It will be interesting to see what changes MA make, with the introduction of CryEngine and the new planets.
Firstly to address some earlier comments:
... but what does th 5. or 6. pilot in line does ? Wait 4 hours till the line drops to him ?...
In a word... yes. And grateful if only having to wait 4 hrs too.
I've waited up to 9 hrs for my turn to sell, when there has been 2 or 3 other pilots ahead of me to fly down.
This is why, generally, I stop flying to CND once the European pilots start to come online.
Has anyone tried a charter service? With a fee based on how quickly you want up to where you are going. One price for the whole ship. cheaper price if you set it up a few days in advanced more if you want to leave within the hour.
What do you all think?
Charter services are already available. On several occasions I have come online in the wee small hours before dawn to fly pre-booked groups up to CND for events etc.
All pilots offer 'VIP' fares - which are essentially for booking multiple seats. Usually the average cost/seat for this is less than the pilot's 'per seat' rate.
And finally, to address a comment by MS9 :
... Availability of pilots may give the impression that there aren’t enough available, but some say in addition to this perceived lack of pilots, that poor business practice is also to blame. Specifically, that pilots should be amenable to flying with only 2-3 passengers from CND to the planet once in a while instead of waiting for a full ship; especially when there are others waiting on Calypso to get a flight up to either CND or CP, but is this fair to the pilots?...
My personal opinion is that it
is fair to the pilots.
On average, 1 of 4 passengers up will be going to CP. So, filling every flight down is well-nigh impossible - and insisting on doing so usually means that the first passengers have had to log before the ship can fill. It's not unusual to watch some pilots have to sell the same seats several times before - hours later - finally flying down. In the meantime, there have been people waiting in Twins for a flight up. I don't see that as fair to the passengers.
Its a balance really, to me.
If the passenger flow is really slow, then I'll happily fly down with whatever passengers I can collect in a reasonable timeframe - as long as I at least cover costs on the round trip.
Some days, this has been ONE. Other days, there are people asking for flights down often enough that I
can wait for 4, still within a reasonable timeframe.
And no - when it is MY choice to fly down part empty, I don't ask passengers to pay more for the privilege.
If otoh, it is the passenger in a hurry, then I offer a fair vip price.
I would welcome some sort of offically approved rental system.
To be fair tho, it should not encourage breaching the EULA by having players using multiple avatars - as the old 'system' did.
I can't say I'm too keen on multiple players using the same avatar either - tho strictly speaking that is not a breach of the EULA. I just like to know that the avatar I interact with today, has the same person at the keyboard as the one I talked to last time.
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For those who dont know me - I've been piloting for nearly a year now.
Due to my timezone, I provide flights to CP and CND whenever I can be online from 21:00 to 09:00 MA time, 7 days a week. (That's 7am - 7pm local time.)
Outside of that, I'm happy to run VIP flights up to CP, provided I dont have other specific committments (events etc).
I've always worked within the pilot line system, tho at times I agree it can be incredibly frustrating.
I've also seen the system from the player's side, especially trying to get a flight down from CND after events - and giving up and waiting til the following day cos I just couldn't stay awake long enough for the flight to fill.
In fact, this experience was part of the reason I went into piloting when a friend's hangar became available to rent.
The hangar owner and I are in this together for the long term. We see EU/FCP as having a bright future, and we want to be a part of that. If it becomes possible to fly to other planets, we hope to be able to make whatever investments are needed be part of that too.
As a minimum tho, I'd like some changes by MA/FCP to recognise that (some) hangar owners are PLAYERS too.
So:
- an outside crafting machine, auctioneer, and storage in Twins would be great
- An auctioneer in the CND control room would be appreciated too
- Piloting profession/skill would be fantastic - possibly linked to more efficient use of the ships. Piloting Profession could include Intelligence, Alertness, Dexterity, Aim, Machinery, Mechanics, Electronics, Engineering, Concentration, and Pilot Ship skills