This idea is a longshot, but I had this idea that falls into middle ground between gathering materials to purchase a ship, and buying a ship with credits. Players can sell their ships to shops, where they are stored in non visible space (Subspace?) and the shop keeps a catalog of all the ships stored where then, players can retrieve the ships for credits. I don't know, but people could make ships and sell them for credits automatically without someone needing to man the shop 24/7. Shops could have basic ships such as the Isanth stored, as well as server default ships.