This is a random idea that struck my sleep-deprived brain as I was playing this morning....

Back in early Alpha repairs used to actually cost money. The problem with this was that if you ever damaged your free bus it was easier to just "buy" a new one than pay to have it repaired.

Thus as a newb your hanger quickly became cluttered with damaged EC-88s.

What if...

The EC-88 and the equipment it came with wasn't really free, but loaned to you by the government? Say an EC-88 with all the trimmings actually came out to be about 500 credits?

If you had 0 credits, stations would allow you to purchase only an EC-88, putting you 500 credits into the red. When you earned credits you could choose to spend some of them paying off this loan whenever you wanted, but the loan would gradually accrue interest (according to game time, not real time).

Therefore when you start the game, you would have a government loan for the ship you are using that you would have to eventually pay off. If the debt got big enough, perhaps the government would start reposessing some of your items to help pay for the loan, or send an NPC bounty hunter after you if it got really huge.

edit: lowered suggested cost from 2,000 to 500 cred

I see only one problem with this:
People kill newbies.

What if a single-digit pirate, deep in UIT space, comes upon a "How do I dock"-style player and KABOOMS him?
"Buy back last ship" puts the poor newbie 2k in the red!
That's not a good way to say "Welcome to Vendetta!"

I like the idea, but suggest this modification:
If they're PK'd the govt insurance picks up the bill, unless, ofcourse, it happens in gray space.
Also, it should never go below -10 000c/level
That way, a level 0 would have a minimum cash of 0, but a level 1 pilot would have -10 000, a level 2 can see -20 000 etc
Govt insurance only lasts until ... level 3 pilot?

I always thought that the government was subsidizing the cost of ships, and the EC-88 was designed so that it would cost less then what the government was providing.

You do know that many other ships, like vult 1, are 1.5k and below, right?

But not with a battery and weapon.

i am totaly opposed to this idea

[stamp of opposition]

> > You do know that many other ships, like vult 1, are 1.5k and below, right?
> But not with a battery and weapon.

With the freebatt & gov issued blaster they are, so you would have to make those cost some part of the amount the government is loaning. I think this is an interesting suggestion, but IMO 2000 credits for the cost of the govbus is too much. 250 to 500 would be suitable, IMO. That should be low enough that it wouldn't hurt n00bs too much.

don't realy see all that muchpoint in doing this, iit whould make the newbies scared to venture to far out they don't know that 500 isent very much ,and it whould discurage them from just flying around and dieing a bit to get used to the game.

allso if it cut out at level three what whould happen if you dropped below the price of a bus after level three? you'd get stuck.

i think its best how it is realy.

Yeah, the more I think about it, the more I don't like it.
How about if you die too much as a newbie you have to re-take the long boring tutorial mission?

*cough*

Nah, I'm joining the "leave it as it is" team.

Worst. Idea. So far.

I won't say "ever" since I'm sure someone will top it in less than a month.

But seriously, I see no point to add this kinda financial pressure on a newbie.

Well, I will admit that this may not be my best idea, (Demonen makes a very good point) but the point wasn't really so much to punish newbs as to give them a sense of purpose right off the bat. Perhaps it could be a one-time loan of 2,000 that the player starts off with at the beginning of the game in exchange for a lifetime supply of EC-88s.

Earning credits could seem a lot more important when you have loan sharks to pay off.

"...I was just going to see your boss Greedo, tell Jabba I've got his money!" ;)

concidering repares are free the whole hangar full of damaged busses issue is kinda moot. was there another reason to make the govbus cost money?

na...not really that good. but getting LOANS out :D and then, when you go into gray, and pirate, the gov will hate you till' you pay the loan back :)

"
Tue 07:56AM jexkerome
Worst. Idea. So far.

I won't say "ever" since I'm sure someone will top it in less than a month.

But seriously, I see no point to add this kinda financial pressure on a newbie."

nope. the worst one was to make me god.