Middle States Stations

We have been considering eliminating the need for docking with stations. Not eliminating the feature itself, but just eliminating the need when ordering Pods. Because pods are spewed from a station, to be picked up outside, it seems reasonable that traders could establish an external link, order their pods, wait for them to be ‘spewed’ then pick them up. In most space/trading sims, the player would dock in an internal bay and would have cargo loaded into their ‘virtual’ docking bay from within the station. Epic has real pods that really need to be pushed around. And they are not loaded from within a station.

So would eliminating the need to dock with a station take away something from the simulation? Should docking be enforced, to perhaps simulate the transfer of solid currency. Or perhaps merely because the pilot wishes to stretch his legs and make contact with humans once again (i.e. the station bar etc.) What services/features would one expect a ship/trader to take advantage of when docked with a station?

We are interested in hearing people’s thoughts on this.

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