Remote Ordering

[Exeider]

With the release of the new type 10 and people running around trying to equip it, it gave me an interesting idea.

Remote Ordering, the ability to put it an order for a ship or module at a station and have them ship you the item, for a fee of course, using the ship/module transfer system.

Now of course certain limitations should be in place so this encourages gameplay and doesnt become an OP ability.

First and foremost, you have to have been to the station in question before, or at least purchased the shop data, that will give you access to be able to even look up what they have in stock.

Secondly, you have some have a certain level of rep with at least one of the minor factions in the station to be able to order, IE, Cordial. (Not neccesarily the controlling faction)

Cordial = Access to the Remote Ordering system
Friendly = -5% on shipping fees from that station
Allied = -10% shipping fees from that station.

I dont want to muck about with superpower rep systems because it can make this whole thing confusing and potentially breaks the balance (IE, you're allied to feds but you've never been to the station before but you can still order?) nah, forget that. So Minor Factions only.

But this would give players the ability who have a series of favorite shops to be able to order from them and have them ship their wares to them, while at the same time encouraging commanders to go out and get rep with certain places to establish or further establish their networks.

Thoughts?

 

[Ranek Eisenkralle]

While this would certainly save some time flying back and forth I am not overly fond of this idea - and for a simple reason: As things are now you get at least the impression that not every station produces every item of ship equipment - which with limited personnel and resources is reasonable. Yes, for players it may be inconvenient, but the roleplayer in me is perfectly fine with having to fly back and forth between stations to get the equipment I want. All I would ask is to be able to look up in the game which station offers which equipment - or offered which equipment at the time you were there at least.

 

[Calteru]

On the other hand remote ordering is something I can do right now with Amazon or eBay or Steam or any other online merchant. I didn't fly to Cambridge to buy this game. Why should I have to fly to Sol from Colonia to order a new jump drive? Seems like mail-order would be easier to implement than a DB showing real-time availability from every station in the galaxy anyway.

 

[Exeider]

While this would certainly save some time flying back and forth I am not overly fond of this idea - and for a simple reason: As things are now you get at least the impression that not every station produces every item of ship equipment - which with limited personnel and resources is reasonable. Yes, for players it may be inconvenient, but the roleplayer in me is perfectly fine with having to fly back and forth between stations to get the equipment I want. All I would ask is to be able to look up in the game which station offers which equipment - or offered which equipment at the time you were there at least.

Well that limitation would be preserved, in fact that limitation would help encourage to establish more relationships with other stations. Because not every station has everything, it would get to you think "hey let me get some rep with Station X for jumpdrives, because Station Y doesnt have it."

You would have to establish a fair number of relationships before you could be in a position to be able to "one stop shop" from a collection of different stations who keep the module or modules you need in stock.

 

[Rogue_titan]

What about introducing a few jump portals around the outskirts of the bubble? Nothing crazy just a portal that could give you a medium boost. Kinda a mini neutron highway type thing. From certain outer stations to the bubble. Limit it to 4/5 portals placed around the outer bubble. Could be a credit based toll or require materials to dictate your jump boost. Although it would probably I interfere with long range hauling missions lol. Just thinking out loud.

 

[[Diplomacy] Carnegie]

Well that limitation would be preserved, in fact that limitation would help encourage to establish more relationships with other stations. Because not every station has everything, it would get to you think "hey let me get some rep with Station X for jumpdrives, because Station Y doesnt have it."

You would have to establish a fair number of relationships before you could be in a position to be able to "one stop shop" from a collection of different stations who keep the module or modules you need in stock.

Or you just get allied with the PF in Shin and you can get all items delivered everywhere
Given the ease with which you can get Exploration Elite these days then I don't see why anyone would mess around getting allied with factions anywhere else.

If FDev want any item to be available anywhere then they should just make every station outfitting have everything - anything else is just complicated and time-consuming for no benefit to anyone.

 

[Exeider]

Or you just get allied with the PF in Shin and you can get all items delivered everywhere
Given the ease with which you can get Exploration Elite these days then I don't see why anyone would mess around getting allied with factions anywhere else.

If FDev want any item to be available anywhere then they should just make every station outfitting have everything - anything else is just complicated and time-consuming for no benefit to anyone.

I find your response extremely shortsighted. The Pilot's federation home system and how it's set up is honestly very game breaking, but that is the reward for grinding up an Elite rank, and the access that Kickstarter investors paid for, but by no means should that status be used as the measuring stick because it far is outside the normal balance for the game. Not everyone has Elite rank either btw.

The benefit, is that people establish rep for various reasons already, for discounts, ship access, engineer access, etc, but again those are for specific locations. The benefit to this idea and how it benefits people is that, a player who has picked a home system, generally has rep with surrounding systems, a bit of a "mini bubble", where they frequent for combat, trading and exploration data sales.

Players should be able to get access to the ability to remote order as reward for establishing these relationships with these different groups. And it adds a convienance but with a cost, the need to pay for the haulage and wait the time for the delivery to be made, but the convienance is that the CMDR is not having to stop playing to buy a ship at Station A, fly over to Station B get one or two modules, then fly to Station C to get two or three more, and so on till you have a all the pieces you're looking for.

This adds a convienance where the Cmdr can put in his order for the ship and modules from the various shops on the stations he has frequented and then go about his business while he waits for the various deliverys to arrive.

The CMDR still has a choice, he can still go buy the ship himself, and run around and get the modules OR, he can pay a little more and wait for delivery while he goes and does something else.

Plus since there are certain "specialized" or custom modules now, it would be handy to be able to order them from their provider without having to fly very far out of your way for them. IE. The anti-corrosion cargoholds from professor palin.

All this does is give CMDRs more options, and given the fact that ship and module transfer is already in the game, this could add to that functionality and give additional game play reasons to do things to establish relations in places a CMDR might not do before.