The Solution to the ship transfer arguments

[DragoonKnight]

With all the whining about instant ship transfer, I have a solution. I think that this solution will be fair to the instant ship transfer people, the delayed ship transfer people, and FD (saves them from reading 100,000 thousand comments on ship transfer).

FD should implement two ways to transfer a ship
1. Instant ship transfer - Exactly as planned. With the same cost as planned.
2. Delayed ship transfer - Make the delay 1 second per LY traveled. Give a small discount, maybe 10-20%, on the Delayed ship transfer.

Let the players decide what to use.
While the players are using these features, FD can quietly collect data on who uses what, how often, which ships are being transferred, what distances they are being trasferred, etc.

After about 2 months of data collection I think FD will have enough data to say which choice most players like and which choice they do not. No ridiculous forum posts, no sarcastic comments, no forum posts with a hidden agenda. Just real data to see what features players actually like.

And if most of the player base doesnt like instant ship transfer, then all they have to do is not use it.
And if most of the player base doesnt like delayed ship transfer, then all they have to do is not use it.
Very simple.

 

[trollson]

The problem with delays is twofold - firstly, a game shouldn't make its players wait to continue playing. Secondly a delay requires much more implementation than instant, with timers and edge cases to account for. So you can see why simulation took a backseat here.

But I think that the simplest solution is actually to just limit the transfer to a route which the ship can manage without refuelling. Jump-jump-jumping is effectively instant, and we can ignore the final supercruise leg for simplicity (Hutton will be pleased).

This givens the players opportunity to develop strategies - placing ships in key locations, periodically relocating their fleet, and adding extra fuel tanks to stored ships. It avoids unwanted questions about how a Jump-1 ship was transported to a Jump-6 destination, and prevents "magic" summoning of your warfleet to whereever your "turbo-Asp" has taken you. The runtime cost is just a standard economic route calculation.

Unless there are other reasons for unlimited range transport - someone suggest that it was to allow multi-crew members to keep access to their own ship after travelling some distance in a shared vessel. However, in this case they could also take advantage of the passenger system and allow players to book passage.

In fact, players being able to book passage to nearby systems would also be a solution the fleet-mustering problem.

 

[Slopey]

Please use the threadnaught - this solution has already been discussed therein.