New and Used Ships

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

This has probably been suggested before.

But hey ho. I'm doing it now. Lol

Basic concept is differentiating between new and used ships.

New ships basically don't change, except, if FD were willing, to come in a choice of basic paint schemes, for free, buyt you only get 1 color, and you are stuck with it (unless you buy more).

Used ships are just that, used.
Most their base stats are reduced by an RNG amount, including their maximum paint percentage, which can never exceed this, unless you apply new a paintjob.
The amount their price is reduced by is calculated by the new lower performance values. The more of a banger you pick, the cheaper it is.
These ships also come in random paints, so you might get lucky and find a really cool paint job. But that paint can not be applied to another ship of the same type.
The base stats that can change are things like speed, agility, hull strength, base heat efficiency, etc.

When selecting a ship from the shipyard, the default option is always "buy new ship", but you can also get a new option, which is "View Available Used <ship type>".
Then you can scroll through a list of ships, and view their stats and price.

And that's it!

I basically have no idea what this would be good for... Lol
Money is too easy to come by, so choosing a used ship isn't likely to be needed.
Just a random thought.

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead

 

[Fray]

I basically have no idea what this would be good for... Lol
Money is too easy to come by, so choosing a used ship isn't likely to be needed.
Just a random thought.

That's not exactly a convincing pitch. ; -)

One possible perk you didn't add could be that the selection of previously owned ships is broader than the new stock. Not a huge difference, but it'd add to the relative value of being able to buy used ships.

I wouldn't be averse to an actual player auctions, a little like Forza. I doubt FDev would want to do it, but the individual ships could come with their previous owners ID tag and ship livery, if either are fitted. It'd encourage community involvement ('spaceship dealer' could become a new role type... ), and have side-effects like having particularly pricey ships on the market if they have rare skins like chrome or gold.

The catch would obviously be that once you change the paint, then that's lost, and you'll need to buy the given pack if you don't already own it.

...technically it could ostensibly break certain player's game progression, though, meaning people could game the market to pass on very expensive ships to complete rookies. However, introduce a pilot's licensing system with appropriate ship classes (a little like many racer's progression systems) and that'd at least ensure people are allowed to fly those classes.

But yeah, be it through simple second hand markets or player auctions with added licensing systems, there's no real reason why used ships shouldn't be included in the game. If the first, easier NPC version, then ships could even come with a short slice of flavour text, i.e. battered traders who'd nearly fallen apart doing the Hutton run, Fed ships rumoured to have been used in false-flag Empire operations, and so on.

 

[coca_fr]

It would only be nice as a cosmetic for immersion.

I wouldn't my ship to really underperform because it gets old... It's already aging and you have to make it new again in repair section.

But in fact vehicule gets old but never underperform... They simply malfunction. But if you go to the garage as often as we do in ED, your ship should never malfunction...

So everything goes against this idea except for paint job.