Possible improvements in passenger missions.

I generally like doing passenger mission. They take you places. But in-bubble missions in particular would really need some re-thinking, imho.

1) Passengers that require combat of you hate to be scanned. Now, I don't mind avoiding scans at stations. That's fun and requires skill to pull off. What is NOT fun is passengers who either give you a side mission for killing enemies, or generally passengers who have high chance of attracting ships going after them. Such mission is doomed to failure in 50% of the cases, because if you don't engage the targets, you lose passengers happiness and if you DO engage, you're going to be scanned. No skill. Just luck. Hate it.

2) Speaking of aversion to scanning, ALL passengers seem to have one, these days, even those who really shouldn't, judging by the description.

3) Passenger missions ought to be a chill activity. They can take you to beautiful places, but you can't linger. Drop in, scan the beacon, drop out. Because if you don't, in 15 seconds a ship drops in, scans you and game over. I would REALLY like to just put the ship down next to the geysers or in orbit of some really beautiful planet and just take some pictures. That is not possible, at the moment.

4) I have nothing against secretive, high-value-target, wanted passengers requiring my services. I love combat and smuggling things in and out of other things was always a hobby of mine. But for everything that's holy, don't send me SIGHTSEEING with them. Armed transport. From A, where they are wanted, to B, where they are okay. That would make sense. And throw everything you've got my way during the trip. I won't mind. But taking a criminal, who wants to fight but doesn't want to be scanned all around the galaxy and then returning them to the same station? Please.

Okay, those were half-rants half-suggestions, so far, I apologize. Plus they all make the same point, I guess - People craving combat SHOULDN'T be secretive and people seeking sightseeing shouldn't mind scans.
Now one real suggestion. And I am aware of how mission-generation system works and how impossible it may be to implement it:

5) Ferry on schedule. I'd really like if stations/systems have regular ferries between each other. Or a planet-orbit ferry.
It would be great to know, for example that at 5pm, there will be people waiting for a transport from a mining base to the orbital station above. Or simple Laedla-Dvorsi 6am express. Something like that would be awesome.

Regular "daily missions". *puppy eyes*
 
Last edited:
I did make a suggestion some time ago about "bus stop" missions for passengers. You have a preset route and you visit certain stations on that route to pick up and drop off passengers. It does a full circuit and ends in the same station it begins and you can stop or take the mission again. The amount you earn depends on how many cabins (seats) you have and a certain randomness to how many may be waiting at each stop. Of course, this can mean having to turn some away because you don't have enough room or even running almost empty to the next stop if there aren't many passengers at that stop.

I'd suggest for this, we should have a basic "transport" cabin class, and these cabins are just lined with seats since they are just for short hops. Module size denotes how many seats are available in each cabin. With this system, even a Sidewinder can have a 10 seat cabin and take the passenger missions. This means, even new players can get into doing passenger missions with their first Sidey.
 
Hi there,

I absolutely agree with Chris Simons' Point 1). I had a passenger mission that failed because the passenger bribed me into killing the headhunter, but got angry when the headhunter scanned my ship. That's just stupid. Since then I ignore requests from passengers to destroy their pursuers unless they don't mind to be scanned. The reward for hunting the pursuers down is also quite low in comparison to the reward a completed passenger mission can bring. I mean: 1-8 million for a round trip - and about only 10.000 bonus for the fight against the pursuers? I'd rather evade them and spare me the hassle.

Kind regards,
Aerial Mercury

- - - Updated - - -

Hi there,

I absolutely agree with Chris Simons' Point 1). I had a passenger mission that failed because the passenger bribed me into killing the headhunter, but got angry when the headhunter scanned my ship. That's just stupid. Since then I ignore requests from passengers to destroy their pursuers unless they don't mind to be scanned. The reward for hunting the pursuers down is also quite low in comparison to the reward a completed passenger mission can bring. I mean: 1-8 million for a round trip - and about only 10.000 bonus for the fight against the pursuers? I'd rather evade them and spare me the hassle.

Kind regards,
Aerial Mercury

Ninja-Edit: It would be ok for the passenger to be angry when the pursuer scanned my ship and got away. But the passenger remains angry even when I destroy the enemy ship. For the passenger to be waiting until the outcome of the battle to decide whether to get angry or not would be much more agreeable IMHO.
 
Back
Top Bottom