Perhaps just go powerrangers on it and have ships that can dock into eachother for a bigger ship, such as two frigates forming a cruiser?
That would be hilarious to see, but I don't think I would want that for the game.
However a new kind of hard point that can open and close is a cool idea.
Could be done on automatic, it opens when you want to fire it giving you a little longer upfront load time on weapon use, some weapons already work that way anyway, and when its done it closes again.
It doesn't have to affect speed in anyway though, we already get a no-flux boost to speed.
Only question is, is it actually useful in battle? Mostly I would guess not, but it might be for missile systems on ships like the onslaught who need to slug it out, keeps those weapons safe until it's time to use them. So maybe?
