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Taxi Service, non NPC
simman55
Member Posts: 2
I think we should be able to taxi real people around who dont have enough warp fuel to conduct business, it'd be a great way to make money.
Comments
I think that's a good idea, but it would be sort of unsafe to just give away your position in space over a /s or /t command. Maybe you could go to a Starport and you could put your name on a pick-up list that could be seen by anyone at any other port or base in the galaxy. Then you could automically become "assimilated" into whoever picks you up, and you couldn't be attacked, unless an entirely different person attacked both of you. But then again, the person acting as a taxi could take the person he picks up anywhere. But then the person who got picked up could have some sort of emergency detach, for a penalty. But then he'd get out of paying. You know what, this is all way too complicated, I don't think this would work.
BTW, this isn't a flame, I'm just typing as I think.
this idea is nice on paper ... but unforchantly is flawed ...
how would players get picked up??
if the player that is taxing the other player is blown up ... what happens to the other player?? escape pod?? what if you are afk when you finaly find a ride? do you go to the point you were at when they are blown up? do you become an afk free kill?? {two for the price of one??} what happens if a player picks you up and jettisons you in non un space ... do you die or can they kill you??
this isn't a flame either ... sence it is a decent idea ... just has alot of problems and unanswered questions
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WhyteWolf
http://www.javatrix.net/whytewolf
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WhyteWolf
http://www.javatrix.net/whytewolf
Well Tradewars which this game is based on, had a way to tow someones ship. Tradewars also allowed the players to buy AI ships also and the way they moved these around was by towing them or switching to them.
The way it worked was left up to the 2 parties to work out a fee or whatever. The ship towing the other one would suffer a higher warpfuel usage when warping. Since it was towing the other player and his ship both would be subject to attack.
Dude®
Dude®
Ok, here's a couple ideas of how to resolve some of the issues.
1) If you want a tow, you MUST go to a starport.
2) You sign up for a tow at the starport, maybe at a Taxi station.
3) Wait for a fellow player to show up and enter the taxi station to look for fares.
4) Have a dialog with the other player, maybe in game, negotiating final price. The Other player then agrees to the price and there is a CONTRACT. The location going to and amount to pay must be entered into the "Taxi station" computer.
5) Violation of a player contract on both sides would result in a XP penalty. In other words, blowing up your own fare while under contract results in NO XP gained and some maybe even lost. Same goes for a fare attacking his taxi.
6) To pay, destonation must be reached, and the amount is taken out of your account automatically.
This doesn't stop a taxi or fare from attacking and killing you after the ride, and it still relys on people visiting that particular starbase, but it would help a little. You could have a 2 minute invincible timer, in which fare and taxi can't destroy each other after a ride... but with that you're starting to get more and more complicated.
To solve the taxi is attacked thing, you could make the fare be sitting in an equipment bay sort of thing, and if the taxi is killed, the fare isn't, but is dragged along to the place where the taxi respawns.
Ugh. Complicated!
Thoughts?
Lend
I agree this idea is complicated ... it might be doable tho ... thing is about ships that blow up they don't get sent anywhere if they are out of newbie protection ... they just turn into the escape pod ... which could cause problems lagisticly ... however ... if it happens that they have to talk online in order to taxi anywhere anyways means they would probley be online still when the other ship is blown up ... meaning they can still defend them selves ... {sence thrusters don't cause WF}
altho the player could get sent back to the starport they started at if the taxi was shot down ...
as for tradewars I rember that game fondly ... the economics in that game were beatiful ... perfectly balenced ... unlike the hodgepodge of economic hacks with in starport {but the wrikels are starting to get worked out}
the main problem I see with starport is it's unbalenced economics ... evil economic benafits outweight good the taxi rides I feel should give a stronger rep rise ... so that they become less enticing to red players ... yet give off as much money as before the 149 patch {10k vs I think 5k per hop} this might give the yellow players more lean in the game but not overturn the power struggle
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WhyteWolf
http://www.javatrix.net/whytewolf
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WhyteWolf
http://www.javatrix.net/whytewolf
This sort of thingi s easily open to exploitation. Lets say i'm stranded far from a colony of mine with no warp fuel, and i go to a station and set myself open to be taxied back.
I then call up a friend, or simply to go a different computer ( a lot of us have at least 2 on a LAN, especially those of us with our own PCs and then parents/roomates) and create a "dummy" account. I log on with the dummy account, and travel to the place where i was stranded in my real account. I negotiate a price of 0 credits (or something close to it) to be taxied back, and taxi myself back. I pay the next-to-nothing charge.
This is also a problem because it allows for the problem of "inifinite warp fuel," meaning that a person could theorertically create a bunch of dummy accounts and taxi himself all over the place with no impact on his real account. This is a big headache for those of us NOT doing it, not to mention the fact that it eliminates one of the developer's sources of income, AND allows for mega-abuse by powergamers.