Hello ladies and gentlemen!
I've been saying that luxury cabins and missions are somewhat pointless for a long time, and I thought I should actually put all my thoughts together on the subject, make it more debatable and constructive.
So, on the subject of the luxury missions which are supposed to make luxury cabins worthwhile...
I have no doubt FD has spreadsheets of how things should be working, and network data of how things "are" working. It's clear that, in the grand scheme of things, or at least theorethically, luxury cabins are balanced to provide some advantage. The following is only my personal observations from a LOT of time spent hunting for good passenger missions.
1) As a triple-elite, allied to almost every faction in my high-population tourism-economy imperial dedicated passenger mission hub, I like to think I have access to "The best" contracts available. My luck might be another matter entirely, but I have no control over that...
2) In practice, pound for pound, the average luxury missions has a higher payout. A Luxury mission, for the same amount of people, demanding the same skill level, at roughly the same distance/number of stops, with roughly the same quirks (secretive, criminal, demanding, etc.) will always pay better than an equivalent first class mission.
3) However, since luxury missions are subject to the same random fluctiations as other missions, their parameters are rarely optimal : Even at triple-elite ranking, the amount of missions that demand - and have pay tailored for - aimless ranked pilots is disturbingly high.
4) The sheer rarity of luxury missions makes those fluctuations even worse, as the amount of worthwhile luxury missions (whose parameters lead to a better payout) is pretty much "divided" by whatever rarity factor they were imposed.
5) Given the following, finding the "best" mission (for sightseeing : 6-8 people, demanding, secretive, criminal, 2-3 stops, elite ranking) is nearly impossible. I have personally never seen the planets align in such a way.
6) However, finding such a template among the less-demanding passenger classes (from economy to first class) will be massively easier as they are much more prevalent.
7) Even the average "apex" economy sightseeing mission, which is empirically more prevalent than luxury missions in their entirety, pays better than the average "non-apex" luxury mission. The best I was offered for a buisness mission was 20 mil, once, but as those missions are a lot more numerous, the odds of finding pearls amongst them are much higher, while the best luxury missions I have found didn't go above 7 mil - once again, sample size decreases the odds of ever seeing a valuable luxury run.
8) Statistically, given that lower class missions are more profitable in the end (and take a lot less time to find, which results in more profit but also, most importantly, more fun boosting in and out of mailslots), luxury class cabins serve only to reduce the ship's passenger capacity, thusly reducing the amount of easier-to-get valuable economy to first class contracts - which passenger count may exceed the capacity of said luxury cabins.
9) My first conclusion is that using luxury cabins constitutes a direct nerf to the potential of the ship, in terms of what missins can be gotten in general and of very valuable missions in particular.
10) If you accept this, the obvious corrolary is that passenger ships, whose selling point is that they can embark luxury cabins, don't actually have an advantage over other ships as far as ferrying passengers goes.
11) From there on, the true defining factor of a ship's worth for passenger missions is a : its jump range, b : its cargo capacity, c : its ability to defend itself (either by fleeing or defeating pirates).
12) It is therefore clear that the best passenger ships of all time would be the anaconda, followed by the Imperial Cutter. One has the best jump range, and the other, the best cargo capacity. Ultimately, thought, the Anaconda is probably the best all-round choice (again!) given how quickly it can travel and the horrible grind that afflicts the other.
13) Given how severely limited dedicated passenger liners are at pretty much everything, and how dearly they are supposed to pay in efficiency for being able to use luxury cabins, it is not surprising to see that the bigger the passenger liner is, the more luxury cabins it can bear, the worst it appears to be : As of 2.3, The Dolphin is an amazing little ship, the Orca is now very, very good as well, and the Beluga remains a helpless brick with a massive fuel tank. Its small mass reduction has barely made any difference at all, and did not make a dent in how comically, being the upper-1% "apex" dedicated passenger liner, it compares to the run-of-the-mill, multi-purpose anaconda.
Maybe the 'Conda is better than the other whales because it's a multi-porpoise ship? Huh? Huh? Okay, I'll go take my pills now...
Seriously, the only advantage I can find to the Beluga is how it can boost full-speed through a mailslot (I, personally, welcome our oversized fin overlords) to avoid scans and decelerate powerfully enough to not hit the docking bay's back end. That's it. It's cool, but it isin't the best selling argument.
So, that's my analysis. I'll be thrilled to see what others have to say about it.
As for constructive suggestions... I'm afraid I don,t have much to suggest that hasen't already been written here.
I think making the rank ceiling of available missions more comparable to player rank would go a long way to alleviate many frustrating issues. As a triple-elite, I normally really, really do not bother with low-ranking missions. Every aimless-level quest the BGS throws at me is just taking the spot of a potentially better one.
Overall thought, I think more in-depth changes are in order, and I don't know what FD could do with the BGS to remedy this particular issue... It's always more complicated than it seems.
Thanks for your time, and fly safe!
I've been saying that luxury cabins and missions are somewhat pointless for a long time, and I thought I should actually put all my thoughts together on the subject, make it more debatable and constructive.
So, on the subject of the luxury missions which are supposed to make luxury cabins worthwhile...
I have no doubt FD has spreadsheets of how things should be working, and network data of how things "are" working. It's clear that, in the grand scheme of things, or at least theorethically, luxury cabins are balanced to provide some advantage. The following is only my personal observations from a LOT of time spent hunting for good passenger missions.
1) As a triple-elite, allied to almost every faction in my high-population tourism-economy imperial dedicated passenger mission hub, I like to think I have access to "The best" contracts available. My luck might be another matter entirely, but I have no control over that...
2) In practice, pound for pound, the average luxury missions has a higher payout. A Luxury mission, for the same amount of people, demanding the same skill level, at roughly the same distance/number of stops, with roughly the same quirks (secretive, criminal, demanding, etc.) will always pay better than an equivalent first class mission.
3) However, since luxury missions are subject to the same random fluctiations as other missions, their parameters are rarely optimal : Even at triple-elite ranking, the amount of missions that demand - and have pay tailored for - aimless ranked pilots is disturbingly high.
4) The sheer rarity of luxury missions makes those fluctuations even worse, as the amount of worthwhile luxury missions (whose parameters lead to a better payout) is pretty much "divided" by whatever rarity factor they were imposed.
5) Given the following, finding the "best" mission (for sightseeing : 6-8 people, demanding, secretive, criminal, 2-3 stops, elite ranking) is nearly impossible. I have personally never seen the planets align in such a way.
6) However, finding such a template among the less-demanding passenger classes (from economy to first class) will be massively easier as they are much more prevalent.
7) Even the average "apex" economy sightseeing mission, which is empirically more prevalent than luxury missions in their entirety, pays better than the average "non-apex" luxury mission. The best I was offered for a buisness mission was 20 mil, once, but as those missions are a lot more numerous, the odds of finding pearls amongst them are much higher, while the best luxury missions I have found didn't go above 7 mil - once again, sample size decreases the odds of ever seeing a valuable luxury run.
8) Statistically, given that lower class missions are more profitable in the end (and take a lot less time to find, which results in more profit but also, most importantly, more fun boosting in and out of mailslots), luxury class cabins serve only to reduce the ship's passenger capacity, thusly reducing the amount of easier-to-get valuable economy to first class contracts - which passenger count may exceed the capacity of said luxury cabins.
9) My first conclusion is that using luxury cabins constitutes a direct nerf to the potential of the ship, in terms of what missins can be gotten in general and of very valuable missions in particular.
10) If you accept this, the obvious corrolary is that passenger ships, whose selling point is that they can embark luxury cabins, don't actually have an advantage over other ships as far as ferrying passengers goes.
11) From there on, the true defining factor of a ship's worth for passenger missions is a : its jump range, b : its cargo capacity, c : its ability to defend itself (either by fleeing or defeating pirates).
12) It is therefore clear that the best passenger ships of all time would be the anaconda, followed by the Imperial Cutter. One has the best jump range, and the other, the best cargo capacity. Ultimately, thought, the Anaconda is probably the best all-round choice (again!) given how quickly it can travel and the horrible grind that afflicts the other.
13) Given how severely limited dedicated passenger liners are at pretty much everything, and how dearly they are supposed to pay in efficiency for being able to use luxury cabins, it is not surprising to see that the bigger the passenger liner is, the more luxury cabins it can bear, the worst it appears to be : As of 2.3, The Dolphin is an amazing little ship, the Orca is now very, very good as well, and the Beluga remains a helpless brick with a massive fuel tank. Its small mass reduction has barely made any difference at all, and did not make a dent in how comically, being the upper-1% "apex" dedicated passenger liner, it compares to the run-of-the-mill, multi-purpose anaconda.
Maybe the 'Conda is better than the other whales because it's a multi-porpoise ship? Huh? Huh? Okay, I'll go take my pills now...
Seriously, the only advantage I can find to the Beluga is how it can boost full-speed through a mailslot (I, personally, welcome our oversized fin overlords) to avoid scans and decelerate powerfully enough to not hit the docking bay's back end. That's it. It's cool, but it isin't the best selling argument.
So, that's my analysis. I'll be thrilled to see what others have to say about it.
As for constructive suggestions... I'm afraid I don,t have much to suggest that hasen't already been written here.
I think making the rank ceiling of available missions more comparable to player rank would go a long way to alleviate many frustrating issues. As a triple-elite, I normally really, really do not bother with low-ranking missions. Every aimless-level quest the BGS throws at me is just taking the spot of a potentially better one.
Overall thought, I think more in-depth changes are in order, and I don't know what FD could do with the BGS to remedy this particular issue... It's always more complicated than it seems.
Thanks for your time, and fly safe!