Good Morning!
I’ve always thought of the idea of a “Pit Crew” that can manage Reloading ammo/drones and auto-repairing damaged items (up to a isk limit, or defaulted off). Today, our real world economy is running more and more automated, with drones and robots moving supplies. Most of the time, when a ship docks, everything is ready to go.
So instead of a cumbersome “fit all/buy all” or “find the fit” buttons - when your ship docks at a station everything happens automatically.
Automated “Pit Crew” Systems (Group & Attributes TBD, x3) - I, II, III, IV, V
Performs certain automated tasks when the ship docks at the station.
Base time, 180 seconds.
Each level reduces time by 15%
Level 1
Ammunition (Weapons, Boosters, Probes, etc), Tech 1 Item
Level 2
Drones
Level 3
Repairs, Subsystems, Branching Skills, BP access
Level 4
Nanite Paste & Scripts, Faction Item (if any?)
Level 5
Inject Boosters (with reduced drawbacks), Capital Skill
Tech 2
Tech 2 could allow custom items to be auto loaded to cargo AND different cargo bays - Industry materials, finished PI items, abyssal filaments, etc. The possibilities are endless.
Branching skills could include: Industrial Loaders, Planetary Interaction, and of course, Warfare, and Emergency Defense. With these at 5, small, super short buffs could be applied to the ship when leaving the station. Haulers could get a align/warp bonus for 2 systems. Warfare could just be a simple +1/+2% rate of fire, or maybe less overheat damage. When defending a structure, defending could get a small buff to logistics.
More Branching skills could include making the buff better/last longer (but not too much), and there could be a Corporation version to buff all the rest and allow Corp members to use a Corp wide doctrine Pit Crew.
Just some ideas I have been thinking about for a while now - I would love to see how this could be refined.
TL/DR - I want to dock, have my station crew handle repairs and loading 5000 rounds of different ammo and replacing lost drones, then I want to undock asap.