Void Mail - post_man

[atomic pecan]

I would really enjoy being able to do mail runs. It is good framework for "story bits" and could be a nice break from the heavier work. As I've gathered one can do some deliveries to stations (new to the game so ignorant of features) and to me deliveries of mail and even passengers is something I would really enjoy. It might be hard to make this an challenge, but the the lowly postman is seldom greatly rewarded, they just provide the glue of civilization that's all. No need for any deep content even, Id be satisfied with "milkruns" as a way to familiarize oneself with the world. Any "traversal" challenges is something I enjoy after playing Witch Strandings, so having a route, and clearing it over time like an ice breaker is also 👍 to me.

A ship suited to this could be small and cheap and a way to "recover" if you really messed up and needed to sell the mining barge, but now I'm putting ice on the space cake. (Biomass and bacteria cultures is also something I envision would be needed to be regularly supplied to habitats, and one could maybe "break sieges" and smuggle biomatter to autonom-habs. And to be crude even "relieve" some habs of the more fecal biomatter, and deliver it to a farming installation) Edit: yt was no

[rocky barn]

one way to implement this could be if there was an option to contact the SRA habitats from enceladus if you already encountered them, and ask them which ore they're currently in need of, which you would then buy from the mineral market and put in your cargo bay before you launch

[slow fulcrum]

I think this is a neat suggestion, if a bit difficult to implement practically. The world is so enormous that astrogating is the only sensible way to travel to places (which obviously takes the fun out of the delivery man idea)

[atomic pecan]

I don't understand. Is astrogating the same as "ring dive" in this sense? I thought it just meant to navigate a spacecraft. If it means having to go back to Enceladus station I don't see how that ruins it? Any explanation welcome.

[rocky barn]

astrogating is this game’s fast travel

if you find special things in the rings, you can astrogate to get back to them quickly

this works when starting at enceladus, but also when you’re already in the rings

and they’re saying that it could take the fun out of it if you’re mostly just watching the fast travel animation

[indigo drum]

Astrogation and ring dives are essentially the same event. Initiating a ring dive is basically an astrogation event from Enceladus to the ring, just that Enceladus traffic control are doing some of the math for you.

Yeah, cargo runs have been talked about, but it always comes up that it's an astrogation and done. I'm not sure how to solve that.

Letting it be easy and unrewarding is a solution, but that doesn't sound like fun, and I'm not sure it gives us much for the effort.

We would, of course, need a different justification; I don't think anybody is sending paper in space. Shipping, sure, mail maybe not.

[slow fulcrum]

I mean, unless they were super worried about cyber security

Oh but I forget that paper would be super hard to make in space... I see what you mean ;)

[jolly gull]

would be nice if your passengers got upset by high G maneuvers and collisions,so they're not something that just sits in the trunk until you happen to pass by their destination

[atomic pecan]

(thank you for the explanations, clear now.) So now the "problem" to me is how to justify the mechanic with reality. But unless someone can give a [fancy science-] reason for some areas of the belt being unsuitable/ too wild for astrogating, my quickfix would be to say that the parcels📦 (mail makes no sense, Morse out some lidar stuff or use the 📻 like everyone else ) are to fragile for the 'gating somehow. Nah, that makes no sense either, all the qaint old timey jobs can be automated away, no reason a manual delivery would be better than some algorithm. Could the recepients be afraid to be picked up by "the system" somhow, or be flooding it's zone with some disruptive field, necessitating a lo-fi, transponders off aproach? stumped right now. edit: spelling

[indigo drum]

You can always make a substitutes, but the real issue is the cost in fuel used to transport paper vs transmitting a signal. Shipping is still a reasonable need - if I order a blender on Space Amazon, you can't email it to me. (Though some things it's still more reasonable for a shop to print the parts and construct it locally.)

One thing that is in the works is passenger agendas - passenger roles are possible under the hood, and they could have their own agendas. And they may want to visit more than one place. Like, a scientist taking readings of ring conditions may need you to fly the length of a prop formation.

The trick is, it's still hard to make things like that rewarding at a level that's competitive with normal mining and salvage, which is normally done long before you finish a significant trip. (unless you outfit yourself for a single massive haul.)

Passengers who want to go to habs or leave habs for other sites or Enceladus are an option, too.

[slow fulcrum]

‘The singer’ also references taking the next ship back to Enceladus…

I do wonder: we never see ships with transponders that are friendly to GA in game, what is this ‘next ship’?

[atomic pecan]

I completely agree, mail as in paper is silly. But passangers and parcels serve the same purpose. I am imagining the postal workers being "lower class" than the miners, so bad pay is fine, especially if they have a smaller vessel. Like a different game mode "underneath" the vanilla gameplay. End game for this could be luxury cruises, taking the super rich on a "Grand Tour/Bildungsreise. There not doing the astro gating would make sense I think. Imagine the total scandal if anything happened to them too, get you in big trouble possibly putting you back in the postal worker class. The luxury criuse could thus function as a hardmode/ "nohit-run".

[indigo drum]

I feel like in pirate infested territory, the danger of getting shot at is probably part of what they pay for.

As for GA transponders, they're mounted externally, and passive. If you want to turn them off, you have to remove them.