Insurance [Solution]

[ash73]

Some guy recommended doing missions to get your ship back if you cant pay for it.

Quite like that suggestion, you are basically drafted into the Navy until the debt is repaid.

Agree with the OP, the 5% "insurance" payment is nonsensical.

 

[Craib]

Just a reminder (that can be turned off) that you are about to take off and don't have enough to cover the rebuy costs will do the trick.

No more complaints and an end to all the threads complaining about it.

 

[Flying Penguin]

If its an awareness issue then Frontier can make a change for quality of life. It should show on the shipyard what the rebuy cost is directly under the purchase price (and also for any stored ships, too). That would clear this up for people. And if people didn't understand what the rebuy cost meant it would at least get them asking the right questions.

Does it make sense that you have to buy a ship first to find out what the rebuy cost is?

It's under 10% of the total cost, even if you are leaving a buffer for trade float (varying slightly by player type). If this is explained up front, I've no problem with it not being called out at every possible opportunity, and if you can't divide by 10 then you're in the wrong game.

I'm all for appropriate training, but there's a limit to the hand holding that should be given.

 

[Blake_Dragon]

Ah, am i late for the daily Insurance thread?

here is my post on this issue from oh 3 days ago (full thread here) i was trying to think of something that does not change the existing system (which is quite fine in my opinion) but rather compliment it and help out just a little

Hello my fellow commanders.

As it seems that, despite a lot of examples what/how not to handle your Ship's Re purchase cost here on this forum, it seems like there is almost daily someone that finds that stumbling block for one reason or another. Simple point is that Mr Murphy is running loose and *WILL* clobber you over the head with his law the minute you even remotely give him a chance. there has been discussions how and what all "needs" to be changed. some valid points have been raised and some of those discussions dissolved into another version of the trench warfare simulator with both sides stagnated, dug in and sniping at each other, not helping the actual issue at hand until a moderator comes by and smacks the thread closed.

So what can we do? Some have advocated to not let you take off even if under insured and others counter we have enough hand holding. both have its merits and *personally* i enjoy how it is as it does make me think about what i am doing and gives me some (additional) practice in fiscal responsibility.

Thinking on this a bit I gotten to think why not increase the visibility of the insurance situation and thought of a 2 part approach that would not be to obvious hand-holding but also may help some out.

Here is part one of it with two examples:

Spoiler

OK and Insured

Spoiler

not OK and Uninsured

Part two of this would include the utilization of the Info display on your main HUD, Similar to a seat belt warning in your car (for those who do drive) the screen could sporadically (say in 5 minute intervals) nave a warning flash on it (maybe even colored if that is a possibility to code that way) that goes something like "Warning, Insufficient Rebuy Funds"

Personally, I feel an approach like this would not smack anyone over the head with to much hand holding flashing arrows or pop ups before you leave the station, still leaves the responsibility for your actions in your hand (as in above mentioned example with the seat belt warning, you still can drive w/o if you so choose) and since its "technically" handled trough the ships computer it should not brake the immersion for those who value that aspect of the game highly (I believe anyway).

Now then, your input please Commanders, if y'all all feel i'm completely off my rocker, i'll head back to my porch and enjoy my popcorn


on a... unrelated note... would Mr Murphy please report to the Port-side Airlock #7? your Law has been found and is stored there, taped to the handle labeled "Release"

there was also this thread from yesterday on this very topic and this one (albeit i bit less constructive)

oh and the day before, there was this one too.

i am sooo glad that we have YET ANOTHER one to add to this list, further diluting the discussion instead of adding to an EXISTING thread on the topic, therefore keeping it focused.


P.S. in the thread i had from 3 days ago from which i quoted above, toward the end (my currently last entry) i proposed another small change that could be made if we DO absolutely need to have more Hand-holding and bubble wrap which again would be a small change to the existing mechanic rather then tossing everything out.

 

[TannakaObi]

Now, if you can't pay the excess you don't get a replacement ship.
After, if you can't pay the excess on your replacement ship (which has to be paid upfront, i.e. when you lost your old ship) what happens? You don't get your replacement ship because you can't afford it?

If it were an upfront payment then you would get your ship back, if you then could not afford the payment then you could downgrade for a time until you can. Rather than lose out.

 

[jgm]

How do you pay the upfront cost on your replacement ship? I mean you buy a ship and prepay the excess. You crash it and get given a new ship. Now if you crash again you'd need another new ship so you have to prepay the excess again - it'd be exactly how it is now but with the extra payment at the start...

But it would get rid of all of the "I lost my Asp" threads. Instead we would have "I lost my Asp, twice" threads.

 

[TannakaObi]

The current mechanism works mostly well, there's a real penalty to losing your ship if you're low on funds, it passes some actual responsibility onto the pilot! Not enough games hold you accountable for your decisions.

I do think it should be more of an obvious decision to fly without insurance though - so there should be a (clearable) warning when you try and leave a dock with insufficient funds to pay your insurance.

-- Pete.

There is a fine line between being accountable for your decisions and chasinging players away though. An upfront payment is clarity all the repercussions are still there. Obviously it would need to be done in a way as to not punish people while not playing.

 

[Lustan]

I'm all for appropriate training, but there's a limit to the hand holding that should be given.

Understandable. Remember this is just a game and it should be entertaining without being too convoluted either. If it's simply adding an additional line of text to help remind people of what would be considered a "noobish" mistake I think it could only help new players.

But it would get rid of all of the "I lost my Asp" threads. Instead we would have "I lost my Asp, twice" threads.

Yeah this "prepay" idea fails the second your first ship blows up. People just need it on the shipyard screen directly under the purchase price. The suggestions by Black_Dragon to changing the color of the rebuy on the right screen isn't a bad idea either.

 

[Flying Penguin]

Understandable. Remember this is just a game and it should be entertaining without being too convoluted either. If it's simply adding an additional line of text to help remind people of what would be considered a "noobish" mistake I think it could only help new players.

Then it should be in an explicit (and toggleable) "noob mode" help text, akin to tool tips. Add that to the green/red rebuy cost indicator on the right hand panel and there is no excuse.

There's no shame in using tool tip type help, but after a while "make sure you have your re buy", "make sure you think about the cost of lost cargo", "remember not to boost inside stations", "have you got enough fuel for your journey CMDR?" type tips would get annoying. There are so many ways to come a cropper in this game that those "additional lines of text" could start to mount up.