Seriously this shit looks awful, and it's one of the first galaxies new players are going to see coming out of the nexus.

Bonus points; Make Free Market completely unbuildable, and give its roids a low chance of t2 commods like Dark Matter, Frozen Blobls, etc... So that new players can make money there.

We (devs) talked about this a while ago, I recall. I'm not against the idea, but we never came to a good conclusion on what to do.

I don't fancy the idea of making it non-buildable, because it's a popular shopping galaxy, but I also don't want to just remove the asteroids, I'd rather move them to another galaxy, but then, what'd be in this new galaxy?

Ring already has asteroids. Just buff them a bit if you want to compensate for the removal.

That's actually exactly the reason I think it should be non-buildable. Yes people put shops there, but FM is a core galaxy for SS, there is a reason you can't build in Paxius, that galaxy is a showcase, something for players to see. Free Market is the same thing. It should be unbuildable because it is a location for player advancement.

To keep the activity up in the galaxy simply add t2 commods to the roids and make Von Mises buy them. Or make galaxy bound mobile IC factories that new players can use to make ICs on their ships in FM using the roids and make Von Mises buy those ICs (if you do this make ICs decay upon entering FM so people don't flood them there).

Basically, make Free Market more content geared than it is now. Making it non-buildable opens up so many possibilities to make that (low DF galaxy) more of a feature for new players.

Also, as long as you allow building in there, people are going to make it look shitty with bases and drones. I would say let building continue in there only if you can implement some sort of grid system that places all the shops in a line or block so that it doesn't look terrible.

At the end of the day FM is new player content, by and large, and it should be treated as such.

Just make FM unbuildable. There are plenty of nearby galaxies to choose from.

Bobbo, make it unbuildable, and then make an empty galaxy one jump away named Promenade or some shit for people to put up shops. Everyone wins.

Okay, what about Ring?

I honestly have no strong feelings about Ring. It's not as large of a staple as Free Market is. But for consisteny's sake; make it unbuildable and allow new players to learn about ICs there with mobile factories?

why not just code it so free market is consistantly 2j away from sol always. and make the interlocking galaxy buildable. so they'll have to go through the trade galaxy to reach free market? Sol-> X gal -> Free market. the players, new and old will still have to go through the trade galaxy to reach free market so they still get the galaxy traffic, have no roids so no slaves. and turn FM into a Showcase galaxy

Make a new buildable gal named NotFree Market, make it p2p only. Make FM non buildable. Leave asteroids alone 2016.