Drawing inspiration from Stellaris and Endless Space, ships should have mountable weapons assigned to ship class. These weapons would differ in range, effectiveness against shields and armor and efficiency against ship sizes (eg. flak gun having short range and dealing high damage to fighters vs long range laser gun efficient against capital ship shields).
To achieve this, a ship class concept must be created to link ship model to its weapons, and a way to retrofit older ships to newer class versions must be provided.
Example:
Player creates ship class "Natasha", which is a fighter built on a Dart chassis and equipped with laser guns (which can be used to fight against large ships), and another one "Black Dog", also based on a Dart model chassis, but equipped with flak guns (to get a dogfighting-able fighter ship). Then, if player would obtain a blueprint for a better laser weapon, they can update "Natasha" class to "Natasha mk2" fighter to use a newer weapon, leaving "Black Dog" as it was before. "Natasha" class ships then gain ability to execute new order "upgrade" in a shipyard.
Drawing inspiration from Stellaris and Endless Space, ships should have mountable weapons assigned to ship class. These weapons would differ in range, effectiveness against shields and armor and efficiency against ship sizes (eg. flak gun having short range and dealing high damage to fighters vs long range laser gun efficient against capital ship shields).
To achieve this, a ship class concept must be created to link ship model to its weapons, and a way to retrofit older ships to newer class versions must be provided.
Example:
Player creates ship class "Natasha", which is a fighter built on a Dart chassis and equipped with laser guns (which can be used to fight against large ships), and another one "Black Dog", also based on a Dart model chassis, but equipped with flak guns (to get a dogfighting-able fighter ship). Then, if player would obtain a blueprint for a better laser weapon, they can update "Natasha" class to "Natasha mk2" fighter to use a newer weapon, leaving "Black Dog" as it was before. "Natasha" class ships then gain ability to execute new order "upgrade" in a shipyard.