In advance, I apologise for any spelling and grammatical errors that this proposal may contain. English is not my language, the proposal was translated with an automatic translator. The text is long.

Trade frigates.

Imagine the following scenario:

You arrive at a ‘galactic trade terminal’ on some space station in a three-star star system, which you see potential for doing resource buying or selling. To go to it after you leave the star system, you have these options to return:

1.- If you are not within a considerable distance you can go to the star map and return to that star system.

2.- If the star system is already far away from your location, you can use the portals or what is normally done, is to go to the teleporters (space stations, bases and freighter) and look for that location among all the locations registered in your ‘teleport terminal’ menu of the space stations and travel there.

What I propose is the following, you get to a ‘galactic trade terminal’ on a space station and you access it, the buy and sell options appear, and under the sell option there is now an option called ‘partnership’ or ‘treaty’ (tentative names). You access this new option and now you get a menu like the one for ‘expeditions’ on the freighter, where you choose which frigates to send. You are struck by the fact that, unlike the five available spaces, this time there are only four, and the first one says ‘trade freighter’. You go to it and you get a menu with all your trade freighters that you have. If you are like me, you will have S class trade freighters available, you choose it, click on associate and that's it, and ignore the other three available slots. You exit the ‘galactic trade terminal’, now you're wondering what good did that do, what good did it do, what benefit did it do or what changes did it make. You look around to see if anything is happening and when you realise that nothing has changed you are disappointed, you decide to board your ship and you get an incoming message signal, dismayed you answer and receive a message from the captain of the trade frigate you chose a moment ago informing you that it is already in the requested position. Intrigued you leave the space station and decide to look around and notice that the frigate is positioned next to the space station, you get excited for a moment about what just happened and once the excitement has passed, you think that's it, not bad, but I was expecting something more, it's a nice aesthetic change, but that's all. Well no, because now you have these options.

1.- A new tab in the menu of the ‘teleport terminal’ with the name of frigates, there you will be able to travel to the space station of the star system where the commercial frigate is located. In case there is no space station you will travel to the frigate's teleporter. This point will be very important later on.

2.- A new tab named frigates in the ‘galactic trade terminal’ of the freighter, in which you can access the ‘galactic trade terminal’ to which that commercial frigate is associated.

Now you may be wondering, does this have limitations? The answer is yes, and here is the list:

1.- The number of stars in the star system limits which trade frigates can be associated with them. Class C trade frigates cannot be associated with any ‘galactic trade terminal’, class B frigates can only be associated with ‘galactic trade terminals’ of one star star star systems, class A trade frigates can be associated with ‘galactic trade terminals’ of one or two star star systems and finally case S frigates can be associated with any ‘galactic trade terminal’.

The maximum number of trade frigates that can be associated with ‘galactic trade terminals’ is three. The association is one ‘galactic trade terminal’ one trade frigate.

3- The association of trade frigates to ‘galactic trade terminals’ does not give points for class upgrades.

Notes: Fuel is not required for your trips to the associated ‘galactic trade terminals’. When I say ‘galactic trading terminals’ I mean all of them, whether they are on space stations, planets and moons. Galactic trade terminals’ that are on bases or in settlements are limited to only one at a time (e.g. in a settlement you have three different “galactic trade terminals”, only one of which you can associate a trade frigate with at a time). Trade frigates that are associated with a ‘galactic trade terminal’ that is located on moons and planets will have the trade frigate animated to arrive and then slowly move in the direction of the associated ‘galactic trade terminal’ until the trade frigate is just above the associated ‘galactic trade terminal’. The trade frigate shall remain stationary there until further instructions. The frigate movement animation would be like the one we see randomly on planets, when frigates appear and disappear on planets.

Now you might be thinking, well this only works for normal star systems and what about pirate systems? Pirate systems work differently, there the type of trading frigate class doesn't matter, but the size of your bank account does. I mean, depending on the class of the trading frigate you want to associate to the ‘galactic trading terminal’ it will cost you a certain amount of money. For example, if you want to attach a C class trade frigate it will cost you $100,000,000,000 million units:

1.- An S-class will cost you 20% of what a C-class would cost you.

2.- An A-class will cost you 50% of what a C-class would cost you.

3.- An B class will cost you 80% of what a C class would cost you.

Now you may be asking yourself, is that all there is to it? The answer is no. Since you are in a pirate system, it is not unreasonable to think that you can be attacked by them, this would be like when you randomly get the message that a site is under attack. It would work as follows, like in the freighter expeditions, the frigate captain would call you and give you two options:

1.- Remove the frigate from the site and return with the freighter. This would lead to the loss of the association of the trade frigate and the ‘galactic trade terminal’.

2.- Hold position. This would trigger a countdown for you to come to their aid, it will be a short time if it's a C class but it will be longer if it's an S class. Remember, it's a trade frigate, not a combat frigate. If you don't go to rescue her she will be destroyed and you will lose the ‘galactic trade terminal’ partnership. If you go and let it damage her to the point that she loses the shield, you will have to repair the trade frigate afterwards. The shield strength will be basic level in C class and much higher if it is S class. It will not be the same cost to repair a C class and an S class, repairing a C class will be cheap but repairing an S class will be very expensive.

Will only those kinds of events happen in pirate systems, no, this will be a function of the level of conflict, so in places where the level of conflict is non-existent you won't hear about it, but in very high levels of conflict you will have to take action from time to time. Now you're going to tell me, do you know how annoying it's going to be that I have to be defending those frigates? They're going to be breaking my rhythm of the game, I don't want to be on top of it. I'll tell you well, you have options on how to deal with it:

1.- The most drastic, is to go to the corresponding ‘galactic trade terminal’ and disassociate the frigate from trade, but you'll lose its advantages.

2.- You can call your freighter, enter it and go to the corresponding ‘fleet command post’, ask for the report and choose the option to return to the fleet, this will lead you to lose the association of the trade frigate with the ‘galactic trade terminal’. This will save you from having to go to the ‘galactic trade terminal’ and un-associate the frigate.

You remember that when you associated the trade frigate with the ‘galactic trade terminal’, there were three more slots to include frigates. Now you will know what they are for.

In the remaining three spaces you can include combat and support frigates. We will focus on the combat frigates. One solution to the problem of pirate raids is to send 3 S-class combat frigates, their function will be to escort. Now imagine the following, you go to a ‘galactic trade terminal’ which is in a trading post. You approach it and access the frigates part, in the first slot you choose the trade frigate. The remaining three slots are activated and you choose 3 S-class combat frigates for those slots. You click on associate frigates and exit the ‘galactic trade terminal’ options, you move a bit further away so you can see the sky above the ‘galactic trade terminal’. And the show begins, you hear the sound the frigates make when they teleport on the planet and you see how the trade frigate appears first and then the three combat frigates appear on the sides of the trade frigate in a way that wraps around it giving the illusion that they are escorting it, you watch in amazement as they start to move smoothly and slowly towards the ‘galactic trade terminal’. Once the trade frigate stops just above the ‘galactic trade terminal’, the combat frigates stop as well. They will be in charge of defending the trade frigate. As with freighter expeditions, the combat frigate score will affect the success or failure of protecting the trade frigate, as well as the number of times you will have to intervene. Continuing with the example of using 3 S-class combat frigates, that would take the tedium out of going to protect them. Rarely will they contact you to inform you how bored they are, as there is no one who wants to take them on. Other times to inform you that they were attacked and the attackers didn't even serve as a warm-up. That a famous pirate is attacking them and they let you know in case you want to give the pirate and his squadron the final blow, etc. I think you get the point.

Notes: The shield strength of combat frigates will be basic level for a C class and much higher for an S class. The weapon damage of combat frigates will also be influenced by the class level, a C class will have normal damage but an S class will have high damage.

Now let's talk about frigate repairs, you would have several options to deal with that problem:

1.- The most drastic one is to call your freighter, enter it and go to the corresponding ‘fleet command post’, ask for the report and choose to return the trade frigate to the fleet, this is the most drastic because not only the trade frigate will return, but all the frigates that are with it will return. The only thing left to do is to leave the freighter and go to the damaged frigates and repair them.

2.- Go to the damaged frigate or frigates and repair them on the spot.

3.- Imagine you have this situation, you have a trade frigate and three combat frigates. Of which the trade frigate and the three combat frigates are damaged. You call the freighter, get on it and go to the corresponding ‘fleet command post’, ask for the report and choose one of the damaged combat frigates, ask it to return to the fleet. Now you have an empty space, you choose a support frigate, and you click on ‘associate’. Again you ask for the report, but now the one who answers is the captain of the support frigate (this always happens if there is a damaged frigate in the group). He gives you the damage report and the total amount of materials needed to repair the ships. The menu would be like with guilds where you make donations to improve your reputation with them. Instead of the types of materials and their quantities that you can donate, it would be the types of materials and their quantities needed for the repair. Not only that, it gives you a second option, to pay an amount in units for the repair.

Advantages and disadvantages of the third option:

Advantages:

1.- At a glance you will see all the types of materials and their quantities that you need in total, for the repair of the frigate or frigates.

2.- If you don't have all the types of materials and their quantities, for the repair of the frigate or frigates, you can use your units for the repair of them.

3.- There is no need to go from frigate to frigate. In other words, travel to them and be going to the repair areas of each of the frigates.

Disadvantages:

1.- You have to have all the types of materials and their quantities, or units for the repair(s) to be started.

2.- You have a waiting time for the completion of the repairs.

3.- You do not have the material types and quantities, or repair units per frigate, so you repair all or none of them.

4.- The amount of units needed for the repair is equal to the total cost of the quantities of the materials to be used multiplied by 1.3 times.

5.- Once the repair(s) are completed, the support frigate returns to the fleet, leaving the empty space used to associate it with the trade frigate.

Notes: The frigates can be seen on the frigates with their crew walking on them. The support frigate does not attack, it is not a combat frigate. If you associate a support frigate with a group of a trade frigate and there is no damaged frigate or frigates, it stays there. If the support frigate is damaged during its stay, the support frigate loses its ability to repair. You can repair a support frigate with another support frigate. The class of the support frigate influences the shield strength, it will be basic level in C class and much higher if it is S class. The class of the support frigate also influences the speed of repair of the frigates, e.g. if the support frigate in C class takes about 30 minutes to repair three frigates, a support frigate in S class would take 10 minutes. There is no benefit in using more than one support frigate for repairs. Reporting and repair of frigates is only done at the relevant ‘fleet command post’.

Frigates that are in use will not be available for freighter expeditions until they are no longer in use.

This would be all for the trade and support frigates. I have some ideas for the other remaining frigates in this order:

1.- Industrial frigates.
2.- Exploration frigates.
3.- Combat frigates.
4.- Pillager frigates.

Thank you for reading, I hope you found my proposed update on the trade and support frigates interesting, with a preview of the combat frigates.
Till we meet again travellers!

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)