Insurance

[scorpyon]

I've been thinking a lot about the Insurance mechanic recently, after reading some (Well, LOADS, actually) posts of the usual horror stories of people not having enough money - for good, bad or silly reasons - to buy their ship back.

Fortunately I have never had to suffer that heartache (yet), but the fact that the risk is and will always be there for everybody got me to thinking about ways to improve the system without making it easy or ruining the current system.

So what I am proposing is to give the players a new contact in the stations / ports - something along the lines of an Insurance Broker. If you visit this guy, you would be given the opportunity to pay your insurance premium in advance of losing your ship.
One of the cool benefits of this is then being able to splurge as much money on upgrades / cargo as you want without having to continually exit the shop to go check your insurance amount versus your balance (which btw is a real irritation anyway because you have to keep leaving the item comparison screens to check costs, etc)

Using the broker would not "dumb down" the system since you still have to use the initiative to find him and pay the costs, but the point of having insurance is peace of mind in the event of an accident. What we actually have at the moment is not really insurance. If something happens, the insurer won't sort you out. You have to pay him "after the fact", assuming you can afford it.

Positive / constructive thoughts welcome....

 

[AH_ImADot]

If you are in the outfitting screen playing around with loadouts, the insurance amount you pre-paid through the broker guy is no longer valid. How exactly would using the broker help? What would help, seemingly, is to have the current insurance amount shown on the outfitting screen and have it update every time you choose a new module so you can instantly see what the new insurance will be. Once you leave the outfitting screen, then I suppose you could pre-pay the insurance if you really feel the need to.

 

[scorpyon]

The simple solution there would be that whenever you outfit something, you are either :
- given the opportunity to upgrade / cancel your existing insurance.
or
- prices are updated to automatically reflect insurance costs.

Simples! Spffft!

 

[Brujah]

I like the idea actually. It makes more logical sense as well as potentially resolving some of the issues people have had with it.
You would still need something to tell players they're flying uninsured (and indeed doing so would also resolve many of the issues people have, but with just one thing to program instead of two).

Nevertheless, paying your insurance should be proactive, not retroactive, so I agree the OP's change should be implemented. Rep.

 

[AH_ImADot]

I would assume then, that you would get a refund for the difference when you downgrade/sell equipment and your insurance amount goes down. I myself would just rather wait to pay when I need to use it, not let the bank keep my money "just in case". That's just me though.

 

[Brujah]

I would assume then, that you would get a refund for the difference when you downgrade/sell equipment and your insurance amount goes down. I myself would just rather wait to pay when I need to use it, not let the bank keep my money "just in case". That's just me though.

I can only assume you've never dealt with an insurance company.

 

[AH_ImADot]

I can only assume you've never dealt with an insurance company.

Yes I have, but it's the 34th Century...things have changed and you now don't need to pre-pay insurance.

 

[Rose]

As I've said before:

As it stands, I think the insurance/rebuy mechanism is unrealistic. What insurer would allow you to buy insurance after the incident it is intended to cover?

I think it would be more sensible to make insurance available (as, say, a 10% mark-up on price) at the time of buying ships and equipment (and it could be extended to goods on the commodities market, too). It could be a simple check-box that defaults to checked and which issues a warning if you uncheck it. (If and when you come to sell the insured item, you'd only receive the without-insurance-premium price for it--which is one of the ways the insurer makes their living.)

This model would be much more realistic and would make all new players aware of the insurance issue from the moment they're rich enough to buy their first item. This ensures that the game puts the (informed) decision in the players' hands. It also means that the insurance money is paid up-front.

 

[AH_ImADot]

It's not that you are buying insurance. The insurance is automatic; it just doesn't cover 100% of your ship cost, and you're stuck with having to pay the difference.

 

[ste]

As I've said before:

As it stands, I think the insurance/rebuy mechanism is unrealistic. What insurer would allow you to buy insurance after the incident it is intended to cover?

I think it would be more sensible to make insurance available (as, say, a 10% mark-up on price) at the time of buying ships and equipment (and it could be extended to goods on the commodities market, too). It could be a simple check-box that defaults to checked and which issues a warning if you uncheck it. (If and when you come to sell the insured item, you'd only receive the without-insurance-premium price for it--which is one of the ways the insurer makes their living.)

This model would be much more realistic and would make all new players aware of the insurance issue from the moment they're rich enough to buy their first item. This ensures that the game puts the (informed) decision in the players' hands. It also means that the insurance money is paid up-front.

The insurance is included in the price. If you blow up you pay the excess. If you cant afford it you dont get your ship back. Then you make a thread on the forums saying how the game is broke or it wasnt hand holding idiot proof obvious enough that you didnt notice it, which is basically an excuse desperately pulled out the bag for when you ignored it but it came back to bite you.

That seems to be the usual routine anyway.