Treat ship and module transfer like a postal service (Grade A soltuion)

[Dimensions]

I have an easy to implement idea on how to keep many people on both sides happy. For people who want instant transfer they have to pay, for people who want a wait time they get a massive discount on the transfer cost. This is comparable to postal services for letters and parcels.

Do you want:

Express service (100% cost) - Instant transfer
1st class (75% cost) - 5 min wait
2nd class (50% cost) - 10 min wait
or economy class delivery (10% cost) - Average manual time for number of jumps to you / or 1hr

Ideally a slider would be present so you could choose you own time and therefore cost.

This seems a more natural way of implementing a compromise, but also has a gameplay element. For instance if you are almost broke you could still get your ship/module transferred to you at a much lower cost. Also you may need one ship badly right now, but don't mind what time the others arrive, so you can afford 1 instant transfer and 3 economy transfers without breaking the bank. At the moment FD have suggested that there would be a flat cost for transfers (undetermined as of now), so if you don't have enough credits you can't do it at all until you do.

Personally I want instant transfers, but I'm happy for a compromise, as long as in such a system it doesn't cause instant transfer costs to be ridiculously high.

 

[Cmdr Mnumen]

Except this doesn't solve any of the problems people have with it (namely Any sense of realism, game and ship balance), plus it adds the additional effect of now disadvantaging beginners or people who don't just grind for credits!

No thanks.

 

[Winterwalker]

Except this doesn't solve any of the problems people have with it (namely Any sense of realism, game and ship balance), plus it adds the additional effect of now disadvantaging beginners or people who don't just grind for credits!

No thanks.

I agree because the OP has the "prima" service as an instant transfer.

What I do like though, is the idea of having express delivery services over cheaper, slower ones because that does enable the new player to offset the function, with the cost.

Personally I would also (request) the build in of "quality of service" .. in other words what if the prima transfer also 'serviced', perhaps even tuned up your ship for you?? Or what if "we move any ship dot com" offer a fast service AND a cheap one? Great .. except these guys can't necessarily be trusted, and your ship (%) MIGHT arrive stripped .. and with the shield generator .. kind of gone.

I think you could have lots of fun with it myself and that a bit more flesh on ship transfer could colour and ground the ED universe even more. So Rep OP, for the constructive suggestions. o7

 

[[VR] Frank_G]

What about:

1. Jumponium Prime service - Synthesis range used, 1 jump per 0.5 minutes - high cost per ly + extra fee for ace pilot
2. Fast service - Maximum jump range used, 1 jump per minute - medium cost per ly
3. Economic service - Economic range used, 1 jump per 2 minutes - very low cost per ly

No fuel scoop? Additional cost per ly for rent-a-scoop service
Cant make the trip? Additional cost for renting external FSD frame and tank
Too damaged for safe transfer? Pay repair bill +10% service fee to get ship repair arranged before transfer
Ace pilot service for 2 and 3 optional to reduce time per jump to 0.5 minutes

1 = arrival within minutes, almost anywhere in the bubble
2 = arrival within a few hours or less within the bubble
3 = arrival within a day or less within the bubble

 

[Dimensions]

Except this doesn't solve any of the problems people have with it (namely Any sense of realism, game and ship balance), plus it adds the additional effect of now disadvantaging beginners or people who don't just grind for credits!

No thanks.

It adds more realism. It is a compromise. Either it is going to be instant transfers or a compromise, it isn't going to be pure realism because it is a game. We already have a number of elements in-game that aren't realistic because it would just be too time consuming otherwise, and suffocate fun. For instance where was the uproar over ship destruction and rebuy escape pod instant transfer to your last docked port regardless of distance. There wasn't one.

You say the system proposed is a disadvantage to new players, how? This is a better system because FD will have a flat cost for transfers anyway, I'm proposing offering cheaper alternatives for using this service. Also new players won't have a fleet of different ships, typically they will sell their current one to get a better one, so won't really use ship transfers. They are more likely to use module transfers.

 

[Ayo]

For instance where was the uproar over ship destruction and rebuy escape pod instant transfer to your last docked port regardless of distance. There wasn't one.

People certainly pointed out how it didn't make sense, but understood that the alternatives would mean players doing nothing (for a long time if you were exploring the far reaches of the galaxy) or FD having to implement some escape-pod flying gameplay (at the time there were a hell of a lot more important issues for the devs to work on). It was understood that escape-pod gameplay, or at least a warp and dock sequence was something that could be added later.

Right now people don't want more shortcuts that bypass established lore, but rather slowly replacing existing shortcuts with more gameplay and making existing repetitive gameplay more varied and interesting. At the time that ship destruction and re-buy was added, it was seen (like many features at the time) as 'good enough for now, can't wait til they do something more with it'.

 

[ThatFuzzyTiger]

And another child thread spawns from the cthulhu threadnaught...

*rubs temples*

 

[Karlos Ploryman]

I do like the idea...

Maybe I would "turn it upside down" ...

Player can pay for his avatar teleportation to the station, where his ships are stored - very costly.
Player can pay for his avatar to be transported on NPC / player ship to the station where his ship is stored - cost depends on speed.

Player pilots his ship wherever he wants ... old fashioned way.


When spacelegs are the thing, you can wander around the ship that is transporting you, maybe even chat with other cmdrs aboard, NPCs, maybe even start some missions this way...

Logic stays intact, believability stays intact, gameplay enhanced, ... or just buy a cheap hauler taxi.

o7 Karlos ;-)