Not sure if this has a thread as of yet, didn't see it on the first page.

I have heard in game talk of player/guild purchasable large items, Namely stations and capitol ships. Just want to post some observations in regards to this.

1. Though most would not consider it - clutter. I remember Ultima Online, where players could purchase residences of different sizes, and place them in the game world. Eventually you couldn't see the forest for houses. Yes, we have a lot of "space" <heh>, but it could fill up faster then you realize.

2. My suggestion for this is permanent "unmanned" stations at different points. A guild comes along and claims it. It is then their job to maintain the station. Post guards, whether be to pay for NPC guards or hire player guards. Run trade through there or just base out of it. Some stations can be posted in more traveled space, and some in out of the way areas. If a station is unmaintained it falls back into an abandoned/unmanned status. Also, a manned station could be taken over by an opposing force, if the opposing force is strong enough. When the economy starts playing a bigger factor in game we could also play that into how a station is maintained.

1. Um, every one of the literally dozens of players before you, who started a thread just like this one, considered clutter.

2. Change your text to "someone comes along and claims it" and you might have a workable, if insanely repetitive, idea. Guilds don't get special privileges.

That's an interesting idea. We probably won't do anything guild-specific about them (more about having resources to maintain a station, if one person can do it, then so be it), but the general concept is useful. I had given some thought to a lot of stations essentially being like that anyhow, once they were constructed (in that they could be conquered by someone else, and then taken back, and so on).

There are some aspects of "station construction" that I've wanted to do.. like specialized modules that allow production of given items, which do lend themselves towards actual "creation" of a station, but could also be done with "abandoned" stations.

The issue becomes one of not having enough stations. But I guess that could lead to some interesting contention and warfare over them.

Perhaps a mix of the two could be useful.. big "abandoned" stations for major manufacturing and the like, and smaller "custom" stations for lesser scale? I dunno.

Regarding the UO "house" issue (which I recall): we don't really have the same issues.. we have nothing but space. An infinitely expandable.. vastness of space. Evenso, we would set aside purchasable "plots" basically, to keep regional densities to some sane level.

I have always agreed with Dr. L , Stations and capships should be ownable by both single players and guilds.

I would also repeat the suggestion that ownership of stations should not be determined purely on a cash based purchase or rental system. That would give an unbalanced advantage to players who have large bank balances.

A station should require a certain quantity of resources per unit time to maintain it. For instance, once you have rented or purchased a station you have to supply x cu of basic ore , food , and other maintenance and life support goods per week otherwise the station ceases to function and vanishes from the game .

Ideally the need to supply the basics should also extend to the mechanism to allow the manfacture of tradeable goods. For instance, if I decide that my station manufactures lux goods, then a quantity of base materials must be deposited at the station to keep the production going .

I do realise this is a longer term suggestion, and that other short term development is rightly a priority.

Further thoughts on this:

At present VO is mainly combat focused, so a station, at first, should focus on that aspect with code stubs for future development in economy. Heck, it could be the start for the reasoning behind the economy shift.

Also, revise the unmanned/abandoned setting slightly to skeleton crew almost abandoned, reasoning for this is it more "expensive" in cost and resources to use it at first, but a solo player could stumble upon one and still use it for repairs.

And since the system base at present is combat oriented also sent ownership to reflect it. Yes it would be easier to maintain a station on a group basis, a guild being a large group, but a solo player and friends could run one too.

The big point I want to make with my suggestion is "permanent" existing stations but the controller is in flux.

Ecka, do we really want to waste our entire lives to be online 24/7 just to maintain our precious station?
From a point of view of a player who spends 20+ hours daily playing VO it sounds like a dream, but what about the rest of us?

@bojansplash: teamwork would be important for the rest of us I'd assume. Either divide labor... or do it yourself.

We would need a bigger playerbase for the teamwork option to work of course, but more features/gameplay means bigger playerbase, so that issue would take care of itself.

Fair point bojansplash, the key would be to get the levels of maintenance for a small station set at a point where one player could reasonably do it, whereas far more resources would be needed for the manufacture of goods.

@Atice: if existing VO stations can be maintained by NPCs so should guild/player stations. Building a station to its full functionality should be a job for the players.
Once a station is fully operational with mining, trading, manufacturing & shipyard modules, it should be governed by players but maintained by NPCs.

In other words: players would function as general management and decision makers not as dumb cargo haulers or miners.
If VO progress is going in the questionable direction of minimizing player interaction and developing NPC content (Border Skirmish, Hive Skirmish, NPC pirates) then let NPCs do all the work anyway. We can just sit back and enjoy the scenery.

bojan, I'm down with that. as long as someone is doing the work (and it costs time/money w/e), and the work can be disrupted, I'm down.

If any one here has ever played X3 you will know what I'm talking about.

I like this idea of player stations, but having to run cargo all day to keep the station up for a day is tiresome and would probably only go well for very large groups of people.

I suggest, possibly, players being able to purchase bots that will go out to other systems, purchase goods (items the bot is to buy is set by the station owner) and return them to the station. Thus keeping it all going nicely without any players needing to haul cargo. This could also lead to blockade tactics in taking over a station as well as the main station assault.

In purchasing a station a player or guild would need to purchase a minimum amount of bots to get the station on its way to running effectively.

It would be nice If we had a station that could be defended/supplied etc. to experiment with...For now just an empty with no goods for sale and no faction etc. This would allow some exploration of the issues....

(PA would love a chance to help with this...)

How's about a station where a player or guild can bribe the local station authorities towards a certain point of view, which costs only a little at first then as the station authorities get greedy costs the player more and more to sustain. For added giggles put in an annoyance factor, so if a player is using a station as a friendly base to raid the convoys of nominally the normal faction of the station, then said station gets fed up with the bribes even faster.

The idea here is to make Greyspace stations much more mercenary and exploitative in ther outlook. Right now, they behave like slightly disreputable normal stations, but these are pirate bases and should really be much, much more ready to accept bribes and so on; equipment in Corvus stations shouldn't be limited by licence but by how much the player is prepared to pay for the tech that is above their licence level.

This could even be applied to Corvus docking; if you're KOS with Corvus you don't get shot immediately on entering, but challenged and told that the strike force will look the other way if suitably paid off (something which won't happen anywhere else).

The net effect would be that a major guild or alliance of guilds could, if they so chose, bribe every single Corvus station except the capitols to become, say, UIT or Itani or Serco nationalists for a short while and boot all resident pirates out, rehoming them in the capitol systems. This would necessarily be a brief sojourn into respectability, depending on how much bribe money could be spread around, but could be used to pull a player blockade against pirates.

Anyway, have a think about making Corvus more corrupt. Believe me, they need to be corrupt.

Well I suspect the only way to make Corvus more corrupt is to have a completely unaligned station with absolutly no ties to any faction and not even a NFZ. Corvus is meant to be the place of last resort for the lost souls of VO.

Corvus is meant to be the place of last resort for the lost souls of VO.

We call it home sweet home, thankyouverymuch.