we know that Triglavians cannot be considered a pirate or non empire faction (like ORE) and instead are more like a whole new “empire” with their own skills required to fly their ships along with T2 variations that can be produced via research, they’re even being moved to wars having capital ships according to the latest teasers.
the only thing missing for them is EWAR but they have this somewhat covered with some energy warfare bonuses (in a different manner to Amarr or Blood Raiders) and Smartbombs as an extra so in general term they can be considered a 5th empire to pick up (limited to Omega yes, but still).
Trinary technology is something new to the current empires but not unheard of in the past. the Sleepers/Drifters, Jovians and Triglavs make use of this. the Angel Cartel may have some knowledge of it to a degree. it wouldnt be crazy to think the other ancient civilizations in the history of the cluster achieved something like that (the Talocan for example seem to be way, waaaaaaay beyond that).
the empires have been able to adapt some of these ancient technologies into their T3 line of vessels but this isnt the same as what im trying to discuss.
in gameplay terms we have this type of ships and modules called “Faction”, in the case of ships these represent important non-empire entities like Mordus Legion or represent the criminal factions of the cluster like Sansha’s Nation. these faction ships require 2 racial skills to train and are somewhat unique on their own due to the bonuses provided to differentiate them from typical empire ships (save for a few similarities in model or modules used).
Triglavians are a non-playable human race but their main skills is “Precursor”. depending on CCPs route in the future this skill may extend to encompass other ancient but only recently discovered races like the Drifters. which brings the following idea.
"if Precursor can be considered an extra racial family of skills, we could potentially make a new line of faction ships/modules out of this completely separated from our current Faction lines"
im gonna nickname that line as “Ancestor” to provide an example. Ancestor ships and modules represent the use of Precursor and Empire technology to replicate or explore developments derived from the ancient civilizations previous to our current empires. to explain it further:
Precursor + Amarr -> Udorian (an old empire that lived alongside Amarr in their home planet)
Precursor + Gallente -> Rouvenorian (based on the historical era of the Rouvenor Monarchy)
Precursor + Caldari -> Raatan (based on the empire that preceded the Caldari Estate before uplifting)
Precursor + Minmatar -> Ancient Matari (based on the old Matari civilization before the arrival of the Amarr)
one could argue that the Precursor should tie towards ancient civilizations like Yan-Jung, Takhmal or the like but this was already explored previously (see T3 ships). in this particular example the knowledge obtained from the precursor technology is created to bring something similar to what the predecesors of our current empires were, had they been able to become spaceborne before collapsing (in the case of Ancient Matar they we’re already on that but yeah…)
mechanically speaking. Ancestor ships would have a similar approach to Pirate ships in that they have some similarity to the vanilla empire but the Precursor skill and the role bonuses would be designed around a completely new concept compatible with the empire their tied to.
for example: Raatan inspired ships could have favoured a different approach to warfare compared to their Caldari descendants should they have reached space instead of being uplifted later by the Gallenteans, thus their Precursor bonus is based around a different kind of weaponry compared to the traditional Caldari emphasis on Missiles, while keeping some familiar strengths.
-Precursor Skill bonus per lvl -> 7,5% bonus to Hybrid Turret tracking
-Caldari bonus per lvl -> 10% bonus to shield hitpoints
-Role bonus -> 25% reduction in CPU and Powergrid requirements for Hybrid Turrets
in this example Raata ships are strict gunboats to be compatible with Caldari pilots but instead of an optimal or damage bonus, they are designed to be able to fit more blasters/rails with an application bonus to booth. the trinary tech hybrid also boosts the output of their shield generators to make them stronger but lacking the resistance bonuses of typical Caldari combat ships.
this is of course just an example, there could be more original bonuses to this new line of ships to further put them apart from empire or faction lines. however, i think we should keep some degree of familiarity to not alienate players too much.
all of this OP is just to provide a setup for the discussion, thanks for watching…