I think you're in good company. I won't take anything precious outside an armistice zone yet. It's only a minor chore and modest expense to go buy good enough gear in game when you need it. And it's not too much trouble to stock up on a few sets of in-game gear in one shopping (or bunker) trip, to keep at home base or in your ship. Hardly any gear is worth paying
real money for in the store just yet.
The
official note on this has always been a bit vague, but it was discussed quite a bit when personal inventories were introduced in alpha 3.15. Those who've been around since then (I know you have - and then some!!) may remember lots of inconclusive discussion for what would happen to lost pledge and subscriber items, but I think at the time the consensus (from devs as well as players) leaned towards what seemed to me a fairly reasonable system, which would be implemented at some unspecified date in the future. I think it was along the lines that players who stole or looted pledge and subscriber items would be able to keep them and use them for a while - like for the duration of that play session - but when they log off, store the stolen ship, or put the stolen/looted gear into one of their personal or local inventories, after a while it would quietly be deleted. Thieves would also get a crimestat if they stole/looted player gear in UEE controlled space when the security network is active (and they would not in uncontrolled space, or when the security thingy was deactivated - to create some room for piracy and risk for players). For this to act as a deterrent, players need a visual cue on looted gear to help them tell whether it's NPC gear that they can loot without breaking the law, or player gear that will earn them a crimestat if they loot it in UEE controlled space.
If a player sells some stolen or looted gear or a stolen/looted ship, it's effectively 'deleted' at that point. Or does it remain in the inventory of the terminal you sold it at for a short time, to potentially be bought back in case of a mistake or change of mind?
After a while, you would be able to claim your stolen/looted gear back as others have suggested. Obviously, it breaks immersion if players can duplicate items by having one player steal it and keep using it while another player can claim it back, so there has to be some kind of delay. Gear in the pledge store (incl. subscriber store etc.) becomes more attractive and valuable when there is a fair mechanism to claim it back when you lose it. I'm struggling to find a link for that though... anyone have one?
I suspect one of the hold-ups in designing and implementing what might be a more complex system than it initially appears is how you deal differently with items that one player
willingly gives to another in-game, vs items that are taken from a player or looted from their body without the players' consent. What if I want to give my friend some cool pledge store armour for a few days, but I want it back after that. They definitely shouldn't get a crimestat for that.
What if I mine some resources, and my friend (who is new and cannot yet afford to just outright
buy the items from me at a fair in-game price) offers to take them to be sold or refined in exchange for a transportation fee we mutually agree? That ought to be a legitimate beginner occupation in game. The resources I gathered don't belong to my friend, but they shouldn't get a crimestat for transporting them for me with my consent. I think if another player tried to do that right now, they'd get a crimestat. And in that situation, I should not be able to go to a lost and found terminal and claim the item back right away. However, if my erstwhile friend then reneged on our deal and decided to try to keep the gear, or sell it at a no questions asked terminal, what then?
Now I should be allowed to claim it back, and report my ex-friend's crime. Or even better, they'd be able to return the items/resources, I can drop the charges, and we can collaborate again.
I'd like there to be a way for players to transfer items to each other willingly in-game - signaling to the game that it's a willing transfer - without transferring ultimate ownership. And I'd like there to be a way to revoke that later so you can get scammed for a while - and the scammer can benefit a little bit for a short while to create some stakes/tension/judgement about the other player's trustworthiness in any agreement, but so that you can't get scammed
permanently for stuff you bought with real money. That seems important to a loss and recovery system for pledge and subscriber gear. And all this seems to offer a really cool potential for gameplay, decisions, cheating other players with limited, balanced consequences, and some great storytelling!
