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It could work, with good writing and direction. And a copy editor.
Didn't mean it to be disparaging, I understood what the concept was. Stories do need to be grounded with some logic, in particular with a character's actions and thoughts, to keep the reader (in this case, the player) engaged with the story. Stealing starship components is a fine hook, but one a day to build a starship presents some logistical issues that would need to be addressed, that's all.
Not that anything I say matters, because clearly I'm a horrible person who needs to cancel my subscription and go throw myself under a train.
Now, to be disparaging and come to ebeyer's defense
completely
premise
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thief's
that's
spends
disparaging
unimaginative
I am hooked :P
Eventually it turned out some guys were using them to build boat trailers, which they rolled out the back gate in broad daylight...
hmmm ... not a bad idea, BUT as was mentioned, stealing a ship one piece at a time would be way to time intensive.
It would work much better if someone was stealing certain systems one piece at a time instead of a whole ship. For example, stealing Starfleet sensors or ship computer systems would be more logical, harder to catch, and still present a MAJOR breach in Starfleet security. If enemies can get hold of working versions of your top-of-the-line electronics like that they could easily find the weaknesses in these systems allowing them to come up with ways to hack, confuse or disable them putting the entire fleet in serious jeopardy.
Especially if you turn it around and it's a Klingon or Romulan agent, their goal isn't to abscond with a whole ship, but, rather, to get the specifications for a ship of the line. So, the pieces they're swiping turn up in strange places, but they're being selected because they're useful for technical data, which is going out.
But what about no "bad guy" faction at all? What if it's just a situation of some opportunistic individuals in the right place at the right time who may not even realize / or care that they're putting the Federations security in jeopardy.
Or better yet, what if it's a well meaning member of Starfleet? For example, say you've got a ferengi is Starfleet and his family on Ferenginar are in serious debt ... possibly facing debtors prison or something like that. Out of love for his family he decides to raise some quick latinum by pawning off copies of some Starfleet Engineerign Corp replicator databases. In his haste he may not have taken the time to look at what he was selling, just grabbing the biggest files he could find, assuming they'd bring the best price on the open market. It never occurred to him that he's potentially placed the designs for nasty military hardware in the hands of some very nasty people.
Haven't really thought them through. Just putting this out there for anyone who might find these ideas useful.
Rule number one for any writer: don't tell anyone your story, even after it's published
Hawkeye just suggested that that might happen if he finds out he had been delivering a whole Jeep.
Ok...
This seriously reminds me of Klinger and the Jeep in the old MASH series.
So you're put in contact with a Federation shipyard administrator by Starfleet Intelligence. He's become aware someone's been breaking into the shipyard computers, but can't trust his own security staff to investigate. You do some running around a space-station type map, doing a bit of non-combat investigating, until you figure out who it is. Whatsisface makes a run for it and locks him or herself in a storage bay, giving you a few doors to shoot down, with maybe some turrets in between, and you can get there just in time to watch your suspect beam out.
You do too and pursue the runabout he's escaping on. Lets say he flies into the local starship graveyard. Now you have to go around scanning derelicts looking for the shuttle. Here I'd go with two options, if the system allows for it. One, you locate the shuttle and beam to the ship it's on, fighting the spy and his colleagues that have been hiding out on there, or Two, you take too long identifying the right ship. The moment you hit space, these derelicts all start powering up (like ships in the destroy-a-shipyard missions); Guess someone took their prefix codes. Now these are old ships, and no match for you in a conventional fight, but they'll be programmed to try and ram you. Only one of them won't, which'd be the one your badguy is on. Blow that one up and you're done. (The other derelicts wouldn't have anyone controlling them anymore.)