This reminded me of Allegiance. God that game would be so fun with a larger community and more noob-friendly mechanics. If you haven't already, I think you should definitely check it out @ alleg.net. IIRC, the source was also made available so you might be able to grab some ideas there.

Exactly. An unsuccessful game with SP is still a game for those who have bought it. An unsuccessful MP-only game is just useless data.

The intention is to have both and be able to swap and to allow servers to have first person only view (to force immersion and alieviate and concerns regarding a view frustrum advantage). That may change of course :)

The idea sounds interesting to me, though many of the concerns raised are valid especially without being able to ensure a player base. I love space flight games and dogfights. Having a customizable ship / class would also be a welcome addition. I'd try it!

The idea sounds interesting to me, I'm gathering something akin to Star Wars BF2 space battles, and that certainly is a good thing.

However, if your going to do custom loadouts, I'd rather have something similar to a money system, with purchasable guns, and unlockable cosmetics.And in my opinion, the guns should all have unique purposes, one for CQC, another for medium range dogfights, one to hit ships that evade, etc.

And if your doing custom loadouts for the ships, many will want it for their individual characters as well, myself included.