Hey, just starting my first playthough with mods and picked your mod's faction (because they look cool).
Felt like giving some (positive) feedback on some ships I've tried out so far:
Kriss - it's kinda terrible, but that's the point I suppose. Doesn't really have the weapons to break anyone's shields and has almost no cargo or fuel space. I do think you could safely drop the DP cost by one. Starting with only a Kriss was a little interesting at first.
Switchblade - it's amazing! For one more DP/maintenance you get a pretty fast ship with almost the same cargo as most vanilla combat frigates, a big fuel tank, 10 burn, a built in burst weapon, a fighter for point defense, acceptable armor and shields, even ground combat support! It does everything and is a super good early game ship.
Bona - Just seemed worse than the switchblade. You get a little more cargo space, but it takes a lot more crew and is slower. In combat you get a little more fighter support and a medium mount and more OP, but you lose the free weapon and a lot of speed. And the ground support. I didn't really want to buy one since small cargo runs it was better off just buying twice as many switchblades for the same price.
Principality - Seemed kinda steep for a small slow carrier, even with the free weapon. Feel like it didn't compare well with...
Aquinas - For 2 DP you lose the free large mount weapon but get 25 OP to buy any one you want, AND get 50% more speed, better shields, free point defense drones, more small mounts, 1 more burn, less fuel usage. Really good ship.
Gemma - Reminds me of a budget Apogee? It carries a bunch of fuel and cargo, is cruiser sized for surveying equipment if you want, costs low maintenance and fuel, comes with a large mount and free point defense and free fighters. They aren't good in combat for the DP, but if you haven't hit the cap they're good support ships that also can hang around and launch very long range attacks while also being one of the better fuel/maintenance ways to get cargo space and a decent source of extra fuel tank space so you don't need tankers.
Abysswalker - Trying this out a little, offhand I suspect it costs too close to just using two aquinas in every way without bringing as much power, but it is cool and does supply missiles.