[sinni800]

1: "Hey boy, wanna do something for me?"

2: "Sure.. what is it?"

1: "I've gotta deliver some stuff for the Station of my squad, but I've got something else to do..."

2: "Is it dangerous?"

1: "Nah, It's just one sector away... And there is nothing dangerous near. I pay good, this stuff needs to be delivered!"

2: "Okay then.. Show me the details."

Number 1 opens his mission panel, he generated a deliverage mission a few moments before, types his opposites name and hits enter..

Number 2 gets a mission assignment.
"Deliver box of items to -> SumStation - Cash: 4500 cred if needed mission time < 5 mins. 2000 credits if < 10 mins.

Number 2 doesn't know what stuff is inside it, but that is not of question. He accepts, the stuff is automatically placed inside of his ship and he runs off to complete his assignment as fast as possible.

As he lands on the designated POS, the box which was sealed by No. 1 is being transfered into the station, waiting for it being opened. He leaves the station, having 4000 more credits (yay, he needes less than 5 mins).

Fin

How this stuff should work? Well, we should have some sort of mission editor, which should work like that:

Starting items: *put some equipment in, which will be sealed inside of a box, so he can't just use the stuff and get away*

Order 1: Land at SomePOS Effects: Equipment put into storage of the owner there.. Or: Sell item to market for 0 creds (Can't be bought again)..
Effect 2: Get item XXX out of storage and seal it.

Order 2: Fly back to Solrain Core
Effect 1: Item XXX will be placed inside of the station waiting for Number 1.. Or will be directly given to him...
Something.
That should work with the POS system someone else explained in suggestions. (Clan Storage, Private Storage...) And the trading system could be expanded. If someone can't wait for someone else to bring the stuff to him, he could just open a box for a small fee which has a number like 4828. If anyone wants to give that guy something, he has to put the number in, and it will be held for him. I think that adds to the mission control things very good.

[Jump]

It would add a lot of depth to the game play. It's sounds highly exploitable though. It would need a lot of work to make it fair. Maybe have a job board at each station where you can post jobs and their pay. And add some sort of escrow service to hold and pay the money.

[sinni800]

Yeah, it needs much work. But I think its makeable with post boxes to keep the mission-delivered items in. I think it should be possible to get the law behind someone who runs with ur items, not delivering them for stealing. Also it should be recoverable if he just logs out and doesn't come back (after 2 days perhaps? Or a time which is specified by you? Mission time or something. He gets mission failed, and you your stuff back. A mission system needs people which are honest... But with much work its achievable!

[Wild_Bill]

What about placing ads like "Need 20 Dreams delivered to Sleipneir's Stable, Oct Shore, -43.9, -36.3, 36.5, for 1.2mc each. 10kc bonus for delivery prior to 20:00 Ekoos on 107.7.31". You could place your ads to show up at specific stations, factions or server wide (and charge for the ads?). When someone accepts the mission, it goes away. You would have to be able to place the mission from any station. As Jump says, some form of bank or escrow service would also be necessary.

I've done contract hauling, as most folks have, and it's okay, but a more "mission oriented mechanism" would be even better. Such as :
Item needed.
Delivery location.
Price per unit.
Bonus amount, if any.
Time/date for early delivery bonus.

Might even be able to do the reverse. "Iron for sale. Griswald's Gallows, Amananth Sector, x,y,z. 52c per unit. 5000 units available". When someone accepts the mission, it goes away and the acceptor gets a widget that allows him a single, one time docking pass at Griswald's Gallows.

Good Idea Sinni! Worth putting some more skull sweat into I think.

[Jump]

That's what I meant by job/bulletin boards.

[sinni800]

Yeah, that bulletin board stuff is much easier to make. But I just wanted to contribute my cents to that. I would enjoy a modular mission builder.. Where you can set the goals and objectives yourself.. would it be too complex??

[sinni800]

Yeah, that bulletin board stuff is much easier to make. But I just wanted to contribute my cents to that. I would enjoy a modular mission builder.. Where you can set the goals and objectives yourself.. would it be too complex??

[vorlon31]

sounds cool to me

[Cpt_Blood]

I'm sure EVE does this.

[Lordopic]

Dont we have the link up page that no one use's?

and yes Eve has somthing like like it ( open to abuse ) as do's a few other games that are out there.

[Scorch]

We are working on something we are calling the contract system right now. The idea is for simple contracts between both players and/or AI. For example even in flight you could ask someone to escort you, or ask if a passing by cargo ship needs an escort. This is so that you could do this system completely on the fly instead of having to meet someone at a particular station. We also want you to be able to use the AI as well, maybe you see an AI cargo ship and you get escort it as well.

Its something that is early in development but something I think is critical to enabling more social play. I want to give players a more "official" way of working together.

[Startac]

That is great, I hope it's possible to earn some exp with that missions too, not only money.

[Jump]

Originally Posted by Scorch

We are working on something we are calling the contract system right now. The idea is for simple contracts between both players and/or AI. For example even in flight you could ask someone to escort you, or ask if a passing by cargo ship needs an escort. This is so that you could do this system completely on the fly instead of having to meet someone at a particular station. We also want you to be able to use the AI as well, maybe you see an AI cargo ship and you get escort it as well.

Its something that is early in development but something I think is critical to enabling more social play. I want to give players a more "official" way of working together.

I hope you can code it to prevent protection rackets. I can just see it now.

"Hello lonely little cargo ship. How about hiring me and the boys to escort you the rest of the way so you don't get blown up. You'll accept the offer if you know what's good for you."

That would be a bad thing IMO.