Refueling, passenger transport, retail and escort gameplay all have functionality but lack player motivation. How will you make players genuinely want to engage with these?
TL;DRRefueling gets external rewards in the next patch through refueling missions, where owners of refueling ships can help stranded NPCs; the other gameplay loops named are not addressed.
Good news: refueling. At least for one of those. Now, we are aware that sometimes you need extrinsic motivation to try out gameplay loops in our game. And refueling is one of the few ones where, when we released it for the first time, there was a lot of that, because it's a new gameplay. People were coming up with their own goals. They organized themselves. We even had a brief moment where the Fuel Rats came into our game and were distributing fuel. They left again, but I think, at least I've stopped noticing them there. But anyway, derailing. So it worked for a short time, like with all intrinsic urges you have. It's a smaller timeframe rather than when you get an external reward. And for the next patch, there are finally some external rewards for that, because we will introduce refueling missions. So all the owners of Starfarers and other refueling ships will be able to refuel stranded NPCs. So if an NPC runs out of fuel, they will pop up a mission, and you, in your Starfarer or fuel-giving ship, will be able to head over there and refuel them. So there is suddenly a purpose.
Or other fuel-giving ship that you might have seen a sneak peek of in the weekly newsletter last week.