Make the shields cover the trident docking bay. If you don't have key, you bounce of sheilds maybe a meter out from the dent. Then, those without keys cannot hide in the darn docking bay mesh. It would solve the nfz problem, cause the sf would be shooting the guy not imbedded in the mesh of the docking bay, but outside the bay.

+1
This makes sense to me not only for NFZ problem but just in general

The only problem with this is that ships tend to merge into eachother too easily. I don't know how many times I've tried to dock with my own capitol ships only to end up physically inside them. Whatever the number of times actually is, it's a big one.

do shields even work that way in the game? I thought they were just a light job (as opposed to an actual barrier). It'd be worth a shot doing, but I wonder if it might be inventing an entirely new feature(shields that block ships, but can be passed through with permission) with a very small, specific purpose....aka more work than it's worth.

Make the dock give concussion force when told your not allowed to enter!

I honestly like greenwall thought shields is simply a graphic and not a barrier mechanically. Perhaps Incarnate can say.

The concussion force starblazezz mentions to bounce ships out of dock would work well. Docks protected by a repulse barrier would be a feature.

but I wonder if it might be inventing an entirely new feature(shields that block ships, but can be passed through with permission) with a very small, specific purpose....aka more work than it's worth.

So, I'll keep the idea in mind, but basically.. what greenwall said. It's not a very general solution, it's extremely specific to a certain case, and it has a fair amount of complexity. It hinges on collision-response, which is not really designed for this kind of purpose. It would even potentially impact the design of ships, moving forward. Adding a concussive force isn't really better, that just adds other oddness and potential unforeseen ramifications.

The issue isn't necessarily exclusive to docking bays, that's just where it's been seen so far. If we had player-owned Constellations, you would probably see people fly in amongst the engines, or whatever other location might hide a small fighter, on any future capship design.

I think we need to do something more generalized.

Incarnate... consider it is not generalized. What about NPC dents and goli's that get killed by sf or friendly fire at guarded wh's from someone hiding in dock? Honorable famy businessmen would never do that, btw, but less honorable players might.

The fact that a possible problem exists, does not mean that this is the right solution.

Also, leave all the guild-politics at the door, we aren't interested in that here.