Well, I was thinking about a particular problem awhile ago. I wanted to put RP cargo on my Warships, or ships that generally have the potential to die often, but didnt want to go with all the aggravation of getting my RP cargo back, some of which could be a large trip.
A barge would solve this solution, I could put a ton of RP cargo on it and have enough cargo to go like 20 times over, more than enough. However, the barge isn't necessarily appropriate for this as it's more of a mobile base than just storage.
Im not sure if this has been brought up before, but perhaps we could get something like a go between?
The way I see it is a cargo container or basically a box with thrusters attached with a fair cargo sum of 10,000 - 20,000 cargo held so it could be used as a storage ship for Cargo of all kinds. These could even role-play out as Station storage for factions.
This would go as something that would work for factions that might not necessarily suit having a barge for RP reasons but still benefit from a centralised cargo source for various RP cargos.
I would picture this ship to be:
Slow - Long cruise time with just impulse speed? Or some other restraints to make it impossible to abuse the cargo size with.
Weak - I would give it something like a Transport shield so it could survive NPCs, but a paper thin hull like other cargo containers have, so it would be no match against another player (again goes to make it impossible to use other than it's intended use.)
Restricted? - Im unsure if this should be restricted to factions or Official factions of some nature, I wouldnt put a hefty price tag on it either as you're basically just paying for cargo space.
there is nothing in between a barge and a 5k transport.
transports range from 1000 - 5000 cargo - period.
there is NO transport in disco ( that is available to players ) that can hold more than 5k. - and there won t be. - the barge is NOT a transport and when i see that its being spammed - it ll be addressed on the dev board to "fix" it ( which will not happen, cause its admin given )
the limit to transports is in place to avoid inflation of the market too much - we got it already - but trading can be exploited ( when it comes to random disruptions vs. profits )
so if you had a 1000000 cargo transport - and say "but see, when i loose it my loss is astronomical" - i d say... yes, but only if you choose to trade at a time that there is even a chance that you loose it. a trader can make a 100% safe run each day and earn a billion in an hour.
edit: - all that means is.... - even 5k transports make money too quickly. - we need traders to be "on the road" to fuel the RP of sirius. a trader that only does one single route a day - at a time that no one is around is not beneficial.
to understand that point of view .... - traders have a responsibility towards the community as much as pirates and law enforcers. - the traders responsibility is to be there to initiate a chain of RP events ( piracy, which leads to law enforcement, which leads to larger scale conflicts ) - thankfully it is one of those responsibilities that only require one "to be around"
' Wrote:edit: - all that means is.... - even 5k transports make money too quickly. - we need traders to be "on the road" to fuel the RP of sirius. a trader that only does one single route a day - at a time that no one is around is not beneficial.
to understand that point of view .... - traders have a responsibility towards the community as much as pirates and law enforcers. - the traders responsibility is to be there to initiate a chain of RP events ( piracy, which leads to law enforcement, which leads to larger scale conflicts ) - thankfully it is one of those responsibilities that only require one "to be around"
I go to Liberty with my Kishiro trader. New York ->Pennsylvania/Claifornia. Of course, if i met people who just say 2 milordai it's not my fault.
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I'd please you to not make transports bigger than 5k flyable for the average player. I want to make money yes, sometimes i want to make money faster than i can, yes. But then there are also moments i wonder where i got my money from. The current routes (i fly) and the cargo capacity are enough.
In a brilliant tactical movement, i charged backwards.
Before anyone says "It would be made impossible to trade in", bear in mind that only the huge size of the barge and the extreme slowness of it accomplishes that. Anyhing smaller and more agile will easily take tradelanes and/or jumpgates (or jump holes) and therefore be able to trade efficiently even if we allow it to move only 10 m/s on impulse and disable its cruise.
Quote:Before anyone says "It would be made impossible to trade in", bear in mind that only the huge size of the barge and the extreme slowness of it accomplishes that. Anyhing smaller and more agile will easily take tradelanes and/or jumpgates (or jump holes) and therefore be able to trade efficiently even if we allow it to move only 10 m/s on impulse and disable its cruise.
Do you think you will be able to stand the ANNOYANCE OF MOVING 10MS?
In terms of Traders - I agree with Jinx in that they are the 'plankton' of the ecology of Sirius.
That being said, all of this is based on the bedrock of the economy.
The economy looks good on paper - but now it is time to fine-tune it, to attract sufficient numbers of traders to where they are needed around the otherwise 'quiet' areas.
Look at Sigma-13, it went from being one of the most trafficked areas in Sirius to one of the quietest, overnight! All that happened is that systems like Omega-3 took its place.
But rather than saying 'commodity X is worth too much' - ask the questions from the other side: 'where do we want players to be going?'.
I "took the barge out" to see what glitches issues it might have and to advertise it a bit and you can learn to "do things" with it.
Sad fact is, 7 out of 9 people that stopped me just wanted the "big trading ship--where I get!?" When I explained that it required a rp purpose, I usually got back, "I can make something up to get it."
Always someone crafty wanting to skate the edges.
I think the best case would be make a 5 impulse speed 5 minute to cruise box too big to fit in a trade lane--if all you wanted was a destructible, semi-anchored storage facility. I think that's not likely to happen. I am pleased the barge got in--really surprised actually. Hopefully it will be used well. Mine is in PR and I am having to trade like crazy in a pirate train just to fill it up. Sheesh. Maybe they can make it with destrucible components and you can shoot off the sections you don't need;)