You'll probably look at this suggestion and scream "Too Much Effort". I would.

It would be nice to have a more group oriented play. Whilst we have teams, I'm referring to small group of ~4 people. First off, support for creation of volatile player groups (wingmen) with identifiers on each of the members HUDs so flight formations are easier to maintain (and tracking.) Maybe their own private chat-channel too.

Secondly... Co-pilots. If a larger ship has more capabilities, perhaps it should require more players to pilot it. Maybe a dedicated co-pilot who mans a gun turret, etc...

What your suggesting would take a lot of work, but, it could be a very nice feature.

How about, as an addition to grouped play, you get a "Formation" HUD popup window that you can toggle on and off. The new hud window suggests formations based on the current number of ships in the group. Then, with a click of the mouse, the ships drop into the selected formation based on which ships are closest to what positions. After that, its up to the pilots to maintain position...

Co-Pilots.. um. I think we've got enough suggestions in for ships with gunners and turrets...

Wingman NPC have been discussed b4. I don't remember where the devs stand on it. Auto-pilot as well has been suggested tho nothing that complex.

In stead of HUD changes I think it would be far easier to do this with text.

ex.

Player1 creates a group and invites Player2 and Player3, both join

A certain formation is pre-programmed for any given number of players up to a set limit, say 5 or whatever.

Player1 would then type /formation create
this would give all members of the group a message.
*Join in Formation around Player1*

if the members of the group wished to join they would type /formation join

at this their ship would take up position relative to Player1 and match any course/ speed changes. The other players could regain control by simply moving the mouse/joystick/key command.

I think it would be best for this to only work in regular (non-turbo) flight.

Very complicated, rather pointless, but would be a nice feature for a finished product.

Manned turrets have also been discussed.

"In stead of HUD changes I think it would be far easier to do this with text."

Howso? Is it easier to type the name of the formation you want, having no idea what the formation looks like until its complete? Or pick the formation you want out of a set of possible formations, knowing before you choose exactly what it would be like.

In a word, clutter. This is what the devs have been struggling with. How do you add any more info to the HUD without taking up too much space. If all the ideas that have been suggested were implimented, you wouldn't be able to see anything besides all of the nifty interfaces. That said, I would much rather like to be able to see formations rather than just guessing at which one I wanted.

Here's a question: When would you actually USE such formations? Certainly not in battle. I wouldn't enjoy having an entire group wiped out by one or two runs by a valk with flares.

Yibble: Are you aware of the current /group commands? They already do come with their own chat channel. (use /say_group)

It would be more helpful for organized battles to have the ability to set wingmen, squadron leaders ETC in an extended group menu. This is definately a low priority suggestion, but:

You form a group. As it is now, all you see are your groupmates as white dots on the radar. It would be interesting if each dot had a number or a letter in it that corresponded to the list of people in the group on the side. So for instance:

group:
1)Starfisher
2)Blue1
3)Blue2

In the radar there would be two white dots, one with (2) and the other with (3). This way I could keep track of a specific member of my group - if (3) is down to orange, I can look at my radar, see where he is and head over to help instead of having to cycle through the group to find him.

This would also allow for more coordinated groups. (1) would be squadron leader with (2) as his wingman. Then (3) and (4) would pair up. And so forth.

Now that I've layed it all out I wonder exactly how hard it would be to implement...

As for Manned Guns, I suggested that long ago. It was said it was planned after the later relase that brought the game most of the way online.
Also, Auto-Formation Holding Features would require all craft to conform to the slowest craft, also, during a combat situation, there would need to be considered the "paddle-off" style of as soon as a pilot touches the stick, he auto paddles off the Auto-Pilot.

StarFisher's idea is essentially the way the USAF conducts TAC Air operations, except the "buddy system" isnt fool proof. And I;d say that implementing the idea wouldn't be too difficult but would be more time consuming for writing the program.

Manned turrets are planned. Read the FAQ. As are multi-player-controlled-ships. And PC cap ships. It's all there...

/me goes to drool over it again...

I was made aware of the /group commands last night, very nice. Formation setting I think would be a bit of fluff, it should be down to pilots to set and stay in formation. They're pilots after all :)

But it would be nice if the radar blips for team mates were identifiable. It would also be nice if an identifiable indicator for each group member appeared around the centre reticle, that showed which direction each member of the team was in... Exactly like the hostile or object indicator that appears pointing the direction of the targetted object.