Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Currently we have some great things. Ship Hangers, allowing other ships to be carried while fully assembled.
Docking in stations.

What I would like to see occur is intended to increase the roles of ships like Carriers & Orca.

Step 1. Allow a pilot to have an external view of where they are docked. The intent behind this is to have the pilot pre loaded onto the grid in these cases, though their ship is not an actual entity 'yet'. The view point of the pilot will be restricted to within the normal range from the object they are docked in currently. This will allow pilots to look about the place, check for war targets camping the station etc, or station camps in low/null. Without having to physically undock and hope you can survive the alpha or having a scout come from another system to look.
Lore wise, this can easily be explained as the pilot utilizing a camera drone from inside the structure/ship.

Step 2. Allow a pilot to dock with a 'Ship Hanger' such as a carrier. While still remaining inside the ship. This would be subject to all normal docking restrictions. So the pilot would have to have no weapons flag. Possibly standing requirement as set by the pilot who they want to dock with also. When this happens, their ship vanishes from view, and takes up space in the hanger, however the pilot is locked into a camera view from the outside of the Orca/Carrier etc. No internal view at all, as they are still in their pod inside their ship in the hanger, they just left their Camera drones outside to observe lore wise.
When the Carrier is destroyed, this should impact on Capacitor and eject the ship into space if it is piloted still, to reflect a last second dash out of the hanger.

Step 3. Change how 'Hangers' work. Remove the 'Mass' limits on them, instead replacing them with Ship Class slots.
I.E.
Orca may have the following docking slots in it. These can be occupied by either a docked ship, or an unpiloted ship scooped/placed into the hanger by the Orca pilot.

• 2* Cruiser
• 4* Mining Barge/Exhumer
• 6* Frigate

This means the Devs no longer have to keep an eye on the total mass of the hanger not being able to carry Capitals, or an Orca carrying another Orca carrying another Orca etc. Since it is limited by class of ship.