If they need it, then they should pay a premium for the manufacture and delivery. Free equipment should only be available in the starter sectors. Credits are far too easy to get to justify otherwise.

If you want to make the arguement that new or experienced players with 0 cr would be incapacitated, we'll open up my contention that VO needs a debt system. I don't think it would be a bad thing for new players to start out with a debt of 500,000cr (for training and equipment) that they have to work themselves out of. Unpaid debt should have escalating consequences. Traders could use debt to finance bigger ships and more valuable (and much more profitable) cargo. Service to the state through missions such as HS and border skirmishes should have benefits for debtors.

Credits should not follow a player everywhere and have no means of being lost. When a player dies, their credits that they have in hand should be dropped. Or destroyed, I don't care which. VO needs a banking system based on nation / faction. If I show up at corvus, I should only have the amount of credits I feel reasonable to keep on hand. If I choose to trade from there, then, I may need to take out a loan to buy a trade ship and cargo. I should expect to make a profit large enough to pay off or down on the loan and still be worth my effort. If I choose to do combat in the area, then unless I have a positive balance to pay for new ships and repairs, then those should be paid for with debt. For which my character is liable.

Also, do we really need or want the license system?

just make a machine that punches you every 10 minutes so that your thirst for being punished is quenched

you don't need to try and make this into Masochist online

Here Here, Look..no..hands! Pirates need rewarding ways to earn credits.

* Each ship in a Voy should carry a different cargo.
* There should be a cargo scanner. Info from the cargo scanner could be displayed in targetless.
* Pilots should earn XP for killing voys. This would better balance XP awarded for PKS. A pirate who spends little time botting but lots of time privateering would have unrealistically low XP levels. Therefore killing him would yield proportionalty low combat XP.

Since it was brought up, if we ever get a Faction redux, can we just scrap the license system? I mean really, It's just a boring pointless grind...

Or scrap it for everyone except trainees, who need to get their licenses in all areas before they leave the training sector.

Agreed with Impravid.

my complete lack of pvp skill is a direct result that I never bothered to take pvp half seriously, and flying head first into whatever pirate hails me regardless of my ship never did me any good.

I like the cost of dying as it is. combat ships are dirt cheap at their current prices, allowing players to not worry much about dying often in practice fights. carrier ships are worth based on their cargo, which is the right factor when deciding to either pay or flee and die.

what Shape said.

As a relative newcomer it does seem that replacement ships
and equipment are relatively inexpensive, at least early on.

I mean, I'm accumulating the cash faster than I can spend it.
The roadblock (which I'm fine with) for better stuff and ships is license level.

As to: "the first char to 10000 player kills" well this sounds
like a guy who can't figure out if he wants to get PVP kills or not. If you're tired of shooting the same dude(s) roll on to
some other sector/system, right? Don't whine that they're too easy; whoever pays for the game can be as stubborn *ahem* as they please.

If you MUST impose a delay, perhaps the devs can work out that respawns take you to a sort of well-defended cul-de-sac instead of the current home system approach - essentially the same as training (which maybe should start in the same place) and then you have to work your way through relatively safe systems back to where the real action happens.

How you work this in for the backstory/RPG perspective is left as an exercise for those who have no problems designing and coding games that are perfectly always balanced for every style of player.

All kidding aside, you can do it: a rescue in your beeping emergency pod, a long ride back to a special hospital, somebody can work this stuff out. Heck, you can even build in some red cross SHIPS if you like, tough slow buggers operated by players interested in physics and realism, ships that aren't attractive to pirates --- oh wait, there are people here who only want to run up their PVP count, aren't there...? People who shoot ships even though there's no profit to it? Hm.

frasmotic:

replacement ships DO get more expensive, and in the scheme of things, if you're interested in PvP, you'll be spending a lot.

Re: What I said about the license system,

This roadblock seems fine earlier on, while you're still enamored with bots, but the truth is, in a game where (with the exception of some very early ships and weapons) every ship is useful, the license system forces people to simply go out and grind bots over and over and over.

For no other reason than raising combat experience, to get weapons that are not truly "Better" than the last ones.

It makes more sense, if we get a faction redux (which the devs have said is coming for a long while), to simply link weapons and ships to levels of faction standing, with factions increasing and decreasing relatively...

Thus, if you stand by Corvus, for example, you'll have a different set of weapons and ships at your disposal.

You'll still have to do missions, but not for faction standing AND licenses. Just faction standing, making money, improving your faction's influence over the game.

Cuz really, for most of us vets, I think, we'd really rather the new players didn't have to grind long... people spend their first month worrying about licenses, and then never even think about them again. It makes more sense to take their enthusiasm and just toss it directly into interesting gameplay.

Now, as far as your idea re: escape pods,

It's been suggested before, and I'm actually a fan of it, either give people a small, very fast craft, with no wormhole jump ability,

Or, alternately, have an animation which takes some fixed amount of time (say 3 minutes), showing your pod being picked up by some passing vessel and dropping you off at your base.

I am that enthusiastic noob, currently trying to gain licences, but more interested in combat than I can afford to be; repairing my Hog has nearly wiped me out as I'm not running enough missions. So, it's trading and mining to get some cash to enable game play that's of more interest (to me).

Good game though - has stopped me playing Eve.

Well said enthusiastic noob... any thing that stops a person from playing that soul crushing "other game" is a wondrous thing. Oh, and welcome to VO.

If you're having troubles with money... just take a few escort missions. Some of them pay up to 900k, thats a whole lot of Hog IIs.

It also helps to do well-paying bulk procurement missions (for standing). They pay okay, and you'll be liked in all the important stations.

I always hear the pirates cryin about how they need more blah blah blah.. the point is most of the good pilots go pirate cause they get tired of doing other things.. There should be I think stronger punishments for being a pirate.. ie an AI system that flags a player if they attack a voy and one ship gets away or gets a distress off.. or players for that matter.. aye Grey Space is suppost to be a haven for Pirates but its not a nation.. its FFA area.. the AI voys that come through there with there npc escorts should go off on them if they get close. thats just my idea.. and im sure pey pey will come looking for cheese to go with his wine like he always does.. I personally dont miss him at all since I dont really play anymore. (though I keep myself updated to see when some changes happen so i can come check it out again)

Baylen: I don't think that's related...

And grey space has a number of corporations which are effectively nations...

Corvus 4 EVAH!

Xang Xi, for all your Grey Space Combat needs!

Xang Xi will sell you good ship and good gun, with low-low faction requirement!

(Not to mention a 90% licence requirement, hush hush!)

Xang Xi also guarentee to be cheaper than Corvus, or your money back!

Suggested Penalty: You can not return to the last sector you died in for 5 min (with exception for a station sector you are homed in).

Shape: I would like to agree with removing levels, but true newbs really need that botting practice. How will you convince them to do it without levels? I also hate that the only practical way to raise faction are trade missions. There should be mining and combat paths to faction.

I agree with the recent price changes. High end ships cost lots, low end ships are cheap. This makes sense and makes a viable market for the low end ships. You want to fly a corvult full time? pay for it.

Roda: Artificially limiting access to certain sectors is, well, pretty artificial. I'm sure there's a solution which would add to the immersive experience, rather than detracting from it.

One possibility would be to implement an ejection pod system as ret mentioned. Perhaps when your ship explodes, you're thrown into an ejection pod, which has exactly the same stats as an observer bot. You can fly your pod to a station and get a ship, or someone could kill the pod. If your pod dies, you respawn in your nation's capitol (or Corvus capitol if you are disliked by your own nation).
There are several benefits to this. The biggest is that death would be more costly in situations where it should be, without discouraging "friendly" pvp (the assumption being that you don't pod-kill after a duel in B8, and such).

Ladron, I like that...

P.S. generating small black holes yet? :P

ok. if you jump into the last sector you died in, you jump in at a point that is 25km distance from the normal jump in points, reduced by 5km per minute since your death. (because your brand new navigation systems has not had time to properly calibrate.)

Is that pod thing from eve? It sounds kind of familiar.

when your ship explodes, you're thrown into an ejection pod, which has exactly the same stats as an observer bot.

You can fly your pod to a station and get a ship, or someone could kill the pod.

If your pod dies, you respawn in your nation's capitol (or Corvus capitol if you are disliked by your own nation).


+1

Devs, you should make this happen. Now. It would revolutionize the RP elements of the game.