We are pleased to announce the first batch of changes in our large overhaul to our ship system! The goal of these changes is to make ship building and use a little more user-friendly, while still keeping a wide gamut of configuration and customisation available to truly make your vessels your own!

Here are the details of this batch:

Superstructures and components
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* Ship classes, which are now more core to the ship experience, are as follows:
* Interceptor, Corvette, Destroyer, Cruiser, Battleship, Freighter, and Superhauler.
* Each ship class will will have subclasses: Light (meaning more nimble, but less resistant to damage), Heavy (less nimble, more resistant to damage), or Normal (which is a balance between the two).
* Insurance costs and voidgate fees are now solely based on ship class.
* There is now a wider spread of turning times and general handling between the different classes, with larger vessels being less agile.
* Components (engines, capacitors, etc) are now designed for a particular ship class. An engine made for an interceptor will not work in a freighter.
* All components now have mass and power draw.
* Component mass no longer influences cargo capacity.
* Components are now balanced in a way to promote meaningful decision about what components you use. If you want the best engine, you will need to skimp on another component.
* Engines no longer control ship component power and thrust. They now only handle ship thrust. Superstructures will have in-built power generators that provide a fixed power supply for components and modules.
* Ship thrust formulas have been reworked (we are monitoring this, and while it tested well, this might need some more adjustments).
* Shipsim cycles are now only required for weapon usage.
* Component health pools have all been increased to be commensurate with the hull integrity of the intended superstructure. This means that an engine for an Interceptor (for example) has a health pool intended for the Interceptor superstructure.

Weapons and modules
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* Modules are now differentiated by category and size, so you might have a small weapon slot, or a large utility slot. Existing ship modules have been updated to reflect this.
* Weapons now have tracking speeds, which controls accuracy of the weapon based on the size and speed of the target. A larger weapon with slow tracking will have low accuracy vs a small ship moving at speed. If the smaller ship isn't moving, the accuracy is much higher.
* Ship size modifiers for target locks have been removed.
* Ship size modifiers for shield bypass have been removed.
* Ammunition bias' have been reworked:
* Thermal ammo does full damage to hulls, no damage to shields. (100%/0%)
* Kinetic ammo does split damage to hulls and shields. (50%/50%)
* EM ammo does no damage to hulls, and full damage to shields (0%/100%)
* Gravitic ammo does more damage to hulls and less damage to shields(67%/33%)

Conversion
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We've converted all existing ships to work with these changes. If your vessel had any conflicts, we've automatically docked it (if it was not already docked) at your Faction's station (or Omni if you're factionless), to give you a chance to resolve the issues.


This is just the first batch of changes. We have three more planned batches in our development queue, covering more weapons changes and balancing, the captaincy skill, space gathering mechanics, more shipmods/drops, and other quality-of-life improvements. Stay tuned!