Question about passenger ships - Dolphin, Orca, Beluga

czekierap

C
Hello, I'm fairly new to the game, about 2 weeks in.

So I'm interested in doing some passenger missions and really want to buy one of Saud Kruger's ship, to cruise in one of these stylish things feeling like a captain.
I did some reading about passenger missions and ships but all I found was a bit outdated.

first of all, are passenger missions worth doing? From what I've read I'm prepared to see that these are not as lucrative as mining or trading, but are they like waste of time? I'm still fine with doing them just for the fun of it but still.

And my second question, I was thinking about using Doplhin as this luxury-private ship for doing vip missions but maybe it's better to pick Beluga and do huge bulk transportation, both options sound great to me I just can't decide what to buy and invest in.

Cheers!
 

Rick6549

Rick6549
If you can afford to buy and outfir the beluga, do it. It can carry a good amount of passengers while being good at everything else.

Mining ? Sure fill it up with cargo racks and a refinery.

Combat ? Fighters, bi-weaves, and the rest hull reinforcements. Make sure to ram your opponent.

Exploration ? Of course ! It has plenty of slots and a decent jump range, just watch out for the heat.

The only thing it cant do is land on medium or small pads !
 

Midian Cabal

Midian Cabal
Passenger missions from Robigo Mines to Sothis are just as lucrative as they were, but you'll need a Dolphin for them, as Robigo Mines is an outpost.
 

IceFire122

IceFire122
I flew an Orca for a long time and kept it especially after the jump range boost. It recently got replaced by a Krait Phantom. Both are nice explorers, with the Krait being more combat capable.
BTW, the Orca can be bought with a 20% discount in Alioth (Alliance capital requires a permit).

The passenger missions should still be worth it, but do not require a Saud Kruger ship. The SK ships are the only ones capable of using Luxury cabins, sure. But Luxury missions are quite rare. Hence, it might be better putting some passenger cabins in your current ship and try the missions out first.
 

Maymo

Maymo
Passenger missions are good fun! And they still pay really well, especially if you’re allied with the faction that you’re working for...

There’s three types of mission, and you may want to outfit your ship differently depending on the type...

Sightseeing Tours are a fast way of making credits, especially if you have an engineered FSD. You don’t really need lots of different cabins for these. Personally I treat these as one cabin jobs to save on jump range and also to avoid any confusion with the tourist beacons you’ll have to visit.

A nice thing about sightseeing tours is that you’ll always be returning to the original station, this means you can take advantage of your increasing reputation with the minor factions. Just be sure to read the small print, you don’t want to get stuck with a criminal on board your ship and end up getting blown up.

Bulk transport is more local, you won’t need very high jump range or a fuel scoop. It’s pretty much the same as cargo delivery. Safe and easy...

VIP transport can also be lucrative and you can mix these guys in with your bulk transport jobs.

Remember to pack a DSS on your ship if you’re doing these missions, they’ll often bring you in close contact with earth like worlds and water worlds that you can surface map as you’re dropping off clients or visiting beacons. This provides a very large secondary income.

The Dolphin and Orca are both very enjoyable ships to fly, fast and manoeuvrable.

The Beluga? Not so much... ;-)

Edit:
I forgot about the obscenely long range passenger missions. These involve taking explorers into deep space and usually involve hundreds of jumps. On the surface they pay well, but you have to consider the huge time investment...
Days/weeks...
 
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Midian Cabal

Midian Cabal
IceFire122 said:
I flew an Orca for a long time and kept it especially after the jump range boost. It recently got replaced by a Krait Phantom. Both are nice explorers, with the Krait being more combat capable.
BTW, the Orca can be bought with a 20% discount in Alioth (Alliance capital requires a permit).

The passenger missions should still be worth it, but do not require a Saud Kruger ship. The SK ships are the only ones capable of using Luxury cabins, sure. But Luxury missions are quite rare. Hence, it might be better putting some passenger cabins in your current ship and try the missions out first.
Click to expand...
Python is still the undisputed king of passenger missions. And not just them. ;)
 

Brrokk

Brrokk
Get allied with a faction to get the best paid missions. I agree with the choice of Dolphin or Orca rather than Beluga.

Beware of passengers who are wanted in some jurisdictions. It's not worth risking carrying them unless you are confident at avoiding scans while docking.

Sightseeing missions take you to some spectacular and lore-related locations. Check the distance before accepting the contract though.
 

IceFire122

IceFire122
Beluga has similar issues like it's real world name sake: Docking/Undocking is challenging, especially the mail slot part. Oh wait, we got modules for both now.

A Beluga might be best compared to a Jumbo, while the Orca is like a Learjet and the Dolphin is like a Cessna. Of the three, I always preferred the Orca.
 

wetwire

wetwire
What CMDR Maymo noted is important. It really depends on what type of passenger missions you plan on taking. This will help determin which of the three liners you want to invest in. All three can pretty much accomplish the same thing only the Orca and Beluga having more room to take on more passengers. The up side of the Dolphin is that is a small ship and can dock in any station. The Orca and Beluga are large thus restricted to planet side and large stations which if your not paying careful attention can get you stuck with a passenger mission to a location you can not land at.
 

VR SenseiMatty

VR SenseiMatty
I just want to add to the other comments up here that these 3 ships are the only ones that can be fitted with a Luxury cabin. That's the real difference compared to the other ships of similar size.
If you're not interested in the Luxury Cabins you can find better ships for passengers transportation. For example I used to fly a Type-7 to rescue people from burning stations.
 

sinisalo

sinisalo
I cut nearly a third of the required credits to hit Exploration Elite off by running sightseeing missions in the Orca. It paid well and gained rank.

I'm partial to the Orca, which I have engineered to run very fast and very cool. I use it for sightseeing, rescue, transport and smuggling operations.

It goes Ding! like the tone to fasten seatbelts on a jetliner when you hit boost and has a fantastic view out of the cockpit. It's middle ground on the Saud Kruger line, and an underrated ship. The fact that so few own one makes it even better :)
 
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Mxpower76

Mxpower76
Its not been mentioned yet so to add.......sightseeing tours add to your explorer rank. Bulk/VIP transport add to your trade rank.

Sightseeing tours are also a good way to find interesting locations in the game without going to a website. Found Epic mountains and a moon sitting a gas giant ring during a tour. That tour was called Ring Up Close.
 

Burke

B
Midian Cabal said:
Python is still the undisputed king of passenger missions. And not just them. ;)
Click to expand...

Have to disagree there. If you are min/maxing and you are looking for high skill, high pay outs then filling an anaconda and doing the sirus atmospherics run is the biggest credit maker there is. I forget which station it is, possibly housers reach but you have to be prepared to take the illegal passengers aswell. 100m an hour is easy and if your conda is properly engineered its one jump there one jump back. When i was doing that, some months ago i was getting 2.5m to 3m per cabin.

Edit: i have to add tho, that unless you got your scan evasion down perfectly you will get scanned and caught. It does take skill to do.
 
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Midian Cabal

Midian Cabal
Burke said:
Have to disagree there. If you are min/maxing and you are looking for high skill, high pay outs then filling an anaconda and doing the sirus atmospherics run is the biggest credit maker there is. I forget which station it is, possibly housers reach but you have to be prepared to take the illegal passengers aswell. 100m an hour is easy and if your conda is properly engineered its one jump there one jump back. When i was doing that, some months ago i was getting 2.5m to 3m per cabin.

Edit: i have to add tho, that unless you got your scan evasion down perfectly you will get scanned and caught. It does take skill to do.
Click to expand...
Anaconda can't dock at outposts.
 

Burke

B
Burke said:
I forget which station it is, possibly housers reach
Click to expand...

Pretty sure its housers. You take them from there to the beacon at sirus and back.

Dont let me stop you using the python cause you read online that you can only go from robigo mines. Its just that i made alot of credits using my conda :D
 

Jaggid Edje

Jaggid Edje
Burke said:
Pretty sure its housers. You take them from there to the beacon at sirus and back.

Dont let me stop you using the python cause you read online that you can only go from robigo mines. Its just that i made alot of credits using my conda :D
Click to expand...

Yah, pretty much the same missions from either. The advantage of doing it from Robigo mines is that it's a shorter supercruise upon entry into the system. I found that the time saved there compensates for the smaller ship needed making the profits about the same either way, with a slight edge to Robigo Mines. It is a pretty decent time savings. People get 130+ million per hour once rep is maxed doing it from Robigo Mines.

I vary which I do just for the sake of flying a different ship. I LIKE using my larger ships once in a while.
 

Burke

B
From memory you have to build up a bit of rep there to get a constant supply of max payouts and if you fail one you lose alot of rep. Also if you get busted the game screws you. Min/maxing means flying without a fuel scoop. When it sends you to prison you go to a place you cant get back from without a fuel scoop. Fdev and their little tricks eh? :)

Its possible that the guardian FSD booster makes the difference aswell in allowing it to be one jump there and one jump back. Either way i highly recommend this way...if you can take the pressure of doing it. Fair warning the game wants to stitch you up :)
 

Maymo

Maymo
Burke said:
Pretty sure its housers. You take them from there to the beacon at sirus and back.
Click to expand...
Aye, I remember doing this run way back when I was saving for a Corvette...

I may be wrong here

...but I think station security will stop scanning you once you’re allied with the controlling faction.

This means after a few missions and an exploration data drop or two you can run all the illegals you want out of a station while smiling and waving out the windows at the cops with no problems...

This is certainly how it was back in my own Sirius Atmospheric days but FD may have changed things since then...
 
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