ill put a link in the main post

i think the "blood spark" is a feature that was never intened to be that way. might be the reason why you cant change your homebase from distance anymore.

so my guess would be "working as intended". use a light bot. should not be that far from the your suggested 100k. and everybody should be able to use a light bot.

so might be your new business opportunity. sell light bots at all termainls for all the thousands of players that need a blood spark.

well pay to play games usually dont have free trials because that is one of your basic income

will there be different prices for PC depending on the amount buy buy? similar like you get the sub a bit cheaper when you buy up front for a year.

reaction time on facilities on gamma is awfull as well. multible seconds time accept a job. sometimes 10-20 secs. running like that for a few weeks already.

zoom:
with the new teleport AI: in the new player experience the scarabs now port out of their enclosure wehn you shoot them. dont know if thats intetional.

oh zoom, you ruined my greatest invention that perp has ever seen: the beacon pit.

but if you want a cool pimp system then it should be like this:

for each bot part there will be multible models.

for example head, torso and legs as most simple.
but could also be made more detailed as arm parts and upper leg, lower leg and foot. the detail grade can be tuned as far as wanted. depending primary on how much development time you want to invest.
then you could also add different models for the weapons that would be used for that blueprint.

and of cource not to forget different textures for each of the parts. maybe some logos as well that you can attach.including your corp logo.

for the implementation:
you will have a ingame bot designer window. in here you can play around with all that different looking parts, textures and colors. once you are done you can save that blueprint at a cost (Perpetuum credits). when you are in the fitting screen you can then select one of your variants from a dropdown menu. selectiting a variant will cost nothing (has already been payed) but you have to pay for more variants or for changes in the one.

of cource there have to be corp blueprints as well (of cource more expensive as for a single player). obviously thats only avalible for the corp. corp editor might only be avalible for ceo/coceo. every corp member can use the corp blueprints as long as he is a member.
the costs PC will have to be provided by the player that makes it, or there has to be a corp account where players can donate PCs just like players can donate RP atm. both options are viable.

if you do it, do it right...

in theory nice. and the devs need income. but its again game features vs money makers.

pimp version takes modelers and artists.
they can make a pinped version or they can make a new bot. so the choice between new contet tha will hold players vs pimp that brings no better gameplay but brings money.

ok you can argue: more money allows you to employ more modelers and more artists ... ... but the question if its worth it. has to bring more then just a few thousand bucks to make up to it.
but with the new payment model we surely will see some pimp options.

well noone realy will use that. especially no vet. for a newer player with not much ep this might be only a loss of a few days but for a vet it will be months. no way anyone with a bit brain will use that.
so thats the point where i could say. ep resets are realy bad, but if noone uses them then its ok. well then we dont need it in the first place.

downgrade and reset option for the first 30 days of your account, maybe even 60 days. but after that its a no go.
vets should know what they do with their ep. and for anything else they get ep each day. with a booster even faster.