SKINned Alive

We knew about the coming Super Kerr Induced Nanocoating was coming and this week we got the official details from CCP Terminus:

Following the successful prototype Ship Painting Pilot Program we introduced last year and months of offering ship skins in the store, we have created a new more robust system, which provides a multitude of customization and usability benefits. It allows us to maintain and upgrade our ship catalog in a much more sustainable manner, and provides a multitude of interesting options for future developments. We believe the SKIN system will accentuate the visual experience of living in New Eden and allow you to put a personal mark on the ships you love most.

I was an immediate supporter of the ship painting program, and bought a few skins from the Next Store to make some Aliastra Incursus hulls to roam around Essence in. I know a lot of other players also like to pimp their rides even though in space other people are rarely close enough to see any part of your hull unless you are in a capital. Its the same logic of why World War II bomber crews put art on the nose of their planes: its for them and their buddies, not the targets receiving the bombs.

I am a fan of how some skins will be permanent fixtures on ships and how some will be time limited instances:

Time-limited SKINs will drop in game and may be available through other means in the future. They work exactly like Permanent SKINs when interacting with them. The only difference is they do not last indefinitely. Time-Limited SKINs have the following properties:
The time begins counting down as soon as the SKIN is activated. It will count down in real time from that point onwards until it expires.
If you activate a Time-Limited SKIN while you already have an active copy, it will add the specified amount of time on to the existing time left. For example: If you activated a Brutix Roden SKIN (30 Days) 2 days ago and then activate another copy today, you will have 58 days of time left with that SKIN before it expires.
Time-limited SKINs will only be for SKINs which drop in the game (We have no plans at this time to sell time-limited SKINs on the Tranquility server for Aurum.)

This means that some skins will be basic "I like that scheme and want it" or "our corp can now fly a unique scheme and look unique in videos and screenshots" while others can still be 'special' for pilots wishing to show off how rich they are.

I'm already for the conversion with some select skinned ships purchased so that my Aideron ships will rock some awesome colours. Now what we want next is corporate logos on our ships, get on that CCP! :)

By The Skin of your Teeth

So one of the things that came out of yesterday's CCP o7 Show was that ship skins would be revamped from the current system of blueprints and ship types to a system where players by licenses for ship skins and it applies as they desire and are not lost when the ship is destroyed.

First off, I think this is the right technical decision. When ship skins were first being released for purchase in the NEX store they came right out and said it was a test of the waters to gauge interest and not the best implementation. Well, that second part is accurate. The current implementation of ship skins led to a painful proliferation of ship types that were identical in everything except name and skin.

So this announcement confirms what I suspected: ship skins, despite being relatively expensive and temporarily (i.e. when ship dies its gone), are still popular enough to indicate that players want to customize their ships and will pay to do so. Given the evidence to support the argument from stakeholders that players want ship customization, CCP Product Owners have unleashed developers on a superior ship skinning system.

However, I am surprised by the pronouncement that players will not by individual plaint jobs but rather licences in perpetuity. This raises a lot of questions: what happens to current ships I have skinned in my hanger? Do I automatically get those licenses? What happens to existing unused blueprints for ship skins? Will there be any reimbursements? Can licenses be transferred or applied across organizations? Inquiring minds want to know.

One thing is for sure, I'm looking forward to seeing what the future is bringing for EVE's ships.