PEople want big ships. But the stations are too small to fit big ships in. So i suggest a "landing platform" for the big ships. and to make it realistic, not every sector could have a landing platform because not every sector could meet the demands of 1. This "landing platform" would be for medium sized ships, such as what the centaur is supposed to be.

Frigates never really dock i guess. They get supplies from little ships that ferry Repair Kits© and ammo up to the frigate. the onboard repair kits and such could be used from a screen like out current station screen, accessable by hitting a butten.


a pic of hte landing platform in.. 10 minutes?

Devs are completely redesigning the stations or so I heard... /me thinks incarnate said this... but I could just be crazy.

He did, and he also mentioned that it'll take months to be completed. It has to be something big and pretty. Damn that Waylon!!

=)

Sweeeeet. So if the frigate can't dock would it just log out instead?

ok. here's the large sized docking bay thingy i had in mind.
http://bmm87.korrupt.com/images/dock.jpg


note the size of the big ship vs the hornet

I agree that we need more massive trade ships, but I don't think it is feasible until we have some effective method of keeping convoys.

Why not? It's pretty simple, I've done it tons of times.

Step 1) Get a trading vessel
Step 2) Ask if anyone wants to convoy
Step 3) Define the meeting place
Step 4) Hire escorts if desired
Step 5) Trade

I've never had a problem...

Landing platform in 0G? Sounds like a nightmare. Maybe if the ships had a Spiderman-like ability to clamp legs on the platform, then the platform decends into the station or something. If a ship was on an external platform, would you be vulnerable when docked?

Maybe the ship just sits there and a dome closes up over it.

By convoy I mean varied ships. You cannot have a wing of these big trade ships, they will get murdered. You need fighters to escort you. Those fighters will want a cut of the profits. So assuming 4 fighters per trade ship that is 4 /givemoney commands. It gets tedious.

Not really. Besides, 4 fighters per trade ship? I can get along with one fighter per 3 trade ships now without ever having to even look at a hostile unit. I can't imagine needing more than 1 fighter per trade ship with only the sizes listed here. The greater numbers will only be needed if we are talking frigate-like size for attacker AND defender.

Save the trader convoys for another thread.

In my eyes, frigates could re load any where any time, given a ship full of the required items has arrived, but this would be annoying because only so many of the ships could arrive safely so you would end up buying more ammo then receiving, then we have stations that have a docking port, a really big one, that would allow various ships to dock, the more open ports the faster one could reload, then we have big ship production facilities, a frigate goes through a giant door, then the door closes so the frigate is protected, but ships can get through this door, not huge ships but enough to let items go in and out, these smaller doors would be heavily guarded.

! landing platform!

Like so? --> http://waylon-art.com/galleries/2/2.html

like so!!!!!

"Landing platform in 0G? Sounds like a nightmare."
Nah, just fly over it then strafe down :D.

it's what i was thinking...