My suggestion: Since all other main activites (Powerplay, AX, BGS, Rank progression) in ED can be played as part of at least two loops, I think colonisation would really benefit from also being playable in more than one way. So I suggest adding convoys. At facilities where goods for colonisation can be bought, you could recruit a number of AI T9s to help you haul. You would then have to manually escort them to the build site where the goods can be turned in. Along the way, you would always be intercepted by a group of pirates proportional to the size of the convoy, which you would have to defeat to continue, adding a combat loop. If any AI ships would die, you would lose their haul + have to pay their insurance, giving players a financial risk.
To be clear, overall this would not serve to make colonisation quicker, as although you can carry many times the load you would otherwise carry yourself, the pirate interception would make each trip significantly longer, thus balancing this out. The feature could be aditionally balanced by, for example, only giving the convoy a very small jump range (e.g. 15 Ly), or forcing the convoy to ´regroup´ after each jump, slowing it down. The purpose would be to diversify the activities you can take part in whilst expanding your colony.
As a bonus: Hiring very large convoys in a wing could result in massive amounts of pirates, resulting in very memorable battles with tens of ships involved.
To be clear, overall this would not serve to make colonisation quicker, as although you can carry many times the load you would otherwise carry yourself, the pirate interception would make each trip significantly longer, thus balancing this out. The feature could be aditionally balanced by, for example, only giving the convoy a very small jump range (e.g. 15 Ly), or forcing the convoy to ´regroup´ after each jump, slowing it down. The purpose would be to diversify the activities you can take part in whilst expanding your colony.
As a bonus: Hiring very large convoys in a wing could result in massive amounts of pirates, resulting in very memorable battles with tens of ships involved.
