Being able to help out stranded players would seem, on the face of it, a welcome alternative to open play and part of the value in having multiple players in the universe. While any such mechanic can be exploited, it's no worse off for the player out of fuel than exploding anyway.
Running out of fuel spawns you into a USS. What happens after that depends on how much effort Frontier want to put into the mechanic. Right now fuel isn't cargo and refueling in-flight doesn't exist. We could:
* Have only NPCs show up, do some custom 'hey we'll refuel you for X credits' magic and done!
* Have players transfer some of their own fuel to help out, for a charge (perhaps custom), and the player has to get close for in-flight refueling to occur, drop shields perhaps etc. Risk to both parties, especially if trust is not high.
* Introduce some notion of cargo->fuel transfer (there is hydrogen fuel cargo) and you have to pick up jettisoned containers (sublight fuel being infinite), and the fuel can come from NPCs or players. Less overall risk but uses more existing mechanics.
Personally I'd flag the USS visibly in the system as 'player in trouble' because you want help reasonably quickly, but that again is additional work.
I toyed with the idea of rescue missions in bulletin boards, but that could take hours to fulfil.
