Ok. Been away for nearly a year due to getting bored, other games, life etc.
tl;dr
Beluga is crap
Luxury missions are not worth it
Local missions are good
Long range exploration missions need work.
First thing I thought I'd try out these passenger missions, note that where losses are listed I'm not complaining about the cost (I have enough) but making a point about something.
First I got a beluga, kitted it out for range with some luxury cabins, made sure to include a shield (but a lightweight one) and set out to a system I'm allied with, interdiced by an NPC FDL, blink, thrusters offline, BOOM. ok..... Rebuy, better shields, more hardeners, crappy range now.. Set out, interdicted by a Vulture, Thrusters offline, BOOM. 3rd Beluga (these things should come with a 'Warning Fragile' Sticker), More shields, hull mods, more hardeners.
Interdicted a couple of times and notice that the ship is VERY agile and win every interdiction game. Ok so it's much more suited to evade than drop and run...
Thoughts:
I would expect a passenger liner to be a BIT tougher, your VIP's would want to be able to survive pirates, especially as some are wanted by the police. It's nimble enough to avoid an encounter but it does need maybe 20% more shields so that you have a SMALL chance to escape.
Outfitting: Beluga has some slots that are Passenger/Hull/Cargo only. But it does not tell you that on the outfitting screen. Very confusing.
Getting on to the actual missions, I went to a nearby system that I'm allied with the local factions and it's in Boom, high population and started looking at missions and the first thing I noticed was that the luxury missions were few and far between, then I noticed that the extra credits you get from the luxury missions above First/Business missions of similar range.. really did not compensate for having to use a ship that is frankly terrible at it's job.
Anaconda has 48-50ly Jump range (with FSD Improvements) + 6A shields & 3 First Cabins = More shields & Hull than Beluga + nearly double range + can fit weapons AND fighters and still have 40ly range.
Beluga has 28ish ly range and terrible shields but better agility.
And the rebuy on the anaconda is lower.
Ok so the luxury liner is pointless until they make the luxury missions considerably more valuable than the standard missions (either in credits or materials or reputation.. reputation would be good.. VIP's would have influence)
On to the missions themselves
There seem to be a few types.
1). 'Low Level'
Crap credits, crap rewards
Idea: Change them to be repuation missions with terrible rewards but increased rep rewards or material rewards instead.
These are the chaff we have to wade through. Nobody is taking these. They are supposed to be
2). 'Mid Level'
1-3 mil for 200-500ly round trip.
Not bad but why would we do these when you can just as easily do:
3) 'High Level'
5mil-8mil
Local round trip, 400-600 ly nice and easy, between 30mins and 45mins to complete. I averaged 10mil/hour.
4). 'Very High Level'
9-10mil for a quick trip (60-90ly) 18mil for 200ly round trip
Money Makers. Quite rare. Worth logoff swapping for. Maybe 10mil/hour including time spent looking for them.
5). Exploration missions.
Vary from 5mil for 1k to 5mil for 16k to 5mil for 30k ly.
OR
25mil for 8k
or 35mil for a trip to Sag A*
on all of these the 'bonus' payouts are crazy.. I'll pay you an extra 10k if you get me there in the next hour on a 6mil payout? thats 0.16% increase. Wow!
They vary a lot. I get the idea.. they are supposed to add a 'bonus' to exploration, not to replace exploration, but someone didnt get the point. Explorers want to go where THEY want to go, not to some point thats already been explored by loads of people. Some of the major tourist points are ok (Sag A*, Jacques etc) But the payoff needs to be bigger. Tours shouldnt be for explorers, they should stand on their stand on their own against the local delivery missions, so a 1k ly return trip (2k ly) would take around 1.5 hours and therefore would need to payout at least 15mil. 16k Ly round trip (12 hours) would have to pay out 120mil (10mil/hour). Yes you CAN add exploration data to the 'payoff' but once you start adding anything other than bonging each star then the time multiples dramatically so it's not worth counting.
Ok.. Your probabily going to look at this and nerf the local missions.. Please dont. Currently the High and Very high are competive with high level trading, long range tours are just ridiculously low.
On and if the mission is going somewhere difficult like oh... the one I took that goes to HEN2-23 perhaps you might want to mention that your going to need a LOT of jumponium since the stars nearby are at LEAST 60ly apart.
Missions like this :
1). Should have a warning
2). Should have a MUCH higher payout.. Taking 5x the 15mil I was offered minimum.
(You could say.. you should have checked the galaxy map.. but I did.. its REALLY hard in that map to look at places that are more than 1k away to see how far the jump range is between stars.. might be helpful to be able to change the 'start system' so we can do test plots and see? Also can we have options to brighten the spider lines and make the stars bigger?)
Finally:
Why procedurally generate these missions ? Your taking explorers out on tours, they might want to go somewhere new?
Example:
Mission: 'The Grand Tour' (where did I get that name from?)
Duration : Minimum 15k LY
Time : Maximum 2 Weeks : GAME TIME (not RL TIME).
Payout : 40 mil
Bonus Payout : 2mil Every Earthlike under 2g local gravity
Bonus Payout : 1mil Every Ammonia Life Supporting Planet Found
Bonus Payout : 500k Water World
You could then go on massive long exploration trips, actually have to look for stuff and scan stuff on the way and get a bonus for it.
tl;dr
Beluga is crap
Luxury missions are not worth it
Local missions are good
Long range exploration missions need work.
First thing I thought I'd try out these passenger missions, note that where losses are listed I'm not complaining about the cost (I have enough) but making a point about something.
First I got a beluga, kitted it out for range with some luxury cabins, made sure to include a shield (but a lightweight one) and set out to a system I'm allied with, interdiced by an NPC FDL, blink, thrusters offline, BOOM. ok..... Rebuy, better shields, more hardeners, crappy range now.. Set out, interdicted by a Vulture, Thrusters offline, BOOM. 3rd Beluga (these things should come with a 'Warning Fragile' Sticker), More shields, hull mods, more hardeners.
Interdicted a couple of times and notice that the ship is VERY agile and win every interdiction game. Ok so it's much more suited to evade than drop and run...
Thoughts:
I would expect a passenger liner to be a BIT tougher, your VIP's would want to be able to survive pirates, especially as some are wanted by the police. It's nimble enough to avoid an encounter but it does need maybe 20% more shields so that you have a SMALL chance to escape.
Outfitting: Beluga has some slots that are Passenger/Hull/Cargo only. But it does not tell you that on the outfitting screen. Very confusing.
Getting on to the actual missions, I went to a nearby system that I'm allied with the local factions and it's in Boom, high population and started looking at missions and the first thing I noticed was that the luxury missions were few and far between, then I noticed that the extra credits you get from the luxury missions above First/Business missions of similar range.. really did not compensate for having to use a ship that is frankly terrible at it's job.
Anaconda has 48-50ly Jump range (with FSD Improvements) + 6A shields & 3 First Cabins = More shields & Hull than Beluga + nearly double range + can fit weapons AND fighters and still have 40ly range.
Beluga has 28ish ly range and terrible shields but better agility.
And the rebuy on the anaconda is lower.
Ok so the luxury liner is pointless until they make the luxury missions considerably more valuable than the standard missions (either in credits or materials or reputation.. reputation would be good.. VIP's would have influence)
On to the missions themselves
There seem to be a few types.
1). 'Low Level'
Crap credits, crap rewards
Idea: Change them to be repuation missions with terrible rewards but increased rep rewards or material rewards instead.
These are the chaff we have to wade through. Nobody is taking these. They are supposed to be
2). 'Mid Level'
1-3 mil for 200-500ly round trip.
Not bad but why would we do these when you can just as easily do:
3) 'High Level'
5mil-8mil
Local round trip, 400-600 ly nice and easy, between 30mins and 45mins to complete. I averaged 10mil/hour.
4). 'Very High Level'
9-10mil for a quick trip (60-90ly) 18mil for 200ly round trip
Money Makers. Quite rare. Worth logoff swapping for. Maybe 10mil/hour including time spent looking for them.
5). Exploration missions.
Vary from 5mil for 1k to 5mil for 16k to 5mil for 30k ly.
OR
25mil for 8k
or 35mil for a trip to Sag A*
on all of these the 'bonus' payouts are crazy.. I'll pay you an extra 10k if you get me there in the next hour on a 6mil payout? thats 0.16% increase. Wow!
They vary a lot. I get the idea.. they are supposed to add a 'bonus' to exploration, not to replace exploration, but someone didnt get the point. Explorers want to go where THEY want to go, not to some point thats already been explored by loads of people. Some of the major tourist points are ok (Sag A*, Jacques etc) But the payoff needs to be bigger. Tours shouldnt be for explorers, they should stand on their stand on their own against the local delivery missions, so a 1k ly return trip (2k ly) would take around 1.5 hours and therefore would need to payout at least 15mil. 16k Ly round trip (12 hours) would have to pay out 120mil (10mil/hour). Yes you CAN add exploration data to the 'payoff' but once you start adding anything other than bonging each star then the time multiples dramatically so it's not worth counting.
Ok.. Your probabily going to look at this and nerf the local missions.. Please dont. Currently the High and Very high are competive with high level trading, long range tours are just ridiculously low.
On and if the mission is going somewhere difficult like oh... the one I took that goes to HEN2-23 perhaps you might want to mention that your going to need a LOT of jumponium since the stars nearby are at LEAST 60ly apart.
Missions like this :
1). Should have a warning
2). Should have a MUCH higher payout.. Taking 5x the 15mil I was offered minimum.
(You could say.. you should have checked the galaxy map.. but I did.. its REALLY hard in that map to look at places that are more than 1k away to see how far the jump range is between stars.. might be helpful to be able to change the 'start system' so we can do test plots and see? Also can we have options to brighten the spider lines and make the stars bigger?)
Finally:
Why procedurally generate these missions ? Your taking explorers out on tours, they might want to go somewhere new?
Example:
Mission: 'The Grand Tour' (where did I get that name from?)
Duration : Minimum 15k LY
Time : Maximum 2 Weeks : GAME TIME (not RL TIME).
Payout : 40 mil
Bonus Payout : 2mil Every Earthlike under 2g local gravity
Bonus Payout : 1mil Every Ammonia Life Supporting Planet Found
Bonus Payout : 500k Water World
You could then go on massive long exploration trips, actually have to look for stuff and scan stuff on the way and get a bonus for it.
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