I don't know about the rest of you, but at 9/9/8/11/4, I can't help but feel like a millionaire in-game. I have just shy of 10 million in credits (all gained honestly) and have no true outlet for my funds. I am not the pack-rat type to be proud of all my currency, I could easily survive on 250,000c for weeks.

Let me first be clear that I and not suggesting a devaluing of the currency by increasing ship/commodity prices. The current economy is great for new players to grasp the game with little loss and feel like they have accomplished something.

What can we suggest that could become an outlet for my (and your) piles of credits? It should not be something that unbalances the playing field in any way.

I personally believe we could get away with making the prices of ships dependent on levels, as a player's levels seem to accurately portray how many credits they have. (trading folks aside)

Maybe we could buy big ol' signs at stations that say what we want them to (all messages to be approved by the devs of course).

Anything folks, let it rip!

-R IBA 3.14rat

Pay pirates. Sponsor events. Fatten your guild's bank. Give it to poor people like me.

The economy is a known bug.

Well, it's not actually a "bug", it's just not complex, functional, or dynamic yet.

At any rate, the devs know all this and will be building a more dynamic economy.

I agree...

I broke the 1mil mark today after doing my first ever escort missions (I did 3, didn't fight once and gained in the region of 850k). :|

All of this took me half an hour.

I was so shocked I repeatedly asked my guildies who was giving me money.

The fact is, in that half an hour I made enough to loosE the most extravagant setup you can think of many times over.

It is agreed that I'm sure the devs know its a problem, but I think stack wanted this to become an ideas-to-fix-known-problem thread.

So here's my answer; capital ships. When they are implemented in my opinion its absolutely key they cost extortionate amounts of money. I think this because the demographic of VO is generally quite high level dedicated players, so if caps relied on skills to be the difficulty in obtaining them, it wouldn't be difficult enough <imo>.

So having a capital ship cost about 1.5mil would make it a big enough 'ouch I lost the ship' and so the game isn't flooded with them.

I'm still quite new to the game so if I just said a load of rubbish, sorry - just point it out :).

Also it was written on a pda keyboard at 11.48PM, sorry for spelling mistakes.

Spine

There is effectively infinite money in the system of VO, and there is precisely one credit sink, which is the market on stations. So, if you can make more money with the equipment you buy from stations than the price of that equipment, you effectively have infinite money. The problem is that it's not hard to make enough money to pay for the most expensive ship, with a mediocre ship; even with a Revenant Mk I, I think I could bank enough to pay 20,000 for each time I died with it, so there's no real reason not to fly the most expensive ship all of the time. Actually, I think anyone would make more net with the expensive ships.

I like it. Spine, 1.5mil? How about 5mil? Anything to, as you said, make players value it.

The most expensive ship I buy from time to time costs about 60K. But the most actually expensive ship is the SuperLight so far. (have spent 100s of 1,000s so far)

To Super: It all depends on what you do... I pirate. I often lose a 50K ship on the my first attempt, and don't necessarily make it back...

Maybe we could introduce insta-jumps (cross the galaxy from station to station) only to be used once in so much a time period, only transports you (not your ship or any cargo), and costs a ton of money (100K per system jump?).

Could be fun.

Comments welcome, as always.

-R IBA 3.14rat

As I see it, it is rather guilds that should be able to buy and commission capital ships, not single players.

The billboards idea is good... only it'd take a significant chunk out of the dev's time, which is bad, very bad. Perhaps have a text to GTS parser, so the billboards wear your name, however a global billboard limit would have to be instated, to prevent cluttering.

All billboards would need to be in GTS unless they're the old Earthly Summers sign. Can't be ruining what little immersiveness we've got...

What makes a guild special? If one player has the credits to burn, they should be able to buy whatever a guild can.

The whole "guilds should have special access privileges" attitude would be an instant deal breaker for me were GS to adopt it.

Stack: It was the first time i'd done it - it wasn't a speed thing it was more 'wow, there are lots of these - lets try one' type thing.

The other way I see money becoming important but only to players that had played the game for along time and were effectively 'end game' players, purchase/crafted stations.

Costing around 10 billion and being fully destructible they would be unguarded by itan/serc/UIT defense so players could pew it to death just by hitting it for long enough, where ever its placed.

Also, it would be vulnerable to hive infestation and storms. Basicly, a station but much less powered. Also, there should be a quota so space doesn't become cluttered and it should cost around 20 mil a day to keep running - eg, the ultimate isk sink.

I know GS have made a point to make everything in game accessible without monetary grind, but these would be for those that really have nowhere else for their money to be sunk.

Spine

Toshiro, you're right, billboards is goofy and a little unpractical. And they would have to be in GTS.

But I have always liked the idea of player-crafted stations. But there needs to be a way to limit it. And at 10mil per day to operate, I can't see anyone but guilds being able to operate them. They would be a haven for members to get cheap ships and commodities.

I like the idea of player-run stations, but I only see it getting out of hand rather quickly unless we somehow limit who can produce and operate a station. But we could do station foreclosures for those guilds that can't afford to run them, and perhaps lucky players could buy them in an auction-style event?

See you all in the 'verse!

-R IBA 3.14rat

well the new mining moth costs around 25,000 credits which is one of the more higher ones. The devs need to release more expensive ships that take higher levels (7,8,9,10+). Give something for people to work for!

The whole "guilds should have special access privileges" attitude would be an instant deal breaker for me were GS to adopt it.

That's your cue, Incarnate!

Actually I agree with Lecter. It'll just be one more thing enticing people to create more guilds

Funny, but last time I saw the itani dev on, he said pretty much the same thing.

True that, smittens. Still, I don't think one single player should be able to control a capital ship, regardless of credits. Because why? Because credits are essentially worth nothing.

This would only work when money is actually hard to come by and there has been an economy reset.

Because ownership of a guild is essentially worth anything? Only if you make it necessary to own certain ships.

I tend to agree with Dr L , a player should be able to purchase anything a guild can.

Whether they can operate and fund it long term on their own should be the question.

Perhaps leasing stations and capships rather than outright purchase might be an interesting mechanism in the long term .

"Perhaps leasing stations and capships rather than outright purchase might be an interesting mechanism in the long term ."

problem is people could power level an alt, give the alt just enough credits to lease capship then go on a capship suicide mission. hard part is finding a reason to go on the suicide mission.

The connies and the HAC's would be like 5 mil, but the trident, is no where near as powerful and large, it could be like 2 mil or 1.5 mil like spine said. The teradon would be in between, its shear firepower winning over it's size (I bet these would be the most dominant in the universe when cap ships can be bought).