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[xenoargh]

Storage is a great concept and worked well when it was just the Abandoned Station, except for these QoL issues with the modern version:

1.  We tend to forget where we've stored things.  Sometimes I have had such huge Monty Hauls that I store ships, guns and goods all over the Sector, like a squirrel on meth.  But then, when I really want to find those Light Needlers... I can't find out where I've opened up Storage, let alone which place I put those Needlers.

2.  When we actually do know where it is, it's usually across the Sector somewhere, rather inconveniently placed.

3.  Having to return to a "mother lode" to get the stuff isn't actually all that fun, when you're trying to chain-kill Bounties, etc.

4.  I would also really kill for the ability to call up some Salvagers and have them run back to the Core with my junk.  It gets reeeeeeeallly old doing the RPG back-and-forth.  I might even write a script to auto-sell all the junk for people; I'm pretty sure that would make me a hero of a lot of long-time players...

Suggested solutions:

1.  Put a mark in the Intel screen next to Systems where we've Stored things, and next to the Planet / Stations when viewing the System.  This would be a bare-bones QoL improvement and probably pretty easy to implement.

2.  Simply make Storage abstract but not just a free way to move things around.  Pay 5000 Credits to open up Storage at a given Market; pay a sliding scale of 1-25 Credits per item removed, depending on what it's worth.  Ships should charge anywhere from 250-1500.  This would possibly open up trading / Mission loopholes, to be sure, so maybe there's a delay of 1-5 days before it'll show up.

[Alex]

Hmm, yeah. For sure want to make it visible; whatever screen shows the increasingly-less-hypothetical outposts seems like a good place for it. And possibly something on the map.

Interesting idea about hiring someone to ship stuff! Not quite sure how to balance out it feeling too weird (stuff essentially teleporting) vs taking too long to be practical (NPC fleets taking an appropriate amount of time to ship things), though.

[xenoargh]

I'd suggest a pretty simple mechanic:  if you order something to get delivered, it takes 1 day / 10 LY.  Then when it gets to the time, play a chime, and, if the Player Fleet is in the Location or near it in Hyperspace, spawn a "delivery fleet" with the goods at a Jump Point (or Gate if they're active) and handle the docking transfer, for immersion's sake. 

Just my $0.02 on this; it'd look good and feel right.

[Alex]

Have to say, I like the sound of that. Definitely not a "core" feature but even so.

(Could get weird if you request delivery to a very dangerous area, though... hmm.)

[xenoargh]

Oh, then the chime sounds and you either:

1. Are at the Jump Point (hardcore players).

2.  Hit E-Burn and get the delivery fleet before it has an "unfortunate accident" (moderately-experienced players).

3.  Get a Comm Message that your delivery got hijacked by pirates (sorry newbie!).

[Inventor Raccoon]

If you wanted some emergent (is that the right word?) gameplay, if a player's delivery got destroyed by a pirate fleet, you could give the player a quest in a nearby system (just outside of the Core Worlds), and let them fight a pirate fleet defending a stash filled with their lost stuff.

[xenoargh]

That would be cool.  A lot of work to code, but cool

[FooF]

I'm really liking this idea. A couple of thoughts:

1.) Local storage could remain as-is if there was a way to a.) identify where it is at all times (via Intel screen or otherwise) and b.) be able to see what's in a particular storage at any given time (again, via Intel screen or otherwise).

2.) If courier services were available, I'd imagine I'd use them predominantly to ferry excess loot back to the core worlds. Delivering weapons/ships to me seems a bit counter-intuitive under the current rules because alterations away from port is very expensive from a CR/supply perspective. If it were possible to re-arm/equip during the "exchange" portion of the delivery penalty-free, I'd likely utilize the delivery side more.

3.) The cost of courier services should be commensurate with the value of the cargo and distance traveled. I'm debating if couriers should be "cheaper" than hauling loot back yourself. After all, UPS here in the U.S. can ship a parcel coast-to-coast for dollars but it would take me hundreds to make the same trip. That's just the by-product of specialization and economies of scale. On the other hand, hauling it yourself is likely less risky. So, I see the price you pay less as a monetary penalty and more of an RNG "it might get jacked" kind of thing. Non-instantaneous travel and availability is a must.

4.) I see the Independent faction (being comprised of smugglers, freelancers, etc.) as being the primary player in the courier business, seeing as they're on good terms with just about everybody save pirates.

5.) How are we ordering these services if we're out beyond the Comm Relays? That's where having them makes the most sense yet communications are very limited out there.

6.) Being a courier (via missions) in the early game would give players an excuse to venture beyond the Core worlds that isn't exploration or bounty-driven. What penalty would dissuade players from just stealing valuable cargo? What kind of resistance could be created to make sure that fights still occur on these "fetch" quests?

7.) Would it be possible to stabilize cargo pods and let the courier pick it up (as long as it meets certain criteria). Waiting around for the courier to get there sounds...unfun. Of course, it's possible the cargo gets snatched...

8.) Pirates raiding your courier would be a nice bit of emergent gameplay. Reminds me of Barbarians in the Civilization series: they could steal your workers/settlers but they never killed them. As long as you were willing to fight to get them back, you didn't lose anything. Same could be said of pirates. "Transmissions from the courier before its destruction reveals the pirates were headed toward Barad A..."

[DatonKallandor]

Courier interception would also make a great mission type for players that want to join (or have already joined) the pirate faction. Bonus of being liked by pirates also makes your courier less and less likely to be attacked the more the pirates like you if couriers being attacked by NPCs turns into a thing.

On the cost and time thing, it's important that it's cheap and fast enough to be useful. Elite Dangerous for example has a courier system that is so utterly gutted by "immersion" it's essentially useless, because just getting the thing yourself is both much faster and much cheaper.

As for the usefulness, if player owned stations turn into a thing, and they might require certain commodities to produce things, having UI for player-controlled item moving on the interstellar scale would certainly be required anyway.