Summary: A mechanism to exchange useless G5 engineered weapons and modules for ARX; a second mechanism, which enables buying individual G1-G5 materials with ARX at material trader locations.
A relatively big cross-section of commanders play for many years now, we own full 120-stack of modules and weapons, a lot more in “warehouse ships” - they gather dust and become irrelevant over the years, as meta shifts and preferences are adjusted. I propose to introduce the ability to exchange some of those modules for ARX, say 1000 ARX for a G5 overcharged frag cannon. Consequently, the crystallised labor, consisting of time spent hunting for materials, efficiently flows from dead weight modules into production of new modules by a way of exchanging individual materials for ARX at material trader locations, then flows further into production of new ships and improvements in the old ones. As a side-effect, people with families and other serious responsibilities get a mechanism to catch up their material game with cashy money and enjoy the more adventurous aspects of Elite with their in-game friends, who are hard core gamers. Lots of new ships get constructed, the energy of dead weight modules is released and converted into new modules, new ships. These ships might even need new skins!
Frontier also benefits: as a result, they get two relatively small new income sources.
We, the old players, get the ability to save a little time on material hunting, since we get partial material redemption mechanism.
New/busy commanders can catch up quicker and get the ability to play with high-tier tools, enriching and flattening the landscape.
Thoughts?
A relatively big cross-section of commanders play for many years now, we own full 120-stack of modules and weapons, a lot more in “warehouse ships” - they gather dust and become irrelevant over the years, as meta shifts and preferences are adjusted. I propose to introduce the ability to exchange some of those modules for ARX, say 1000 ARX for a G5 overcharged frag cannon. Consequently, the crystallised labor, consisting of time spent hunting for materials, efficiently flows from dead weight modules into production of new modules by a way of exchanging individual materials for ARX at material trader locations, then flows further into production of new ships and improvements in the old ones. As a side-effect, people with families and other serious responsibilities get a mechanism to catch up their material game with cashy money and enjoy the more adventurous aspects of Elite with their in-game friends, who are hard core gamers. Lots of new ships get constructed, the energy of dead weight modules is released and converted into new modules, new ships. These ships might even need new skins!
Frontier also benefits: as a result, they get two relatively small new income sources.
We, the old players, get the ability to save a little time on material hunting, since we get partial material redemption mechanism.
New/busy commanders can catch up quicker and get the ability to play with high-tier tools, enriching and flattening the landscape.
Thoughts?
We’re supposed to go through progression in order to acquaint ourselves better with the game. Then we’re supposed to blaze our own trail, which, to me, admittedly, means taking part in various crazy activities across the bubble and beyond using the ships I’ve built, meeting new people, seeing new places. Are we “supposed” to go through THAT amount of grind, which Elite demands to enjoy various end game activities? Let me just say I doubt we’re supposed to.