What about making a Virtual arena for PvP in game. So the player will need to have a blueprint of a ship to have a ship. And basically it will be PvP where players, will be able to place bets and fight for rating and maybe season rewards. Since it will be virtual, no lose of ships for the players. And yet they will need a real made ship in metal, in order to make a blueprint.
By doing this, this will stimulate the ship design and will require a more diversified engines on the market. And also attract people, who will be interested in PvP experience the most.