So, Incarnate has informed us that ship prices will be significantly increased in the not too far off future http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/11768 . Also, my work on the eventual crafting system lead me to concur that this was inevitable http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/11406 . About 10 minutes ago I realized that perhaps the credit reward for missions should be seriously reviewed.

What % of the cost of a likely-to-be-used ship should be mission return?

How should a "likely-to-be-used ship" be determined?

How should this be different for different mission types? (It should because you are MUCH more likely to lose said ship in BP or Adv Combat than in hauling cargo between Eo and Divinia.)

This is all especially important for the beginning missions that newbies have access to. The following MUST be reasonably avoided [dead newbie = broke newbie = mad newbie = lost player]. I am primarily concerned with the credit rewards for inital combat missions. I believe it should be possible for a character to completely avoid trading and mining, and still be well enough off to buy ships/equipment at their license levels (given that the pilot is not totally incompetent). Not necessarily a lot, nor without selling old ships/equipment, but at least 2-4.

rather than change the combat practice missions i'd rather see additional combat oriented mission trees (loke the reconosince/spy missions only you know... good)

for example the forshadowed convoy escort and patrole missions (i think every nation should have a mission similar to boarder patrole with the circumstances (oponents, reward etc.) determined by what nation / boarder.

or a tournament mission tree centered in Serco space.

or even obsticale coarses, similar to the racetracks that reward combat XP for sucessfule completion of the coarse. While they don't themeselves reward cash, thery would make for a focal point for play created competitions.

I think the devs have pretty much said that the broke newbie thing is a non-issue, as the beginning ships won't rise much if at all in price, only the specialized combat ships. Still, the cash influx from risky missions should be increased to compensate, so that when those newbies can start buying special ships, they have the cash accumulated to do so.

Given that the cost of low level ships will not increase much, then the current low level mission rewards can also not rise much -- 50% of a 500 credit ship is 250 credits. However, the mid and high level combat missions (for which the average ship might cost 40,000+)... So, back to the percent issue I was hoping to discuss, how much do people think missions should hand out? I figure the beginner missions ought to assume you die maybe half the time. I really am unsure about other missions given how you currently are encouraged to run away at first trouble for a free repair.

I concur that mission rewards will have to be rescaled along with everything else. I have a vague idea of what to do with this (haven't thought on it a lot yet), but would appreciate further input and analysis on the subject.

What's going on with that price rebalance?