I'm pretty sure that same bonus will come from multi-layered outer hull as well. I assume the buff is coming from hull anyways (Interiors are known for including lots of hull, or used to at least), but regardless of what it is, there will always be ways to capitalize on it, or incorporate it into any ship.
Thing is though, from a relative standpoint ships with an interior are gaining an advantage from traditionally built ships with single layer hulls while the old method is gaining nothing. So now we'll hopefully end up with ships that have an interior ideally (and I stress ideally very strongly) depending on how they're built able to occupy a middle ground of defense and combat power compared to the powerhouse ships with thin armor today and multi-layered armored ships which are useless for the most part today which will be what players will be able to take advantage of.
You may find this interesting: http://starmadedock.net/threads/a-manifesto-on-crewability.4329/
That's an appeal to improper authority, this isn't EvE or X3. A large part of this game is shipbuilding and roleplay, and both of those things benefit from interiors.
Only if you want them to. Unless you're saying that you can't roleplay a game like X3 or EvE, where the focus is on the political/relations side of things, cause then I would have to laugh. For the 'average' RP on SM though, interiors would probably help ya, yes, mind you I have no real interest in that kind of RP.
I've never played X3 or EvE, so I wouldn't know. It differs from server to server, but I have found that the roleplay in Star Made is all encompassing, from a couple of dudes on a ship to inter galactic wars. So yes, interiors here have use.
That's not the problem... The problem is that the game's current setup heavily punishes interiors. If having interiors was a good idea (Say, because of AI crew mechanics and boarding along with the collective armor bonus stuff Cal was talking about a while ago.) but there was also an option to not use interiors, then nobody would really care whether or not you had an actual ship interior.
This is actually a balance issue and should be fixed. Going through non-docked entities in build mode shouldn't be possible. That said, once shipyards are implemented we won't have to worry because you'll need a shipyard to use build mode anyway.
I'll need to ask how it is a "Balance" problem, you gain basically no advantage in poking around interiors unless you are trying to line up a shot to core drill a unmanned ship.
...Or unless you want to efficiently and easily remove a faction module from a station. Or shoot out any other specific system I can think of.
...Is it? Trading guild stations, the spawn shop/all NPC-containing shops, and maybe other pre-generated locales could (and should) have smallish shipyards. And building a fighter-sized one on a planet shouldn't be too hard anyway. The way I see it, having your own shipyard should be something of a milestone, not an immediate necessity.
Block are invisible when they are covered up on all sides, it takes about 3% effort to place the faction module in the wall behind a crystal. It would still require the ship to be standing still when you scout it, and it's hard to pinpoint with anything when it's moving, so
I dont see why, you only ever have to access it once; when it's spawned. So anyone who has the blueprints should know where it is at. "Above the core" isn't all that different from "Under the captain's pillow", except that one of them is easily found by everyone.
