[Shane Watson]

quick note on ship classes and ships in general:

I personally feel that a good chunk of the ship building process should be overhauled some. I do like the idea of being able to add in different componants etc., but I think that it would be a tad more interesting to have the size of a ship/class (ie 150ton escort) *not* based on tech level. Ships should be built to whatever size you want and classed how you want (If I happen to want to have a 10 million ton behemouth scout, then dag-nabbit, I *want* one!)

Now here is where the technology would come in:
Engines/propulsion systems should take up a percentage of the ship's mass based on size of the vessle and tech level attained. The higher technology, the smaller the percentage.

So, for example, at low techs, engines and fuel storage could take up to 50-75% of the ship's mass (for the sake of argument),probably less, which in effect doesn't leave much room for onboard ship systems, including crew.

This leaves players a couple of choice - research better, more compact engines/feul storage or work on miniturizing ship systems and possibly leaving crew out (assuming we're using crew...).

I'd also like to see something along the lines of a power plant included in the ship componants. This would take up about 5-10% of the ship's mass, reducing with higher techs. This would be the primary power source of the vessel. Right now I guess it's assumed that it is the engines... But if that is lost, the ship is derilect until it can be repaired. Also runs a chance of overloading during combat. Greater chance at lower techs, to a final 1% chance at higher techs.

~Cheers,