Passenger ships, are they pointless?

[clivewil]

The Dolphin and Orca are actually fun to fly. Will probably never own a Beluga.

amen to that, i love my Orca and a couple of years ago (pre-passenger missions) i wouldn't have dreamed i'd ever be saying that

i don't need to run my passenger ship chock-full, i offer an exclusive service usually only with one party aboard, rarely two (if they have a common destination) - so all of a sudden my Anaconda isn't anywhere near as attractive a proposition as an Orca, because my Orca (the PSS Chew Toy) outhandles it and is far easier to dock and launch. i don't even use my Dolphin much any more because the Orca is so fast and nippy

 

[the source 0179]

The passenger ships would be more useful if.
Luxury missions were more frequent and better rewards. Think of it this way. If you have the most luxurious cabin on a cruise ship your paying 10-20 times what other passengers pay. In a plane the most luxurious cabin again 10-15 times more then regular passengers. If you were to rent a jet maybe 50-70 times what a normal passenger would pay.
So why not have it the same type of balance. For example
Say a business passenger thats happy to sit in economy cabin pays 6m cr. So a passenger that wants luxury cabin to the same location or distance or time spent 120m cr. Maybe add a restaurant slot or entertainment slot which luxury passengers pay to use those features. So in effect say a luxury passenger whats to travel 1000ly with multiple stops in that time they use the restaurant and entertainment a couple times so for that trip 120m cr for the cabin and say another 10m cr for the other options. Then having say a beluga with luxury cabins and optional restaurant and entertainment would be like a true cruise liner and be worth having and an elite job.
Just a thought.

 

[Captain Willard]

If you want to fly bulk passenger missions or bulk biowaste, buy a t-7, t-9, python. I fly specialty missions. Do I make as much ? no, but I do make more money per mission, money is not my object, quality missions are. Missions that the bulk multirole ships can't get. I hear the dolphin and orca are great ships. I have only had the beluga, of the big 4, vette, cutter, t-10 and beluga. The beluga handles like a dream.

 

[Meric]

I recently had an idea about how the whole economy passenger problem can be sorted.

Edit: I'm sure I am not the first.

Charter missions.

Make the best money in passenger hauling missions where the client insists on exclusive use of your ship.

I need 50 luxury berths for my wedding party.

We want to see some action 15 first class seats please and destroy 3 wanted ships (no hull damage, we'll get scared).

200 school children need to go an a science trip to see some geezers. Edit: whoops, geysers (autocorrect).

Sorts out economy grind and makes the luxury ships more useful.

 

[Brrokk]

As far as I can tell all 3 passenger ships are completely redundant in game.

On each occasion a Python or Anaconda outclass all of the in terms of carrying capacity, jump range and defence.

Passengers have no preference on the athestics of the ship.

So again, why bother?

FDEV needs to make something special or Unquie about these ships other than the way they look. Maybe make it so passenger cabins on a passenger ship get a 50% increase in total capacity?

Just a thought.

I think it depends on whether you RP. Carrying passengers in a Python just doesn't seem right to me. Anaconda is OK because it has a big observation window under the nose.

But attention needs to be given to missions. I remember when the Dolphin came out, I suddenly started seeing passenger missions of 3 or 4 passengers wanting luxury accomodation. "Ah, FD are making a job for the Dolphin", I thought, and bought one. It was fine for a few days, but then those missions dried up.

There should be more passengers insisting on good accomodation, and they should pay more than the economy-class rabble.

 

[BradHann]

Why does every ship have to have an advantage in some situation? Some people still drive Datsuns.

 

[Quantis Trap]

After the money gathering is done, none of the ships are pointless. You need to try them all!

The only pointless thing is to never stop the money grubbing long enough to enjoy the different ships!