All these ideas are interesting, but we do like the weapons being able to shoot out to 30 hexes.  It does make fighters and even strikers sort of obsolete. 
I think that limiting all tech to a maximum of zero will help.  My BBs have grown from 13 hull to 25 hull, they are now only speed 5 instead of speed 8.  Also their firepower is reduced by about one third.  They still have 10 screens.  The cost has gone up from 656 to 700.  This will work I think.
8-)

We played several games and came to a conclusion, Higher tech sometimes makes the game seem a little unbalanced.    We used tech = +1.  My nephew's ships had Invered rate of fire, and Piercing +2.  Their the long range firepower was so devestating that my side was so ravaged in one turn of fire that when we got to medium range our ships were wrecked. :shock:   
The only alternative was to fight in an asteriod field every time.   My nephew is very creative and resourseful.  The fleets that Gaming Glenn & I used were pulverized.  Hopefully, using max Tech = Zero will change that.  We will probably play in early August when I go down to S. Fla. again... 8-)

Looks good.   8-)
Perhaps the range of the Phaser Ones should be increased to 18.  In Star Fleet Battles, these phasers shot farther than any other ship weapon.  This would also increase the cost of the Fed CA making it closer to the D7's cost.  Also, make all the Klingon D7's phasers the Phaser Twos which could have a range of 15.  Keep the range for the 'torpedos and the phaser Threes the same.  :idea:

Kewl!
I did not realize that  you could get both weapons back.   Awesome; I have learned something new today. 8-)
The Damage Control rules are a lot of fun.  Sometimes I have both an X & Y weapon damaged, but my ship's Weapons Damaged Chart has 5 & 6 blank.   Lots of times the damage control parties go to these.
, or to undamaged shields. :?   
My ships may have blonde Damage Control Parties. <LOL>

PS:  I am going to a local gaming store here and playing Starmada with some interested friends.  Will let everyone know how it goes.

Earlier, The idea of Armored btteries was looked at.  Could this also be added to the Starmada Shipdesigner Program at the same time as Ablative-armor-type SFB Shields.  I will add them to my ships and elavuate them.   :ugeek:

I use the ExtraHullDamage option for any weapons that I consider to be Torpedoes.  For me this extra hull damage per hit parallels torpedo damage on surface ships. :mrgreen:

I have an idea for those who like broadside weaponed that fire similiarly to wooden warships of c200 years ago. 
Make some or even all of these broadside weapons slow firing.  It means that these ships will have to keep their speed to have of their engine ability so that they can make many U turns to fire one broadside, then the other.  Have one version of these ships with slow firing and longer range and another version with the broadside weapons firing regularly for fighting against those who can be closed with. 
It will be fun to watch you opponants try to figure out which version of these ships you have in a givin battle... :geek:

Hello and welcome back to Starmada.
My friends and I were Full Thruse devotees from 1999 to 2004.  I found a copy of the Starmada rules at my friend Gaming Glen's store.  Since we all began playing Starmada, my Full Thrust stuff remains stored and unused. 
If the hexes really bother you, you can use the Full Thrust rules and treat the engine rating of a ship as its thrust ability using human type of engines:  half of thrust points can be used to turn. 
But I enjoy using hexes because it makes the combat phase go quicker.   You can count hexes for range instead of measuring to this ship, measuring to that ship, measuring to another ship, measuring to...  :? .   
In Full Thrust firing took longer and sometimes became tedious.  Also, with hexes, it is much easier to determine which ships are in a weapon's arc and which are not.  All in all, using hexes allows the game to go more quickly and more smoothly. 8-)

My guess would be that the ship would continue moving at speed four in the direction that the P turn pointed it to.  It had just turned and was moving in that direction when its engines were disabled, so it will continue to go and go and...
(a good incentive for the repair crews to begin fixing the engines pronto) :!:

A simple way to simulate better trained crews is to vary the to hit number of a ship's weapons.  Those ships with weapons that hit on 2+ could be considered to be Very Well Trained crews.  Well trained crews have ships with +3 to hit, average could be 4+ to hit and for poor or green crew, 5+ and 6+  :shock: .
The benifit of this would be that the existing shipyard programs can give correct CPV for this. 8-)

In the Conpendium version of Starmada, the weapons on a Space Station fired twice as far as ship mounted weapons, at no extra cost.  Perhaps this could be added to SAE Space stations to make them also Battle stations/Space Fortresses.  :geek:

An excellent idea Paul.  It will be a little like the Nova Cannon in Full Thrust.  Before finding Starmada, my friends and I used to play that game.  The efect of one of these things moving across the map is very interesting... 8-)