Just bumping in here to say that Aurora is the
ONLY Sci-Fi computer game that accurately ( from my experience as an automotive engineer anyways ) portrait real engineering challenges.
There is absolutely zero no-brainier choices for you to make in design, everything can be tweaked and needs to be balanced depending on role and what you want out of the ship. It basically comes down to selecting exactly how much of the ship you need to be devoted to propulsion, fuel, armor, weapons, ammo, sensors, cargo, crew-space, active defenses and the list goes on. Most of these systems can also be tweaked further in many steps to get very different performance ( assuming you have time and research to do so ).
The freedom you have in ship design can be overwhelming at first, no interface tells you your ship must have an engine, so if you forget it, congratulations you just got yourself a space station. Now also design a tug to tow it to where it's needed!
Or you want your ship propulsion to be fuel efficient and reach far without running out of fuel?
Sure research a single big and efficient engine, but know that it will be:
- Slow ( because you wanted it fuel efficient )
- Difficulty to maintain ( due to large spare-parts need if it breaks down from wear and tear )
- Expensive to replace, research and upgrade ( compared to several smaller engines )
- Risky in a combat situation where you can lose all your propulsion in one hit, or if unlucky even have a catastrophic reactor explosion of epic proportions tearing the ship apart.
Almost any part can go on any ship, so do you compromise and use one standard engine for all ships? ( just put different amounts of them) Or do you design tailored engines for all ships to get the most out of every drop of fuel?
Do you upgrade your ships gradually with new parts as they become available or do you scrap them and replace them with brand new ships?
Do you build many carriers with swarms of fighters or a single huge flagship that you need decades of expansion for the shipyards and maintenance bases to accommodate?
Do you mine closer sources with less efficiency or venture further out to find the rich sources once those nearby are depleted?
So many exiting engineering, management and logistics challenges once you get a interstellar empire going, and get into the game.