(06-30-2021, 11:35 PM)Treewyrm Wrote: If you want to roleplay how you bought some engine nobody's stopping you, that's not what this announcement is about. It's just about how they are treated in terms of applying rules. Bottom line is that swappable engines were set as cosmetic and before they can be made as inRP equipment (as say weapons are) there needs to have enough variety of available choices. For example let's say you're flying faction A ship and there's default engine that comes with the ship (first-party), but there would be like 8-9 engines on the market that aren't specific or exclusive to another faction (third-party). Something like manufacturers from Borderlands, where each has distinctive visual aesthetic and not just be recolors of existing ones. At least that's how I'd like to see it. May be we will and if anyone wants to help they're free to give a try at making engine effects.
Leaving aside the bit about RP consequences - I am not knowledgeable enough about these matters to opine on them - it seems to me this solution would satisfy both those who wish for proprietary engine tech for Immersion/RP/etc. and those who simply desire a degree of visual customisation for their otherwise not very customisable crafts.
Of course, making these new free-use engines gfx would not be quick (and I would be content simply with recolours of some the available faction ones; the effect work on some of them is fantastic, after all, and if contrails of a certain colour lend a distinctive identity to a faction's ships, that would preserve it).
To be honest, and with no offence meant, the outrage about what is a minor cosmetic detail feels somewhat excessive to me. Surely there are other and more impactful ways to portray a faction than regulating personal aesthetic choices?
