Moving Passengers can be a lucrative business if you have the knowledge, the equipment and the time. One company has the movement of Passengers sewn up, and that’s ‘Union’. If you want to move passengers, you do it through their Offices.
Each Promenade has a Union Office. From there, Passengers will queue looking for a ride. Often they are taken by larger company Passenger Ferries, but often they will accept smaller ships like yours as transportation to their destination.
Passenger Class: Like most things in life, some folk are willing to pay a little bit extra to be kept away from the cattle, and some a little bit more to be in comfort. Nothing new there. Passengers are broken down into three categories, 1st, 2nd and 3rd class.
Each class will pay different amounts to travel to the same location based on their class. 3rd class obviously being the lowest paying customers and 1st class the best.
Passenger Cabin: A standard ship does not come with any Passenger Cabin Modules. It’s up to you to purchase and fit them. They range in sizes, but they all do the same thing – allow you to transport people across the Galaxy in relative safety and comfort. Passenger cabins go in to the Cargo Slot in your ship.
Space: Each Cabin device will have various passenger spaces. So you will have to monitor how much space you have. You can see this listed at the top of the main Office window. This shows your capacity and status of each of the three classes.
Destinations: It’s very important you look to where your passengers want to go and plan accordingly. You could make far more profit taking several people to the same Location or even the same System than choosing the one with the fattest pay cheque.
Pick up: Once you have located a likely passenger, and you know where you’re going (and have room) simply click the ‘Issue Cabin’ button in the list. This will automatically issue a ticket to the Passenger and reserve them a cabin on your Ship. They will automatically board before you leave, so don’t worry you can’t leave without them.
Delivery: Each passenger has a destination Galaxy, System and location. You need to travel to that Galaxy, then system and then dock at the given location. Once done, you will be notified that the passenger is disembarking and be paid at the same time.
You are notified individually for each passenger, so pay attention when they get off. If someone does not leave, and you expected them to, it’s likely you’ve taken them to the wrong location.
Union Faction: There are various elements in the game that will reward you with Faction XP. Passenger’s will give you Union Faction. But there is a drawback. As a lowly Union member you will only be offered the lowest paying customers, the higher ranked members of the Union will of course be stealing the best paying customers.
As you deliver more and more passengers to their destinations, your Union Faction will rise. As it rises, you will get promoted (rank) within the Faction. Each time you raise in Faction rank, you will see that more and more passengers will be happy to take a ride aboard your ship.
You can view your Faction scores and ranks from the ‘View Standings’ option from the top right hand pull out tab titled ‘View Tasks’