"Due to increasing competition for minerals from the Hive, all ships using more specialized, lightweight or high-strength alloys have had an increase in price."

This is sure to be a somewhat contentious change, but in-line with the thinking I laid out here, back in late 2005, some ship prices have been increased. The cost of "baseline" ships has not gone up, for the most part (a few exceptions). The cost of the most advanced variants has drastically increased, sometimes by over a factor of 10.

As on the thread linked above (and please take a look at it), some are going to claim that "This will be the end of PvP, blah blah"; while others will point out that it will simply give less-used variants an actual purpose in the game, while also giving a little traction to our hilariously inflated economy.

Some others may say the changes don't go far enough, to them I say: patience. As I recently posted to another thread, I prefer to do things like this somewhat conservatively, and I think these prices are reasonable for the moment. Other economic changes are in the works, and the most important thing is that we end up with a total overall picture that functions properly, while also not totally mucking things up in the meantime. All of this will require further tuning, which brings me to..

The MOST IMPORTANT FACT:

These prices ARE NOT CAST IN STONE. They're my "ballpark" prices, and I am actually looking for feedback on all of this. I will be re-visiting prices on Monday, based on feedback from this thread and elsewhere. Here are my current prices, for further debate:

EC-88/89 - Free
EC-98 - 109
EC-101 - 204
EC-104 - 1095
EC-107 - 995
EC-101MkII - 899
EC-101 Type B - 895

Centurion 328c - (unchanged)
Centurion MkII 394c - 2295
Centurion MkIII 765c - 4995
Centurion RevC 1285c - 51499
Centurion IBG 1685c - 64995
Centurion Superlight - (unchanged)

Vulture - (unchanged)
Vulture MkII - 2349
Vulture MkIII - 7499
Vulture MkIV - 15950
Vulture Guardian - 64999
Vulture Vulturis - 68199
Vulture XT - 59950

Warthog - 1462 (unchanged)
Warthog MkII - 4495
Warthog MkIII - 8399
Warthog MkIV - 11200
Warthog Mineral Extractor - 38500
Warthog Territorial Defender - 54950

Hornet - ~2000 (unchanged)
Hornet MkII - 5995
Hornet MkIII - 18199
Hornet Convoy Guardian - 40995

Revenant - ~500 (unchanged)
Revenant MkII - 1499
Revenant MkIII - 4399

Atlas 2472c - 2472
Atlas MkII 3238c - 5500
Atlas MkIII 3865c - 10995
Atlas TypeB 4059c - 22000
Atlas TypeX 4786c - 34490

Centaur - ~4000 (unchanged)
Centaur MkII - 12000
Centaur MkIII - 36000
Centaur Aggresso - 48000

Ragnarok - 9000
Ragnarok MkII - 27000
Ragnarok MkIII - 60000

Behemoth - 60000
Behemoth Light - 75000
Behemoth XC - 150000
Behemoth Heavy Miner - 90000

Valkyrie - 25000
Valkyrie Vengeance - 42000
Valkyrie Rune - 35000
Valkyrie IDF Vigilant - 48000
Valkyrie X-1 - 60000

Marauder - 30000
Marauder MkII - 40000
Marauder Type-B - 32000
Marauder Type-X - 34000
Marauder Mineral - 35000
Marauder Mercenary - 40000
Marauder Rev B - 38000

Prometheus - 25000
Prometheus MkII - 35000
Prometheus MkIII - 45000
Prometheus SkyCommand - 72000

Raptor - (unchanged)
Raptor MkII - 19950

Wraith Axia Guardian - 52000

EC-88 Free Free

O.o Are we getting it back at last?

I like the looks of that Inc. It gives reason to learning to fight for one, I will not want to "stay in sector until dead" just to save flying back for repairs. It also makes the good ships worth it. I like it.

Looks good to me...

I'm curious as to why the X1 is cheaper than the Corvus Vulturis considering that the X1 is generally considered a far superior ship, not to mention it's considered a 'prototype' model.

Also, Raptor prices? I mean, we know hardly anyone flys those ships, but I don't think TPG would like you leaving their li'l ship off the list. :P

It still looks very cheap to me, but it's an improvement.

Edit: And by looks cheap, I mean I think everything needs an extra 0 tacked onto the end across the board(at least) on top of this adjustment.

I'm curious as to why the X1 is cheaper than the Corvus Vulturis considering that the X1 is generally considered a far superior ship, not to mention it's considered a 'prototype' model.

Corvus, being mostly a black market... would understandably have higher prices. The Itani government may be subsidizing the pricing of some of their ships.

I'm kinda wondering why the ibg costs more than any of the valkyrie models...

As several have remarked in the discussion taking place on IRC, it kinda makes sense for the CV to cost a pretty penny, it's from Corvus, after all. What makes less sense to me is why the SVG costs more than the X-1. The SVG is pretty much the standard Serco military ship, in massive production, and with less armour than the X-1. The X-1, on the other hand, is a prototype vessel available only to a select few, and while I would buy that the Itani government would subsidize some of the price for those few, I wouldn't think it would get cheaper than the SVG. But I might also be biased by being, as Maalik would say, a vult-jock. :P

I really hope there will be combat/pvp missions to help get back the money lost from dying in PvP, for those who don't like trading/mining...

@Scuba: an extra 0 would not be good for PvP except for generic ships.

I agree with slime.

slime73: well, there already are the oft-mentioned Escort Missions, they're just boring and un-challenging. If they had more periodic combat however.. that might liven things up.

Hive Skirmish pays pretty well too, doesn't it?

You made a typo on the EC-89, I think, Incarnate... unless you plan to give us the EC-88 after all these years. ;)

Yeah, but neither of those have any real PvP in them.
The old bounty/liberation/whatever the corvus bounty mission was called would be cool. :P

I hope the TD will get a buff to go with its new price.

Well, it was from an old list (hence, no raptor). Anyway, the EC-88 is still technically there, and free, just not really.. available.

I added the Raptor. Not real sure on the pricing there. But maybe it being "cheaper" than some of the others will inspire usage?

Slime: start a new Suggestions thread about PvP-oriented ways of making money, and link to it from here. Let's keep this specific to the pricing changes.

Heh, ok.

Ooof, this is going to eat away at my 20mill pretty dang quick.. I also imagine the ransom required by pirates to go up from this. I imagine that some pvpers will have to do bulk trade to keep up with this...

One thing im curious about: Will killing the nation/region's levi will the prices go back down do to the roid fields being hive-free?

I think this could be turned into more incentive to shoot up the dynamic hive and learn some group bombing techniques..

No, there won't be dynamic consequences for destroying the hive as of yet. This sort of thing may (hopefully) come to pass in the future, but not likely in the short term.