Player Features and Ideas Discussion

TL;DR: Small jump freighter that can jump from null/low to 0.5 systems, but only to static cyno locations which can be camped.

First, the "imbalance" I see that brought this idea to mind is that low security space doesn't offer enough profit to lure in the high security space dwellers that are willing to move.
I'll take mining as an example, since everyone loves it *so* much.

The amount of ore I can pull from a belt in a 0.8 system, per hour, has an equal or better value than the amount of ore I can pull in from a 0.3 system. To even try to come close, I'd have to run a full mining op, unprotected, in a belt, with the Orca there for hauling, which is a profoundly risky thing to do. Even then, assuming you can safely warp out of a belt when a threat shows up, you still lose a lot of time.
Meanwhile, in a 0.8 system, you wouldn't necessarily have to worry about the person in local. So it remains more profitable.

Deeper into low security space, you start to see Hemorphite and similar ores. The profit potential does go up a bit there, and the raw isk/hour with straight mining tips to favor low sercurity space (if you remove all risk involved and just assume you can mine one hour straight), but then you have the logistics of getting the materials, in what ever form you choose, out of low security space and to a place where people will buy them.

Outside of moving things to and from your chosen spot, it is possible to be sufficient in low security space if you have the blue-prints to cover the essentials like ammo, and some extra ships in the hangar.

A possible resolution to this would be to allow jump freighters to actually jump to 0.5 systems, but I think that is a little too easy. Sure, it would be great, but the objective here is to encourage people to move their entire corp to low security space, not just make it safe to go in and out of null security. Additionally, I think there should be some drawbacks to the method of transport.

My proposition would be a new type of jump-freighter. It would have a maximum cargo capacity of 100,000m3, a ship maintenance bay of 250,000m3 (big enough for a Hulk), and, as usual with freighters, no module slots. It would also be capable of jumping like any other jump freighter, with the exception that it would be capable of jumping to 0.5 systems with some strict limitations.

1. It needs to have decent shield/armor/structure hit points, but not so much that it isn't a really hard target.
2. It could only jump to 0.5 systems that have a static cynosaural beacon.

The fixed beacon adds an element of risk to the ship, because people could set up camps at the beacons and wait for ships to jump through, scan them, then pop them if the cargo is good.
It also limits the 0.5 systems that are accessible. The lower hit points on the ship also make it a softer target.

The advantages of such a ship should be obvious. A corp could move its operation to a low security system, and actually have it be worthwhile to *stay* there and focus on industry, PI, mining, ratting, mission running, etc. without having to deal with the logistics of getting their goods to and from high security space via multiple jumps through low security space.

The fixed cyno beacons prevent the freighter pilot from having totally safe travel from low to high. Yes, CONCORD would kill any campers, but there's also the high probability that their patience would pay off, as most of these freighters would be full of cargo. The disadvantage to the campers is that they don't know which cyno will be used, *and* if all they do is camp static cynos, someone might actually just jump to the nearby low security system and come in the traditional way.

only if you are charged 2mil per m3 used. this would make a nice isk sink.
so a full jump freighter or anything will be.. what? 500mil? 1bil? I forget how much they hold.

Meh, it was an idea.

I *would* like to see a smaller jump freighter still. Even if it fell under the normal restrictions. Something like a jump version of the Orca, but having half the capacity for cargo and ships. That itself may have some issues though. I'm not that experienced with jump travel.

Lore aside, I believe I stated in the original idea that only the "new ship" would be capable of jumping to high-sec. I based the idea for the mechanic on the fact that we already have ships that have such restrictions via covert cynos.

And yes, mining in lowsec is possible, however it is not nearly as profitable as mining in highsec, and until that changes, people are just going to stick to highsec.

There are a lot of "risk averse" people in highsec, but there are a lot of people looking for better isk/hour with industry. Until lowsec is seen as profitable, it's going to remain a bit of a wasteland.

Perhaps instead of new ships and other such things, ice should be moved to low.

Why is it that people think lowsec needs a buff? Its the place with the most isk to be had anywhere.

Mining is a terrible example. Who the **** would want to mine in lowsec?

This is like saying hisec is broken because the anoms suck.

Lets do a quick experiment here...

Take mineral values.... set next to refined amounts.... to m3 per ore.....

isk/m3 values for major ores.... sort descending....

#1: Mercoxit 277.72 isk/m3 (I don't think anybody is surprised here)
#2: Arkonor 259.13 isk/m3 (again, surprised?)
#3: Scordite 217 isk/m3 Wait, what?
#4: Plagioclase 211.26 isk/m3
#5: Bistot 190.69 isk/m3
#6: Veldspar 189.19 isk/m3 Surely... that must be a mistake?

So out of the top 5 ores to mine (we're really discluding mercoxit here for obvious reasons) 3 of them are in hisec, lowsec, and indeed mostly everywhere.

Interesting....

Thats my point you tard. It has nothing to do with how valuable the ores are, because most of the valuable ones are found in hisec!

Rather, why would you WANT to mine in lowsec?

Like I said, this would be like if someone started bitching about hisec because the anoms suck.

This would actually do nothing to improve JF safety. A risk averse JF pilot will always cyno onto a station with a good docking perimeter in a lowsec system with a highsec gate. They will then align to the gate while in the perimeter (either before or after docking) and will warp directly to the gate and jump safely into highsec. If a threat arrives on station, they just dock till the threat moves on. The ONLY risk to the freighter if they perform the process correctly is that there could be a suicide gank on the highsec side of the gate. A highsec beacon would provide no additional security, and depending on how many they are, could be a greater gank risk then current best practice. (Dead cyno ships are just the cost of doing business and financially negligible)