Pointless Rant On Unique Ships

[aerelm]

Note to Community: Even though the subject mainly concerns the dev team, it is nowhere even near my area of dev work, so technically I don't have a say in it. That means I'm neither a developer nor an admin in this thread, just some average rant-fueled player spitting out a wall-o-text cause he's bored. Please treat it as such.

Note to Pavel: Don't go all [color=#‌FF6600]Moving to proper subforum[/color] on this thread's arse. This thread is intentionally posted here cause it's a rant for the community, not an actual suggestion for the mod.

So... Unique ships. They used to exist, they used to be cool, and they used to be available for anyone who's worked hard enough for one, but then the players behind them left and they turned into a waste of mod space. Some later got re-SRPed by other players and some just died but still exist ingame. Team of developers, considering this whole process a problem, decided to take a stick and beat anyone who ever tried to push another unique ship into the mod. Some consider it a good thing, some consider it a bad thing.

The process was broken, no argue in that, but the broken part was not the premise of unique ships on its own, but rather the unanswered question of "what to do with those ships once the player has left". The process required a lot of InRP and ooRP dedication, and a lot of people enjoyed running into unique ships, so that part was not the problem, and so, I never agreed with complete removal of unique ships being the "right" solution. If it was up to me, I would've brought back the ability to request unique ships with a few adjustments to make the system actually work:

1. It would have both InRP and ooRP requirements. InRP requirement being something along the line with having a better than "SRP standard" roleplay and a long-lasting character with 2 or more years of background developed both ingame and on forums. ooRP requirement would be getting all the work related to the implementation of the ship (model, hardpoint, hitbox, etc) already done before submitting the request, so it doesn't add to the workload of the team as much.
    
   
2. Having the request go through a 2-layered SRP-like system. Player on the server would require to actually establish the character and properly roleplay the construction of the ship, then post a request which admins would review. If the request manages to pass, admins will forward it to the dev team. Dev team will re-review the request as well as run the model through whatever quality control system there is. The model will only be implemented once and if it's successfully passed through both filters.
    
   
3. Designing a system which actually monitors and controls the whole process of unique ships, with actual "solutions" in place to handle the age old problem of inactive unique ships. This system would at the very least require:
   
   
   1. A limit on the max number of unique ship slots available at each point
      
   2. A "what to do with inactive unique ships?" policy
      
   3. A "what counts as 'inactive' unique ship?" policy
   However, such a system would also have three rather major problems:
   
   
   1. Request for a unique ship might pass but take a few months to be implemented (since it needs a mod update) and by then the one submittin it would no longer be as interested.
      
   2. The obvious workload it would add to the already-heavy workload of both devs (responsible for implementation of new models) and admins (responsible for keeping an eye on the activity of unique ships), even if we manage to optimize the process and lower it to the bare minimum.
      
   3. Would have to be limited to the official server, to ensure the monitoring is done properly, and this would be quite unfair for people who've developed their own plausible roleplay and deserve their own unique ship, but on another server.
    
   
4. Having high enough requirements and standards for these ships would prevent over-spamage of unique ships, as only people who've been around long enough, worked on their roleplay hard enough and also have the model and all the implementation requirements already worked out would be able to request their unique ship, and only those with regular flight time on the server will be able to keep their ship (on that note - having a minimum flight-time in place for the ship would also mean factions would have an easier time requesting and keeping their unique ship). Mind you though, this should not be something like 50 hours a month on a single ship that would turn it into a second job, but a reasonable amount of activity which would clearly show the ship is actually around and has not gone AWOL.
    
   
5. Related to #4, a system similar to the Player Faction IDs can be employed for handling unique ships. A "maximum number" for unique ships can be decided and placeholder ship entries can be added for those ships. This would easily make inactive unique ships recyclable and would make replacing them with new unique ships much easier, and so considerably reducing the workload as well as the mod size. The main issue pointed out with the old process of unique ships was "we cant delete inactive ones", and with this method, we easily can. Long as it's made clear that if the owner of a unique ship fails to satisfy the activity requirements after approval, the ship will be taken away, introducing "recyclable unique ships" should not cause any problems.
    
   
6. Related to #5, defining a maximum number for unique ships has a major pro as well as a major con. Pro - It would prevent the system from going out of hand, i.e. we won't end up with a 200mb mod installer, 80mb of which is the files for unique ships. Con - It would cause a problem if the X number of slots are all filled, all active, and a new request comes around with a good enough time and effort put into it, which would mean either denying the request or forcing one of the existing ships out of the mod so it can be replaced with the new one.
    
   
7. On the subject of the jealousy and the bad blood reintroducing unique ships might cause: This being the internets, that sort of behavior will always be around, but if the process is open to everyone who are willing to put in the required time and effort rather than limited to certain players, it should limit that type of attitude to the "unreasonable" bunch which can be easily ignored. Furthermore, on the subject of favoritism, elitism or objectionable decision-making, humans being humans, that will always happen to some extent, so completely removing it is unfortunately not an option, but employing a 2-layered system would reduce it to the bare minimum. In other words, we already have the SRP system which is also prone to both issues, but has turned out reasonably OK so far. There are some SRPs that some people don't agree with, don't like, or don't understand, but nothing stops them from getting their own SRP if the view on the matter is actually just.

I'm also gonna point something out already as I'm sure people will either ask about it or throw in some snarky comment related to it: Yes. I'm clearly biased when it comes to unique ships as I've had my own unique ship files ready for implementation and sitting on my hard drive for a few years now. Then again, why would any sane person actually write a pointless wall-o-text with no personal gain in it? On that note, knowing the current stance of the dev team toward unique ships, I never actually tried to push for it (The one time I simply hinted at the subject a few months back left me with a few good bruises that I still carry around), but seeing some of the existing unique ships getting recycled and people starting to play them again, makes me feel those of us who want our own unique ship and don't want to SRP one of the existing unique ships just for the sake of flying a unique ship* (trust me, there are at least a couple of other people who've had their own files sitting there for a while now) are being treated rather unfairly, and being punished for not being around back when "mwahaha" was good RP for a terrorist ID or getting a unique ship was a piece of piss**.

Just sayin.

* No offense intended to any current owner of any recycled unique ship
** No offense intended to any owner of unique ships or IDs dating back to that era