Oolite Bulletins

Not a coder, but I think that a 'salvaged ship' could have a legitimatly low salvage bounty e.g. you could get a bounty of 100-200cr for removing a potentially dangerous hazard in space. I would ensure that NP ships cannot be salvaged.

It would be handy for a new commander to salvage a rattlecutter with his Cobra MkI, and then fly that instead, not much chance though.

I agree with not being able to keep the ships, as it'd unbalance the game and make the creds far too easy. Still, any ship should be salvageable - but not necessarily for a large amount.

Another thought: If you show up with a ship at a station, the cops check out the flight recorder to see what happened. If you had nothing to do with its disabling or actually saved it from pirates, good, but if it it was you who shot it... he,he!

I think the only way this could be fun is when you get a temporary buddy.

Either it follows you around in the same system and in effect escorts you and is lost when you jump away.
or it keeps following you even through hyperspace, untill it dies. no refunds.
should be at a pretty steep price though and I guess it also should entail at least towing or escorting it back to a dock.
It wouldn't be realistic to shoot someone and he/she then is your best friend. (call it the "Cupid's Harpoon" )

edit: it might be applicable to remote operated fighters such as Thargons, but not really to piloted vessels. (Probably you should get a bounty on your head for collaborating with the enemy too.)

Just been reading this thread with interest: suppose you deliver your salvaged ship to a station with a remora (or to a special floating salvage yard with my cowcatcher idea that I realise I've posted in the wrong area, with the unerring skill of a bb newbie). It stays there with a hefty repair bill (or even regular rent fees) until you come back and pay?
So you go off trading, come back and you get: storage fee (depending on how long it's been left), hull repair, etc etc to pay. If you can't pay, the salvage yard keep it, or give you some kind of Cash Converters type of low secondhand payment for it (reference for UK posters only I expect).
After all, an almost-shot-to-death ship would need a lot spent on it. The storage fee could be a direct debit wherever you are, or just a one-off payment when you collect. Payment could be done as a trade-in against your ship,like buying ships as normal.
I guess the complication is attaching the ship to a particular station. Maybe some salvage shipyards need to be programmed and dotted around at specific places - maybe all systems of a particular government or tech level?
Not sure how having multiple ships would work, unless you could store them somewhere and go back and swap; so keep a boa for trading, tiger for fighting... it would be like buying a ship really cheap because you'd only be paying the storage fees.
Don't know how you'd move a ship to a new galaxy - maybe a large bill?
In that case, you could collect your other ship(s) from anywhere, but there'd be a transport fee (and time delay) in addition to the storage fee.
And maybe you could earn money tranporting ships - good chance to have a go on some of the other ships and get paid too! (shift a Boa, and just "happen" to fill it with cargo on the way!)
What do you think?