+1 though itd be interesting to make it so owner cant sell their good to the station (as they own it anyway) but can stock it and sell them to users at whatever price they choose... hell we have/had player run stores before... some people made a shitload of money... other people got shit they otherwise wouldnt have access to. Couple this to the suggestion that a stations inventory be turned over to the conquerer... and you have a real reason to attack/defend stations Even if individual player goods remain strictly the player that put them there.... anything put up to sell becomes the property of the new owners (rp you could say they lock the damn storage compartments to private goods)

anything to make the stations worthwhile

I can vouch that player-run weapons dealing is profitable. : )

Great idea: one cannot sell things to stations he owns, only replenish its stock. It's really like selling goods to yourself.

But, when conquered, station should offer the OPTIONS to conqueror either to respect "safe boxes" or to loot them.

@Crusader: Factories as proposed are not separated from stations, but extensions attached permanently to stations, growing its size and providing a visual feedback. Most stations in VO are really too small, what, for me, is a major flaw against immersion. Most other space sim universes have HUGE stations, big as a small city.

Y'know, great station complexes where you must dock at certain docks in certain areas to buy certain commodities, certain weapons, and/or certain ships might be fun.... A bit like a large tangle of the stations we have now very close together and selling only a few things, and all different things from eachother.

I think there are technical issues with making stations much larger than they are now. It might only be possible in fogged sectors where most of the structure would be hidden from view at any given time.

A while back Inc told me he wanted to make at least the UIT stations vastly larger. At any rate, it would be cool if the UIT stations had a size that represented the fact that the UITs entire population lived in space.

Also, maybe make it so a guild could own a station instead of a single person... then replenishing stock and maintaining the station could be a guild activity

To make clear
Make possible that Guilds ALSO can own stations.
Like, conquer it and give owner key to your own Guild, then it becomes guild-owned.

like maybe make it possible to give all guild members an owner or ranked key?

Update: Turrets are now manufacturable in different player owned stations. Read news post for details.