[Q]

I would be perfectely satisfied with the "abandon ship" command, because the more complicated system you propose might be too much work to implement. I never understood why you can't abandon a crippled ship that is out of reach for repair. For the AI this can get quite a problem to pay the continued maintenance, at least when I checked it Last time. Or does the AI send now repair ships to damaged ships that can't move??
To prevent abuse and still save the utility to destroy a ship instead of abandon it, you could let the abandoned ship stay in place for a certain time and any other empires with a ship in this sector could claim the abandoned ship.

[This message has been edited by Q (edited 18 October 2001).]