Stealing a ship (station shipyard only)

[Darth-Simba]

The grind to duke isn't that bad, just wish there was a better way than doing missions only. Like handing in bounty vouchers/combat bonds, powerplay merits/tokens etc and just actually trading in a major power increases rank (not as fast as missions though)

 

[Iskariot]

The grind for those specific faction ships is horrible. It forces me to hang around the same old, lousy system sticking missions and blowing up a generator every 5 minutes. I'd rather be exploring, mining, helping others or expanding the minor faction of TFRM.

So this is how this is gonna work:

Dock at a space station
Go to the bulletin board
A VERY RARE mission pops up that anyone can do
Accept it, and you have a limited amount of time to do the following:

Steal the ship from the station - the station will be alerted after 20 seconds and will start shooting

Deliver the ship (about 100LY away) to another station whilst being pursued by 3 federal officers in high rated ships

Dock with the other station and press COMPLETE MISSION

Bravo you get to keep the ship, good job commander.

You do not get paid anything apart from the ship, and these missions only spawn for rank-requred ships.

You need to be of ALLIED+ with the mission provider to be able to accept these missions.
If the ship you are stealing is destroyed on the way to the outpost, you have to pay half the price for it.

The ship gets a C-rated FSD, B-rated shields, a large fuel tank and 2 pulse lasers. Also a fuel scoop. Upon getting the ship as a completion reward, these modules are taken away and you have the plain ship.

Again, these missions should be very rare and ONLY for rank-related ships like the Clipper, FAS or cutter ect.

Feedback would be nice! Fly safe.

Sounds far too easy and seems just a gimmicky idea to get a free ship without having to do hardly anything for it.
Perhaps you should add that the player will be hunted for an entire year by Elite AI bounty hunter wings.

But seriously... I believe the real problem is not the ranking up in itself, but the way ranking up in the military is done at the moment.
It should become much more interesting and fun to do with true military missions, black ops missions etc.
Some missions could require the use of specific ships for example (provided by the mission giver) to get the player out of their comfort zone.
Perhaps we would have to accompany a military convoy, or we would have to transport a military envoy, or take pictures of a military warship etc. etc.

When the missions are fun and varied and feel like real military mission the grind will be no problem at all.

 

[Alex Brentnall]

Not the first time this has been suggested, I'll say what I've said before on my thoughts: If this is done I think this should be added as part of the rank unlocks for Empire/Fed but for 2-3 ranks higher in the opposite faction.

So getting to Midshipman/Petty Officer rank in Fed gives you a chance to steal a stock imperial eagle, getting to Post-commander/post-captain allows you a chance to steal a clipper, getting to Admiral gives you a chance to steal a Cutter.
Make it a one shot attempt as part of the ranking up mission and make it relatively difficult. That way it's offering you a chance to get all ships by ranking in only 1 faction effectively halving the grind. There's no mode-switching as these missions are rank-up specific and the once-only attempt means it adds a bit of risk and reward with failure meaning you have to rank up to get said ship.

If it's implemented right then great addition, if it's implemented wrong it's a gamebreaker where people in sidewinders do nothing apart from try to steal ships all day every-day.