Is your ship getting a little, boring? Do u wish that you could do something fun with your ship other that traveling? Why not have a intergalacular dog fight with other people?! You would be able to craft weapondry for your ship and be able to upgrade or switch out your guns with other ones. Certain ships have different deflector shields that can't protect it agenst certain projectile types, such as a explosive projectile, or an electric projectile, or even a corrosive projectile. Dog fights can be between just you and your friends or between fire teams of 4 or more! When you are defeated your ship will shut down, not explode, that would suck. But if it were to explode you can get another ship T1 from the protectrate, which is where u spawn when defeated in a dogfight. When you destroy an enemy spacecraft, you can get their weapondry, deflector shields, or the remaining loot on board. You can also refuse to fight a ship and move to a different planet to avoid conflict. Each ship has a different set of pre-weapondry and resistance agenst certain types of projectiles, such as a Floran ship is resistant to corrosive projectiles but can't protect very well agenst explosive projectiles, or a Hylotl ship is able to take explosive hits but not electric projectiles. Let me know what you think. (Mostly do posts at school because I'm very bored here)
This has been suggested many many many times. It is being considered, but if at all, won't be seen till much after 1.0 release.
