Undoubtfully ship trading is a high priority thing that VO is lacking now. And since many people have suggested various ways that include the implemention of ship trading I desire to ask for it's addition to the game right away here.

It is not only a thing that opens up good possibilities for Traders, pirates and Miners (and probably for any other type of RP) but it's also something that makes great sense in this universe we play in and goes hand in hand with the new restriced faction system.
Everyone can only buy their factions ships now. But I've said this before: We also have grey space here, systems where pirate factions settled down, too powerful for the government to control their activitites; why shouldn't there be unmonitored places where you can sell ships then? Why shouldn't there be players who make big profit in selling overpriced military ships to those in need of them, protected by the shadow of the syndicate?

I'm confident there are many ways to implement ship trading; on a drop-cargo basis, on a buy-in station basis, on an auction-basis etc.

I think it was time this was added!

-1

VO has had factional limits on a very small collection of top tier combat ships for less than a year! It is imo far too soon to make them tradeable. Also, I think you might be a bit over optimistic about the trade potential.

As I see it, there would be a market for new players, allowing them access to ships they haven't earned access to. However, the real beneficiaries would be vets who would simply use an alt to trade between characters or with friends/guildmates resulting in mostly near zero sum transactions.

Also, I'll add another ...
-9999999999
.... because if we keep nerfing or preventing consequences for decisions and actions that players make, then imo, VO will never succeed.

+1 I'm fairly certain Incarnate has said he plans to introduce the ability to sell ships to other players at some point.

It's a great idea and would foster new activites between traders and non-traders. Fluffy, your fear of alts selling to themselves would only be common with those who have tridents on more than one alt. As shipping without a trident is only possible with the valk, IBG and UDV (and even then it's just a one ship capacity). The skyprom is too big to fit in an XC.

And besides, many vets already have stockpiles of their favorite non-nation ships. If they want to go sell to themselves I'd say that is an acceptable consequence for the larger good that this ability would bring.

I personally have seen little impact to gameplay as a result of the ship restrictions. People who preferred a specific ship either switched their nationality or stopped flying them regularly.

After grey space ship trading becomes part of the game, alter the behavior of the nation defense turrets so that the Itani border turrets ALWAYS shoot at proms and SVGs and the serco border defenses ALWAYS attack IBGs and valks. Also the same for military NPCs

Fluffy:

VO has had factional limits on a very small collection of top tier combat ships for less than a year!

Yes. And now? The faction update was done because it made sense backstory-wise. Itani and Serco are at War.
Limitting everyone from access to all ships does not make sense. We're in an advanced universe where ship trading should be a daily thing. And really, even in our world there's blackmarket. Why would it vanish when space travel becomes normal?

Also, I'll add another ...
-9999999999
.... because if we keep nerfing or preventing consequences for decisions and actions that players make, then imo, VO will never succeed.

I don't get the Point of this. Nerfing consequences? You act like how good you are is depenant on to how many ships you have access to. A newbie will still fly bad, even when you give him a SCP and a Valk at the same time....

Greenwall:

Yes! You get the point. It opens up a new market, thus creates interest that might lure more players to the game.

You really can find arguments against everything. But this is a Thing that has far less negative aspects than it has positive ones.

Frankly, I don't think just any Itani or Serco should be allowed to buy the prom or the x1 or variants thereof. I think they should be restricted to high ranking members of the appropriate military with recent contributions to the war effort. So I would restrict them even further than they are now. There is no 1 to 1 correlation between a fantasy game and the real world. In my mind there should be real consequences for choosing to be either Itani or Serco or UIT or Grey(if and when that comes). Those consequences should be both positive and negative and I think ship and weapon access are the primary way to impose those consequences. We'll just have to disagree on this.

What I mean by consequences is that very little in VO that a player chooses or does has any meaningful lasting impact until very recently. The only real scoreboards are licenses, badges and PK's. I think that the lack of consequences, the inability to create a sustained area of control anywhere in the VO universe is something that negatively impacts the game. People are more than welcome to disagree with me on this. The devs are finally starting to take baby steps towards remedying this problem with the x number of pk's at faction gives you some temporary KOS bs, which I think is absolutely adorable and pointless. But at least they are taking baby steps.

So what I mean by consequences has nothing to do with player skill but player choice and action. Rather it has everything to do with the game being designed in such a way that no matter what a player does, they can most often within a couple of hours any undo any sanctions that the game has placed upon them.

+1

Don't think we gotta take this all too serious if a few Serco get the chance to buy overpriced X1s or Itani get a few SCPs. Explosions happen fast in VO. It will benefit the game more than it will hurt the gaming experience for anyone.

+1 to ship trading lol

+1....

Fluffy:

I am not opposed to the idea of making it harder to get Access to the top ships like the X1 or SCP, either by making them Military exclusive or highering the required licenses for them.
Anyhow, I have to disagree with your ultimative strictness of making them completely faction exclusive as it hurts the gameplay more than it benefits it and that's because of the simple fact that it will keep away vets from returning to the game and will result in newbies always asking for faction changes as they are unaware of the exclusivity when they join, maybe even expecting a ship market.

The Situation would look like this then

SercoNewb: "What? I can only buy SCPs and there's no way to buy Valks? Awee! Dear Devs, please change my faction!"

And I remember a statement by Savet as to why he is inactive included the unavailability of the Valk for his pirating actions.

Making it possible to trade them will still make it hard for everyone and one another Person will have to pay a lot to get a few of them and Isaid before: Explosions happen fast, it will not affect the gameplay greatly or reduce fun for anyone. And if it annoys too many people, more inconveniences can be added later such as the often suggest "auto-KOS" when you are seen flying a non-factional ship in Nation space

Generally I believe this should not be a Valk/SCP debate again!
We shall discuss all this way after ship trading was added which in my opinion is a majorly important thing.

Rather I think ship trading is a Basic Thing VO really Needs. I briefly remember asking a dev months ago about and they said it was "probably" going to happen. However, I'd like to hear an official Statement. It'd open up a whole new trading area, not only to benefit the Traders.

+1 OP

Okay first of all why would you make the market open to all factions? If your Itani, you only can trade Itani ships. Not Serco or UIT. Too bad if the player can't buy a Valk/SCP, that was his desicion from the beginning on choosing a faction. Also you can keep the license standings, just because a new player can buy the ship does not mean he can fly it.

Generally I believe this should not be a Valk/SCP debate again!
But those are the only ships worth trading!

"Generally I believe this should not be a Valk/SCP debate again!
But those are the only ships worth trading!"

Put a daily purchase limit per player on top-tier ships:
-Prom
-Valk
-Hornet
-Tung Taur
-Etc

Force an artificial restriction on ship acquisition to drive player trade.

If anything it should be a per-station limit, with gradual resupply throughout the day. But concerns about Valk/SCP trading can also be controlled with my suggestion in the link I provided above.

EDIT: I just realized the post I linked didn't expand on the traitor concept very well, but the post linked to from that post does. http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/26015

I don't see how further restricting access to the ships in question is necessary. I think trading ships to other factions is enough -- if we get into trading ships to people of our own nation because they can't buy it because the station is "sold out" I think that puts too much restriction on game play. Especially considering all the vets who have stockpiles of the good ships.

Greenwall, historical activity should not be a hinderance to future progress. To progress, VO needs a real trade market. One such market is ships. Despite having a metric crap-ton of ships stockpiled, a restriction on purchase and subsequent trade mechanism would be good for the game.

Greenwall, nobody has even approached what possible inventory levels or restock rates would be appropriate, and frankly that's a topic for another thread, since it would have far reaching affects on trade than just ship availability. Things like defining soft caps and hard caps on inventory, and how resupply should be handled (convoys vs automated, in-station manufacture vs magic). The point is, just because there could be a limit on availability does not mean it has to be a hardship. Capitol and barracks stations would likely have a high stock that it's a non-issue, but stations further afield might run out of stock.

So you wind up with trade oriented individuals with a purpose, moving ships from areas that have them to those that don't, or other items.

frankly that's a topic for another thread

Agreed! Lets just make ships tradeable first and deal with all this other crap later.