InfraredEcho

rather than simply having the one module take up 2 slots, why not disperse the function between 2 modules for example, one module sets the ship up as a trader as you described, but then a second module dictates what sort of trader it is, thus occupying the 2 slots without any funny business

So i think i thought of a way to use up all that extra hangar storage you end up with (end game period) due to simply scaling up ships size over time. Hangar Fighter Storage Bay, not a block, maybe a... sub-menu? in the hangar tab of your ship. In this space you have the ability to pre-build your fighters, which are then stored in an inventory like arrangement? From here you can move a fighter to your fighter squads (perhaps where the blueprint would normally be) thus selecting the type of fighter to be loaded, the squad will then autofill with any fighters from your Hanagar Fighter Storage Bay, until none remain of that equivalant. i always felt the fighter squads and production were quite janky, they serve their purpose, but i feel like this would fix a lot of its janky-ness.

also having multiple blocks and assign them to seats (like turrets) for those massive multyplayer ships. *EDIT* just saw the last reply, ignore me XD

It always seemed odd to me that researching 5 of the same turret/blueprint created a random result. I get that if your using less than 5 randomness makes sense but with all 5 slots exactly the same i feel like there should be an option to place a research project to say "research range" then after xyz period of time based on the tech of the research station it spits out a new blueprint/turret with a minor increase to only the range stat. the research station should be un-usable while perfoming this research task and maybe the station even requires a special block to be able to do this type of research. obviously youd need to have some sort of soft limit to prevent cheesing, something like only being able to increase it relative to the base stats of the turret type. or even use a system similar to fighter creation where based on the rarity you have a set number of points to spend on stats with the newly created blueprint being labelled as a "researched" blueprint so it cannot be infinitely upgraded.

like an auction house? love it

docking a 'command barge' to a larger ship does infact work in vanilla provided you use the primary vessel when docking. If you a re piloting the small vessel and initiate a docking procedure the larger vessel is considered "docked" and will be imovable as a result

maybe instead of invisible have them greyed like when you do an inventory search turrets/modules not part of the search result are listed below in their own order but greyed out, otherwise people might think there is a bug not displaying their blueprints (noobs be noobs afterall)

I like this idea, but i feel like your ranges are a bit too over the top, take for example in a pvp galaxy being able to locate someone on the opposite side would be far too overpowered... not to mention how to explain that your sensors can pass through a blackhole xD i think a max range of 100 would be fair as most ships cant even travel that far without multiple legendary jump modules, perhaps also adding a module which can prevent tracking would be useful for balancing purposes?

It would make sense for this to behave like the integrity field blocks where you have to ensure your whole ship is covered by the cloaking 'field' in order for it to work