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.