Frankly, I think we should do away with this type of blueprint system. The whole thing feels like it creates more problems and drama than its worth.
I think when you buy a ship, you should gain the full rights to it. It's yours, you paid for it. Take it into the designer, update & modify it. And make all the copies you want.
If this is something the designer doesn't want; Then don't sell the ship. And don't take it outside the safe-zone if you're not willing to risk it getting captured.
Once a ship is captured, the capturer then gets the full rights to it. To do whatever they want with it. (However, the blueprint should be saved in the state it was in when captured. So if you capture half a ship, then you've only got the blueprint to half a ship.)
Look at games like Space Engineers, and Stormworks, and Empyrion, and StarMade, and Avorion... Can you imagine if those ships at the Workshop were paid? That'd be ridiculous.
Now, before you yell at me for this being an MMO. The core concept of those games are the same as here. You grind for resources, to get bigger and better ships and bases.
And those people still hours, weeks, and sometimes even months in those games creating those ships. Then why is the people who do the same in StarBase should get special treatment?
People are gonna start doing it for the incentive, and not because they love it. And it's gonna become a business. And less of a game. Just look at Second Life community vs. Skyrim community.
Second Life is so cold and heartless. And those creators aren't playing a game as much as they're running a business.
While in the Skyrim community, it's more open and helpful and welcoming.
Now, that's not saying ship designers don't deserve any rights. They absolutely do. But at some point, their liberty has to end. So ours can begin.
I am aware Starbase is supposed to have this whole ship trading economy system to it. Like
"Oh you could buy that famous ship that was in that war and flown by that pilot" or whatever... Yeah... I don't really see that ever working. I can't think of any games where that is a thing.
Only other game I can think that even attempts that would be Star Citizen. But so far, they've only added the ship naming system. (Which is a whole other can of worms of a bad idea regarding how they did it. Like this whole unique name idea is utter BS.)
And even once Star Citizen is further along, I have my serious doubt it's ever going to work the way it was advertised.
I know personally, I don't give a flying carp about the history of a ship, and who flew it during what. It just doesn't work in a game where it just doesn't matter.
EVE is probably a good example for this as well; No one's gonna buy a Kestrel that was flown during the Fountain Wars for anything more than the standard buying price.
TLDR:
A ship is a ship. And once you have it, it's yours. And blueprints should only function as a repair guide. Not as a locking mechanism. And any blueprint of a ship can be saved / updated at any time in a designer if you own the ship.
So, a practical example;
You buy a ship off someone. Take it the designer, make some modifications. Save the modifications to the ship. And save a local blueprint so you can load it later.
So now, the repair guide will reflect the modifications when repairing the ship.
PS: I'm not defending the act of stealing those BPs, and selling them. But I think it was inevitable for it happen, and it's gonna happen again. Just more hidden the next time, if FB cracks down on it.
