Hi! I have a situation, where ability to turn on stiffness on the ends of a bridge module will come in handy cery much! Bu that I mean the "tangents" of its curve staying "stiff" in relation to the modules it's attached to, like if they were constrained by the parent constraint. Right now it simply "breaks"/bends at these points (ends) not taking into the account the attachment module's orientation, which I think can be also desired behaviour in some cases (like chains). But in hoses we need them to be stiff, usually perpendicular to the place of attachment. Imagine a hose going from hips or spine into the head (let's say perpendicularly to the skull surface). When rotating the head we'd want it to stay perpendicular right at the point of attachment, or even a bit, or much more along its length, depending on a stiffness parameter.
I hope you get the idea, I think that I start to repeat myself ))
Unfortunately, this amount of bend per joint is very limited by Maya's IK solvers. Even with the spring solver, there is very little change between the start and end when adjusting the spring curve bias. The best solution might be to add a FK control or two at each end that you bend yourself to blend into the bridge, and then blend the skinning.