So like an omnifactory? Maybe you could add in the omnifactory (with permission of course) but instead of it being active right from the start you have to spend a buttload of resources to build your own. Then you could assign a resource cost to each ship so you have to feed it ore/energy/fuel to make whatever ship you want. Perhaps you could also feed it ships to not only give you the blueprint for each ship but break them down into resources based on their cost.
Maybe I'm getting a bit convoluted here but once the creative juices start to flow there is no stopping them haha. The woes of being an "ideas guy".
Hmm, having thought about it, I'd actually rather not do yet another implementation of Omnifactory. Besides, then it would only make sense to create ships of certain configurations if you have the weapons for said configuration. Plus, determining how much Ore each should cost could be a pain. Probably best to just let Omnifactory be that thing. At this point, it's probably best if people just stuck to using that.
In OTHER news, I'm changing the small/medium/large fleet system. Instead your going to be able to set up 3 different configurations of fleets
completely to your liking, and they'll be spawned that way each time. This way I should also be able to show, properly, how many resources would be required to spawn fleets.
Heck, I'll probably be able to set it up so you can configure the convoys as well. That'd be kinda neat.