Forgive me, I have been waiting for AGES to trot that out... To quote the Joker, "Heh, heh heh. Ha, ha, ha. And I thought my jokes were bad."What would that demolish? It is just consequentially continuing the pay2unlock route. You don't really think it will stop at one early-access ship and some mediocre zero-rebuy ships, do you? This is now the road ahead as a price for continued hosting (and hopefully also development) of Elite Dangerous.
We will see
all purchasable by ARX. And it will work! It will generate enough income for FDev so they can comfortably support Elite into the future, be it by paying devops or content implementation. In other words: it is the opposite of demolishing, it is nurturing.
- murderboat prebuilds ("to jumpstart your PvP career")
- unicorn module exclusives
- permit unlocks
- rank unlocks
- powerplay support
- BGS changes
Now of course you can't do all of that immediately, it would upset the players. You have to let it sink in slowly, so people can get comfortable with it and eventually accept it as an actual improvement. The path to success is often one small step after the other.
A pre-built PvP murderboat will be less than useless in the hands of an untried CMDR, or one who has never engaged in PvP before.
What's the meta again, FDL with three efficient PAs, two long-range railguns, Prismatic shields? The PAs require A LOT of practice. Pilots who have never used them WILL drill holes into empty space, all the time. Same with the railguns. It would be like shooting fish in a barrel. With a 12-gauge shotgun.
Pacifiers likewise require skill to use, particularly against human opponents. Again, fish, barrel, pump-action shotgun...
Selling such murderboats would be a surefire way to alienate newcomers and less experienced players alike . . . but it WOULD create El Dorado for EXPERIENCED CMDRs, for whom the salt would flow, and lavishly, at that...
And, NO, I would NOT buy a pre-built murderboat. I COULD assemble such a thing from the materials and equipment I have, and I could not, I would not want to. It's part of the journey of learning to unlock all that.