My passenger ain't going to make it - what happens?

[Tuccihops]

Hi all,

I am a new, Mostly Harmless, player with 11 kills and just realized my very first passenger is going to be late to his destination. I enjoyed the 600 credit advance but...

I did some searching and couldn't find a post on what happens when the deadline for his arrival ticks by and he is not where he wants to be. I didn't have the navigation aid and I picked the wrong route.

Should I try to get him there a few days late? Should I jettison him in space and become a pirate?

Thanks for any advice to this newbie commander.

[Cody]

Welcome aboard, Commander! My advice: better late than never!

Are you making short jumps wherever possible?

[ffutures]

Briefly, if you are late for his destination and you hit any intermediate stops he will get off and leave and probably won't pay anything. If you arrive after the deadline but your first stop is his destination you should be paid a small amount, how much depends on how late you are, I think.

[Tuccihops]

Thanks much, Cody and ffutures.

As for making short jumps: I've started to, in order to save fuel and get in more trades. But are there other reasons to make short jumps whenever possible?

Also, will my reputation suffer if my passenger misses his date?

Enjoying and thanks again for the advice.

[ffutures]

Two short jumps are usually much faster than one long one to the same destination - jump time rises with the square (I think) of distance.

[Disembodied]

will my reputation suffer if my passenger misses his date?

Very probably, but not as much as it'll suffer if you don't get him to his destination at all!

[Cody]

...jump time rises with the square (I think) of distance.

<nods> A 6ly jump takes 36hrs, whereas a 4ly jump takes 16hrs and a 2ly jump takes 4hrs - you save 16hrs.

[Tuccihops]

Wow. I had no idea about the difference in jump times. Never paid close enough attention to the clock.

It looks like I could save 24 hours by taking three 2ly jumps instead of one 6ly jump. Amazing. There must be some physics reason for this?

I'll have to pay attention and see if the fuel consumption works the same way.

Do you know if the nav computer automatically computes the quickest route versus the shortest?

Thank you again for all the info.

[Cody]

The  ANA is very handy for planning routes - and fuel consumption is unchanged. As for the physics...

[Tuccihops]

Ha! Yes, we pilots can't afford too much time trying to understand the physics of faster than light travel...

as long as we know the practical end and are ready for whatever happens when we come out of witchspace.

[ffutures]

The  ANA is very handy for planning routes - and fuel consumption is unchanged. As for the physics...

The only thing I'd add to that is that the ANA routes don't allow for the time needed to reach a station and refuel etc., or for the dangers of making so many jumps, some of them into low law level systems. Sometimes you find that it suggests a slightly circuitous route that theoretically saves a little time over a direct jump, but in practice doesn't. For example, it once gave me a seven-system route that needed two refuellings to shave 45 minutes off the time for a direct 5 LY jump, it really wasn't worth the hassle.

[Cody]

Yeah, sometimes it's down to choice - save an hour or arrive with more fuel.
On the subject of saving time, manual docking saves twenty minutes.

[Tuccihops]

Interesting. So many nuances to this game. I enjoy docking manually anyway - good to know it also saves me time.

I did think about that problem with making lots of short jumps. I am not so good at escaping or killing pirates, yet. So every new system I enter is another chance of losing my cargo...or my life.