Immersive Grid Ownership and Transfer System

The idea is a keycard system where keycards (an inventory item that could look like a data pad) are used to determine ownership and transfer of grids. After NPCs are added, the system could be designed so most non-player grids have an NPC owner (unless it’s an abandoned grid), and the NPC owner will have a keycard for their grid. The player can own/obtain grids from various means by obtaining the keycard for that grid. This keycard system could be worked into the in-game economy, so the player can buy/sell ships (via keycard transfer) for credits. There could be an NPC you visit where you can “register” player built ships and have a keycard assigned; it should cost X amount of credits to register, but it would assign a value to your ship based on the blocks/resources used for its construction, then the ship could be sold at a trade station for a profit (there would need to be some requirements for the grid to be classified as a ship). This could be incorporated into multiplayer where we could sell/trade ships to other players. The in game menu would be updated to have a dedicated screen where all your keycards are stored (we don’t want them clogging our normal character inventory). The important thing is there is no grinding specific blocks and re-welding, this is not immersive and should not be carried over from SE1. You don’t hack grids (doesn’t work well with friendly NPC’s). No need to use the in game menu in creative mode to transfer ownership to yourself (non-immersive).

We are buying, selling, commandeering, and registering keys to ships (or stations) in a very organic, immersive way.

A few examples of how keycards can be obtained:

Hostile Grids: to claim ownership you defeat all NPC’s on the ship or at the base. One of the NPC’s is the owner (think the captain or boss), and this NPC has a keycard for the ship or base. The player can take this keycard if they want to own the grid, or leave the key on the NPC body if they don't want the grid; then the grid is free to de-spawn later. I think this is how basically all enemy ships could be obtained, other than if they introduced stealth or something.

Friendly NPC’s: the player can purchase the grid from the NPC owner. You receive the key for the grid in exchange for credits, rare resources, or completing a mission. Not all friendly NPCs should be willing to sell their grid, but you could still eliminate the NPC to take it by force (if they are non-critical). Imagine, an NPC handing the player a keycard for a ship as a reward for a tough mission then you walk up to the ship and it’s yours, very immersive!

Abandoned Grid: the player simply finds the keycard somewhere in the grid. In the Control Seat, in a container, or on an NPC body. This one is pretty straight forward.