Since im guessing it will be primarily guilds using them, I thought of a few cool things I would like to see:

I dont know if any of these are planned

1. The ships would be sort of a semi-station. Guilds could deposit cargo in the ship and then try to deliver it,the members could form an escort. If the ship were destroyed on its way to deliver, all of the cargo would be jettisoned.

2. Maybe guild members could sort of dock on the ship but where the station interface would normally be, there would be the usual targeting system. This could be used by guilds in times of battle, 5 people or so could use the ships guns to protect the ship, and the others could just fight regular. Fighters could shoot the guns to damage them, and once a gun is destroyed, the person piloting the gun could be either killed, or thrown out of the ship. The people piloting the guns wouldnt be able to move the ship, just shoot. And there would also be a main weapon that the pilot of the ship would use.

3. Maybe some sort of shop run by the guild that runs the ship. License levels would still be enforced. People could put gear they never use up for sale in the ship. And other people could buy the items. But they would need some sort of "docking rights" where the owner of the ship gives them the right to dock at the ship.

And a question as well. Will the Capitol ships be available at release? Or will that be later? Becuase they are one of the things I am really looking forward to. :)

Capital ships are planned for a post release add-on I believe. All of these ideas have been hashed over quite often in here. I don't know what the devs are planning exactly but I am sure it will involve many of these things.

I havent been here long Im afraid, so I might have missed the topics. And that sucks :( I hope its not too long after release.

1.) The "mobile shop" idea seems interesting; but wouldn't it be more effective if a guild could buy and run it's own station in a sector? The better selection, the higher the cost to run. The type of sector could also semi-dictate the type of station.

2.) I think capital ships were discussed somewhere on this website... some of those things mentioned. The "carrier" dock idea thing would work pretty good by the sounds of it

3.)I heard a rough estimate in-game of 6 months for capital ships; but I'm assuming that's for the -really- big ones.

Its hard to say for certain when things will be done. If Guild makes enough money they could possibally hire more programmers which would cut the time down a lot. With just the 4 guys they have I would think they could have it done in less then 6 months, depending on what all else they are working on. But there are always things that can set them behind schedule too. So its really anybodies guess, but I would say its safe to say less than 6 months.

But, it could potentially be abused. Guilds could fly their capitol ship to a sector where they need to kill certain bots for the group combat mission, and can just hop in the ships guns. The bots wouldnt know to attack the guns, unless they coded them to see the guns as players and attack them.

By the time a guild could afford a cap ship, the gains from that maneuver would be inconsequential.

If thats the case, they need to put in some sort of torpedo weapons.