I did some digging and couldn't find this anywhere in the suggestions, so here it goes:

How about if we could "undock" from the login menu? Maybe select a ship (any of the basic ones, they would have the medium battery no matter what etc..) just to fly around the semi-random "login station".

This'd be great for testing controller setups and maybe even flight practice in a completely safe enviroment.
Ofcourse, it would be utterly lonely, with 0 NPCs and just a lonely player drifting around, and the only thing that would happen when docking to the station would be the login menu again.

Doable? Desirable?

Just go in empty sectors.

Besides, you can't appreciate your settings unless you've fired at something moving and avoided a few shots.

This has been suggested several times before and no, it's not desirable :(

I'll let someone else explain why.

Sorry? Suggested before?
Hmm... I thought I had even suggested something like this back in 2003, but I couldn't find anything when searching.

Oh well, disreguard :P
Didn't think about the dodging of shots and the shooting of moving targets. Very good point mgl_mouser.

I recall this being discussed in terms of a single-player game, which I assume would include NPCs. The thought was that some players would never join the universe. Also, it would take dev time away from the MMORPG.

No harm, no foul.