i think freighting should be an actual job in the game where one player hires another to transport an item from one place to another... the items being transported have to fit in speacial boxes to prevent a freighter pilot from just running off with your stuff the frieghter pilot has access to specialised ships not availible to other pilots and they cant be piloted by bots but only by the players themselves...
the use of slaves by a freighter pilot would instead add turret gunners that mount to the frieghter but can be ordered and selected similar to combat slaves... the turrets would be customisable by the type and size which deturmine the look or weather they can be mounted on that modal of freighter.
the turrets would be limited on what weapons and modules can be mounted based on the tier level of the turret... where a turret cant mount modules of higher level then the turret itself. a large turret with large heavy guns will be slow to turn and would need a strong engine to enable faster tracking... each turret will use power and shield modules and can even use their own tractorbeams to snare a enemy...
left clicking to draw a box arround some of the turrets and then right clicking a enemy ship will have those turrets fire at that target while the rest can fire at others...
outfitting a frieghter will work similar to other ships but in regards to slave controls... the number of turrets and turret type will take up slave bot slots
so if your rank in remote control is lvl 14 in which you can only use 7 slave slots if you have a large frieghter that has 10 turret slots you can only use a turret combination equal to 7 combat slave slots... as some turrets will be higher in slave count value you might need to recustomise your turret combinations...
attacking and defending a frieghter would require a team or in the case of a solo pilot he/she would just use a smaller frieghter and use slave ships to fill the ballance ... each turret on a frieghter will ad a % of damage resistance to the main shield of the frieghter and attackers will have to disable each turret so that the shield ressistances of the main hull can be dropped low enough to break the freighter's tank... an example would be if the frieghter has 10 turrets each turret will be equal to 10% shield bonuses
frieghters would have a few drawbacks as well... they will have an anti-agility modifier which will be a percentage of how much slower they will turn or reach max vellocity. smaller freighters will naturaly turn or reach max vellocity faster then larger freighters regardless of freighter mass... however the largest frieghter will have a much greater max speed then the smaller one yet they will take much longer to reach cruise speed or decelerate to a stop. thus they require the use of turrets for defence... they might have 1 or 2 weapon slots for the pilot to control but thats nessisary
the bennifit to a specialised frieghter pilot is he could transport whole ships and other large stuff in his cargo hold that are stored within special shipping containers... if the pilot gets blown up and his ship goes in stassis the containers get ejected but the items within the containers take no damage... this would allow another frieghter pilot or the original pilot to re-scoop those containers and then continue the journey...
this leaves an option for piracy that is really neat... and would encourage other players to protect the frieghter as it transports large valuable stuff to different markets
Another interresting aspect would be earthforce or pirate missions... in which a player is instructed to escort or attack a NPC freighter pilot... en rout to a random destination that could be several jumps away... (if the game were to make the solar systems much larger then they currently are this would make those missions a lot more fun...)
in an escort mission a pilot and his friends will defend the freighter along its path. while 1 or more NPC pirate groups *or player pirates* assault the convoy...
in an attack mission a pirate group will attack and attempt to destroy the frieghter before it reaches its destination...
both attacking or defending missions will have a player requirement based on the number of pilots of particular level that will be defending or attacking...
it could even be one of the ending missions in the nexus area where a freighter transporting the commanders of either the cadets(defending) or the Pirates (Attacking) from the volcom outpost to the cadet training area
in the case of the Cadet Commander he is escaping after being captured durring a large battle that took place in a previous leading mission and earning every measure of his rank he desided to steal a freighter full of supplies that the volcom needed badly as well as take the Volcom Comander hostage and you and maybe a friend or 2 will have to defend him all the way to the Cadet Training Head Quarters while being attacked by numerous Angry Volcom NPC Pilots...
in the case of the volcom training pilots who want to rescue their commander they will try and destroy the freighter to get to him...
its just a thought and i know you guys have a lot to work on already but i think it might be something fun to impliment into the game...
... and you really wouldnt have to wait for another player to log on if you have one as an alt... i really did like the pvp aspect of it... like a large multi system arena where one side escorts the massive freighter and the other attacks would be neat... it could even be arranged by level restrictions and stuff problem though is that the rewards for competing in the arena might not be that great for lowbies as at that level there are very few items that you cant already find in a dungeon.