The Fix For Exceptional Ship Spam And Worthless Quality 2-4 Ships

[van der Clam]

I like the ideas presented by the OP, and it is apparent he does understand player immersion from a dev pov. However, I have no concerns over seeing these exceptional ships. I don't feel these need to diminish in quantity and become more rare. 2/4s and below are great throw-away ships. What I want to see are all SoLs become more rare. I like this idea being applied to 1st-3rd rates in some fashion.

[Wesreidau]

It needs to be a universal dynamic for all rates, because the rear admiral with 500 hours of play shopping for a Privateer or a Rattlesnake has millions to spend in a market being entered by second lieutenants with 5 hours of play. The difference between their resources is a major argument for quality levels, so the 50 hour casual isn't in a bidding war with the 500 hour hardcore. If new players join and see all the ships at their level selling at prices met by hardcore players, we have a problem.

 

That's what quality levels are meant to be, a way to keep casual and hardcore players operating in the same space without ruining the casual's experience. Its also the end-game content to go back to 7th, 6th and 5th rates with maximized versions of the early ships for specialty applications. I have a gold fir copper-plate speed Privateer not for grinding missions and port battles, but for raiding trade lynxes in French home waters. A ship that good should be a high level player's Lamborghini. Instead exceptional ships weren't priced to be only attained by hardcore players, and everyone's in a Lamborghini. Why spend 124 hours pay on the economy car when 145 hours pay gets you the best of the best?  The devs complain nobody is driving the Ford Tauruses and VW Bettles, so they're only going to let us make Lamborghinis now.

[Wesreidau]

The devs are introducing a currency earned through PvP actions that can be used to buy rare ingredients. It sounds like they're introducing combat rewards to control exceptional upgrade and ship production. I'm optimistic. Can we get some further clarification?