Add a key so that you can allow someone else to pilot your capship. It should also be a requirement that the pilot is at least 5/-/-/-/-. This may also encourage a F2P to sub so that they can fly their friend's capship.

-1

We want people to have more reasons to build capships, not less.

Bing!
+1000
This actually allows group builds to mean something. I've always found it stupid that a guild Trident cannot be used by anyone except the pilot, especially since the requirements suggest that working as "team" is expected.

I don't think you understand the case I'm making. Just because one can pilot their buddy's capship doesn't mean they won't want their own. I guarantee this would increase capship manufacturing in general. It is the one thing that is echoed by everyone that actually participates in manufacturing without a trident.

Then, on top of people wanting to build their own capship much easier, they'd have to sub to pilot their friend's capship. And once their own capship is complete they'd prolly stay subbed in order to fly it. Even if they don't build their own, they'll still have to sub to fly their friend's.

I don't think the idea is necessarily having more capships built, but having more pilots subbed.

What's the point of manufacturing if you can use one of the many idling tridents available?

If you want to spur player retention and in game manufacturing then the game needs new features not a re-purpose of existing content which there is a strong argument to if it is earned to begin with.

I don't like the idea of friend key and 10$ capships roaming around while the rest of us dropped a few hundred million, several billion, or a large portion of playtime for the equivalent.

-1

Undoubtedly, everyone will want their own capship. Having to wait on the availability of using your friends will suck and take some coordination. It wouldn't be as easy as just using idling capships.

But even if it were, there's the argument that even if it was easy to use currently unused capships the pilots would still have to sub to pilot them, scoring new subs for GS in the process. Imagine how many pilots, when faced with the prospect of piloting a capship to build their own, will go out and buy a sub to do it. Then, once they actually build their capship, they would have to stay subbed to fly it. This would most certainly not make pilots less inclined to manufacture.

+1 Though Im only a lite scrub, the idea of this sounds pretty incentivising to pay prem.

Not everyone wants to build a capship, but everyone wants to use them.

If what you are trying to accomplish is higher subscription rates then GS needs to spend $ on marketing towards players with computers and money, if that is not an option then GS needs to spur the remaining community to create media on its behalf.

Giving people the end game nice and easy is just a short high masking the symptoms of a deeper problem.

GS needs to spend $ on marketing towards players with computers and money, if that is not an option then GS needs to spur the remaining community to create media on its behalf.

Actually, thats something we should already be doing, without needing GS to poke us to do so >.>