Custom built spaceships

[someone]

Hello,

if i'M able to create my own (and for me K*ck ass) race of an alien, i'd love to see me being able to create a custom style of spaceship appearance for my race.
Not just some preset parts i throw together, more like totally free designable shpaceship.
Sure it will have to fit the Tiers, there the presets would fit.
The look or skin, body structure, etc. is what makes the trick for me.
Maybe a (updateable) preset of textures and decks / consoles / slots of shields / warp / weapons but a free designable skin.

If it was discussed before, flame me till ashes and let the thread rott on page 255 - as i was unable to find exactly this in another thread.

:)

//Edit: I just won't make up my super ulalalla race to stick it into some enterprise, Insertsomeotherclonablesinhere clone ;)

[rotide]

From a game design standpoint I'm not sure how feasable that would be.

Step back for a moment and think about the demographic that plays games. Usually (not all the time) you get kids, adolescents, etc, that play games. Imagine everyone wanting to create their own ship, yes, you will get some GREAT designs out of it but on a general level, you will have.. less than appealing? ships. What I'm trying to say is, kids like to draw "body parts". The last thing you want to see is every other ship being a.. body part or something along those lines.

From a technical standpoint there would be a TON of data having to be stored for custom models and every time you go somewhere you'll have to download the new models/skins. Imagine flying into a heavily populated area where you have to download meg after meg of custom ship designs before you can see everyone. That wouldn't be fun.

Really, from a maturity and tech standpoint, I'm just not sure how well it would work.

However, I do believe they may open contests to design ships and the best ones might get included in later patches. So that might be something to look forward to!

[TheMasterpiece]

There has to be a limit on what level of customization is possible, just for logistical purposes. Its simply not possible on this scale to have 100% customization. And while you can create your own race, its built from different choices put into the game. there are 1000s yes, but each feature is pre loaded and you mix and match. Same with ships if you can create custom ones.

[someone]

I get your point.
I guess it comes down how detailed the ships really are.
I wasn't talking of 10MB high detail 3DS models.
I thought of designing just the outer shape, how much influenced it's by the interior - idk.
But i guess you wont be able to have a look through the window and see your AV sitting in the chair.

Maybe some construction kit in the way the aliencreator was done that fits the needs to get a similar look to the pre built ships.
Even if it ain't totally free ...

And yes there would be ugly ships, but then again ... noone want's to run about in ugly pants, even if you made em yourself. ;)

[Keldaria]

this topic has aready been discussed in the post below, so feel free to look over that posting on it because it has alot of great ideas from the community.

Custom Ship Building Thread, CLICK HERE (http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=11739)

[Desterion]

About the only thing that can really be done, is to have ships be community approved. Once a month, there is a contest for ship designs. A theme is pre-selected like a Klingon transport ship, next would be a cardassian fast attack ship and so on. Whatever kind of role that needs filling in at the time. The best one gets implemented in the game by the design team.