It should cost credits to store stuff

[Dillon Fallon]

Maybe this would have worked if it was implemented from the start. Right now with some people having 20+ ships and a full store of modules, it's just going to be annoying.

Opening up the docking contact to pay the fees every time I log in isn't exactly adding anything interesting to the gameplay.

If it's realism people want, lets have docking fees (payable as you open station services), tariffs on goods brought in from a different superpower and black markets which are only unlocked when you're cordial with the local criminal faction.

 

[peteryboy]

I have an Imperial Cutter (190m x 110m x 30m) sitting in storage somewhere in the galaxy not to mention my 5 or so other ships, and 40 odd modules. Why doesn't that cost me anything?

why can't I withdraw my credits and put into my own bank account IRL, I mean surely they can create an exchange rate

 

[[VR] M4st0d0n]

Each of my ships have killed hundreds of bugs and saved thousands of civilians.

They shouldnt be stored. Station peoples should get rid of those naked silversurfers statues in the garden and put my ships there instead, so they can bring offerings and basks under the lights of my thrusters and sing my name.

 

[Soron Silin]

If it's not worth doing, it's worth over-complicating.

Space stations are expensive and every cubic metre must make money.

When you store an item you can elect to pay a charge for one month of immediate access.

If you haven't paid, or the time has expired, the item is moved to a nearby hollow asteroid. Someone will fetch it for you, but it will take five minutes.

 

[dunno]

No, its a game right or rather a hybrid Sim/RPG game, its fantasy land, why introduce another something to pay off, The ship's Integrity which doesn't always get payed off when "Repair All" is selected is enough of a pain.

I would much rather see F-Dev implement a space payment system whereby one doesn't have to dock to cash in bounties at normal and Interstellar stations, I think it sucks that Interstellar systems don't have a proximity payment system for the exorbitant commission that they charge, 25%, and one has to dock to execute this, waste of time.

 

[Misty_Dark]

I have an Imperial Cutter (190m x 110m x 30m) sitting in storage somewhere in the galaxy not to mention my 5 or so other ships, and 40 odd modules. Why doesn't that cost me anything?

So how would this work then?


You login and being presented with a, you storage cost is X amount, pay now or we hold your ship/modules ransom?
Should it count real time, or just ingame time?
Should it be "costly" or just a trivial, cost?

Because if we do it real time and costly, then ANY returning CMDR from a break, will now face a pretty stiff bill for storage... so that is BAD for the game...as any returning player is sort of punished for taking a break, for any reason...

So even if we change to costly and only ingame time, you add a big pressure to actually keep hunting credits to have "enough"... So just another "job", in a game....


So then we make the cost trivial, just like re-arming, re-fuelling, does not really matter if we only pay for ingame time or real time, the cost is trivial, so no real effort is needed to make enough to cover this cost. So if we end up here, what is the use of this mechanism?

Another take would be to pay a fixed sum everytime you store a ship/module, so now we can redo all the above examples,and more or less come to the same conclusion, it would not really add value to the game. As it comes down to if it is costly, people would be more cautious about swapping ships, and if it is trivial, then who cares?


Running costs like this in an online game is almost always bad.


Consider then how much development time must be spent on this, what todo if you cannot pay? how do you choose which ship/modules to cover, etc, etc we are looking at days if not weeks of time to development and test this...

 

[EldredBrix]

It's not really sitting in storage though.

The 3D blueprint exists in the station's database that can re-constitute your ship & modules when you request it. When you "store" your ship or module, it's dismantled at the atomic level and the materials used by the station. Otherwise, it doesn't exist.

But yes, it should cost to store & dock.

With this idea in place, it would be no more than a data transfer to have your ship transfered to a different station.

 

[lenna]

I have an Imperial Cutter (190m x 110m x 30m) sitting in storage somewhere in the galaxy not to mention my 5 or so other ships, and 40 odd modules. Why doesn't that cost me anything?

I am against the principle of charging for storage/docking/undocking in ED, it is tantamount to a punitive mechanic for the mechanics sake.

There is rightly a credit and time cost for transferring ships/modules directly from another station/port/base, but not for local storage/retrieval. Personally, I feel it should remain that way.

 

[Soron Silin]

With this idea in place, it would be no more than a data transfer to have your ship transfered to a different station.

The idea can't be right, because the codex says that meta-alloys are common metals that have a structure that cannot be replicated. So at least some of an engineered ship cannot be synthesized.

 

[RolloTreadway]

No. If you punish people for taking a break then returning to the game, the upshot is that they won't return to the game.

And what gameplay are you getting in return? What fun is being created? Nobody picks up a space game because of its slightly more realistic tax model.

 

[Gibbon]

Simply put the answer is no to storage fees. ED is one of the most grindy games i've ever played. Certainly don't want to grind to store my ships as well. I'd stop playing straight away. Utter nonsense. As others have mentioned this is a game, not bloody reality.

 

[Wolf Starslayer]

Player returns after 6mnth to find the game has bankrupted him for not playing ; uninstall.

 

[yianniv]

I have an Imperial Cutter (190m x 110m x 30m) sitting in storage somewhere in the galaxy not to mention my 5 or so other ships, and 40 odd modules. Why doesn't that cost me anything?

Clever. You take a break from the game, come back and you are broke.
Edit: Ninjaed!

 

[Juniper]

With this idea in place, it would be no more than a data transfer to have your ship transfered to a different station.

That was FD's original plan, but people voted to have a delay. I did too, because it felt more "realistic"... then they dropped that wee bombshell in there after the fact.

Elite is full of little oddities like that. As soon as they said "telepresence" - all pretence at 'realism' or 'consistency' was lost in my view. You could essentially fly your ship in your underpants from a bedroom on Earth, and wouldn't have to travel out to space at all... hang on...

 

[lenna]

As soon as they said "telepresence" - all pretence at 'realism' or 'consistency' was lost in my view.

Telepresence is limited in ED - Only Multicrew and SLFs make use of it in essence.

IMO Not exactly a breach of realism nor necessarily inconsistent with the rest of ED.

 

[Soron Silin]

I'm not up on the lore, but ED appears to sit in with the SF genre that has no FTL transit faster than ships. Messages are carried by ships, not "radio". There may be ships that are unavailable to buy that have extremely high jump ranges and no cargo space, just to carry GalNet and other mail around.

Telepresence in-system wouldn't be an issue. Multi-crew is, but is hand-waved because it wouldn't be a fun game otherwise.

As for the posited mail ships, they're higgs class couriers. You don't see them because their presence would be a distraction from the narrative, but they are there.