Forums » Suggestions
Alternative to ship trading
Ship trading is a difficult concept to implement in the game for a couple of well discussed reasons.
1. Ships and what is used to buy ships (crystal aside) are not scarce items. Meaning, there is nothing stopping you from buying as much and storing as much as you want.
2. Currently, the biggest (perhaps only) differentiation between factions is access to certain ships.
3. the newest hurdle, free to play utilize crystals to buy ships which can equate to actual money. Trading ships can circumvent this income stream.
There are many suggestions on how to tackle those concerns so ship trading is still allowed in the game. I propose a different mechanism that already exists in the game and shouldn't require much work at all to implement. Manufacture them.
In certain Corvus stations, players would be able to take a manufacturing mission similar to the Superlight but requiring a few more items. This would allow you to build a visually and functionally identical faction exclusive ship regardless of your faction only it would be rebadged "Corvus Prometheus" or "Corvus Valkyrie" etc.
By making these ships buildable vs purchasable, you create a soft limit on access. This is important because it doesn't destroy differentiation between factions. Additionally, since it isn't trading, no special mechanism needs to be put into place to handle free to play users, or light sub users etc or on hoarding.
Also, by utilizing the mission system, the developers can further tweak access by limiting how often the missions can be taken, the amount and type of items needed and the license levels etc required.
I personally dont care about using Itani ships or UIT as Serco, but some people do and they'll be able to and destroying them will be as much fun as destroying any non-replaceable stock they still have now, since building them requires effort vs buying a ton before the faction changes took place. Should be a win-win for all concerned parties on the topic.
1. Ships and what is used to buy ships (crystal aside) are not scarce items. Meaning, there is nothing stopping you from buying as much and storing as much as you want.
2. Currently, the biggest (perhaps only) differentiation between factions is access to certain ships.
3. the newest hurdle, free to play utilize crystals to buy ships which can equate to actual money. Trading ships can circumvent this income stream.
There are many suggestions on how to tackle those concerns so ship trading is still allowed in the game. I propose a different mechanism that already exists in the game and shouldn't require much work at all to implement. Manufacture them.
In certain Corvus stations, players would be able to take a manufacturing mission similar to the Superlight but requiring a few more items. This would allow you to build a visually and functionally identical faction exclusive ship regardless of your faction only it would be rebadged "Corvus Prometheus" or "Corvus Valkyrie" etc.
By making these ships buildable vs purchasable, you create a soft limit on access. This is important because it doesn't destroy differentiation between factions. Additionally, since it isn't trading, no special mechanism needs to be put into place to handle free to play users, or light sub users etc or on hoarding.
Also, by utilizing the mission system, the developers can further tweak access by limiting how often the missions can be taken, the amount and type of items needed and the license levels etc required.
I personally dont care about using Itani ships or UIT as Serco, but some people do and they'll be able to and destroying them will be as much fun as destroying any non-replaceable stock they still have now, since building them requires effort vs buying a ton before the faction changes took place. Should be a win-win for all concerned parties on the topic.
+1 to manufacturable ships.
-1 to only having manufacturable ships. People should be able to trade the ships that they build, just like they should be able to trade the ships that they buy.
-1 to only having manufacturable ships. People should be able to trade the ships that they build, just like they should be able to trade the ships that they buy.
the entire point is to avoid all issues related to trading non-limited items in an economic system that puts no real limit on storage, no real cost on purchasing, and no real cap on supply. Dipping your toes into that pool runs the risk of damaging one of the few ways that makes one faction different from another.
Trading such items requires a lot of things to change in how the game deals with the economy and how factions are made different. The above suggestion is what I feel is the only way to give people what they want without having to wait for significant changes.
Trading such items requires a lot of things to change in how the game deals with the economy and how factions are made different. The above suggestion is what I feel is the only way to give people what they want without having to wait for significant changes.
I didn't say "It must all be done at once." I just wanted to clarify that I want it in addition to ship trading, not as an alternative. I don't care what order they get implemented.
If elite ie high licence faction ships are to be traded manufactured or not then they need to be a bit more expensive. As you can, as has been stated buy and store as many as you like it's pretty valueless. Up the prices of the the Valk, Prom and UDV to say 1 mill then it will make things more interesting. And while your at it up the prices of all the other ships..a moth XC should be way more expensive as it can be used to generate a lot of cash.
+1 to the Corvus manufactured ships though, great idea
+1 to the Corvus manufactured ships though, great idea
Part of the use of manufacturing as an alternative to trading is that it is an ordeal compared to purchasing, but not necessarily a solo ordeal. So that retains value in differentiation of the factions as they currently are and it encourages player interaction. A person who is serco can easily purchase Proms with minimal issue. But to get valks they have to manufacture them and it's a PITA. Vice versa for Itani. This is the soft limit i originally mentioned.
Balancing the ships via credits is fairly useless until the economy is overhauled. You could make everything expensive or you could make profits or rewards really small, the end result is the same and in the end it just results in more grinding rather than any benefit to strategy or player interaction. Credits have no value in the current economy, mostly because all the things that you can buy or sell are limitless. All you do by increasing the cost of something is making it exclusive to only a handful of players. There is no value in introducing something that only a couple people are going to be able to make regular use of at this point in the game.
Balancing the ships via credits is fairly useless until the economy is overhauled. You could make everything expensive or you could make profits or rewards really small, the end result is the same and in the end it just results in more grinding rather than any benefit to strategy or player interaction. Credits have no value in the current economy, mostly because all the things that you can buy or sell are limitless. All you do by increasing the cost of something is making it exclusive to only a handful of players. There is no value in introducing something that only a couple people are going to be able to make regular use of at this point in the game.
This would only be worth it for nation specific ships. Ships fro other faction will be WAY more easily obtained by increasing standing. And this in no way offers a good alternative to ship trading. Ship trading would provide FAR more beneficial game-play than manufacturing nation ships.
+1 to the idea by itself though. This would be pretty cool and obviously give a feeling of fulfilled entitlement that so many veteran players seem to feel they deserve.
+1 to the idea by itself though. This would be pretty cool and obviously give a feeling of fulfilled entitlement that so many veteran players seem to feel they deserve.
I'm in favor of manufacturing more ships.
How about this: these manufacturable national ships (corvus valk, corvus prom, etc) are tradeable, but the normal national ships that you buy directly from factions are not? This would allow people to make money off this, but still imposes a limit on the supply because obviously it's going to take a while to gather all of the needed commodities and items.
The rest of ships that everyone has access to (hound, atlas X, etc), should be tradeable.
As for f2p users, charge 'em crystals to activate a traded ship. That'll do it.
How about this: these manufacturable national ships (corvus valk, corvus prom, etc) are tradeable, but the normal national ships that you buy directly from factions are not? This would allow people to make money off this, but still imposes a limit on the supply because obviously it's going to take a while to gather all of the needed commodities and items.
The rest of ships that everyone has access to (hound, atlas X, etc), should be tradeable.
As for f2p users, charge 'em crystals to activate a traded ship. That'll do it.