Hmm... That mention of Fire Upon the Deep makes me think, wouldn't it be neat to be able to implement Vingean "Zones" in an SEIV map? For those that haven't read the book, in that universe there is some kind of field emanating from the galactic core that affects what kinds of technology can operate. The closer to the core you are, the less stuff works; when you get close enough ordinary living brains stop working and people die. Faster-than-light travel is only possible in the outer half of the galaxy.
I can think of a couple of ways this kind of thing could be implemented in SEIV already. Systems can have built-in shield inhibiting effects and combat sensor interferance, so you could set up a map where the systems at one end have high shield inhibition and high combat sensor interferance and the systems at the other end don't, with a smooth gradient between the zones or a sharp border depending on the designer's preference.
This sounds kind of neat. Ships designed to take advantage of conditions on one side of the map would be at a severe disadvantage on the other side, and ships designed to work well under both conditions wouldn't do so well against specialized ships on their home turf. Heh. I'm going to go look through the abilities.txt file to see if there are other system-wide capabilities I can employ. Maybe I'll finally set up my own PBW game if this works well.
