opaque urchin
Pretty much as the title says.
In the last week or so before a ship naturally despawns, have it 'drift' over to a ghost station (or other interesting place) to give it one last shot of at least providing some neat salvage or a second chance at life. (fully decomissioned of course)
Fairly low-effort way of creating a point-of-interest imo.
And would keep salvagers fed even during bouts of not much PVP
white galleon
something similar is already planned afaik
opaque urchin
Eh wasn't aware. It's not like it's well tracked anyway 
white galleon
from:laurifb salvage
bronze wadi
space garbage junk?
unborn plover
What if the original owner is doing rescue searches, how could he possibly find the lost ship if that moves by its own? I think it is better just to have the (in 90% of cases) switched-off transponder auto-switched on and see who finds it first, the original owner, or random passers-by. And this after a number of months of inactivity.
toxic hawk
Scrapyards as a Point of Interest? Count me in 
high vessel
Instead of ghost stations. Have the derelicts gather together to make giant space hulks instead
spark umbra
What if the original owner is doing rescue searches, how could he possibly find ...
Not every ship has a transponder, though this function could be tied to the ship itself, not the transponder component itself.
earnest sigil
"where is my ship i parked it in safezone"
I’d expect ships in a SZ to be exempt from this, no?
spark umbra
Generally yes, but I think Lauri mentioned that Derelicts when not loaded (active) for a year are removed, though recently he also mentioned there is a limit of 30 derelicts and unlimited time, so who knows what it's actually at.
unborn plover
I’d expect ships in a SZ to be exempt from this, no?
Still they'd need to clear out relicts of people who never return or the skies just get cluttered.
toxic hawk
Those just get despawned in the safezone then, no need to put those ships up for grabs
If something happens to the safezone of that station outside the origin bubble, well that's life.
opaque urchin
What if the original owner is doing rescue searches, how could he possibly find ...
Hence it being moved in the last week before it would have been despawned naturally anyway.
If the owner hasn't found it in 6 months I think it's reasonable to assume they're not looking for it
unborn plover
Hence it being moved in the last week before it would have been despawned natura...
Funny enough, we are right now busy looking for a ship accidentally left (and lost) for MORE THAN SIX MONTHS. In a zone where no ISAN coords are, of course. Just coordinating search perimeters by insurance transfer distances. Quite a challenge. But won't give up. And I'd hate if some magic draft would set in and make that completely futile by kidnapping the object. This what is tried here is game content too, you know.
unborn plover
Not every ship has a transponder, though this function could be tied to the ship...
That's fine with me. Indeed it would apply to any ship once registered and getting triggered regardless of a transponder being present or not, call it an 'automatic distress call'. What anyone will notice, 100 km around. First come, first serve.
Auto distress call after 3 months, and for hygiene of the game, deletion of the ship after another 6 months when nobody arrived at the spot, with notice to owner so he knows.
opaque urchin
Funny enough, we are right now busy looking for a ship accidentally left (and lo...
Pretty sure ships get deleted after 6 months, hence the very specific timeframe I mentioned.
If not it's all subjective to however they decide to do it, if they decide to
neon nymph
Pretty sure ships get deleted after 6 months, hence the very specific timeframe ...
It's after a year of not being hosted they despawn, even then they are recoverable.