[Taqwus]

How 'bout --

* A unit factory component specialized for building mines or fighters (possibly only one of the two. Troops are units too, but I can't see them being assembled unless they're actually 'droids...), for use in a long-range mine layer or carrier (i.e. replenish numbers without a return to base or a ship chain, and without the need for a full 400kt mobile shipyard).

* Cheap unmanned probes? Unless satellites can already move on their own...

* Short-range transporter (for boarding/bombing ala MOO2) ?

* 'Combination' devices, like a combined shield generator/armor device like in Stars!, that has neither the combined bulk nor damage resistance of the two... this might actually be possible with simply text-file editing, as the code for multiple functions must already be there.

* Custom missiles? That'd be either a fair bit of extra code, methinks (because now a missile launcher would need a variable telling it what type to use), or a paradigm shift (to finite missiles which actually take space, and the missile components are replaced by launchers ala fighter bays; missiles then become units that are AI-controlled upon launch).

* Constructing facilities on asteroids. Specifically, engines, supply storage/q. reactor, and a master computer for guidance (maintaining course).

OK, so maybe flinging asteroids at enemy homeworlds is a BIT too evil... ;-)

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-- The thing that goes bump in the night