Why the "Never fly without rebuy" mantra is flawed

There is nothing that removes all the risk from flying.
As you said there is always an unfortunate series of event that could leave you bankrupt and in a Sidewinder.

However the Mantra isnt there to provide a 100% gaurantee of survival but to make the player aware that they need to consider the consquences of flying without the insurance cover, and thus take further precautionary measures if in that situation.

Someone who never flys with suffience insurance cover, who gets upset when they lose everything, didnt do what was in thier power to mitigate their loss.
Someone who normally flies with sufficent insurance cover but due to circumstances flies without, is likely to take other means to mitigate their loss; and that may be flying a different route, flying with low value cargo to build up a reserve, or keeping a second ship fitted out for trading should the worst happen they can immediately upgrade from the Insurance Sidewinder.

Mitigating loss by planning ahead is the purpose of the mantra, not avoiding it, as there is no way in game to 100% avoid loss.

Oh and we could argue the Ship insurance doesnt work the way IRL insurance works, but insurance is an agreement with many different variabtions, so the Game insurance just has it's own peculiar wordings and terms that say "Pay the excess for Full cover, on the inability to pay the full excess then a Sidewinder will be provided in lieu of any indemnity" and as there is but one Insurance Company "The Pilots Federation" with a Claer monopoly, they can do what they like.
Remember that if you read your insurance policies IRL they will have clauses in about indemnity value if not full replacement and under what terms.
The fact they have to be written into the contract shows they cannot be taken as a "given"
 
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Stop it Stop it.

Its a simple question should I fly in ED without insurance?
In real life in drive my car without and its seems okay, in fact its cheaper. If I ever do get car insurance should I buy one or two policies, I thought this was a simulation it seems made up.



... I think we all reasonably agree on that one mate. The Op pointed out a scenario (an ill-equipped outpost) where even having the insurance cost in your pocket might not save you from disaster if said disaster struck more than once. (You pop back into an outpost with no shipyard, no outfitting, no choice but to try to run the gauntlet to a better station.)
 
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It's a common refrain (and extremely good advice) to "never fly without insurance", but after pondering the game mechanics for a little while, I've come to the realization that the premise suffers from a rather significant flaw.

It's entirely possible to find yourself without insurance buyback and facing potential bankruptcy through no significant fault of your own, and this scenario surprisingly requires no torturous logical corkscrews or hugely unlikely "what-if" scenarios.

I was sitting on an out post dock yesterday looking over my finances; I recently purchased the A-rated thrusters for my python and had enough in the bank (about 9 million) for a rebuy + cargo. Not bad, right.

So I take off, and I'm interdicted by a pirate. As I'm fighting the interdiction (I won, handily), the thought occured to me that sure, I have a rebuy, but if I lost this fight, I'd be stuck at an outpost with no shipyard, no outfitting, and no way to NOT risk my entire ED progress so far by flying 90m worth of hardware uninsured. I'd respawn in my python at a dock with no way to sell fittings for cash, no way to sell python and downgrade to asp, no way to do anything but hope for the best.

The obvious retort to my predicament is "You need more money", but this is an unpredictable game; it's impossible to say "Oh, three rebuys is sufficient" because sometimes you can be quite unlucky.

And, to be honest, I'm not entirely sure what my point here is, other than as a warning that having rebuy money, or 2x rebuy money, or 3x rebuy money is not necessarily a guarantee. Or maybe it's always dock somewhere there's an outfitter or a shipyard? I don't know. In fact, maybe this entire argument is flawed, do you respawn at outposts when you die? Or does it respawn you at the last large station? I can't recall ever respawning at an outpost, but I'm hardly ever AT outposts, so that might not mean anything.

I would say op if you cant make it from an outpost to a station with repairs n shipyard etc safely in a python i would question how you got to that python.

Jump from station to system. 100% safe. Jump to quiet system with fscilities needed 95% safe.
Escape interdiction if spotted 99% safe.

In this situation you should be careful. Remove that one teeny tiny bit of danger this game dies entirely.
 
Most everyone here is forgetting one important thing. ED stands for Elite Dangerous. I'm flying an Asp without my rebuy right now. And you know what? It's a blast. Nothing gets the blood pumping like being interdicted and fighting to win the interdiction knowing if you lose, you can lose your ship. Of course I do have A grade shields and 3 shield boosters in the utility slots. But if I get destroyed, I'll start over in a Sidewinder with no complaints.

Contrary to what people say, starting over in a Sidewinder isn't all that bad. I promise you, you are not as bad now as when you first started. For one thing you have your knowledge and experience (which you lacked when you first started). I've started over a couple of times and each time it gets easier to get back up to speed.

So by all means, always have insurance when practicable, but if it's not practicable, then don't stress on it. Have fun. If you're not having fun then why play it. And if you have to have a powerful ship to have fun, then either you aren't doing it right or there is something wrong with you. For me, I'm a spacer. I don't care what kind of ship I'm in so long as I'm flying around in space. Sure a nice powerful ship or a large trader makes it better, but I'm happy in a Sidewinder or Hauler too. I'm in space. (Which is where a lot of people say my mind is anyway:D)
 
Stop it Stop it.

Its a simple question should I fly in ED without insurance?
In real life in drive my car without and its seems okay, in fact its cheaper. If I ever do get car insurance should I buy one or two policies, I thought this was a simulation it seems made up.

Probably want some sort of third party cover, depending on you potential liability, even if you dont want full cover, YMMV depending on your country and its local laws on what costs you could be up for in the event of an at fault accident.

No point in getting two polices concurrently as they will indeminify themselves against covers covered by other policies so you would be paying for two policies and each would claim they only need to cover 50% of the loss (if they both cover the loss) at the time of claiming and each require an excess as well if applicable.

Having the money to pay for multiple claims in ED is not owning more than only policy.
If the ship is destoryed a new policy would be issued for the new ship as opposed to have two policies running concurrently.
 
Most everyone here is forgetting one important thing. ED stands for Elite Dangerous. I'm flying an Asp without my rebuy right now. And you know what? It's a blast. Nothing gets the blood pumping like being interdicted and fighting to win the interdiction knowing if you lose, you can lose your ship. Of course I do have A grade shields and 3 shield boosters in the utility slots. But if I get destroyed, I'll start over in a Sidewinder with no complaints.

Contrary to what people say, starting over in a Sidewinder isn't all that bad. I promise you, you are not as bad now as when you first started. For one thing you have your knowledge and experience (which you lacked when you first started). I've started over a couple of times and each time it gets easier to get back up to speed.

So by all means, always have insurance when practicable, but if it's not practicable, then don't stress on it. Have fun. If you're not having fun then why play it. And if you have to have a powerful ship to have fun, then either you aren't doing it right or there is something wrong with you. For me, I'm a spacer. I don't care what kind of ship I'm in so long as I'm flying around in space. Sure a nice powerful ship or a large trader makes it better, but I'm happy in a Sidewinder or Hauler too. I'm in space. (Which is where a lot of people say my mind is anyway:D)

^^^ This ^^^
😃
 
Most everyone here is forgetting one important thing. ED stands for Elite Dangerous. I'm flying an Asp without my rebuy right now. And you know what? It's a blast. Nothing gets the blood pumping like being interdicted and fighting to win the interdiction knowing if you lose, you can lose your ship. Of course I do have A grade shields and 3 shield boosters in the utility slots. But if I get destroyed, I'll start over in a Sidewinder with no complaints.

Contrary to what people say, starting over in a Sidewinder isn't all that bad. I promise you, you are not as bad now as when you first started. For one thing you have your knowledge and experience (which you lacked when you first started). I've started over a couple of times and each time it gets easier to get back up to speed.

So by all means, always have insurance when practicable, but if it's not practicable, then don't stress on it. Have fun. If you're not having fun then why play it. And if you have to have a powerful ship to have fun, then either you aren't doing it right or there is something wrong with you. For me, I'm a spacer. I don't care what kind of ship I'm in so long as I'm flying around in space. Sure a nice powerful ship or a large trader makes it better, but I'm happy in a Sidewinder or Hauler too. I'm in space. (Which is where a lot of people say my mind is anyway:D)

Couldn't agree more.
 
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