Yup, random missions would be very welcome. Also, perhaps some more purpose to existing missions would be nice - If I've understood the existing cargo delivery missions correctly, you don't actually make a lot of credits performing them - a lot less, actually, than you do with normal trading in a similar span of time.
Not really. You simply cannot purchase 400t of cargo on the planet. And as your contract rating gets better, cargo contracts get more profitable too.
Does it apply to passengers? I occasionally take passengers just for fun, now i have about ten contracts completed, but they still expect me to travel a half a galaxy for a handful of coins.
I like the idea of assassination missions, but as Winston says, the way to handle them would have to be entirely different.
This is the sort of thing that the advanced scanners are good for - the HUD can show IFF information about the ship and the pilot.
So. A likely assassination mission could run as follows:
Player arrives at station and is approached by a shadowy stranger. Player is offered a chance to gain favour with certain...agencies within the GalCop structure if they make use of thier particular talents for them.
Player agrees. Shadowy stranger states that thier commercial interests in the Ara system are being threatened by an individual running a trade route between there and Orgetibe. The player is asked to find the individual and permanently remove him from the trade route. An upgrade to the IFF system is programmed into the player's system to identify the indivdual's ship.
The tactic to do this is for the player to fly the route and keep an eye out for the individual, who will be marked as the target if the IFF system is locked on to him. Then, the player blows him out of the stars and docks at the nearest station to claim the 'reward'.
A load of options can be assigned to this kind of mission. A kidnap mission can also be done this way, with the target ejecting and the pod being scooped. Player would have to return to a particular system to deliver the goods. Reconnaissance missions could also be done, where the player has to find a ship, tail it for a way and allow some sort of camera (scripted into the mission to activate when within a certain range) to take pictures. Stolen goods could be recovered (via scooping), as could kidnapped people. It could even be possible for long-term missions to be coded in using this method, allowing for it to be done in a non-linear way. For instance, the player could be contracted to kidnap someone, then be contracted to retrieve that same person some months later by a different party!!
Other ideas would include escort missions (ID a ship and follow it to the jump point and ensure a successful jump is made: optionally, follow it through the witchspace tunnel and escort it to the next planet), bounty hunting missions, Naval missions (like Spyhunter.oxp, but more advanced) and so on.
The kidnap missions could also make use of the survival masks mentioned in the wiki - you know, the ones that spin a cocoon around the person to stop them dying in space. It's a last ditch system, no propulsion, just a beacon, so unless there is help at hand you are toast anyway. For kidnap missions you could have:
"Fly to Diso and look for ship X, once located destroy it and capture the passenger. Return to here."
Am I right in thinking that there is a reputation system for taxi and cargo missions already in place, does this also include the millitary ones?
The act of talking b*ll*cks whilst waving one's arms about wildly is referred to as testiculation.
