Here is a more detailed description of what I have in mind as the components of a standard ship:
Chassis/Body: armor, free mass, cargo capacity, fixed gun and turret maximums, stock weapons, crew, ship mass (this is the ship resource)
Power core: fuel capacity, fuel regeneration, acceleration modifier, speed modifier
Engine: acceleration, speed, turn rate modifier, fuel usage
Thrusters: turn rate, ion dissipater, fuel usage
Shield generator: shields, shield regeneration, fuel usage
Wiring and electronics: ion absorb modifier, ion dissipation modifier, fuel efficiency (and Contribute bits needed for better sensors or other devices)
Hyperdrive: any hyperspace mod, possible fuel usage
Armor plating: armor modifier, acceleration/speed/turn modifier (penalties for more mass)
Droids and ship computer: armor regeneration, repair system, auto-recharge, auto-eject (possible Contribute bits)
Sensor array: interference mod, murk mod, density scanner, IFF
Anything that says "modifier" is a lesser contributer of that value, not the primary source. I was originally going to have negative values or zeros in the ship resource for acceleration, speed, and all that - I guess I'll have to use up more outfit resources to accomplish that though, so the AI can use the ship too.
Afterburners would come standard (maybe Gxxx it to the player on purchase of power core), conceptually an "all power to engines" option rather than a device that performs a fuel dump. Most of the remaining outfit mods would be handled more conventionally.
Anyway, as you can probably guess, you'll need a power core capable of supplying all your component parts with fuel to keep yourself from running empty. All energy weapons (including light blasters and the like) would have a fuel cost as well, so you're not just looking to break even: you need a surplus. This is why I'm not too worried about small ship parts and large ship parts mingling: not only is there free mass to consider, but a large engine on a small ship power core would flatline your fuel gage before you got to jump distance. You wouldn't even be able to fire a blaster.
This may seem like too much, but I think the 512 outfit limit is high enough to manage. Even if you had 40 different outfits for each of the slots (20 for small ships and 20 for large, perhaps) you'd still have 152 outfit resources left, which would hopefully be enough. And not every slot concept needs that many variations anyway (hyperdrives, for example).
I know it's very involved though, the kind of plug-in concept that goes vaporware really fast...which is why I asked for help thinking it through. :laugh: I didn't want to put lots of hours into it before discovering something like the no-outfits-for-AI problem. I really appreciate the comments.
This post has been edited by Tsuki : 25 October 2007 - 10:41 AM