Price of Fuel?

Alright, I’ll start this out by saying I don’t anticipate this being well received as an idea. However, I believe fuel for our ships should have a higher price. It doesn’t matter if you put 1 unit, or 10,000 units of fuel into a ship, it still costs 10 credits…10? WTF? It costs more to buy a food item thats completely useless, it costs more to take a taxi around the corner. The point I’m trying to make is that it should cost a bit to fly back and forth across the galaxy. This idea opens up other things too though. Fuel could be commercialized by a clan. Each planet can have its fuel prices regulated by the governing clan, thus funding the clan even more and paying needed taxes. Another aspect is that during wars, fuel delivery routes can be cut off….just like in a real war

So, for the quick reference

1) Make fuel cost more based on how much you buy.
2) Make fuel something that can be added into the RP. Clans could be set up to "mine" the fuel…think Peragus Mining Facility (minus the explosion)
3) Planets set fuel prices after buying it from the groups that mine it.

I totally agree with this idea. It flying was more expensive, might encourage people to hire pilots more. Player taxis and tows.

Although I thought 10 credits was if you refuelled on a planet your clan owned or something?

This sounds like a great idea. And let Pilots have a skill that lets them "buy down" the price of fuel, or slicers can "modify" the price of fuel, or Smugglers can buy fuel from the underground, or smuggle it into the system for a profit.

In my honest opinion the taxi system needs a-looking at and nerfing.
The market for small ships seems to have dropped off the face of the earth since people can summon a firespray to them instantly by typing four letters.

A lot of people don’t /want/ that Firespray. It’s damn expensive.

Abso-LUTELY.

Let clans dictate a general price range for fuel (and make sure it is affected by planetary taxes.) Let fuel be a cargo commodity; as freighters sell ‘fuel’ on a planet, the price decreases a bit. Blockades would have a long lasting effect of spiking prices.

As a random side note Ralen is right. I think taxi’s should have hardcapped ‘max stats’ to make them less awesome.

Sounds outstanding. I’ve been wondering when, if ever this would be addressed. I believe it’s been mentioned before, but might as well mention it again. I do agree completely with prices being raised and letting clans dictate the price. I also like the idea of blockades and cargo effecting prices at any given time. Also, taxi’s definitely need to be nerfed. Make taxi is fine, but like Walldo said, hardcap the max stats. It’s s’pose to be a TAXI. Also, on the note of things being subject to planetary taxes, Taxi’s should be as well.

To get this post back on the path of fuel prices, and less on taxis, here’s a few ideas I’ve been mulling over:
Fuel and the economy are parts of LotJ I feel are severely overlooked and could enhance the game immensely.

[b:rueavmh3]Fuel reserves[/b:rueavmh3] – Each planet has a set amount of fuel available to them. This value dictates the current price of fuel on the planet, and that price can be changed by the governing clan. This value can be raised by receiving shipments of fuel from certain fuel-rich planets which spawn cheaper fuel automatically, as well as shipments from the below mining facilities. This would make cargo pilots useful, and in constant demand, rather than just running cargo to fill his/her own pocket.

[b:rueavmh3]Buyminingfacility <moon/asteroid>[/b:rueavmh3] – This would be a ridiculously expensive command used by the governing clan of a planet with moons orbiting it. Each moon, as well as each planet, gets a ‘fuel production’ value based on the moon/planet’s composition and ability to produce fuel for transport. Once a mining facility was purchased on a moon, it would slowly accumulate fuel based on the production value, and it would need to be transported a number of ways:
A.) A system of automatic bot-controlled transport, where freighters similar to pirates would automatically transport fuel to the planet from the moon when necessary. This would also open the option of pirates or opposing factions destroying these shipments of fuel, causing a delay in fuel to the planet and making prices spike.
B.) The automatic bot-system of transport could easily be negated, and make fuel transport completely rely on player-controlled cargo hauling, however it may not be feasible to rely on cargo pilots 100%.

[b:rueavmh3]Upgrademiningfacility <moon/asteroid>[/b:rueavmh3] – Another expensive command similar to the last. Mining facilities would be upgraded to produce more fuel, although this process might be better suited to something similar to development, requiring proper RP to develop new mining techniques.

This basic infrastructure could be extended and enhanced in too many ways to count. Smuggling skills to either steal fuel or buy it from underground sources at a cheaper price. Skills to sabotage an enemy clan’s mining facilities. Etc, etc.

I like it, with one small problem — I don’t like hinging anything entirely on players, IE the cargo-runners because early on in a MUD’s span, there won’t /be/ any cargo-runners. There are also a lot of other situations where it’s just not going to be feasible to have an economy based entirely on them. So you kinda have to give a little leeway, and have a bare minimum, and chalk it up to the invisible NPCs that’d make up the majority of the galaxy.

That being said, I like the idea of having an ability to commision the construction of various facilities, and I’d like to see it rounded off to include all types of resources, with the command itself working as a diplomacy skill. Make the facilities destructable, etc so ground forces have more purpose. You could even make it so diplomats are required to place clan bases/etc on their own planets. I’ll go crazy on this idea once I get home. I’ve got a lot of cool ideas that’ll make diplomats far more important for clans and planets and such.

PS, ships already do eat up fuel in different proportions, that’s why an R-41 can clear the galaxy on 2000 fuel when a capship needs waaaaaaaaaay more. It’s also why people tend to group their cappies up in a nearby friendly sector before attacking anything. n.-