Escorts, as they are now, are mainly a trading/cash making mission, with almost 0 combat expected. This is because unless one hits an inhabited ion storm or a sector of hungry rats, escort missions usually go uninterrupted. Now, this is fine if you enjoy sleeping at the keyboard, but for the rest of us who center around pvp i would like to see a variant of the escort mission with more combat.

This is what i suggest:

Combat escort missions could take the place of "special delivery" trade missions. The player would be the one to actually carry the "sensitive" cargo (as the special delivery items are usually only 1cu, and thus could be run in a fighter), and be directed towards a different system. However, because the item you are carrying is of such importance, the station you took it from gives you an escort of so many fighters/bombers, whatever. However, the catch is that competing factions would send a small intercepting team that would attempt to engage you as you made your way to your destination. That leaves the player with the options of engaging with his escorts or just trying to flee. As players become adept in this mission, high sensitivity cargo can become available, with faster, and more advanced enemy escorts chasing you. Failure could end up with faction loss on the more important missions. This could potentially spice up escort missions, and provide more combat.

comments? additions? ideas?

just fly the escorts through grey when the pirates are online. Usually fun

When the unaligned pirates are fixed and reintroduced, this will sort of be the way they work (if I understood correctly back when I read it): A group of bots targeting a specific convoy.