Sirius under an economic crysis?

[FooFighter]

We want them to learn the ways of roleplay before they jump into their first fighters and capital ships and go shoot stuff.

And there we go. I absolutely agree with you here - but trading is the wrong approach to this. Especially for a new player. Sure, established people or people who come here and quickly make friends won't have it that bad, they'll try to get into a trading faction or group and then will get some RP along their runs. Trading itself will still be horrible and boring, but at least they get *some* RP.

But that's not how it goes for most people. Most people create their first character, when they are lucky someone sends them 100k to get themselves a Rhino, and then, guess what they do...they'll mine near Pittsburgh or in Pennsylvania, mine for hours, without a lot of fun and without a lot of RP. They'll mine and mine and mine, maybe until they can afford themselves a Camara or similar freighter. Then they will trade, and trade, and trade. They now will occasionally get RP from pirates (if they are lucky and don't stumble upon the 2millordai GB pierats), but it won't really be amazing. Maybe they can listen to some veteran players RPing along the way, maybe they'll even take a break and listen to them. Now, if the newbie in question is stubborn enough, promising himself "There *will* be awesome RP for me too, I've read the forums, it can't be that bad as it is now, just wait 'till I get myself my first fighter" or alternately "olol jst wait m8, i soon have enough cash for BS and then I pwn u", he eventually will accumulate more wealth and leave the most frustrating phase in his or her Disco "career".

Couldn't we do better? IMO, newbies should be thrown right into RP, they should be a part of the faction they chose from the beginning on, not just some dude in a Starflea grinding. Especially since said grinding is, gameplay-wise, absolutely no fun - you can't even hope to get into some PvP with a chance of winning (unless you have a Cap8 liner or a heavily armed Shire, but in that case, you ain't no newbie anymore).

Almost nobody here likes trading. Few people would ever do it if they didn't need the cash. I don't do it, I've got a shared Nomad Battleship and a shared OC Dessie, plus 2 GBs and a lot of fighters. I keep my ships armed and repaired by bounty hunting - it's fairly lucrative (hey, 5 millions for a Bounty Hunter is good cash) and it, unlike trading, actually tends to be fun. Every now and then I can even set up a new fighter (I could also set up a bomber, but I suck in them:P). I've given up any desire to own a bigger ship - not because I wouldn't love to RP a giant warship, but because it's far too expensive and I'm not going to grind for hours just to get one. I can get RP in a smaller ship just as well, and I actually tend to survive much longer in a fighter or a GB than in said Nomad Battleship I occasionally take out for a "walk".

Yes, trading sucks - but on the other hand, the necessity to trade is a necessary evil. If there weren't any traders, what would pirates do? Pirate NPC trains and fight the House militaries? Doesn't sound that awesome to me, no, piracy can be fun. As much as I'd love to, we can't just remove the trading aspect from the game completely. But currently, it's taking overhand, especially since the value of credits got nerfed. Xoria's trade system is an awesome simulation of the economy crisis indeed - runs don't really generate a lot of cash, and many things got a lot more expensive in .86 too (just compare capship armor upgrade prices, or liner prices, or or or). I wouldn't go as far as calling trading the lifeblood of the server, as some do, but without any doubt it's important that there are guys in transports roaming Sirius.

So, what could be done about the problem trading is? My proposals would be (this is also where the important part of my post starts, for your tl;dr guys):

• Buff credits, do new routes.
  

Seriously. Give every faction that has a reason to trade two or three short, but good routes. No need to send them all over Sirius or on three-way-trips, two-way trading isn't that bad, especially when the route is rather short: it gives you the possibility of actually RPing with the guys in the systems you are passing through. And if said routes would generate profits of ~60 millions or more in an hour in a medium transport, people would also be able to just slow down a bit and to RP, maybe give a pirate some tax money or the authorities a little bribe. People wouldn't need to worry about losing profit anymore.

• Buff freighters and transports.
  

This is rather important as well. As I've mentioned already, attempting to do PvP combat in trading ships is more futile than Xan from BG could imagine...well, OK, if you're flying a Shire or a Liner with some heavy hull upgrade, you *might* stand a chance against people, but that's it. Give them good guns. Freighters should be somewhere between SHFs and Gunships when it comes to firepower, Transports should have the firepower of a GB or even a bit more, though with rather restricted mobility. Freighers should be quick and agile (for cargo ships, that is), able to evade the authorities when smuggling or pirates when doing lawful trade. You should be able to make around 30 to 50 millions per hour, depending on the riskiness of the route you're trading on. Transports should be giant hauler ships. Slow and vulnerable to a team of foes that can outmaneuver them, but heavily armed so they are able to take quite some punishment while their escorts try to fend potential attackers off. The cash that could be generated with them should be around 100 to 200 millions per hour; of course, these 100 millions would be split up multiple escorts. Pirating such a big Transport should be the dream of every criminal. It should be highly dangerous, it should be a small battle, but if they either get the transport captain to pay up or manage to crack open his cargo bay, they should expect themselves a small fortune. This way, teamwork (something Discovery is sadly missing - it's basic premise seems to be "as long as you just grind enough, you can get whatever you want") would be strongly encouraged. Teamwork leads to RP. Trading, especially in big ships, would become (more of) a thrill and an interesting activity to do, even if you don't need cash really badly. It would also open up other ways of earning cash - much higher bounties could be placed, and escorting people would be lucrative as well (right now, I'd *never* do it unless I'm expecting some awesome RP along the way).

• Skip the frustrating Starflea/Rhino phase newbies have to face.
  

Make it possible to start out as a properly repped character in a HF, Mk1 Freighter or LF of any faction you want (sans the admin-repped ones of course) per FLHook command. Nothing is more frustrating than the first 3 or 4 hours you spend on Discovery, and I wouldn't be astonished if it turns many people away, especially the ones that are here for the RP. It might as well spread people throughout Sirius. I believe NY is mainly as well populated because it's where most players stay when they "grow out" of their 'fleas. Many people attract other people, especially if they all are just one system away from your "birthplace". But if you gave people the possibility of starting out as whatever they want, without having to fly throughout Sirius and do tedious trading and repping first, maybe we'd finally see some more KNF, Blood Dragons, Gallic unlawfuls, etc.

I know that what I proposed here would be a lot of work - but I'm sure there'd be quite a few people willing to work on this (including me). Maybe we *can* fix trading. But we need to start working on it, else, things likely will stay as they are - utterly broken and devoid of anything even remotely resembling fun.