Searching the forum it appears that many people have fallen foul of being unable to pay the insurance to regain their ship after destruction. I joined their ranks a couple of days ago and rage-uninstalled ED at the time (though tbh I will probably re-install it at some point, me being a die-hard fan of the original BBC micro version of the game). I'd spent nearly 2 months trading to get to the point where I had an upgraded ASP before looking to take on some of the missions on the bulletin board. I figured having a top-notch loadout with military grade hull etc would give me a reasonable chance of surviving in a fight. I chose a mission that required me to take out three ships in a low intensity conflict zone. I picked off a vulture relatively easily but then had to take on a python for lack of smaller targets. My shields went fairly quickly (1.7m CR shield generator plus 2x 260k CR boosters) and my military grade hull went down to 50% soon after. I decided to get clear of the area to fight another day so hit the boost. Seems I was too late. Within the space of approximately 4 seconds my canopy shattered, my hull collapsed and my ship was destroyed. Ouch. And so to the insurance screen.
It was at this point that the true enormity of what had just happened started to dawn on me. I had 240k or so in the bank. I needed around 1.6m to recover my ship. I could borrow up to 1m so was around 350k short. In a round about way the screen was telling me I had to pretty much go back to where I'd been 8 weeks before. Having read the summary judgements made of so many others that have suffered the same fate I'm not so naive as to expect sympathy. Apparently, many are of the opinion that leaving dock without enough money to rebuy your ship is 'stupid'. That's a bit harsh, even if one is fully appraised of the insurance screen maths. Of course with hindsight there is no way I would have done so myself but the fact is I didn't appreciate the risk I was taking. I bought the game, starting playing it and referred to the user manual as and when I needed to in order to find controls etc. I did not study the manual as if for an exam and so was not forewarned. And so to the point of this post which is to suggest possible improvements in this area:
1. I gather the insurance is set at 5% of the ship cost. In my case the insurance was around 1.6m so must have included cover for the upgraded FSD (5m CR), thrusters (5m CR), power plant (5m CR) etc. Yet I did not have the option to take stock versions of these components which would have significantly reduced the insurance cost. Even deselecting all the available loadouts did not reduce the insurance cost sufficiently. Surely I should have the option to take stock versions of these very expensive items if it means I can avoid a total reset.
2. I had a Cobra MKIII in storage and worth around 400k. I think there should be the option to trade in any stored ships in order to make up the required insurance premium and/or reduce an expensive loan.
3. With ships worth such huge amounts of credits, 1m seems a bit light as the upper limit for a loan.
4. In recognition of the fact that people tend not to study the user manual before taking to the skies I think giving them some kind of active warning that they have insufficient cash to recover their ship would be greatly appreciated or, at the very least, dramatically reduce the amount of criticism of the game on this forum.
It was at this point that the true enormity of what had just happened started to dawn on me. I had 240k or so in the bank. I needed around 1.6m to recover my ship. I could borrow up to 1m so was around 350k short. In a round about way the screen was telling me I had to pretty much go back to where I'd been 8 weeks before. Having read the summary judgements made of so many others that have suffered the same fate I'm not so naive as to expect sympathy. Apparently, many are of the opinion that leaving dock without enough money to rebuy your ship is 'stupid'. That's a bit harsh, even if one is fully appraised of the insurance screen maths. Of course with hindsight there is no way I would have done so myself but the fact is I didn't appreciate the risk I was taking. I bought the game, starting playing it and referred to the user manual as and when I needed to in order to find controls etc. I did not study the manual as if for an exam and so was not forewarned. And so to the point of this post which is to suggest possible improvements in this area:
1. I gather the insurance is set at 5% of the ship cost. In my case the insurance was around 1.6m so must have included cover for the upgraded FSD (5m CR), thrusters (5m CR), power plant (5m CR) etc. Yet I did not have the option to take stock versions of these components which would have significantly reduced the insurance cost. Even deselecting all the available loadouts did not reduce the insurance cost sufficiently. Surely I should have the option to take stock versions of these very expensive items if it means I can avoid a total reset.
2. I had a Cobra MKIII in storage and worth around 400k. I think there should be the option to trade in any stored ships in order to make up the required insurance premium and/or reduce an expensive loan.
3. With ships worth such huge amounts of credits, 1m seems a bit light as the upper limit for a loan.
4. In recognition of the fact that people tend not to study the user manual before taking to the skies I think giving them some kind of active warning that they have insufficient cash to recover their ship would be greatly appreciated or, at the very least, dramatically reduce the amount of criticism of the game on this forum.
