role-playing in my garage...

[*cat]

Hi, haven't been around for a while - trying to minimise time-in-front-of-computer due to a chronic headache.

Here's a question for you seasoned role-players.
I've tried out my garage idea (involving some editing of save files) - left my super-cobra in a berth at Envebe for 34 days while I raced about in a l-haul, earning as much cash as I can.
Now I've come back to collect my beloved old ship, what do you think they'll have charged me to look after it?
I was figuring on 250cr a day, which would come to 8500cr in total. Is that fair? Too much/little? I made over 300,000 with the l-haul.
*cat

[Cmdr James]

Sounds kind of high to me, I mean, if you dont play for a single day, are you going to charge yourself 250 to have it there overnight?

I would think a staggered tarrif like parking at an airport.

Free for up to 48 hours, so you can sleep overnight somewhere safe away from attack.

50/day short term stay, up to one week
100/week long term stay

maybe need to pay in advance to get long term rates? If you leave it unclaimed for more than 2 weeks unpaid it gets auctioned off to pay your dues, and excess goes to charity?

[Captain Hesperus]

Sounds kind of high to me, I mean, if you dont play for a single day, are you going to charge yourself 250 to have it there overnight?

I would think a staggered tarrif like parking at an airport.

Free for up to 48 hours, so you can sleep overnight somewhere safe away from attack.

50/day short term stay, up to one week
100/week long term stay

maybe need to pay in advance to get long term rates? If you leave it unclaimed for more than 2 weeks unpaid it gets auctioned off to pay your dues, and excess goes to charity?

But in saying that, Space stations are only *so big* and there's only so many docking areas, especially in a particularly busy system. If you were docking on a planet, then this wouldn't be so much of a problem, what with the ability to 'build upwards', but with a space station there is few options for expansion that wouldn't affect the station's structural integrity and stability in orbit.

Captain Hesperus

[Cmdr James]

It does not actually have to be stored in the station. You could construct an orbital car-park, or ships could be hognose tugged to the planet (or something?) for long term storage.

[Killer Wolf]

gonna get a bit rough that, perhaps, given the amount of time that can zip past when you jump. the set fee sounds good, if you're not back in time you get a rebill for the same duration - which means if you've paid for a week and miss it, you get another week's charge, even if you leave the next day. no refund!
i think perhaps maybe a sliding scale on size too : if you're going to take up room parking your Anaconda there, it's not fair that you pay the same as a Sidewinder.

[*cat]

Hmm - I'll have to think a bit more about the Oolite universe cost of living...!
My research finds that terrestrial car storage is £20 a week (storecar.co.uk). (Am I being a bit too obsessive?!)
That's 1/2000th of the price of a mid-range luxury car, somewhere close to where the supercobra is in the range of ship prices.
So if my supercobra was 300,000 cr, maybe I should be paying 600 cr a week, 3000 cr for 34 days storage.
(I'm working in game-time by the way, not "meat-space" time!)

I'll adjust my finances accordingly. As a way of trying out a different ship without having to buy and equip a copy of my old ship from scratch, I think it works well.
As a way of changing ships for different missions, do you think the manual save-file editing would lead to disaster. As it was, I just updated time, credits, and contracts fulfilled in my backed up "garage" savefile.
*cat

[Commander McLane]

Of course, depending on who is doing it, manual save-file editing may almost certainly lead to a disaster.

That's the main reason why I don't approve of anything which involves a necessary save-file editing for all players who want to use it.

Therefore I think, if you want to do it on your machine, fine. But it's not the same kind of game-expansion as an OXP should be: install and forget.

So my point of view is still: a garage is not possible in the current game.