The recent brouhaha around the Zoner shipline got me thinking about something that I and others have brought up in past: The plausibility of non-house capships, more specifically BSes.
If the Zoners are going to get a generous dose of realism injected into their shipline, what's to say the Corsairs, Outcasts, Hessian, Core and Order shouldn't be innoculated as well?
House economies can build and maintain BSes, whereas everyone else would have to keep overall cost effectiveness more in mind. A small group of bombers, gbs and/or cruisers will take just about anything down.
Not to mention the fact that much of the Omicron, Omegas and Taus are filled to the brim with asteroids and similiar floating chunks of frustration - the biggest reason I sold my Juggy a long time ago.
I suggest that there be exceptions, i.e. SRPs and player faction allowances. The SRP process would have to be transparent and non-biased as possible. Player faction BSes would possess current performance related attributes, so no unstoppable avatars of death for them in any case.
Thus high level roleplaying would be rewarded, nor would the hard work of modelers be needlessly deep-sixed.
The ingame situation would also be on more even ground in the Borderworlds and the Nomad Worlds. BSes would be very few and far between.
