I had an idea last night about converting old ruined/half destroyed cap ships into makeshift transports to add more ship variety without going through the time consuming task of making new models. I envisioned a kind of reverse armour module that instead of adding hull and removing cargo, expanded cargo capacity at the expense of hull but also converts the stats of a cap ship into a transport (shield, weapons and bays) whilst taking up the armour slot.
To add to the motif of a repaired wreck, what about replacing the gun slots with effects such as smoke or sparks? (Personally I'd love to see a destroyed gun turret that twitches and sparks every so often.)
Imagine the Corsairs using a defeated Storta as a transport, or the Outcasts using a battered Praefect to haul slaves? I'm sure the Council would happly use an old Obstinate that couldnt be repaired to warship status to move supplies.
Would something like that even be possible code wise?
Indeed, its just a shame that applying damage looks would require an entirely new model (if my memory serves, you can't simply apply a new texture to a model on the fly).
