Money sinks: Does Elite need them?

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I'm definitely one of those for more money sinks: station fees, docking fees, regular maintenance and repair, for starters.

Then lose these ridiculous bonus for transporting cargo. I.e. 5k per ton to deliver hydrogen just because I'm allied with X or Y. Put it all in the background sim and make the same missions available for everyone, and whoever gets it first gets it period. Then, apply some supply and demand: The missions snapped up sooner get lower payments over time and missions that get chosen later go up in price, depending on their importance.

Next, balance out the ship prices to something more realistic and make engineering money based instead of this silly alternate artificial economy of materials... and if you want engineering to be harder to come by? Then definitely inflate their prices, since there are very few engineers and demand for their time should be intense...

But that's just me.
 
So you don't want to spend money on ships, but complain that you have nothing to spend money on? It's a spaceship game :)

It would be pretty awesome if we could buy our own stations or some other form of player housing though, that would make for a pretty good credit sink.
 
Fly shieldless, weaponless, A-rated Cutter in open taunting other commanders. Here is your money sink ;-)

I do not think we need more money sinks we already have. You can spend your money to rebuys all day long if you would go to harms way in open.

Sure I would like if FD figures some nice stuff like rental space srations or rental megaships. But they should be more vanity items rather than give an edge over others.
 
I am fine with the concepts of adding docking fees and some other more realistic fees. I haven't read the lore but I often wonder if the term "credit" represents a multiples of some currency. It seems to me current costs for fuel, ship repairs and resupply are nowhere realistic. I recognize that there are many aspects of the game that are not realistic and I am not trying to inject reality into this game. I just support higher costs for these things because they seem arbitrarily low and pointless other than requiring us to press the button when we are in the station.
 
I am fine with the concepts of adding docking fees and some other more realistic fees. I haven't read the lore but I often wonder if the term "credit" represents a multiples of some currency. It seems to me current costs for fuel, ship repairs and resupply are nowhere realistic. I recognize that there are many aspects of the game that are not realistic and I am not trying to inject reality into this game. I just support higher costs for these things because they seem arbitrarily low and pointless other than requiring us to press the button when we are in the station.

Just some comments, but:

Actually, in a galaxy made of 99% hydrogen where it can easily be scooped off the tops of stars, fuel costs would be expected to be cheap. I'm more amused by how much BANG we get for that buck. A ton or two of hydrogen can get you to the next star pretty easily.

As to repair and resupply, I'd rather their cost -- part of it, anyway -- be in time. It still amuses me no end that I can get my S kicked in a haz-res and then retreat to a station, fix those damages in a heart beat and return to the fray with enough time to kick the S of the S kicker... ;)

Oh, and "credit" is just the old science fiction concept of a future without physical money...
 
Just some comments, but:

Actually, in a galaxy made of 99% hydrogen where it can easily be scooped off the tops of stars, fuel costs would be expected to be cheap. I'm more amused by how much BANG we get for that buck. A ton or two of hydrogen can get you to the next star pretty easily.

Except, the further a station is from a star, the more the fuel should cost. Second, they should only have the fuel that pilots, Human and NPC have delivered to them.
 
Just some comments, but:

Actually, in a galaxy made of 99% hydrogen where it can easily be scooped off the tops of stars, fuel costs would be expected to be cheap. I'm more amused by how much BANG we get for that buck. A ton or two of hydrogen can get you to the next star pretty easily.

As to repair and resupply, I'd rather their cost -- part of it, anyway -- be in time. It still amuses me no end that I can get my S kicked in a haz-res and then retreat to a station, fix those damages in a heart beat and return to the fray with enough time to kick the S of the S kicker... ;)

Oh, and "credit" is just the old science fiction concept of a future without physical money...

I can buy that the source of the fuel is cheap. I don't buy that storage and delivering the fuel in the station would keep it that cheap.

I agree with you that the "instant" aspect of repair is interesting but again, people don't want a time gate and I don't blame them.

My wonderings about the word "credit" isn't based on why they use the word credit. That I get. My wonderings is whether or not it represented something like 1 credit = 1k minicredits. Trying not to over complicate things, just trying to understand the prices in this game. Again, I shouldn't try putting logic into prices in this game.
 
Except, the further a station is from a star, the more the fuel should cost. Second, they should only have the fuel that pilots, Human and NPC have delivered to them.
i was thinking the same thing.

Be careful, that smacks close to a player-controlled economy...
 
Well, OP, if you're not going to spend your extra credits on a new or different ship, there are plenty of factions posting donation pleas to help their cause, or some outbreak or famine emergency. Or you could try out the new chieftan when it comes to the shipyard stores..
 
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The federal assault ship has a coffee machine in the cockpit. - https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...Assault-Ship?p=2914418&viewfull=1#post2914418


It's the Lakon ships that have fire extinguishers in the cockpits that concern me, no others do, just them.

The Sidewinder and SRV also have an extinguisher
The Sidewinder also has a First Aid kit, a Thermos and a copy of the Space Traders Manual




Money wise, I think the cost of ships and modules jumped too much so, income then every increase.

We have a 32000 CR starter ship that you can outfitted for a million
To the Anaconda which is 141 Million and can be upwards of 750 Million outfitted,

Where as in FE2 for example the Starting ship was 38,000 vs the Panther Clipper at 2,753,000

The point I am trying to make is that people want a return on investment for the CR spend, but with the massive cost curve increase as you go up, the expected income follow that curve.

Which messes with the verisimilitude of the game as people want and have been given missions to delivery cargo with a pittance but are paid millions to do so, and where fuel costs are on average less retial at the pump than they are whole sale, and where factions are paying more than the value of the delivery ship.

I mean it isn't had to find a mission be it passenger or cargo, which can be completed in a Sidewinder, that would pay for 10 Sidewinder, and if tramp trading would need 100 trips in a Sidewinder.
 
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Erm...docking fees, repair bills, fuel?

Seriously is this the best we can come up with?

There does need to be more to be able to do with your cash but not that...sheesh, why not bring in income tax, ship tax, MOT, parking fines? Turn ED into a Kafka nightmare of red tape and bills. I have enough of those in real life, really don't want them in a game.

How about planetary mining rigs? Small planetary player bases (not linked to BGS)? Permanent rented docking facilities you can customise?
 
Maybe the money sink OP wants already exists. As some already answered, for most players it's a bigger and more expensive ship. In fact different ships add different aspects to the game. Flying a maneuverable ship is much different than flying a big bulky ship. Fighting in them is very different too. So it's a different experience that one buys with one's hard(?) earned credits.

For people with many more credits, probably already owing the more expensive ships, indeed it seems that there are no more things to buy. Credits don't mean much any more. Some people might even consider that one of the most exciting aspects of the game: progress, is no longer happening. It can be disappointing. Even though personally I have not reached that point (still aiming for some of the expensive ships), I do think that some changes in the mechanics could add a little more excitement. For example, today we can store as many ships as we want anywhere we want. Even in Sol that is quite crowded. We can take up a landing pad for ever. For free. One could find this "unrealistic" or in other words, find it more realistic to have a daily fee for leaving a ship parked and go about your business with another ship. This fee could vary from station to station, depending on popularity. This fee would make it interesting to acquire some parking space of your own, either in a (special?) station or on a planet, adding another credit sink.

Even if FD added new credit sinks however, once obtaining them would get one in the same place as today. The true goal of the game is to play it. Focusing on enjoying the game will always be the most important goal to have.
 
Maybe the money sink OP wants already exists. As some already answered, for most players it's a bigger and more expensive ship. In fact different ships add different aspects to the game. Flying a maneuverable ship is much different than flying a big bulky ship. Fighting in them is very different too. So it's a different experience that one buys with one's hard(?) earned credits.

First, combat is not all that the game offers.....

Second, the OP doesn't want another ship, they are quite happy with the one they have. It's almost like people can't read or something.

Speaking of which, it appears no one read my post lol. Donation mission do exist as a money sink. You put in money and what do you get? Some reputation. Sure, said rep could technically be used for rank grind and therefore help get rank locked ships, or be used to influence the BGS, but, if you don't need said rep, and I doubt the OP does, it's essentially a money sink.

But go on, tell the OP something they aren't going to do, it's entertaining watching people smack there heads against a brick wall. I'm not above bad humour.
 
This issue with players being too rich is silly and simply a statement of "I don't want you to have that much cash." For players who have larger ships and/or fleets it takes A LOT more money to keep them going. Module prices get astronomical and rebuys just keep going up. Let's not even talk about refitting a ship for a different mission (often easier to just buy a new one).
 
Except, the further a station is from a star, the more the fuel should cost. Second, they should only have the fuel that pilots, Human and NPC have delivered to them.

The odd thing is that all stations seem to be swimming in fuel, yet I doubt anyone ever delivers it. Meanwhile I doubt anyone ever delivers food cartridges or the like, and there is a massive demand.

So do NPC ships deliver fuel but nothing else?

Ditto what others have said about pointless but cool cosmetic things to do with your credits. For instance being able to pledge to a minor faction, and make one system your home, even to give them 10% of what you earn would be nice.

The only time credits are destroyed though is when a ship dies, though since when does insurance cover modified parts? Engineer your entire ship and pay full price upon destruction seems fair enough to me.
 
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