This would be a great game to play in VR with some modification. If ships were divided into 10x10 sections like pilot, lower, upper and front deck or port and starboard I could see it working well. Or players could possibly teleport over stairs and ladders and between walkable sections with controller. If walkable towns or shops are in the future, teleport movement system could be used with small local areas and shops players could walk around in together. These again could just be small 10x10 walkable sections surrounded by scenery. Just 5 areas per large town would be nice - one shop (player customization and small items), a tavern (social and private NPC missions), faction hall (faction missions, and alliance related functions), town square (social & peer-peer mission board), and shipyard (buy/sell bulk cargo, upgrade and repair ship). This could limit the work required to design and fill out whole towns.
I realize you folks have your hands full with alliance and any possible adventure mode expansions and ps4 release BUT could this be possible for the future or is something similar being considered? Run another Kickstarter! I'd fund adventure mode again and maybe a VR version once that's done too.