Pioneer dev forum

We have a stated design intent that cargo loading (and ship modification, etc.) should involve a period of simulated time passing as cargo is moved onto/off the ship (or the ship's equipment is modified by mechanics); i.e. these tasks should not be the 1-click instantaneous state change they currently are.

However, we've not yet had a significant discussion as to *what* happens during that period of enforced downtime at a station where the player's ship is not ready for takeoff. I'd like to rectify that, and as such I'm extending an open call for suggestions as to the gameplay effects of spending long stretches of time (hours to days) at a starport.

Please Note: I am not asking for opinions on whether cargo loading and equipment modification should go back to being instantaneous. I am asking for creative ideas as to why the player should care about the passage of time while docked at a space station, and why they shouldn't just leave time acceleration at 100,000x for an in-game year.

The goal of this thread is to come up with interesting and meaningful gameplay effects related to spending time waiting on cargo to be loaded at a station. I'll lead off with a few things I've come up with:

- Cargo loading times make "stacking" multiple high-payout short-deadline missions more difficult as loading the cargo for subsequent missions cuts into the time you have to fly the first mission.
- Station docking fees can accrue on a 6, 12, or 24 hour basis while docked at a station. Especially if docking fees are increased alongside minimum mission payout, this could be a profitability concern the player needs to pay attention to.
- Crew stress, recreation, and social contact metrics could recover/improve based upon length of time docked at a station with no "work" schedules (i.e. not loading cargo, not involved in modifying the ship). This could involve more in-depth crew management gameplay, where balancing your crew assignments to different tasks ensures they each get an acceptable amount of R&R while docked.
- Crew on "work" schedules could perform maintenance on the ship that is impossible to do under thrust / in space, restoring equipment condition and resetting failure timers.

- When you arrive at the stations the mission modules are updated instantaneous, even before you are welcomed by the station manager. that could - probably have some random delay built in and the station manager maybe should come first.

- High G planets could be a stress for the crew. I'm thinking the ship/staff could be installed with G-Suits (Various levels of advanced flight suit + Exo Skeleton) to alleviate the discomfort and health effects. Time on high G planets should be limited and maybe station staff could keep track of your time there and health, somewhat like how people working in high radiation environments carries meters that show their radiation exposure.

- There could be a cheaper long time solution on budget space ports with limited station facilities.

Shore Leave

SolFed law mandates 24hrs "shore leave" every 7 days for ship crews. Each crew member has a meter that fills up with green at a rate of one day per week as time passes that you are NOT docked at a starport. When you ARE docked, it decreases at a rate of one day per day.

CIW has a similar system, but Haber Corporation is a lot more stingy, mandating only one day of shore leave every 2 weeks instead.

Inadequate Shore Leave Penalties

If a crew member gets to 4 days accumulated shore leave (i.e. you haven't let the poor bastard off the ship for a whole month), their meter turns yellow. From that point on their pay doubles until their meter is back down in the green.

If their shore leave meter gets to 10 days accumulated shore leave then their meter turns red, their pay triples, and you get the "Slave Driver" Steam Achievement... uh... I mean you get a reputation ding.

If you fire the crew member, you have to provide back pay for any outstanding shore leave, i.e. the amount that they would have accumulated if you paid them at their current rates while their shore leave meter gets back down to zero. So you can't avoid paying the shore leave by repeatedly firing and hiring crew - it costs just the same as if you waited at a station for the meters to empty.

This provides a reason to not mind loading or repairs taking a while at a station, and also a reason to prefer single-pilot spaceships.

If we want to incorporate the ideas in the previous post too, then high G worlds make the meter decrease more slowly. In fact, starports could have a "shore leave rating", where ones on Earth or an archetypal "Risa Pleasure Planet" would have a super-high meter decay rate, while a prison colony world would barely make a dent. But that level of nuance may be better left for version 2 of this system.

sturnclaw wrote: ↑Wed Jul 01, 2026 7:22 pm ...
Please Note: I am not asking for opinions on whether cargo loading and equipment modification should go back to being instantaneous.

Such mechanics fit perfectly into the framework of my personal "realtime mod" - a game mode without time acceleration, so I am strongly in favor of its development, but in vanilla Pioneer the player will always fast-forward the wait time, even a minute, even half a minute. Judging by myself, I even fast forwarded the 10 second countdown when launching the hyperdrive before the jump.

I think this would be a good thing to have, it can provide meaningful gameplay and points of decisions. But there should be either a slider, or a toggle for this in the options, since this is dealing with player time in a very direct manner. My guess is that if it is nicely balanced, then a checkmark should be sufficient.

One point to it is that the player would need to weigh taking of cargo, repairs, etc against mission deadlines. Like there's a trade opportunity, but the taxi deadline is rather strict. Or maybe one should avoid a fight, because it could mean a lengthy grounding for repairs.
But then our deadlines are rahter lenient in most cases, so maybe there's need to be some adjustments to that. But on the other hand, I'd like to avoid tailoring deadlines to player/ship capabilites, but instead provide realistic deadlines in the sense that an urgent courier mission would assume a courier ship and a fast hyperdrive, while a generic cargo hauling job would assume a transport ship. And if you make yourself a more generalist ship, then a courier deadline might still be doable, but then you'd be more conscious of deadlines there. (this is a general balancing question, even if there's no delay)

And I think the more elevated, and recurring berthing fee would be a good thing (regardles of the delay turned on or off). More elaborate stations could also facilitate this: you could stay in a berth for x amount of fee per day. Or you could move into a hangar that charges less, but you now can't launch at a whim. (This would need quite an update to the station models.

Tech level of a port could affect delays. A low-tech place has only simple forklifts for cargo loading for example, while a high-tech port has semi-autonomous and nimble loader robots. And the lobby could state what kind of equipment they have.
Equipment installation and removal, servicing, cargo loading should all have independent timers I think. Like maintenance and installation could be one queue, cargo loading is another. Which could also depend on station capacity, and the number of crew you have. If they have the means, then everything could go paralell, but on a run-down station on the outback, there's like two guys on port duty, so you have to wait.
Maybe even passenger boarding could take time.
And your reputation and military rank could also be reflected in the delays: nobody would do double-time for a nobody, but there's that well-known free associate captain of the navy who fought back the pirates last year would have preferential treatment. Not to mention, how enthusiastic they would be to service a know criminal, or just somebody of low repute. (Maybe you should not have swindled out your crew from their overtime pay)
And station load could also affect it. The more ships are docked, the larger the workload on the station, the longer the wait. And this could be faction-specific as well, where they independently track not just your rank but reputation too.

There could also be options to expedit loading or service and equipment installation, but would cost. A lot in some cases. Sometimes maybe they are deliberately stalling you, to extort some money, or just to buy time for that investegator to chatch up to you.

Ships could have stats relating to this. Like a simple OPLI ship is faster to service and equip, but it is more of a hassle to load. And dedicated cargo ships could usually have better cargo handling compared to a comba ship or courier. And if tailsitters will be a thing, than that could also lean into this: A belly sitter is generally more convenient to load, while a tail sitter is worse. But it is has better flight characteristics, and slightly lighter, because it does not need to be able to work in two orientations.

Depending on the delay times, I think there should be things to in port do while waiting. impaktor's bar and text adventure feature is one thing that comes to mind. Additionally, there could eventually be an e-mail system, where people could contact the player with job opportunities, information to sell, etc. And the player could also message contacts to look for information. Say there's a guy you did a couple of courier runs for, ho you could call to ask about the target of a find person mission. Or just to stay in touch, and wether if they have any job available.
This is way over the scope of the question though. But it could encourage the player to get to know an area better. (Which also needs deeper and more varied star systems, and whatnot)

There could also be a bit more elaborate analysis coming from the tade computer, which could mean one can peruse the system and sector map for information. Getting pricing and stock data from a system (10 days old), and comparing it to another system's 3 days old records. And then decide to go to the bar to ask around for some exclusive info. Or contanct somebody you know.

If you crossed somebody (either a criminal, or the police), the more you are at one place, the more likely for them to track you down. So maybe don't take that 100t of mining machinery, while an assassin is on your tail.

And the above mentioned points on crew could also be important in the sense that the larger your ship is, the more managerial work you'd need to do. And that would mesh with station delays as well. A small courier won't need to sit at port too much apart from regular maintenance, so it is more nimbel in that sense too, compared to a large hauler, who's captain needs to wrange crew and their workload, and a more complex maintenance schedule. But then the opportunities to make money (and risks associateds) should also reflect that.


An important question to all this is, how the player can know any of these that gets implemented? Reflected in dialogues? Some kind of UI info? Or it is somewhat opaque, and one needs to figure it out from effects and context?
Anyhow, I suspect it will need some UI/UX designing as well, after the gameplay design is figured out.