Hi,
In my days of yore when I played EQ2 one option that was eventually added was the ability to have your normal armor with all its specs but then you could overlay that with other gear for appearance and cosmetics.

Often times what a person would do is get the gear they wanted and make that their stat gear, but they would then go to the vendor and buy lower level gear that would match or have the color/appearance they wanted.

I though that'd be something fun to add for starships and character loadouts.

For example, I really like Borg gear stats on my ship but wouldn't mind having the purple Jem Hadar colors from the engines, deflector, etc.