[Nohiki]

About the ship in the middle, it's a matter of totally 3 minutes per mission that uses that to fix it. If the campaign creator won't do it himself, i'm pretty sure that the dudes from CRP or any temporary hired muscle can do the job in one day given the list of campaigns. Not much of a problem as long as the diameter of the circle is big enough.

[Hades]

I'm not saying it uses addons, but it places a ship in the middle. If you'll mess with the shape too much (though it's more of the case of absolute position mattering more than shape), you'll end up with ship parts inside the wall.

uh, if the ship was small enough to be placed in the hexagon hole, it can be placed in a circular one on a new Arcadia since the hole will be almost exactly the sam.

Maybe it won't cause problems with current INFA release, but you're not in it's team, so you don't know what they're planning

...
Neither are you. Not to mention high-poly remakes of the Arcadia addons would likely fit in the same way, and uh

(and really, do you want to delay their release even further?).

This is extremely retarded. Really retarded. The shape of the Arcadia's hole won't hold back their release.

tl;dr you don't know what you're talking about

[Dragon]

I'm not on INFA team, but I'm tring to anticipate what they could want to do (for example, if they used an addon from OTT which had engines and could slide into Arcadia's hole, they'd have a problem with a round hole unless it'd be bigger than the current one). Making a new, HTL version (if they haven't done so already, but then, it also fits into low-poly hole) would take time.
Of course, maybe there's really nothing to worry about, but I'm trying to anticipate potential problems. Not to mention that a hexagonal hole would fit better with the shape of Arcadia, which should, IMHO, be rather boxy and have a rugged, utilitarian feel. But that's just my personal preference.

[General Battuta]

people could learn from Dragon's fairly mature response there, thank you for staying calm in the face of teen anguish 

[Qent]

Campaigns that need those addons can be patched to use the old Arcadia model.

That said, I like the look of hexagonal.

[Mars]

I think it doesn't matter that much, because if it actually comes up as a problem, it will be the easiest thing in the world to move the ship in question a little. That doesn't take any skills other than the ability to open FRED

[FreeSpaceFreak]

Thing is, it's not just that hole that's hexagonal. Those sloped walls appear all over the Arcadia. It's really built around the hexagon. If you make it circular, you may want to do something about all those other diagonals as well. In the end, it'll look more like an Arcadia Mk.2 than a suitable replacement of the current one. Which is - IMHO - the main problem with ragingloli's version.
The Asteria has a hexagonal hole too, and I dare say it looks quite good with it.

[Thaeris]

From an engineering/architectural standpoint, a hexagon is a far more likely a structural componet. Of course, that also assumes some degree of rationale in FS design (which does occaisionally occur). It's much easier to build and build upon upon straight members than curved ones.

Furthermore, due to circumstances as they lie, that hexagon is quite iconic. It would be a shame to let it go.

[Dragon]

Thanks Battuta. 
The problem with patching campaigns is that many people miss patches for some reason (especially for old campaigns), leading to them having problems (and sooner or later ending up posting yet another "help it doesn't work" thread). Having Arcadia's hole (and general shape as well, especially with regards to absolute positions) closer to retail would help to avoid such problems.
In general, the problem with finding a good way to HTL the Arcadia is that a lot of campaigns place things really, really close to it, sometimes even placing containers on the surface of the station. Completely avoiding all issues that could possibly be caused by that is impossible, but I think that care should be taken to ensure that the absolute position or most used docking areas (hole and the landing pad) is "compatible" with the retail model. Of course, that doesn't mean that nothing should be done to them, but rather (on the pad) that details shouldn't be extruded above the absolute position of it's surface on retail model and (inside the hole) that it should be kept in the similar shape and the same size, with details inside being recessions.
Of course, it's all up to modeller, I'm only pointing out the ways to minimize potential problems with existing campaigns, as there's no other model which has so much stuff placed so close to it in so many campaigns.

Aside from that, hexagon is really an integral part of Arcadia's aesthetics and indeed an iconic part of the station. But as I said, aesthetics are a personal preference (though boxy, utillitarian, not very high-tech look would be approbate for an utility installation like Arcadia).

[mjn.mixael]

Furthermore, due to circumstances as they lie, that hexagon is quite iconic. It would be a shame to let it go.

This pretty much sums up my thoughts on the matter.

If (IF) I go circular, the feel of the hexagon MUST remain.

[Thaeris]

Though I normally chant "DEATH TO THE BOX SHIPS!" repeatedly while donning my black robe (while also burning a cardboard box, of course), occaisionally function follows suit in form. In the case of the Arcadia, having a higher degree of angularity and thus presumably a higher internal volume is not a bad plan. In general, if a design does a job while looking like it's intended to do that job, it's going to look good in game.

[Mongoose]

My whole thought on the hexagon is that, if they'd wanted to, could have easily added a handful more polies to make something more approximating a circle.  The fact that they didn't suggests that they were deliberately going for the hexagonal look, and I agree that it's iconic to the model.

[Hellzed]

Since I first encountered an Arcadia in the game, I always thought the hexagonal shape was a kind of opening in a massive superstructure with heavy armor plating.
Something which, even in the HTL way, should still be made of big blocks. But the inside should look like it is made of several much lighter components, for example, rings rotating inside the hexagonal hole, centered on the same axis as the door, but wider, sustained by heavy girders, and somehow a platform or a control room set inside the hole suspended between the rings, but not obstructing it.

My vision of the arcadia is a kind of huge sandwich of stocks, life support systems, living and control rooms, all between huge armor platings.

Though, moders who are obsessed with puting something inside the hole should meet Dr Freud.

[Thaeris]

You know, what if all that Freudian crap was just a means of justifying that codger's own sexual dispositions? I mean, seriously!

[General Battuta]

nobody thinks freud was anything other than a crank

[Kusanagi]

I agree about keeping the hexagon. Even with the lower poly budgets of FS1/2, there were round objects that made it fairly obvious they were round even with a low poly count. This was not the case with the Arcadia - I would keep the hole as a hexagon.

[Liberator]

The hexagon stays, the way I look at it, the hex is like a docking bay for ships up to cruiser size to dock for refurbishment.  Like a drydock.

[Pred the Penguin]

Who says you can't make a hexagon look highly detailed?

[Titan]

Hey mjn.mixael, I have a constructive question: You know all those antennas and stuff sticking out of the Arcadia in the FS1 opening? How much of that is going to be included?

[mjn.mixael]

Hmmm, I hadn't thought of that. I'll have to look at the cutscene and see how much it is. Someone already said it, but the Arcadia is going to be a beast in terms of making sure it's as close to retail as possible in terms of dockpoints, size, etc. All that good stuff.