I know it doesn't. It's just something I prefer to do, and is a part of my reset resolutions. Nevertheless, the flag captures threw off the balance of money and nations. But I suppose we can cope. It's only a matter of time before there'll be more golds or reds on at a time, at which point they'll return the favor.

But back to the original point...

I agree with Durgia that it would be fun if the ships were more expensive; give us something to work for and all that. But I think the cost *gradient* should be increased. This is what I mean:

Bus - Free
Centurion - 1,000 cr
Warthog - 5,000
Wraith - 7,000
Vulture - 10,000
Atlas - 20,000
Hornet - 50,000
Ragnarok - 100,000
Centaur - 150,000
Mauraduer - 750,000
Prometheus - 750,000
Valkyrie - 800,000

These numbers are just by way of example (I followed the order of cost in the real game, but changed the numbers). My point is, each ship would be exponentially more expensive than the one before it.

Switch Atlas and Vulture and it makes sense. As yo have it now, the most widely used warship costs less than the uber n00b Transport trading ship.

Yes, sing me to in case increasing prices of ships. But is a good point in a second case of capping the flags. Revard for flag it should be decrased to a reward, that don't destroy economics (few flag = lot's of money : )

I think the ships are priced good for the most part. The cost of ships mostly comes from the weapons and engines, not the actual ship itself. When you buy 'em in groups of three or four, that cost triples or quadrouples respectively. I soon found out that a Warthog set me back over 39,000c fully equipped, rather than the 9,000c the ship itself cost me. It is by no means cheap at all!

Also keep in mind that not everyone is going to be a trader in the future. The costs need to be reasonable for people who choose other careers. They just need to be extra careful not to die so often. But to give you some perspective with my character, so far I've spent a total of 8 hours now and I've only been able to afford three fully equipped ships with about 5000c to spare. And that's not counting the fact that I've been lucky not to die so far.

On the other hand if you're getting money off of flag capture rewards, that's a whole different story. The reward is still a little on the high side, and therefore it'll give the impression that ships are way to cheap for the person of that nation. Luckily CTF won't be in the final game. In addition, the population of Vendetta is gradually rising each month. If we have too many people trading, it'll start stripping the profits away very quickly. Money won't be as easy to obtain with a higher populations obviously.

Ultimately though, I'd say this is a welcome change from the days of 3.2.0 when it was easy to get a batch of special ships on the first day of playing. The dynamic economy has done a lot to make death meaningful. It's the flag capture reward that tipped the balance in favor of Itani nation.

CTF is not the problem. Yes it made some Itani very fast cash, however I had 800k from trading b4 I ever got any from capping. There are some runs that will make a lot of money, a very lot if you can find them and they have not been traded for a bit.

Now I remember saying *I do think capping money could be decreased a bit again, but I won't focus on that* Can you discuss the idea without complaining about the current status of capping.

Phaserlight I think some of those prices are a bit high heh. 2x ship cost is not overly much more, it just makes it hurt more when you die. 60k for a valk makes you want to hang on to it more. Widget increase that I suggested was not huge and I don't think it would effect any game play except to make it harder to afford the uber ships and weapons

"In addition, the population of Vendetta is gradually rising each month. If we have too many people trading, it'll start stripping the profits away very quickly. Money won't be as easy to obtain with a higher populations obviously."

This is, of course, assuming the devs have not accounted for population in the dynamic economy algorithm. Since the population of an MMORPG is subject to change, I would guess the devs have some factor for average online population, so that overpopulation doesn't run Vendetta into depression :D.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that increasing the cost of ships will hurt non-traders a lot. The dynamic economy has only been implemented recently, and it's far from being perfect. I think that's where you need to look in terms of tweaking costs. Make trade runs profitable, but only marginally.

Only a small percentage of trade runs should yield high profits, especially those of risky regions. I think right now the dynamic ecomony is too generous. Before, when it first came out, it barely had any profits. But now it's a little too high. It just needs to be somewhere in between.

But anyway, by increasing ship costs you'll essentially force everyone to trade in order to play the game. I'm pretty sure not everyone will like that. Imagine trading for two hours straight, finally getting your first fully equipped ship, and then accidentally crashing on to an asteroid. That's not my idea of fun. You can be sure that it'll deter newbies away quickly too.

If the game is geared towards allowing a variety of occupations besides trading, ship costs should remain at moderate rates so that you can play the game without ever trading... but just barely. Right now it's at that just barely level. You can barely live off the cargo you collect from dead bots, but it's possible. I'd hate to see all that scrap cargo become worthless.