OK, this is a little scattered. Make manufacturing stations in nation space that are only accessible to players with POS standing. At these stations, players would be able to manufacture a ship that bridges the gap between behemoth and trident. I envision this ship having a shield and being able to dock two ships but not having turrets and four large ports, or having two turrets and two large ports. This would not necessarily be a combat ship, more of a mining/trade vessel that can hold its own in bot sectors or small pirate attack. I think a cargo of 400cu would be appropriate. Also I think the owner should be the only player able to dock with it.
Please feel free to pitch in any suggestions you might have. ( not that you won't)

Lol in your dreams.

Just buy a warranty if you're scared of pirates blowing your moth to bits in grayspace. There's no need for the "I will never pay those rat scums" bullshit.

That said, devs are already planning to release new variants of Trident (types P and S) sometime soon. Remember, they are only a 4 man team. A change like this is massive and would require them to change everything. Totally unrealistic. You have no idea how much time and work are involved.

I think Vikingranger has a great idea. There seem to be two main types I've seen in this game. The first is the mining/trader type and the second the pvpr. The game seems to favor the pvp types, although what I've noticed is the majority of new players are the mining/traders. Of course your going to get the knuckle draggers spouting childish comments about "warranties" and such, because those type of people don't want any resistance when they pull up behind your cargo ship and start acting like a keyboard tough guy.
With the end-game content directed towards manufacturing you would think a sub cap ship type of vessel with a large cargo hold would already be in the game.

-1.

I thought the NPC dents since they're considered freighters had somewhere around 400cu already. Just make it something someone can build, nerfing it's shields to even less that of the type-M. dropping 2 turrets, make is accelerate faster and make it turn a tad slower. This would be lowering manufacturing requirements since you're making a base model for cheap thrills. The sole purpose of it would be mainly for some botting or quick mining while the Type-M is shown to have uses and surprises in combat situations.

This seems like more of a case of crying and pouting that building a trident takes way too long, so you want something that's easier to manufacture. It is NOT supposed to be easy and quick. Just get on with it and start building parts of it. You'll get there eventually.

Have you missed my second point as well, borg collective? Read it again, this time slower and more carefully:

That said, devs are already planning to release new variants of Trident (types P and S) sometime soon. Remember, they are only a 4 man team. A change like this is massive and would require them to change everything. Totally unrealistic. You have no idea how much time and work are involved.

Why don't you join GS and volunteer full-time implementing this suggestion? See, there are more important things to work on with the limited resources.

+1 to an intermediate ship class between moths and tridents. There is definitely a hole there that could be filled. But yeah... it will never happen, short of someone donating a million bucks to GS.

Oh, all we need is the Behemoth XXXC

Truth be told I'd rather see the Connie made anufacturable but I'm sure that has been suggested a million times already.

The main(ish) idea I was trying to bring across was that of manufacturing in nation space. This would increase traffic there and give more value to having POS. The ship I proposed is an example of what could be manufactured there because this would fill a niche for everybody. Remember, anybody can build it and dock any two ships in it. This would definitely benefit pirates as they could have a hound and an XC docked. Traders would be happy because they finally had a trade vessel with a shield. Miners would be happy because they could mine in not sectors.
I am not proposing a new combat ship. And yes the shields would be weaker than the Trident shields.

There is already an important manufacturing station inside nation space. You can build reinforced bulkheads at Nyrius F-6.

Traders would be happy because they finally had a trade vessel with a shield. Miners would be happy because they could mine in not sectors.

You can get all of the above by building a trident. Build a goddamn trident already instead of complaining that it takes too long and that there are pirates to contend with. DEAL WITH IT AND BUY A WARRANTY.

I think non-miners don't get it. The trident is not a practical mining ship and people that put forth energy into mining and trading aren't always inclined to give their hard earned credits to every noob that spouts nonsense about warranties. A different variant is needed and the Trident could potentially fit the bill with some modifications.

"people that put forth energy into mining and trading aren't always inclined to give their hard earned credits to every noob that spouts nonsense about warranties."

If they're such noobs, what is the problem? Just kill them.

"Joyless Joker": Have you read any words in this thread that could be construed as complaint that a trident takes too long to build? That is not the point I am trying to get across. I am suggesting a new ship. I am sure you could find another thread somewhere to pet pissy about people complaining. We already know that you don't like the idea, so please stop telling us.

Borgcollective: yes, a new trident type could fit these parameters. However tridents cannot (yet?) be manufactured in nation space, which is something that I think would be very cool. It is important to note that if a trident variant does become manufacturable in nation space, it should have at least reduced armor and shield strength to make up for the relative safety of building in nation space. Perhaps it could also be smaller or something.

I suggested a trident mining beam a while back. However, the Trident M is still a very good mining support vehicle. Capable of carrying 1160 cu of ore for the dedicated miner.

Mining turrets would do well also so long as the range is up to 2000 m

Also, there was a more interesting thread where I expressed support for a mining Trident being made available after some rediculously difficult merit badge.

How about a reality check?

1. Major nations are incapable of manufacturing their own capital ships variants and that they don't have national capital shipyards, really?

2. Major nations can't manufacture capital ships without using 70% of hive components, really?

3. Major nations can't manufacture capital ships with 90% components available and produced in their nation space, really?

4. What's next, maybe nation specific ships like UDV, WTD, Prom & Valk need queen cores and can only be manufactured at conquerable stations in grey? Yeah, lets do that too.
All pilots should fly only free busses and go to manufacture other ship variants at conquerable stations in grey and of course, they first have to conquer stations with free buses and gov guns.

I would be all for having a few manufacturing specific stations in Nation space. What is manufacturable there is not really the issue, but having some missions available at low levels to make some interesting things relatively easily would show lite sub users another aspect of the game they don't see at present.

Get them involved in that and they might go on to sub full accounts.

There is a whole tree of newbie manufacturing missions in nation space. They make stuff like steel, mining beams, mineral scanners, etc.

I've never taken the current situation regarding capship manufacturing as canon. It's just a teaser while the devs finish developing the assets and general support. If you go back a bit, you'll find that Inc has even said outright that they don't want many people using capital ships just yet and therefor made the whole process stupid to discourage it.

That said, it's pretty easy to imagine a scenario where there are manufacturing capabilities in nation space, but they're all tied up by large corporations and government contracts and are therefor unavailable to private individuals and guilds, so that you have to go to greyspace to find any willing to deal with you. It is a little bit of a stretch, at least within the UIT; I can easily see the Itani and Serco commandeering all large ship production for the state and severely regulating how many civilian capital ships are produced. But even in real life you run into issues with the middle-men not wanting to deal with small fish.

I can't believe I'm saying this... but Ecka does have a good idea. I think adding a few small manufacturing missions for the F2P / lite subs would be a good thing.