So I tried some passenger missions a little while back, and to be honest, felt rather disappointed by how it was laid out. In short, you can either choose from what is essentially a flat haulage mission, or a tedious mission with random demands from some whiny vip who doesn't like getting scanned.
I was bouncing around an idea in my head for how to change this system, and I'd like to see it function more like operating a tourism business, rather than just picking up random people who put out a classified for 'ship wanted for travel'.
Here's my breakdown:
-Scrap the passenger lounge. It doesn't really make a lot of sense and it's an unneccessary copy/paste of the mission board, just with passengers. Some passenger work is redistributed to the mission board, where tourism or travel is not really the goal- e.g. refugee missions and such.
-Add a Travel contact to the contacts list. The travel contact at a station allows access to transport and tourism information and lets you set up trips.
-Instead of picking up transport missions, you now have a system with the travel contact where you set up a travel itinerary yourself with the galactic map screen, picking systems/worlds that your ship will visit, you then set a price for tickets of each class. Tickets are then reserved for the trip by passengers- how many you get reserved depends on how well you've planned the journey and pricing, more info on that below. When ready, you take on the passengers and set off, visiting each stop on the itinerary. Once the trip's completed, you receive the full payment for all the tickets that were sold.
-The number of tickets that get reserved depends on how attractive your trip is to passengers based on cost, friendliness with system factions, pilot rank and the locations being visited. The travel contact will automatically set you the max price you can charge for each seat class and expect to fill 95% of seats based on all other factors (though there is some slight randomness involved in exactly how many tickets get reserved)
-There are several different types of passengers that can choose to reserve tickets, that are looking for different things out of a trip.
-Commuters are looking for an efficient trip between high population systems, and prioritise a safe, fast journey.
-Thrillseekers are looking for trips that visit systems in a 'dangerous' state, such as incursion, civil war, etc.
-Surveyors prioritise trips that visit systems with minable planetary rings and high content metal worlds. Extra appeal is given for visiting the planets themselves.
-Tourists are looking for trips that visit systems with notable historical value (i.e. any planet with a tourist beacon).
-Field Scientists are looking for trips that visit systems with notable bodies such as water worlds, earth-like planets, black holes, neutron stars, etc.
-Xeno Researchers are looking for trips to systems with known Guardian / Thargoid hotspots, or systems in the incursion state.
-Culturalites look for trips that visit systems with high populations, with additional appeal given for the variety of system allegiances, economies and government types visited.
The number of types of passenger at a particular station will depend on several factors such as the system state, economy, etc.
In addition to other factors, moving passengers also has an associated reputation. Completing a trip successfully, as well as doing things that please each of the different guest types you have on board, such as visiting a conflict zone for thrillseekers, scanning tourist beacons for tourists, visiting stations for culturalites, increases your reputation. Higher reputation results in a greater chance of selling tickets, allowing you to sell them at increased price on your subsequent voyages.
Finishing a high-satisfaction trip also has a chance of generating a VIP charter invitation, wherein you are invited to allow a VIP to charter your vessel, with a series of moderate-to-highly paid objectives to complete for them as part of the trip.
I was bouncing around an idea in my head for how to change this system, and I'd like to see it function more like operating a tourism business, rather than just picking up random people who put out a classified for 'ship wanted for travel'.
Here's my breakdown:
-Scrap the passenger lounge. It doesn't really make a lot of sense and it's an unneccessary copy/paste of the mission board, just with passengers. Some passenger work is redistributed to the mission board, where tourism or travel is not really the goal- e.g. refugee missions and such.
-Add a Travel contact to the contacts list. The travel contact at a station allows access to transport and tourism information and lets you set up trips.
-Instead of picking up transport missions, you now have a system with the travel contact where you set up a travel itinerary yourself with the galactic map screen, picking systems/worlds that your ship will visit, you then set a price for tickets of each class. Tickets are then reserved for the trip by passengers- how many you get reserved depends on how well you've planned the journey and pricing, more info on that below. When ready, you take on the passengers and set off, visiting each stop on the itinerary. Once the trip's completed, you receive the full payment for all the tickets that were sold.
-The number of tickets that get reserved depends on how attractive your trip is to passengers based on cost, friendliness with system factions, pilot rank and the locations being visited. The travel contact will automatically set you the max price you can charge for each seat class and expect to fill 95% of seats based on all other factors (though there is some slight randomness involved in exactly how many tickets get reserved)
-There are several different types of passengers that can choose to reserve tickets, that are looking for different things out of a trip.
-Commuters are looking for an efficient trip between high population systems, and prioritise a safe, fast journey.
-Thrillseekers are looking for trips that visit systems in a 'dangerous' state, such as incursion, civil war, etc.
-Surveyors prioritise trips that visit systems with minable planetary rings and high content metal worlds. Extra appeal is given for visiting the planets themselves.
-Tourists are looking for trips that visit systems with notable historical value (i.e. any planet with a tourist beacon).
-Field Scientists are looking for trips that visit systems with notable bodies such as water worlds, earth-like planets, black holes, neutron stars, etc.
-Xeno Researchers are looking for trips to systems with known Guardian / Thargoid hotspots, or systems in the incursion state.
-Culturalites look for trips that visit systems with high populations, with additional appeal given for the variety of system allegiances, economies and government types visited.
The number of types of passenger at a particular station will depend on several factors such as the system state, economy, etc.
In addition to other factors, moving passengers also has an associated reputation. Completing a trip successfully, as well as doing things that please each of the different guest types you have on board, such as visiting a conflict zone for thrillseekers, scanning tourist beacons for tourists, visiting stations for culturalites, increases your reputation. Higher reputation results in a greater chance of selling tickets, allowing you to sell them at increased price on your subsequent voyages.
Finishing a high-satisfaction trip also has a chance of generating a VIP charter invitation, wherein you are invited to allow a VIP to charter your vessel, with a series of moderate-to-highly paid objectives to complete for them as part of the trip.