For instance, the default setting for sharing permissions should be NONE. If I look in the public catalog, I only want to see the ships people WANT to share (as indicated by the fact that they would have to manually select the option to share with others, rather then it being on by default and actually having to manually turn OFF this attribute like they presently do).
Servers should also have some options available regarding them. For instance, one option could be a cost multiplier, such that the base cost of ships is multiplied by a set value. Such that a ship will cost more to buy instantly then it would cost to buy the parts from shops and make it, unless the server owner left this value at \"1.\"
Additional options could include a size limit. That is, people cannot upload ships larger then a limit set in the server options somewhere.
Another good option would be to split upload and catalog options, so you can allow use of the catalog while disabling the ability to upload a ship. i.e. you can buy any ship that was actually built on that server and saved, but you cannot upload your own. Or, you can combine this with the previous option, and only allow uploaded ships up to a certain size while allowing built-on-that-server ships that are larger. All up to what that server owner wants.
The most complicated option (coding-wise) I think should be available would be an option to pick whether or not you can buy ships with credits, or whether you must supply the parts for them. That is to say, instead of buying a ship with credits, you would only be able to buy a ship if all the parts needed for it were in your inventory (the necessary parts would then be subtracted and the ship spawned if you had enough). This option if implimented would be awesome for people who want to show off ships, but are on a server that disabled blueprints out of fear of abuse through current blueprint and catalog mechanics. After all, buying a large ship requires having a large number of parts, and acquiring parts is harder then acquiring credits if you can\'t just buy parts via catalog abuse.
For optimal results, it may work best if building block inventory is altered in some way, or if some parts can be interchanged with each other (for instance, a hull block can be counted as any color hull when checking to see that you have enough parts). Otherwise, more colorful or decorated vessels may have more part types in them then are slots in your inventory, making them impossible to buy.
In fact, perhaps this option should be made the only option for buying ships, and a \"Creative mode\" should be added in which people in said mode can buy catalog ships \"free of charge\" (that is, without having the blocks for it) And in which their astronaut forms are invulnerable/ignored by AI, to make them more useful for admins.