An Offer you Can't Refuse ! (Long read, well worth it)
I hate replying to these threads
but most times they get SOOO freaken off topic, or so full of half truths, and speculation, and input from people who have no clue what the job of a pilot is really like to make them even worth the time to read
However, as the Quote "Don" of the Pilot Mafia, I have to interject some reality to these threads from time to time.
First off, I have no REAL control over pilots or their actions. That said,
The unfortunate reactions of some, trying to hurt, or publicly humiliate these 2 pilots in question, are
NOT condoned by the general piloting community !
2nd, I guess i need to give a little backround/history lesson for the newer people wanting in on this discussion.
When hangers were first introduced, everyone was SO excited about space travel, there were alot of people wanting to go. MA had promised new, and exciting opportunities in space, and new ways to strike it rich basically.
After a few weeks of people going up to cp, they realized how much it basically sucked, unless you were close to uber status. (This is way back BEFORE CND was even a wet spot in one of MA's developers dreams.)
At this point, finding passengers willing or wanting to go to CP, became harder and harder. Normally at this time, you MIGHT see one or 2 pilots a week spamming in twin, looking for passengers, most pilot only flew if friends, or someone asked for a flight up. Space travel, for the most part, was dead.
Along comes CND, and NeverDie's million Ped - carnival? Dream Vacation spot? Asteroid Space Club? whatever it seemed to you personally at the time.
WooHoo, Space Travel Has been resurrected once more.
At this Point, Pilots came Running out of the woodwork, or out from what ever rock I/we may have been sleeping under at the time
There were Pilots EVERYWHERE, in every city, spamming all kinds of prices, at all kinds of times, with All Kinds of seats open.
One had 2 open, one has 3 open, one guy needed 1 more to go, one guy had just came on, and couldnt find a city with people wanting to go, where there wasnt a pilot spamming. This one Pilot has his 4th passenger and is ready to go,
Great, then,
Oops, he goes to Pm his passengers theyre ready to go, and 2 decided, they didnt like his price, they went on another flight, so Our Hero, is back to spamming for 2 more, hoping the 2 he does have, will wait a few more hours for him to find 2 more. (took ages to find 4, since so many available to fly)
This was getting ridiculous for all involved, passengers had a hard time finding a full flight to get on, and pilots were haveing a hard time finding 4 to go with him, since pilots were in every city, TP-ing around looking for people, even the passengers were confused as to where to look for a pilot any given time or day. The prices for the flight at that time, was basically what ever we could get, and still make a ped or 2, causing ALOT of pilots to just hang up their wings, or try to sell the hanger. (right Now, there are still about 30 unused, or personally used hangers, because piloting is so time consuming, with little or no profit for HOURS of work)
About this time in our story, Twin Peaks was emerging as the center of commerce and tradeing of the Free Universe
Everyone seemed to work their way through Twin Peaks at one point or another during their time in game. This became the Perfect place to look for passengers for all the Rocket Jockys (Pilots, trying to spice up the long read, hehe)
Twin Peaks was FULL of Spam for Tickets, this guy is 15ped a seat, this guy is 30, that one is 20, that one is 12, but has 1 passenger and his hanger is at a bad location, that one is 25 but has 3 people, hes ready to go with me.
I take the 25ped seat, (because i dont feel like waiting for 5 hours for the cheap guy to find 3 more to fly), we run to the hanger. "Where is the 4th guy?" "oh, he took a cheaper flight" "Great, I'll have to go get a 4th guy to fly now, after all, why go with 3 when you can go with 4 and make more". While the pilot is out looking for the 4th passenger, his other 3 passengers found other flights as well, leaving faster, maybe cheaper, but most times just faster.
Our Pilot Friend here, goes like this for a while, same thing happens, day after day, till one day he thinks, "why do i bother, this is such a pain in the ass, I would rather do something else".
There are still plenty of pilots sticking out the BS, for that little bit of ped they can squeeze out of their investment/job (and it IS a full time
job, even today, to do well)
These remaining 20 or so pilots are all in Twin Peaks, with different prices, all spamming over each other, all with 1, maybe 2 passengers, one calls the other names, the passengers and players in twin, stick up for their favorites, then theres more yelling and spamming, then actual selling of tickets going on. and NO ONE IS GOING TO SPACE DURING ALL OF THIS !!! and surely not in any kind of timely fashion.
It takes HOURS to find 4 people, and prices have been cut so freaken low by this point by the price wars, NO PILOT would/could fly with less then 4 people, or their cost of oil and decay would be higher then the peds he got from the sales of his seats.
All the Pilots became pretty disgusted with the whole way things were going, they were wasting time, passengers were mad because they could never find a ship full and ready to fly when they wanted, for a price they wanted. The passengers biggest complaint at this time was, they wanted to go to CND, they wanted to go NOW, they didnt want to wait, or bicker, or mess around, they just wanted to get to CND. (or some even CP, but alot of Pilots, didnt even like to go to CP at this time, because, they could make more going to CND)
Along comes
Steele, the Real Hero of our tale
(hehe, I had too )
He sees the trouble that is going on for all, and how bad this bickering and fighting is just bad for business all the way around.
He himself a pilot, Knows there HAS to be a better way for all involved.
1, A way to get People wanting to get to space up as fast as possible,
2,as cheap as possible,
3, and still be fair to all the pilots in game, who spend Long hours in game so people CAN get to space, and in the process, make a few peds back on thier time, and investment in the game. (I know, investment dosent mean Crap to alot, but if you invested as much in Time and/or Peds as most of the Pilots, in what ever your profession, you may understand)
This is a hard set of situations that need to ALL be addressed and solved, to make everyone happy, or at least satisfied, on both the Pilots side, as well as the Passengers.
Most Pilots at this time, maybe 85%-90%, had decided, that 20-22ped a seat seemed fair, for their costs vs. profits vs. all the time it took to get a full ship, and, for thier passengers as far as the cost to get to CND. 20ped a seat seemed Ideal.
It was discussed among the pilots, in private, in the open, among rivals, And friends, for a long time. "What was the Biggest Probelm with being a Pilot?" and "What was the Biggest Problem, for the Passengers?"
The answers were always the same, on both sides. Pilots needed passengers, and passengers needed to get to space as soon as freaken possible, they didnt care about the Pilot problems,a nd in most cases, they didnt care to much about price, as long as the price was reasonable. Period.
The answers came easliy at this point, once the BS was brushed away, and thought was used, instead of egos.
We had Most Pilots AND passengers taught to go to Twin Peaks, eather to Sell tickets, or to Buy tickets. This became the Alpha Control (i still like that name) of the Space travel Business. So, getting people and pilots together at the same place and same time was cured. No more Running around TP to TP looking for passengers, and passengers knew where to look for a pilot.
The Price of a seat/ticket seemed to stabilize, 20ped a seat seemed to be normal, the 22ped seats faded away slowly, and passengers were more then willing to pay 20ped to get up fairly quick.
BUT,(big butt, hehe) there was the rub/hard part, how to get them up to space, in a timely fashion? Quickly, to keep them flying, and happy, and coming back again and again? IF we could JUST fill ONE ship at a time, how freaken AWSOME it would be for the passengers. Not to mention, great for that pilot? Fill a Ship, Leave. Fill a Ship, Leave. and so on, and so on, and so on. Passengers got up ASAFP, the way they wanted, because they are ONLY filling ONE ship at a time, instead of trying to fill 10-20. Pilots get to fill ships, fly, and make a small profit for their time, trying to get YOU people to space, so you can do whatever it is you need/want to do up thereand YOU get go go NOW, not next week when your pilot comes on, or tomarrow, or whatever, but ASAFP.
HERE is where someone went along and tryed to explain his idea to all the pilots, HERE is where the pilots understood, something had to change for all involved, HERE is where space travel, because fast and fun for most. (cant please everyone)
HERE, RIGHT HERE, is where the Pilot Cue/Pilot Line, was Born.
Pilots get equal chance at filling thier ship (fill one, leave, next one Fills, and leaves, everyone gets a turn), equal chance at profit (prices were all pretty much the same), equal chance at everything. The pilots became friends (amagine that 0_o), they helped each other (0_o), if one had a Pm for a guy who needed to get up in a hurry, they called or told the next in line to take him for many reasons, get the passenger up in a hurry, or to fill the ship up to bat, so the pilot could sell his tickets faster, eather way, the passenger got his ride, asap. The pilot knew, he would still be able to fill his ship, in a timely fashon, with out alot of hassel/problems, and still make a few peds.
Passengers seemed happy, they got to go to space, faster then ever, at a fairly reasonable price.
Pilots seemed happy, because they knew they would be able to fill their ship each day, with out headaches, or fighting, maybe even several times a day.
And, they Lived, Happily, Ever, After.
NOT
Passengers Started complaining, "Where are all the Pilots?" "I cant get up to CND as fast as before." "Everytime I go to Twin, theres no Pilots there." As well as many more like those complaints kept comeing.
So where did all the Pilots go anyway?
Well, they are ALL up on CND. Why? Because by this time, the newness/novolty/excitement of the New Super Space Station, were ALL your Mining HOF/UBER/ATH Wet freaken Dreams came true. Maybe MA nerfed the loot pool, maybe they decided they had helped ND promote his Club enough, whatever the reason, the number of passengers going to CND was less and Less, and, The number of passengers comeing DOWN, was even less. They would go up and log out, or stay up there for a longer period of time, or loose peds and give up for a while, whatever the reason for the lack of passengers going down, it was becoming a problem for the pilots, as well as the passengers again
On a normal day there could be 8-12 pilots in line on CND trying to fill thier ships to fly down, just to try to get more to come up.
This new Problem, was becoming "Bad for Business" again. (godfather quote)
Our Hero, wracked his brain for Weeks, aginized, labored over a solution to the new problem that confronted him. Whats the main problem for pilots and passengers (we been here before)
ANYWAY
The Idea came, how about we raise or rates to 25ped for each ticket, that way, a Pilot could fly up with 3-4 passengers (getting people wanting up wasnt a real big problem yet) then tehy could fly Down with 2-3 and not loose a hell of a lot compared to what they were makeing now. This would shorten the lines on CND, or at least speed them up considerably, because they wouldnt have to wait for a full ship to fly down. HELL, IF they were lucky enough to fly up with 4 passengers, they could (if they wanted/needed to) fly down Totally EMPTY, and still cover the cost of the round trip. Pilots were still pretty happy in general, and they wanted to help the passengers get flights quicker. (yes they really did think about the passengers before higher profits at this point) After all, quicker flights, ment the quicker they could fill thier ships.
Our (ok MY) Hero, took a week out of his busy schedual, to track down as many pilots as he could, to see if this New idea of his had any chance in hell of working.
He spoke with over 30 active pilots, and a few not so active/private services/private pilots.
Most had had enough with the long lines, they were open to almost anything, as long as it didnt take away to much of their ability to make a living flying, and would shorten the lines on CND, and help the passengers.
A couple were reluctant, one said "their passengers wouldnt like them anymore" another said, "My passengers are noobs, they cant afford 25ped" but over all, the pilots agreed with the "Don" something had to be done, and this seemed like a good plan, after all, anything to speed up flights again.
A date for the new prices was agreed apon, and the prices went into effect. Then the Dung hit the fan. DAmn greedy Pilots, how dare they, they make to much as is, oil isnt that expencive, why should they make money when i loose everyday with my loosing peds, and so on, and so on it went in EF for a while.
Till One Day, the lines seemed shorter, there was pilots in Twin Peaks again, passengers were finding a pilot more often when they needed one, the whining posts on EF about greedy pilots and ticket prices seemed to slow, or even stop. There were a few pilots who didnt totally agree with the new rates, they charged a little less, but they respected the other pilots, they were all in the same business, they all wanted the same things, most of them could even be called in game friends. After all there was plenty to go around for ALL the pilots, as long as we all work together. The Cheaper ones, even decided, "ok, the 25ped price wasnt To Bad"
but the whole time the Pilot Line worked, they stuck to the line, because it worked, because they respected each other, and the hard work put in by All the pilots trying to make this the best system for all. The pilots still helped each other, no matter what the prices a certain pilot charged. As long as They Worked Together !! Things were working out well for all once again.
Passengers for the most part, decided, it wasnt that big a deal the extra 5peds, as long as they could fly the way they wanted to, NOW, or asafp.
In general, things seemed to be relaxing back to normal. People were flying, pilots were filling ships, everything Started looking happy again.
But right about HERE, the "Don", started to slowly get complaints again, the Line on CND, Started to grow again, Passengers were PMing him, as well as pilots, saying things were takeing longer again for some reason. A general Uneasy feeling was going around. So, he started watching what was happening. Turns out, a couple of the pilots had started flying with No Less, then 4 passengers, At Any Time. Didnt matter if the line was long or short, if it took longer or not for the passengers, they Just wouldnt fly with less then 4 passengers
This didnt make much sence, untill he looked a little deeper into what was really happening.
It turns out, about this time the ability to RENT a hanger is becoming more popular or available. A few pilots had decided, they could make some peds, and still get to do different things in game. They could Rent the ship to some person, who spends all THEIR time looking for passengers, and the owner just has to collect the checks, so to speak, from the renter.
He talks to a few of these Renters, turns out, they are paying alot for rent. Somewhere between 500 and 700ped a week in rent 0_o. The Renters NEEDed 4 passengers to even Hope to make a profit, let alone make rent.
So, the Other Pilots started to see a few only flying with full ships, so they decide, i can make more with 4 passengers, why am i going with less? After all, I wait in this Line, and it takes Me just as long as them, why not fly with no less then a full ship?
There are less passengers flying in general, there are less pilots active, the Line is holding, but its not moveing as fast as we would like anymore, some pilots dont like it, some passengers dont like it, but in general things are still working.
The Pilots call a meeting, they grab the "Don", and get him involved in the meeting, "Something, has to be done!" (yes the Pilots, called the meeting, people can actually love what they do AND work together to make things better for all in this so called Game) During this meeting, they are all equals, they are Pilots. They remind everyone involved, why the prices were raised in the first place. They tell storys of this and that, but in general, the ones there, agreed, they would try it the old way again, flying with less passengers to speed up the line for all. See if it really did help. IT ran smoothly for a week or so. Then slowly for what ever reason this time, a few pilots went back to only flying with 4 people . The lines were not as long as in the past, there was still pilots in Twin most times someone needed a pilot. Some flew with 1, 2, or 3, some with only 4, some would even still fly down empty once in a while, if it was an emergency. Things were far from perfect, but it was working for all. The renters were no longer viewed as upstarts, rogues, or somehow beneith the other pilots, they were pilots too, they had the same problems, and maybe even a few more, they had rent to pay, the other pilots didnt care about rent, but they understood how hard it was to be a pilot.
Every new Pilot got greeted by the other pilots, maybe even helped, they were welcomed into the "Mafia". The Don would seek out these new "Pilots" and help in anyway they needed, they need the exact costs of flying, NP. They need a passenger to fill their load when their selling, NP. Their down on the planet selling, and someones looking for a ride, NP, send them to Twin to so-and-so.
Most of the time, a new Pilot, was just that, a New Pilot, not a damn renter, not something else, but a fellow Pilot!
A few of the renters over the years, and even some of the owners, thought they would "Change the World", they didnt need no stinken lines, they didnt need the other pilots, "Power to the People" and so on, (Insert political/anti Mafia slogan here), Most never lasted long. LONG hours, low pay, riticule from some, lack of passengers for others, couldnt make their rent payments, left the game, whatever, or in general found out how boring being a pilot really was. Most of the "Rogues" just didnt last long. One of the Most Outspoken people on the forum, who just would not listen to reason, hated the "Greedy Pilots", untill a friend of his actually bought a hanger, and started trying to make a business out of it, and he learned, how hard a job it really is. He even said once "I dont know How you guys can do it, standing there for hours"
Its the "Togetherness" the pilots show to one another, that sparked the "Mafia" threads in the first place. This was an Odd thing to see in a game about money, people working against one another, actually working together? This just can Not be happening. Some think "This MUST be squashed !" Some "Death to the Mafia", and others, "Power to the People, Dont fly with the Greedy Mafia Pilots, fly ME, im cheaper", "Look at me, im Bucking the System, Down with the MAN!" "Poor ME, I have ALL the Mafia people Picking on me" "Make me your Martyr, Im here for YOU" "I am doing this so the Regular people get a chance to go to CND and find their Fortune too" "Fly with ME, and Save 10ped!!"
I could go On and On with the "Sales Pitches" ive heard from people like this over the years. Its always the same. There have been many over the years (ok so its only been like 2.5 since we can fly), but they all act, or do the same thing.
There are mainly 2 pilots right now, trying to upset the so called apple cart. One has posted here already, think you can figure out who.
This "Pilot" was welcomed in as a fellow pilot, we helped him, we tought him, the "Don" welcomed him, explained how everything works, offered if he had ANY problems, with other pilots, or anything, Just ASK, if it can be done/helped, it Would be Done. He seemed happy, at least for a while.
Soon after, not real sure of time, maybe a week or two, I start hearing from my pilots again, screaming, crying, just generally upset. Alot of new renters are around now and they have never seen this before, theyre Worried, will they survive? They want to do the right thing, but dont know how or what to do, what does the "Don" suggest?
He Calms everyone, tells storys of the past, and how this has happened before, and if we just stick together, things will be fine.
Our hero looks into the problem, finds out theres 2 "Pilots" causeing an uproar in his other wise quiet work enviroment.
He gets offers to "Break their Knee Caps" "Block Hangers" and other general ways to try to persuade these new upstarts to see things the "Mafia" way. The Don explains, "We dont do those things" they have been tryed before, they not only do not work, but are just plain wrong, some have even been banned for such things. Best to just talk to them, see thier side of things, see why they are doing this, why they didnt like the way things are, who knows, maybe they have a new and different idea how to run things, so its better then before. You never know. Its worth a try.
One day last week, Both "Rogue" pilots were on, Both were Spamming Over the other pilots, undercutting the prices, didnt care about the line, or who was trying to sell. Generally doing thier own thing. I was in Twin at the time, and one was there, but things seemed pretty managable, but on CND it was worse. Pilots fighting, price wars, no one flying, arguments, so on and so on. I had to get up there. I flew up Empty to see waht could be done.
I talked to the pilot everyone was so concerned about. He basicly said "I tryed it your way, i wasnt makeing enough" "the hell with your Line, and the other pilots, this way i can do 3 times the flights you guys do, and make more" It seemed the only People he cared about Helping wasnt the Down troden poor and the masses, it was only his pockets and profits.
Now in his defence, i did not have alot of time to talk to him, he had to log off. So i didnt get the complete story. I did how ever treat him with the same repect i give all pilots. At the time, i didnt know that some people had treated him badly, i also talked to some of them, and asked if they would back off. One of the offenders i wasnt able to get to before this thread started, but i will. The pilots in general Do Not, condone hurting of someone elses business.
I and the other pilots Do Not Care, ill repeat that, "I and the other pilots Do Not Care" what he charges, we dont generally care if he PAYS his passengers to fly with him. If he fills his ships 4 times an hour, more power to him. We Only ask that If these certain Pilots use Twin Peaks or the Control room, to Please stick to the pilot line. Its not a big request, wont hurt him or the people who like to fly with him, he can do alot of his business through PMs if he wants to, he can charter flights to groups, or anything he wants to, however by sticking with the lines in just these 2 areas, it WILL prevent reverting back to the Koas that was space travel before, where everyone spammed, in all the towns, looking for those few passengers they still need to fill a ship to fly. Where Very little actual flying was being done, and more fights and bickering was going on. Where pilots would rather knit, and pluck out their eyes then look for passengers.
Thank you for reading the Pilot Mafia Story, took me most of the night to write it.
I hope it clears up all the BS floating around, and some of the rumors. I also hope it explains how hard it is to be a pilot, so more will understand where we are coming from. ( not that i expect to many to read all the way through this book, hehe)
Signed, Your Don, Steele
