Okay, so the stock YT-1300 includes 6 hard points. Could you, hypothetically, remove the two stock blaster cannons, increasing the hard point total to 8? Mind you, it would leave you defenseless (offensseless?) and it's a dumb idea - but I thought it was an interesting exercise anwyay.

I'd say yes.

Maybe you could install transparisteel domes in place of the laser cannons.

People could ride in the ship with their head sticking out into space inside the domes!

Okay, so the stock YT-1300 includes 6 hard points. Could you, hypothetically, remove the two stock blaster cannons, increasing the hard point total to 8? Mind you, it would leave you defenseless (offensseless?) and it's a dumb idea - but I thought it was an interesting exercise anwyay.

That is what our GM did. The ship we acquired was stripped, buried in the sand and used as a house. When we got it out and got it up and running, he gave us a sheet with stats for the ship. 8 HPs is what it has on it. Now we are in the market for pretty much everything that a ship needs aside from a sensor array which we have already acquired.

You can of course do whatever you want in your own campaign, but for what it's worth I think the rulebook says you can't recover hardpoint from removing weapons except as a way to put in new weapons. Or something to that effect.

You can of course do whatever you want in your own campaign, but for what it's worth I think the rulebook says you can't recover hardpoint from removing weapons except as a way to put in new weapons. Or something to that effect.

It just says weapon systems replacing existing ones use 0 HP. Stripping kit to open up HP seems fine to me, its well within the mechanics...

For my parties Citadel cruiser that they found floating as a wreck in space, I gave it "Weapon Hardpoints" to cover the guns that the ship comes with as stock (All missing / destroyed except for a single medium laser). After replacing the guns (only variance being a quad laser replaces each twin linked ion cannon) they were left with 2 weapon specific hardpoints left over - namely because a twin linked ion cannon would be 2 hard-points worth each while the quad laser is only one (it's a single weapon system).

The only other mods they have made so far is the high output ion engines and converting 1 double bunk state-room into a triple occupancy brig. I counted the last as a 0HP mod as they were swapping out, not adding.

So the Black Phoenix has 3 harp-points, and 2 weapon specific hard-points left. I might let them use the weapon HP's to mount "militaristic" ship mods, such as shields or fire control. Not armour plating, as to my mind that is a whole-ship mod, not something that would be more localised to the weapon stations.

I would certainly not have allowed a Hard Point to be regained if swapping twin light ion cannons for a quad laser cannon. Multiple linked weapons are still only a single Hard Point.