Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Yo,

Here is an idea I thought I'd post. It probably has already been said, but I'm not going to attempt searching through all the forum posts etc to find it. So it here it is:

Yeah there are a lot of space ships in Eve, it's great! I even want more. And yeah, you can take the hulls of these space-ships and put lots of different stuff/modules rigs on them. That's great too! But ......

Being a long time player, usually finding myself in the same space boats for whatever stuff I want to do on Eve on a particular day, I sometimes finding myself wishing my space boat was a bit more personalized. Like all the years I have been flying around with in Lucy, my beloved Helios cloaky ship, you'd think I would have tinkered with Lucy more, done something to give her something unique, personal - you know, like what Han did with the Millenium Falcon, he modified it himself and ended up with the fastest piece of space junk in the galaxy (well, in some galaxy, not Eve's).

So here's the idea. Some kind of way to make long term personal upgrades to a particular ship you are flying. And I mean long term, like months and months and months if not years. And this would be beyond the standard rigs and modules you put on the ship. I mean the actual ship itself (like my Lucy). Like I could take Lucy to some chop-shop, and have her hull upgraded just a little each month, in some way that made her a special unique ship in the galaxy. Not just like all the other Helios's out there. I want to be different. I want to make my Lucy cloak just a little faster, or hold just a little more cargo. But I don't want anyone particularly to know about it. And I know if someone ends up blowing up Lucy, that's all she wrote for what may have taken months and months of chop shop modifications including all the isk I sunk into her.

Anyone following me here? You know, some special features for you ship that cannot be bought and installed in an instant, but would take many months to upgrade. To make your ship that much more unique and precious?

Short answer: Rigs

Long answer: What you're proposing is never, EVER going to be even remotely considered since it would be a balancing nightmare.
People would start to min/max like crazy and make ridiculously powerful bonuses such as the web bonus on a Vigilant or the resist % bonus even more insane.
Some bonuses would be overused, while others would be ignored and forgotten.

-1

This would be really cool from a lore standpoint but basically impossible to balance from a game design standpoint.

Here are a few issues with the idea from a game design/balance standpoint:

1. This incentivizes risk averse PvP - if your ship gets stronger over time then it is far better to hang on to as many of your ships as you can for as long as you can.
2. There are a lot of ships which are rarely or never lost - PvE ships and freighters for example which could have years and years of upgrades on them.