TL;DR: currently gates are projects from big players for big players, lets make them viable for newer players too.
so here is the current situation:
- WCB: bad STL performance, good FTL performance, high gateway fee = bad²
- LCB: normal STL and FTL performance, normal gateway fees = okay
- VCB: good STL performance, bad FTL performance, cheap gateway fee = good²
- HCB: normal STL performance, bad FTL performance, very cheap gateway fee = good³
- need gateways upgraded to max volume so the max range is reduced = bad for other ships
Currently starter ships and especially WCBs rarely use gateways because they have have a bad STL performance (WCB needs to move up to 3kt cargo) and have to pay the same gateway fee as a HCB which can move 5x/10x the m³ but needs gates upgraded especially for them and with that more gates overall which is effectively paid by the smaller ships. So the ones benefitting the most are people that use HCBs (big players) and people that have enough ships to let ships run with lower SF usage (big players, but that is a different problem)
So here is my proposed solution:
- making gateway fees (and VF usage) per m³ instead of per ship
With the gateway fee adjusted to m³ they get at least somewhat better as the inconsistent STL part still exists but at least it would be better. A alternative would be to have them per cargo bay (for example <=500m³, 1000m³, 2000m³, 3000m³, 5000m³) or per ship size (for example <=1500m³, <=3000m³ and >3000m³) which would add more of a political layer.