I'll address a few:
Plasma torpedoes, specifically, were removed because NPRs in other systems would get stuck in endless loops, kiting each other while unable to crack each other's shielding.
For missiles, I feel like I'd argue that the sheer flexibility of what you can design them with allows you to basically call them all sorts of things that are "not quite missiles." Torpedoes, planetar glassing artillery, etc. It does a lot with few designs, and the ability to rename the designs you do, as well as have the different usages of it be distinct allow it to fill the "longest range weaponry" niche.
For beam weapons, I concur that restricting beam weapons to light speeds might just be a little restrictive, honestly, considering the setting.
With that consideration, though, I'm content with "tracking weapons" and "instant shot" weapons being in separate categories in terms of the range envelope they cover, and missiles seem to just suit any range worth tracking the projectile at.
I'm personally alright with power plants being separate from shield, though it would be cool if Engine Tech would be able to affect shielding designs in some way.
I figure linear shield scaling is the best way to do things, else larger shields become even more outright impossible to crack through with DPS.
Sleepymoon: "We already have cloaking to reduce sensor profile. " I was thinking about volume reduction which could reduce weapons chances to hit the ship while remaining same tonnage.
That's.... literally what ECM does, actually.
On a tangentially related note, all things considered though, aurora is in an interesting position of a logistic "realism ensues" that seems to have emerged almost organically in it's development.
For instance, we like to imagine ships with lasers shooting at each other through space.
However, the tracts of space are immense, and ships have to be able to travel far and fast to be logistically sensible, and for ships to ever even reach each other for said laser combat.
However, missiles, are, in essence, really small less-fuel-efficient than normal ships that explode on impact.
Curiously, this entails that missiles can go at least a small fraction of distance that ships do.
Consequently, due to how big space is, this leads into a situation where missiles catastrophically out-range beam weapons, because any meaningfully "beamy" distance you can engage something is very short compared to any actual spacetravel distance.
Another consideration: dumb-fire space artillery might not be the best way to represent ranges at beyond 5 light seconds. At that point, you might as well just utilize the many long range beam techs. (Why do particle guns have more max range tech than the maximum theoretical range? The world may never know.), or just use missiles. It's sort of an "in between" that's just as easily served by either system.
In terms of armor, the current code for it is pretty... Set in. Getting extra fancy schmancy armor systems might require an overhaul, which I don't know if you'll even be able to do with the designer password.