Probably get a slagging for this but a Spore style ship build.

You get basic blocks and shapes that you can build and manipulate to get a ship more personal to you or even a choice of ships (or even just one) at the beginning of the game which grows with you changing appearance in accordance to your actions and play style i.e if you're a heavy pvper your ship would look totally different to you legion buddy who does missions or kills NPCs .

Even a choice of various ships at the beginning so if you want a change you can sell your old ship buy a new one for credits, possibly even GP which would be most likely.

I know any of these would probably take a lot of effort to implement and will most likely never happen but I'd love to have my own personal ship floating around as well as see what other people had "forged".

Like I said I'll probably get a slagging but hey you don't get if you don't ask.

I think everyone has thought about this once or twice, thinking how awesome it would be to create your own ship. However, there are problems associated with this:

1) This kind of feature would be very "expensive" in terms of space. It would definitely make the game run slower and would make the overall experience less enjoyable.
2) Do you really want to see stupid looking ships in your battle tab? There are bound to be some. I personally like the look of existing ships.
3) This kind of feature will take up a LOT of developer time and energy. He could be spending it on more functional and less "razzle-dazzle" type things. I know there are a lot more things I'd much rather have than a ship creating ability.

Overall, I think it would be a cool idea, but not really that doable.

-1 from me.

cool idea, but i don't that Dan would be the one to do something like that... would need a complex flash program for the ship builder... though i suppose once the ship is built a static 2D picture could be created (gif, jpg, png, whatever) to show up in the rest of the game...

i give this one a 0

I think it would work if every race had several different models to choose from. Maybe some that only unlocked after reaching a certain size class. Similar to choosing the model for a base.

+1 Similar to an idea I had.

How about the color of your ship and shields depend on the type of armor and shields you are using.
It could be as simple as placing a translucent layer on top of the ship that alters it's color or add small details. That's basically what the shield is on the picture.. For the shield it could be the same thing.

nah.. i meant know, not think... though i left the word out so you can fill it in with whatever came to your mind

+1
like more ship customization such as
select ship colour, spray paint,pictures,clan tag and ship logo (like COD black ops pics)

+1 to colors & schemes....
+1 to designs based on achievements &\or certain Stats (loosely based on Darths suggestion)