(05-29-2020, 12:26 PM)OSC Breezewood Wrote: You could try doing it as a command. /insure would remove $100,000 from the player and expire after an hour or after the next time the player lands or dies. If (and only if) they are killed by another player, it triggers and deposits $10 million in the account. Claims only pay out once every 24 hours, and simply put there are faster ways to make $10 million as a trader in Sirius. This really is just a measure to ensure that a captain who loses his ship will have enough credits to pick up their next cargo.
Of course, that needs balance and work, but it might be easier to manage as a command than as a tiered commodity. Though I do like the idea of having to visit IC stations to purchase the policy, and making it a commodity that is destroyed when the ship is would naturally take care of a lot of book keeping.
In any event, it gives IC something to do in-game, investigate insurance fraud and pass evidence to house police for enforcement. An official faction might even be able to deny use of the command/commodity by pilots or factions not in good standing with IC.
I thought about doing it through a command, but I strongly believe a commodity would open up more interesting possibilites. For example POB owners could stock the insurance on their ore depots, offering more incentive for people to trade their ore. Or you could actually RP a corrupt IC insurance salesman that sells insurance to smugglers (since the commodity takes no / very little space you could actually "sell" that to other players in a shuttle). As for time limiting you can do it through making the commodity perishable. That way one could "overinsure" for a long route, or roll with the optimal amount of insurance if it's a very short route. Long routes would actually require "overinsurance" so the safer lanes close to the IC stations would be less risky and possibly offer more consistent profit. Another advantage is when you're being pirated, there's a natural "intimidation bar". Since the pirate can actually see how much insurance you have he can better gauge how much are you willing to pay, and adjust his demand accordingly. If he asks too much you just get blown up and he loses the ransom and is stuck with just the cargo (not the insurance commodity though, as that wouldn't be able to exist in space). If the insurance is perishable the longer you stall with paying up as a merchant, the less you will get back when you get blown up so there would actually be an incentive to pay the ransom, if it's reasonable.