well adonis0, I've come up with my own possible solution. IF you have multiple docking points in somewhat of a line. You have the shootout rail run perpendicular to them. when you hit the button all drones in that line of docks, would then move onto the same shootout rail. SO imagine 20 drones or so all in line on the shootout rail. They should all accelerate at the same time, at the same approx speed. They will come out 1 by 1, but would do it very fast. Depending on the length of the rail. they could get to their max flight speed before un-docking into space.
Though this could pose an issue if they are not still protected by the motherships shields while on that shootout rail.
(How I understood your design is that it only works with perpendicular shootout rail, as parallel rails don't meet)
Unfortunately I've seen elsewhere in the forums they only reach a third of max speed while on the rail (using the rail speed enhancers linked to a shootout rail) but this would be a good idea to conquer the issues I could see with loading them up simultaneously.
Seems to be the way to handle drones and these rails though would be to have one or both of the ends of loading happening in parallel.
I don't think the way to go is single on either end, but perhaps don't need to have a pick-up or shootout rail per drone either, maybe two or three? (envisioning a multi-layer carrier, with a pick-up and shootout rail per level, with bank of drones within)
Pro's and Con's
Single loading point:
Pro: could use a rack to fill the carrier with drones (like a drone dispenser) for easy loading up
Con: Recalling drones from a fight could be glitchy
Multiple loading points:
Pro: Definitely no problem recalling drones
Con: would be a pain to reload drones
Single shootout rail:
Pro: easy to use without much logic hassle
Con: Potentially makes the drones vulnerable for a short period while they all unload
Multiple shootout rails:
Pro: Almighty drone release button
Con: harder to logic together, more resources