Just some ideas for passenger missions. I've divided them between Bulk, VIP, Tour, Colonia, and Expeditions.
General Passenger Mission Suggestions (Affects All)
1) Tie rank requirements to passenger classes instead of counts or arbitrary assignment. Higher class passengers should require higher ranks: this increases pay for the investment in the higher class modules, but also increases the threat/severity of interdicting attackers. Interdiction likelihood and severity should scale with the class of passenger: economy passenger missions should see fairly low threats whereas luxury passenger missions should attract that Dangerous FDL or Elite Anaconda chasing you.
2) With the individual classes, rank requirements scale with the quantity of passengers. EX: Economy passenger missions range from Harmless to Novice, where 1-10 = Harmless, 11-20 = Mostly Harmless, and 21+ = Novice. Apply the same logic across the passenger ranges. As rank affects payout and threat, higher quantities of a passenger type should inherently drive a higher rank and thus higher payout and risk.
3) Distance Payout should primarily come from jump distances, not super-cruise distances (I know, unpopular opinion). While station distance from the 'central star' should affect payout to some extent, it should only constitute ~20% of the total payout calculation. This transitions passenger missions from payout being tied to super-cruise distance to jump distance, which increases the likelihood of interdictions and reduces the mind-numbing cruising.
4) Re-route options should be the base payout of the mission in question plus a percentage, determined by the rank of the mission. Economy re-routes (based on earlier suggestions) would therefore pay little extra, whereas a re-route for luxury would pay more. For the sake of numbers, I'd recommend 1.5% of mission payout per rank increase.
5) Luxury class missions are locked at no more than three (3) per station, with the number available based upon the economic type of the station. Core systems (below) are defined as home systems for Power Play Factions, the three capital systems of the empires, and Colonia's original home station. These missions can be of any type (bulk, VIP, etc.) based upon the parameters of the station in question.
An Example:
6) Deep-Space Stations (typically extractor type in asteroid station) always offer long-distance transport missions to the three nearest stations in the galaxy and have a 50% chance of providing an expedition mission on each board refresh. Because of the limited number of destinations, passenger routes are very clear cut but also long distance - allowing commanders to play the role of deep-space ferryman if they so chose between these isolated stations.
Bulk Passenger Mission Suggestions
1) Galactic passenger routes should be less randomized and faction-centric, which results in some lounges having less than two missions across seven factions going to the same destination. Route planning is nearly impossible except in fringe cases - instead, destinations should be sourced based on the station's economic type and current BGS states of economy and security only. Of the passenger missions available across all factions, 50% should have their destinations determined by just the economic type following a simple binary pattern. This allows the galactic map to be used as a predictive tool when determining stations to potentially route to, giving the commander an idea of how a route of several stops may play out. This doesn't guarantee missions will source to specific destinations, but it does provide some predictive leverage.
An Example:
2) Give each class of passenger more 'uniqueness' in reward structure. Certain rewards are only available for certain classes, incenting commanders to swap around ship loadouts for their given needs or wants. Credits are always available as an option, of course. The 'high' options below aren't always present, but only appear for these specific classes.
An Example:
VIP Passenger Mission Suggestions
1) When requesting cargo goods, payout for the good is determined by a percentage of the overall mission payout - not the value of the good itself. Similar to the general suggestion #4, this tacked-on value is determined by the required rank at 1.5% value per rank. Requests for cargo increase in likelihood with rank (and therefore class and quantity of passengers).
2) Security and Economic status of system more heavily influences modifiers for VIPs, notably the hunted and wanted modifiers with hunted being more likely to occur in high security whereas wanted more likely to occur in low security.
3) The 'Private' modifier (don't be scanned) should only occur on first-class and luxury passenger missions. Later in the thread, I suggest these classes be made available for expeditions to allow for this modifier to still exist in those cases.
4) Modifiers should significantly affect the payout of a mission (30% of total payout) to help commanders quickly differentiate between simple (few/no modifiers) and complex (more modifiers) VIP missions without having to read each VIP mission. As private passengers are the easiest to fail (as one scan typically causes failure), they should have the highest increase. Hunted passengers (which are meant to guarantee an interdiction) should come next, followed by wanted passengers at third highest modification to payout. Demanding would be fourth, followed by Squeamish (I forget the name, don't take hull damage) then lastly law-abiding.
Tour Mission Suggestions (Not Deep-Space)
1) Rebalance to where majority are business and first class passenger missions, not economy, so as to increase risk and reward for these missions. As it stands, tour missions don't make a lot of sense for anything bigger than a DBX or Dolphin because almost all tour missions are economy and less than six passengers.
2) Change tour missions to be 'check the box' on destinations, rather than ordered. Display all destinations on the galactic map. This allows for multiple tour missions to be taken, then the commander can create a custom route based on all destinations rather than blindly fly circles one-at-a-time as currently. This would greatly enhance the fun of taking tour missions and incent the use of larger ships for them.
3) Incorporate route changes for Tour missions, where an additional destination is added for a sum. The sum is calculated based on the rank of the mission at a rate of 3% per rank. Likelihood of added destination rises with class of passenger.
Expedition Mission Suggestions (Deep-Space)
1) Reduce availability of these missions from tourism type systems and instead shift them to High-Tech systems, where research and development is more normal. Rebalance Tourism systems to primarily offer 'tour' missions.
2) Greatly Increase the modifier effects on payout (not the base payout...though that could use a buff, too, but meh). So many expedition missions carry the very risky 'stealthy' modifier. This is ok (it adds more excitement to a return trip) but should also increase payout greatly given the opportunity cost associated with carrying that passenger as opposed to a lighter ship with better jump range.
3) Increase the number of Expedition missions with more than one destination. Based on general suggestion earlier regarding jump range affecting payout more than super-cruise distance, multiple destination expeditions should pay enormous amounts given the vast distance often between two or more destinations.
An Example:
4) Expeditions should favor first-class and luxury-class passengers given the high cost of transport. An additional modifier could be incorporated where economy and business class missions are more likely to be one or two destinations whereas first-class and luxury are more likely to be three or four destinations. This would incent using higher grade (and larger) passenger modules, increasing the need for planning loadouts for deep-space.
5) Like the suggestion in tours, show all destinations in an Expedition and allow 'check the box' completion so that commanders can take multiple expeditions and plan a custom route to satisfy the conditions of success. This would provide a delightful option for deep-space explorers in creating routes, if they chose to take passengers.
Colonia Missions (Or Long-Distance Transport)
1) Rework these to primarily be available at Service stations and stations within 50ly of the 'fringe' of the bubble (an approximate range from Sol would work, too). These are missions targeted at pilgrims and colonists, and should reflect as much, not tourists.
2) Always have these missions available at deep-space stations (such as asteroid bases), where travelers may have become stranded or are slowly working their way towards a new home.
These are just some of my suggestions...I've got many more for changing passenger missions, but the biggest one for me would be to change multi-destination missions from linear to 'check the box' style to allow for more custom routing. That would hugely improve the gameplay for passenger missions!
General Passenger Mission Suggestions (Affects All)
1) Tie rank requirements to passenger classes instead of counts or arbitrary assignment. Higher class passengers should require higher ranks: this increases pay for the investment in the higher class modules, but also increases the threat/severity of interdicting attackers. Interdiction likelihood and severity should scale with the class of passenger: economy passenger missions should see fairly low threats whereas luxury passenger missions should attract that Dangerous FDL or Elite Anaconda chasing you.
2) With the individual classes, rank requirements scale with the quantity of passengers. EX: Economy passenger missions range from Harmless to Novice, where 1-10 = Harmless, 11-20 = Mostly Harmless, and 21+ = Novice. Apply the same logic across the passenger ranges. As rank affects payout and threat, higher quantities of a passenger type should inherently drive a higher rank and thus higher payout and risk.
3) Distance Payout should primarily come from jump distances, not super-cruise distances (I know, unpopular opinion). While station distance from the 'central star' should affect payout to some extent, it should only constitute ~20% of the total payout calculation. This transitions passenger missions from payout being tied to super-cruise distance to jump distance, which increases the likelihood of interdictions and reduces the mind-numbing cruising.
4) Re-route options should be the base payout of the mission in question plus a percentage, determined by the rank of the mission. Economy re-routes (based on earlier suggestions) would therefore pay little extra, whereas a re-route for luxury would pay more. For the sake of numbers, I'd recommend 1.5% of mission payout per rank increase.
5) Luxury class missions are locked at no more than three (3) per station, with the number available based upon the economic type of the station. Core systems (below) are defined as home systems for Power Play Factions, the three capital systems of the empires, and Colonia's original home station. These missions can be of any type (bulk, VIP, etc.) based upon the parameters of the station in question.
An Example:
- Extractor, Refinery, Colonial, Agriculture: 0 - 1 missions
- Terraforming, Industrial, Military, Service: 1 - 2 missions
- High-Tech, Tourism, Core System: 2 - 3 missions
6) Deep-Space Stations (typically extractor type in asteroid station) always offer long-distance transport missions to the three nearest stations in the galaxy and have a 50% chance of providing an expedition mission on each board refresh. Because of the limited number of destinations, passenger routes are very clear cut but also long distance - allowing commanders to play the role of deep-space ferryman if they so chose between these isolated stations.
Bulk Passenger Mission Suggestions
1) Galactic passenger routes should be less randomized and faction-centric, which results in some lounges having less than two missions across seven factions going to the same destination. Route planning is nearly impossible except in fringe cases - instead, destinations should be sourced based on the station's economic type and current BGS states of economy and security only. Of the passenger missions available across all factions, 50% should have their destinations determined by just the economic type following a simple binary pattern. This allows the galactic map to be used as a predictive tool when determining stations to potentially route to, giving the commander an idea of how a route of several stops may play out. This doesn't guarantee missions will source to specific destinations, but it does provide some predictive leverage.
An Example:
- Tourist Type Station: 50% of missions will select station(s) inside 50ly that are either Service Type or High-Tech Type.
- Extractor Type Station: 50% of missions will select station(s) inside 50ly that are either Refining Type or Industrial Type.
2) Give each class of passenger more 'uniqueness' in reward structure. Certain rewards are only available for certain classes, incenting commanders to swap around ship loadouts for their given needs or wants. Credits are always available as an option, of course. The 'high' options below aren't always present, but only appear for these specific classes.
An Example:
- Economy: Reputation, Influence, Low Grade Materials, Basic Cargo, High Reputation Gain
- Business: Reputation, Influence, Mid Grade Materials, Basic Cargo, High Value Cargo
- First Class: Reputation, Influence, High Grade Materials, Basic Cargo, High Influence Gain
VIP Passenger Mission Suggestions
1) When requesting cargo goods, payout for the good is determined by a percentage of the overall mission payout - not the value of the good itself. Similar to the general suggestion #4, this tacked-on value is determined by the required rank at 1.5% value per rank. Requests for cargo increase in likelihood with rank (and therefore class and quantity of passengers).
2) Security and Economic status of system more heavily influences modifiers for VIPs, notably the hunted and wanted modifiers with hunted being more likely to occur in high security whereas wanted more likely to occur in low security.
3) The 'Private' modifier (don't be scanned) should only occur on first-class and luxury passenger missions. Later in the thread, I suggest these classes be made available for expeditions to allow for this modifier to still exist in those cases.
4) Modifiers should significantly affect the payout of a mission (30% of total payout) to help commanders quickly differentiate between simple (few/no modifiers) and complex (more modifiers) VIP missions without having to read each VIP mission. As private passengers are the easiest to fail (as one scan typically causes failure), they should have the highest increase. Hunted passengers (which are meant to guarantee an interdiction) should come next, followed by wanted passengers at third highest modification to payout. Demanding would be fourth, followed by Squeamish (I forget the name, don't take hull damage) then lastly law-abiding.
Tour Mission Suggestions (Not Deep-Space)
1) Rebalance to where majority are business and first class passenger missions, not economy, so as to increase risk and reward for these missions. As it stands, tour missions don't make a lot of sense for anything bigger than a DBX or Dolphin because almost all tour missions are economy and less than six passengers.
2) Change tour missions to be 'check the box' on destinations, rather than ordered. Display all destinations on the galactic map. This allows for multiple tour missions to be taken, then the commander can create a custom route based on all destinations rather than blindly fly circles one-at-a-time as currently. This would greatly enhance the fun of taking tour missions and incent the use of larger ships for them.
3) Incorporate route changes for Tour missions, where an additional destination is added for a sum. The sum is calculated based on the rank of the mission at a rate of 3% per rank. Likelihood of added destination rises with class of passenger.
Expedition Mission Suggestions (Deep-Space)
1) Reduce availability of these missions from tourism type systems and instead shift them to High-Tech systems, where research and development is more normal. Rebalance Tourism systems to primarily offer 'tour' missions.
2) Greatly Increase the modifier effects on payout (not the base payout...though that could use a buff, too, but meh). So many expedition missions carry the very risky 'stealthy' modifier. This is ok (it adds more excitement to a return trip) but should also increase payout greatly given the opportunity cost associated with carrying that passenger as opposed to a lighter ship with better jump range.
3) Increase the number of Expedition missions with more than one destination. Based on general suggestion earlier regarding jump range affecting payout more than super-cruise distance, multiple destination expeditions should pay enormous amounts given the vast distance often between two or more destinations.
An Example:
- 15% are single destination Expeditions
- 25% are double destination Expeditions
- 50% are triple destination Expeditions
- 10% are quadruple destination Expeditions
4) Expeditions should favor first-class and luxury-class passengers given the high cost of transport. An additional modifier could be incorporated where economy and business class missions are more likely to be one or two destinations whereas first-class and luxury are more likely to be three or four destinations. This would incent using higher grade (and larger) passenger modules, increasing the need for planning loadouts for deep-space.
5) Like the suggestion in tours, show all destinations in an Expedition and allow 'check the box' completion so that commanders can take multiple expeditions and plan a custom route to satisfy the conditions of success. This would provide a delightful option for deep-space explorers in creating routes, if they chose to take passengers.
Colonia Missions (Or Long-Distance Transport)
1) Rework these to primarily be available at Service stations and stations within 50ly of the 'fringe' of the bubble (an approximate range from Sol would work, too). These are missions targeted at pilgrims and colonists, and should reflect as much, not tourists.
2) Always have these missions available at deep-space stations (such as asteroid bases), where travelers may have become stranded or are slowly working their way towards a new home.
These are just some of my suggestions...I've got many more for changing passenger missions, but the biggest one for me would be to change multi-destination missions from linear to 'check the box' style to allow for more custom routing. That would hugely improve the gameplay for passenger missions!