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.
