Yes, you sure can pay players to escort you somewhere.
You will notice two additional buttons at the top right user interface. One for chat and one for things that "require attention" (of course there are keys mapped to it, check your configuration, "Multiplayer" section).
The chat window will show you all the players who are currently on the server, which level they are on (levels in MP are determined by how many credits you made so far, 38 is max as far as I can tell, I have more than 6 million now and it stayed the same since like 2.7 million), which group ID they belong to (more on that later) and which system they are currently in. There are three ways to chat. System chat, group chat and private chat.
To activate system chat (babyblue text in chat output), simply click on system channel in the top left corner of the chat window. If you are in New York for example, you will be read by all others who are in New York. Someone in Colorado or Dresden will NOT be able to read you.
To activate private chat (single recipient), simply click on the name in the list of the chat window you wanna talk to, and type away. The text for this chatmode is green. So if you read green text, you will know you are the only recipient.
To activate group chat (you can form groups with other players), simply click on group channel in the chat window. Only members of your group will receive the communication, NO matter in which system/space they are. You will also be able to see their positions on the system map (green ship icons). The colorcode for this chatmode is pink.
And of course, the default key to enter text for chat is return. Important to know
You can invite players to join your group only by selecting their ship in space (you need to be able to see them, so being in the same system is *not* enough) and clicking the "invite to group" icon on the bottom left of your HUD or by pressing "i", which is the default key mapping I believe. The benefits from this are being able to see each other's position on the system map, being able to use group chat and of course accepting and flying missions together. One groupmember takes a mission and all others get the same assignment. The reward is automatically being distributed among the group members. Flying $3,900 missions with 5 people is inefficient, as you can easily calculate for yourself. You have as many lives as you have group members. Three group members = three lives, meaning that people out of your group can die three times TOTAL. Not every member can die three times. It's the total amount. Another fact worth noting.. if you die in MP, you respawn. You will keep your ship and weaponry, but lose *all* your cargo and unmounted weapons/ammo. I also observed people using levels when dying too often, but I have no details on that.
In order to fly trade routes you don't need to be in a group. It's basically just to tell the system that it needs to assign a mission to all the people in the group, and distribute the reward among them. Teamplay is the key in MP. Do not fly alone, interact with people. It's fun to join with other newbies on a server and fly together in order to get cash, maybe someone will even lend you credits or buy you a ship if the person has enough cash. When I started I flew with one player and he gave me 3,600 credits so I could buy a Defender Heavy Fighter. I paid him back later but was able to survive more. Thanks Charon
When two of my friends joined the server I was able to buy them two Defenders incl. weaponry and even Drone Kusari Freighters later on which are about 62,500 credits a piece. That way they were able to join me on my trade route and make some cash. More motivation.. the start is the hardest part.
On to the trading real quick. You can only do it when you can see the other player's ship, just like with the group invitations. Select the ship and press "u" (the default I *think*). You will see a trade window. You can add your goods, weaponry, ammo, credits to the offer, so can the other party, and then both have to accept. If that happened, the deal is complete. That way you can also pay players for escorting for example. Just give them x credits, both accept, and your payment is done. Tadaa.
For example I had one guy (flying a freighter) asking another guy (flying a very heavy fighter) if he'd escort him to a certain place to get an even bigger freighter. Long route and dangerous. He said he'd pay him 100k. He agreed, I joined the squad and off we went. The dude got paid and we both had our bigass freighters. I love that kinda interaction.
I also bought weaponry for two teammates which were not at friendly terms at a certain base (you gotta be liked by the people who run a base in order to buy heavy weaponry). I bought it for them instead (it's a little "trick", you need to unmount your own weaponry for that at the trader) and then gave it to them, and they gave me the cash via the trading screen. Rocks a lot.
That should clear you up for now, sorry if I typed too much.
::: Deep Slumber :::
Fri Feb 28, 2003 3:49 am