Here is a compilation of ideas for special vehicles and equipment for First Strike space maps. I believe these can add a good deal of originality and fun to game-play, although some could easily be exploited and thus need mechanisms to limit them (such as the case of the commander spawning a proximity mine half a meter away from an enemy Corvette).

For order's sake, and so that you won't have to wade through the whole post to find them, here's the list of vehicles, equipment and what-not I propose in this post:

- Utility tug
- Freighter
- Gun Platform [and variations]
- Mine [variations]
- Probe
- Satellite
- Container [variations]

The Utility Tug
   

The fragile little Space Tug (anyone remember it from the X-Wing series? It had fewer hit points than the TIE fighter !) performs the same duties a regular, real-world tug: It tows things that are either to big and cumbersome or too stationary to get to from point A to point B themselves. In-game, I can picture it spawning with a weapon platform or mine or something attached to it, for then to carry it to where it's required. The weapon platform is then deployed for someone to spawn into.

Alternatively, I suppose the tug could be used as a makeshift personal transport or even, when piloted by a truly suicidal operative, a reconnaissance vehicle.

  The Freighter
   

Of all the new suggestions, the Freighter is the one I like the most, because I can think of so many uses for it.

1. A Support Craft which re-armed and repaired craft within its range.
2. An "Armed Merchant" warship for insurgents, pirates and the like. Give it some turrets and perhaps a warhead launcher.
3. A "Fire Ship" for insurgents, pirates and the like. Less heavily armed or perhaps with no weapons at all, but loaded to the brink with explosives. Set a course for the enemy, arm your lethal cargo, and abandon ship before she blows! A useful tactic is to ensure you are not prematurely blown to shreds by enemy fire (an interesting feature here could be to have it randomly blow up when hit with its health below, say, 50%).
3. A provisional Troop Transport.
4. A provisional Fighter or Utility Vehicle Carrier, used to ferry short-range vehicles into battle.
4. An objective to be escorted in Extraction mode, should such a mode be implemented.
5. An objective to be destroyed in "BF'42 Battle of Britain"-ish maps where you are to destroy set objectives.
6. A combination of some sort of 1-6 (1+4 would be interesting, I think).
7. Plain eye-candy on space maps where it serves no function.

  The Gun/Missile Launcher Platform
   

Deployable gun platforms can add to the dynamic feel of the map. They can be towed by tugs or carried within larger craft to where they are needed and then deployed, increasing the defense of a certain area. Armament is either lasers, ion cannons, warhead launchers, or a combination thereof.

  The Mine
   
The X-Wing series tried out two versions of the mine: One that is basically an automated turret, shooting at whatever hostile ship comes near; and the ones in the pic', which work more like those in our world, waiting for enemies to get too close and then summarily proceeding to blow itself to Hell.

Mines can be deployed by the commander (if there are mechanisms in place to prevent griefing), spread by tugs or larger vessels, or simply present at map start and automatically re-spawning. Or a combination of some kind of the three. Or something else (I picture, for example, a store room full of these mines).

  The Probe or Satellite
   
Probes and satellites could serve a variety of purposes in the game. I picture probes to be projectiles and satellites to be stationary.

Probes and satellites could either be launched from capital ships, scout vessels or space stations, deployed by commanders (the probe could be a UAV replacement of sorts), present at map start, or towed into position by tugs.

Here are several possible functions of everyone's favorite expensive, mass-produced electronic devices:
1. The probe could work like the droids in GC, allowing you to see what they see, making them potent reconnaissance units.
2. Both sat and probe could work like UAVs, giving players a view of their surroundings.
3. Both could have a data relay/jamming effect which either aided friendly units or hindered enemies. How this'd work, I have no idea, but it'd be interesting to, for example, have them make friendly units lock on warheads/lasers faster or make it impossible for enemies to lock on their weapons.
4. It could be a squad leader/commander's tool of some sort. Perhaps you needed something to "paint" a target with before you could fire at it with, say, an off-map planetary ion cannon. This probe or satellite could do the trick, either by letting players use them to paint things, or by letting you use certain Commander's Abilities only within their range.
5. Possibly my favorite: They could be beacons for incoming traffic, allowing new ships to spawn near them. In other words, if you as the commander wanted Lancer Frigates to hit the enemy from a certain angle, deploy a probe and let it will generate a slow-but-steady stream of Lancers for you... until it's destroyed (implemented by making the probe a "BF 1942 aircraft carrier" spawning Lancer Frigates the way the carriers spawned aircraft).

  Space Storage Container
   
(even more varieties here)

Some ideas for the container:
1. A space-borne supply crate, deployed by the commander or by larger ships, or carried to where it's needed by tugs.
2. Objectives to blow up in special maps.
3. Eye-candy (container yards in the X-Wing series could be quite a sight).
4. In earlier X-Wing series games, containers were something furnished to work as makeshift mini-space stations or hangars. There was even a mission in TIE fighter where you were tasked with inspecting containers near a space station and it turned out one of them had been refurbished into a weapons laboratory. So I don't know... maybe one of them could be wielded onto a small space station to provide extra storage space or living quarters or something?

Special notes: Every single thumbnail is from the X-Wing Alliance Upgrade, who have for many, many years been doing an amazing job of gradually replacing every single unit's model in the game with prettier versions. You are strongly advised to head over to their site and check out the work they're doing, if for no other reason than that I am in a debt of gratitude for shamelessly posting their artwork here without permission .

Also note that I hit "Submit" by accident before I was done with the post (yes, again), so the title is... unfinished (again). Silly me.