Duncan Idaho

This is definitely needed IMO. Another thing it would help with would be upgrading internal blocks to higher tier materials without having to rip off the outer layers.

I think the problem is the complexity of the models. You have 30 or 40 complex entities each comprising hundreds of blocks and I can easily see lag problems appear, especially in MP where the server has to communicate all that information to the client, which then has to render it, all for a piece of space junk that no-one cares about. Perhaps wrecks could just decay into generic hunks of space trash after a short while where the models are drawn from a limited pool but the resource value remains?

I would respond that it is much better then to increase the upfront costs. This accomplishes what you say but simultaneously gives players something to work towards and removes the maintenance grind. I maintain that it is horribly detrimental to the fun factor of games to force players to grind just to stay where they are. Sure, force them to grind to advance, but don't cause their achievements to decay away because they choose to take some time out and explore other parts of the game.

I would advocate making it logarithmically dependent on mass so it doesn't get so insane for large ships but retains a reasonable curve for smaller ships. That is if the devs think jump route calculation time is a good mechanic, which I am not sure of myself. What purpose does it fill? If the desire is to prevent quick movement around the galaxy it would be far better IMO to nerf the jump ranges rather than increasing the wait time. There is nothing more boring in a game than waiting for a countdown to finish.

I see what you are trying to achieve with the Newtonian physics model, but I feel it doesn't work very well with such densely packed sectors. In the real world asteroids are thousands or even millions of miles apart even in the densest parts of the solar system, but in Avorion they are typically less than 1km. You *need* a nimble ship so as not to pancake against every chunk of space debris. In my experience, turning and thrusting to slow down inevitably causes some sidewards motion quickly resulting in a collision. It just doesn't work. You quickly realize that the only sensible course is to stack thrusters until your braking thrust is at least half of your acceleration thrust, and even then it is risky. If you consider the X games, which I have been playing since XBTF, the sectors are similarly packed to Avorion but the speeds are much slower. Instead the player has the means to fast forward time such that they don't get bored moving about but at the same time they don't end up blasting through sectors at suicide speed. While I don't think this solution is a good idea for Avorion, the lesson is important.

I would be surprised if there are NPC traders working in the game, or ever will be. It's possible that the game will eventually "simulate" an economy to a limited extent but the calculations for a fully dynamic economy like X3 are very high and will force a substantial reduction in the number of sectors. Personally I think it would be sufficient for the game to tally production of resources in a region belonging to a particular faction and adjust production rates according to shortages, complete with some payments to the player as fictional traders purchase the player's wares.

There are actual calculations happening; if you have not visited the sector before it has to initialize the system, and even if you have it needs to load models and whatnot. The thing is that this time is utterly independent of how "far" this sector is from your ship's initial location, and so the increasing jump time is just an artificial time-sink.

I've spent a bit of time thinking about this too. The variables aren't exposed but you could hook something onto the onResourcesChanged player callback that checks getShipPaymentTime and if it has just ticked over to 3 hours refund the cost given by the getShipPayment command. It's an ugly solution, and it would be much better if we could edit the hardcoded values via script.

My suspicion is that the actual values of most game mechanics are baked into the executable, and this production table is just a convenient way for scripts to look up the values without having to query an actual class instance.

I'm not sure how this is related to this thread, but this functionality is something that I really want. Is this a mod?

Yeah losing wrecks is really annoying. I would quite happily take some lag to have the 2 hour timer restored. I am totally on board with it being optional so those running heavily loaded servers or playing on toasters can reduce it.

I'm pretty sure that there are no NPC traders, you have to sell the produce yourself. I hope that I am wrong or that this changes because it makes owning more than a few stations largely pointless.

I would like to have a discussion about the crew salary system, and specifically the burden this places upon the player to grind. One of the beauties of this kind of game is that the freeform sandbox style allows you to vary your playstyle based on mood. One day I might be in the mood for some mindless asteroid blasting, the next I would rather go guns blazing against the nearest pirate scourge, or I might want to go wandering through barren sectors in the hope of finding some caches or just enjoy the sights. Unfortunately as you progress you end up with an ever-increasing horde of personnel that need to be paid, so rather than taking off in a little scout to explore the stars I have to constantly worry about my dwindling bank balance. I feel bound to keep grinding away at trade routes or roid farming in order to buy myself a few hours of freedom, which, while terrifyingly realistic, does not make for particularly fun play IMO. In the name of fun I would advocate for increasing the up-front costs of personnel and removing the salary aspect entirely. This would remove the metaphorical yoke around our necks and really increase the feeling of freedom. Does anyone else share this opinion?