I've drafted a suggestion for the following, but would like to gauge the community's receptiveness before publishing. The matter is simple: among other things, SS is a collector's game. It should be much easier manage your collection than the current system of permanently docked storage ships.

Main tenets
1. All-new interface for storage (sort, search, label), accessible from one AI base on each character.
2. Account-wide storage.
3. Storage space does not vary based on combat class and skills. Sandbox!
4. Limited storage space, upgradable and possibly scaling with level.

Possible details
-Each character can access its account's storage from its anchor point, the place where its ships left limbo. Obviously, this storage transfers to the next uni.
-Engine-less ships can be committed permanently to upgrade storage space. I have my own ideas on how to make this fair for players with many storage Singularity Spheres, but feel free to chime in.
-While storage doesn't vary based on combat class, no one would end up with less storage than they currently have. The point is to make a smooth transition to a much better system, and giving everyone a bit more storage in the process is not a terrible price to pay.

Things that are out of the question
-Storage accessible from every AI base.
-Infinite storage
-Storage accessible from a player base (ships don't leave limbo at player bases anyway)

To be clear, I have intentionally left the fine points vague. If you have suggestions on how to iron out the details, post them. If you are just interested in seeing a system of this kind go in, say so.

What about an AI base in Sol (like Bob's) for storage space? You simply dock, "purchase" a storage unit and then upgrade it for more size (costing more credits) when you need it.
The storage unit could start at 10,000 size, and you can buy 1k/5k/10k increases for x/y/z credits.

This way you can have your ships that move in limbo with you wherever you dock, and a centralised storage always in Sol (to show off collections, have gear always in Sol, etc)

Could even be accessible as one unit per account, so you can transfer gear within an account with ease and via sol.

My idea is to have all your storage accessible at the single location you want it, not in Sol. Otherwise it won't be used for anything of much importance and we'll never move away from the clunky system of using permanently docked ships for storage.

I see, as long as you pick the location once per uni and it locks at that single location, that seems fine. It would be broken imo to have everything you own just a few jumps away wherever you go, takes some of the tactics and planning out of pvai and pvp.

I'd like to see transport and logistics become a profitable enterprise for players, however that would work.

Just give us an inventory in every AI base. I don't see anything wrong with that personally. Makes no sense that these AI bases that trade in commodities wouldn't have space set aside for visiting traders.

what would happen to the hoards of sing spheres people currently use for storage purposes only?

They'd still be there on that one account? enkelin is talking about a storage shared with 5 characters on a single account.

This is the sort of question I want people to think about. Either we just ignore them and let the players acquire account-wide storage as well, or we devise some way to allow players to trade in storage ships for the new storage system. The second way is obviously more involved, but it would circumvent complaints from players who have already spent a lot of resources on storage ships. I have some ideas on how the second way would work; anyone else?

To those who don't see the need for this: I simply feel that with collecting as one of the main aspects of this game, the storage system is rather clumsy. New players invariably find it odd that they are meant to buy a Phunka just in order to toss gear into it. And then there's the whole point of account-wide storage; a collection game should facilitate, not impede, your ability to manage your collection. Once we are free of ship-based storage, we can move to a dedicated storage interface that is specifically designed for players to search, sort, and label their loot.

Battler: I agree that we should have an inventory at every AI base. Just to be clear, it should definitely not be the same inventory though. That would clearly short-circuit every aspect of the game that involved hauling materials from place to place. If we're serious about getting rid of ship-based storage, it only makes sense to provide some storage space at every base you visit.

With this I would be able to access my engineer's Rhino from my SD ?


But account wide storage is so so so required !


/ SIGNED