This would obviously come after the ability for players other than the owner to pilot the ship.

So here's my idea:

If a player comes across an unattended/unoccupied capship and does not have a key, he or she would dock with it and a timer would start. If this happens, everyone with a key would be alerted to it. If someone with a key docks before the timer runs out, the thief would be warped back to his or her home station. If nobody docks in time, then the capship is successfully "captured" and the thief becomes the owner. The rightful owners would then be able to obtain a new one through insurance as if it were destroyed.

If the captured ship is destroyed, the thief would have no recourse and would simply lose the ship. If the thief attempts to return the ship to M7, it would be "confiscated" and would disappear from the thief's inventory.

I disagree with the confiscation part, unless the ability to swap out armament in-space is added (probably with a 10-minute cooldown or something before you can use the new weapons). Reloading would also be nice, but unnecessary if you can swap weapons (just swap in a loaded weapon, then use a fighter to haul the empty one back to the station for reloads). I do otherwise like the idea of stolen tridents not being able to dock... although over the long term, once there are more capship stations actually owned by factions, Corvus capstations should permit it.

What defines unattended?

Nobody's docked to it or occupying a gunner seat. Maybe "unoccupied" would've been a more apt descriptor.

So as soon as the owner undocks it becomes stealable? No thanks...

Okay, how about "nobody's in it and the captain isn't in sector"? :P

So, basically, I have a capship conquest mechanic in mind, but it's a bit more complicated than just a timer.

But, we are fundamentally working towards this kind of goal.

+1 to the general concept, but the specifics in the OP are no good, imo.

I think there needs to be some difficult mechanic in place to "pick" the lock on the unattended trident's dock. Whether it's a rare or heavy or very expensive addon (or something like draugath's utility port idea) that requires significant charge or duration of use to work, or a mission, or a feature of a specific ship, or perhaps require a team effort (i.e. several people pummeling the dent with powerdrain blasters, whilst someone else engages a new addon). But certainly not just a countdown timer.

In other words I think it should be possible, but very, very difficult.

In other words I think it should be possible, but very, very difficult.

Yes, that's long been my perspective as well.

Including stealing the trident, can we have a option of scrapping it out for parts?

Heh, maybe. That gets into a whole other issue of making it easier for someone to manufacture a "legit" insured Trident by stealing other people's tridents. Which might be an interesting gameplay strategy, but it would need be.. balanced in other ways.

Maybe having the same mechanics as station docks?

In other words I think it should be possible, but very, very difficult.

Yes, that's long been my perspective as well.

You are both so wrong you don't even know.

The correct standard is obviously that be "plausible, but very difficult."

Not without a significant skill-based method to hack the docking bay codes, or cut a breach in the hull, access ship controls (even players authorized to dock cannot yet be given the helm), and I daresay any captain would disable the jump drive, with a security code needed to re-activate, not to mention the death laser internal security system any ship like that would have to repel boarders… (plus I'd add an ED-209 roaming the corridors for good measure, if I were parking in a bad neighborhood ;)

"Please enter your docking authorization password. You have 12 seconds to comply…"

Honestly there are a whole string of issues they need to address with capships before they make them "gone in 60 seconds", and well… this ain't Grant Theft Astro. Not that some form of true hostile takeover is an unworthy goal, but they haven't fully made the damned things work as intended for the builders yet. Capturing something that is as time consuming to create needs to be as epic, if not in time then in numerical superiority, or individual skill in a ruthless gauntlet of obstacles.

IMHO

What part of not having a key and not being allowed to dock don't you understand, Sam?

My concepts all involved significant undertakings (probably requiring several people, and a big expenditure of resources) to overcome automated security systems and so on.

I'm not in a particular hurry to add the ability to "steal" capships, that's pretty far down the road past a lot of more fundamental functionality. But, I was just commenting on the suggestion, fwiw.

Rather then a timer I would suggest requiring the entry of a 4 to 6 digit pin code allowing the rat to either hack the code directly or try to steal the code from the cappies owner.....

As a test I would suggest trying the mechanic on a station first....

BTW the intruder would be ejected if any owner docks