We have bulk trade guild missions... The way I see it, that is practically begging to have group trade guild missions added! Imagine, getting an order to move 200 units of Cargo X somewhere. It's a tall order now, but it could be done in one trip if we had group trade missions...

Yes. Just make it simple and get it into the game. The group leader (and only the leader) chooses the trade guild mission, and all xp and money rewards are split evenly.

Later, there can be features for giving out more appropriate rewards to fighter pilots who guard such trade convoys.

Most definitely, what they both said!!!!!

Actually, I was thinking that xp and monetary rewards would be split proportionally according to the cargo carried. Example:

Group is composed of players Alpha, Beta, and Moo.
Group takes a mission to carry 100 units of ore from somewhere to somewhere else.
Alpha carries 50 units, Beta carries 30 units, and Moo carries 20 units.
The reward for said mission is 10000cr, max 1000xp, and 50 standing.
Each player recieves 50 standing
Alpha recieves 5000cr and 500xp
Beta recieves 3000cr and 300xp
Moo recieves 2000cr and 200xp

Basing reward splits on cargo carried adds undue complexity and has little to do with how much work each participant is doing.

This does raise an interesting issue, though: for group trade missions to work, you'll need to be able to easily send cargo to other players' station holds. (Shuttling loads into space and jettisoning them would be tedious to say the least.)

I wonder if The Bar channel could have commands for doing this.

Why would you need to do that? Are we talking about the same thing here? The way I see it, they'd all dock at the station to recieve their cargo...

this would rule!

[Totally edited to cover up stupidity]

Roguelazer - I forgot the mission computer keeps unloaded cargo in a magic reserve location. You're right -- trader who want to load up would just dock.

Bumpity for Rene.

*bumped* 'cause it's a good idea regarding group trade missions. That'd give trade guilds... or trade sub-groups in guilds a neat activity on which to coordinate.

Also, group trade missions could be tied to server-wide events like a special piece of equipment becoming available for a limited time at a certain location (and possibly to only those who completed the group trade mission)... or some sort of emergency relief effort.

I have to revisit this because it bit me in-game:

If you have a bulk mission, and you can't load all the cargo, the remainder of your cargo goes into the station bay. (Not, as I previously thought, held back in a magical location.) This means you must leave, empty your hold, come back, and *manually* load up some of the remainder from your station hold.

In a group context, this won't work -- rather, it will be a tremendous pain. If the group takes a bulk mission:

1. Does everyone who is docked automatically get their holds filled up? If so, players who are along as fighter escorts will have a hard time giving their cargo to one of the traders. They'll have to undock, jettison, and hope a trader can come out and collect the cargo. (Before some griefer grabs it.)

2. If the players can't carry all the mission cargo, what happens to the remainder? Any automatic solution is bound to distribute the cargo incorrectly half the time.

For both of these reasons, it'll be necessary to have functions to transfer cargo to other docked players.