The used ship dealer, and in particular, the black market ship dealer could be an alternative dealer where players can acquire ships at significantly reduced prices, but come with their own list of advantages and drawbacks.
At a used ship dealer, players can buy from a list of ships that can come in a wide range of conditions. Often with wearing paint, minimum size E grade parts or parts in poor states of repair, but at significantly reduced prices.
Any part fitted to the ship, as well as the ship itself, come with the "worn" effect applied, similar to engineered parts, but as a purely negative modifier. This can mean parts that run hot, jitter, periodically malfunction, and degrade over time. The "Worn" modifier to the ship as a whole can mean systems randomly reboot when operated, HUD flickers and glitches occasionally and may even drift slightly off course due to untrimmed thrusters. As a visual effect, the bright flare of boosting engines could trigger sporadically, and engine exhaust could flicker out occasionally.
Why would you buy a hunk of junk like this? Well, they'd be cheaper than a new one. They also give the Millenium Falcon/Serenity feel of a well used and lived in ship.
They could even come with store-exclusive and NPC exclusive paintjobs and ship-kit parts, but paints would likely start out a little worn, and if the ship ever got repainted, the colour would be lost, replaced with the default. Kit parts would never be a full kit, and may even be assymetrical, with only repair option being to pull the parts off, or buy the kit from the store. But that means players can fly these colours and kits, if only in a rag-tag fashion.
They may also come with A-grade parts fitted, (or maybe even parts jury-rigged into restricted slots, at 1 size lower than slot maximum) at a bargain price, but as stated above these come with the "used" debuff applied.
Removing the "used" debuff can be as simple as replacing the component with a new one, or going to any engineer and selecting a new "refurbish" option, that restores the part to new. This would only cost credits, no materials.
The same can be done to the ship itself, with the balance of buying a used ship, and going through the process of replacing and refurbishing the whole ship being the same, if not slightly more expensive than buying new. But, you don't need to refurbish if you can live with a used ship's quirkiness.
Black market dealers take this a step further, adding to the risk-reward dynamic by offering ships fitted with "hot" modules, but at a chance to be engineered already, powerplay specific or guardian tech, and at a further reduced price.
Parts would still have that "used" debuff, but one of these shady ships could save hours of grinding. The trade-off is of course getting the "hot" parts refurbished and cleared of the "hot" status.
Black market dealers could also offer the occasional exclusive paintjob, like the recent iridescent colours, and occasionally ships with raider ship-kit parts.
At a used ship dealer, players can buy from a list of ships that can come in a wide range of conditions. Often with wearing paint, minimum size E grade parts or parts in poor states of repair, but at significantly reduced prices.
Any part fitted to the ship, as well as the ship itself, come with the "worn" effect applied, similar to engineered parts, but as a purely negative modifier. This can mean parts that run hot, jitter, periodically malfunction, and degrade over time. The "Worn" modifier to the ship as a whole can mean systems randomly reboot when operated, HUD flickers and glitches occasionally and may even drift slightly off course due to untrimmed thrusters. As a visual effect, the bright flare of boosting engines could trigger sporadically, and engine exhaust could flicker out occasionally.
Why would you buy a hunk of junk like this? Well, they'd be cheaper than a new one. They also give the Millenium Falcon/Serenity feel of a well used and lived in ship.
They could even come with store-exclusive and NPC exclusive paintjobs and ship-kit parts, but paints would likely start out a little worn, and if the ship ever got repainted, the colour would be lost, replaced with the default. Kit parts would never be a full kit, and may even be assymetrical, with only repair option being to pull the parts off, or buy the kit from the store. But that means players can fly these colours and kits, if only in a rag-tag fashion.
They may also come with A-grade parts fitted, (or maybe even parts jury-rigged into restricted slots, at 1 size lower than slot maximum) at a bargain price, but as stated above these come with the "used" debuff applied.
Removing the "used" debuff can be as simple as replacing the component with a new one, or going to any engineer and selecting a new "refurbish" option, that restores the part to new. This would only cost credits, no materials.
The same can be done to the ship itself, with the balance of buying a used ship, and going through the process of replacing and refurbishing the whole ship being the same, if not slightly more expensive than buying new. But, you don't need to refurbish if you can live with a used ship's quirkiness.
Black market dealers take this a step further, adding to the risk-reward dynamic by offering ships fitted with "hot" modules, but at a chance to be engineered already, powerplay specific or guardian tech, and at a further reduced price.
Parts would still have that "used" debuff, but one of these shady ships could save hours of grinding. The trade-off is of course getting the "hot" parts refurbished and cleared of the "hot" status.
Black market dealers could also offer the occasional exclusive paintjob, like the recent iridescent colours, and occasionally ships with raider ship-kit parts.
