Great that you do a new thing. I monitored your channel in the hopes of updates in the last months(had to play Long Live the Queen after this
), and will surely watch the next.
I have no round scenario for you, but I can suggest the idea to make up a theme for your empire to make it more exciting. In the past I stuck mostly to famous franchises in my games, like two times I would recreate Star Trek ships, then Warhammer 40k and Stargate Goa'Uld Systemlords. Currently I am finally using something of myself, which is (exhaustively) documented
here. Of course it would be better to come up with something of your own for a let's play instead of copying, but that still leaves much room for a theme.
"Theme" actually covers different kinds of limitations that you could chose. For once there could be a mere name limitation, so you may all your ships after ancient azteks or indians lore. Or you could actually limit your designs to only fulfill certain sense making or historical roles, like when trying to recreate colonial times Royal Navy as space ships. I think Theodidactus has done that - bigger ships + slow loading but huge "alpha" damage{first shot}, so that it would feel like real broadside cannonade battles. Style!
(this is also why I played out the Warhammer theme)Or, instead of relying on anything earth historical, you come up with something completely unrelated. E.g. you could invent some futuristic ideology (think of "Alpha Centaury" maybe) so you lead the "New Earths Exploration Caste", post-armageddon enlightened scientists that mainly study and flee conflict.(kind of boring though) This scheme would maybe demand every ship to have some kind of sensor at least, and require huge survey carriers full of drones for extrasolar exploration. Instead of fleeing conflict, you could of course also fill those carriers with some fighter craft.
Another, well, more goal than theme, could be that the earths low population is actually due to alien attack and not WW3, so you have an enemy. Defining that enemy from the start however could also sprout a theme. Is it some biological monstrosity (like the Beast of "Homeworld")? Then you could have ships like pest watchers, flamers, quarantineers, anti-toxin bombers and such, while your headquarters and commander ranks could also be named appropriately. Or maybe they were actually destroyed by "god's wrath", or at least it looked like it (could be 'the Invaders'), so all the survivors feel chosen and now start to name their ships after angels and cathedrals and such.
But if you really do this, then you have to find your own. A really good way I have found to inspire oneself is just looking up pictures of ships, armadas, or anything sci-fi online, and then just start fantasizing in what kind of setting those would appear. Like looking at this fleet from Asura's Wrath:
Instantly inspires me to do some sort of 'Mantra Harvester' holy "saint" fleet approach, where armadas of very noble looking and kind of techie ships fly around to exterminate for the greater good, since any kill is not really killing - they just end up as laboring soul fuel for the cause.(*1)
Most was so far mainly naming with still a lot of free space for design, but the most interesting part comes when you decide about design strategies that fit the theme. You could ask yourself questions like "how do they deal with missiles?" and such, find an answer and stick to it no matter what. That generates contours for a distinct empire. In the case of missiles you could for example decide on swarming clouds of short ranged rockets, go for medium size actual missiles, or use huge anti capital torpedoes like in Warhammer. Then there is the question if you'd want to limit to long or mid range in general instead of having all. You could also introduce the demand that they all have to be capable of tracking, making the kaboom and range quite less effective, but on the hand a successful weapon against massive ship encounters like space swarm or NPC.
You can make similar rendering decisions for engines (range or speed), your stealth policy (heavy investment or "they will hear our drums when we come"), or beam weapons (decide on one or two kinds, give them individual names {antimatter scythes; turbo-laser; plasma collapser;...}, and then maybe even introduce reload/alpha rate doctrine for either rapid firing{+turrets?} or one hit killers that need protection/distraction to get close).
Then there is the survey policy of either single ships, drone carriers (can be normal or super slow massively fueled platforms; maybe even aided by a civil refinery for near infinite range or something, but also risk of loss), stealthy military hybrid ships could survey too, or satellite probes (though that is usually too bothersome in Aurora).
Decide on whether you expand to new colonies, or stay mainly in your solar system, only forming automated unmanned mining, fuel and maintenance outposts in the distance (which is actually enough to extend fleet range btw. - there is no need for population outside your home aside from RP).
Other points: Do you harvest fuel with near or completely unmoving platforms, or mobile harvester ships? Do you secure jump points with pickets, or even small defense drone hangars? Do you spread sensor outposts over visited systems? Position Garrison Troops? What will your PDCs be like - a single huge fortress, or many different missile bases, hangars and even separate sensors? Does every of your military fleets have to have a large capital ship in the center, or a carrier, or some sort of civil tanker/refinery requirement? Do you sport 'decoy designs' - larger ships that only have shields to attract enemy fire away - and have at least two or so guard any capital ship by law?(->shield pylons)
You don't of course need a fixed decision in all subjects, but some outlines here or there make the difference between a Klingon (super quick;all stealth; massive Alpha damage, then retreat to stealth for reload) and just an opportunistic mumbo jumbo empire that simply does it all - whatever is needed. Some definite decisions that you just stick to no matter what, even if you have to bite yourself in the arm sometimes when you can't throw out some jump ship because you decided to only use gates etc., .. that is what can really bring out something original.
The thing about themes is that though they may shrink your options a little bit, at the same time the story just comes out of itself. Suddenly your empire has identity, and you don't even have to work for it.
*1= The doctrine for those ships would btw. include packs of small fast firing Particle Beams for attack, lasers for PD, a couple of homing anti-ship missiles for the battleship with deep magazine + also a singular huge axial mount cannon for the battleship. Fighters should try to shoot a whole package of small rockets at once (around 8 ). Every military ship has some combat drop capability. No shields.
