As a precursor to adding capital ships, why not create a few regions in space which are ships' graveyards...derelict ships and pieces of ships floating in space, much like asteroids. Eventually, you could create missions for scavenging material from these ships (scrap metal, various ores, etc), which could probably use the same code base that you currently use for Asteroid and prospecting missions.

Eventually, you could add an option for users to completely power-down their vessels in these graveyards, giving them the appearance of being one of these derelict ships. When powered down, a ship would have the appearance of a "white" object on radar so they would be indistiguishable from other debris in the area. It would set up some nice ambush scenarios.

In order not to give those "false derelicts" too much of an advantage, you could make the power-up process take approximately 5 to 10 seconds. Once the power-up process begins, the ship would appear as they normally would on radar (red or green) so that the ambushee has the opportunity to fight or flight....

I thought this would be a neat idea so I thought I'd post it here. Let me know what you think!

--Osmo

It's been thought of and posted dozens and dozens of times before. Anyway, it's a good idea.

Apologies if I've repeated! I hadn't seen it on a quick search.

Thanks grunadulater...

*locked and left drifting in the cold dark of space for eons uncountable*