Ability to move stored ships to another station

yuyuki · Mar 23, 2016

Hi everyone,

I wonder if/when you will add an option to allow us to move our stored ships to another station against time and Credit.

Currently I've ships in several stations like a lot of Cmdrs.
Now I've found a really good station where I want to store all my ships.

Maybe you can add an option in the Shipyard screen.

Thank you for your work,

Cmdr Ramon

Kenneth McGrew · Mar 23, 2016

buy a sidewinder and go and fetch it?

Joe Akeem · Mar 23, 2016

I was thinking about how the mechanic could be applied.

The coolest thing would obviously to let a NPC fly it across to your requested destination, but that would open up a lot of problems like; should it be a targettable vessel? If not, how would that affect the immersion. If it's destroyed...?

The easiest way to implement this would be to calculate an estimate ETA based on distance and let the ship travel out-of-server until it reaches it's destination.

I'd really hate a teleport function since that is just as cheap as the AI-controlled ship landing at your position in seconds while you're in the SRV.

Jesse30 · Mar 23, 2016

Joe Akeem said:
I was thinking about how the mechanic could be applied.

The coolest thing would obviously to let a NPC fly it across to your requested destination, but that would open up a lot of problems like; should it be a targettable vessel? If not, how would that affect the immersion. If it's destroyed...?

The easiest way to implement this would be to calculate an estimate ETA based on distance and let the ship travel out-of-server until it reaches it's destination.

I'd really hate a teleport function since that is just as cheap as the AI-controlled ship landing at your position in seconds while you're in the SRV.

They should let us break down the ships remotely and build it back up at the new station, of course I am willing to pay for a fee.

Iskariot · Mar 23, 2016

yuyuki said:
Hi everyone,

I wonder if/when you will add an option to allow us to move our stored ships to another station against time and Credit.

Currently I've ships in several stations like a lot of Cmdrs.
Now I've found a really good station where I want to store all my ships.

Maybe you can add an option in the Shipyard screen.

Thank you for your work,

Cmdr Ramon

The devs stated they intend to implement a mechanic to move your ships to another station eventually.
I hope they make it a bit realistic: It should cost money and it should not be instant.

Arithon · Mar 23, 2016

You pay a fixed rate for relocation, plus fuel if the ship has no scoop. And an optional insurance surcharge.

Your ship will then fly itself to the destination. If it is attacked/destroyed (based on probability when passing through low security/anarchy systems) you bay the rebuy and it arrives at destination, unless you paid the extra in which case you're covered.

This means if you relocate without Collision Attack Waver (CAW) insurance, you save money but it is a gamble. Frontier can decide if the ships really "fly" there or simply calculate the journey flight time and move stations on a timer. Maybe the latter first and the former some time in the future.

Costs for minor damage caused by escaped attack or security ramming etc. would be borne by the owner.

This said, I still like the idea of a interstellar super-carrier ship that you can transfer a ship to. This then flies to the destination system dropping off ships. This non-dockable heavy could be human flown and players could sign up as "caravan guards" for it as it takes super-cannisters and ships from system to system.

Jesse30 · Mar 23, 2016

Arithon said:
You pay a fixed rate for relocation, plus fuel if the ship has no scoop. And an optional insurance surcharge.

Your ship will then fly itself to the destination. If it is attacked/destroyed (based on probability when passing through low security/anarchy systems) you bay the rebuy and it arrives at destination, unless you paid the extra in which case you're covered.

This means if you relocate without Collision Attack Waver (CAW) insurance, you save money but it is a gamble. Frontier can decide if the ships really "fly" there or simply calculate the journey flight time and move stations on a timer. Maybe the latter first and the former some time in the future.

Costs for minor damage caused by escaped attack or security ramming etc. would be borne by the owner.

This said, I still like the idea of a interstellar super-carrier ship that you can transfer a ship to. This then flies to the destination system dropping off ships. This non-dockable heavy could be human flown and players could sign up as "caravan guards" for it as it takes super-cannisters and ships from system to system.

View attachment 109589

I like that idea a lot, gives other people a job and a purpose.

Joe Akeem · Mar 23, 2016

^Love the idea! A whole new element.

Skizomeuh · Mar 23, 2016

Arithon said:
This said, I still like the idea of a interstellar super-carrier ship that you can transfer a ship to. This then flies to the destination system dropping off ships. This non-dockable heavy could be human flown and players could sign up as "caravan guards" for it as it takes super-cannisters and ships from system to system.

View attachment 109589

I love this sooo much! ---^

Though I won't mind if it wasn't player-controlled but granted players to hop in/out of it each time it stops by, a little like Jacques’ Roaming station (anyone know if this one is still active btw?)
The caravan guards missions sounds awesome!

All of these would sound awesome some more if/when "first person" mode will come.

Nerwan · Mar 23, 2016

Kenneth Mcgrew said:
buy a sidewinder and go and fetch it?

Or if it's further away this is worth remembering. Almost everywhere sells haulers and A2 frame shift drives. If you D rate a hauler with an A2 frameshift drive you get a taxi that can jump 32LY per jump and do 150LY on a 4T tank of fuel... Good for moving between your ships.

DHMeyer · Mar 23, 2016

Nerwan said:
Or if it's further away this is worth remembering. Almost everywhere sells haulers and A2 frame shift drives. If you D rate a hauler with an A2 frameshift drive you get a taxi that can jump 32LY per jump and do 150LY on a 4T tank of fuel... Good for moving between your ships.

More like 27-28 Ly if equipped with shields, fuel scoop and advanced discovery scanner. Of course, advanced discovery scanner is optional. I usually carry one if I'm about to fetch some ship, not even that much to make extra credits from exploration data as to add system maps for the future. It gets to about 30 Ly if you remove the shields. I'm talking about full fuel tank. And scoop to save time if you need to go further away (which I often do). But yeah, it's a better option than a Sidewinder, albeit it has a hefty price tag for a Hauler. Then again, people who have multiple ships all over the place should be able to afford that price tag.

Anyhow, let's hope Frontier adds ship transportation system soon. I don't mind fetching my ships from elsewhere, it's actually fun, but it takes time which I can use in a more productive way.

Lestat · Mar 23, 2016

They are working on something for this. Remember in the Design Decision Forum a topic about moving ships to a different location. So we might see it in future updates.

Nerwan · Mar 23, 2016

DHMeyer said:
More like 27-28 Ly if equipped with shields, fuel scoop and advanced discovery scanner. Of course, advanced discovery scanner is optional.

Those are all optional the way I see it. I never bother with shields because interdiction is very rare if you're not travelling with cargo or power play aligned and the rebuy on a hauler is very low if you're advanced in the game (plus if you do get intetdicted in a hauler you're likely to die anyway). I might put a fuel scoop on if I was going 300LY but for anything else I'd probably just use an extra fuel tank and I wouldn't bother with a discovery scanner unless going to an unknown system... So generally I'm happy to use the 32LY shield-less version for a taxi.

Lestat · Mar 23, 2016

A easy trick for people If you want a group of your ships in one station. Buy a Sidewinder Then outfit it for fuel scoop and range and you can move all your ships to point A to point B.

DHMeyer · Mar 23, 2016

Nerwan said:
Those are all optional the way I see it. I never bother with shields because interdiction is very rare if you're not travelling with cargo or power play aligned and the rebuy on a hauler is very low if you're advanced in the game (plus if you do get intetdicted in a hauler you're likely to die anyway). I might put a fuel scoop on if I was going 300LY but for anything else I'd probably just use an extra fuel tank and I wouldn't bother with a discovery scanner unless going to an unknown system... So generally I'm happy to use the 32LY shield-less version for a taxi.

Yup, probably having shields ina Hauler is not really going to change anything in case of an interdiction. I need fuel scoop because usually if I leave the general area of my home system, it is to go 200+ Ly to buy new ships. I then fly them back home and the Taxi ship gets sold. If I have to go further than 300+ Ly, then I have Asp E for that.

DocLooshkin · Mar 24, 2016

Hello, Arithon.

Arithon said:
View attachment 109589

Oh, my days! I love this image: it's like a blowtorch created by a scientist with the world's smallest yakanga, which is very appropriate for much of the ED community. It's creator deserves to be publically credited. If you made it, much kudos to you, sir. Have some rep for sharing it, either way.

DHMeyer · Mar 24, 2016

Arithon said:
You pay a fixed rate for relocation, plus fuel if the ship has no scoop. And an optional insurance surcharge.

Your ship will then fly itself to the destination. If it is attacked/destroyed (based on probability when passing through low security/anarchy systems) you bay the rebuy and it arrives at destination, unless you paid the extra in which case you're covered.

This means if you relocate without Collision Attack Waver (CAW) insurance, you save money but it is a gamble. Frontier can decide if the ships really "fly" there or simply calculate the journey flight time and move stations on a timer. Maybe the latter first and the former some time in the future.

Costs for minor damage caused by escaped attack or security ramming etc. would be borne by the owner.

This said, I still like the idea of a interstellar super-carrier ship that you can transfer a ship to. This then flies to the destination system dropping off ships. This non-dockable heavy could be human flown and players could sign up as "caravan guards" for it as it takes super-cannisters and ships from system to system.

View attachment 109589

That ship carrier looks pretty cool, would love to see that in space. I think I like the missions aspect of it the most.

I think what they are planning is to charge players for ship transportation service (Shipyard interface seems to indicate that, there is a fee for ship storage now and this fee is 0 credits, but the field is there). My guess is we'll have to pay, wait some time and then we will be able to access the ship through the Shipyard interface. Which will be enough to start with.
There is one issue remaining and this is what happens with cargo onboard. But I'm not sure if we are able to swap ships now if the present ship has cargo, will have to check that again. I think I recall some message from the system not allowing for that, but I'm not entirely sure. As I mentioned elsewhere, this would be a good opportunity to introduce storage facilities for players and storage transfer functionality, but probably I have way too much hope for such features...