Thanks Emi, the Star map looks awesome!

Can't wait to get it filled in so I don't have to keep switching back to my notepad!

I guess in my opinion if it's something we gripe about, then it's a cost lol
 

I think there has to be some incentive to not lose battles.  It's a pretty small cost already, so if your jump timers weren't even bothered, then the cost to losing a battle would be tiny compared to the potential in winning

@ Dadds

Definitely agree with what you said, but at least we're getting somewhere!

Perhaps a new commodity trading system will also make it easier for Emi to introduce between player commodity trading

That's what I'm really hanging on for

I think Sargas might be right here.

I don't wish to ruin the atmosphere here in the forums, but perhaps things are getting a little personal...

It is all just a game after all.

I heard Sargas was trading in food, perhaps he should take care of the catering...

I guess my concern is that raph has 40 odd ships, and may find attacking with a 1% chance of stealing a ship worthwhile, especially if his attack ships only need 500,000 power or so.

If we make the chance of losing the ship so low as to not hurt new captains, I wonder if it would really add to the realism of the game overall.

With PVP being optional, there are still people who will turn it off and never turn it back on. So what will you do if they are taking up an entire planet your wanting to mine on?

Sorry JamJul, I was getting a little mixed up I guess.  I'd allow people to hit mines/stations and jump ships no matter whether PvP was on or not (so maybe PvP isn't the right word...) but I'd also allow people to sign up for a form of the game where (as rostin said) their modules could be hit) or as you said, their ships could be lost.  That'd allow Dadds and Raph to slug it out, without making a target out of a new SEA graduate, and without allowing people to clog up planets with inactive mines.

One of the things I've been quite keen on is tracking pirates, so perhaps if you want to go PvP and steal ships, people can also track down your ships and take you out. PvP would have some interesting possibilities

Perhaps we could find aliens or pirates that are operating base stars lol!

Can't get enough of the BSG references.

Tags to me are kind of crappy.  Most people aren't going to have them on as it is. Many probably won't even know they can toggle them.

Perhaps to avoid what you're concerned about, PvP mode could automatically be engaged, and we could have a stage in the tutorial where newbies have to turn PvP off, and then on again.  New players will know how to do it, but the default will be to PvP.

On the other hand, maybe we could give incentives for playing PvP.  Perhaps some missions can be limited to PvP?  or rarer minerals can be found while in PvP mode?  That would give people incentive to up the risk.  As it is, I wouldn't go PvP unless I was one of the top 20.  Too easy to be squished lol!

I mean JamJul I think PvP is a good idea, I've got nothing against what you're saying.

I'm just not sure how to do it in a fairmanner that is useful, but doesn't hurt anyone too much
 

well if the cruiser came in black then it'd be a no brainer

I'm sick of all my cruisers coming with giant bullseyes painted on their sides

1% is a pretty small chance.  But it might be enough to at least teach players it is better not to just let their ships sit around in orbit of planets. Especially in Sol. 

I agree with this in principle, but I think it'd be much more likely to teach 1% of players not to play astro galaxy.  Plus, I think this still leaves the problem of smaller pirates targeting new players.  Right now there's not much incentive to hit smaller players unless they attempt to mine.  If you could take over small ships, then every new player would have a target painted on their back.

Doesn't that become less relevant if we add in chain jumping though?

I could just leave a ship jumping overnight, as you said, and come check back in the morning if it spotted anything out in the wilderness.  I mean, if you can afford to splash 750QP for the cruiser, you can probably afford 20 for VIP lol

@Jam

I think this'd be more of a risk for smaller players.
Let's say someone getting into the game only checks in once a day.  It'd be quite easy for their ship to be jumped by either one of the big players, or even a smaller pirate.  At that point, losing a ship, especially if you only have 1-2, would be a huge problem.   And there'd also be a much bigger incentive for big pirates to hunt down smaller players, as a new ship is quite the prize, no matter the tech/cargo onboard.

I'm a big reluctant, both from a personal standpoint and for the game, so see this brought in galaxy wide.