Rule changes: 1.6, 4.5, 4.6, 4.7

[sindroms]

Strange thought, but if this is really is a balance issue rather than a game one, is there any particular reason why we do not make transports proper combat ships, dangerous to a solo pirate and usable in regular PVP engagements, and which would allow us to remove other rules such as exceptions to the death rule and such?
A transport is, more or less, just a cruiser just with more cargo space. Make transports use cruiser weapons for anything above 3600, gunboat anything below that, adjust their armor and cost accordingly and just make them slightly worse than their ''proper'' pvp couinteparts when it comes to handling rather than anything else. Then having pirates use battleships and dessies to pirate also makes sense, because you are basically attacking a capship if you pirate.
If you introduce transports to regular PVP, you can also give them a front gun repair tool. Make them a part of the ecosystem.
Then piracy comes down to your nerve and equipment, rather than protection rules.

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[Foxglove]

I personally would prefer this over needing to sift through violation reports involving transports.

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[Lemon]

A 500MILL 5K WITH CRUISER GUNS SOUNDS LIKE FUN :d

[Champ]

Transports are not cruisers. They are not militarily armoured or armed, they can be threatened by a small swarm of snub-craft between Fort Bush and Pittsburgh. I don't disagree that they should be better balanced within the combat ecosystem, but making everything a cap-fest is nightmarish.

In-game balance and mechanics are most preferable, rules account for the gaps and OORP intent to keep the game playable, sanctions and staff are necessary to maintain the rules.

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[LuckyOne]

What is needed is some type of cargo insurance mechanic. That's how you manage risk, not some arbitrary weird OORP rules or making transports (a distinctly civilian, merchant vessel, barring a few specialized military variants) pseudo-cruisers.

It can be as simple as a tiered commodity you buy on Interspace Commerce stations (it costs the same anywhere in the universe and comes in different amounts, sort of like Sirius Credit Cards), takes 0 cargo space. Instead of subtracting credits on death you just refund the amount of non-insurance commodity cargo multiplied by the price of insurance commodity multiplied by the insurance refund factor.

I'm pretty sure I saw some code in the FLHook repository that would be able to pull that off, just too busy / tired to setup and prototype it. The only thing that has to be solved is the abuse potential, that's why the insurance commodity needs to be "tiered" by commodity price ranges so you always get back an amount around the "average buy price". You could also save the buy prices on each commodity purchase, but that would mean more complex implementation and greater server load as the hook would have to run on every purchase instead of just player death ...

Also, no refunds for suicide / accidental deaths.

[Jonathan Seabourne]

You could try doing it as a command. /insure would remove $100,000 from the player and expire after an hour or after the next time the player lands or dies. If (and only if) they are killed by another player, it triggers and deposits $10 million in the account. Claims only pay out once every 24 hours, and simply put there are faster ways to make $10 million as a trader in Sirius. This really is just a measure to ensure that a captain who loses his ship will have enough credits to pick up their next cargo.

Of course, that needs balance and work, but it might be easier to manage as a command than as a tiered commodity. Though I do like the idea of having to visit IC stations to purchase the policy, and making it a commodity that is destroyed when the ship is would naturally take care of a lot of book keeping.

In any event, it gives IC something to do in-game, investigate insurance fraud and pass evidence to house police for enforcement. An official faction might even be able to deny use of the command/commodity by pilots or factions not in good standing with IC.

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Orbital Spa and Cruise

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[Lord Helmchen]

hm i like the idea with the Stations it would be like a Extra Life and somone like me who tends to sleep in his Chair in front of the Pc and Craschs in a planet could realy need some insurance

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Orbital Spa and Cruise

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[Archaetherial]

I have a question regarding rule 4.7 and the extended discussion about it that's going on in this thread.

Why exactly aren't capital ships allowed to attack transports just like any other ship? What's so special about transports that warrants this rule? Why does this rule exist and why does it cause such a tumultuous uproar among everyone?

I just started playing, so, don't hate on me for asking, please. I just want an explanation, because I find this rule to be rather curious and out of place.

[LuckyOne]

You could try doing it as a command. /insure would remove $100,000 from the player and expire after an hour or after the next time the player lands or dies. If (and only if) they are killed by another player, it triggers and deposits $10 million in the account. Claims only pay out once every 24 hours, and simply put there are faster ways to make $10 million as a trader in Sirius. This really is just a measure to ensure that a captain who loses his ship will have enough credits to pick up their next cargo.

Of course, that needs balance and work, but it might be easier to manage as a command than as a tiered commodity. Though I do like the idea of having to visit IC stations to purchase the policy, and making it a commodity that is destroyed when the ship is would naturally take care of a lot of book keeping.

In any event, it gives IC something to do in-game, investigate insurance fraud and pass evidence to house police for enforcement. An official faction might even be able to deny use of the command/commodity by pilots or factions not in good standing with IC.

I thought about doing it through a command, but I strongly believe a commodity would open up more interesting possibilites. For example POB owners could stock the insurance on their ore depots, offering more incentive for people to trade their ore. Or you could actually RP a corrupt IC insurance salesman that sells insurance to smugglers (since the commodity takes no / very little space you could actually "sell" that to other players in a shuttle). As for time limiting you can do it through making the commodity perishable. That way one could "overinsure" for a long route, or roll with the optimal amount of insurance if it's a very short route. Long routes would actually require "overinsurance" so the safer lanes close to the IC stations would be less risky and possibly offer more consistent profit. Another advantage is when you're being pirated, there's a natural "intimidation bar". Since the pirate can actually see how much insurance you have he can better gauge how much are you willing to pay, and adjust his demand accordingly. If he asks too much you just get blown up and he loses the ransom and is stuck with just the cargo (not the insurance commodity though, as that wouldn't be able to exist in space). If the insurance is perishable the longer you stall with paying up as a merchant, the less you will get back when you get blown up so there would actually be an incentive to pay the ransom, if it's reasonable.