Capt. Murphy wrote:Hi CSOTB - I know you mentioned you remember this feature from Elite-A. I remember it from ArcElite and IIRC there was a techLevel limitation to the availability of 'RentaDock' as it was known. I think the station had to have a techLevel the same or higher as that required to sell Docking Computers in the first place. Any chance of implementing that as-well?
Well, anything's possible.
Earlier I had to look it all up again because I had forgotten some of the specifics, like the tech level and some systems charging more money out of you for the service(would be more suitable for dealing with local governments on a planetary landing as "landing fees" might be exhorbitant or even criminal as opposed to the more neutral ground of the GalCop station) and it would seem that the way it used to be was not something very friendly and useable for novice pilots and maybe actually counterproductive and antagonistic, like having your missiles jam anytime you have 6 or more hostiles attacking you, I'm not sure anyone would want that "feature" in the game either.
I'm just taking this one step at a time. In thinking about it, currently a player would have already been able to purchase a docking computer for the cost of only 30 to 60 autodockings. It makes for a good cash cow for GalCop to have the service everywhere and even for ships that don't have a port to plug-in a docking computer, they can still open a remote autopilot link with the station. Perhaps this is also an attempt by GalCop to cut down on the number of manual docking crashes by newbie piloted vessels. Also having a perpetual bill to pay for docking helps to relieve players of their excess cashflow. Quite realistic, like today when you have to decide do I buy furniture outright or do I rent-to-own? While a low-tech station might not have the techs for installing docking computers, GalCop's own maintenance technicians could have the skills to maintain the autodock remote ship docking system or perhaps a few techs fly around between all the stations and that's all they do is maintain that system as part of a new GalCop policy that makes it even easier to trade at stations. Even lousy pilots need not fear the rigors of space travel, just hit the autopilot and keep the cargo flowing.
There's other things to consider too. Docking computers can be damaged and when one is plugged into the ships computer a remote link cannot be established, just like modern electronics that sense when something is plugged into a specific port, it overrides the possibility of a remote link, probably on the assumption that if the docking computer is damaged that the remote link might not work right either and this might be a failsafe to prevent faulty remote autopiloting. So there's another strike against actually owning a docking computer, that perhaps you have a lot of trade with dangerous systems and tend to have the computer get damaged and when it does you have to manual dock anyways. Another reason to just pay as you go.
So I've got 2 choices: promote pay as you go which is good for novice pilots and requires a steady outflow of cash
or promote investing in equipment which still relies on repairing damage from combat.
Maybe both can co-exist and as the player's situation or goals change they can go with this in either direction as well.
The way I see it, I can do one of 4 things:
1)nothing-at this point both can run parallel with somewhat balanced pluses and minuses to both.
2)promote owning a docking computer-very occasionally in governments 0-5 there is some form of overcharge, the severity depending on the government.
3)promote autodocking with no docking computer-that's easy, just raise the damage probability to 5 or 10. Then the docking computer will most likely be the first thing damaged in a combat.
4)Both #2 and #3, still balanced but adding more variety to the ooniverse and in doing so, being more antagonistic to the player.
Any comments on this? Other ideas?
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Capt. Murphy's OXPs
Am I the only one who remembers this being quite a bit cheaper in NES Elite?
