A new way to do Ship Insurance in Eve. (Warning: Long boring insurance talk :-P )

I would like to propose a change to the way ship insurance works (perhaps it can even be extended to other things at some point, like structures).

Goals

  • Make it affordable (much cheaper than existing policies run).
  • Have it make sense to put on any and all ships (regardless of Tech version).
  • Make it more sensible in general.
  • Have it pay out up to 100% of the value of the loss (possibly up to 150% for fittings).
  • Have it run continuously with automatic renewal.
  • Mitigate abuse potential.
  • Increase peace-of-mind.
  • Make it more interesting and “real” .
  • Create game-play opportunities.
  • Make it profitable to the NPC insurer CCP. (i.e. continue to be an ISK sink), and/or player run insurance companies.

Of course the first and last goals seem counter-intuitive, but I think this can be accomplished based on the way real insurance companies make money. That is by the pool of money coming in (from all insured) being more than the money being paid out to those who get their ships blown up, and adjusting insurance rates based on whether they are making a profit or not. Good drivers (in part) subsidizing bad drivers, like in the real world. Of course in a world where ships exploding is a common occurrence, how would this work?

How would this work?

  • First, as it is now, players can take out insurance policies on pretty much any ship.
    Though unlike currently, insurance rates will, in part, be based on the risk-factor for the type of ship being insured. The higher the ‘splody’ rate of a particular ship, in relation to how many of those ships are being insured, the higher the insurance rates will be on those ships. This is not unlike vehicles in the real world (outside the exploding part) where some vehicles have a higher cost to insure (beyond straight monetary value) than others (e.g. Sports cars are costly to insure than sedans of similar value).
    New Ship Attribute: Insurance Risk Factor

  • Insurance policies will be taken out for an indefinite period of time.
    The policies will continuously renew, unless there is a significant rate increase (say over 15%), in which case the player will need to agree to the rate increase to continue their policy. The policy can be cancelled by the player at any time which will end insurance coverage for that ship immediately.

  • The insurance payments will be made DAILY, and the payments will be taken from an insurance escrow account the player pays into. If there is insufficient funds in the escrow account to cover the insurance payments, the policy (any that can’t be paid) will be cancelled immediately.

  • Insurance rates will be based on several factors, including the player’s claims record, the type of ship, overall player-population claims, value of ship, percent coverage, how often the ship is undocked, inflation, etc…

  • Ships will continue to be insured on an individual basis., perhaps with multi-ship-coverage discounts.

  • General insurance rate increases (or decreases), if any, will be calculated on a monthly basis. These rate increases will happen without a player’s approval unless a certain increase threshold is met, at which point the player will need to agree to the increase to continue the policy.

  • Individual player insurance rate increases (if any) will happen after every claim submitted. Make a claim, your rates might go up, on a per ship-model basis and possibly on the individual player over-all (thus increasing rates on all their insured ships). These rate increases will be small and less broad for initial claims and get increasingly more substantial the more frequently a player loses a ship and makes a claim.

  • The high claimant player could therefore make their insurance rates quite high, and even become uninsurable. In which case they will be unable to insure any of their ships.

  • Rate calculations will be made on a per account basis. So all characters on the same account are affected equally.

  • Too frequent claims may be denied, though you may not lose coverage and can continue to make payments to ensure coverage for that ship / player going forward. Sorry, no blowing up all your insured ships at once.

  • Payouts are NOT automatic. Player’s do NOT need to put in a claim for an insured ship that is destroyed. If they don’t want their rates to increase they may decide not to put in a claim for a lost ship.

  • If a claim for reimbursement is not made within a certain period of time (say 1 week), then you can no longer submit the claim.

  • Certain activities may result in denied claims. Blown up by corp member / alliance member / fleet member, CONCORDed, duals, self-destruct, etc… Possibly even if you are the initiator of a fight and lose your ship.

  • No claim will be honored within the first month of payments on a NEW policy.

  • Coverage must be continuous to maintain coverage on a particular ship type even after a loss and paid claim, including any rate increases. i.e. You must (within say 1 week) reinsure the exact same model ship to maintain continuing coverage.

  • If coverage lapses, even for a day, you may be subject to an even higher rate increase to re-insure a ship type, possibly even having to pay a penalty to get reinsured. If you’ve never made any claims and coverage lapses you will be subject to the one month of no claims being paid to begin coverage again.

  • A player who becomes uninsurable due to excessive losses and excessively profiting from insurance claims, may have to repay a substantial portion of their paid claims (a penalty), in order to become insurable again, and be subject to high rates.

  • One possibility would be that full coverage is not immediately available upon purchase of a policy. You get 50% (of coverage percentage) after 1 month without a loss, up to 100% (of selected coverage percentage) after 5 months without a loss.

  • Rates can decrease for the least risky of those insured. The cautious player or those who rarely submit claims even after losing a ship.

Why?

So ideally, this would bring insurance rates way down for everyone (although you may pay just as much if not more toward your insurance bill by having more of your ships insured for longer periods of time). Still on an individual ship basis, much lower than what they are today. But even lower for those players who do not frequently lose ships. No more of this paying 2/3 the ship’s value for Platinum coverage for three months, or the rates for T2 and higher ships making it entirely not worth purchasing.

Every ship insured will have a much smaller daily fee paid to maintain insurance, that will ultimately be much lower than current rates. And yet, it should still be an overall ISK sink.

How can this work?

So how can this work, be cheap, pay out up to 100% the value of a ship’s hull (or up to 150% of the value to include a ships fittings – not to exceed actual value of one’s loss), and yet still be an overall ISK sink?

There are some key features to make sure this works.

  • The cost to insure your ships on a daily basis is very low. Low enough that players won’t hesitate to insure most (if not all) their ships.

  • The insurance policy on any individual ship would not reimburse a loss of that ship during the first month of the insurance policy on that ship.

  • This is important because a player will have to consider if they are going to fly ANY individual ship in their hanger(s) and place insurance on those ships in advance of flying them (or flying them without insurance payouts during that first month). Ideally this will result in players insuring many if not most of the ships they have in their hanger regardless of whether they are flying them at the time, just so those ships are insured when they do eventually take them out for some fun.

  • Ideally this will result in a lot of insurance money coming in even for ships that are not being actively flown.
    Furthermore, the set-it-and-forget-it nature of this insurance will likely result in many insurance policies continuing to be active on inactive fleets of ships even when a player stops playing. Since the player puts money into an escrow account to cover insurance payments, and has an incentive for not allowing insurance coverage to lapse, many players will ensure their insurance escrow account is well funded.

  • If the player loses a ship (say an Ishtar for example) that they carry insurance on, put in a claim for reimbursement and receive a payout, then they would have up to 1 week to take out a policy on a new Ishtar without losing continuing coverage (for that single Ishtar). In other words you have an Ishtar policy. To keep continuous coverage you need to attach that policy to a new Ishtar soon after you receive a payout for your lost one. If they do not put a continuing policy on a new Ishtar within that time frame then they will have to wait one month after starting a new policy on any new Ishtar before they will be reimbursed for its loss.

  • Given that insurance rates can vary depending on how frequently a player puts in claims on lost ships, those with the worst records will pay significantly more to insure their ships, while those with the best records will pay less.

  • Players with terrible records of putting in claims for lost ships on young policies may eventually be denied coverage entirely. Perhaps after a period of time they can get coverage again, after paying a large penalty, and at substantial rates, that will come down the longer they carry insurance without putting in a claim.

  • Since a player who is carrying an insurance policy on a particular ship does not need to put in a claim for the loss of that ship (thereby effecting their insurance rates) the player has control over whether or not they feel it’s worth it to them to put in a claim. Should a player WANT to put their ship in danger despite it being insured, for some fun activity where they expect to lose the ship, they can do so. If they lose a ship without putting in a claim for its loss, then they can transfer their policy to a new (same model) ship without a lapse in coverage and without their insurance rates being affected.

  • While each ship will be insured individually, all ship payments will be lumped together for a single daily insurance payment. Individual ships may have different insurance rate calculations. For instance, ships that rarely if ever leave the hanger might have their rates reduced. Ships you fly frequently may have their rates increased. (Much like how many daily miles you drive a specific vehicle you own effects insurance rates for that vehicle).

I realize this sounds complicated, but hey it’s Eve. Eve is a complicated game. :stuck_out_tongue:

Still it’s really not quite as complicated as this post makes it sound. It could probably be made even less so. And I think the advantages outweigh the effort of the revamp. In addition to the coolness factor of such a system :wink: ship insurance will be a lot more affordable than it is now. (On an individual ship basis. Again you may wind up paying as much overall in insurance as you typically do simply by having more of your ships insured for longer periods of time than you typically would). And this system would lend itself to players insuring many more of their ships (including those collecting dust in their hangers). You won’t have to remember to keep re-insuring ships, and you’ll have a lot more peace of mind when you fly around New Eden in any of your shiny ships.

I’d be interested to hear what others think of this idea. What potential problems or issues they see with it (besides its complexity)? What solutions you might have to those potential problems. Or do you have other ideas on how to improve insurance and meet the goals outlined above.

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How would insurance work for say supers or faction caps? For example, if Cormack TheGreat insured his Vanquisher how much would he be able to get if, say 6 months after he purchases insurance, he somehow dies to a dreadbomb?

Waaaaaay too complicated.

Insurance isn’t meant to be ‘real’ insurance. It is just a simple mechanic for softening losses for basic ships.

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Well obviously the more expensive the ship, the higher the insurance rate will be for that ship (though still lower than if you paid six months of Platinum insurance now).

If you started the policy 6 months earlier you would have of course met the one month waiting period before you could make a claim. So, assuming that sort of loss is covered, you could put in a claim to receive payment for the level of coverage you purchased. If you bought 100% coverage you would get the average universal lowest sell price for that ship over say the last 3 months). If you bought 150% coverage it would pay up to 50% more of the hull price to cover your lost modules (destroyed only) not to exceed their actual buy price. Dropped modules, even if you lose them to the enemy, are not covered.

If it’s your first claim, or you’ve not made any claims within a set period of time, your insurance rates may not go up.

In either case you would still have a policy on the lost ship which you can then transfer to the exact same model ship within one week’s time to maintain continuing coverage of that policy. Otherwise if you let it lapse and then insure a similar ship you’d be subject to the one month waiting period before you could submit a claim on it.

If you keep transferring the policy to new ships and keep losing them, your insurance rates could climb fast (first on that specific policy and then on all your ships polices), and you could even be denied reimbursement if too frequent claims are made. Rates are adjusted daily and your escrow account must be able to cover the payments.

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I have over 300 ships, so, um, no thanks…

Maybe remove insurance in general? Insurance itself is a decent isk faucet

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Let me tell you what! YOU sir are looking at a substantial multi-ship policy discount!

We can cut your insurance rates in HALF at least!

:wink:

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So in my example how much should Cormack TheGreat expect to get for a Vanquisher if that was his first ever loss? The 300bill build cost+ 50% for the officer mods?

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Apply to player instead of ship?

insurance is fine. it lessons the blow of losing T1 ships and doesn’t get in the way of ensuring consequence for your losses overall. becoming less and less of a factor as you move forward. only change i could see being a thing is removing it from capitals but its not that big of an issue

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This needs to be emphasized.

The way the OP structured his insurance idea… it penalizes PvP.

This is pretty much the opposite of what the current insurance system is meant to do; encourage PvP and soften, not negate, losses for younger / poorer players).

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