There was a time when Research divisions were a thing that every single faction had. The only issue was that at the time Discovery lacked in anything to research and most of the things that could be included in such roleplay were static, unchanging and no doubt used in other roleplay as well. And even more so - such divisons were of no practical use for factions and were there just for the sake of being there. The introduction of the ship upgrade module and Scientific Data as a sort of ''premium currency'' item in Discovery is an attempt at fixing this issue.

The idea behind this new system is very simple. By collecting data, you can obtain out-of-the-ordinary improvements for your ships. These improvements, due to their prototype nature are not permanent and the time until their expiration depends on the item/bonus itself, although there is a high possibility that some of these event items will be SRPable in the near future.


The commodity named Scientific Data can be obtained as drops during PVE events, mini-events and admin-sponsored contests. The amount of Data flooded into the server environment per month highly depends on the existing amount of the commodiy circulating ingame as well as the active reward holders.

There are, potentially, at least 20 different types of rewards you can obtain with various amounts of reserach data. These upgrades range from trivial ones such as visuals and unique engines - both of which lack an expiry period unlike other rewards - individual (And even group) mining bonuses, ship powerplant upgrades, MkX and HAUX armor upgrades, rare types of weapons courtesy of @Haste and even the creation of other already existing event items such as Jumphole Generators and NEMP Bombs. Below you can find the list of existing and planned items and bonuses - though keep in mind as this new system is tested and feedback is gathered, the ''prices'' for these items are a subject of change.

Cosmetics


See Contrail and engine effects here.

Consumables

---

---

Upgrades

POB Model Change (Permanent)

Jumphole Generator (10 Parts) - 500

1. Ship names that receive Upgrades are made public.
2. Ships that receive timed rewards or those of Tier II or higher may not be renamed, moved or have their Ship or ID changed.
3. All reward modifications and gear are applied during the start of the month for the sake of simplifying the tracking.
4. Any sort of sanction on any of the ship owner's characters will result in the removal of their bonus/rewards.

In order to obtain one of the rewards, you must post a Player Request with the following template: