The Alliance could offer a high-tech refit to pilots who have obtained an Imperial ship, thus a special "Alliance-only ship" and acquisition obstacles

[Archvillain]

The Alliance could offer a high-tech refit to pilots who have obtained an Imperial ship, thus a special "Alliance-only ship" and acquisition obstacles

Unlike the Federation and Empire, the Alliance offers no special ships for its allies. We don't want a third rank-grind yet it would still be nice for the Alliance to offer a "special" ship.

Solution: The Alliance simply offers allied pilots a super-high-tech retrofit that can overhaul a specific type of ship that already exists, but the catch is... you can't get the "feedstock" ship from the Alliance.
Eg. The Alliance offers a Clipper_v2.0 and a FAS_v2.0, but it falls to you (the pilot) to somehow obtain a Clipper or FAS for the Alliance to modify for you.

Advantages of this approach include that it:

1. Keeps the Alliance feeling different from the two superpowers,
2. Emphasizes their underdog position,
3. Adds a new twist on obtaining a ship,
4. Gives the Alliance a special ship to offer,
5. Requires a naval rank to obtain the exotic ship without adding a rank-grind to the Alliance
6. Does not require as many dev-hours as creating an entirely new ship type.
7. Illustrates the Alliance's values; higher-tech-but-lesser-military-industrial-complex-shipyards

I envisage that the overhaul would cost a lot of money, maybe as much or more as the purchase cost of the feedstock ship itself, but would upgrade certain capabilities accordingly.

 

[CMDR Corlas]

It's a cool idea, and I understand the logic of still locking it behind a rank system, but I dislike that it would be a Imperial / Fed based. If anything, it seems like the Alliance would base it off a non-faction design, although it does break the lockout system.

Still, good idea, but I think it could use some polishing still. If Alliance ships are to be variants, I'd rather see them be Lakon or De Lacy based.