QoL improvements regarding Passenger/Prisoner

[Keukotis]

As it is, Passenger and Prisoner components on your ship take up valuable slots while doing nothing 99% of the time, and the missions involving them don't seem to be any more valuable to complete. Paying ship slots that otherwise do nothing for Officers is fine because Officers themselves are always doing something. This is not the case with Passenger/Prisoner.

There really needs to be an improvement to this. I had a few ideas:

• Ships could have a base passenger/prisoner carrying value (even smaller ships).
  
• Unused Barracks crew slots could be put to use carrying them (yes even prisoners; you can chain them up).
• Barracks components could just add Passenger/Prisoner slots in addition to crew space. I recommend a -5% reward if you use Barracks-granted slots on Passenger missions.
  
• Passenger/Prisoner components can have other benefits so they aren't wasted 99% of the time.
• Multiple of the above.

Of these, my personal favorite is that Barracks components would also add Passenger and Prisoner slots, with more slots for larger Barracks components. There should be a small reward penalty for using these on Passenger missions, just like having Luxury components increases the reward.

I feel the current system just isn't working well and is more annoying to deal with than anything. I currently keep one passenger/prisoner small component and swap it when I need the other because the small component is cheap anyway. But mostly I just avoid those missions.

[fallen]

Cool concepts! Perhaps in a future game. Passenger and Prisoner missions are highly prized by those high efficiency mission players making to make the most money.

[Keukotis]

Are you saying that Passenger/Prisoner missions do award more money? I'm obviously not looking at your code, but anecdotally, I do not see that. Mission rewards seem to have some variability, but at least comparing Passenger and Data Cube missions, consistently they are worth about the same amount for the same jump count. Data Cube missions don't require any wasted ship slots, so this makes them considerably more valuable.

Alternatively, are you saying that just being able to do more missions makes it worthwhile? These P/P missions act like little bombs that clog up the missions offered until you waste a ship slot to do them. It's nice to be able to complete another mission that's in an area where you already have missions, but then I'd still rather have Data Cube or another mission type that doesn't use a ship slot.

Or, are you saying they are more valuable because you can spend a ship slot for +15% value on Passenger missions? That's pretty nice, but you're spending a costly Large or Medium slot to get that.

I'd love to hear more about the game mechanics if you've got the numbers from code handy or if it's not too much trouble for you to get them. If P/P missions really pay more, I would appreciate knowing by how much. Requiring whole slots on the ship is very costly, so these missions would need to be noticeably more valuable to justify that, and I'm just not seeing that. Please consider either increasing the reward, or adding a small number of Prisoner slots to Cargo Holds and Passenger slots to Barracks components. These missions feel very undervalued for their cost to complete.

[mishaadams198828]

I am no mathematician so I haven't run numbers but honestly I have made bank in a short time by fitting a medium ship with a bunch of passenger modules and then you just queue up a bunch of missions and profit. Throw in some smart trade moves by planning your ports of call in advance and arrive at each with goods they need and in a short time you can finance a mass 9000 carrier capable of waging war by itself. Key point in making the money is to have as many passenger or prisoners as you can empty space does not make money. Also you have to factor costs of other missions like getting wounded and needing medicine or getting your ship shot up and spending money (and time! Time=money) on repairs. Shipping passengers is relatively safe work if you have ways to avoid encounters peacefully like smugglers handshake.

[Keukotis]

Every Prisoner mission I've seen included combat too. Passenger don't seem to, so that's fair to compare the cost of battles for those. But missions in general award great money; doing missions seems to be by far the best source of income. What I'm wondering is if Passenger/Prisoner missions are actually awarding more than other types. I don't see that they are, and if they aren't, there's little point to picking one instead of the cheaper-to-maintain missions that don't require a slot on your ship.

Again, I'd love to know from the devs if they do award more and I'm just getting unlucky rolls when I see them appear in mission offerings. If they aren't awarding more, they really should be because the opportunity cost is so much higher than other missions types (a ship component slot is a big deal). Or their opportunity cost should be lowered by adding Passenger/Prisoner slots to Barracks/Cargo Hold. They just feel really underbalanced compared to other mission types to me.