Obviously when fleet carriers were introduced, FDevs intended the upkeep cost to ensure that inactive players would run out of money and their fleet carriers would become decomissioned. What's happened since then is players are now able to make insane amounts of money very fast and cover literally years of operating expenses for their fleet carriers in a matter of days. The result? A lot of fleet carriers. A looooot of fleet carriers.
I think it's fair to say that a lot of people who purchase fleet carriers simply want the convenience of being able to move all of their ships together, and have access to all the services of the fleet carrier. There are certainly players who have little or no desire for their fleet carrier to show up publicly in whatever system they are in. So my suggestion is to have it so that instead of every fleet carrier automatically be set up to be publicly on display wherever it is parked, to have an optional module that you can install on the fleet carrier that then makes it on display to the public. Some people rely on this public information to know if someone is using a fleet carrier to mess with the BGS in their area, so admittedly, my idea does step on some peoples toes, but please bear with me. If the service module has an upkeep cost that comes in the form of some sort of resource aside from credits, like tritium or whatever currency you can think of, then it can be installed with a limit on how many months the fleet carrier can be left AFK. Currently there is no limit to how many credits you can store up (AFAIK) and so you can grind out years worth of operating expenses in a matter of days, or maybe weeks, then drop the game, never play again, and now you've left this giant peice of space junk that sits in space for years, if not for the rest of Elite Dangerou's lifetime.
If the resource needed to operate the module that puts your fleet carrier up on public display were something like tritium or similar, then there can be set a limit to how long you can go AFK before your fleet carrier is taken off public display, but you can continue to have the fleet carrier remain operational for literally years (beyond it being yanked off public display) for when you log back in after taking a long break. My idea is to just have the module that puts your carrier up on display go inactive after a hard ceiling of time that you've spent AFK from ED
What do you guys think? I'm just trying to come up with a solution to all the fleet carriers that are all over the place. Admittedly, even I was AFK from ED for 2 or 3 years and I know that my FC was just sitting there occupying space while not being of value to anybody while I was gone from the game. If I had a module installed that would set my carrier to become publicly available.... I would seriously not even use it. I don't care if other people can dock in my fleet carrier. I (and I'm sure other players) want to just have the convenience of moving all my ships together at once with the FC.
It should be obvious that my idea is also intended to free up parking spaces, so this would involve changing the code so that parking spaces are only occupied when a fleet carrier is parked there AND it also has this module installed. So what would happen if someone tried to turn the module on, when parked in a place where there is no more room for another "publicly displayed" FC? Simple. Have a message pop up to inform the player that they need to relocate the FC before they can online the module and make the FC publicly available.
There's a good chance that there are other issues that would come up from an idea like this. But I think it's a problem that should be solved. There's seriously a lot of fleet carriers in space, and I'm sure many of them have a story like my own: player grinded credits, bought a fleet carrier, had a little fun, then left the game and it sat there for literally years for no good reason. It's a problem worth solving.
I think it's fair to say that a lot of people who purchase fleet carriers simply want the convenience of being able to move all of their ships together, and have access to all the services of the fleet carrier. There are certainly players who have little or no desire for their fleet carrier to show up publicly in whatever system they are in. So my suggestion is to have it so that instead of every fleet carrier automatically be set up to be publicly on display wherever it is parked, to have an optional module that you can install on the fleet carrier that then makes it on display to the public. Some people rely on this public information to know if someone is using a fleet carrier to mess with the BGS in their area, so admittedly, my idea does step on some peoples toes, but please bear with me. If the service module has an upkeep cost that comes in the form of some sort of resource aside from credits, like tritium or whatever currency you can think of, then it can be installed with a limit on how many months the fleet carrier can be left AFK. Currently there is no limit to how many credits you can store up (AFAIK) and so you can grind out years worth of operating expenses in a matter of days, or maybe weeks, then drop the game, never play again, and now you've left this giant peice of space junk that sits in space for years, if not for the rest of Elite Dangerou's lifetime.
If the resource needed to operate the module that puts your fleet carrier up on public display were something like tritium or similar, then there can be set a limit to how long you can go AFK before your fleet carrier is taken off public display, but you can continue to have the fleet carrier remain operational for literally years (beyond it being yanked off public display) for when you log back in after taking a long break. My idea is to just have the module that puts your carrier up on display go inactive after a hard ceiling of time that you've spent AFK from ED
What do you guys think? I'm just trying to come up with a solution to all the fleet carriers that are all over the place. Admittedly, even I was AFK from ED for 2 or 3 years and I know that my FC was just sitting there occupying space while not being of value to anybody while I was gone from the game. If I had a module installed that would set my carrier to become publicly available.... I would seriously not even use it. I don't care if other people can dock in my fleet carrier. I (and I'm sure other players) want to just have the convenience of moving all my ships together at once with the FC.
It should be obvious that my idea is also intended to free up parking spaces, so this would involve changing the code so that parking spaces are only occupied when a fleet carrier is parked there AND it also has this module installed. So what would happen if someone tried to turn the module on, when parked in a place where there is no more room for another "publicly displayed" FC? Simple. Have a message pop up to inform the player that they need to relocate the FC before they can online the module and make the FC publicly available.
There's a good chance that there are other issues that would come up from an idea like this. But I think it's a problem that should be solved. There's seriously a lot of fleet carriers in space, and I'm sure many of them have a story like my own: player grinded credits, bought a fleet carrier, had a little fun, then left the game and it sat there for literally years for no good reason. It's a problem worth solving.
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