Spoiler
Can the AI Battlestation spawn AI drone fleets? if not, could you make it possible in theory?
It doesn't spawn drone fleets. I've considered this in the past but decided not to implement it due to balance and performance concerns.
This is such a modular mod, you could possibly done it and left it disabled by default toggled by the player if the player wanted this extended feature, I'd say give it a try.
It depends on how much development time it would take to implement. It's not worth the effort if it would be a non-default feature that causes balance and performance problems if enabled. I'll look into it though - if it's simple to implement, I'll do it.
Do you remember Nijingen Extend? it has those criminal industries that spawn pirate fleets, and there's also roider union that also spawns roider fleets.
If you run into trouble, ask these Mod Authors and discord has people 24hrs..
the whole issue with creating AI controlled fleets is that they'll register themselves and run in the background, that bloats the game, this isn't something that will change too soon, however people with console commands and clear command mods can easily fix that, by erasing inconsequential AI fleets, that can make the game a lot more stable, performance wise.
These player faction AI controlled remnant/explorium fleets are so minor, sizes could be dictated by production/security/station upgrades with Alpha Cores.
you only get 1 or 3 at a time they wouldn't be enough to cause worse issues like visiting systems with several planets and fleets already cause.
As far as cost is concerned, such station would be a lot better than anything else, it spawns drone fleets, but it also requires that you have a AI Skill and half mil, for more balance you could perhaps restrict it to only spawn fleets if it has AI CORES, number of fleets depending on AI CORE.
Gamma Core 1 garanteed fleet to a - 2 Maximum Fleets
Beta Core 2 garanteed fleets to a - 3 Maximum Fleets
Alpha Core 3 garanteed fleets to a - 4 or 5 Maximum Fleets and with more varied, especial remnant or explorium hull sizes.
Anyways, thanks! this mod has become such a Must-have for me, I appreciate all that you have done.