The amount of work required to complete a Trident is excessive. I understand that you want to restrict the number of these ships about, but the current method is still WAY too time consuming.

I propose FIVE things:

1) Decrease the final mission requirements significantly (by at least 50%)
2) Refund the two players who have already completed Tridents the difference in parts
3) Add crafting missions in other locations
4) MAKE A BUTTON THAT SAYS "CRAFT FROM INVENTORY!!!" This is a no-brainer, seriously.
5) Add a method for in station transfers of inventory! The current method of trade is absolutely terrible. I know the pirates want there to be risk, but there is no reason why two people docked at the same station shouldn't be able to transfer inventory inside that station.

This will stimulate trade in capship parts and make it more feasible for people to complete them.

Possible mission adds:

Fused Composite Plating crafting at Nyrius F-6
Reinforced Bulkhead crafting at Latos I-8
Fused Composite Plating, Reinforced Bulkhead, Fluid Formable Silksteel Alloy crafting at Azek I-12 (TPG Manufacturing)

Here is what I think a more reasonable final mission should look like:

Outer Hull Plates - 150
Airlock Maintenance Supplies - 3
Commercial Textiles - 5
Bearing Grease - 7
Data Link Connectors - 512
Doppler Array - 4
Escape Hatch Systems - 1
Exhaust Manifold - 4
External Equipment Mounts - 12
External Thermal Couplers - 8
Extravehicular Suits - 1
Fire-suppression systems - 4
Frequency Modulators - 3
Gyroscopes - 1
Hull Panels - 300
Cooling Systems - 10
Oxygen Recycling Systems - 8
Power Regulators - 125
Stabilizing Systems - 32
Basic Targeting Systems - 3
Advanced Targeting Systems - 3
Life Support Systems - 2
Navigation Units - 4
Pilot Safety Harness - 4
Ship Paint - 80
Flight Assist Control Module - 2
Instrumentation Panels - 10
Premium Carbonic Ore - 2250
Premium Ferric Ore - 800
Premium Ishik Ore - 450
Premium Silicate Ore - 1500
Premium Vanazek Ore - 200
Xithricite Ore - 175
Denic Ore - 30
Heliocene Ore - 45
Lanthanic Ore - 35
Apicene Ore - 25
Fused Composite Plating - 30
Fluid Formable silksteel Alloy - 20
Milanar Optical Sensor - 1
Toroidal Hyper-Plasma Reactor - 1
Pulse Displacement Engine - 2
Milanar Computing System - 1
Internal Bulkhead Assembly - 4
Docking Bay Hanger Assembly 3
Engine Pylon Assembly - 2
External Hull Assembly - 4

tl;dr - I am not going to spend 700-1000 hours on crafting a single ship.

mulle barap said:
I am not going to spend 700-1000 hours on crafting a single ship.

Then don't. Capital-class ships aren't meant to be owned by a single player, but by a collective group. It's unfortunate that still only one person can pilot them.

In the grand scheme of things, tridents may yet be too expensive, but cutting the cost in half (even if justified) and giving a refund to those who have completed them already essentially doubles the number of fieldable cap-ships. In these games, new content is released and sometimes it is discovered a retune is in order. But rarely are refunds of such a nature handed out. That's just part of the risk in being first.

1: This is already planned and has been explained by the devs.
2: Why? The devs said that the trident would be the hardest because the other cappies would cost the difference between tridents and the subject cappie due to the insurance mission. They get to have cappies first due to their dedication, and that's no small prize.
3: No. Conquerable stations need a purpose, this is it, or at least a part of it.
4: +1.
5: Eh. Make there be a considerable fee based upon the number of cu's transferred and add a waiting time also dependent upon the number of cu's. In addition, make it impossible to trade certain things at stations where they would be illegal; i.e. Corvus holodisks at UIT stations (or jack the price up for those.)

Big fat +10000 to #4, This has already been implemented in other missions! (such as Scrap Yard) This is an even bigger problem at Latos M-7 since the docking bays and launch bays are sometimes MILES apart.

#3 is important since pretty much all of VO has decided that conquerable stations aren't worth conquering anymore. After months of testing and review ITAN has proven that, despite the suggestion of many others, staging components nearby, then conquering a station and doing crafting in "bursts" does not work due to the extremely massive quantities involved here. It's not practical at all to even try building these things unless you have long term (months) of uninterrupted access to the stations.

The bulk items should be craftable at other places, with the major components still being made at the conquerable stations. Then they might be worth fighting over again.

As it stands right now, the only reason anyone has to conquer a station is for the fun of it or to deny someone else access. It makes you public enemy number 1 and even most pirates have no real incentive to do it.

#5 - No. There hasn't been a way suggested to do this without making it too safe or too complicated.

Leave the missions in conq stations, just fix the stupid things.

5: Eh. Make there be a considerable fee based upon the number of cu's transferred and add a waiting time also dependent upon the number of cu's. In addition, make it impossible to trade certain things at stations where they would be illegal; i.e. Corvus holodisks at UIT stations (or jack the price up for those.)

This isn't too complicated, is it?

PA is mostly waiting for a way to share cappie piloting.....

1) I believe this is in the works. Maybe not a 50% reduction, but a significant one. IMHO the timing of making it easier should be when the devs believe they have addressed the major issues and best suggestions, as well as balance the stats of the other hive-type craft of whatever class ships they decide to go with. IF they plan to make Prosus and Siepos trident variants, I'd make THEM easier to build, with a significant increase in insurance fee to replace them. That gives some incentive to still put in the time and pain to own a Type M, and remains fair to any who complete one before any reduction happens.

2) I wouldn't refuse the parts, but Tarenty is right: we all knew it would get easier eventually. I sure wouldn't mind a badge or cool limited edition widget given to the whole team that built #1, or something of the sort to commemorate the event, but I'd hate to be further accused of whining for ponies.

3) I agree with abortretryfail: give the staples optional locations (I'd even say with reduced recipes as was done with Reinforced Bulkheads at Nyrius F-6). Off the top of my head: FCP at Latos N-2, FFSS at Pelatus O-15, and Merged Cybernetics at Dau I-7. That preserves and increases the UIT/Grey routes involved.

4) +eleventymillion. With this scale manufacturing, load-launch-dock-repeat is insane.

5) has been suggested for years & years. I'm assuming the devs simply don't want this. Having now gotten really good at huge cargo-transfers, it'd almost be a shame to have the skill become obsolete... ALMOST :)

1) As CD says, it is in the works. I had hoped it would be in place by now, but then I had a server outage and a bunch of other unexpected crap.

2) Uncertain.

3) Sort-of yes, but not immediately. Will evolve as station conquest evolves.

4) Has technical problems that are not as much of a "no brainer" as we would like. We will fix this somehow.

5) We had a design for this, ages ago. It just hasn't ever been implemented. Clearly there are some side effects and ramifications, but this is something we want in some form.

--

Very busy tonight, can't comment in more detail. Feel free to keep discussing, will check back when I have more time.

1) Decrease the final mission requirements significantly (by at least 50%)
2) Refund the two players who have already completed Tridents the difference in parts
4) MAKE A BUTTON THAT SAYS "CRAFT FROM INVENTORY!!!" This is a no-brainer, seriously.
5) Add a method for in station transfers of inventory! The current method of trade is absolutely terrible. I know the pirates want there to be risk, but there is no reason why two people docked at the same station shouldn't be able to transfer inventory inside that station.

+1, agree with OP.

3) Add crafting missions in other locations

Then we need more conquerable stations ;)

@tarenty - I agree, I want the conq stations to have a purpose also, but because of the amount of work involved with completing a Trident if there are two groups fighting for the station and taking it back and forth, that more than doubles the amount of work/time involved in production. The problem is that people who want to craft parts often want to do just that, not fight over a station that is otherwise meaningless. Like ARF pointed out, pretty much everyone has decided that conq stations aren't worth fighting over. It has been about three months since the CoN ceased to control Pelatus, and I don't recall any attempts to re-take it.

@pirren - I agree 100%. I would like to see the crafting missions stay at the conq stations IF there were more conq stations. With just three stations it is easy for one group (coalition) to control them, and it does not promote fighting. More stations = more crafting + more fighting

If there were more conquerable stations it would allow people who want to fight over stations the opportunity to do so without inconveniencing crafters who already have a huge task ahead.

@Incarnate - Is there a plan to allow shared piloting/ownership of cappies? Do you have any ballpark timeframe on this? I personally am kinda neutral towards this, and think that there are many other things that should be prioritized, like creating an interface by which a cappie can trade with all stations. This doesn't necessitate new models/docking bays. CD pointed out an idea whereby the cappie pilot could "Hail the station quartermaster" who would then "shuttle things back and forth" if I remember correctly.

@Incarnate - Is there a plan to allow shared piloting/ownership of cappies?

Yes.

Do you have any ballpark timeframe on this?

No, not really. I'm prioritizing "most broken / annoying first", which puts a decent stack of stuff ahead of that particular feature, but we'll get to it. It's important to guilds being able to share created content (capships will never be guild-exclusive per se, but considering the unified effort required there should still be some means for people to share them more easily).

2) I wouldn't refuse the parts, but Tarenty is right: we all knew it would get easier eventually. I sure wouldn't mind a badge or cool limited edition widget given to the whole team that built #1, or something of the sort to commemorate the event, but I'd hate to be further accused of whining for ponies.

Free tridents forever. >.>

@tarenty - I agree, I want the conq stations to have a purpose also, but because of the amount of work involved with completing a Trident... et al.

You're arguing the same point I already addressed.

Reduced requirements tonight, 1.8.195. Other aspects still in the works.