[dmm]

Just thought of another one:
Separate strategic and tactical movement points. So you would have strategic engines for moving within/between systems and tactical engines for moving in battles. For many ships, you would balance these engines and things would be as they are now. But you could make special-purpose ships with minimal tactical movement (e.g., minesweeper, pop transport, medical, construction, supply, repair, explore, colonize) and could use the extra space either for more stuff or for more strategic engines. You could also do the opposite -- make vessels with max tactical movement and little or no strategic movement (e.g., fighter, planetary defender, combat drone). You could even have things like allowing sats and bases to have 1 combat MP but no strategic MP, which usually would help with planetary defense.

Would also be cool to have a special component needed for using warp points, but that may be too complicated for some people's tastes (not to mention the AI).