I tried, searched both red and blue space, but could not find any convoy departing from Serco/Itani nations heading yellow or gray space. Nation convoys remains inside own nation.

Is there a reason for that? For me seems obvious that there should be convoys from nations that crosses gray and yellow space!

Suggestion: Add many convoys from Serco/Itani stations heading to yellow and gray space.

And yes, I know that the war blockade can be out there. One more reason why those convoys should exist! And pay more for killing enemies.

And create a GROUP mission offered whenever a blockade is set, to break blockades.

One problem might be that people will just send countless convoys through the wormhole to destroy the war convoy for them. But yes, once those types of bugs with the convoy mission-generating system are fixed... there should definitely be nation convoys that go to grey or uit space.

hell, there should be convoys that go from everywhere to everywhere (save Serco/Itani and visa versa). I don't see why this wouldn't be the case.

@ShankTank:
That deserves its own topic: Once taken, aborting convoy should result the same as abandoning it, you remain resposible for its fate.

And if simple trade convoys can breach blockade unharmed, then the War Convoy wasn't properly sized and should grow as response.

@Atice:
Exact!

No, actually, it is relevant to the topic at hand... To do something like this you must cover all possible scenarios of normal convoy-war convoy interactions. Believe me, I would love to see Itani/Serco convoys in grey/UIT space and I think I have suggested it previous to the introduction of the War Convoys... but you can't completely disregard bugs and exploits.

You may have been under the impression that I meant that people could send convoys through to the war convoys for the convoys themselves to be killed (resulting in massive loots) and, while that is true and very exploitable with blind implementation of this, I also meant that people could send convoys through to kill the war convoys (free firepower). Both of these scenarios are undesirable and require safeguards.

Like you are responsible for your convoy, even if abort it?

Just occured me one possible implementation, and interesting one:
The convoy refuses to jump while enemy capships are there in the other side. Or jump in then jump back, and return to nearest friendly station, resulting in a "Break Blockade" mission offer!

But way too complex. I still prefer simple things, send the convoy and you are responsible for it, no matter what is out there, if rats, bots or blockade!

Yes, that is a valid safe guard (the convoy refusing to go through the wormhole with a blockade on the other side) and I was about to make an edit to my post along those lines. It is certainly not complex, all except for your "Break Blockade" mission idea, which is frankly unnecessary.

My version of it is simply this: make it so convoy missions of all factions (including sub-factions) that involve going through a border wormhole sector with War Convoy bots currently in it are made unavailable. In other words, players must clear out War Convoys before convoy missions going through those sectors start being generated. This would be implemented in conjunction with Itani/Serco convoys going to UIT/grey space.

+1 shank

Like, replace the UIT/Gray convoy missions with a "Break Blockade" mission when blockade is present?

Why not simply offer them as a risky convoy, stating that blockades (are|may be) there, and offer the "Break Blockade" mission together when blockades are present?

And what about you remain responsible for convoys you take?

Lets evolve this idea...

Destruction of a War Convoy must remain entirely player-organized. And introducing a convoy mission that goes through the War Convoy (renamed, though it may be) would simply reintroduce the problem entirely. That's more "backtracking from" than it is "evolving" my idea.

Clarify what you mean by "remain[ing] responsible for the convoys you take".

Shank, I agree that "Destruction of a War Convoy must remain entirely player-organized", but it still could be done in the form of a mission. It would be similar to the Border Patrol missions. In this fashion, you would have a group mission with a clear reward and clear objective as well as another incentive for player interactions.

Conversely, when the "Break the Blockade" mission is taken a "Support the Blockade" mission could show up at the rival military stations to further get people working together.

On the subject of the OP, I see plenty of convoys going from the UIT into Serco and Itani space. I suspect the reason for the disproportionate amount of international export is simple supply and demand. The UIT are the primary suppliers of most needed goods, not to mention they are the capitalist nation.
The Serco and Itani are in their own different ways nationalists and the few unique items they produce are simply not in high enough demand to warrant entire convoys. For example, the average money minded UIT citizen is not likely to be interested in Itani meditation crystals or Serco exorcise equipment. Whereas the UIT produces a great many products that are in fact useful to both other nations.

@Ryan
So deep RP'ing, where does all those ships goes after delivering UIT goods? Are disassembled, sold cheap or return empty?

Hmm and what if the Nation-UIT becomes a round trip? Take our ore ships there and return with industrialized goods?

@Shank
Major exploit over convoys: Take a voy and cancel. No penalties.
Most missions has penalties for cancelling or failling, why only convoy does not? Is it an no-risk only-bonus operation?
Just like when are riding a full moth and get a convoy heading your way. You are not responsible for convoy in any way, it's a free ride, or better, it pays you...

So, if every time you take a convoy you should remain responsible for its outcome all the way. No matter if you cancel it. You only escape penalties of losing convoy by death!

That closes last convoy exploit I found to be popular... with the already proposed cappie docking limitation. (dock,RR,kick)

So convoys make sense and justifies the credits it pays!

Alloh, what exactly does a cargo truck bring back to a ware house after dropping off cargo at a department store? A whole lot of nothing. I suppose if you want extreme realism, then yes... the convoy ships should depart and head back to UIT space empty. However although we gain a sense of realism, it does absolutely nothing for gameplay.

"Major exploit over convoys: Take a voy and cancel. No penalties."

How is that an exploit? In order to exploit something, you need to gain from it. By aborting the mission, you gain nothing... so it stands to reason, you lose nothing.

Actually Ryan semis are way to expensive to run empty. They will haul a load at a slight loss before going totally empty.

I realize that they are expensive to run empty...(though given gas prices they are actually less expensive to run empty these days)... but after dropping off cargo from a ware house they they do run empty, at least until they hit the next ware house to make the pick up for the next delivery.

It goes factory>>>ware house>>>store>>>repeat

I guess the argument you make about present time cargo trucks holds true for small independent cargo companies. How ever the subject at hand is not small independent cargo companies using present day cargo trucks. The subject is government/massive corporation owned cargo ships in space in the distant future.

As always, great job sticking to the topic at hand.

I think the Escort missions should be completely replaced by a Border Skirmish-like mission, named Break the Blockade like Alloh suggested. There might be a trident for the team attacking the blockade, and there would be a few npcs fighters. The assault group would not attack the blockade unless a player was present in the mission, and reinforcements for the blockade would jump through until the mission ended as a border skirmish would. A mission in which the blockading nation could recieve player support would appear when the mission begins.

Examples:

Blockade team wins.
The blockade would remain if the assault group lost, say, 100 ships (20 lost for a trident, 1/fighter). The blockade would retain the npcs currently in the sector, and would have (100-ships lost in battle [teradons=40 casualties, tridents=20 casualties, fighters=1 casualty] + 10 for winning) the next time the mission is taken. The mission would reappear after ten minutes, a bit like a failed levi mission. (50,000c - 150,000c?) would be awarded to each player present in the mission, and a certain amount of money per kill. +200 combat xp/kill, such as in HS or BS.

Assault team wins.
Blockade is broken. Escort missions reappear within five minutes. (50,000c - 150,000c?) is awarded to any player in the mission. A certain amount of money would be awarded per kill, such as in HS or BS. +200 combat xp/kill.

I'm not sure about how much money to reward for each kill. I've been thinking about 2000c-3000c, because blockades aren't quite as important as Deneb, but major Nations can afford more for this than factions can for HS.

I'd say ~10 assault npcs (IDF valks and vult4s for Itani, SCPs and vult4s for Serco) would be present at a time, along with a trident once the assault team reinforcements reach 80, then another at 30. NPCs on the blockading side would swell from the original number to 15-20 at a time in the sector. Tridents for the blockade would jump in at 80 and 30 reinforcements remaining, adding to the amount of cappies there already.

IMHO, this would add more action to being an Itani or Serco (we have way too many UITs), and would boost nationalism. It would also solve the escort mission/war voy problem nicely, with an extra touch.

Uhhh, you may not have noticed, Nahin, but BS missions already affect War Convoys. Also, we discussed earlier in this thread that the destruction and protection of War Convoys should be entirely organized and executed by players. Besides, that's trailing a bit too far from the topic at hand.

Alloh: ah, yes, that's what I thought you meant... just be a little more specific because "responsibility" isn't exactly a stat in VO. Yes, that should definitely be done, but it would not entirely get rid of any exploits. The best and simplest fix would probably be, as I described, just not generating escort mission that go through War Convoy-occupied wormholes (applying to all factions because it's a little silly watching Aeolus trade voys waltz right through a blockade)... this would, of course, also allow implementation of the OP.

That's how ideas evolve when we discuss the idea, not the authors...

@Shank
It is not replace nor affects BS missions outcome. It's simply similar as Border Skirmish-like mission implies.

@Tarenty
Great post. While blockade is imposed, cross-border convoys are replaced by "Break the Blockade!".

When no blockade present, convoys into yellow/gray are offered with high pay, in a round trip, they leave with ore, return with industrialized.

Those cross-boundaries should also be advised to be taken by groups.