You know how System security ships and some other NPCs have access to paintjobs that we players can't use?
Now lore-wise it makes sense that not everyone is allowed to look like a cop (though let's be honest, the ship paintjob is the last thing you look at to determine that), but I think certain gameplay triggers could be used to award access to these.
For example, you could gain access to Federal/Imperial security service paintjobs for reaching certain ranks, to give those more meaning?
The NPC-exclusive pirate paintjobs for smuggling a certain amount of stuff to black markets?
The NPC-exclusive "search & rescue" paintjob(s) for reaching X amounts in the search & rescue ingame statistics?
There's certainly more that I've missed here.
All these values and paintjobs are already present ingame, so if you ask me it'd be a relatively easy way to give the player more incentives to work towards.
And if considered, creating new triggers for some of the above would make them even cooler, e.g. the police paintjobs could be instead tied to earning/cashing in X amount of Alliance/Empire/Federation/Independent bounties, tieing them more closely to the law & order gameplay loop.
TL;DR There's NPC-only paintjobs, mostly for good reason lore-wise. Award them to players in a relatively lore-friendly and gameplay-bound way!
Now lore-wise it makes sense that not everyone is allowed to look like a cop (though let's be honest, the ship paintjob is the last thing you look at to determine that), but I think certain gameplay triggers could be used to award access to these.
For example, you could gain access to Federal/Imperial security service paintjobs for reaching certain ranks, to give those more meaning?
The NPC-exclusive pirate paintjobs for smuggling a certain amount of stuff to black markets?
The NPC-exclusive "search & rescue" paintjob(s) for reaching X amounts in the search & rescue ingame statistics?
There's certainly more that I've missed here.
All these values and paintjobs are already present ingame, so if you ask me it'd be a relatively easy way to give the player more incentives to work towards.
And if considered, creating new triggers for some of the above would make them even cooler, e.g. the police paintjobs could be instead tied to earning/cashing in X amount of Alliance/Empire/Federation/Independent bounties, tieing them more closely to the law & order gameplay loop.
TL;DR There's NPC-only paintjobs, mostly for good reason lore-wise. Award them to players in a relatively lore-friendly and gameplay-bound way!