Station rent for rich commanders

[Miklos Atreides]

I think a docking fee is a good way to have a credit sink in game.

You only pay when you dock, if you don't play for 3 weeks it doesn't matter as it is only levied on docking.

BUT, The challenge is that starting players with 1000Cr might find even 10Cr fee difficult to meet.

So do you say Sidey's have zero docking fees as it's covered off by Pilots Fed membership, that way as long as you are in a sidey you don't incur docking fees? Or do you say only medium and large pad ships have a docking fee associated.

Is it a flat fee, or a percentage of ships value, or percentage of transactions made whilst docked (kind of a sales/mission collection tax)?

The question then is for these Billionaires, whatever you levy it doesn't matter, for those that are just Millionaires again it may not affect them if the charges are equivalent to a few percentage points on any transaction. Then for start ups these charges amy also be unoticeably small if it is a percentage, or become more challenging if there is a minimum fee regardless.

You could double or triple fuel price instead, more people may fuel scoop, but even tripling fuel costs wouldnt break the bank of players, even start ups?

I would turn it to the behavior an airport or port is acting today. They don't charge for docking events. They charge for time being there (wall time). Soemthing that would show
how a station can manage to be operated. Prices for wall time can differ depending on station, traffic, government, system status and so on. Stored ship can be handled differently
than those "on pad" which will help to avoid the existence of pad blockers. If something starts to create cost everyone tries to avoid it.

Regards,
Miklos

 

[JetsonRING]

I do not have billions in credits but you know what? Those that do have billions of credits worked for those credits. They either worked hard grinding for months, or worked smart taking advantage of exploits and they all deserve their credits. Quit yer whining! [arrrr]

We rarely if ever see anyone on the forums who actually has billions of credits whining about other CMDRs who have billions of credits. It is always the CMDR with comparatively little or nothing complaining he cannot compete without having his own billions and want to see other CMDRs billions taken away any way he can. Note the "rent could be measured on how many credits a CMDR has". Right. A poor guy rents a landing pad for 10 credits but a rich guy has to pay 1000 to rent the same landing pad? No thanks.

 

[JetsonRING]

I would turn it to the behavior an airport or port is acting today. They don't charge for docking events. They charge for time being there (wall time). Soemthing that would show
how a station can manage to be operated. Prices for wall time can differ depending on station, traffic, government, system status and so on. Stored ship can be handled differently
than those "on pad" which will help to avoid the existence of pad blockers. If something starts to create cost everyone tries to avoid it.
Regards,
Miklos

IMO pad-blocking fines would be easy: Ship sits on pad without taking off or dropping into the hangar for a period of time say, exceeding 3 minutes = 50 credit fine. Same ship remains on pad without taking off or going to the hangar for 3 minutes more = additional 500 credit fine. 3 minutes more = additional 5,000 credit fine, 3 minutes more = additional 50,000 credit fine, then 500,000 credits at which time (after 15 minutes blocking the landing-pad) the offending CMDR is automatically logged out by the program and the landing-pad automatically vacated but only after the CMDR has automatically racked-up 555,550 in fines. A LOT of credits but probably not back-breaking for most players.

Clogging landing-pads hurts the stations too! Commerce is interrupted, schedules are disrupted, earning is slowed so fines, hefty ones from the stations make sense.

 

[Yaffle]

IMO pad-blocking fines would be easy: Ship sits on pad without taking off or dropping into the hangar for a period of time say, exceeding 3 minutes = 50 credit fine. Same ship remains on pad without taking off or going to the hangar for 3 minutes more = additional 500 credit fine. 3 minutes more = additional 5,000 credit fine, 3 minutes more = additional 50,000 credit fine, then 500,000 credits at which time (after 15 minutes blocking the landing-pad) the offending CMDR is automatically logged out by the program and the landing-pad automatically vacated but only after the CMDR has automatically racked-up 555,550 in fines. A LOT of credits but probably not back-breaking for most players.

Clogging landing-pads hurts the stations too! Commerce is interrupted, schedules are disrupted, earning is slowed so fines, hefty ones from the stations make sense.

Auto-log is harsh if the commander is selling exploration data, for example. I'd prefer auto-hangar after (say) ten minutes and de-spawn into a solo instance, then respawn back to whatever mode the player was in upon exiting the hangar. That's probably a technical nightmare though. Hangar, de-spawn, log off if no key presses while docked for (say) 15 minutes would seem fine, by then the user is AFK by definition.

Ship storage was in the DDF. Alas as with much of the DDF it never made it to the game. Here's the concept anyway:

Multiple Ship Ownership

In Elite: Dangerous players can purchase and own multiple ships. The player can only pilot a single ship at a time, so other ships they own must be stored somewhere, and made accessible to the player in a believable, fun way.

• The player acquires ships from various traders and vendors around the Galaxy.
  • Players will primarily purchase ships for credits from ship yards
  • Ships may also be won through bets and competitions
  • Ships may be given as rewards for events or missions the player completes
  • When the player has acquired a new ship they will receive the choice to switch to the new ship or continue flying their current ship
    • A choice like this is only offered in places where a ship can be stored otherwise the newly acquired ship will be somewhere else waiting for the player to go pick it up
• Players can trade in the ship that they are currently flying when purchasing a new ship
  • Players will receive a percentage of the value of their ship if they decide to trade in their ship
    • This percentage is based on wear and tear a ship can sustain over its career and its current state of maintenance so well maintained ships will have a higher percentage than beaten up ones
  • Players will lose any cargo they have in the ship if they choose to trade in their ship to buy a new one
    • Players will receive a warning allowing them to back out of a purchase and go sell their cargo
    • Many shipyards have trading points where players can sell their cargo, although rates may be less competitive than at other markets
  • Alternatively any cargo can be transferred to the new ship if able prior to being sold/disposed of
  • Fitted equipment will need to be stripped out and stored as cargo for it to be transferred from the old ship to a new one
  • Any transfers of cargo and/or equipment can be transferred for a fee.
    If the trade in value of the player’s current ship is higher than the value of the ship they wish to buy, they will receive the surplus in credits
    • The player will receive a warning when they choose to trade in to ensure they don’t trade in a ship by accident
• Players can store ships they are not currently piloting
  • Initially the player will have nowhere to store a ship
  • The player will be able to rent (or buy) hangar space – for an initial fee, and then a rental. Not all stations will have storage space, and some will be cheaper than others. Storage spaces will come in a range of sizes (s,m,l). There isn’t a cap to the number of ships a player can store this way, other than the drain on their cash
  • A number of different facilities can offer ship storage, with a range of different prices
    • E.g. functional - shipyard storage, luxury – High end Storage attached to high end residencies in central locations, cheap – warehouses in remote locations
  • Storage fees are deducted daily from their account, and there is an additional fee in some locations (generally the cheap ones) to retrieve the ship from storage, when the player wishes to pilot the ship again
    • The fee increases over in-game time only (i.e. if you’re logged off it won’t increase)
  • Players can store their ships at multiple locations
    • Registering a new location for ship storage costs a fixed one-time fee
    • Once registered a player can visit that location or any other registered storage location they have to arrange ship transfers between them which costs a fee to transport them, based on distance and law level of the intervening route (though the transfer happens magically – perhaps on a giant freighter).
  • Players can only swap their current ship whilst in a registered storage location
    • If the desired ship isn’t present then the player must arrange a transfer which costs a fee and takes time based on the distance the transferred ship needs to travel to get to the current storage location
      • The same restrictions and pricing as above are applied here too
    • Once the transfer is complete the player is notified and is able to dock and swap their ships putting their old ship in storage at that location providing they can also pay the storage fee accumulated for the transferred ship since it went into storage (including all previous storage locations it’s been at and transferred from since last flown)
    • Cargo and equipment can be transferred for a fee, as with ship purchase.
• Players can buy a new ship without trading in their current one but must choose which of the two ships they would like to pilot afterwards
  • The ship the player chooses not to pilot will have to be sent to any of the player’s registered storage location (possibly including the same station they’re at)
    • If no storage location is registered then the player is forced to register one
    • If a storage location is available (or has just been made available as above) it can be selected for the ship to be sent to without needing to pay a transfer fee as this is included in the price of the new ship (i.e. ensures that the player can transfer their ship despite having no money left after the purchase)

Note: It was discussed with the DDF that we would consider giving those who have named a station a voucher for free large ship storage on ‘their’ station. This could be a nice way to reward our backers in game.