Oolite Bulletins

So, I have got myself a Python, Fortune of Pleiades, and have started the interstellar 'arm' of Eddie Stobart.

I thought I would also dabble in the luxury liner business so fitted out a couple of lovely cabins, complete with all the latest cryo-sleep stasis technology for those particularly long trips..

So far so good, until I got a bit too clever for my own good, and partly because of the somewhat cumbersome contract interface in 1.76 I ended up selecting the wrong passenger (ie one whos destination was the opposite end of the galaxy
to the cargo contract I was hauling) I didnt even realise this until after a few jumps..

Is there any way of getting out of this contract without a loss of reputation? If I have built up quite a good reputation and then fail a contract, will I go back to square one? what happens when this poor sap finds himself at the wrong end of the galaxy? (as the cargo contract is more valuable!)

I cant even seem to get rid of my now unwanted passenger, and replace them with a new one who actually wants to go in the same direction as me! Any ideas? do I just have to wait for the contract to expire? or do I have to get them to their destiantion, no matter how late?

You could slip some Trumbles™ into his cabin. He might than 'voluntarily' leave your ship.

Or eject from your ship. Actually I am not even sure if this will cancel the contracts, and if yes, if it will influence your reputation.

I was late with a passenger once or twice, and they got angry and left of their own accord. I didn't notice any decline in reputation, but then again I had never done a cargo contract (I was in a Cobra Mk 1)

Yes, failing a contract will cost you a little of your reputation, but only a little. It's not back to square one.

Also, the passenger and contract markets are completely independent of each other, with two distinct reputations. One does not influence the other.

Thanks for the info folks.

Eric, thats a great idea!

Knowing my luck, the trumbles would just eat the 40-odd Tons of luxuries I'm carrying for my cargo contract!

StarTrader wrote:

Knowing my luck, the trumbles would just eat the 40-odd Tons of luxuries I'm carrying for my cargo contract!

Well.. only for an appetiser.. after that, they get serious..

Eric Walch wrote:

Or eject from your ship. Actually I am not even sure if this will cancel the contracts, and if yes, if it will influence your reputation.

When you eject, a new ship is waiting at the mainStation. And that ship, magically, contains the passengers. Ejecting takes time, so one passenger did leave my ship based on time. Delivering the remaining 2 became suddenly more difficult because of the lost time.

So, passenger contracts were not cancelled. That probably means that cargo contract also stay active, but on ejecting, you do loose your cargo. That will be an interesting problem for a commander who wants to keep his reputation. Ejecting is a real no-no when doing contracts.

Eric Walch wrote:

Ejecting takes time...

Yeah... and it can take days, not just hours!

Eric Walch wrote:

When you eject, a new ship is waiting at the mainStation. And that ship, magically, contains the passengers.

Am I the only one who thinks that's just plain daft!

Smivs wrote:

Eric Walch wrote:

When you eject, a new ship is waiting at the mainStation. And that ship, magically, contains the passengers.

Am I the only one who thinks that's just plain daft!

Well, will anyone else take them on if someone shot down their previous transport? It might have been an assassination rather than routine piracy.

Eric Walch wrote:

And that ship, magically, contains the passengers.

I don't do passenger runs, which leads to a question: is the passenger still there if you happen to eject in their destination system?

cim wrote:

Well, will anyone else take them on if someone shot down their previous transport? It might have been an assassination rather than routine piracy.

<chortles>

cim wrote:

Smivs wrote:

Eric Walch wrote:

When you eject, a new ship is waiting at the mainStation. And that ship, magically, contains the passengers.

Am I the only one who thinks that's just plain daft!

Well, will anyone else take them on if someone shot down their previous transport? It might have been an assassination rather than routine piracy.

"It's no bug, it's a feature!"

Smivs wrote:

Am I the only one who thinks that's just plain daft!

On rethinking, it can be explained when you assume that the passengers auto-inject also when the captain ejects. Than it has some logic that they all arrive simultaneously at the main station.

Eric Walch wrote:

On rethinking, it can be explained when you assume that the passengers auto-inject also when the captain ejects

Rather than trying to explain it away in various fictional ways, why don't we just call it a bug and fix it?

another_commander wrote:

Eric Walch wrote:

On rethinking, it can be explained when you assume that the passengers auto-inject also when the captain ejects

Rather than trying to explain it away in various fictional ways, why don't we just call it a bug and fix it?

Where's the fun in that?

On a more serious note, some text and maybe a random cancellation of some of the passenger contracts would be cool. So that you would get a message like "XX was eaten by space cannibals." wich could maybe be even worse for your reputation than just sold as slave.