ok it is propably not a bad idear to prototyp ships.
i just worry a little here, that the game gets more and more complicated.
i usualy like complicated games more, most games today get much to simple.
i see also some game problems with researching ships here.
when you need to research each ship first, where should the research go?
there is allready a lot of research going on in construction, you want to slow down the research anymore?
specialy with military ships, it is already a lot of reseach to build a beam ship, expencive research.
what about minor upgrades/changes, i think most of us have done mistakes with ship design.
armored turrets can get much smaller with just one gear research, new armor or shields.
its nice to upgrade a frighter or colony ship with new cargo handling.
should all of thouse upgrades need new research for prototyping again?
i think i wouldnt mind so much to prototyp comercial ships, but military ships already take so long to develop.
i would like to add a few things about prototyping in general too.
first i need to add, that i dont have much knowledge about prototyping, but i think i know some of the main reasons to do prototyps.
one is propably safty, since there are no exidents for ships in this game(crashes/hit by objects in space), there is little reason to test safty features. in addition all ships have an armor hull of 1 - which is strong enough to block a nuclear explosion of the strength of 1.
another main reason for prototyping is aerodynamics, which is not compleatly understood today, so testing different shapes is necessary. but in aurora all thouse ships are in space - where airodynamics do not apply.
im not so sure about the movement principles in auroa, think someone said before, there is some kind of energy field around ships - idk - maybe here are reasons for prototyping or not.
i think prototyping is a question about the understanding of the applied physics, if thouse are understood and mastered.
then it should be more a question about computing, instead of inovation.
edit: it propably looks like i want to block this idear, i just see alot of problems with this.
maybe we should point out thouse problems and maybe search solotions.