Horizons Passengers are pretty boring now

[GarlicFresh]

Hello. In the 2.2 update FD added mechanics of the passengers.


Don't know how the other players, but I think now they are pretty boring and not interesting. Not much different from ordinary freight, except for additional missions on the way. In my opinion for such a long time that we were waiting for the update it was possible to make the mechanics of the passengers much more interesting and atmospheric.

In General you can argue long on this topic, but I want to suggest how you can make passengers ' interesting, atmospheric and make them really a new mechanic, and not cosmetically change the old.

So:

1) Passengers are clearly needed voice. Now we can know the status of passengers only in the left menu, in the text version when they are happy, unhappy etc. More they did not manifest itself. They definitely need a voice, for example, when a ship lost shields to make audible the excitement of the passengers. And when the ship is close to destruction to make audible screams and panic on Board. When we scan a tourist beacon, visited any tourism place to make audible surprise and delight passengers.
In short, passengers will have to prove themselves more interesting and different than just one word in the left ship menu

2) Need more services for passengers. Now passengers can request any in-flight food, for example fish "for business purposes", but how about purchases of food, alcohol in long flights, especially for elite passengers? And in flight they should require them to give products you bought with a certain interval. Passengers have to eat constantly, not occasionally ask to buy them a couple of tons of clothing or fish.

All this diversifies the passenger mechanics and make it much more distinctive from the usual trade missions than it is now. I hope FD do something with the passengers, because now they look very, very bad, especially considering how much we were waiting for the update

 

[Tikigod]

I can definitely see most if not all of this getting added over time as interiors become an actual gamespace to wander around in.

At the moment you're stuck in your cockpit, hearing passenger potentially 5-10 minute walk away further in your ship chattering would be rather weird, though perhaps as a comm message for general inquiries and such... though they would have to be kept rather generic as Frontier really can't hire voice actors to cover every possible commoditiy, resource, system name, station name, planet name and so forth.

 

[GarlicFresh]

If the voice problem more understandable, the second not. And very stupid looking such a thing as a scan of a tourist beacon. You are 5 minutes came, we SCANNED the TOURIST BEACON AND the PASSENGER have RESTED.

You need to introduce this thing to you need to spend some time in a tourist spot, so the passenger had to admire the types.

 

[Mike Reacher]

I think there is more for FD to do before they get on board with that. IMO!
Like planet services etc.
After all, a pilot is just a commodity carrier whether he be a bus driver or a spaceship driver.

 

[Darth_Zaicev]

Agree. Audio effects for passengers is strongly needed. Something like flight control on stations.
Must be at least 4 types of emotions voiced:
Delight (Scan tourist beacon): The cries of "Wow!", "Oh my God!" "What a beauty!" "Amazing" etc
Endorsement (docked with the station, jump to hyperspace): cheers, "Bravo!" etc
Anxiety (collisions, damage to the shield, offenses): "What's happening?", "What happened?", "What is he doing?" etc
Fear (hull damage): "Oh no!", "No !!!!" "We're all going to die!" "Help!" etc

Play these records do not always, but with a certain probability. It should be some variation in voice messages. We need different voices of several people that can be played alone (depending on the number of passengers and their sex) or as a choir.
Also it's good to add the background noise in the form of a soft indecipherable conversations(of course if we have some passengers on board).

With regard to improvements still could very well make the condition of the absence of serious accelerations in the flight.

 

[GarlicFresh]

Yes, that's generally a great idea

 

[Harry Stone]

1) I agree wholeheartedly this would be good

2) not so much - I reckon the drinks and snacks and food come with the cabin. So if you get a luxury cabin it comes with Lavian Brandy and Ochoeng Chillies and Wuthielo Ku froth to delight the tastes of the high end passengers. And the other cabins come with peanuts and beer as standard. No micro management needed?

 

[zverochert]

1) I doubt that real life first pilot listening to passengers during the flight. So it should be only critical messages, not "atmospheric" chatter.
2) This micromanagement will be boring. Let’s say all food and drinks come with the cabin. Or maybe you want passengers to produce some biowaste also? That would be super realistic.

But i agree that current mechanic is too simple. I think passenger mission must test your piloting skills in new way. For example, you should not exceed some acceleration thresholds during flight in real space, or passengers will be very unhappy. There should be some different regimes, for example "sightseeing" - you should be notified that your passengers are walking the cabin freely, not sitting fastened to their chairs, so any movement can lead to injuries for passengers, mission failure and maybe even bounty for you. Imagine, pirate attack during this sightseeing) You will have to decide, take fire until everyone get to their seats, or perform evasive maneuvers immediately and kill half of the passengers.

 

[GarlicFresh]

In real life the pilot does not hear the passengers, but we are not in real life and in the game. So "realism" can be sacrificed in favor of normal gameplay. About micromanagement here the personal tastes of each. But without it, transportation and tourism this is a trade mission, with just a couple of uninteresting additions

 

[Turranius]

I ran a VIP mission yesterday (Hate passenger missions). Thought it would be fun if I got a message saying something like "Hey, I love flying. Can I come to the cockpit?". If you agree, he'll be all like "Do a barrel roll" and you get extra credits/happiness if you do what they say. Of course, you'd have to see them in the cockpit as well.

"What does this button do?" - Canopy offline...

 

[JesusRocks1988]

I think the simplest improvement can be made by getting voice actors to do the passenger requests, rather than as text:

- "Excuse me Commander, I need you to take me somewhere else, I am forwarding you details now" *system information arrives in text form as it does now*.

- "Commander, I am in need of your assistance in procuring something for me, I've sent you a message with the details" *commodity information arrives in text form*
- When you accept: "Thank you for your hospitality, Commander"; when you decline: "fine, but I am not happy about this!"

- "Commander! Are you trying to get us all killed!?" *when taking hull damage or knocking your ship against the mailslot*

- "I thought I hired you for your discretion, Commander. Any more of this and I will have to terminate our contract!" *when getting scanned, and the passenger is secretive*

- "This is by far the worst cruise I have ever been on, I will be making a complaint to your superiors, good-bye Commander" *Mission Failed because the passenger ejects*

And, of course, general terrified screams over the intercom just before your ship explodes and you fail the mission.

A lot of these are fairly general - maybe a couple of different accents for for each one would do, but making use of the intercom for voice comms would improve the dynamic nature of the missions.

 

[Krieger]

In real life the pilot does not hear the passengers, but we are not in real life and in the game. So "realism" can be sacrificed in favor of normal gameplay. About micromanagement here the personal tastes of each. But without it, transportation and tourism this is a trade mission, with just a couple of uninteresting additions

Did you try missions with wanted passengers yet? They bring some excitement because you have to avoid getting scanned by security ships when entering/leaving a station. The stakes are high: if you get scanned with wanted passengers on board the station destroys your ship.

I hope these passenger smuggling missions get extended in the future so we can expect spot checks by security ships enroute and at visitor beacons etc.

 

[SpacialKatana]

Or maybe you want passengers to produce some biowaste also? That would be super realistic.

Which would very quickly become tedious.

I'll +1 some voices for major events though, shields failing, hull damaged, return to dock, beacon reached etc (Random %'age chance).

 

[CMDR Stan Marker]

I would like to hear such sounds and take care about food and water for a long trip.

 

[Jezzer]

I'd like to suggest that we also have a "Dump the whole cabin option" especially for those demanding passengers that request 3 units of domestic appliances to make the journey more comfortable, just as we arrive at their destination.

I had an incident with mad murphy's marauding muppets(NPC's) in which I lost in a spectacular explosion with some really nice sparks and flames, phew I thought at least the mission is over, but no to my horror he's still there in his super tough cabin which survived the unfortunate event. Complaining bitterly about the hull damage!!!!

I happily took some neg rep on that one

Well at least the credits are rolling in, but passenger biowaste might be to much [rolleyes]

 

[NMS]

Except for combat, everething else in this game are boring. Game designer´s choice.

 

[Blackcompany]

Except for combat, everething else in this game are boring. Game designer´s choice.

Second this statement. And frankly, given how long it takes to whittle down shields, and the magic shield potions NPC's have access to, even combat isnt nearly as brief and exciting as it should be.

Things can overstay their welcome. In Elite, it doesnt take long for even the good parts of the game to do so, seeing as how there are so relatively few of them.

 

[EUS]

Ram the visitor beacon, not boring.
Made that mistake last night. Shields gone, 84% hull left.
Happy the customer didn't mind.

 

[Cmdr Ultra]

I've been smuggling Criminal Masterminds into bases on moons and planets. Give that a try if your bored.

 

[jmp470]

I've only done a few passenger missions, but, I've had them ask me for illegal goods, have me kill their enemies, etc. so it has been fun, for me.

I like criminal masterminds and chief Medical Officers! The CMO's are the ones that asked me for the illegal drugs, it even said for medicinal uses. Cleaver!!!