So maybe equip it with its own boosted steltek guns instead of standard guns.
Something like that - maybe even better. I remember when I played the original, I nearly got panic (okay, I was about 12yo or so) and had to afterburn all my way, no autopilot was possible unless some cats made the drone busy. Talons were a matter of 10 seconds for the drone. I want to bring back this feeling.
Though this will make it hard for those who wanted to tractor it. Perhaps have a side mission in which you can equip RF level shields to the Drayman?
But why? Tractoring in the drone was quite easy, I virtually took any damage. Make this a real challenge, for it can be considered as some sort of bug.
Like perhaps there's a secret jump point left by the Steltek Scout that tractored the derilect ship away. Invisible to most sensors but is basically a super gate that leads to another galaxy.
Maybe to the place where the Steltek have retreated to. The player can land there, take a look around, come into contact with the Steltek. Else, there could be an entry to the Privateer 2 Tri-Star-systems. But I favour entering steltek space.
But you can't access it until you finished most of the other campaigns and both found and equipped a ship with steltek jump drive upgrade. Basic benefit is unlimited jumping, using power instead of fuel. But it is also the only jump drive that will let you access the super gate.
Reintroducing Taryn Cross and Dr. Monkhouse; though his luxury liner is shot down in Chucks storyline, he was smart enough to contact the pirates to bring him to another base. Taryn gives you the exploration missions, Dr. Monkhouse helps you with the ship.
You can make the gate one way like the one at the end of RF. So you have to explore to find the gate to take you back but of course that sector will be crawling with Steltek Drones.
What about stationary turrets near the jump points? Even friendly Steltek, like the Scout you met before? I think the player should discover a little empire with peaceful Steltek, flying around and first talking before shooting, like the Scout did.
Ultimate prize though, besides a nice side adventure, could be adding an actual Steltek Fighter (not the scout ship you meet in the first campaign) to your fleet by the time you return to known space. Though it should be stripped down since the Steltek won't just let you leave with a fully equipped ship. So won't be a super ship when you get it and you will have to rely on normal human developed tech to equip it.
Some sort of light ship - okay. One gun mount, maybe something like a slightly better escape pod.
It'll be fast and uses dimension compression so can have a massive cargo capacity that doesn't effect the ships momentum unless close to full.
You mean that the cargo is stored in a dimension rift, like the Suliban do in Star Trek - Enterprise? I always thought this was a strange concept, but we could make use of it.
Counter will be that you can't get the ship until pretty much all other campaigns are finished and by then other powerful ships, gunships, etc, would be around to help balance it.
That's great, but as long as you can tractor in the drone, you'll always have a better ship. So I could rebalance the drone as well as the Scout - lowering warp capacity to minimum, Scouts maneuverability and speed really low, and of course no cargo capacity.
You can then just perminently remove those super gates or have the Steltek Jump drive burn out and not be repairable. So it's a one way trip that won't effect the rest of the WC universe.
Take away is good - let's say the super jump drive is capable of retrieving Steltek jump data, along with an access code. After you return to normal space, it'll be destroyed. Other ships trying to enter the system will be tracked down by the turrets immediately. I'll search in units.csv if there's already some sort of super-jumpdrive, combined with adequates jump lines.