Currently, a given ship has a fixed amount or armour, and the ship itself has a fixed mass and cost. My suggestion is to make it possible to customise the hull material, based on individual preferences and play styles. Different hull materials would have different masses and armour points, as well as different costs and procurement methods. Possible materials are:

Plasteel: Very light, low armour and reasonably priced

Silksteel: Not so light, decent armour and reasonably priced.

Simple Plastics: Not good for anything except incredibly low cost.

Steel: Heavy with decent armour and cheap price

Vismetal: Not particularly good for the Armor or mass, but adds a "special property" of making your ship hard to target (you automatically become untargeted at more than 1000m distance, regardless of any radar extenders or any environment)

Solid Explosives: Basically turns your ship into a suicide bomb. Incredibly low armour, medium mass but a huge and highly damaging explosion when you are killed, either by a ram or by a shot.

XiRite Alloy: On the heavier side, high armour and among the pricier materials on the market

Synthetic Silksteel: Low mass and high armour, but of course it's hard to get, being a hive drop.

All ships would have a basic hull in-built when buying, for the pilot who wants a ship quickly. If, however, you are particular about your hull material, you can choose which material you want for your hull, provided said material is available at the station, either for sale or from your inventory. This would mean a little extra hauling and cost, which would be a boost to the player economy.

All ships would have a set "hull size", this being the number of cu of the hull material the ship can equip. I have not given the numerical stats for the proposed hull materials, nor any numbers for the "hull size" of the ships so far. I thought it would be a better idea to see if the idea itself was worth considering.

This is a very cool idea.. adds depth to the game without requiring more hard to produce 3d models

I would develop more pros and cons for each. For instance Simple Plastics might be extremely light and incurs little damage from TU mines.

Also "blubber" for our space whales.

spaced hull ftw

For more variation, perhaps the damage models talked about in this old newsletter could be looked at, where ship variants could have variable susception rates to energy or ordinance damage types?

Personally, I think this system would be pretty hard to explain to new pilots, based on common interactions being difficult enough as is. I'm not against the idea itself entirely, but i'd like to see it fleshed out a *LOT* more.

Alright so I'll just put up some possible rough stats...

Key: Ship (<default armour> , <default mass> , <hull size>)

Since there is only one ship to my knowledge where we know the hull material, we'll start with that one.

Prometheus:
Basic (14000 , 12000 , 60)
Mkll (14000 , 13000 , 60)
Mklll (13000 , 11000, 55)
SkyCommand (15500 , 12000 , 70)

EC:
We'll keep the hull customisation limited to the factional 101s and the 107, since the rest are really beginner-level ships.
Axia 101 (4500 , 4000 , 25)
Valent 101 (4000 , 4200, 23)
107 (4700 , 3500 , 30)

Centurion:
Mkl (4500 , 4000 , 25)
Mkll (4500 , 4500, 25)
Mklll (4700 , 3500 , 30)
Border Guardian (5500 , 3000 , 38)
Rev C (5300 , 3200 , 35)
Superlight (4500 , 3000 , 25)

Vulture:
Mkl (7000 , 4500 , 40)
Mkll (7000 , 4300 , 40)
Mklll (7100 , 4200 , 41)
MklV (7200 , 4000 , 42)
Guardian (7500 , 4000 , 45)
Vulturius (7300 , 4000 , 43)
XT (7300 , 4100 , 43)

Raptor:
Mkl (7000 , 4500 , 40)
Mkll (7000 , 4300 , 40)
UDV (9000 , 4000 , 50)

Warthog:
Mkl (7700 , 6500 , 43)
Mkll (7700 , 6300 , 43)
Mklll (7700 , 6500 , 43)
MklV (8500 , 6200 , 47)
Territorial Defender (8800 , 6000 , 49)
Mineral Extractor (7500 , 7000 , 40)
Greyhound (6000 , 5500 , 35)

Hornet:
Mkl (8800 , 7000 , 49)
Mkll (8800 , 7200 , 50)
Mklll (9000 , 7000 , 51)
Convoy Guardian (9200 , 6800 , 53)

Revenant:
Mkl (8800 , 12000 , 49)
Mkll (9000 , 12000 , 50)
Mklll (9200 , 11500 , 52)

Atlas:
Mkl (6500 , 11000 , 37)
Mkll (6500 , 10700 , 38)
Mklll (6800 , 10700 , 38)
Type X (6800 , 10000 , 40)

Marauder:
UIT (8000 , 5500 , 45)
TPG Type B (9000 , 5400 , 50)
TPG Type X (8300 , 5000 , 46)
Tunguska (6000 , 6000 , 35)
Corvus (8000 , 5000, 45)
Valent (9200 , 5700 , 52)
Axia (9200 , 5600 , 52)

Centaur
Mkl (11700 , 16000 , 50)
Mkll (14000 , 16000 , 60)
Mklll (11700 , 15000 , 50)
Aggresso (13500 , 16000 , 57)

Ragnarok
Mkl (12000 , 16500 , 53)
Mkll (11500 , 16500 , 47)
Mklll (14500 , 16500 , 65)

Behemoth
I'm not going to bother with the Aeolus Light.
Mkl (15000 , 35000 , 67)
XC (7500 , 35000 , 34)
Heavy Miner Mkl (7500 , 35000 , 34)
Heavy Miner Mkll (7500 , 35000 , 36)

Valkyrie
Basic (7400 , 3500 , 44)
Vengeance (8800 , 3550 , 49)
Rune (7400 , 3500 , 44)
IDF (8700 , 3500 , 47)
X1 (8800 , 3550 , 50)

Properties of materials:
Steel: Armour 220, Mass 125kg
Plasteel: Armour 200, Mass 50kg
Silksteel: Armour 250, Mass 70 kg
XiRite Alloy: Armour 300, Mass 100kg
Synthetic Silksteel: Armour 325, Mass 60kg
Vismetal: Armour 150, Mass 125kg but with the hard-to-target special property
Solid Explosives: Armour 5, Mass 100kg, Blast Radius +2m per unit equipped, Damage +100 per unit equipped.
Simple Plastics: Armour 100, Mass 100kg; undetectable by all mines.

The default material on all ships is Steel.

One may customise their ship Hull through a manufacturing mission at a station where the said ship is sold. Meaning one could modify a UDV in Dau L10 even if they bought it from Arta C B7, but cannot do so at Dau G11 where a UDV is not sold. One must deliver the material and the ship to the station, and will recieve the modified ship. One may also change the hull of their ship as many times as they like, by providing their desired material according to the hull size. They will recieve half the quantity of material used in their old hull back.
So, if I modify my UDV to a XiRite Alloy hull, I give the station 50 XiRite Alloy and my UDV, recieving a modified UDV and 25 Steel. If I want to then switch the same ship to a plasteel hull, I give the station 50 plasteel and recieve 25 XiRite Alloy and a Plasteel hull UDV.

So question, why would the default material on all ships be steel, when the backstory states this:


AD3924
The UIT are happy to contribute their own technology to the effort, however, providing the Itani with many ingenious but often low-tech, solutions to problems. Among their contributions is their best Xithricite alloy. Light and incredibly strong, it becomes the new metal of choice for spaceship construction.

Which means for the past 526 years, Xith alloys have been known and used in spaceship construction. Why would anyone accept anything less than that for their base models?

On some points you have to sacrifice lore for gameplay, and I think this might be one of them. XiRite Alloy is, according to the lore, the strongest hull material made by humans. If that were to be the default for all ships, very few would want to customise their hull. Which would reduce the gameplay use of the whole system.

Taking into consideration what WAF said - how about make it so XiRite Alloy is the default. Then you can customize from other options available. Tweek the stats so options are actually worth to switch from the base.
I'd personally like to make this according to the backstory since it is mentioned.

Another change I'd personally like is how about we remove the hauling part because game already has too much of it as is. All Stations will have the material options while purchasing the ship in a separate tab. So those who want the different material on their hulls may buy from there & those who want the regular how it currently is may not be bothered.
If you want to change material - buy a new ship. No mission that changes the hull material or its just another manufacturing aspect most players won't bother with much since manufacturing = hauling. It'll end up in same place as CSL
Availability of some material options may change according to stations.
Purchase cost will be changed according to what material you choose from.

+1
I don't even know wnat to say. Great idea.

Another change I'd personally like is how about we remove the hauling part because game already has too much of it as is. All Stations will have the material options while purchasing the ship in a separate tab. So those who want the different material on their hulls may buy from there & those who want the regular how it currently is may not be bothered.
If you want to change material - buy a new ship. No mission that changes the hull material or its just another manufacturing aspect most players won't bother with much since manufacturing = hauling. It'll end up in same place as CSL

I don't think the game has "too much hauling as it is". If you're not manufacturing a capship, there is pretty much no hauling. If you don't want to haul stuff yourself, hire someone to do it. That's got to be a boost to the player economy, which is currently restricted largely to capship materials. Also, CSL is unused because it is the only ship that needs you to haul for getting it, making it not worth it. If every ship required some hauling to be brought up to a great standard, you might even see use of the Superlight increasing.

Also, there might be a really simple lore reason for XiRite Alloy not being used as the basic hull material. Cost. Ships are mass produced, and the producers might not find it cost-effective to provide the best as the default. If you think this is unlikely, just look around you in real life.

So I’m not trying to be all a negative about this suggestion. I love suggestions. I know you have placed a lot of time and effort into it; I appreciate the amount of work have you done writing it. It’s just that more you write, the more you give reasons why they should not be a thing. At least, it should not be a thing in how you originally stated it show be early in this thread.

You mention game play reasons why things should be complicated. But I prefer to keep things simpler for the same reasons. It is possible to play VO very casually. Just hop on, buy a ship and shoot. With your suggestion, things get a lot more complicated. Some old vets might even stop playing if they come back and have to do a lot of superfluous steps just to pew.

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In the favor of your suggestion, I can observe that we do know that there is a shadow economy in VO. In theory all the ingredients for a ship first have to come to that station before they can be built. This is mostly seen at the Latos stations. When this kind of economy is spread to the entire galaxy, there might come a time where blockades could reduce the ingredients needed creates these ships, and alternative ingredients may be needed.

Xirite, currently, is pretty common. It is produced in UIT in large amounts. We do there was over-mining of some ores, maybe xith, in Verasi I-5, which is the reason for the dust cloud.




Over-mining might at a some point increase the current low costs of xirite alloy. Meaning that miners will need to go to new, unexplored areas of the galaxy to mine it. These increased costs will both make miners rich, and also force others to seek alternatives.

–

You mention "there is pretty much no hauling" (in VO, outside of capship hauling). I find this statement to be false. There are lots of players who trade as part of their RP. Just because your RP may be a combat focused one, doesn't mean everyone is combat focused. Plenty of traders are in VO.

You mentioned that the Super Light is underutilized in VO because a player needs to haul to get it. I don’t think that is the reason. The SL is a limited use ship. People don’t use it more because they are not racing in the tubes due to the race tubes needing a fix, and/or they don’t need to be super twitchy in combat. A larger VO population (when the flood gates are opened) will result in more users of SL.

To that end, instead changing the current system for purchasing ships, there should instead be more ships that can be manued. This can expanded upon in a different suggestion thread.

We, however, do not need indefinitely customizable ships.

I understand the need for simplicity. And that's what I've tried to take into account. When you say that you'd have to do "a lot of superfluous steps just to pew", the steps aren't necessary if you just want to casually pew. You aren't required to select the hull material while buying the ship. It's a mission taken afterwards, if you want.

There have been a lot of new gameplay changes within the past few months, that would be very surprising for returning vets. Such as not being able to fire in nation-space NFZs, or /+Active turrets, etc. So I don't think that such a change would impose a really specific shock on returning vets.

What this will do, however, is enable existing PvP enthusiasts to customise their ships according to their play style. Want a really lightweight setup? Plasteel. Like your armour? XiRite Alloy. Sure you'll survive? Synthetic Silksteel. As well as new gameplay, such as traders or pirates opting for a Vismetal hull to become untargetable at >1000m and thus become hard to find, or people suicide bombing in furballs using a Solid Explosives hull.

I'm concerned about gameplay balance here. Considering that the difference between some ship variants is 100 or 200 kg, I don't think it'll be possible to implement the weight/armor tradeoffs in such a way that is meaningful without breaking balance.

Especially with the ratios you've proposed. Plasteel is 90% base armor and 40% base weight. SSS is 150% base armor and 50% weight! That'd be a SCP having ~20000 armor and handling like a vulture.

The hull mass isn't all the mass in the ship. There's also the mass of the other parts you have to take into account. Heavy ships like the SCP will still not become light fighters despite the lightest possible hull, and even with the most high armour stat material you can't turn a vult into a tank.
But yes, SSS is a very unbalanced material, and is meant to be so because it's not easy to get. Using SSS hulls repeatedly while losing ships is gonna be costly. Of course, even if you don't lose the ship, repair costs are gonna be high on an SSS hull.

-1

I like the idea but I don't see it fitting for small ships. There will always be balance concerns and issues with the number of options both ship and hull wise, and while combat could use a shake-up, I think this would only push more people away with the added complexity.

This kind of customizability is more suitable for capital ships. There aren't many, which makes balancing easier, and they are "end-game", so someone with access to one would not be overwhelmed by the options.

If the hull-mod missions are unlocked only at a high license level, say 9/9/9/9/5, we can be sure the player is experienced enough to not be completely overwhelmed and repulsed. The game already has a lot of complexity, even early on in the game. I think we can do with a bit more complexity for high-level players.

It still sounds very cumbersome to balance it. Having 3 different stats for every ship, mixing with different armors types? It's no small task making sure that no ship gets accidentally buffed too much with some weird combination of ship stats and armor.

Having small incremental buffs would be a much better alternative than the current numbers you've given.

Agreed with Aryko. This is the equivalent of tripling the variants of every ship. We already have variants that are redundant (or could use a balance pass at the very least). Tripling the amount of ships would flood the market with useless variants that you'd have to do even more research on. And if you didn't, you'd end up spending time hauling/buying materials to get something that's not worth it.

If anything, I'd like to see ship prices increase across the board, and maybe then you could buy crappy "lite" versions of them made of plasteel or whatever. But that's an entirely different discussion that would require the reworking of the entire economy.

-1