Its called fitting slots. Lots of non-combat ships have them. Battle orca, battle rorqual, battle industrial, battle hulk, these concepts have existed and seen occasional use for years.

That's all well and good, but when you see a ship currently, you automatically know it has predictable limits.

These ship's designs have some flexibility, but ultimately they are pigeon holed quite easily.

Now, the battle badger would be a more serious threat, if it could mount more weapons in exchange for sacrificing cargo space.

Some might think that this infringes on other ship classes, but the differences between a badger and a cruiser are more than just high slots and cargo room.
And for those who object at being fooled by an expectation of helplessness, just no.

EVE already has precedent for this type of design, as per ships in game already:
The Chimera's design is based upon the Kairiola, a vessel holding tremendous historical significance for the Caldari. Initially a water freighter, the Kairiola was refitted in the days of the Gallente-Caldari war to act as a fighter carrier during the orbital bombardment of Caldari Prime.

The original Chimera itself was a Q ship.

Now, the battle badger would be a more serious threat, if it could mount more weapons in exchange for sacrificing cargo space.
.

I have killed a few ships with a battle badger.
I have since learned that the hoarder makes a much better combat ship.
My corp mate often flys combat mining barges and they are great for provoking fights.
You can radically change most ships engagement envelopes with different fits.
You already have the tools to do what you want.

The new industrials have a tremendous amount of fitting flexibility. Give them a shot. Plus, an industrial should not be able to compete against a dedicated combat ship.

Could just make Pirate variants of all the Industrials that look very similarly and are named exactly like regular industrials. They could be obtained through BPC or conversion through LP stores. Have the turret and launcher mounts hidden until the ship aggresses, at which point they are revealed. Seeing as they would be, essentially, normal ships at this point, they would lose the vast majority of their cargo hold and gain more combat ability.

I'd say there should be some visual indication as to the nature of the ship, though. Something that isn't obvious, but something you could spot by actually clicking "look at" and examining the ship.

EDIT: Unfortunately, being named the same would make searching for them in the market confusing, but if they're not named the same, someone can simply glance at the overview and know exactly what it is.

That's all well and good, but when you see a ship currently, you automatically know it has predictable limits.

These ship's designs have some flexibility, but ultimately they are pigeon holed quite easily.

Ok as a fan of old WW2 history I like the idea of being able to create proper Q Ships.

How about a somewhat unorthadox solution to this?

Don't introduce a new pirate ship, but introdude a pirate rig which is limited to industrial ship hull types, and uses enough calibration points that only one can be fit. (after modification ship would have about 175 calibration and 2 rigs slots available.)

This rig would be more akin to a single use subsystem as it would do extensive overhauls to the hull nerfing cargo, adding PG, CPU, speed, agility and even fitting slots of various types (depending on which pirate rig type was utilized.)

The rigging itself could cost about the same as a standard Pirate cruiser.

This would result in the ship showing up as a basic transport yet, since the core hull is still the same. A tactical scanner would be required to identify the true nature of the ship. The modified ship would also not show up on the market but would natrually still be available on contracts.

this is pretty much what i had in mind for a first generation test idea for an EVE Q ship. it would allow people piloting transport ships to be able to put a small bit of caution into whoever is trying to steal from them. also think of the possibilities involved, you could run around in dangerous areas playing bait just waiting for someone to jump out at you... and then they realize just how great a mistake they have made.

and if you think about it cannon wise wouldn't a star faring civilization do everything it could to protect its commerce? an anti-commerce raider would have been developed and used at some point even if it was just an experiment.

Could just make Pirate variants of all the Industrials that look very similarly and are named exactly like regular industrials.

They could be obtained through BPC or conversion through LP stores. Have the turret and launcher mounts hidden until the ship aggresses, at which point they are revealed. Seeing as they would be, essentially, normal ships at this point, they would lose the vast majority of their cargo hold and gain more combat ability.

To be fair... Q-ships had the same problem. They were originally "trade" ships and even with major modifications they could never match a real combat ship in a direct, all-out confrontation.

Not always true... The German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran went toe-to-toe with the HMAS Sydney, and came off slightly the better. Of course, in this context that means that the Kormoran was left burning and crippled, but she's driven the Sydney to retire; burning, sinking, and combat-incapable whilst the Kormoran remained combat-capable. Eventually, the Kormoran was abandoned as well - but she'd successfully decoyed and destroyed a much larger and more capable vessel.

Don't introduce a new pirate ship, but introdude a pirate rig which is limited to industrial ship hull types, and uses enough calibration points that only one can be fit. (after modification ship would have about 175 calibration and 2 rigs slots available.)

This rig would be more akin to a single use subsystem as it would do extensive overhauls to the hull nerfing cargo, adding PG, CPU, speed, agility and even fitting slots of various types (depending on which pirate rig type was utilized.)

The rigging itself could cost about the same as a standard Pirate cruiser.

This would result in the ship showing up as a basic transport yet, since the core hull is still the same. A tactical scanner would be required to identify the true nature of the ship. The modified ship would also not show up on the market but would natrually still be available on contracts.

When I said "direct, all-out confrontation" I was trying to imply that decoying didn't work (or wasn't a factor). Kormoran was only so successful because it fooled the enemy into getting too close and hit all the critical points too fast... yet was crippled itself from only a few half hazard shots from the Sydney (which proves my point).

The current "battle haulers" can more or less perform exactly the way Q-ships did. What I'm seeing here though are unreasonable expectations on what Q-ships could do... that a Q-ship can take on a cruiser pound for pound... when this just was simply not the case.

They were never intended and could never stand against a combat vessel in a toe-to-toe fight.

Batlleships had multiple defenses against torpedoes, a Q-ship would never have been able to sink one. If I remember correctly they were a WWI idea to counter submarines (which would save torpedoes by surfacing and shooting 'defenceless' merchantmen) and also to act against other unarmed merchantmen. They were never intended and could never stand against a combat vessel in a toe-to-toe fight.

In game terms a Q-Ship would need rigs or some such that would remove cargo space in place of extra guns...the structural integrity of the Q-Ship wouldn't really be any better though as the construction of a hauler wouldn't lend itself to such. A few of them together would be able to take down much larger vessels if they got the first few hits in maybe...but then existing haulers fitted for combat can do so already...

A Q-Ship catching an attacker in scram and web to dictate range could be interesting though.

Batlleships had multiple defenses against torpedoes, a Q-ship would never have been able to sink one. If I remember correctly they were a WWI idea to counter submarines (which would save torpedoes by surfacing and shooting 'defenceless' merchantmen) and also to act against other unarmed merchantmen. They were never intended and could never stand against a combat vessel in a toe-to-toe fight.

In game terms a Q-Ship would need rigs or some such that would remove cargo space in place of extra guns...the structural integrity of the Q-Ship wouldn't really be any better though as the construction of a hauler wouldn't lend itself to such. A few of them together would be able to take down much larger vessels if they got the first few hits in maybe...but then existing haulers fitted for combat can do so already...

A Q-Ship catching an attacker in scram and web to dictate range could be interesting though.