Revamping SEIV Ship Hull Sizes & Features

[Katchoo]

Giving the smaller class of ships a speed boost would be the biggest reason to keep using them. This could make the Patrolling option in the game more worthwhile to use (at the very least I don't use it myself).

Creating Engine mounts specifically for smaller hulls that provide greater speed over the standard engine mounts would probably be the easiest way to incorporate this. You could either have these Special engine mounts become available after reasearching Engines up to a certain point, or, you could have a whole new Technologly Tree develop just for smaller hulls (say under 350kt) after you research Battleships or Battlecruisers. The new tree could provide newer engines (call them Parallel Ion Engines, wherby for every 1 boost in speed you used to get with each Ion Engine, you get twice the boost with each of these Parallel Engines (2 for 1 so to speak). As you keep upgrading to Parallel Photon Jacketed, and so forth, the ratio keeps doubling over the original ability. This way you could end up with an Escort or Frigate that can move in 20 or more spaces! If you wanted to, you could even triple the ratio to make them even more valuable.

The Technology Tree could also open up smaller missle pods (a cross between the stantdard mounts and fighter mounts) and Solar Collectors, to name a couple.

Some of the stuff above has already been built into Proportions, but without any major penalties, other than space.

Out of curiosity, is it possible to specifiy a "squares filled" limit for ship design as opposed to a "kt" limit? If possible, this may be another way to provide new mounts.