Player Features and Ideas Discussion

I've been thinking about the addition of new ships for a while, to expand the choices available for players to choose from, and I believe I stumbled across an idea that both helps newer players feeling more useful and empowered by getting to fly bigger ships a lot quicker then they could normally through skill training, and also allows expansion for older players.


Civilian Ships -

They have their own specific line, from frigates up to Battleships, perhaps only 1 per category. 1 Civilian Frigate, 1 Civilian Cruiser etc.

They would have generally have more cargo space, less combat capability and less health than their counterparts in the actual racial lineups. They would have bonuses towards Civilian weaponry, and require NO SKILLS to fly. I believe they should also have both missile and turret hardpoints, in order for players to choose to follow their playstyle whilst fitting these Civilian Ships. A Caldari new player, might choose to use missiles in accordance with his faction etc.

There would also have to be more seeded items, large Civilian weaponry and a lot more Civilian modules etc. to fully fit these ships with civilian tech.

In combat, one of these civilian ships would be equivalent to a racial combat ship of the category below it. For Example a Civilian Battleship would be about as useful in combat as a Harbinger etc, reduced health and damage in comparison with racial Battleships whilst costing as much as those Battleships. Civilian Frigates would be about as useless in combat as noobie starting frigates.

To follow with the lore, they could have been made by Civilian Corporations for convoys etc. Combat capable ships more geared towards Cargo etc.

I believe this will allow newer players to gain access to bigger ships in order to do higher level missions without massive training times, but requiring only the isk to do so. For older players, these ships might provide different tactical advantages - as they might be quite versatile for having both Missile slots and Turret slots, and generally carry more cargo so they could be used as Cargo vessels if an older player doesn't have the skills for a transport ship or freighter.

In short
- Same Price as equivalent racial ships. E.g. 50 million for a battlecruiser etc.
- No skills to fly
- Bonus to Civilian Weaponry
- Combat capability (Health and Damage) equivalent to the category below of racial ships. E.g. Civilian Battlecruiser equal to Moa or Thorax etc.
- Slower than their racial counterparts
- Larger cargos than their racial counterparts



Thoughts? Opinions? Constructive Criticisms?

Yes I agree, regarding NPC Civy Seeding.
Also I like the idea of having the group of Civy stuff in a nub ship.

Yeah, ofc there'd need to be civy medium and large weps if they put in the Civy Battleship and Battlecruisers/ Cruisers etc.
Tbh the idea of having them as back up - no ammo weps, is actually quite good. Imo CCP need to look into this.

Um, you realize that standard ship hulls are considered to be civilian designs.

Where it says "Raven" they mean civilian raven.

The military ones are denoted by the special hulls.

As I said, despite being less Combat Capable -

They provide larger cargo than their equivalent ships.
They are also more versatile - can choose between missiles/ turrets etc.

So they aren't crap, just different.

Also, if your friend just joined the game. Before, all you could do is aim him in a direction and then help him purchase ships later when he has the skills. This way, you could get him into big ships to help with missions etc. from the word 'go'.

given how harmless this is for PvP and the market on the whole, I'll support this idea.