Player acting as hired crew

[Falcrack]

I think it would be neat to be able to act as a hired crew in the game. In other words, an NPC owned ship is in need of a crew, and you could go to a job board and get hired on to act as their pilot of their ship. The NPC owner would give you trade missions, and as you fulfill your job, you are paid a salary or commission. Or, the NPC owner would have a fighter which needs a pilot. You would get hired on, and get paid for your time and services in the NPC owned fighter. The work may be boring, but eventually, you would be able to earn enough money to purchase your own ship and do freelance work. These missions would normally be generated all the time as part of the dynamic economy, and normally be accepted by NPCs, but you as the player have a chance to accept them to start your career.

[Alan Phipps]

An interesting aspect of that could be that you would have to work with whatever the loaned ship came with. The ship could be barred from having inventory, weapons and software, etc being added or removed (also to stop the player pilfering it). That could mean that no two missions of even the same type would necessarily play out in the way and may require different planning and approaches each time.

[Sparky Sparkycorp]

this is a pretty cool idea

[Morkonan]

Hiring yourself out to a faction as a mercenary or contract-trader captain should be part of the game. The player should get benefits as well as restrictions as long as they're associated with that faction. (Their enemies become the player's enemies for as long as the contract lasts. They get benefits, pay, perhaps access to certain tech, satellite feeds, intel, etc.)

[Vandragorax]

Sounds like a neat idea, I'm imagining something similar to the "quick job" drives in Euro Truck Sim 2.

The main advantage of this system is that the player can experience a variety of ships without actually having to be able to afford them.

However it needs to be something that doesn't just last for the first hours of the game and never used again after the player moves on to buying their own ships (which unfortunately is what I think would happen).

Perhaps there would be some extra features or incentives to use the system despite just having a "test ride" in any of the ships you like. I'm not sure what, but without something more, I fear it would be a lot of dev effort for something relatively un-used.

[Falcrack]

This idea would allow you to act as a pilot, collecting a salary, without having to buy the ship. So if you get enough reputation doing this, you could eventually get hired to pilot capital ships or corvettes for major operations. So it wouldn't necessarily be a thing for only the 1st part of the game.

In my mind, this underlying mechanic would be part of the game world already (NPCs hiring other NPCs to pilots their ships), so it would be a matter of plugging the player into an existing system.

[CutterJohn1]

Hiring yourself out to a faction as a mercenary or contract-trader captain should be part of the game. The player should get benefits as well as restrictions as long as they're associated with that faction. (Their enemies become the player's enemies for as long as the contract lasts. They get benefits, pay, perhaps access to certain tech, satellite feeds, intel, etc.)

Or even joining the military and being assigned a ship and jobs.

It'd have to be carefully designed to avoid too much tedium and give the player some freedom, but it would be cool.

[Falcrack]

Apologies in advance for the long post! TL:DR, being hired out can potentially be as fun and exciting as flying around with your own ships.

As a further thought to the idea of being hired by NPCs to pilot NPC owned ships, it need not be simply an early game mechanic, to be ignored once you earn enough to buy your own ship. It could actually be expanded to provide a very complete, late game experience. Here’s how it would work:

When applying for a job, each job has a specific employer, either the government or a private corporation. When you take a job, you begin at the very lowest rank in the organization. You have both ranks for position in an organization, and also rank for trade or pilot skill. Kills will increase your pilot rank, and profit earned the trade rank, much like X3. As your rank in the organization grows, you will be able to take on bigger responsibilities. You can belong to up to one corporation and one government at a time, but be aware that responsibilities in one organization may prevent you from effectively fulfilling duties in the other. Consistently fail in one organization long enough, and you could be fired.

In your property list, you will have one tab for personal assets (those you bought and paid for with your own credits), and another tab for corporate or government assets for which you are responsible (those which you are allowed to work with based on your standing). The government or corporate assets are granted to you based on your standing within the organization, they are not your personal ships or credits, but you are free to use them to fulfill your responsibilities within the organization.

For example, when joining a corporation, you start out flying a small freighter, making trades. You will work out of part of the corporate account, which is separate from your own personal account (to which your wages are paid). As your trade rank and corporation rank increase, so will the amount money you can work with in the corporate account. Eventually, the corporation will start granting you additional corporate freighters to control. You can manually trade with them, or set them to be free traders if controlling them all becomes too burdensome. Later, you may be granted control over existing stations, and even be allowed to purchase stations or additional ships on behalf of the corporation. Stick with the company long enough, and eventually you may have the opportunity to become the CEO and have control of the entire operation. These advancements all come as a result of your loyalty to the company and your skill at generating profit. With each advancement, your salary will also increase, so that you have more personal money with which you can buy personal ships and maybe start additional businesses. Or you can make donations to your company (call it a bribe if you want) if you decide you would rather further the cause of the corporation, increasing your company rank in the process. Control of security ships in the organization will be dependent on pilot rank, while control of freighters and stations will be dependent on trade rank.

If joining a government as a security pilot, you start out in a simple fighter, assigned to a squadron where you are protecting against pirate attacks or engaging in battles with other factions. You take orders, not give them, and have a small budget for keeping your ship fueled and missiles on board. As you make kills and prove your worth as a pilot, you are granted access to bigger, better fighters, and eventually corvettes. Around this point, you may be assigned multiple ships under your command as part of being a squadron leader, so you can give them orders, but still take orders from above. As you work your way up the chain of command, you are given increasing responsibilities, such as commanding a destroyer or carrier wing, or even entire battle groups. You are given an increasingly large budget with which you can use to make purchases of military ships and supplies. Eventually, after a long time of faithful service in your government, you may even rise to the rank of supreme leader, being in full control of all government assets and operations. You essentially now own the faction, and can make decisions such as whether to go to war, which sectors to take over, tax rates, etc. All the while, you are getting a nice personal salary as well, to be used for whatever you want, either personal assets, or make donations to the government (bribery), increasing government rank in the process.

Of course, you do not need to be tied to this whole process of employment on behalf of others. You could just be a lone wolf, trading and buying assets from your own personal assets, just like X3 or Rebirth, eventually creating your own corporate empire, or taking over sectors and carving out a government unto yourself. The path of loyal service in an existing organization would be entirely optional, and you might only use it to get your starting credits. But, it would be a similarly viable path to power and glory as going it alone.

[CommanderTM]

Pretty amazing idea!

[Informer]

Good idea

[Helios01]

I like that idea, especially since I felt like with each new X game there has always been an evident focus on adding more content to the mid/endgame, at the expense of making the early game ever shorter and easier than it was before. A freeplay hardcore gamestart where you don't own even a single ship, now that could finally bring some challenge!

I think the very least X4 could introduce from all this are NPC driven space cabs that the player could use for traveling between zones and sectors, for some cases like having his playership destroyed, used by a subordinate or sold. That could go really well with drivable space pods, if not spacesuits.

[caleb]

If the idea can be taken to the "end game" and still viable, I'm all for it. It is a pretty good idea. Just for a change of pace it would be fun to take a mission to attack my own station... And then sabotage the mission

If the whole universe worked with those missions, so that everything the factions do is through missions that you could eventually take part on, I think it would make the universe come alive like never before.

[Falcrack]

If the idea can be taken to the "end game" and still viable, I'm all for it. It is a pretty good idea. Just for a change of pace it would be fun to take a mission to attack my own station... And then sabotage the mission

If the whole universe worked with those missions, so that everything the factions do is through missions that you could eventually take part on, I think it would make the universe come alive like never before.

If your current employer dislikes you enough that they are ordering attacks on your personal assets, I would think they have long ago fired you from their company...

[ZaphodBeeblebrox]

Working for a faction could become the basis for the mercenary play style.

If while you are contracted to a faction you are also identified as a member of that faction.

So every action will be seen as act by the faction employing you. Thus every action will adjust the standing between the adversary and your employer.

Your personal standing with an adversary would not be effected, but that with your employer would rise with each successful mission or fall if you failed.

[RainerPrem]

...

Of course, you do not need to be tied to this whole process of employment on behalf of others. You could just be a lone wolf, trading and buying assets from your own personal assets, just like X3 or Rebirth, eventually creating your own corporate empire, or taking over sectors and carving out a government unto yourself. The path of loyal service in an existing organization would be entirely optional, and you might only use it to get your starting credits. But, it would be a similarly viable path to power and glory as going it alone.

Hi,

as a variant: No empire. No player owned merchant ships or stations. The only source of income is missions.

cu
Rainer

[Helios01]

Hi,

as a variant: No empire. No player owned merchant ships or stations. The only source of income is missions.

cu
Rainer

I think that possibility has always been there since maybe X2. Not everyone enjoys grinding all that much though

[RAVEN.myst]

as a variant: No empire. No player owned merchant ships or stations. The only source of income is missions.

So... Freelancer, then?

[Lc4Hunter]

I like the idea too and would like to see something like this in the final game.
For the beginning this could be great. But i don´t know if this would be something for lategame, except there will be some kind of "BlackOps" that could be offered by factions to you when you earned enough reputation or if your fight-level is good enough.

But the difficulty here is to have enogh different and interesting missions. I could imagine the 20th "fly to sector X and destry ship Y"-Mission would be boring to most of the players.

It´s ok while you wait that your UniTrader or your factory earns some money, but later it must be really interesting and/or chellanging to the player.

Maybe it could be some kind of sub-plot like Exploring-Missions for an institute that ends in a great discovery or something like this. Maybe you find an old Xenon-Station and, ooops, reactivate it. After doing this you become some missions to destroy the threat and so on.

But coming back to the main-idea: Flying freighters for NPCs and earning some money could be cool for the beginning, too

Please Egosoft, do it

[Crellion]

NPC Boss: Why should I hire YOU to fly my Destroyer?

Me: I can strafe biaaaaatch

===

Jokes aside neat concept.

[RAVEN.myst]

NPC Boss: Why should I hire YOU to fly my Destroyer?

Me: I can strafe biaaaaatch

BWAHAHAHAHAH! Nice