I've hated the concept of MK2 ships since they started to appear in verse, but it's seemingly getting worse the longer time goes on. The Hornet I kind of shrugged off because the MK2 was already in Squadron and was just an unused asset. (I also like the look far more of the MK2 but that's besides the point). The Aurora is where I started to raise major concerns. The MK1 is now an "outdated" ship. It's lacking major qualities that define ships in this game. No armor locker/gun rack, just a coffin with guns. But the shiny MK2 has it. All those bells and whistles we've wanted for years to bring it up to snuff? That's in the MK2. There are now rumors of a Constellation Mk2 now. (Technically MK5 but for player purposes, MK2). That means that your Constellation will likely get the bare minimum, just like the Aurora did. You'll get buttons next to your doors, maybe a fire extinguisher or two, and access to your components, no matter how unwieldy it is. Your living quarters will likely stay exactly how they are right now, maybe with a toilet if you're lucky though. I'd love to be proven wrong but going off the existing MK2's, I'm not hopeful that your "legacy" ship will receive the love it desperately needs. Mind you, "legacy" ship means the ship that you purchased for ~$250 during the alpha period of the game. The Alpha that we're still currently in. Not post-release is your ship being deprecated, no. It's being deprecated before the game is even out. Since this is the route we've taken I expect many of us likely already own "legacy" ships, we just don't know it yet. Especially any of us who own ships purchased before say, 2021? Your Reclaimer likely won't ever get the interior rework it actually needs. It's going to get a MK2 and you will forever be stuck with taking an elevator to the cockpit over an entirely non-functional "scrapping" room. Your Starfarer likely won't ever receive the update it needs. You're going to continue to take a staircase through a ship designed to be an FPS map, not a usable ship. The MK2 will contain ladders and elevators though. Your Caterpillar likely won't ever receive the modularity it's long been said to have or be able to carry 32SCU boxes. We'll get a bigger, wider Caterpillar MK2 that can carry 32's without having a walkway overlooking the whole ship and blocking half the cargo grid. Your 600i won't get its interior refresh, you'll get a 610i which solves all those pain points. And you'll pay for it. Your MSR will always be fat, unwieldy, and contain tunnels that no one uses. The MK2 will be sleek and have a big central engine though. All this to say, this may not affect you now. You may not own a Hornet or Aurora or Constellation, but you own a ship. And as of now, nothing is off the table. Now from just a technical standpoint this also raises other issues besides the practice itself being despicable. The tech debt will increase. Now instead of having the Aurora MK1 SE, MR, LE, ES, ETC, they also have to maintain an Aurora MK2 too. Even though they're "legacy" the ships still have to be maintained. Not purchasable in store or in game, but still owned. (Getting IC reports confirmed also just got infinitely harder, and will continue to get harder the longer the ship isn't for sale btw) Now for an additional, not exactly the same, but related issue: Gold Standards (production) only happening alongside Variants. The Hammerhead, an old ship that needed its update. Finally got it. This should be a happy story yes? No. The only reason it seems this ship got a GS pass is because it was able to be sold again with the name Tiburon. That's worrying if the only reason older ships can get a GS pass is if the ship can be sold next to a variant. The Railen, a ship people have been excited about for a number of years. Finally releases. It has a variant on release. Why? To sell the ship again but this time different. Also very concerning. Maybe I'm too pessimistic, maybe there's real reasons for all of it. But as a consumer, this sucks. If I buy a ship during an ALPHA, I expect it to be fully functional at the release of said alpha. I don't expect it to be deprecated and tossed away like old trash in favor of a shiny MK2. I expect the ship to be reworked to be fully functional when the game releases. The 300i, Cutlass, and even Freelancer have changed majorly during development of this alpha. That's the treatment I expect for all ships that need an update. Not this "It's an old ship now so we're slapping buttons on it and calling it a day" practice that's seemingly been adopted. MK2 needs to be a post 1.0 thing. Not a during alpha thing. I do actually like the idea of MK2's. In a finished game. For fully realized ships. TLDR: MK2 good post 1.0 for finished ships. MK2 bad during an alpha on ships barely passable as a ship. If the current practice continues, your ship could be next on the "legacy" block where you'll get the bare minimum while solutions get sold as a new ship entirely.