Oh and before I forget, another note/suggestion Alex.
There needs to be some sort of 'safe spawn' zone on the edges of the map where there can be no enemies or stray rocks.
For example, you spawn south in a frigate such as the wolf, while your spawning/warping in you are uncontrollable and you run smack bang into an Asteroid which depending on size, will just nudge you abit for the small ones, send you spinning for the medium size ones and actually do quite abit of hull damage for the big ones. This has always been here since launch but the 2nd example is what made me post this.
With the expanded battles, you can join in fights in progress and help other people out. What happens is the fight is already going on and everyone is everywhere, this is realistic and good. However, because the enemy can be near your spawn point, they can shoot you before you can even put shields up as when your spawning/warping in, you can't do anything. Just 5 minutes ago, I decided to helping a liner convoy against some pirates, no problem I thought, I warp in my Sunder and lots of frigates. As I warp in my sunder, theres a pirate Enforcer right in front of me and while I was still warping into the map, he let loose 4 reapers at me. I don't think I need to elaborate what happened next (which also included a lot of audible cursing)
If you cannot have a 'safe zone' maybe have a spawn immunity where you cannot be targeted or hit until you had a chance to put your shields up after your ship stops the engine afterburner animation?