I imagine some form of "dressing up" possible, without taking a single step away from in-universe realism.
People could pretend that some other character or crew has control over her ship for the day. This might work best within individual factions where members know their fellow members' characters quite well.
One LN/Outcast/Zoner/Order/whatever capital ship could be boarded by the crew of another, or maybe the entire thing is under the control of the pilot from one of the faction's fighters.
The AI in control of one Core Cruiser could be replaced by that of another.
The IMG Guildmaster could temporarily be flying around in one of the other member's fighters, and vice versa. The member would roleplay the Guildmaster and the guildmaster's player would roleplay the member's character.
I would enjoy seeing other people trying to role-play my characters, and I very much like to try my hand at role-playing a few other characters not of my own making.
Maybe people could jump around between ships continually, with abandon?
I think this could be fun, and appropriately confusing.
