Oolite Bulletins

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

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?

Cmdr James wrote:

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

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.

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.

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

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.