[bug X3ap] Multiple Passenger Transport

[NOO3TASTIC]

I want to report a sort of bug that I encountered with a mission. Hopefully it can be fixed in upcoming patch.

Sometimes some stations would offer a mission titled "Multiple Passenger Transport" needed mission. That requires picking up several passengers in different sectors and then transporting them to different stations in different sectors. According to title player should have several passenger transports and they should be sent to pick up and transport various passengers. That doesn't work correctly it still requires pilot to be inside the TP when it docks at destination station otherwise passengers wont disembark. Completing that mission in one TP is impossible because of the very limited time. I think I was given 50 something minutes to pickup 8 passengers from 8 different stations in different sectors and then transport them to different destinations. I used an Ocelot with jumprdrive as well as Turbo Booster MK1 but still ran out of time.

The mission needs to be tweaked so that players can send their AI controlled TP ships to target stations to pickup said passengers and then transport them without requiring to be present in that ship when docking at destination station.

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Forgot to mention. Game version is 3.1 and bonus pack downloaded from steam. No other mods etc installed.

[Alan Phipps]

Working as intended. You are meant to personally fly the TP or TPs used throughout using an efficient movement program. You can do the pick-ups and deliveries in any mixed order within the time.

The time is tight but if you plan the most efficient routing (usually by interlacing some deliveries within the pick-ups), plan and do any necessary refuelling or use of pre-positioned ship changes efficiently, and use a reasonably fast type of TP (with jump drive obviously) then you should do it easily enough and earn some good credits.

Using lots of AI ships doing trips in parallel would just make it trivial and with little of the THINK strategic element (IMHO).

BTW: the title refers to multiple passengers to be transported, and not to needing multiple transporters.

[NOO3TASTIC]

Hmm. I don't think it's doable in just one ship that isn't greatly overtuned with pandora engine tunings or UFJD engine tunings. There wasn't enough time to pick up all the passengers and deliver them to their destinations. Time ran out just after transporting five passengers. I was using an Ocelot with max available engine tunnings rudder etc and deliberate use of jump drive as well as Turbo Booster.

Thanks for the reply and the idea about pre-positioned ship changes. I will reload earlier save and try that mission again with four ocelots docked to the pickup locations and changing to them by going in kestrel and sending them away. With multiple TP flying towards destinations and pilot chasing them one by one in a fast M5 might do it but single ship will definitely not do it as one of the target station was a solar power plant in AKeela's Beacon and that sector alone takes like half of the allotted time.

[Alan Phipps]

Did you pre-plan the most efficient route and check which gates to use? SPP visits also make useful refuel opportunities. Hypothetical example to take advantage of minimising fuel usage, a couple of helpful sector coincidences, and a very helpful refuel opportunity:

Jump and pick up #2, jump and pick up #5, jump and deliver #5 then pick up #1 in same sector, deliver #2 in sector next door by close gate, jump and pick up #4 and then deliver #2 at SPP with a refuel all in same sector, etc.

I have achieved quite a few of these missions in vanilla X3AP using a single standard Ocelot as it happens (and fought off and killed quite a few Pirates in the process - EBC are great!).

You can be unlucky and get one or more huge sectors to cross which is just luck of the draw. You can of course jump to the closest gate and also jump within sector if necessary, especially as X3AP has quite a few jump beacons around as well as the gates. I cannot recall whether you can see the route list and do some planning/assessment before you accept the mission - if so that would help to avoid the really difficult ones.

I am tempted to move this from Tech Sp to X Trilogy Universe (gameplay) forum to be honest.

[NOO3TASTIC]

First time I attempted that mission I used a single ship. An Ocelot with max engine tunnings, rudder optimization, cargo bay as well as docking computer to insta dock with station once I was within 5KM of it. It was equipped with Jumpdrive as well as AfterBurner which I used quite a lot. Refuelling wasn't a problem as there were some SPP as target or pickup locations also my Hyperion was following me from which I could transfer ECells if I ran out. But the mission timer ran out before I could deliver last three passengers.

I reloaded the save game earlier today and re attempted that mission but had three more ocelots going to target stations and I would jump in Hyperion after they docked and went to those stations in a Kestrel with Afterburner and docking computer and changed to ocelot and after passenger pickup sent them to target stations and did the same thing after they docked. I did manage to complete the mission but timer was very close to running out. Minute or two left I think. Sure it was a very hard mission according to briefing but if it takes like 4 seperate Ocelots and kestrel with afterburner zipping across the sector at 1400m/s then I think its safe to assume that it will be impossible to do in just one ocelot.

I am linking the saved game below that mission is in sector company pride. Availble from 3rd NPC docked at Teladianium Foundry M Alpha (last station in sector's station list) You can attempt it and let me know if its doable in just one ocelot or not.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7vIGE ... sp=sharing

[Alan Phipps]

Yes, I made it successfully all in your one Ocelot with 2 minutes to spare and made lots of credits (I started with 52 mins on the clock). You do know that you will get a slightly different time allowance each time you reload before accepting the mission?

There are a lot of quite long gate to sector centre flights required which do take up significant time. In this case I would have failed with any less than 50 mins allowed despite my planning involved - I guess that is why it was 'Very hard' and pays so much.

I had the TP jump and fly to the 1st pick-up and started the Hyperion jump to the start sector all before actually accepting the mission to save some time.

In case anyone else wants to try your save, my successful route was as below (there may be better ones):

Family Pride W, Cho's Defeat S, Patriarch's Retribution S, Ceo's Sprite N (2 jobs and refuel), Family Rhonkar JB (2 jobs), Two Grand S, Bala Gi's Joy S, Seizewell N, Spaceweed Drift N, Profit Share E, Family Whi S (refuel), Nyana's Hideout E, Scale Plate Green N, Akeela's Beacon S.

Moving to Universe forum as this is all about gameplay.

EDIT: BTW I didn't use the TP's Turboboost which might have saved some further time at the expense of e-cells. I don't think use of fuel would have been such a problem on this set of missions though because of the 2 refuel opportunities.

[NOO3TASTIC]

Nice That settles it then. If mission is doable and you proved that it is in one ship then you are right. No bug to be reported