A lot of friction in the system makes sense to allow folks that actually dedicated an omega sub and SP to it to sell designs, but tweaks are needed. After a couple of weeks of playing around with things, the following is what I think needs the most attentionā¦
ā The Paragon Hub itself doesnāt sort well, doesnāt display well, and is missing a proper search function that would allow people to navigate directly to what they need or directly to who they need, in the event that theyāre looking for a specific brand/designer. This creates a very narrow window for customers to even see the full of whatās available. At the most involved, Iād recommend thinking about dedicated designer storefronts that folks can navigate to and shop around within (this has been billed as a way to create a ādesign empireā, after all, no?). Broader than that, Iād recommend trying to make Paragon Hub as closely analogous to the NES as possible. That UI there is simple and works well enough to keep people understanding the products theyāre looking for.
ā The listing naming structure is iffy. The twenty character limit for each skin name precludes the possibility of including ship names with the thematic whatevers people throw on the tail end of it, so itās an immediate branding departure from how skins work in-game currently. For example, being able to specify, by name, something being āMalediction Dark Horseā vs. āFlycatcher Dark Horseā vs. āPaladin Dark Horseā, etc. is so much more alluring than simply having everything read āDark Horseā and leaving it to customers to figure it out. Fifty characters for the line description is a little better, I guess, so maybe bringing names to that limit would work out well.
ā The listing thumbnails are resource heavy because they draw rendered hull models that only fully render some of the time. A static snapshot of the skin would be way, way better.
ā Not being able to cancel listings is good for competition, but maybe thereās a way to include some kind of tax like the āComplete Nowā designerside, in the event that they, for whatever reason, definitely need to bring the design down. For example, designs listed for three months are currently stuck for that amount of time (unless Iāve missed a feature, which is possible), regardless of how the market changes. Allowing some flexibility there would be great.
ā Allowing players to resell the designs of others is a tragic misstep and strikes a parallel with why most legitimate artists wince whenever someone recommends staging their work in NFT markets. No one wants to be undercut by their own creation, and this system is competitive enough without that added layer. While it does promote competition and a better price for consumers, it risks cheapening the ātalent poolā, as it were. Consider removing the ability to resell within Paragon Hub, potentially in the same breath as allowing folks to trade and sell within different, clearly secondhand markets.
ā Generally speaking, I think the 30% tax is understandable if the intention is to keep CCP skins more competitive options by comparison, and itās made even more reasonable with the understanding that most simple SKINr designs can be accomplished with less of a plex investment overall, assuming people are willing to wait the sequencing time to avoid the āComplete Nowā costs. That said, perhaps consider a sliding scale based on design complexity and upfront sequencing cost. Thereās so much risk in producing complex skins for market, so, IMO, the ceiling payout should be commensurate to the risk. This game works very much within the framework of risk-reward. I feel like this shouldnāt be different, even if the tax difference is only a few percent.
ā Short of allowing free skin transfers to individual corpmates, it would be great if there were some option for creating an official corp/fleet skin that can be toggled by leadership in specific situations to map the skin to fleet members in real time without allowing them constant individual access. Not really sure how possible that is, but it might be a decent compromise.
ā This is a hot take that only someone designing in a mercenary, hypercapitalistic way could offer up, but consider this: the slider configuration values shouldnāt be accessible. If people want to eyeball and ballpark designs without them (which wouldnāt be impossible), great, and the values are good for recording specific designs without needing to save them (more on save limits in a secā¦), but allowing people to freely build-a-bear from a specific recipe is just bad for business, and the business of skilling into SKINr and working around/designing around the market is fun, so no thanks to open source on this one.
ā Save limits ā this has been covered widely. Five is too few. Fifteen is probably too many. Twenty is way too many. I like what the limitation does to promote limited editions and scarcity in the market. Ten is fine.
ā The layering of multiple patterns would be an extremely positive step forward in allowing more capable designers to distinguish themselves even further in the field. Restricting designs to one pattern creates a situation where, eventually, most designs will become homogeneous and formulaic. More is better.
ā Linked to most of the above ā unless things change, maybe reconsider what some of the skill categories do. Specifically, the category that allows you to sequence thousands of skins at a time seems a little tonedeaf for how this system is being received so far. The risk for producing even one skin is super heavy currently, so the thought of batch production in any capacity doesnāt seem all that realistic without big changes. My guess is that costs need to come way, way down for those kinds of skills to make sense ā but maybe time will tell.
ā
Thereās probably more, but those are my takes for now.
