Oolite Bulletins

He didn't pay you? You should have sold him as a slave...or just jettisoned him into space!

Absolutely! Speaking as an ex-cabbie, you ride, you pay - or else..

If you're unhappy with the service, don't leave a tip. If you're really that unhappy with the service, you pay, make sure to get a receipt, and take it up with the relevant authorities. But if you exit without paying, that's an offence. Depending on the circumstances, theft, or fraud.

(speaking of which, is there any tipping for speedy service?)

Diziet Sma wrote:

(speaking of which, is there any tipping for speedy service?)

There will be in the next main release of Taxi Galactica

Pleb wrote:

...the Standard Edition (based on stock-game models) in the next release...

Do you have a 'stock' Moray taxi, or would you like one?

Diziet Sma wrote:

Speaking as an ex-cabbie, you ride, you pay - or else..

Speaking as an ex-radio controller, if one of my cabs had a troublesome punter onboard, and called a 'Mayday', I'd have a bunch of cabs to that location PDQ!

El Viejo wrote:

Diziet Sma wrote:

Speaking as an ex-cabbie, you ride, you pay - or else..

Speaking as an ex-radio controller, if one of my cabs had a troublesome punter onboard, and called a 'Mayday', I'd have a bunch of cabs to that location PDQ!

Hehe - ever got a drunken passenger .-)

Diziet Sma wrote:

Absolutely! Speaking as an ex-cabbie, you ride, you pay - or else..

If you're unhappy with the service, don't leave a tip. If you're really that unhappy with the service, you pay, make sure to get a receipt, and take it up with the relevant authorities. But if you exit without paying, that's an offence. Depending on the circumstances, theft, or fraud.

(speaking of which, is there any tipping for speedy service?)

It could actually be pretty cool to get paid no matter how badly you performed, but then get a strict warning from your boss because the customer reported you. The report could then be some kind of random rant from the passenger that you showed up late, smelled of booze, flew the ship reckless or the like.
After 2 warnings your boss could then demote you by either decreasing your reputation, temporarily disable you fuel injectors (you know, because of your reckless flying) for the next 3 (or another number of random rides), disable your HyperRadio so you aren't distracted etc etc. All creating the incentive to do better and work your way up and not taking on missions you cannot fulfill.

edit: While dreaming it would also be pretty funny to have a random script where the passenger would tell you to slow down, come to a halt because of the tremendous G force your craft is pulling, or turn off the radio because he/she didn't like the station or the volume. This would then have consequences on your final payout, tip, reputation or reporting to your boss

There are some good ideas there. These ponderings are about in-system taxi. I'll probably move to my own thread, when I'll publish the first WIP version. But for now, I'll borrow Pleb's thread as this is an addon to the Taxi Galactica and these ideas might benefit us both.

I'll have to think about the one about reputation to in-system contracts. It could just simply affect to the number of contracts offered to you. Too many missed deadlines could also invalidate your taxi comms device, so you would have to buy it again, if you want to get more in-flight contracts.

Tipping is also a good idea. I'll put that in too. So the fee for in-system contracts could be: base price + price/km + extra for hurrying customer + tip for speedy service.

Not paying vs paying something is a bit problematic. ATM, if you miss the deadline, the passenger will leave your taxi, wherever you dock and does not pay. That's a simple solution to overcome game's own passenger handling. I have to get rid of passenger who is overdue quickly because the games own passenger handling seems to step in, when the passenger is greatly overdue. After that it seems that I can't remove that passenger the way I want to do it and it will also affect the games own passenger reputation. I don't want to do that. IMO these in-system contracts must be kept different from the games own reputation system. Then again passenger paying for arriving any station sound like a money machine. Hmmm. I'll probably stick with the simple solution. After all, it's a game.

Smivs wrote:

Do you have a 'stock' Moray taxi, or would you like one?

I don't have a stock one yet, but if you'd like to texture one for me I would be most appreciative.

spara wrote:

Then again passenger paying for arriving any station sound like a money machine.

Agreed, I wouldn't want these Taxi missions to be considered 'easy money', which is why I'm improving the AI used on the pirates you encounter when doing missions.

Pleb wrote:

Smivs wrote:

Do you have a 'stock' Moray taxi, or would you like one?

I don't have a stock one yet, but if you'd like to texture one for me I would be most appreciative.

<Smivs grabs a Moray and heads off to the paintshop...>

Svengali wrote:

El Viejo wrote:

Diziet Sma wrote:

Speaking as an ex-cabbie, you ride, you pay - or else..

Speaking as an ex-radio controller, if one of my cabs had a troublesome punter onboard, and called a 'Mayday', I'd have a bunch of cabs to that location PDQ!

Hehe - ever got a drunken passenger .-)

More than a few.. "a royal PITA" doesn't even begin to describe them..

Pleb wrote:

Smivs wrote:

Do you have a 'stock' Moray taxi, or would you like one?

I don't have a stock one yet, but if you'd like to texture one for me I would be most appreciative.

Something like this?

Wow, this is perfect smivs! Thanks for creating another addition for my Taxi fleet!

Switeck wrote:

Pleb wrote:

Agreed I didn't ever want commodities to be bought/sold there, as I dislike there being places in the same system where you could trade back and forth and make 'easy money'. It discourages players, especially 'Jamesons', from going out and exploring the ooniverse... .

This is why if commodities are allowed they must be very close to the same price as the main station. Quantities should almost always be tiny unless it's a dedicated mining facility. Your Ad Here OXP is not a regular part of my game because they have silly prices....

Which just goes to show you, "fun" is subjective. I *like* discovering these in-system trade opportunities, to me, it makes the game more interesting, not less, and it rewards exploration and discovery. To me, oolite is about more options, not less. And the limited quantities available places a cap on what can be traded in one system at one time. I like getting a good deal on narcs at the RH seedy space bar, it's not a guaranteed big haul though because narc prices are highly variable. And I had to fight and claw my way to the bar through a very dangerous anarchy system in the first place! Not to mention the very, very dangerous criminal gang furballs that frequently break out around the seedy space bars. More than once I've been stuck with a load of weed I couldn't dump for a massive profit even after jumping around through several systems. It adds options and variability to the game and to me that's what it's all about.

Smivs wrote:

Pleb wrote:

...the Standard Edition (based on stock-game models) in the next release...

Do you have a 'stock' Moray taxi, or would you like one?

FYI I updated Dertien's Moray Starboat "Z Groovy YellOo Cab" to work with the Griff resources.