In real life, you only die once, and this changes the weight of the risks. Also, in real life, Police CAN kill murderer’s even more readily than someone without a criminal history, if they acting to protect from death or grievous bodily injury. I don’t think it’s an exploit. I think it wasn’t considered by CCP. Making T2 insurance payouts better will completely change PVP, and not in a good way, IMO. I also believe that you’re undervaluing the weight of the “fun” factor of the pro’s. Many of these people play to blow things up. Other people’s things. You can’t say that losing(just one “o” Ga’len, I’m sorry, but it had to be said, I still love your website) an insured T1 ship comes close to a real loss compared to taking out T2’s. If I could change anything, it would be to make the Orca pilot take a security hit for being an accessory, though there is no easy way to track that.
I had a thought a few weeks ago about a cool way to get ships insured and at the same time, create another game mechanic that makes being in a player corp more enticing and this recent comment as well as discussions with my corp mates last night about various issues has inspired me to share the idea with all of you.
Many corporations provide insurance for their corp members by paying for the insurance using the corp wallet. My idea is a variation on that concept. Corporate insurance for the ship and the modules with no expiration on the insurance. Yeah, sounds a bit crazy, but let me outline the whole concept and then tell me what you think.
The idea is to add another wallet to the corporation that is solely used for insuring ships. A director could take a fitted ship, insure it for the full purchase price of the ship and fittings. The amount of the paid insurance would be a percentage of the actual purchase price of that ship and modules at say, 65 percent. The money needed to insure the ship would then be removed from that wallet.
Once a ship is corp insured, it effectively becomes a corporate asset. If a pilot wishes to change out some of the modules once it’s insured, they would be able to do so and pay for the change in value on the insurance without having to have a director insure it again. If the change in fittings results in less insurance being needed, the extra isk would be returned to the corp insurance wallet. So, once a ship is corp insured, it’s always corp insured. No need for additional administrative work by the directors.
If the ship and/or modules were not purchased, they were manufactured or acquired by other means (traded to a player, acquired as a ransom, etc…), the value would be set by the current market average price in the region where the ship was being insured. Faction items would be given a value equal to that of a T2 version of that item plus 20 percent.
If the ship is destroyed, the isk for the insurance would be returned to the main corp wallet with an earmark that it’s an insurance payout for the lost ship and fittings. If a person leaves the corp with any corp insured ships, the insurance is voided and the money is returned to the insurance wallet as well.
Some items to note with this concept.
- Full insurance for your ships and modules, both Tech 1 AND Tech 2 as well as Tech 3 when it comes out.
- No expiration on the insurance.
- Additional justification for corp tax in game.
- Such a system would provide players an additional incentive to join a player runs corporations.
- Due to the large price range on faction items, it will always be hard to get a “proper” value for said items. This not really a problem as I see it, but something that helps maintain the risk for using faction items.
- Restricting the value for non purchased items to the region in which they are being insured can open up another avenue for business for all those hauler pilots out there to move ships around for people to get insured.
- As with all insurance systems, there always ways for people to abuse the system.
- Corporations will be under pressure to maintain enough income to provide for the insurance wallet.
- The payout to insure the ship is more expensive, but I believe that is a balancing factor due to the insurance not having a time expiration.
So, there you have it. What do you all think?
December 18th, 2008 at 4:36 am
I think there could be a problem with insurance paying out larger values, as there are several ways to earn isk through the NPC base, completing missions, bounties and some trading, and ways in which to earn modules from loot drops. There seems very few ways in which isk leaves the system, tax on sales, factory and research costs, insurance costs, broker costs, which all can be reduced with skills and standing, and I cant think of anything else. Wouldn’t an insurance scheme which pays out on most of the value of the ship including modules create a large increase in the money supply, thus as I understand it pushing up all the prices, causing large inflationary rises?
December 18th, 2008 at 5:30 am
In game insurance currently is abused in many ways that lead to the situation you describe right now. Any system that is used will be abused, there is no way around it.
The best insurance you can have in game is to simply put isk aside and always have enough to replace what you are flying. Personally, I don’t fly any ship without have a replacement with fittings sitting in my hanger.
December 18th, 2008 at 9:08 am
Don’t get me wrong, I believe the insurance system needs looking at, as my Bestower with rigs is worth close to 100mill and the insurance payout is close to 600k. However if the payouts start to increase beyond what was paid for ship and modules, then there could be a situation were people profit from being blown up. This appears great at first glance but also appears as if it could break the money supply within the game. Although in your post you say “The amount of the paid insurance would be a percentage of the actual purchase price of that ship and modules at say, 65 percent.” Is that the cost to insure or the amount paid out?
December 18th, 2008 at 9:25 am
Interesting concept. I think ultimately a corp and alliance should negate the losses endured by its pilots as much as possible in whatever fashion agreed upon.
Personally I cost my corp 0 isk, but pay an average of 35 million through taxes. In this way a mission-runner can support a nullsec effort. I intend to always keep my person to corp balance in the green.
December 18th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
“The amount of the paid insurance would be a percentage of the actual purchase price of that ship and modules at say, 65 percent. Is that the cost to insure or the amount paid out?”
I was referring to what you paid to insure your ship and modules.
December 18th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
I just think the insurance of modules, specifically those that aren’t destroyed when a ship is but an insurance payment is made, will lead to even more insurance fraud. I agree the insurance system needs looking at but then I believe the whole money system does. I wonder if CCP even look at that part of the game.
December 19th, 2008 at 10:09 am
CJ, any insurance system should be insuring and paying out only on the destroyed items. I think that would balance this a little better. That way there is another facet of risk still present along with all the other risks of combat.