I've been toying with something like that.
When size doesn't matter, a station can have massively fat scanners and communications equipment.
- While on a station - even if it's not your own - you "see" what the station sees.
- For a modest fee you could also tap into what the station-owned ships see.
(probably some faction relation required)
- You may be able to accept missions in other stations, see the inventory in other stations and buy something (into local station inventory), see fights or loot dropping where you normally wouldn't spot a pirate... useful stuff.
Could be a serious benefit in a larger battle or you could spot trade opportunities in really remote places.
So even if you may not
own a station for quite a while, they could play a useful role in the game beyond being "the town" where you sell your loot and upgrade equipment.
In X:Rebirth the "walking around stations" part feels
even more constricted than seeing the universe through the small window in your cockpit.
I'd rather have the opposite.
(Partially) being able to use the
capabilities of a station while on it would give it more than novelty value. It would not be mandatory because those abilities only differ in quantity but it would be
desirable. =)
It would definitely be a big advantage at the start of the game when you don't have much of a fleet to do a lot of scouting.
Eventually the player's mobile means may surpass those of a station but this "borrowing" of a station's abilities could bridge the gap between early and late gameplay, which is generally a tricky thing to do.
There is no "I" in Tea. That would be gross
.