EVE General Discussion

True story

Well, this thread isn't really about the purposeof the NeX store, so I won't push it and derail it any further.

Back on track, I like your ideas for all the possible cosmetic changes for ships. However, there would need to be some sort of protection against performance degradation. I'd imagine the client/server having to process all kinds of variations on the base models would be rather unfortunate for performance.

I was thinking about this a month or two back. I thought it would be great if we had a system to paint our ships that was in a was similar to say Forza. What I thought was :-

That the system would have a base set of decals that could be stretched, squashed, rotated etc.

These decals would be placed onto a layer maybe mirrored to be simmetrical. (Go faster stripes FTW!)

There would only be maybe 6 layers on a ship. (Not saying this is all i want... I could use a 100 if given a chance )

A slight variation on base ship texture Colour for added effect are more costly in isk.

After thinking about these things it occured to me that it wouldn't be too hard for such a system to exist. The code for the decal placements & colours which is transmitted to CCP at time of undocking would be tiny as the assets are all in our clients.

The LOD over distance would mask detail & give time for those far away from the new decal augmented ship to load the data.

Jumping into system would give enough time for the locals in system / in sight of gate / station to recieve decal layer data.

Charge 100mill isk per paint job template. Charge 10mill to put that template back onto your new ship.

An isk sink methinks & something to do during station games

A black Minmatar ship with orange trails would be awsome. As for the lights, I think that what you want to fly is a kind of ricer. Ships are not 99' Honda Civics with neons under the body.

Actually if anything they should use paint jobs as an isk sink. There is nothing better than disposable cosmetics to remove currency from a game, since people will pay so considerably for it (even $$$).

The price should vary as:

• Each hull category costs more than the last, so pimping a frigate is relatively cheap but that gold plated titan is really going to hurt your wallet.
• Tech level increases costs dramatically.
• Color popularity/desireability increases costs exponentially (gold plating is possible, but at such a premium that it becomes the new monocle - pimp my riders get to bling, and when you pop a gold plated ship gankers get to squee).

It should, of course, be completely and irrevocably destroyed when a ship pops.

This breaks absolutely no mechanics. This nerfs nothing. This is available to everyone. There is no real reason for controversy. This is an isk sink that can be adjusted without far reaching ramifications. Its something players clearly want (and can ignore completely if they don't). I see it as win/win for players and CCP alike.

Edit: formatting.

Believe it or not this actually was implemented. It was removed shortly before I joined beta from what I understand. I did see some old screenshots of it on the beta forum though. Not sure why it was removed.


This shouldn't cost real money. If it does then it shouldn't be droppable just like the avatar clothes or people who PvP a lot will be paying more for space paint than their phone bill.


Only because it's a titan. I'm amarrian. All my ships are already gold plated.


How could a paint job possibly be abused?

So what I'm seeing from you is, your idea of "custom skins" would be slightly different shades of the existing races color palettes.

Amarr: Gold, Dark gold, Light gold, Gold gold

Minmitar: Brown, Rust, Rusty Brown, Dark Brown

etc etc

Every ship already has running lights, nothing would be added. Stop trolling.

CCP and anyone with even a modicum of taste would never allow this to happen.
Paint and pattern styles need to stay within their racial and/or factional design.

I think the point was how ludicrous it is to manufacture T-Shirts from Tritanium. Considering minerals and resources in game are mostly related to the manufacture of space ship parts and stations, I can't think of a reason why that wouldn't be a good argument. On the other hand, it's perfectly reasonable to expect PI to produce some of the required materials, and to an extenti t maybe/sorta does. A lot better than making fuel out of Robot Parts anyway.

So.. to disagree with the OP or not to disagree with the OP; that is the question.


Generally speaking, I'm going to agree as I never noticed a mention of NEX or PLEX, but I didn't read it all anyway. However, I too went "wtf" when I noticed the custom exhaust headers; actually that's as far as I got. Shall we have Neon LEDs too? "Pimp my Ride?"

Okay, I get customizing ships and changing paint schemes to a certain degree, but this is getting a bit ludicrous. I'd say offer a combination of options from NEX and General market and availability through player interaction.

Custom ship design schemes can be sold on NEX, (I really don't have an issue with that), that can then be either sold on the market in game or used to produce ships using that design for Contract sale. Obviously, Custom-Custom is not going to work with the regular market. Any ship repackaged will have to revert to its regular form.

In-game customization can be available on Custom designs and regular skins and provide a good NPC ISK sink. This will allow players to change the tint of Custom designs or colors of regular skins to one degree or another. Changing exhaust trails is a bit silly, unless you think swapping the engines with something that produces purple smoke is still going to result in you being able to fly the ship.

You could also offer Faction and other NPC ship skins through LP to bring another option into it. FW players and missioners could get their own ship skins specific to the respective factions through this. Imagine a Rifter flying around with Caldari colors for example?

Effectively, no matter how you get it or from where, a Design sheme for a specific ship type would be a 'BPO' or 'BPC' that you could use many times or once respectively. You could sell them, trade them through Contract, or use them for manufacture. Potentially, if added to the ship manufacturing queue they could even make the process faster and more cost effective.

Nothing wrong with the idea, and to ease the implementation, these design could be made available initially, (or ever for that matter), for use with specific ships that are consistently popular and well-liked by the game population. Rifter for example, or even a Drake or Hurricane.

This would limit the number of 'Custom' skins that would have to be created and make it sort of like the legacy of custom cars. Only very specific models have ever been consistently customized to any great degree. There are cars; and there are The Cars. I don't mean the late 70's rock band either.

At least put corp decals on ships