I've had this idea for a while.

Similar to draugath's idea of "utility ports". But for Capital-Class Vessels, there surely should be a different port type.
CL-Port (Capital Large Port)
CS-Port (Capital Small Port)

And in these ports, new weapons. (Sold only at Cap stations):
Capital Large Port:
Capital Gauss Cannon
Capital Advanced Gatling Cannon
Capital Swarm Missiles
Capital Mining Beams (Equivalents of HD, HE, but in larger volumes, craftable)
Capital Concussion Mines
Anti-Capital Cannon [Definitely craftable]


Capital Small Port:
High Velocity Dumbfire Concussion Flares
Mining Beams
Shield Generator
Shield Enhancer
Auto Turret Controller


More variety of turrets...
MAKE TURRETS AI CONTROLLABLE TO HOSTILES.
(someone shoots at the trident, the AI shoots back)
They may still be piloted by players.

And to use these weapons, new power cells:
Higher Charge (something like 100/s, or a little less)
Higher Capacity (around 2000)

I don't know, these are just suggestions, definitely not perfect, suggest some, and I will change my post to suit balance.

Stuff that will make tridents useful:

-Diversity of models, at least 3 models: One faster but unarmed, another slow with shields, another with larger docks, one with lots of sensors/radar/jammer/storm... etc..

-Shields, but NOT for every single model. Like, make shield generators take up most storage bay space.

-Capital Port - No need for S/L capital ports, just Capital Port, so we'd have (Small, Large, Turret, Capital) ports
-Capital port weapons. Those now existing on NPC cappies are a good start

-Turrets:
--AI Turret Computer, as Capital Addon, or specific for some Tridend models
--Allow Pilot to use own turrets, leaving cockpit (either pilot ship XOR use turrets)
--Specialized turrets, for mining, repair

-More shipyards, smaller than existing one

-Leaving/Loading:
---Allow pilot to park capship, then leave on a small ship
---Allow transfer cargo from docked small ships to trident, and trident to smalls

-Ownership: Allow Guilds to share Tridents/Cappies, using Keys.

* Ask Trident owners for more

If you go with the capital weapon port, then you also need a capital version of the turret port. Alternatively, capships could have larger or multiple powercells, resulting in grid limits an order of magnitude higher for the Trident and Teradon and perhaps two orders higher for the Connie and HAC. In that case, the weapon and turret ports could remain the same, and just make the capital weapons have >20 grid.

Or you could just leave the ports and grid exactly how they are now, and simply make the capital class weaponry really heavy. Would it really be that big of a deal if an Atlas equiped a 100,000 kg capital gauss cannon? A moth might be able to pull that off, but if that's undesirable, just crank the mass up even more!

Pizza have a point... but maybe instead of a new Capital Turret Port, we can keep the single Turret Port, but make "Capital Turrets" require grid 20+ and become really heavy. Same results, KISS principle applied.

Next, why capships would use powercells? They have onboard REACTORS, built-in... that should replace the powercell for cappies, and we can have a few reactors to choose from...

Playing SPAZ has me itching for more flexible weapon ports in VO. I'd love to see dedicated turret weapons done away with and instead replaced with turret "mounts" with some added mass and grid power use.

This way we could have a distinction between the small turrets on the 'moth and atlas, and the larger ones found on capships.

Small Turret Port -> Takes a Small Turret Mount which has a Small Port weapon.
Large Turret Port -> Takes either a Large Turret Mount with a Large Port, or a Dual Small Turret Mount, with 2 Small Port weapons. Secondary fire!! Swarms! Gats! Megaposi! - all without having to make specialized addons for everything.

Interesting idea ARF, but your suggestion probably deserves its own thread.