More models of ships in circulation?

It isn’t that there’s a SHORTAGE of ships, there just aren’t very many models right now… so yeah, a lack of variety. Here’s what’s publicly available:

R-41 Starchaser
Firespray-Class Patrol Vessel
Mark I Bulk Freighter
Stellar Yacht

That’s not exactly a wide variety of ships for people to go after. I hate to get all nostalgic on people but I remember when buyship took them from a catalog on the pad, there were a lot more vessels available. People didn’t have to save two million credits to get a freighter, they could buy a really, really cheap (but low storage) one and run cargo in that. A bigger catalog of ships looks good to new people. They see the variety and they go, "Wow, this place has got a lot of stuff!" And a bigger catalog of ships means we can do cooler things with the ships. Combat capable freighters, carrier style corvettes, etc. It’s not as if there’s no info on what’s out there, and it isn’t like we’re flooding the MUD with ships – we’re just giving people more choice in what they’re gonna fly.

I guess I understand the whole ‘variety’ thing now, then. And I would perhaps agree for a few more ship blueprints in circulation (to engineering clans), though, as far as I can remember, clans have always had a limit on how many they could own (3 per engi firm.. or something.. feel free to correct me). As a faster solution from develop, perhaps give clans an option to upgrade a ship of the same class for another one, turning in the old blueprints and paying some outrages price, like 20-40 mill.

It’s 5 per clan. The problem is that develop is a black hole for money and time, and the upgrade wouldn’t fix the variety problem. Nobody wants to pay 40 mil to go from a Barloz to a Mark I, they wanna pay 40 mil to be able to sell 4 ships instead of 3. I’m glad the catalog of every ship ever is gone, that was silly. And it’s not JUST "freighters" that can carry cargo. The firespray comes with a cargo pod that doesn’t have to be removed to maximize its other potential.

It would not fix the variety problem, no, but it would allow the mud to get new ships into circulation, as others (the older ones) will be available now via player trade, player deaths and whatever the company has. But if the manufacturing clan has only 3, buying two for some outrageous price would be the way to go, seeing as how you’re cutting down on develop time, which is.. a long time and way more money, unless you’re lucky. I honestly like/feel the RP of this should be thorough.. I know how I RP development and getting new things, I don’t know how detailed everyone else is, to make it worth being given a new ship/item. It’s 4am.. if that made no sense.. then.. uh, yeah.

In the end, the real problem lies in one thing: It doesn’t matter what you have on the market, players will automatically gravitate towards the best of what’s available. I stand by my belief that variety does not mean solely increasing the number of ships available. If we keep having ships put in the game based around one principle, there will never be any variety. Example, building starfighters should not automatically take the place of the starfighter models before it unless it is some grandiose revolutionary design. Just because the hyperspeed numbers are slightly better than the last model, people are like "Ooooh much better ship!" while it would be completely ignored by a major clan because it doesn’t give them the pow they want.

**I feel like I’m not even getting my point across. I just woke up…**

On another note, I do not believe that major clans should control their own prints. Governments typically don’t hold the patents on the designs of their own craft. Usually they are contracted to a company who then makes the designs, submits them to the government for approval, and then builds them (in the real world, akin to Boeing). Their prints should be handled by the engineering clans who are their allies. While you will say this could be open to abuse, there are ways to deal with that. I’m sure it could potentially be coded to allow, for example, Kuat Drive Yards to lay the print of an Imperial-class Star Destroyer. When the Imperial-class Star Destroyer is completed, it would then revert to ownership of the Galactic Empire who would then have to come and collect it.

If it can’t, then it could become an extension of SpyApp. If a member of KDY is found selling Imperial-class Star Destroyers and TIE-In Starfighters to anyone other than the Empire without an approved SpyApp, it would be a breach of SpyApp and punishable as such.

Yeah, but like I’ve said before, there is no single best. There’s best cargo-runners, sure, but there’s also best combat ships, best transport ships, etc. There are a lot of variations of best on this MUD, or at least… there could be if we had access to more of them and the builders were a little more creative with what they did and didn’t put into them.

i liked the old ship command , because at least you could have a large variety, maybe in clans where theren’t many engineer’s (Novastar) around to build the ships that demand it, make one central character one planet someone can buy ships from. Or Open Novastar ship sellers Shop that offers Titles to ships, the clan opens the shop, they build the ships, put titles in the shop, you buy the title and go redeem it where ever for that ship. So Novastar can pump out 100 mark 1’s and leave them in the shop for people to buy at their leasure, same with firesprays. Make it more rewarding rp point wise, credit wise, something for clans to share blue prints, and help develop some aspects like ships

I really like malavik’s idea. Other than buildship taking forever, the real difficulty of getting a ship is lining up an available member of the eng. clan for some deal making RP. It’s not always feasible, and it definitely a place where the folks in odd timezones get slapped pretty hard for living in the wrong part of the world. Other PITA things are required manual RP to get payments and trade titles.

OK, I’m player ShadyCorellian, and I want to buy a ship from RichHutt. RichHutt is in PST and ShadyCorellian lives in England on GMT. So, there’s an eight hour spread in time zones. Well, the two meet up to agree to a ship sale and terms, but never meet up again to exchange payment. ShadyCorellian is out his downpayment and never gets full rights on the ship. RichHutt is out the rest of his payments and doesn’t get to free up his ship slot (if he’s a private seller).

Have a system where you can FINANCE a ship. This interaction is the only point that requires RP between the buyer and seller. Have a set price that needs to be paid on it and can be done at any bank and/or pad. I have 200,000 to pay on my 2,000,000 ship, I pay it. I’m the pilot of the ship and use codes until the financing is completely paid off. When the buyer pays the final amount, the title ownership changes from the seller to the buyer, and everyone walks away happy and I don’t have to start breaking kneecaps.

It’d be nice to have a debt system in place where two parties could agree to an existing debt that could be paid by the person owing the money without having the person owed money present. It’d also remove potential abuses by outright just wiring money between players, too.

Anyways, I’m starting to rant and rave, but a lot can be done to improve ship sales overall. Not to mention having some option to fly non-adjacent pads on a planet without having to go into orbit… Ok, ok, I’m ranting.

I think the lack of variety of ships actually stems from another problem: Space Combat.

The way space combat is right now, only certain ships can succeed in the atmosphere and small scale battles between vettes and other fighters don’t exist right now. So while you could theoretically get the best fighter, your character can fly the best medium sized, so that’s what he’s going to go with. Cause right now, bigger means better in space combat. When we finally get a system where fighters can use their higher agility and manueverability to succeed in combat, whether it be against another fighter, vette or cap ship, people are going to gravitate the best they can afford. Once space combat is improved though, you’ll definitely get more variety.

Fighters can be both fast and agile, but lacking in strenght of shields and/or hull. Or they can be slow moving bombers with thick armor and strong shields, but lack the weaponry to really fight back against something as agile like an A-Wing unless they got lucky.

Then you can have cargo ships that can actually defend themselves from some pirate attacks or be purely a freighter without any weapons available and will need to contract out to fighter or gunship escorts.

Vettes will be able to blockade runners with strong shields and over-clocked engines to get past cap ships, or they can be small cruisers with superior firepower.

etc.etc.

So yeah… that’s where I think the real problem from lack of variety stems from. Just my *checks his pocket* fifty seven cents and a paperclip.

I would like more variety of ships. I had in mind, building a "standard" model ship with large amount of ship points not allocated yet. As an example, this would represent CECs usual easy to modify craft. If you get a chance, check out another forum about piloting an ship ideas.

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To go further into my idea, a YT-1300 could be sold as a standard model with a accessible turret from the inside. Average fuel/hull/speed/shield, etc. A few cargo pods because it starts as a cargo hauling ship. From there, the ships would lack a lot of weapons, and the average stats won’t be extremely high. This would allow for a pool of ship points to come with the ship when sold. After that, the buyer can upgrade his/her ship to meet his/her specifications.

This thought extends from the link, but I think fighters should not be so easily purchasable by the public. Offering transport sized ship with a decent point pool could lower the cost of ships, while allowing access to more &quot;variety&quot; of models.

Also, what if ships came out blank on the inside, and you could add room titles and desc and certain flags. I brought this up on another post, but I thought I would elaborate here too.

Troll made a good point, people would start turning the pilot’s seat in the bathroom. So, on that note, not all rooms can be modified. Pilots seat says the same, engine room, hall ways, etc. But have a few rooms open for personalization. Like the Firespray. The captains room, the locker room and the prison hold could be the blank rooms. Engineer could make the prison hold his bunk, the captain’s room a workbench and make the locker room stay as a locker room. Diplomat could make two of them hotels for their guests and the other as a meeting room with refreshments (desc wise, though it would be cool to have a mob handing out beverages).