"New" Ships Suggestion. Many of love our old beloved workhorses so why not .. . ?

[Talorien]

... Introduce Early Access for ARX upgraded "Mk 1A" versions of existing ships, with:

• Native SCO capability
• Improved cockpit visuals such as updated textures, existing side displays with non-static graphics, etc
• Offer at somewhat reduced price compared to completely new designs like Mandalay etc. (Say, half price?)
• Offer bundles with new ship kits/more muted paint jobs (like old Military Earth)

This could be a huge win-win

• Krait II, Phantom, Anaconda, Corvette, Cutter would sell like hot cakes
• Existing Engineered modules can just be transferred over
• All new designs like Mandalay can still be released + be attractive, but beloved existing designs wouldn't be obsoleted
• Much less dev resources than (only) offering all new designs (!!!)
• Super easy way for old time players to support the game

Also makes total lore sense - after all why wouldn't Core Dynamics etc. be super keen to offer SCO updated versions?

 

[DemiserofD]

Th

... Introduce Early Access for ARX upgraded "Mk 1A" versions of existing ships, with:

• Native SCO capability
• Improved cockpit visuals such as updated textures, existing side displays with non-static graphics, etc
• Offer at somewhat reduced price compared to completely new designs like Mandalay etc. (Say, half price?)
• Offer bundles with new ship kits/more muted paint jobs (like old Military Earth)

This could be a huge win-win

• Krait II, Phantom, Anaconda, Corvette, Cutter would sell like hot cakes
• Existing Engineered modules can just be transferred over
• All new designs like Mandalay can still be released + be attractive, but beloved existing designs wouldn't be obsoleted
• Much less dev resources than (only) offering all new designs (!!!)
• Super easy way for old time players to support the game

Also makes total lore sense - after all why wouldn't Core Dynamics etc. be super keen to offer SCO updated versions?

Those ships are already well used, so the sales wouldn't be as good as you think.

Better imo to SCO-optimize unused ships. For example, if they SCO-optimized the T7, and gave it a class 6 fsd and 100 extra tons of weight, it would suddenly be the best long-range trader in the game.

 

[aRJay]

... Introduce Early Access for ARX upgraded "Mk 1A" versions of existing ships, with:

• Native SCO capability
• Improved cockpit visuals such as updated textures, existing side displays with non-static graphics, etc
• Offer at somewhat reduced price compared to completely new designs like Mandalay etc. (Say, half price?)
• Offer bundles with new ship kits/more muted paint jobs (like old Military Earth)

This could be a huge win-win

• Krait II, Phantom, Anaconda, Corvette, Cutter would sell like hot cakes
• Existing Engineered modules can just be transferred over
• All new designs like Mandalay can still be released + be attractive, but beloved existing designs wouldn't be obsoleted
• Much less dev resources than (only) offering all new designs (!!!)
• Super easy way for old time players to support the game

Also makes total lore sense - after all why wouldn't Core Dynamics etc. be super keen to offer SCO updated versions?

Core Dynamics and Zorgon Peterson and the others have just spent time and effort designing and bringing into production and releasing to the market brand new ships why would they want to produce in house competitors for those ships?

 

[Talorien]

Core Dynamics and Zorgon Peterson and the others have just spent time and effort designing and bringing into production and releasing to the market brand new ships why would they want to produce in house competitors for those ships?

Hmm, maybe same reason RL car manufacturers refresh existing models alongside new ones? (Appeal to different customers for different purposes, can both sell?)

E.g. Releasing Anaconda 1A (Delacy, native SCO) is probably not gonna compete directly with Python 2 and Cobra V?

 

[DjVortex]

Better imo to SCO-optimize unused ships. For example, if they SCO-optimized the T7, and gave it a class 6 fsd and 100 extra tons of weight, it would suddenly be the best long-range trader in the game.

From an in-universe lore perspective, I think it has been kind of implied that making a ship handle SCO better requires a complete redesign of its internal strctures from the ground up (without which you get the existing ship behavior, ie. massive fuel consumption, massive overheating, and strong sway while in SCO mode). This would mean that you can't just take an existing ship and make it more SCO-optimized. You need to design an entirely new ship from the ground up. (And even then you don't get rid of all the problems. After all, even the best SCO-optimized ships, the Mandalay and the Cobra Mk V, consume orders of magnitude more fuel in SCO mode, and still have a little sway. The one thing they almost completely get rid of is the overheating.)

From a meta perspective, a game design perspective, they could well make it so that you could "upgrade" existing ships for better SCO handling. It could be, for example, a new ship-based engineering. In other words, rather than engineering a module, you engineer the ship itself, getting all sorts of benefits eg. related to SCO handling. However, this might not be the best possible option from a marketing perspective, as the new ships sell like hotcakes (and not just in the in-universe credits sense).

Unless by "SCO-optimized the T7" you meant "create a new 'Type-7 Mk II' ship that's SCO-optimized". Your post doesn't make it completely unambiguous what you meant.

 

[anShpan]

Offer at somewhat reduced price compared to completely new designs like Mandalay etc. (Say, half price?)

A little strange, how you ignoring ships' prices in game. I.e. probably for many (especially new CMDRs) to buy current Anaconda for Mandalay's half of price (~8500 ARX) is a very, very good deal, even without any mods to SCO.

 

[Tifu]

From an in-universe lore perspective, I think it has been kind of implied that making a ship handle SCO better requires a complete redesign of its internal strctures from the ground up (without which you get the existing ship behavior, ie. massive fuel consumption, massive overheating, and strong sway while in SCO mode). This would mean that you can't just take an existing ship and make it more SCO-optimized.

I don't see Mk1A versions of the current ships coming out either. All the new native SCO ships are major redesigns of the older models (except the Mandalay) and I don't see that changing anytime soon

 

[Talorien]

A little strange, how you ignoring ships' prices in game. I.e. probably for many (especially new CMDRs) to buy current Anaconda for Mandalay's half of price (~8500 ARX) is a very, very good deal, even without any mods to SCO.

Hmm this is a good point. Maybe a scaling ARX price? For example:

S ships, 5,000 ARX
M ships, 10,000
L ships, 15,000

Would need a way to solve how only players with appropriate rank can buy Cutter/Corvette (and Clipper etc), though. Hmmmm

 

[DemiserofD]

Just tie it to the Ship Kit.

You buy a ship kit, you get an SCO stabilizer. After three months, the stabilizer is considered tested and goes on the general market for that ship in particular.

 

[Talorien]

Just tie it to the Ship Kit.

You buy a ship kit, you get an SCO stabilizer. After three months, the stabilizer is considered tested and goes on the general market for that ship in particular

Hmm quite like this idea, except I'd prefer stabiliser not to take up a module slot (not sure if that's what you mean?)