There needs to be new things. New ships, weapons, trinkets, pixel crack.... w/e. Things that make the old things less valuable. The old things will still demand the same amount of credits to purchase, but the new things will require more. Old items and old credits will devalue together, in harmony. Where 10 million was the big time yesterday, it is pocket change tomorrow. Not because you can't by the same things, but because you can't buy the new things. Stations, cap ships, your name on a roid, an exclusive paint job on your ship, a pet genka... something new, something better than before, something difficult to get. Good job with the widowmakers and superlight, but... more, more, more.

P.S. more.

Yes. Doing as much as I can with the resources I have.

Could you review the pricing of the Ineubis Raven? And the price difference between an IDF and an X-1? And perhaps some other items you might think of, that even if only marginally better than something else, can at least be used as an excuse to burn extra credits?

is there a single item priced at a mil or more? half a mil? quarter?...

The Superlight effectively costs about a million, given the extensive amount of crap that has to be assembled, but that's not quite the same thing.

No, we have nothing hyper-expensive yet, and I am not comfortable making some mediocre ship hyper-expensive at present. I do have a plan for more specialized craft increasing in price, and it will come with the newer "rock, paper, scissors" type combat system, when we add a lot of new weapons that have specific benefits against specific hulltypes, and then ships of various hulltypes (and mixtures), and so on. I discussed it elsewhere on here not too long ago, don't have time to search and link at the moment.

Well one thing I like at current is that the combat system is almost entirely skill based. Could this new "rock,paper, scissors" effect this drastically, making it possible that players could be killed in 2-3 hits, from a rapid firing weapon?

just when I think I know of all the eggs to come, BAM! this should be highly interesting, and perchance, highly lucrative for the likes of me someday. damn time needs to go faster.

I'm concerned about the possibilty of the fighting system becoming more about what you have as opposed to what you can do with it.

I can understand some specialized ships (electronic counter-measures, mining ship, or even a blockade runner), but doing anything that would turn PvP into whoever has the better ship would probably ruin PvP totally.

There would be no "better", just "different. For instance, if a certain faction had access to a lot of "Ore X" they might produce "Armor X", which can then be damaged more easily with "Weapon X", causing people hunting that faction's ships to select that type of weapon. They could still be damaged by any other weapon, it would just provide some advantage/disadvantage. Kind of like our mining stuff. Essentially "damage bonuses" against given types of armor.

This would not reduce any skill usage at all.. there would be no inherent "best" ship or "best" armor or whatever, just more factors involved. None of the existing ships or weapons would change, only new ones would be introduced. All existing weapons would still do damage, without any bonus for specific types.

Anyway, I can't find the other thread where I posted in detail.

1) What do you mean you are "not comfortable making some mediocre ship hyper-expensive"? Make a mediocre ship, call it a mediocre ship, paint it pretty pink, and price it at a mil. when people ask why it is a mil, say because it is a pretty pink. It doesn't have to do anything with pvp. in some cases it is actually better if it doesn't have anything to do with pvp. if it is the only ship with that shade of pretty pink in the game, someone will pay, knowing full well it totally sucks in every other way. that is just an example, and i really hate pink, but i bet people could name off stuff they would throw a mil out the window for, that has absolutely nothing to do with pvp. I would pay a mil for a valk that looked like a vulture... ok... maybe that has a little to do with pvp... but that's just me.

2) In real life (did I say that?) the top end equipment starts to get exorbitantly expensive for a very marginal gain. How many thousands of dollars will a race car driver pay for an extra one mile per hour speed? take the Ineubis Raven, shave 5kg mass off of it, give it a new name, and price it at 100k. it will sell. (I will take two of them please...umm... four...wait...six, yes, six of them to go please. thank you.)

this isn't ship retailing online, I wouldn't want to see new models (i.e. pretty pink) of pointless ships that are more expensive for no reason... I really don't get why you're pushing that when incarnate has already outlined a pretty cool looking course for adding content and prices.

Yeah if the model's are attractive, old players that have obscene amounts of money will likely roll around in them sometimes for the shits; but it's not like they're going to become poor over them. I'd rather them focus on cranking out the updates that matter.

I agree with you Roda. And I want a pet Genka. Even priced at 10 mill.

How about a 1 mill EC-88? I'd buy one even though I have several... vintage and shit.

"There would be no "better", just "different. For instance, if a certain faction had access to a lot of "Ore X" they might produce "Armor X", which can then be damaged more easily with "Weapon X", causing people hunting that faction's ships to select that type of weapon. They could still be damaged by any other weapon, it would just provide some advantage/disadvantage."

I understand it won't break PvP, however it still can infringe on the "pure skill" aspect. Unless a station had access to several different types of ores and could produce armor of those types, newbs, or even intermediates, are basically stuck with one type of armor until they are willing to travel.

I do understand that if stations do produce armor and weapons for each of the different ores they receive, it could add a whole new dynamic to the game with apicene being much more expensive, but harder to damage, vs common aquean. However it adds an an unneeded expense in that weapons that have an advantages over apicene would be more expensive. Also if armor and weapons types were required, it would put newbs at the disadvantage because they could only afford low quality armor, while weapons advantageous vs that armor are common.

I guess to summarize my suggestions:
1. Make different types of armor/weapons are available at each station.
2. Make sure weapon/armor types have advantages and disadvantages.
3. Give an option to choose between no specialty armor/weapons, and two low grade armor/weapons at no cost, with better armor weapons at higher cost.

I think you probably figured this all out on your own. But the only question I have still, is how are you going to make armor/weapons from rare ores different or make it seem like they are rare ores without making them "better"?

Theratt, there is obviously going to be some disadvantage to a newbie player, in skill and equipment. The idea is, that yes, if you stay at your home system you might have a select number of armor types. So it would be smart to invest in a better armor type so you are not as vulernable.

But it's not going to be a end-game if you're stuck with a sucky armor type, the devs have too much experience for that. The damage gain with a matching armor type would prolly be in the 5%-20% range. (maybe more, maybe less. Ask incarnate. But it's not going to be "omg I has wrong armahs I just lost the game")

Like zik says, the advantages would be small bonuses, not staggering ones. I don't see it as having any more of a negative impact on PvP than our current distribution of item availability, which clearly has pros and cons already. As long as all three types are generally accessible to people of all nations (not in all stations, but "around" and/or in grayspace), I don't think there'll be any serious imbalance.. just more strategy to combat. Plus, using an armor-specific weapon against a "generic" ship would probably be either no-advantage or a slight disadvantage, and the armor-specific ships will likely be very costly with other trade-offs.. so it winds up being risky for the attacker as well. I imagine most newbies being in "generic" ships until they have both the funds and need for more specialized craft.

We'll have to see how it all shakes out. I don't anticipate any substantial upset to PvP, just a deepening of options (which people generally seem to like), and a further tie-in of mineral and ore locality and the like. Getting back to the point of this thread, it'll also be a substantial money sink and provide a more "real" benefit.