Fleets could perhaps be implemented alongside an ongoing maintenance cost for ships, as discussed elsewhere, to make the cronodollar economy more meaningful.
Fleets limits could be integrated with this, with a non-linear increasing maintenance cost for "fleet logistics and admin" for each ship added, which would avoid the obnoxiousness of a hard cap.
This should be balanced by some more benefits. Perhaps ships in a fleet can pull from each other's cargo and fuel, target things using another ship's sensors, perhaps even balance shields using another ship's capacity. In general pool more stats, encouraging more specialized ship designs. Flagships could provide a choice of buff to the whole fleet.
Then, to encourage coop play, when ships with online players aboard form a fleet, you get the buffs without the cost.
Fleets limits could be integrated with this, with a non-linear increasing maintenance cost for "fleet logistics and admin" for each ship added, which would avoid the obnoxiousness of a hard cap.
This should be balanced by some more benefits. Perhaps ships in a fleet can pull from each other's cargo and fuel, target things using another ship's sensors, perhaps even balance shields using another ship's capacity. In general pool more stats, encouraging more specialized ship designs. Flagships could provide a choice of buff to the whole fleet.
Then, to encourage coop play, when ships with online players aboard form a fleet, you get the buffs without the cost.