Once players get a large ship, many of them never visit an outpost again. That's a huge chunk of the game to throw away for the sake of "balance". The ability to visit outposts shouldn't be an issue of balancing large ships. Why would outposts turn them down?
A shuttlecraft wouldn't need even a small size landing pad, so maybe it could actually use the miniature mailslot that most outposts currently have. Transferring mission cargo could be done via a stream of limpets that the outpost launches. Passengers would have to be maybe 10 at a time via shuttle.
This would be useful enough that I think maybe it could also take the SRV bay so every large ship could use it.
Large ships at outposts still wouldn't have access to repair or refuel facilities unless also done via limpets as well for a higher fee.
A shuttlecraft wouldn't need even a small size landing pad, so maybe it could actually use the miniature mailslot that most outposts currently have. Transferring mission cargo could be done via a stream of limpets that the outpost launches. Passengers would have to be maybe 10 at a time via shuttle.
This would be useful enough that I think maybe it could also take the SRV bay so every large ship could use it.
Large ships at outposts still wouldn't have access to repair or refuel facilities unless also done via limpets as well for a higher fee.