I think cost will be a driver here. It seems to me that if you're going to enhance ships, you will probably want to enhance most, if not all, of them. I imagine one might want to enhance only certain ships, e.g. Constitution, Victory, flagships, but I don't know how that would affect the visuals of the game - some with ratlines, others without. If the ratlines were close to $10 per ship, the price tag for Captain or Commodore KS levels would add up pretty quickly. If the price for ratlines approaches a decent percentage of the price for a mini, I would probably go with another mini.

Keith, this is where your paintbrush-rigging idea really shines. For a couple of dollars and a few hours, folks can significantly improve the look of their entire fleet, and if the rigging gets damaged during game play, the fix is easy and inexpensive. That was a brilliant thread, pun definitely intended.