God only knows when it was discussed. Last year some time I think. It went something along the lines of choosing a specific hull when purchasing a ship which would offer advantage / disadvantage trade offs. Ie. Buy a hull which is resistant to explosions, but it is somewhat heavier, or buy a hull that resists most energy weapons, but is susceptible to explosive weapons, or a light all purpose hull that gives great agility, but doesn't offer a lot of protection if you get hit.

For some reason, my impression was that this was something that was going to be implemented, though I've been described as delusional before.

Regardless, I wish to refresh this topic.

I feel like the result of such a modification would be twofold:
1) It would add a serious new layer of complexity to the game and to fine-tuning setups. This is not necessarily a bad thing, ignoring dev time involved.
2) It would pretty much nerf all-energy, all-flare, or all-something-or-another setups. I strongly object to such a result. I believe effective counters to specific setups and tactics are already in-game to the effect of differing your ship / loadout / battery.

I would much rather see mods which allow ships to trade speed for armor, extra grid for mass, mass for acceleration, Large port for Small, etc. Something along the lines of the battery RFC thread.

Sorry to be a downer on this one, but [stamp of disapproval]

I have to agree with Aticephyr (albeit not with the ever-pretentious stamp of disapproval...), for the reasons given.

It's silly to claim that this would nerf one-trick-pony setups, and it's also silly to claim that it would be a bad thing if it did. That being said, it's also silly to claim that this would add anything to the game. For the most part it would just turn combat into a rock-paper-scissors match. Unless you're fighting people who only know how to fly one kind of ship, of course.

how come every time someone makes a suggestion to evolve this game from more then a tech demo everyone is against it?

pey... do I need to point out the stupidity of that statement?

I believe this particular evolution to be one in the wrong direction. In my rebuttal I proposed alternate evolutions which would bring more flavor without the possible nerfing effects of this one. Maybe the reason you think everyone is against such evolutions is that you don't read...

And Tosh... the stamp wasn't meant to be pretentious, but rather a conclusion to the prior reasoning. :p

Yeah, I can see that. I just don't like the message it conveys.

Don't feed the trolls, though ;)

oh i dunno atice it just seems that this suggestion falls in line with buying specific armor types that are less prone to explosive or blaster damage which idk after like 1000 years of serco itani conflict i think some general would have figured out

I'd have to agree with Atice's suggestion. I think that would definitely help with ship customization, which is much lacking at the moment.

I'll post one final thought and then move on, since everyone seems to dislike the idea. Most of the discussion seems (my impression may be inaccurate so forgive me if I am in error) to make the assumption that the selected hull type would give near invulnerability to a ship against a specific weapon type.

The concept I was seeking to revive was that certain hull materials would give an advantage against specific weapons- at most around 25% over the base hull, while balancing with an equivalent weakness. I picture this as a customizing option, that should cost +- 10,000cr per ship. This has an additional benefit of creating a needed credit sink, of which there are currently NOT ENOUGH.

That said, I'm out. :)

I was thinking something along those lines. What I will say, however, is that if certain specific hull types were built into specific ships or nationships (vs being customizable per individual ship), that'd be something I'm cool with.

Maybe I haven't gotten enough sleep... but:
What if there were a small (or large) wep which was not a wep but rather a shield which could block 25% damage of a certain type of gun (energy or flare)?

I mean, it's a rough idea, but given that it takes up a weapon slot... it might be viable.