Would a rework of the armor and damage localisation systems be in the cards in the future? or even possible/desirable? Right now it's serviceable but having components localised relative to the armor scheme and each other and the ability to put different amounts of armor layers on different parts of the ships might be interresting?
It would allow for more armor optimisation and interresting designs, maybe spaced armor to defeat certain types of damage like missiles (for one shot at least), all or nothing schemes, components blowing up damaging the components and armor around them and not at random, so proper placement of dangerous components would be advantageaous. Maybe internal armoring and compartimentalization would be possible?
Maybe also with a structural integrity system? For example it wouldn't matter if the front and back components and armor are fine, if everything in the middle has been reduced to scrap them you've got two halves of a ship. This might be a way to buff big missiles, if only one shot landing can be a killing blow if it destroys everything in a chunk of the ship and cuts it in half.
Might be a way to simulate fires too, or other hazards around the ship that could reduce efficiency in certain components.
It could also be an opportunity to separate the overall ship's armor with the weapon's and other system's armor, with some systems that could be internal, external and armored or external and unarmored. Sensors, for example, should not be something that could be put below a few meters of Duranium and still be expected to work fine after all. Hangars also should be weaknesses in the armor, that should be at the surface of the ship and where you shouldn't be able to put any armor layers (though maybe their HTK could be raised to account for an armored blast door for example?).
Sorry if this is a bit disjointed, just throwing some ideas I just had. I don't know if any of this is even possible to do or if it would make for interresting gameplay or just boring minutia.