A number to chew on. Instantaneous Ship Population.

[mike wightman]

As I posted earlier, the encounter tables are for the ships the PC ship may encounter. There will be a lot more ships in the system
If on an x-boat link then you have tenders, scout/couriers and x-boats. If a scout base is present there are likely to be scout couriers and survey scouts/scout cruisers.
A naval base means there could be an entire fleet, then there are the support ships, the garrison ships etc.

 

[infojunky]

As I posted earlier, the encounter tables are for the ships the PC ship may encounter. There will be a lot more ships in the system
If on an x-boat link then you have tenders, scout/couriers and x-boats. If a scout base is present there are likely to be scout couriers and survey scouts/scout cruisers.
A naval base means there could be an entire fleet, then there are the support ships, the garrison ships etc.

Ok, quantify that over the preposed population.