I miss the old missions to transport goods around. Space trucking.

[Raptor34]

I'm watching people play Death Stranding 2 and I think back to X2 where I had a Dolphin and went around slowly earning money by transporting all those non-economy cargo around. You know, like waste products, store signs or whatever. Those were fun and I miss those.
Like, we have the Hyperion with it's large cargo bay now right? Yet at the same time it also feels kinda pointless because those missions are gone now.

[Falcrack]

I would like a way to make personal trade reservations. So that just like with NPCs, we can set up a series of buy and sell orders that the player could fulfill manually.

It would use the mission guidance system, guiding us to the next station, with a yellow trade icon in the trade menu to indicate we are buying or selling the reserved item for the preset price.

To go one step further, if we sit down at a ship with a current set of orders, those orders turn into a mission with yellow guidance markers.

[adeine]

I'm watching people play Death Stranding 2 and I think back to X2 where I had a Dolphin and went around slowly earning money by transporting all those non-economy cargo around. You know, like waste products, store signs or whatever. Those were fun and I miss those.
Like, we have the Hyperion with it's large cargo bay now right? Yet at the same time it also feels kinda pointless because those missions are gone now.

Most of the player-centric provisions are gone, not just the missions themselves. X4 is only really designed for empire building.

There's no proper trade menu to use yourself, you can't reserve wares/trades the way other pilots can, you can't properly dock/trade with build storages, and the list goes on.

[Raptor34]

I'm watching people play Death Stranding 2 and I think back to X2 where I had a Dolphin and went around slowly earning money by transporting all those non-economy cargo around. You know, like waste products, store signs or whatever. Those were fun and I miss those.
Like, we have the Hyperion with it's large cargo bay now right? Yet at the same time it also feels kinda pointless because those missions are gone now.

Most of the player-centric provisions are gone, not just the missions themselves. X4 is only really designed for empire building.

There's no proper trade menu to use yourself, you can't reserve wares/trades the way other pilots can, you can't properly dock/trade with build storages, and the list goes on.

Otoh I don't actually care about those. Because those still require you to find your own trade routes. I'm talking about those missions where you can just deliver some random cargo and they'll pay you a couple million. But in the grand scheme of things doesn't actually affect the game universe at large.
And it also gives you a sense that there is an underlying civilian economy that you don't see. You don't build signboards and games for instance, but you can get missions to transport them around. Or waste disposal.

[Agrefits]

I second this. More love for space trucking.

[jlehtone]

There are still three special individuals that desire stuff, recover from lockbox missions, and some "bring this or that" generic ones (including the black marketeers). And some passengers here or there. Granted, not quite the same.

[Agrefits]

There are still three special individuals that desire stuff, recover from lockbox missions, and some "bring this or that" generic ones (including the black marketeers). And some passengers here or there. Granted, not quite the same.

And none of those Mission actually require you to have an L or M Transport for hauling bulky Cargo .. the only generic mission is the resupply X amount of wares in y amount of time like food shortages etc, which are highly dependent on the current stockpiles in the system and mostly feature only few amounts in late game economies.

[Raptor34]

There are still three special individuals that desire stuff, recover from lockbox missions, and some "bring this or that" generic ones (including the black marketeers). And some passengers here or there. Granted, not quite the same.

I'm looking for transport missions though. Like well, trucking. Logistics.
And I most definitely do not want to source things myself. Besides, none of these pay as well as X2 transport missions anyway. Though that might also be partly because you have JDs back then.

Like what I imagine is I'll pick up the cargo, then go tell my pilot to fly over to deliver it while I sit back and relax. It's the same as using autopilot back then anyway.

[grapedog]

There are those war guild missions to deliver wares... like they need so much of ware 1, 2, 3, and 4....

Though I agree with the OP, it would be nice if there were some missions like that. We have missions to go out and find a resource and mine a little of it. No reason we can't have a trade one as well.

[Raptor34]

There are those war guild missions to deliver wares... like they need so much of ware 1, 2, 3, and 4....

Though I agree with the OP, it would be nice if there were some missions like that. We have missions to go out and find a resource and mine a little of it. No reason we can't have a trade one as well.

I don't want that go out and find part though. I hate that part actually.
What I want is they hand me the goods, I go deliver it. Like Space Fedex. Or like space Maersk.

[vvvvvvvv]

There are still three special individuals that desire stuff, recover from lockbox missions, and some "bring this or that" generic ones (including the black marketeers). And some passengers here or there. Granted, not quite the same.

"Fill station shortages" missions from guilds.

[jlehtone]

Besides, none of these pay as well as X2 transport missions anyway.

Like what I imagine is I'll pick up the cargo, then go tell my pilot to fly over to deliver it while I sit back and relax.

What I want is they hand me the goods, I go deliver it.

Fair.

There are indeed no delivery errands, unless you count the "take passenger somewhere".
Even that looks like you have to "source" the person, as you can accept the mission in space.
In X2 you were already docked when you got the mission and hence the "loading of cargo" was trivial.

transporting all those non-economy cargo around

In X4 the non-economy stuff fits into inventory and AI pilots cannot deliver their inventory to anywhere by your PHQ.
We have "economy wares" that need the truck, and inventory items that any ship (even the suit) can carry.

In X3R I had M5, M4, M3+, TS, TP, etc to match any task, delivery, and requirement that the customers could desire.
I'm not sad that my offer to do a job is not turned down simply because I saw the mission announcement in wrong ship, as X2 could do.

Some plot missions may have "take this gizmo to Mr. Plas'bo". There certainly could be generic missions like that too.
Obvious questions are:
* What if something happens to the cargo? The penalty for failure
* Does it have to be the player, who does the drop?


Lastly, the size of the reward. I've heard that delivery drivers do not get filthy wealthy. The companies that offer those services sound like combo of Teladi (cut costs) and Split (use slaves). Naturally, X Universe has different culture.

[vvvvvvvv]

Some plot missions may have "take this gizmo to Mr. Plas'bo". There certainly could be generic missions like that too.
Obvious questions are:
* What if something happens to the cargo? The penalty for failure
* Does it have to be the player, who does the drop?

Thinking about it, Elite has this type of mission handled well.

* There's separate mission board just for passenger travel. Though you never see the passengers.
* There are missions "deliver 500 tons of organic waste to Sol". The cargo is tagged, tracked, and if lost, you get penalties. The organic waste is unique and irreplaceable and it has to be this specific container and not any other.

Those mission types can be borrowed.

X4 only has missions to deliver mission items, and you have to source them. Oh, and there's QUE communist space hippies and their barter. Though once again you source the stuff yourself.

[grapedog]

There are ways to play with it too.


Dangerous missions: Hey, take this Tern Vanguard and deliver these wares... but we warned, there are some groups of pirates that really want this shipment. This is why we're hiring an outsider/an expert... it's a risky job, and we'll pay you blah blah blah when you land. Go talk to our man on the station once the goods are delivered.

Speed missions: hey, we need you to deliver these wares to these three stations, and we need it done pronto! Sorry there are no highways to help speed you on your way, but there are a lot of asteroids sadly. Good luck!

Or the timelines mission type.... try to make as much money as you can as quickly as you can.... those were some of the more fun timeslines missions for me.

[Raptor34]

transporting all those non-economy cargo around

In X4 the non-economy stuff fits into inventory and AI pilots cannot deliver their inventory to anywhere by your PHQ.
We have "economy wares" that need the truck, and inventory items that any ship (even the suit) can carry.

In X3R I had M5, M4, M3+, TS, TP, etc to match any task, delivery, and requirement that the customers could desire.
I'm not sad that my offer to do a job is not turned down simply because I saw the mission announcement in wrong ship, as X2 could do.

Some plot missions may have "take this gizmo to Mr. Plas'bo". There certainly could be generic missions like that too.
Obvious questions are:
* What if something happens to the cargo? The penalty for failure
* Does it have to be the player, who does the drop?


Lastly, the size of the reward. I've heard that delivery drivers do not get filthy wealthy. The companies that offer those services sound like combo of Teladi (cut costs) and Split (use slaves). Naturally, X Universe has different culture.

By non-economy I don't mean inventory. I mean the random stuff that basically do not exist otherwise and are only generated for the mission. X2 did not have any production of radioactive waste for instance. Yet it can generate missions for transport of it.

For failure. Just the same as failing any other mission. Cancel the mission or whatever and you don't get paid. There is no reason this needs to be treated any differently in X4. Maybe in X5 if the mission system is expanded since as is, missions are still overly simple. Not like they are miniquests or anything where having a more complex system is necessary. You basically do a task and you get paid, no different from fetch quests in RPGs.

As for whether it needs to be the player... Probably not imo. I think the simplest way would be generating a mission trade offer, like delivering BoFu to Boso in your HQ in the Boron questline.
I think having some kind of delivery board would be nice, but forcing the player to actually walk out is also a PITA. But having that option would be nice of course.

Though thinking about it, just tying it to the mission system might not be the best idea, so why not a delivery board. It'll just generate transport jobs. And occasionally you can get a high value one with strict time limits. We don't have JDs now, so we can't just take a fat slow Dolphin and jump everywhere for the time limited ones. It'll incentivize players to properly prepare a transport with a good mix of speed and cargo capacity.

[jlehtone]

By non-economy I don't mean inventory. I mean the random stuff that basically do not exist otherwise and are only generated for the mission. X2 did not have any production of radioactive waste for instance.

I know. X2 did not have inventory (and installed ship equipment and passengers did consume cargo space too).
Is there any ware in X4 that goes to cargobay and is not produced nor traded?
X4 puts all the "do not exist otherwise" items into the inventory.
Size of X2 Dolphin did limit how much Argnu Beef you could carry.
In X4 you cannot farm beef, but you can carry zillion of them in your backpack. Beef is now random stuff

(Random) ware that is neither produced nor traded (normally) and goes to cargobay would be a "third category" in X4.
You would have the deliver/eject/hoard options.

I don't say that that would be a bad idea. Not at all. Whether devs want to craft them is an another story.

X2 had "deliver documents" / "factory inspection tour" missions too. The closest in X4 is the "Find/tag (Xenon) ship".
Delivery of "classified documents" should definitely not use cargobay. They surely fit into inventory.

For failure. Just the same as failing any other mission. Cancel the mission or whatever and you don't get paid.
...
You basically do a task and you get paid, no different from fetch quests in RPGs.

There is a difference between "trade" and "delivery".

In trade you purchase wares and own them until you sell them. The "reward" is the price difference. The "penalty" of losing the cargo is loss of the money that you did invest on the wares.

In delivery you do not own the wares at any point. You get paid for successful transportation of the goods and you are responsible for the freight while it is in your ships. If your task was to deliver a diamond worth a billion (although no black marketeer pays for it) and you lose it, then surely the owner wants compensation. Goners do not sell insurance any more. Losing many parcels should affect your reputation as delivery company as well.

[Scoob]

I've posted on this topic myself a number of times... I too think the old-skool way of making early-game credits is missing. I mean, we can see a station that's FULL of a ware it produces - great BUY opportunity, right? Nope! Much of the time even if the player DOES find a buyer, there's a chance they'll be offering LESS than you paid. Pointless even trying.

Thought: I wonder how much of an adjustment to the game it would be if the max Buy price had less overlap with the Sell price when stocks are low/high respectively. I.e. an "almost empty" SPP would still sell EC's for slightly less than an "almost full" consumer of ECs... I suspect that'd have some quite significant consequences in isolation lol. However, often the overlap in sell/buy pricing is just too much, and there are very few viable trades that are practical for a player-flown ship, due to not being able to lock-in a price. I mean, as an example, the player might find a station that's almost full of a ware it produces, so it's being offered at ta very low price (considering standing). Let say the Player can buy 1,000 units at this rock-bottom price. They then find a consuming station that needs 5,000 units of that cheaply-bought ware. However, said station is offering LESS than that rock-bottom purchase price, so despite the station wanting the ware, there's still no viable trade opportunity. All this become less of an issue - or likely not even noticed - once the player has their own stations and ships working for them. However, during that very early "*I* want to be a space trucker" stage, it's significant.

Once the player has discovered various stations, and some trades can be made, sure they can order a ship of theirs to buy/sell - locking in the prices the instance the order is given. A lone player, wanting to ship the goods themself though... no way to lock those prices in.

I've tried creating "Humble Trader" style game starts. Giving myself a basic M-Class Transporter and a few thousand credits. Invariably, it's a totally non-viable way to make credits UNLESS you get lucky or you actually enjoy the pain of flying around with a full cargo hold of a ware no one wants...

I'd like to see plentiful MISSION offers for trades, stations WANT to work after all. Have the game identify the seller and buyer and give the player a contract to satisfy the need. Needs to be dynamic, based on the actual economy of course, no fake deals. Once the player accepts the contract, they have a set time to complete the trade. Done. Personal space trucker role-play unlocked.

Also, we know that the Trading Licence thingy gives full visibility on ALL station's Buy/Sell Offers for a faction. Great. But we ONLY get that available at 20 rep, and the cost can be expensive, depending on what route to rank/wealth you've taken thus far. How about a short-term version of that? The Player pays say 100k credits and it has pricing visibility for an hour. Something like that. These suggestions give options in the early-game for the lone Transporter (for example) Pilot. Could be leveraged by ships not directly flown by the player too. Plus, short-term pricing visibility - for a fee - helps the player with a few more ships in their fleet more readily.

For those who like space trucking, a question for you... Once you have your own stations, or even full economy, up and running, do you ever shift wares yourself or are you ordering ships around? I fall in the latter group as I feel my individual shipping actions are such a small part of the overall economy that I don't feel that I'm making a difference. I do sometime ride-along on a Transporter or Freighter while it goes about its business, as I can of course continue to issue orders wherever I am.

Bottom line: Some viable options for early-game space trucking would be GREAT. Perhaps the odd "special" mission that demands the player ship something personally due to reasons. How about "Our regular Captain had a bad space curry last night, can you step in? The trade requirement is "real" and tied to the actual game economy, but maybe wrap it in a little immersion to sweeten the deal...

Early-game for me generally plays out the same. I'll shoot a Pirate, make them bail and either upgrade my personal ship & repeat, or sell the acquired ship. Very good early-game money for those who like a little combat. I'd like a more viable pure-trade route to riches.

[grapedog]

Early-game for me generally plays out the same. I'll shoot a Pirate, make them bail and either upgrade my personal ship & repeat, or sell the acquired ship. Very good early-game money for those who like a little combat. I'd like a more viable pure-trade route to riches.

I'm the same, I spend early game getting ships to bail to either sell or use.

Some kind of trade option would be nice. I'd also like to see more mining options... go fill your hold with this in maybe slightly dangerous territory, and bring it to this station.

Some more options for making early game credits at a reasonable rate would be nice.

[GCU Grey Area]

For those who like space trucking, a question for you... Once you have your own stations, or even full economy, up and running, do you ever shift wares yourself or are you ordering ships around?

Do a fair amount of that in my games, even after I've got to the stage of owning several stations & have a significant freighter fleet. I do a lot of missions (tend to average about 100 per in-game day) & a significant proportion of those involve supplying NPC stations. If I'm flying a ship with a big enough hold & there's a convenient source of whatever's needed nearby I tend to haul the stuff myself rather than get one of my freighters to do the hauling for me. Can often complete the mission significantly quicker if I do it personally. The ships I fly personally (heavily modded Hyperion in my current game) tend to be considerably faster than my freighters, which are almost exclusively L ships.

[vvvvvvvv]

Is there any ware in X4 that goes to cargobay and is not produced nor traded?

Originally crystals went into cargo hold, I think. Around version 4, maybe?

X2 had "deliver documents" / "factory inspection tour" missions too. The closest in X4 is the "Find/tag (Xenon) ship".
Delivery of "classified documents" should definitely not use cargobay. They surely fit into inventory.

Hmm.... have you tried mining missions from guilds? Source local region. You pick NPC onboard, find ore, mine it, deliver it, along with NPC.

There are also "I missed my ride" missions which sometimes require you to carry people to a factory or another ship. Though they're depressingly rare.