Just an idea

[Menschenfresser]

Morale.

Ship morale I think is a good idea. Someone else might have mentioned this before, but I was playing Caesar2 (which I don't like as a whole), and the armies in that game have a morale rating. You lose and it goes down, win, and it goes up.

If it were really done in such a way as to have a serious impact on the fighting ability of ships, it could be an interesting twist.

On a strategic level, as it stands now, there are a few ways for a smaller empire to strike back upon a large neighbor. One could send in several cloaked star destroyers into vital systems, granting that he could fund such an effort, but all in all, SE4 functions like say Risk, in that once you fall behind in most categories, and as long as the opponent is capable, you don't stand much of a chance.

If ships had a morale and it serious effected their battle capabilities, then a smaller empire, simply in choosing battles it knows it can win, could drain the morale of his opponent.

Just rough math here. Given that your ships are equally matched in tech, if your opponent can produce twice as many ships, but you pick your battles, and say there is a 25% plus or minus limit on morale, if he falls to 75% and you up to 125%, then your fleets are then equal, even if he has twice as many ships.....or is my math wrong here.