Discussion: Barge Removal

[GamerGirl]

I would like to see it not to be able to jump with other ships.
http://discoverygc.com/forums/showthread...pid1578800

but a positive change on the barge speed and less time to charge the cruise engine.

[aerelm]

Question: For those factions (and players) who own barges, with their removal would they (in the future) receive a... whatever eventually replaces it in compensation?

That's up to the admins to decide, and there's currently an ongoing discussion regarding this, which we'll post a notice for when it reaches a conclusion. We'll most likely be refunding the Barge owners in some way, but since the stock price of the ship is 500 millions (1 billion for the older SRPed Barges), we most likely will not be offering a full refund to those who've paid considerably higher prices (as the price of the ship goes up to 30 billions in the open market) for that ship to purchase it from another player rather than simply going for a SRPed Barge (which under the current system would've only cost them 250 millions), as that was simply their call, and not a restriction enforced by the team.

Furthermore, for the sake of transparency the following is the idea we're currently discussing as a Barge replacement within the dev team. It's not final yet, but currently the most likely option for implementation:

One of the current "gameplay gaps" is the lack of an open-use jumpship, which as a result forces factions with no access to capital ships to use oorply-IDed capitals from friendly/neutral factions to jump their ships. Since one of the recent additions to the next update is an open-use survey ship turning Barge into an open-use jumpship is currently being discussed. To make the ship available to all IDs it'd be classified as a Liner, but with a jumpdrive mount, a good number of docking modules, and reasonable defensive capabilities but no significant offensive capabilities. This will help retain the Barge's role as a "mobile facility" for those who've been RPing their Barges as such, and at the same time remove the problematic "supertransport" element from the mod while also solving the lack of an open-use jumpship.

[SnakThree]

That does sound like a good idea.

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[Sath]

There goes my SRP. Npnp And will those repurposed ships be openly available in game or SRP based unique ship like the barge?

[aerelm]

It's planned to be a civilian ship openly available to everyone, most likely sold on some Freeports or other mostly-neutral bases.

[GamerGirl]

It would remove for corporations the ability to gather a station amount of materials. The jumpdrive is that not the problem why the barge should be removed? That it would prevent interaction with pirates? I really doubt that it will solve with a civilian jumpship, because there are still players who made laws in houses, involving jumpdrives. Why would anyone prefer a civilian jumpship over an Battleship who can defend the people who jump with you much better?

I have a barge, but would it be possible to have a unique SRP ship instead of this? To continue the use we always did with using it for a corporate faction.

[SnakThree]

But, corporations could just get 8 cashcows instead of Barge.

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[Zed26]

I fly some barges, but I'm also interested in seeing unique ships and, uh, what kind of tricks the FLHookers can turn out with more applications of surveying coordinates, jumping and docking modules - ideally to stimulate the economy and activity.

Hopefully we'll see something along the lines of Alley's change, adding a list allowing staff from all servers to easily customize which ships they want to restrict from jumping at will.

As for corporations building/upgrading stations, communication and collaboration with allied factions are key - especially with the smaller server population. Though I ought to find time and get off my rear to practice what I preach too.

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[Highland Laddie]

Just found this thread....apparently I missed it before.

I suggested this in the other thread...not sure if it has come up already, but I think it may be a viable working solution:

How about a nice 10ker as a replacement? Make it SRP only, give it about half the speed of a 5ker and no thruster, and maybe no guns as well?

[Gypsie Skripto]

Update is near so some shovelwork was needed around here.

What will it be?

A 10ker?
A Supercarrier?
A Faction Perk?

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