8.5m Cr ship loss - 30+ hours wasted - discuss!

[Norwyn]

There's not much to discuss in my opinion. Except that it 1) it was not your fault that you were shot and you lost your ship, but 2) it was totally your fault that you launched without enough money for rebuy/insurance.

I have no sympathy for people crying how they lost their ship because they could not afford insurance/rebuy. It's not much asked of player to check balance-insurance ratio before launching from the safety of station. It amazes me how many don't do it.

 

[gary.brain]

+1 rep dru if I could..... you have had too much from me already

 

[Commander Dini]

If I, right now, lost everything... I would not lose everything. I would have gained many hours of entertainment, much experience, improved combat skills and a desire to get it all back again.

Elite is much like life. It's not about the destination. It's about the journey.

 

[ste]

This thread is basically,

I put all my money on Chelsea to win, cos normally they do, but today they only drew, I think I should get my money back. Or there should be at least a warning that you may lose if you gamble.

All these 1,000s of non stop remove the consequences threads are basically this in a nutshell.

 

[Togg]

after upgrading my ship ( currently a Type-7) with expensive modules, i engage in a run of Kamikaze trades.( my definition, buying max amounts allowed by credits) but i KNOW that even though the potential reward is that i earn more cash at a faster rate, i have left myself open to a catastrophic failure if i crash and burn. i feel it makes my game more enjoyable and riveting. i have been burned a few times ( total insurance claim payouts total over 4 million credits now) but i dust myself off and get back into the saddle. i wouldn't have the game made any easier if i had anything to say about it, matter of fact i feel the penalties for failure are too light.

 

[Flyinpiranha]

why on Earth would you invest *everything* is a ship that you cannot even afford to insure ? I think ED is not harsh enough.
Did dying really ruin your day ? well I have news for you, dying is damn well supposed to ruin your day.

In the old days you had three lives, and when you lost them you had to start over, i'm sick of this modern 'don't worry about dying its not the end of the game' attitude.

Why do you care so much how kids play videogames?

EDIT: Holy crap at some of these replies. It's a game, a videogame. We have a cool PC with glowing lights that totally match our keyboard, and most of us have little joysticks we play with while we sit in our office chairs or couches. Car Insurance? Penalties? Social commentary?

Come on ...

 

[Straha Yeagar]

Ok so how about a real world application, when I buy car insurance I pay up front and in the event of an accident the insurance company pays out (in theory)

So why not do the same, have the option to insure your ship and pay the re buy cost in advance, then if you have an accident no problem because you have insurance, your paid up and the insurance replaces your ship. That or my previously suggested totally reasonable suggestion that it warns you on launch if you dont have the credits to cover the rebuy, after which you really would have no one else to blame.

*edit you could even placate the Hardcore element by making the insurance more expensive this way

*edit 2 btw isn't the cheap insurance only for beta backers? im sure new players have to pay more!

And if you forget to pay your premiums? Sure, you'll get a notice in the mail, but your car will still drive, and if you get into a wreck?

 

[DocMoriarty]

I just lost all my progress hours of work because I bought a more expensive upgrade then I meant to, which put me under the re buy limit. Timed with my first and only death in countless hours of game play. Honestly whats the point of having a loan to re buy system if the max loan is less then the cost to re buy the ship alone, not even any of the items....

No other game has such harsh death penalties, especially as for the majority of people all of their assets are tied up in the ship....

So now I have a choice either stop playing or replay 30+ hours in order to get back to where I was...

oh and if all you can post is some reworked statement about not going below rebuy value don't waste your time! This is posted in the hope that if enough people comment on this topic maybe something will get done about it.

I had the same problem 3 days before public release. Alone insurance costs and lost cargo are anough of a penalty if you ask me. To add in some random total loss if you are short only 1 credit which makes you go from level 50 to level 1 in no time is superflous and probably the worst game mechanic i have ever seen in any game. Either loan should be unlimited or it should be pre-paid. That way you can't spend the money on something else. Having an "Insurance Office" in the "Contacts" would solve the problem. There could also be a cargo insurance option. And if an insurance case happens you have to pay for a new one. That harsh mechanic is especially questionable in an open PvP game. But the overwhelming majority of "you have to save enough ..." smartasses who have obviously no clue what they are talking about will tell you different. As a matter of fact i don't feel like re-grinding the type-7 i lost. A quit playing E: D for now and just do some forum PvP for the fun of it while enjoying a way better designed and deep game (KSP).

 

[Kramster]

Elite is about risks, how much to risk, when and how.
The only person that can be blamed for miscalculation, bad risk assessment and just plain error is you the player
No hand holding required, in fact there is already too much that.

 

[Blake_Dragon]

Ok so how about a real world application, when I buy car insurance I pay up front and in the event of an accident the insurance company pays out (in theory)

So why not do the same, have the option to insure your ship and pay the re buy cost in advance, then if you have an accident no problem because you have insurance, your paid up and the insurance replaces your ship. That or my previously suggested totally reasonable suggestion that it warns you on launch if you dont have the credits to cover the rebuy, after which you really would have no one else to blame.

in many ways, you are insured, it has been explained as trough the pilot federation your a member off or as stated above, part of the new ship purchase, what you have left is the re-buy cost, you could view this as the co-pay. i don't think any insurance would fix the car you just wrapped around the tree (BTW, don't try that, it hurts) if you don't have the money to fork over for the co-pay.
that's how i view the re-buy cost in any case.

 

[Rall]

No other game has such harsh death penalties, especially as for the majority of people all of their assets are tied up in the ship.....

Maybe I’m just used to it because I grew up playing games in the 80’s where even being able to save your progress was a luxury. But the above statement is actually the problem.

Games don’t have repercussions for failure anymore. There’s no squad wipes like X-Com where you can lose your whole team for ever. No having to restarting the mission from the beginning because a Tie fighter got the drop on you.

The most exhilarating game I’ve ever played was the original late 90’s Alien Vs Predator with only one save per level, and death game so easy. You were truly on the edge of your seat; heart pounding it was an epic experience that’s missing from the majority of today games.

I don’t like games without death penalties, it makes the experience mundane, there’s no tension without risk. Without tension there’s no excitement, it’s just going through the motions, collecting more credits, gaining yet another level, just re-spawning 10 seconds after you die.

There’s no fun in that for me.

And it looks like the majority of the community here seems to agree.

 

[Dabba]

Why do you care so much how kids play videogames?

EDIT: Holy crap at some of these replies. It's a game, a videogame. We have a cool PC with glowing lights that totally match our keyboard, and most of us have little joysticks we play with while we sit in our office chairs or couches. Car Insurance? Penalties? Social commentary?

Come on ...

Elite is about risks, how much to risk, when and how.
The only person that can be blamed for miscalculation, bad risk assessment and just plain error is you the player
No hand holding required, in fact there is already too much that.

There are a 1000 games with no risk and no consequences, if thats your thing, go play them. There are very few games like Elite, please don't try to change it into 1001.

 

[Ethurian]

I guess at this point, and with the other threads of a similar subject, it's hard to sound anything other than cold and perhaps nagging. But this is on you. You failed to check whether your new purchase broke the bank, and obviously broke the bank by more than 200k leading me to believe it was a gamble you were most likely aware of. Obviously you could have just sold the module back, or swapped for a cheaper, lower quality one.

I feel sympathy for the fact you suffered a complete loss though, I know it must be devastating. But the system is fair. The system doesn't conceal it from you, as they even changed how the insurance cost was displayed by renaming it and moving it to the front panel as "re-buy cost".

I don't like even going below 2 insurance payments, but I play in Open Play, and make my earning via combat, so I like being prepared. Not to mention bugs or other glitches - who knows what could happen? I could log in and my ship just explodes. Even if the devs might replenish credits lost to a bug, I still personally want to keep playing in the mean time with my ship and goodies!

 

[Lestat]

I had the same problem 3 days before public release. Alone insurance costs and lost cargo are anough of a penalty if you ask me. To add in some random total loss if you are short only 1 credit which makes you go from level 50 to level 1 in no time is superflous and probably the worst game mechanic i have ever seen in any game. Either loan should be unlimited or it should be pre-paid. That way you can't spend the money on something else. Having an "Insurance Office" in the "Contacts" would solve the problem. There could also be a cargo insurance option. And if an insurance case happens you have to pay for a new one. That harsh mechanic is especially questionable in an open PvP game. But the overwhelming majority of "you have to save enough ..." smartasses who have obviously no clue what they are talking about will tell you different. As a matter of fact i don't feel like re-grinding the type-7 i lost. A quit playing E: D for now and just do some forum PvP for the fun of it while enjoying a way better designed and deep game (KSP).

It better then the other MMO Carebear mode that they adopted. At least now there a challenge.

 

[Lu Bu]

Well, the problem with this game right now is that besides trading there are no other sustainable source of income for LARGER ships, that means that if you do somehow scrap together a ship, the loss makes it very unworthwhile. So unless you get a hard on from moving a ship back and forth all day, it gets rather boring and does feel like a job. Then again, it's not like there's much else to do in the game right now besides making money and getting into larger ships once you have the money...I recommend to just save up or just take a break from the game entirely if trading all day for a large ship and it's insurance isn't your thing. Would save you the trouble of getting burnt out, or frustrated from the loss that the OP currently suffers lol.

 

[Rall]

I don't like even going below 2 insurance payments, but I play in Open Play, and make my earning via combat, so I like being prepared. Not to mention bugs or other glitches - who knows what could happen? I could log in and my ship just explodes. Even if the devs might replenish credits lost to a bug, I still personally want to keep playing in the mean time with my ship and goodies!

I do the same thing, if you loose your ship a second time before your recoup your losses your screwed.

I've left the station without enough to cover insurance a couple of times, but I new the score - I took the risk and I was willing to face the consequences.

 

[Lestat]

Well, the problem with this game right now is that besides trading there are no other sustainable source of income for LARGER ships, that means that if you do somehow scrap together a ship, the loss makes it very unworthwhile. So unless you get a ______ from moving a ship back and forth all day, it gets rather boring and does feel like a job. Then again, it's not like there's much else to do in the game right now besides making money and getting into larger ships once you have the money...I recommend to just save up or just take a break from the game entirely if trading all day for a large ship and it's insurance isn't your thing. Would save you the trouble of getting burnt out, or frustrated from the loss that the OP currently suffers lol.

That the thing You have a choice of using other ships. Your not stuck with a large ship.

 

[Rath]

I have a friend who lost his Python in this way, 57 million down the drain because of a wonky mechanic that's not compeltly explained ANYWHERE.. I agree the loan is a little rubbish and is arguably to protect new players, but it really should be explained from the off is that ALL you get is 200k.

I have a feeling this is going to happen to ALOT of players.

In response to Lestat - you CANNOT see what your insurance is going to be before you buy the ship, only after... but you can work it out with the % of insurance you are covered for.... like 96% is covered... so whats 4% of 22 million?

 

[Mikey2305]

@protoplasmic traveller... Rep to you for 'beloved farting asp' i love mine and know wxactly what you mean

OP..lnot a lot of sympathy coming your way tonight it seems. If i foul up bigtime i will keep it to myself. Big cyber hug...

 

[AndyWeller]

I just lost all my progress hours of work because I bought a more expensive upgrade then I meant to, which put me under the re buy limit. Timed with my first and only death in countless hours of game play. Honestly whats the point of having a loan to re buy system if the max loan is less then the cost to re buy the ship alone, not even any of the items....

No other game has such harsh death penalties, especially as for the majority of people all of their assets are tied up in the ship....

So now I have a choice either stop playing or replay 30+ hours in order to get back to where I was...

oh and if all you can post is some reworked statement about not going below rebuy value don't waste your time! This is posted in the hope that if enough people comment on this topic maybe something will get done about it.

why didn't you just sell back the mistaken upgrades?? simples tsk

oh and you are wrong. there are much harsher games out there trust me. EvE being one of them.