You know, slow ships like those based on solar sails and ion engines could still be useful in this game :) You can't compare them to sailboats, we're in space, where there is no friction - so while they accelerate very slowly, they can work continuously for years without burning any fuel, which eventually pays off since they end up reaching massive speeds. Other kinds of propulsion

are similar to the space shuttle: they fire a huge burst, but only for a short time. So a long distance trip with the usual ship engine would start with a big burst that sets the velocity for the rest of the trip, while a solar sail would be constantly accelerating. This doesn't mean that solar sails are fast, some advanced propulsion systems like fusion engines and such should be much faster. But these ships could be used extensively for transporting goods because of their low initial cost and maintenance cost, and also because they don't need the high maneuverability that other ships have. So you could see a lot of traders using them, and trader players could find them useful as well. Low-tech cultures could use chemical rockets like we do instead ;)

You know, you have SO MUCH options for your weapons, that I'm surprised why you didn't try to find a way to make them "standard", so that they're easier for you to manage and more easily customized by the player. You won't lose a lot of CPU power if you simply have a "projectile"

object that can have a number of attached modules just like a ship. I guess that beams and plain bullets could be handled using a more lightweight approach, but this would be tremendously useful because you can have rockets, torpedoes, mines, drones, and ships all in the same package. Ok... here's a rough sketch, I know there's a lot more (but I'm pretty sure that it should work ok with everything you want for your combat system)

- Casing: This can determine the modules that a projectile can have depending on the size. You can't have a crew inside a regular rocket :) It also determines the hull strenght.

- Launch: This is the part of the ship that launches the projectile. Missiles and torpedoes could benefit from the extra speed that a module like this provides, but it's not needed since they already have their own propulsion systems. Mines don't need it, fire-and-forget missiles with no propulsion (a.k.a. bullets or slingshots, but now they can carry extra gadgets) would definitely need it.

- Main propulsion: A single engine propelling the projectile forward. Different modules with different speeds and such. Some projectiles wouldn't need it.

- Trajectory correction: Could be some simple fins for atmosphere combat, but in space the only way to turn the projectile would be with some extra propulsion systems.

- Control: Advanced AI for a drone, crew and cockpit for a fighter or kamikaze torpedo/fighter. Missiles, rockets, etc, would have different modules according to what they want to do with the target: simply chase it, some more advanced stalker systems, and then the weird stuff like circling the mother-ship or the target, for attack or defense drones.

- Targetting: Different ways to acquire the target, like heat-seeking, visual recognition, etc. If there's a crew, this is like their radar.

- Payload: The thing that explodes on impact. Simple rams that rely on their mass don't need this, others could have explosives or more exotic payloads.

- Generic systems: Modules that are don't fit in the other categories and are continually activated. This could be shield generators in a missile to protect sister missiles or to protect a fighter, weapons for drones, fighters, and torpedoes with defense mechanisms, etc. Some could require a propper control module.

Hmm... maybe regular ships could be simply a projectile with some extra stuff :) The more you blur the lines, the more customization you'll get. I know I'd have a special torpedo fitted with everything I can think of just in case I find myself in trouble ;)

BTW, you should be careful with some of those exotic weapons. Creating a black hole inside a star system would not look pretty, and imagine what would happen to a planet, not to mention nearby ships, if you had one of those wedges made of planes with the gravitic force of a neutron star :p I mean, gravity attracts stuff. And something so massive that it can crush a ship's hull would have very negative effects on anything else for a few million kms.

Oh BTW, about the Tesla hammer: I always thought that those seismic charges in Star Wars were sooo cheesy cuz anyone who attended the 10th grade knows that earthquakes don't propagate in space (seismic waves can only move through matter). But now they have a chance if you use these hammers right. They can add a new level of mechanics to your game because, the thicker and stronger a ship hull is, the more it would be affected by the hammer (because the propagation is proportional to the density of the material). Basically, now you have a weapon that does % damage to hulls =) This could be a weapon of choice against strong opponents to wear them down when their armour is high. It's very likely that a weapon like this would have a lot of improvements that we can't think of, so you could have high-tech hammers that do almost 50% damage to a ship (I hope you're trying to keep the levels reasonable :) ). This is really cool and it creates interesting gameplay dynamics.