interest you set-up, the fewer people would sign up. I see jobs that go to a main point of interest and 1 to 3 other places. Technically, you could tick off passengers that have to sit and wait until you finish going to all the POI's that they didn't want to go to. If you take that logic, you would have fewer people using your system and eventually, all that code dedicated to do this would result in virtually no one using it.

 

[Marc_Hicks]

Instead of the passengers telling you where you must go for their holiday, perhaps an alternate option would be to set up your own route; with the success or failure of that route determined by your performance (met the needs of the passengers, visited interesting places, delays (and overcoming them), the destinations selected, the variety selected, and the stability of the systems you visit.

Each route could be built upon information that can be accessed in the game's galaxy map, and a route overview determines whether or not the route is going to be successful based on that information at hand (information could be out of date), as well as your overall performance score.

When you set up a route, and adjust your ticket prices, you just need to wait at the station as your various cabins get filled up by passengers wanting to go on your cruise.

Your overall performance will determine if people want to use your services or not; as well as determines if they think your ticket prices are fair or not.

https://i.imgur.com/9VKkd4K.png

Sorry, can'f rep you ATM, so have a virtual +1 Rep. This could be nice sitting alongside the regular passenger lounge conctracts.

 

[S3B4ST13N]

Sorry, I do a lot of passenger missions and I would not use this. In the "real" universe, people go where they want to go. The more points of interest you set-up, the fewer people would sign up. I see jobs that go to a main point of interest and 1 to 3 other places. Technically, you could tick off passengers that have to sit and wait until you finish going to all the POI's that they didn't want to go to. If you take that logic, you would have fewer people using your system and eventually, all that code dedicated to do this would result in virtually no one using it.

I think you've misunderstood what I was going for.
This is not for a "taxi" system, it's for a "cruise" system.
Instead of X telling you to take him to visitor beacon Y, you setup a cruise offering with your own pre-determined routes; based on the popularity of those routes, the price of your tickets, and your popularity, you will get various types of customers.

 

[Raygun]

Thanks Marc!

I think you've misunderstood what I was going for.
This is not for a "taxi" system, it's for a "cruise" system.
Instead of X telling you to take him to visitor beacon Y, you setup a cruise offering with your own pre-determined routes; based on the popularity of those routes, the price of your tickets, and your popularity, you will get various types of customers.

Actually I did understand. Basically you would be a cruise director picking popular destinations and seeing if you can make money plotting a sweet route. I'm not saying it's a bad idea, as a pilot one day and explorer the next, I like selecting the passengers that take me where I haven't been or where I can make tons of CR's. For the Mug excluded; what a mental drain that is.

I recently read that Star Citizen has, or will have this exact feature you are considering. Probably when they finally get to Beta... in about 3 years.

 

[Ronzer]

I made a similar suggestion a short while ago here...https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/374906-Tourism-and-Tours?p=5881632&highlight=#post5881632 but without any awesome pics like you've created. I also was trying to suggest some way of easily adding tourist sites from the ones generated in the passenger list, where next to the site locations in the mission description, we could click an icon or the site's location text be clickable, and you could add it to a current route, or something.

I think anything like this for Elite would be fantastic. I find I enjoy any kind of passenger stuff as it leads you sometimes to some really awesome visuals, and a lot of the times, it's sites that have been created by other Commanders! Ultimately, I think that's the most influential interaction we have had within Elite.

Fly Safe!

 

[S3B4ST13N]

Thanks Marc!



Actually I did understand. Basically you would be a cruise director picking popular destinations and seeing if you can make money plotting a sweet route. I'm not saying it's a bad idea, as a pilot one day and explorer the next, I like selecting the passengers that take me where I haven't been or where I can make tons of CR's. For the Mug excluded; what a mental drain that is.

I recently read that Star Citizen has, or will have this exact feature you are considering. Probably when they finally get to Beta... in about 3 years.

Then how about we have three different types..

Taxi,
Charter,
and Cruise.
First two we already have.
(TBH, this wasn't meant as a replacement for passenger missions; but an expansion to it).

I recently read that Star Citizen has, or will have this exact feature you are considering. Probably when they finally get to Beta... in about 3 years.

I found a video from Noobifier that basically lays out their passenger system and I must say I am very, very impressed. I would love a system like that in ED.

 

[JimSan]

Quite like this idea, seems similar to the one I've been working on, though mine is to do with bulk passengers, but would enjoy seeing Cruise liner routes as well, also very much like your mock up art, a lot better than the one's I've done for my suggestion heh.

 

[S3B4ST13N]

Quite like this idea, seems similar to the one I've been working on, though mine is to do with bulk passengers, but would enjoy seeing Cruise liner routes as well, also very much like your mock up art, a lot better than the one's I've done for my suggestion heh.

You're kidding right?
Your mock-ups are awesome! I really like the way you've chosen to use a base mock-up, instead of try to integrate it into various screenshots of the game as I did.

I'll give your suggestion a read when I get home from work later.
That amount of efforts deserves being read.

 

[JimSan]

You're kidding right?
Your mock-ups are awesome! I really like the way you've chosen to use a base mock-up, instead of try to integrate it into various screenshots of the game as I did.

I'll give your suggestion a read when I get home from work later.
That amount of efforts deserves being read.

Well the first mock up isn't mine, that was from the original thread from back in the beta when passenger missions were added, I somewhat took a liking to the original suggester's idea and just expanded upon it.

Have had the thought of something which could be used for your suggestion, since it doesn't stop at stations every few minutes like mine you could have something like a choose your own adventure like story event as you progress though the route (not every time but a chance of), say like a murder mystery etc and at each waypoint you're given an option on how to progress the story, that is if you'd like something like that for what your idea.

 

[Hedgehobbit]

I've read this same description for Star Citizen back in the day. I don't think passenger missions are even in alpha stage at this point (despite the fact they charge hundreds of dollars for players to buy passenger liners), as I don't think the idea would really work.

The big problem is the "wait for passengers" idea. This will kill the fun and the CR/hour.

That being said, I already do something similar today when grinding. I picked six systems nearby my "home" and fly a route in a circle between them. As I fly around, I pick up any missions (passenger, trade, or data delivery) that are headed to any of those six systems. I'll drop off missions and then check the boards for new missions to any of those six systems. If you've got a decent selection of economy types (particular ag & high tech), you can also to the trade fetch quests.

One thing that would greatly help and be relatively easy to implement on FDev's side would be to sort the missions on the mission board and passenger lounge by destination. This would make it much easier to stack missions to the same location.

 

[Crank Larson]

Instead of the passengers telling you where you must go for their holiday, perhaps an alternate option would be to set up your own route; with the success or failure of that route determined by your performance (met the needs of the passengers, visited interesting places, delays (and overcoming them), the destinations selected, the variety selected, and the stability of the systems you visit.

This has also crossed my mind. If I could publish my route, and pick up any passengers that were travelling along it, that would indeed add another level to passenger running. Could set up bus routes, etc. around local systems. So, I for one would enjoy this kind of addition.

 

[kingbankai]

They also need to pay more... But I love the idea of separating them in that regard. 600ly trip for only 2mil? Bull. Just bull.

 

[JimSan]

This has also crossed my mind. If I could publish my route, and pick up any passengers that were travelling along it, that would indeed add another level to passenger running. Could set up bus routes, etc. around local systems. So, I for one would enjoy this kind of addition.

Bus route like Passenger missions is the idea I've been working on (link is above), and also thought of the same idea as that for bulk passengers for a Tramp style routes along with contracted predetermined routes companies want you to work.

For the OPs suggestion it could use something which I've done for Ferry routes, for Chartered Lux routes the player could pick up the contract and would give them a randomish route between various tourist spots, there wouldn't be a wait but would have to go with the route the contract provides, to balance this for if a pilot wants to do their own route (per the original suggestion), for the wait time for passengers they'd get more profit as not having to split the passenger ticket money with the contractor.

So there would be
Contract Charter: Pick up a predetermined route via a contract, quick to pickup and no wait, but lower pay, steady gameplay
DIY Charter: Setup your own route, hit or miss with tourists and wait for passengers, but higher pay, risk/reward gameplay

Edit to add:
A thought to add with the suggestion of long choice based story I added earlier, perhaps to tie in multicrew elements into it, perhaps each crew member gets contacted by different characters and each choice the players make determines the overall story, there needs to be more multicrew gameplay other then just shooting and tying in a non-combat option is always good.