I've been playing for well over a year with probably half of that subbed. I really enjoy the game but have kind of done everything now except built a Goliath or dent. I've started making FCP but realised that even the goli is a colossal amount of work. As a family guy with two jobs, there's no way I can commit to that amount of work as I normally only play for a few hours a week.

Why can't we buy an insured goli for say $35 or a dent for $50 ?

There is no unfair advantage to paying, as you wouldn't be getting anything that isn't available to everybody else. You'd just have the choice whether time or money is more precious to you. For me it's time, TBH the grind is so off-putting that I'll probably let my sub lapse and just login from time to time to shoot a few things. Whereas, buying a capship would open up a new aspect to the game which might make it worth maintaining the sub.

A lot of players spent months building their dents. Remember old M7? Old M7 required pilots to haul items about 30k to the entrance dock. Think about that time sink for a moment. And now you wish to negate all that time spent building and hauling all those parts with a simple money transfer of $50?

AND With zero risk? I might be ok with it, if each part got dropped outside a station, and a pirate gets a chance to scoop each part. Say each part appears in Edras G-11, and now you have to move it from G-11 to latos M-7 for final assembly.

But then, those parts are appearing out of the blue magically. The unrat dent, when it drops a part, at least makes you work for it. There are about 3-4 pilots in game who are selling dent kits for credits. About 1.8-2.2 bil for a dent kit, and 200-800 mil for a goli kit (depending on who you ask). Why should you get to go around those pilots who actually put the time in to manu parts? I think the devs should be encouraging more manu, not less, and your suggestion would make people do less of it.

So -1 from me.

But i might be ok with a 300cu Super XC (with a full complement of turrets, and shield) that is purchasable for $30 in Nation space. No insurance on it.

There are rumors of players selling kits for real cash outside of the game but that is frowned upon by the powers that be.

I've written elsewhere, I'm actually not entirely against the notion of people buying capships, or players being able to sell capships to other players (beyond the current "Kit" system). But the game mechanics have to be re-worked to better support that, and right now.. they really don't.

So, for now it is explicitly forbidden, and a bannable offense to sell in-game content for real-world money.. not because I have some harrowing aversion to player-trade, but because it creates an explosively terrible support-problem for me when players inevitably start scamming one another and then come to me to ask for "help". At which point I have no idea what happened, and can't really prove anything one way or the other, and people are all just angry and yelling and dramatic. We know this from experience.

In the long run, I would actually be more interested in creating opportunities for players to trade content with one another in-game, rather than just "buying" In-App-Purchase capships from me. I mean, that may even run contrary to an immediately obvious means of "making money" in some ways, but I think fostering player-manufacturing as a "system" makes for a more engaging long-term ecosystem, and adds substantial gameplay value.

But, creating all the mechanics to support that system properly is a big undertaking. It isn't one that I'm ruling out, but it isn't one that I'm placing a timetable on right now. If and when that should change, and I have more to say about that, then you'll hear about it. But for now, Real-World-Trade of capships (or anything else) is explicitly forbidden. There's a degree of exclusivity and accomplishment associated with capships, explicitly because they're so hard to acquire, I'm not currently comfortable selling them in-game and trivially circumventing people's massive investment of time and energy in construction (that being said, selling non-insured Goliath in-game is a possibility I've considered and discussed before).

Incarnate, I fully understand your position and I hold the whole team in massive respect for creating VO. I know you must have a wealth of experience from the many years that you have been running VO and tweaking the parameters to keep it fair and entertaining. I fully agree on player-to-player trading too: it's a bit clunky at the moment with the various shops and having to drop things. It would be far batter to be able to trade in station and be able to trade ships or large volumes of goods etc.

I think I have probably spent more on VO than I've ever spent on any other computer game despite it only initially costing £3.99 in the Oculus Store.

However, there comes a point when I can't justify the amount of effort that the grind demands for something which is supposed to be a fun thing to do (and not another job). I think, also, if you were a more commercially motivated company, you would have far more in-app purchases, skins and add-ons available for sale. I actually, enjoyed spending $9.99 on the camo vulture livery as I look at it every day. Please bring more of these e.g. same for the X-1.

I would probably not buy an uninsured goli though, as that would be money soon flushed down the toilet.

I also like 'We all float''s suggestion of a Super XC / lightweight capship. I think we really need something that bridges the gap between the 6 months solo grind of the goli and the readily attainable but utterly defenceless XC. Maybe with one of these, the grind for a goli would become more manageable.

It only took me 5 weeks to build my Goli; and I had a full time job at that time, so I was only playing a few hours a day. That being said, it was a huge undertaking and I feel purchasable capships would undercut the hard work of many players who have invested the time to build a Goliath or a Trident (which should be worth way more than $15 above the Goli since you need about 3x the materials).
If you don't have the time to invest, save up credits and buy a kit from someone.
-1 to purchaseable capships.

"I've been playing for well over a year with probably half of that subbed. I really enjoy the game but have kind of done everything now except built a Goliath or dent."

This why I don't care for the suggestion. At least the grind gives the player a purpose, an opportunities for interaction with others in order to make it happen faster if desired. $35 spent, and then what?

"However, there comes a point when I can't justify the amount of effort that the grind demands for something which is supposed to be a fun thing to do (and not another job)."

If it's not fun, then just don't do it; I've never bothered building a capship either. But don't whine about wanting stuff. If you're not willing to put in the work to earn things legitimately, then be an adult and accept that you can't have those things.

Pizzasgood, it was a suggestion and more from a commercial point of view to help GS really. I was illustrating my case where I've kind of done everything else but not in a position to put in months of grind thereby creating a commercial opportunity for GS. It could be a way for them to increase profits and keep people playing longer (and paying a sub longer) - that's all. Imagine how horribly different this game would be if it was run by Epic games say. None of us want to go there but I do think GS could be a little more commercial and that could benefit both them and players.

I won't be crying about not flying around in a Goli, and I'm sure I'll find other things to occupy my time :)

I think it would have the opposite effect. Once I have paid for the big ship, why continue to sub after the novelty wears off? Then we'll be storming the gates for more content.

Dude. Selling capships would be worse than what Epic does. There's lots of stuff to buy in Fortnite, but it's all aesthetic nonsense. At best you might find an outfit with marginally better camouflage than the default skin. You can't buy guns and ammo. That's what selling capships would be equivalent to -- letting people pay Epic to spawn with shields, a full set of legendary gear, and a bunch of ammo and materials instead of spending the time to find or win it like everybody else. Buying a goliath is paying to skip playing, and it's not just denying yourself an experience. It's bypassing the possibility of pirates and other ne'er do wells interfering with your build and looting your parts, and denying traders the possibility of selling you stuff so you don't have to harvest yourself.

Using out-of-game resources to skip over gameplay is a bad idea. Period. This is a game, not a brothel. That it would make more money as a brothel is irrelevant.

I *may* have a dicey mitigation suggestion to make everyone happy

Although i am personally against just plopping up X amount of money to buy a capship (it takes the awe out of it for me.)

Perhaps certain parts be available for purchase. We wouldn't really even need THAT, players sell them like candy..er, theoretically.

If it's the risk factor you're worried about, say you pay for something and the other party doesn't deliver, well, then Congrats. You've just seen Vendetta Online. Emphasize on "Vendetta". That's what i mean when i say "get good or go broke".